Instant Love

Do you ever have to look at pictures of your children to remind yourself that they aren't always bad? I seriously need to keep reminding myself that my daughter is so very sweet and that she is just going through a phase right now. The pictures on this scrapbook page totally make me remember how precious she is and how sweet she can be. Yup here comes the travel story...if you don't care skip on down! So my sister and I took my kids (Eli - 4 years and Adi - 20 months) down to Florida to visit both my parents and my husband's parents. Alright you probably know that part by now. Anyway, keep in mind I have never flown with children before (my husband has taken my son down to visit in years past), so I was already a bit on edge about the whole experience. We get to the airport and make it through security...let me tell you getting yourself and children through security is a hectic enough experience in itself. We make it on the plane and everything is going well...my daughter was under 2 so she was a "lap" child...and we were all snuggled into our seats. Then we sit for 1 hour at the gate! Something about a push crew was not showing up...ok there goes one hour of good kid time not in the air! Since this was my first time flying with teh kids, I am not 100% sure of the etiquette with "lap" kids...when exactly do I need to hold her on my lap? Well I thought basically that once they shut the doors until we were in the air, she needed to be on my lap (instead of next to her brother). So she was there for an hour and then we finally were ready for take-off...now she no longer wanted to be there! Now let me tell you my daughter has reached octaves and decibels I had no idea existed (and please tell me this is a phase?!)...well the plane got to experience that in person for about 30 minutes or so. Fun, fun! She settled down and the rest of the flight went good. Then we waste lay-over time in the airport and get on the next flight. Another hour before take-off...seriously! As they kept getting on telling us about the delay, I just kept shaking my head thinking everyone is going to hate me by the end of this flight. This time I knew at least that I only had to constrain her on my lap for take-off and landing...so I left her be the rest of the time. We finally take-off and she did fine. My kids are sitting there singing songs, giggling, having fun. They may have played with the tray tables a little and my son may have kicked the seat in front of him a couple of times (if he was kicking it repeatedly I would have noticed), but nothing major. The older lady in front of me turns around and says "could you keep your children from kicking the seats...it is very disturbing!". I could have smacked her...I wanted to smack her...and I wanted to cry. They were being so good at that moment! Then about 20 minutes later, my daughter has had it...it is late and she is now very tired. So she starts screaming (not quite the octaves as the last flight) and throwing her body all around. At this point I wanted to shove her in the older lady's face and ask her if that was disturbing, but I didn't. Finally Adi stands up in my lap turns towards me and collapses on my shoulder and falls asleep. During all of her screaming, Eli actually fell asleep next to me...amazing what that kid is used to! So I have two sleeping kids and I feel completely rattled and exhausted...then I overhear the stewardess talking to the people in front of me saying "I guess we weren't going to get an rest on this flight" and such. I think I started crying and tried to give her some dirty looks when she came to me and asked if I wanted something to drink. So then we land and my sister and I wait for everyone to get off the plane and then manage to get two very sleepy and cranky (because we woke them up) kids off the plane. By the time we got in my parents car I could hardly stop crying. Talk about worst trip ever! But the visit was nice...not as warm as we were hoping...I got a break from cooking and cleaning...not as much of a break from taking care of the kids though due to a very clingy little girl...and the flights back home went a zillion times better (only a couple shrieks when I had to constrain her to my lap during take-off and/or landing). I can't say that I want to fly anytime soon with my daughter...at least not until she is a little older!

So that is my story and the reason why looking at sweet adorable Adi pictures helps me get through the day...cuz yeah she screams that loud at home sometimes too! This page was created using a sketch from PageMaps. I love this layout...always love the layout where I can get lots of pictures in. I found the heart paper and was super excited because it really brought out the mood of the pictures and also the colors (down to the lovely sagey color hospital gown!). This highlights the moment that Eli met his baby sister for the first time...so now I have to make two of these because I am doing books for each of my kids and this is also the first time that Adi meets her big brother. Not sure there is a lot to talk about for it, so i will just leave you the supply list.

Thanks for my therapy session and for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Contempo Alphabet (SU!), Typewriter Alphabet (Wal-Mart); Paper - Sage Shadow, Real Red, Whisper White (SU!), Sweet Love-Big Love Patterned Paper (Little Yellow Bicycle); Ink - Sage Shadow, Real Red; Accessories - Pewter Hardware (SU!), Clear Rhinestone Stickers (Darice), Scallop Edge Punch