Off to Orlando

I'm going to do a trip recap of last month's trip that the boys and I took to Orlando. I don't know how a whole month has passed since we left. I was looking forward to this trip for several months, and then it just flew by.

Day 1, 9 September 2007

Ethan and Brian took Tanner to the airport this morning. They came inside to help me get my bags checked, and I was really grateful.
We were flying on Frontier and our airplane departed around 10:30. Tanner and I did just fine until we had to go through security. When I took his shoes off, Tanner really flipped out. Then I had to fold up the stroller to send it through the x-ray machine, and that was just too much. He completely melted down on me. He recovered a little bit once we got the stroller back and his shoes back on. What I didn't know was that Brian and Ethan were watching us from upstairs. I think Brian was a little worried about us after that.

Soon it was time to board the plane. This is where things got really bad. Tanner melted down again when I folded the stroller at the end of the ramp and when he saw the inside of the airplane he absolutely lost it. By this time I was thinking it was going to be a long week. We found our seats all the way at the back and nothing anyone did would calm him down, and the flight attendants really did try. He just kept trying to get out of my arms to make a break for it. He wanted out!!! He cried for about the first 30 minutes of the flight.

Fortunately a lady with a little girl sat next to us and once the plane was off the ground she whipped out her portable DVD player and some Baby Einstein and Thomas the Train. This did the trick. He finally settled down. . . just in time to land in Denver.

We had a four hour layover in Denver. I ended up being grateful for this recovery period. We got some lunch, rode the underground train, tried out the moving sidewalks multiple times and Tanner finally fell asleep and took a nap for about an hour. This time when we had to board the plane again he wasn't happy about it, but he didn't flip out. We somehow managed to make it through this flight with the toys I had brought along. He played with the doctor bag I had brought and especially enjoyed giving me "shots." Unfortunately he didn't know the meaning of doing this softly and he really pounded me (I even got bruises!), but at least he was being quiet.

We finally made it to Orlando at about 11:00 p.m. and the airport was deserted. We went to luggage claim and I somehow managed to get a 2 year old, 2 bags and a stroller out to the curb to be picked up by our hotel shuttle. You may be surprised, but Tanner didn't like the shuttle either. When he saw our hotel room he said "No! Go home!" and took off running down the hall back to the elevator. I was able to get him back with promises that we'd see Ethan in the morning. I was so relieved when he fell asleep that night! Things could only get better. . . right?