Return

We flew back to San Francisco yesterday. At my insistence we booked the return for a Tuesday, one of the slowest air travel days of the week, and at around lunchtime (the babies nap time). This worked out really well

It worked perfectly. They were excited to run around the waiting lounge jumping on the chairs and playing peek a boo around the columns, finishing with a duet of high pitched screaming - their latest discovery.

We elected to get on the plane last to minimize the time we would have to entertain them, and we had the bottles and blankies ready to go when we took off. The swallowing helps clear their ears and the milk puts them to sleep. This worked perfectly and this time they slept all the way home.

The flight was four hours (an hour longer than on the way out due to the jetstream) and we had to keep the babies on our laps. If you have ever had to sit in one position without moving for four hours, you will know all about parts of your body going to sleep and the torture of not being able to move. Its like the endurance tests on the TV show Survivor.

There were a couple of other toddlers on the flight and one of them was super bored and not afraid to share it. As I listened to that parent try to entertain, the body pains seemed a much better alternative.

I was worried that Nico would not sleep as he got another head cold from Luca a couple of days after the operation. He was rubbing his forehead and face a lot indicating that he had the congestion and headaches that go with it.

Maria Del Carmen met us at the airport. She came out to drive us home. I had decided to take our famous car seats with us on the trip because the rental car seats were a complete unknown. When I asked the rental agent about them in Dallas, she said she "would not put her child in them" and they had complaints about them.

Aside from that, they wanted $10/day each plus tax. By the end of our trip, the car seats paid for themselves 2x because the airline lets you check them in free. The only problem was carrying them. We had a large suitcase with all the baby stuff, I had a roll on carry aboard case plus a laptop, and we had the stroller and daiper backpack.

Even with the babies in the stroller, we did not have enough hands. I found a cart in all but one instance where I resorted to looping the long back belt of the car seat through both of them and dragging them across the airport on the smooth floor behind the cases.

Each trip was a day long workout for me filled with many pieces that all had to negotiated with a baby under one arm. The trick turned out to be to stand the baby on the counter first. This stuns the baby as he takes in the people talking to him and buys enough time to dig out documents and pay for things. All the counter staff talk to him and he doesn't know what to make of all that.

When we finally got home, the boys were a little more settled. They like being in familiar surroundings and their own comfy beds. They both slept really well last night and seemed much more at ease.

This is the 6th day after the operation and Nico is doing much better. Feeding him for the last week has been an ordeal. Tonight he ate by himself and is running around like nothing happened.

The wound seems to be healing well although it is still bleeding a little, probably from all the activity. I took some pictures tonight and sent them to the Doc for his comment, but it looks good so far.