Where have I been?

I can't even begin to tell you how busy life has been the last few weeks. Of course, we are still trying to get our house sold and that's frustrating in itself, but aside from that my SUV was broken into on October 5th at 230am. I heard the car alarm going off and immediately got up and looked out the window. I saw the two individuals who broke into my car, but there wasn't much I could do since I was inside and I didn't know if they were armed. On top of it all, I didn't really want them to know what apartment I lived in for fear they would break in the apartment when we weren't home. Luckily nothing was taken, but that's because there wasn't anything to take. I don't know what would attract someone to break into my car when there isn't anything in there except for a car seat. They broke the passenger window and opened the glove box. They did however break into another vehicle in the parking lot to steal a laptop. To make things even better the police took an hour to arrive. Really??? What are doing at 230am that it took so long for someone to arrive. I called the insurance company at 340 in the morning and by 11am the next day the glass was replaced. Ironically I had taken the day off from work, but it's not how I intended to spend the day.

Two days after the car break in I was leaving for Pittsburgh for a 3 day work trip. The troubles began before we even got off the ground. My co-worker and I were on a plan speeding down the runway about to lift off the ground, when all of a sudden...we are STOPPING and the captain says "we need to return to the terminal". I'm thinking...could you share more details please! Everyone is asked to get off the plan and we do for about 25 minutes. We are then told it's time to re-board the plane (yes, the same plane) and the pilot proceeded to tell us nothing is wrong, but a gage when wacky during takeoff and it was thought to be caused by wind. That was not a comfortable feeling to get back on the plane, luckily we made it without a problem. On the way back from Pittsburgh our flight ended up being delayed. My co-worker and I got to the airport around 230 and didn't get to leave until almost 7. I was so happy to return home.

The next trip was October 14th and it was to St. Louis. My husband and son were flying with me and that was great, but flying with a 2 year old it a little more tiresome than traveling alone. The issues started with the TSA security check. The whole process of going through security is a great idea for the protection of our lives, but I get so annoyed because every TSA representative does their job differently than the next. One problem that came up was that I had a knife...yes, a knife, but it's Gabe's toddler silverware. I have traveled with the exact same knife before and it was never questioned. The sign at the security entrance says knifes and scissors with a blade of 4 inches or less are OK, but not OK with all TSA reps apparently. She did eventually let me keep it, but the previous week I flew with scissors that were sharp (the eyebrow trimming ones were in my cosmetic bag) and no one questioned those!! Several more things happened, but I'm moving on to the fun ON the plane.

Gabe decided he needed to poop while enroute to St. Louis just moments after the flight attendants came through with beverage service. I asked the flight attendant if there was a place to change babies in the bathroom and he said yes. To my surprise there was a changing table that dropped down over the toilet. It was a tight squeeze in the bathroom, but it worked. However, it was so cold in there Gabe peed on himself while I was changing him. Ahhh....what next? I carried him back to the seat and proceeded to change his shirt. Finally a moment of peace. We landed, exited the plane and went to the terminal next to the one we arrived at to wait to depart. Luckily we had some time because our assigned seats were in an exit row and that's a no-no with a tot in tow. The gate attendant swapped our tickets and we thought we were golden, but we were wrong. After we struggled to get the car seat properly installed the flight attendant proceeded to tell us we could not be in the row in FRONT of the exit row with a tot! I never knew that you couldn't be in the row in front of the exit row with a child, but I don't work for the airline either. I would have thought the dumb gate attendant would have known that and not moved us there. The row in front of us was asked to switch with us and that just made the old folks cranky. Did you know it's ok for 70 year olds to sit in the row in front of the exit row and not a two year old. A two year old can move faster than those 70 year olds! Finally the old folks moved and all was fine and dandy except for the fact it's a compete pain the bum to hook the seatbelt holding the child seat into place. My wrist was completely scratched up and it seriously looked like I was trying to take my own life by the time we were done getting it hooked in. John had some torn up knuckles to go along with my red and scratched wrist. I will never travel with a car seat again if I can help it!

St. Louis was a very busy trip for me, but it was productive despite my tiredness. I worked until 1130 CST on Wednesday (the day we arrived) and went to the office the next day to work a 12 hour day and finally just worked a half day on Friday. Friday afternoon we went to the St. Louis Arch and Saturday we went to the St Louis Zoo. Both were fantastic and expect to see some LO's with those sometime soon. We wanted to go to the Magic House in St. Louis, but mistakenly misread the hours of operation and ran out of time. The Magic House is supposed to be the best place in the world for kids to play. Maybe another time???

Our flight back to CT was at 6am on Sunday morning. We were making great time getting to the airport from the hotel until we couldn't find the rental car return road. The signs just left us hanging and needless to say we didn't have as much time as we would have liked to get checked in and through security. We did make the flight with 2 minutes to spare, but it was not fun cutting it that close. Once again TSA ticked me off because of their inconsistencies and I guess I will just have to deal with the fact it's not going to get any easier since the world seems to have gone mad!

While in flight, Gabe was great on the first part of the trip. On the second part of the trip he decided to poop right as people were still filing into the plane. Since we were in the bulk head row and there is more room there I plopped him down on the floor, changed him and threw the diaper in a ziplock bag until I could dispose of it when we landed. I was keeping it fresh! All of that just grossed me out and I couldn't believe I had done it, but I didn't want to make my child sit in poop until we were at a cruising altitude since they were rushing everyone to get seated so they could take off immediately. Well...just about half way through that flight Gabe pooped again. I didn't want a repeat of the last diaper change so I took him into the bathroom and guess what?! NO diaper changing table in this bathroom and nowhere to lay him down either. I had to change a messy poop diaper with him standing up. Now,  I do often change his diaper with him standing up, but those are simply wet diapers and not messy poop ones! I used about 20 wipes and kept talking to him to keep him still. I was able to do it without getting poop everywhere, but it wasn't easy!! Several more things were challenging in that flight as well, but you get the gist of the flight. I was so happy when we landed so I could just relax.

John and I would like to take Gabe to Hawaii with us someday, but I'm not in a hurry to attempt that anytime soon!! I get stressed out just thinking about it. It was a 16 hour flight from Kentucky and now we are even further east so it's got to be even longer now.