'Twas the night before...

...Dakota's first plane flight!  And I'm scared to death.  I mean, not really.  I now know that it is 100% easier to travel with them when they can't move.  I get it.  But here's what's happening at about 9:30 am tomorrow: All four of us are going to line up to get on the plane (getting dirty/sympathetic/reminiscent looks) and we're going to find our seats (really hoping now that we have three seats together, because right now I have 8E, Jayden has 7F and Carmen doesn't have an assigned seat).  Jayden will go in first, to the window seat, I'll go in next, wearing Dakota on my front.  And Carmen will go in last.  I'll stick Jayden's backpack, my backpack and my purse under the seats in front of me and Jayden.  I'll get us as set up as possible, so that I have to lean over as little as possible throughout the flight.  And if I can convince him, I'll put Jayden in the middle seat, but I'm not sure that's actually possible.

So I will be in the middle seat, with a 10ish pound infant on my lap, hoping against hope she doesn't have a melt down and being ready to either smash her face onto my breast or stuff a pacifier in her mouth in a nanosecond.  I do NOT believe in bringing treats for the passengers who travel around us; so far my child has been relatively well-behaved, and if you can't deal with a little fussiness here and there, then you shouldn't leave your house.  But I also believe in paying attention to my kid(s) on the plane and doing my best to keep them entertained and quiet.  I will give in a little more, I allow pretty much unlimited screen time, I will produce pretty much any snack requested and worst case, when they're little, I'll go stand up in the back of the plane.  My feeling is if the parents are doing what they can to console their child, especially when the kids are two or under, there's really not much more you can ask of them.

I am mostly ready, which is why I'm getting a quick blog post up.  I've got a few more things to throw in the suitcase tonight (which has to be over 50 pounds by now - yes, we're only going for 5ish days) and a few things to throw in tomorrow (mostly toiletries and Jayden's stuffed animals), but that's pretty much it.  Since the kids and I pack in one suitcase, I came up with what I think is a pretty ingenious idea: I packed their stuff in ziploc bags.  It keeps all of their stuff separate, and means that when I get to Seattle, I can take the ziplocs out and essentially have a different bag/area for each of us.  Carmen was not too impressed with my idea, but then again, he never has to share a suitcase, so he has no idea what a pain it is to dig through size 5/6 t-shirts to find the pair of shorts I want to wear. For those of you who have shared a suitcase (with a kid or otherwise), hopefully you all appreciate my idea!

This week has been okay - a little up and down emotionally for me, but good.  I went for a two mile walk (with food as my motivator - I walked to pick up lunch and then walked home to eat it!) and I went to a Mommy and Baby yoga class.  The yoga class was a little crazy, but it was fun.  Joyce and her daughters met us there; I think it was not as fun for Joyce because she felt like she was trying to balance her baby and her older daughter, but both were actually fine.  It felt really good to get some stretching in, and to even use a few muscles again!  I've been doing planks and a few yoga poses at home, but nothing in flow and nothing guided, so that was awesome.  Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful week.  Here's a few pictures to show you just how little I did!

One of those "I swear I'll never..." moments - I swore my children would NOT wear light up sandals.  But Jayden has been going through shoes like nobody's business, and his tennis shoes are always covered in dirt and filled with sand at the end of the day.  So I wanted to buy him sandals.  I took him with me, because he's never been a fan of sandals.  But it turns out he has terrible taste in sandals.  At least these are Captain America, which I can respect. 

My exciting moment for the week - Stacy and Kamal came to visit on Sunday afternoon.  Look how cute she is holding a baby.  ;)  

And Stacy returned the favor - catching a cute expression on Dakota's face.

The biggest open-mouth smile you'll ever see.  So adorable.  It almost makes up for the fact that she's been waking up at 3 am and sort of not going back to sleep again.  I'll get 45 minutes or less of sleep once or twice from 3 until 6:30 am.  I need to learn to go to bed at about 8:30 pm, right after I get her down.  But if I do that, when am I ever going to post to the blog for you lovely people?!???

A rather normal pick up from preschool, with Jayden partially clothed, sometimes with shoes on sometimes not!  And usually with quite a bit of dirt smudged over his face.  And recently with an "ouch report," which is a half piece of paper the teacher writes to explain the various band-aids on his body!  Usually it's something like "Jayden was running, tripped and fell."  And the treatment is always "cleaned, band-aid, TLC, rest."  And he usually proudly shows it to me, tells me it hurt and then wants to show me something else. Oh, and then for the next week (or more!) tells Carmen and me to "be careful" when washing him or putting lotion on him or getting our hands anywhere near him.  Not that he's dramatic or anything.

Showing off the visor he made at preschool.  He told me he can wear this when he goes camping.  Right.  As if we go camping!

A preview of what life will be like once I go back to work, I think.  Me with Dakota in the carrier, a drink in my hand, and Jayden on the kitchen counter, trying to get dinner made, at the same time cuddling Dakota and engaging Jayden about his day.  It could be worse.  But it definitely made me realize I'm going to need to plan waaaay ahead for dinner, pretty much every week.  It's a little daunting.

Chewing on the blanket.  I just think she looks kind of precious in this picture.

Dakota is working on her washboard abs.  Anytime I put her in a semi-recline position, for instance propped on my legs or something, she tries to lean forward and sit up.  Except her neck isn't strong enough to hold her up yet, so she ends up looking like she does in this picture.  

A very typical Dakota face.

"Uh, Mom?  Seriously?"

Her cute little one-dimple smile!

This pretty much made my heart melt.  Today on the way home from swim class and errands both kids passed out in their car seats - and they were holding hands!  Dakota then woke up and moved her hand, but until then, they were both sleeping.  And Jayden stayed asleep with his hand next to Dakota's head for the whole car ride home.  Seriously cute.  I can't wait until Dakota is older and can either push him away or follow him everywhere.  It's going to be scary and awesome.

I have two cute videos from swim class today, but our internet is messing with me and not letting me link to them here.  It's driving me crazy.  But I need to finish packing and get to bed before our littlest one decides it's time to be awake again.  So I'll upload them when I can in a separate post.  I'll do my best to post from Seattle, but I'm not making any promises.  I hope all of you are having a great weekend - and for those of you heading back to school soon, take your vitamin C and I wish you luck!