Home Again Home Again

We slept until 8:30am on Monday morning! My Dad heard the kids wake up and took them to his room to hangout with my mom and him. It felt so good to sleep that late with no interruptions. Everyone was pretty exhausted from our busy city day. 

We went to a little diner for breakfast. All the food was local and organic but still diner food. You know how some places do the local/organic thing and put your non-staples on the menu? This place had all the classics, just made with fresh ingredients. Yum!

Emma Cate loves to clean her mouth and hands by herself. Miss Independent will cry if you try to help her. 

This kid is so easy going. He polished off tons of his food plus everyone else's. He is definitely my eater!

Our trip through the airport went so much smoother this time around. I packed our carry-ons lightly but unfortunately our suitcases were way over weight. I tried to drop our bags curbside because I had already checked in online but didn't realize that we hadn't paid our check baggage fee. The porter outside was SUPER nice. He picked up my bag and told me it was way overweight but took pity on this poor mama and said he'd take care of it and not to worry. He got all our luggage checked in and baggage fees paid while I waited inside with the kids. I was sooo thankful for his help and that he didn't make me take things out of my suitcase!

The Philly airport has two play places inside. This was sooo helpful! The kids played for 30 minutes and then we headed over to Legal Seafoods for lunch/dinner. The big kids on this playground were driving me crazy! They were climbing on top of the play structures and jumping off and you know my sweet Holden wanted to be right there with them. File this in things I need to remember when my kids are big... help them to be good role models to the younger kids. It is so hard to tell my baby not to climb up the slide when they see everyone else do it! 

she probably went up and down the slide 50 times. 

photobomber

This sweet boy always lands in a straddle at the bottom of the slide.

We tried the ipad out and it did not help at all. Planes kept Holden's attention for maybe 2 minutes before he started tapping the screen with his toes. I ordered special toddler headphones but unfortunately, with the snow, they didn't arrive before we had to leave.

We arrived at the airport to find that my stroller had been broken while in flight. The frame was bent and although I still "works" it is so awful to push. The seat barely fits in and it veers to the left. It took me 20 minutes to file a claim with baggage and the lady there told me she couldn't see any damage. I about lost it on her. She eventually realized what I was talking about and filed my claim. Jay and I have been in contact everyday with the airline to get the problem handled. 

By the time I filled my claim, we picked the dogs up and dropped my mom off it was 9:30 and these babies were wiped. She stayed asleep after we transferred her from the car inside the house and stayed this way in her crib until it was her turn to get ready for bed!

Leaving on A Jet Plane!

After our little incident on Friday, Jay, My Mom and babies swung by the hospital to pick me up and off we went for the airport. My Dad works in New Jersey just outside of Philadelphia. He commutes to Charlotte on the weekends. I had never been to see his condo in Jersey so we decided this long weekend would be a great opportunity to visit. The kids had never flown before and they were still able to fly for free on our laps!  Due to the snow days the airport was a MESS. We decided to valet the car for simplicity and the valet was closed! AH! We unloaded everything and my mom and I tried to manage two babies, two car seats, and all of our luggage while Jay went to park the car. It was a little stressful...

I wish I had taken a picture of all of our crap together! My mom waited outside while I went inside. My line moved much faster and she was stuck trying to bring 3 suitcases, two car seats, and three book bags in by herself. Finally a sweet girl came to her assistance. Traveling with babies is no joke!

We made it through security even though it took 20 minutes! I tried to be as prepared as possible but they had to do special checks on my sling, the stroller, and the car seats. Luckily we were pretty early and had some time to spare. We were a sight walking through the airport!

We looked down to see Emma Cate squatted over like this.

She popped up with Gigi's green tea in hand. This girl is really into stealing beverages. No more sippy cup here.

We probably heard ahh pane (airplane) about a million times. They loved seeing the planes up close.

We went to board and my mom was the first on with Emma Cate. Jay and I were next and the gate agent asked us where the infant tickets were. Ummm we had no clue they needed a ticket to travel on our laps. I had read EVERYTHING on USairways website and never saw this. I had copies of birth certificated prepared but not tickets. I freaked a little and the lady was able to print tickets at the gate. We also learned that we couldn't all sit together because there are only 4 oxygen masks and there were five of us with the kids. If you ever travel with two babies I recommend booking all the adults in the same row. On both flights they had to reticket us at the gate and ended up moving the middle seat person to a new row. This left us with an extra seat between the two adults with the kids and it was so nice (and cheaper than buying a third seat!). Jay got super lucky on the flight there and got two seats side by side too. The babies were restless on the flight and I wish that I could tell you there was some miracle for getting them to behave but there wasn't. Our flight was delayed almost 2 hours once we boarded and we did our very best to keep them occupied but they required a lot of singing and climbing. 

Gigi was seriously the baby whisperer. With my arm out of commission it was SOOO helpful to travel with her!

selfies to keep us occupied

We had all moved seats by the end of the flight and Emma Cate was sandwiched between Daddy and I and we just kept filling her with food. My kids have never been lap sleepers. With two, they've always learned to fall asleep in their cribs or carseats. There has never been time to just hold them until they fell asleep in my arms. This has never been a problem until this weekend. After traveling during bedtimes, I WISHED I had lap sleepers!

We got into my Dad's LATE on Friday night and tried to feed this kids pizza but they were too stuffed from all the treats on the plane. My Dad was so sweet to have pack and plays already set up and all the kids favorite organic treats on hand (I had a hard time picturing my Dad walking the grocery store isles stocking up on Annie's treats and whole grain waffles!). He had also bought disposable diapers for us to use and surprised the twins with some new toys he picked up at target. He was so excited for his grandbabies to come visit!