Vacaciones!

Well, we made it there and back and somehow it's still August. Before our trip to Spain, I felt like the summer was almost over and we'd be starting school within hours. But nope. We still had plenty of time to enjoy three long weeks in Madrid with Nacho's family, celebrate Elisa's 5th birthday, and even take our own little escape for 3 days to Almeria.  The travel part of the equation was both better and worse this time. Better by far on the way home when the girls watched movies, colored and played quietly for a good 5 of the 7 hours.  The way over, however, was a minor disaster with Carolina unable to get comfortable in her car seat and me wishing I had scrapped it at the plane's door. But I didn't. I thought this might be the last time we'd use it onboard, but in hindsight, she was really too big for it and the space too small. It didn't help that the idiot in front of her reclined his seat in her face and huffed and puffed at every shriek and kick. Really I try to be sympathetic with my fellow travelers, but the reality is that while they may be temporarily annoyed by a crazy toddler, I still have to deal with her when we get off the plane. They can go sleep. So I tried my best to mitigate the noise and disturbances, but Carolina wasn't in great form. Finally after an hour of intermittent sleep and screaming, we ditched the seat and let her crash on Nacho's chest for the remainder of the flight. It worked much better that way but still annoyed me to no end that we basically paid $1000 for a Britax to have it's own seat on the flight. Oh well. Lesson learned.

The rest of the travel story is that the worst is probably over. At least I'm looking at it that way. On the way home when Carolina reached a point of exhaustion, she just quietly curled up in a ball next to me and fell asleep. It was. just. that. easy. She stayed down for over an hour before waking in a crying fuss. I quickly moved the pillow onto my lap and threw her tummy side down up and over my legs so she could rest again. And surprise! it worked. She was back asleep in seconds for another hour and a half. I finished the "Avengers" and let my tail bone get nice and numb before motioning to Nacho to help me get this girl off my full bladder. Meanwhile, Elisa had finally fallen asleep and managed to get a good hour and a half under her belt as well. I really wish I'd had my camera handy as it all looked so peacefully amazing. Two kids completely passed out on top of each other and me. It was exactly what I would have hoped for and the reality of it was just too much. I was so relaxed watching the movie feeling like air travel is going to be much, much easier from now on. It just has to be, right?