traveling with twinfants (part III)

For our flight to Tampa, Oma and I sat together and D was right across the aisle.  We were in the 2nd row of extra leg room seats, which is ideal to have the extra space and the ability to have the diaper backpacks at our feet, which would couldn't do in the bulkhead.  I nursed one baby on the ascent and D gave a bottle to the other.  We did this to help them clear their ears.  Fortunately, we also lucked into their nap time, so after eating, they both snoozed for almost all of the flight.  For the descent, we switched babies and fed again for their ears.  There was hardly a peep from either baby the entire trip.  Someone must have been sending some serious prayers up on our (or our fellow passengers') behalf.  I don't think anything could have gone better.  Really, it's true.  I promise.  No lie.

Most everything worked out quite well on the trip.  We had some tears and screaming because we got caught in a couple traffic jams.  The kids expressed what we were all feeling.  For one of them, I think we spent an hour going about half a mile.  Or at least it felt like it.  They must not have many wreckers in the Tampa area. The things we take for granted.  Safe clear would have had that mess cleared up in about 1/100th of the time.  The other thing we didn't consider as well as we should have was our seat locations at the games.  We were so excited about being able to sit in fantastic seats, that we didn't think about how hot a 1pm game would be with babies in your lap.  For the second game, we abandoned the premier seats and headed to the shade.  Fortunately, the stadiums were all small enough that pretty much anywhere was a good seat.

George Steinbrenner Stadium.  Twinfants sporting Minnesota Twins unis.

One of my favorite moments on the trip was when a Yankees' fan told D that there was a place to watch the game inside if we wanted to keep the babies out of the sun.  He followed it up with (under his breath), "What you need to do, is have the missus take the babies inside."  To which my prince responded, "She's a bigger fan than I am." 

All decked out to see the 'Stros take on the Blue Jays.

Ready to go see the Astros in Kissimmee!  Too bad that game rained out...

We also took the twinfants to their first museum--the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg.  It was a phenomenal building and a wonderful collection.  It also provided the opportunity for the twinfants to don pipe cleaner mustaches.

The main thing that we learned on our trip is that there is a whole new level of flexibility needed for traveling with children.  And we will always strive to pack an attitude of embracing each moment without thinking about how it might influence our "plan" but focus on the opportunity for a fantastic Plan B (or C or D or E...).