My Big Airport Adventure

Who: Mommy, Tonito, Vivi, Maya (+3 car seats, 3 carry-ons, 2 checked bags, one airport cart)
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What: Traveling home to Houston via plane
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Vivi (as I am holding Maya and trying to push a toppling cart of 3 car seats + our carry-ons through the overcrowded security at O'Hare): "Mommy, you only have 2 hands! You can't doo all of this!"
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After making it through the ticket counter, and the very long security lines, we make it to the metal detector. Kids stand here: shoes off, jackets off, laptop out, put the car seats through, the camera, backpack of toys, lemur,, tiger, purse with liquids in a baggie. Walk through one by one, now sit against the bench and put your shoes on and help Maya. Balance the 3 car seats on the cart, re-pack the lap top, Tonito grab the Dora backpack, Vivi grab the camera and hold the cart, Maya you sit on top of everything- where's our gate? Find the concourse, realize we can't do the escalator, find the elevators, squeeze in, run to the next elevator, back up and running to the gate. "No, we'll go potty on the airplane... No I have snacks once the plan takes off.. Keep running guys, we're almost there... Mommy is hot and tired too"- there's our gate, the farthest one down the hall. "Wait, please hold it!!" We got to the gate at 3:07, for our 3:12 flight and were the last ones in. As we got to the plane, they noticed the 3 car seats- "Those will not fit in the plane. I'll have them ready for you when we land in Houston." We made it!!! The flight was a piece of cake, and as soon as we all sat down I started to breathe again. Landing in Houston, the car seats were NOT waiting for us- they put them through the regular checked bags (what I didn't want to happen), and of course stopped the baggage belt as they got stuck in the chutes. Ugh. Anyway, to answer your question:
YES, I am that "crazy" lady in the airport traveling by herself with little kids!
3:07 w