Whew! That was tough (Part III) and a festival

There was a big line to get to the baggage claim, but fortunately an airline person directed us to the elevator, and told Dave to go up one level. But what does that imply? Of course, that one knows what level one's on, which Dave didn't, nor did he ask. So we road the elevator up and down a couple of times while Griffy complained that he had to use the bathroom urgently. Of course we figured it out and made it to the baggage claim where, blessedly, all of our suitcases were waiting for us. Dave pulled them off the carousel while I took Griffy and the others. When I came back, an airline person informed me that the car seats were in a different location, and when Dave came back, he got 3 luggage carriers and loaded everything up on them. Meanwhile, we were waiting for our ride. Dan, my sponsor, and one person currently on rotation, Megan, were picking us up in two big vans. I had a feeling we would have to go through the "Nothing to Declare" door before seeing them, but I was still working on figuring out how two adults would push three luggage carts. I just about enlisted Alex when the same airline person offered to push it through for us.

Dan and Megan were waiting for us and it worked out well. The twins were still pretty grumpy but they were walking while whining and crying. Hey, at least they were moving. Alex was doing quite well and being a big boy. We made a fuss over him. It took a while to load the suitcases and the car seats up, but we got Lilly, Livvy and Griffy in and buckled, and then called Alex and got him buckled, too. At last, we were ready to go to the Army Lodge in Wiesbaden to check in. Hallelujah!

When we started driving away, Alex said to me, "Mommy, I'm so sad." I asked him why, and as he answered, the tears starting coming, and then came harder and faster. "I saw my first German caterpillar and I don't think he's going to live because the cars are too close by." And then, once the flood gates had opened, he lost control and he just couldn't get it back. I tried to reason with him that the caterpillar was in its natural habitat and God always takes care of all his creatures including us, but it didn't matter. He was too tired and simply couldn't get a grip. My poor sponsor just drove patiently and was very good about the situation. I finally told Alex, "This isn't my big boy. Where is my big boy? Try to lock it down, honey." And by the time we made it to the Lodge (about 20 minutes), Alex had it under control pretty well.

But by the time we checked in to the hotel at 0930 German time (only the small room was ready), Alex and Livvy both lost control again. I had to carry them separately. I was helped by a friendly family who waited with Alex until I came back to get him. It was the whole length of a very long hallway, but we're on post and as a result, are pretty safe here.

So we got into the small room, and I made the 3 big kids lie down on the floor with their pillows from Grandmaw and their blankets from Aunt Michelle. Did it take them 10 seconds to fall asleep? Well, yes, but only because Lilly was climbing on them because she was all giddy from her exhaustion. But I lay on the floor and barricaded her from reaching the kids and let Dave take a snooze. We had to be up in about 2 hours for the i.d. card appointment, so I watched Lilly while everyone else got some shut-eye.

It was kind of nice, really. The travel is hard on my bad neck, so I lay flat and let Lilly play up / down. She was, it seemed, happy for the peace and quiet, as was I. Next to sleep, I really needed some quiet time. And although I haven't seen it often since, I watched Lilly take her first 3 steps. Boy, was she proud of herself.

It was a long road. The first two nights the kids (all 4 of them) woke up in the middle of the night and stayed awake for several hours. Tuesday night I got one hour of sleep, and then my sponsor called me Wednesday morning and told me I had training to go to in an hour. It was supposed to be a day off. I was not happy about that. But what could I do? So I went with my one hour of sleep and listened to the training. At least it was relatively mindless. In the early part of the week, things were so unorganized and the small room we had first checked in was a complete disaster. You can see for yourself how ugly it was. Every bedtime the kids were utterly exhausted, but they took all of this change in stride and seemed happy just to have their Legos to play with.

Now that it's Sunday and we've been here 6 days, we are getting things together. Yesterday and Friday we went to the German-American Friendship Festival that was just off post. Friday was family day and the rides were cheap! I hadn't brought my camera so my pictures are from yesterday, but the rides were crazy expensive yesterday. I let them ride one ride but it cost about $11. Whew! On Friday I rode a ride called The Starlight with Alex. I have ridden similar rides at fairs in the U.S., but I have NEVER ridden any that have gone as fast as this one. It was so much fun! But at the same time, I was acting as Alex's seatbelt because it was concerning me a little bit. He was probably fine, but I wanted it to be a little bit safer. The other thing about the rides was that there were no ins and outs under control like we're used to. The kids could walk right up to it at any time. Not hazardous as long as the kids know enough. So they figured it out.

Airing out the ugliness

Downright exhausted

Master Lego Builder

She's happy to have some pizza

Enjoying the festival

Doesn't take much to make this guy happy

Birthday girl likes being out and about

"Momma, watch this!"

"I can do it, too!"

On the tables at the festival

Mandatory ride shots

And again

Somebody was enjoying himself!

I had a blast on this ride

Never saw a water ride at a festival before

The kids rode this one, too

German police officer gave the kids balloons

Whew! That was tough (Part II) and a birthday.

We had brought 7 suitcases that we checked, 4 which were between 50-70 lbs (I believe I packed 6 of them), 3 5-point harness car seats (checked), a booster seat (checked), 1 pull-along carry-on, a stroller, and 5 over-the-shoulder carry-ons. That was tough! Not to mention that Lilly herself is a carry-on since she still isn't walking!

I have to say that the kids were very good on the airplane, although I think I saw the airplane bathroom on that one flight more than in all my previous flights combined. But that's okay, because the kids were enjoying the flight, and getting up and down like that was most likely good for my circulation, anyway. United actually got us there an hour earlier than scheduled. That was nice. And then, I don't know why exactly, but Livvy and Griffy started melting down.

