The kids are playing nicely and I will use this opportunity to write an update. We are back in the USA, I can go back to writing some expat stuff instead of posting vacation news. We came back May 1st, that means we left May 1st thanks to the hour difference between Turkey and USA.
A tip if you are flying with Lufthansa and you have kids: you cannot reserve seats or check-in online. May 1st is a Thursday, I started calling Lufthansa Monday before with the hope that they can reserve me good seats. when you fly with children overseas and the person sitting in front of you decides to be annoying and lay all the way down with his chair, the kids basically disappear underneath. The best places are the ones facing a separation wall. There is no one in front and the kids can stand up without pulling or hitting the front seat - so mommy doesn't have to keep on saying 'do not bother other people, be careful'. Although I was not very late with calling Lufthansa, they could reserve good seats for the flight to Munich. After Munich we were lucky to have seats next to each other.
Thursday morning at 2:50 am I got out of bed. I was already quite tired of the stress I had the last couple of days. If I am to fly, I am stressed and flying overseas with kids make it only worst. The only good thing about it that all the adrenaline keeps me awake and gives me the energy till I arrive to my destination and collapse. My parents were both up and they were coming to the airport with us. My poor father had a whole day of work waiting for him after we left! 3:30 we took the kids to the car.
F has something of my stress I think. She was asking me the day before if the plane had arrived yet. She was ready to leave and go to USA. She refused to sleep the night before and was totally hyper. At 3:30 she was totally awake again and asking me if the plane was there yet. Where does she get all that energy from! At the airport I explained F that we will first fly to Germany, get out of the plane, get on another plane and go to home. It is always better to explain to the kids what will happen next, otherwise they might refuse to get on the second plane and make a big scene - always a blast for parents!
We said good bye to my parents. I think they need couple weeks to rest to get back in shape. My grandmother always used to say 'It is nice to welcome visitors and it is as nice to say good bye to them'. I think my parents got the true meaning of this during this vacation. The first part of the trip was very comfortable, our seats were perfect and the kids were very calm although they were awake. 10 minutes after we took off, F had her usual question about when we actually are going to fly. She just doesn't seem to get it!
Did I mention before that I used this 'Cares' safety restraint to buckle up the kids. It is much better than carrying around a car seat in the plane. Check it out at http://www.kidsflysafe.com/if you have little children. I had the whole Lufthansa crew check it, because they never saw it before. After it was 'approved' they actually liked it as well.
We arrived to Munich without any problems. The kids just read and listened to IPod with kids music and stories on it. At the airport, F helped with the hand luggage. Both kids actually carried their own little backpacks. Of course F first didn't understand why we were leaving America again as we had just arrived. After explaining that we were in Germany, she was OK with it. Of course the second part of the trip was less comfy, we didn't have the nice seats thanks to the Lufthansa seat reservation software. -Maybe a project opportunity for Deloitte Germany? -
We had of course the regular inspection and approval of the Cares system. I had the portable DVD player, books, puzzles and color pencils - this was about all we needed. The plane has its own video system, too. Nice thing about Lufthansa system is that you can actually decide when you want to see which film or program. You can pause, rewind and forward your film, all with the help of a touch screen - especially interesting for children at ages around 2!
As I mentioned, we had not the best seats. The guy in front of me decided to lay his seat down. I asked him very nicely not to over exaggerate it. I don't have the chance to lay down and enjoy myself with two kids. We are quite active going to the restroom, getting drinks, going to the restroom again - never a dull moment! So I need at least some space to be able to move around. The guy said 'oh sorry' and didn't lay all the way down. Unfortunately after the first restroom visit, we came back to see that he did it during our absence. I was, of course, a little irritated with this action. I mean, if the person in front of him was laying as well, then I would say OK, but the seat in front of him stood upright. His wasn't so tall either. Most of the trip, we were unable to use the middle seat. F sat on one side and I sat with A on the other side. Luckily, A fell asleep and she laid down on the 'out of order' middle seat. When she woke up couple hours later, she was totally active. Trust me, I didn't say a word to her when she was pushing and pulling the seat in front of her. The guy deserved it. Oh yes, when F was watching a film on the DVD player, it was right at the same level as the ear of our front neighbour. But honestly, we didn't have to do anything special for all these 'vengeance' actions. Its just the lack of space. If you respect the fellow passengers, you just take the others into account and do not lay your seat all the way down just because the seat can go so far!
8 hours, 2 films and 20 restroom visits later we arrived to USA. Passport control and customs and...Papa! The kids and I were very happy to see P and he was very happy to see us. We are back home!
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