I guess I can start writing this post now that it's been about 10 days since we got home. Still, it's been rough. [I was going to write one long post, but I figured it would just be too long to cover both San Diego and Walt Disney World, so here's the First Post]
Phoebe is horrible on planes. We figured that out when we went to San Diego over Labor Day Weekend. She screamed and writhed in our arms the entire way through the security line. And when I say "scream," I don't mean whimper or whine, I mean scream so loud your ears hurt (Charlotte always covers her ears when Phoebe screams). She didn't want to be in the stroller and she sure didn't want us holding her. She wanted to run, and for obvious reasons, we couldn't let her.
I had a moment of serious panic when the TSA agent was checking my boarding pass, which the Southwest ticketing agent had printed out along with one for Phoebe, and I realized that it was not my boarding pass. The Southwest agent had printed out a boarding pass for someone named Sarah Barry! I screamed: "That's not me!" Luckily, I had already printed out my boarding pass ahead of time so the TSA agent was able to pull of Sarah Barry's boarding pass, which was stapled to Phoebe's and attach mine instead. Phew. The thought of having to go all the way back to the main terminal was not a good thought. And then we waited to put all of our stuff through security. That's when Phoebe screamed and screamed and screamed some more.
She was okay when we were waiting at the gate because we let her run around. When it was time to line up to board, and I had to hold on to her, the screaming started up again. The plane ride itself was okay, apart from some screaming on takeoff because one of us had to hold her.
Still, we managed to have a pretty okay time in San Diego.
The girls absolutely loved the beach. They loved it so much we went two days in a row.
Mimi and Papi bought a bunch of sand toys, so the girls had fun filling buckets with sand and water and building castles. Phoebe mostly destroyed the castles, but no one minded.
My mom hosted a little birthday party for her cat, Binky, who's 18 years old. Charlotte and Phoebe helped make cupcakes, and had a great time. Some of my parents' friends came over to celebrate (mostly to see the girls).
On Labor Day afternoon, my parents watched the girls while we went out for dinner at this wine place. The wine selection was good, but the food (which could have been great) was overly salty. Unfortunately, within an hour or two of getting back home, Chris started getting stomach cramps and then so did I. Around 1AM, after whimpering in my sleep, Chris convinced me to get up and go to the bathroom. Hooray for second round of food poisoning/stomach flu!
I felt so awful in the morning that my parents took the girls to the zoo, so we could stay back and rest (Chris never got sick, lucky guy). So, our flight was that afternoon. I still felt terrible, but we had to get home. This time, Phoebe did fine while we went through security, but did start screaming as we were getting close to boarding. Some lady (with only one child) made a comment, within earshot: "Now, {baby's name} don't be naughty like those other babies." As if there were anything we could have done beyond letting her run wherever she wanted! And then the Southwest guy announced over the PA, as they were beginning boarding, "And remember, this is a no screaming flight." So yeah, that was fun. Also, I looked really great what with my post-vomiting broken blood vessels all around my face and neck. Everyone probably thought I was some alcoholic mother, unfit to be parenting such an unruly child. I was totally judged. Phoebe screamed the last twenty minutes of our flight (it was only a little over an hour flight total), and Chris and I turned to each other and said, "We have to do this again in a week?"