Livvy locked it down pretty quickly and followed Daddy, Lilly and Alex off the plane and down the steps to the bus. Griffy refused to walk from the aft end of the plane forward, and I first tried to encourage him to go and then simply resorted to threats. But when he saw the top of the steps of the airplane (diamond deck), he was terrified, and would go no further. I had 5 bags on my shoulders already, but I had to carry him down. I talked to him on the way down and by the bottom of the steps, he was prepared to walk to the bus by himself (just barely). Unfortunately, Daddy yelled at him for holding everyone up, and the meltdown returned. He was too tired to deal with, well, anything.

His meltdown quickly escalated from about a level 1 right before boarding the bus to a level 4 (on a 10-pt scale). And when the flight attendants caught up with us at an escalator (no elevator available) while I was taking Alex and my mule bags up it to next come back down for Griffy and Livvy, they "helped" Griffy onto the escalator before I could come back down. Dave, by the way, and some helpful stranger were handcarrying Lilly IN her stroller up the steps nearby. It was a tall flight of steps, too.

Poor Griffin was scared shitless by the time he reached me at the top of the escalator. (Sorry. I usually don't use profanity but that is the appropriate word in this case.) He was trembling and got to a level 9 (10 being self-injury) on the meltdown scale. I started putting him on the floor because he was throwing back so hard, and I could barely hold him. (Everyone who knows him knows how solid he is.) But then he came down to about a 7 and repeatedly blamed me for leaving him and making him scared.

Ouch. My little buddy.

It was a long walk to the baggage claim. Long enough for Griffy to calm down and for Livvy to start her meltdown. I was ready to get to the baggage claim, and she is about 7 pounds lighter than her twin brother, so I picked her up (along with my 5 other shoulder bags, including my purse) and carried her. About 10 yards of that and I dumped 2 bags onto the stroller that Dave was pushing. He had it so easy!

Excepting the meltdowns, Alex and Griffin were very impressive. Alex maneuvered the wheeled carry-on that was almost as tall as he is. And Griffin carried a backpack that probably weighed 15 pounds for his 40. He's pretty tough! And yes, I did say meltdowns in reference to Griffy AND Alex, but I'll get to Alex's later.

In the meantime, we celebrated Lilly's first birthday today! We couldn't do much for her birthday. We are staying in the lodge and have no means of making a cake. We have no car at the moment, so we could only buy what was available at the bakery in the commissary, which was absolutely nothing for birthdays. So I got some Hostess mini muffins and we all sang happy birthday to her. Oh yes, I also didn't have a match or a lighter, so I didn't actually LIGHT the candle, either. And I'll have to owe her a present. But Lilly liked hearing the kids singing. And she took steps by herself today two times that I saw. She is such a sweetie and a happy baby!

Happy birthday, Lilly, my love.

Lilly's first birthday with mini muffins

Awwww

Whew! That was tough. (Part I)

To sum it up: We made it! (And that's what matters.)

Our driver, Mahmoud, arrived promptly at 11:30. Dave and I were frantically trying to get things cleaned up and put away because finishing packing and preparing the house for our long absence just didn't seem like it was ever going to happen. I woke up at 7:30 that morning to get stuff done, and the time just flew. At least when the driver arrived, it was time to go, and what we had completed would just have to be good enough.

Mahmoud was a dear man. He loaded all of the suitcases into the van, and THEN he loaded all of the car seats into the van and did it properly (I checked). We didn't drive away until a few minutes after twelve, and I'm pretty sure that Mr. Mahmoud was relieved to find out that our flight wasn't until 5:20. He was an interesting man who knew a lot of interesting facts about the most various things. He was quite comfortable driving to Dulles, and I was comfortable to have him do it. The kids were all good in the van and had a lot of energetic excitement, but they fell asleep since they hadn't been sleeping as much over the past week or more with all the changes and activities going on.

Thanks to the Fly America Act, we flew United. In spite of the bad press, they checked us in very smoothly. A woman guided us through the process as though she were our personal assistant. Many people mentioned to us how good the kids were behaving, and it was true. They were being very good. Getting through security and all the way to the gate was uneventful, although Daddy mentioned that Livvy was having an episode at one point when he took her to the restroom. She locked it down quickly enough, though, because I didn't even know about it until later.

I thought we might have had a ridiculous amount of extra time to wait since we left the house so early, but it turned out that we only had about 50 minutes before boarding once we got to the gate. So we got the kids pretzels and got ourselves some burgers. There was just enough time to eat them before boarding.

I checked my ticket for the row number (45, second row from the back in the 777), and set up two harnesses for the girls, one which I bought for Lilly and one which was given to me from a good friend (THANK YOU!). But then I learned a lesson that I should have checked the seats while checking in to make sure that they were actually the seats reserved. Somehow 5 of us had been assigned in 1 row (row 44), and I was assigned in row 45. That would mean that Dave would be able to sit with the boys, but I would not be able to sit with the girls. That clearly wouldn't work! Fortunately, a gracious grandma (self-professed) choreographed a rearrangement of seats that involved multiple people so that I could sit with the girls. I reset the special buckles to row 44, buckled the girls back in, and shortly after that, Lilly fell asleep. I snapped some pictures just for YOU (below, of course), and at last, we were ready to fly away.

Daddy psyching himself up for the long flight

Baby girl with her special FAA-approved belt adjuster

Boys were excited

Livvy was excited and cheerful