How we almost got kicked off the plane

We book a late night flight to Florida, hoping the kids will sleep or at least watch Treehouse the entire way. Little did we know that things were going to happen before our flight that might make this perfect plan not so perfect. Lets rewind to a week ago Friday when my normally happy (ok not happy, but 3 year old stubborn and independent can do everything for herself cutie) little girl started getting not so happy. She was crying and upset and saying her ears hurt. I knew something was up, she is never sick, has never had an ear ache, had no fever so if it wasn't for the nonstop crying I would not have known. I take her to the urgent care clinic where we wait for hours, while she screams her head off... not fun. Doctor confirms she has an ear infection, and says that she should be okay to fly by Monday night.

Now lets get to Monday where mother nature finally decides that we need some snow and gives us a nice snow storm, just as we are trying to leave for warmer places. The drive to the airport has me on edge. My father in law was driving, and not that he is a bad driver, just that I don't like anyone but my husband driving my babies around in bad weather. We get to the airport with time to spare. We had planned on getting dinner before but the roads around the airport were so bad we knew we didn't have time so we figured we would just get something there. Through customs and security in record time, really I have never been through that fast or seen so few people there. We hit the "new" second security check and my son gets all upset when he looks over and watches them do the weird wipe on my hands and all of our belongings. So upset that nothing will calm him down. I can understand, it was a little much!

We eat and head to the gate. Our plane is there so I think this is a positive thing. Bathroom breaks for all and I give my daughter he antibiotic and some Tylenol just in case there is any pressure on her ears while flying. We sit and wait for a while, our departure time comes and goes and we still sit. They tell us the flight attendants have to get off and go through security before we can get on. So an hour late we finally board. I get into my seat and get Miss E all situated, Mr K and Daddy are in the row behind us. I motion to the flight attendant to ask if she can mention to the pilot that it would be great if he could ease in on landing to help reduce any pressure on Miss E's ears. Well that was a BIG FAT MISTAKE!

She comes back and tells me that the pilot is not comfortable with Miss E flying and is putting in a call to Med. I tell her the doctor said it was fine. She says it will just be 10 minutes, well 15 minutes later they come and wanted to confirm our bag tags so they could pull them off the plane, just in case. By this point my husband is pissed off, at them and me. We sat there for 45 minutes just ready to be kicked off the plane. How would we explain to the kids that we are not going to Florida, no seeing the ocean or Disney, no NASA or swimming pools?

Thankfully they came back and said it was okay and that we would be leaving. So now we head over to de-icing so they can pour toxic chemicals all over the plane. By this point it is over 2 hours after we should have departed. The planes TV's are not working so there is no Treehouse for the kids. They are still awake, at 10:30pm. I am exhausted, but I have a 3 year old sitting beside me so I have to be on my game. No falling asleep for this mommy!

A few hours into the flight she finally falls asleep when I realize that the Tylenol that I gave at 7pm has well worn off and she starts to fuss. Crap I think... now what do I do. I can't get her to take her souse (a pacifier), or lollipop, or more drugs. The flight attendant hears her and brings me a warm towel to put on her ears, and says to have her drink water. I finally get in her souse and she falls back to sleep in my arms.

We land and all is well. It is after 1am and we have to wake up both kids and make the drive to the coast. After getting our bags, the rental car and making the drive we finally got here at 4am. What a day!

Oh and do you think the kids slept in the next morning? Of course not! All you parents know that we could only be so lucky.

So I learned my lesson. I am going to give Advil this time, for its 8 hour lasting power. I am not going to say anything to the flight crew and if she cries landing in Toronto I will just be "that" parent on the plane, you know the one with the kid who everyone wishes was off the plane. Or maybe it is better to tell them, they will say we can't fly and we are stuck in Florida for another week... how bad could that be!

Talk to me in a few days, our flight departs here at 7am. Crazy I know!