The High Tech Way

Tips for surviving airport security/TSA with little kids

TSA hates terrorists and families with children. I have been through airport security with one or two little little children several times now, and it has never been a pleasant experience. I always travel with my laptop, too, so I use, like, 47 of those little bins -- shoes in one, laptop in another, purse in another, quart sized back of 3 oz or less liquids in another, etc. etc.

And with the children there is the additional cups or bottles of milk, the Maisy books, the baby doll, the blankie that goes everywhere with us.  Also, you've got to take off the baby and toddler shoes too, and put them in a bin.  And NONE of these objects can be lost or left behind.  Keeping track of the inventory at all times is exhausting. 

Also, TSA generally won't allow you to reassemble your stuff by putting it back into the bags at the end of the conveyor belt.  Instead you are expected to gather it all into your arms, along with your baby and toddler, and go find another place to put it all back together so you can walk again.

The TSA agents are not patient with families. One agent yelled at Jack for touching the conveyor belt.  Another yelled at David to get out of the way because David was trying to put something back in a bag so he could pick up Jack and take him somewhere to put his shoes back on him.

But one thing TSA has done right is this site that offers tips about navigating the TSA security process with children.

This particular tip worked great for us during our last trip: "Tell your children that their bags (backpack, dolls, etc.) will be put in the X-ray machine and will come out at the other end and be returned to them."

Before we got up to security I got down to Jack's level, looked him in the eye and explained the process to him, making sure to tell him that he would GET ALL HIS STUFF BACK AGAIN AT THE END.  This was very effective.

However, I forgot the next tip: "Let your children know that a Security Officer may ask to see their shoes, but that they will get these back as well."

This freaked Jack out.  If you are traveling with a small child, make sure to mention the shoe thing to him or her.  It could save many tears.

Better yet, drive.

Hungry and tired

James will be six months old on Friday, and we started feeding him solid foods three or four weeks ago.  The boy likes to eat.  On one recent Saturday afternoon when we were visiting my mother, James was having baby oatmeal.  He cried between each bite because I was taking too long to shovel it in. 

In spite of his insatiable appetite, he has a bit of a sensitive tummy.  He spit up much of the oatmeal.  Indeed, each time a fed him the oatmeal he spit up, so we switched him back to the rice cereal.

Although he has an adventurous pallet so far, he is not keen on going to sleep by himself. There have been many nights where I have nursed him to sleep, put him down and cringed as he woke up, looked at me with that cry-baby sad lower lip and started to cry.  So I would pick him up again and repeat.  And so on and so on. 

This didn't always happen. But on the nights when it did I would try to focus on how grateful I was to have this baby here at all.  But on one night before I had to go to New York the next day I had no time for the extended routine.  So that night I put him down and let him cry.  Within a half hour he was asleep and slept much better that night. 

But it is hard to let him cry.  He cries longer than Jack ever did.  And he sounds more heartbroken.  And then there's the part about how he's the last baby I will have. So I still fight with myself over letting him cry or not. 

Wouldn't you like to ride in my beautiful balloon? NO!

We went to Friendly's recently. It's a family restaurant that has crayons and an activity placemat for the kids and is generally a safe place where there will be minimal crying and screaming.  Especially because at the end of the meal kiddos get ice cream and a balloon. But on this particular visit to Friendly's when asked what color balloon he wanted, Jack's face took on a horrified expression.

"No balloon!!" he said.

So I secretly got a balloon anyway, thinking this was a momentary toddler mood that would pass and by the time he got home he would be demanding a balloon and we of course wouldn't have one.  But when he saw me bringing a balloon with us he got even more upset.

"NO BALLOON!!!"  he sobbed.

We asked him why and he said: "Balloons go away." (which made me wonder if his lost balloon trauma from his second birthday was still haunting him.)

I still sneaked the balloon into the car anyway, without him seeing it.  But when he got home he didn't bring up the balloon again. 

Rather, that night he was restless and climbed into bed with us. And in his sleep he murmured "No balloon, no balloon!"

And still, a month later, he wants nothing to do with balloons.

Had we but world enough and time - My 2008 New Year resolution/goal

As a gift to myself for my birthday I scheduled the day off from work to go get a massage and facial, using a gift certificate David gave me for Christmas. Since we just moved here in March, it was to a place I’d never been to or heard of before. I was about 2 minutes away from the place this morning when I got a call on my cell from the salon saying my facial had been canceled. The aesthetician had had a family emergency. Could I reschedule?

No, no, I couldn’t reschedule. I have no time. This precious time I had today was a rare day off from work, when I left the boys in daycare to make time for reflection and being extra nice to me.

Really, I’d scheduled the facial because (1) I wanted the extended facial massage because I carry a lot of my stress in the muscles in my face, and (2) I’ve had these deep dark circles and bags under my eyes since New Years morning and was hoping that a facial might help them.

Of course I understand that a family emergency is a family emergency. Still, it did not make me any less disappointed. And I was a little surprised that they didn’t offer me any other services while I was there. (I still had a scheduled massage.) They gave me coupons for a free manicure and pedicure, but they couldn’t give me my time back.

And this lack of time is the crux of my New Years resolution. If you remember last year I set two of them – to nurture my inner Martha Stewart and to nurture my inner Cindi Crawford.

This year it’s all about nurturing my inner Leo Babauta, the author of the Zen Habits  blog, among other things. I am among many fans. He just won the best overall blog in the 2007 Performancing awards. 

But it’s not his blog success that is what inspired this goal (although it is amazing how he's built such a place in just a year). It’s his message of simplifying. And this is a message that I can take to so many areas of my life to steal time back for myself.

I recently told an old friend that everything is good with me. My life is full and I am living my dreams. Obviously this is an amazing place to be. But today I was thinking about my choice of words. Full. That means there is no room for anything else. And there are other things I want to fit in. For example, reading for pleasure, taking better care of myself, losing the infertility and baby weight, getting back into shape, among other things. All these things take time. And I have no time.

I cannot cut back on my work, and I’m not sure that I want to. And I certainly don’t want to cut back on my family time. And you should see my house now. I sure as hell cannot cut down on the tiny amount of cleaning and maintenance I do now.

So the overarching goal of the year, to nurture my inner Leo Babauta, means decluttering my space, creating systems to improve efficiency with work and home tasks, so that these things take less time than they do now. That way I can squeeze as much extra time as possible from my days for these other things.

Leo recommends having just one New Years goal. So nurturing my inner Leo is my tricky way of squeezing a whole lot into that single goal. And by doing so I plan to change the laws of physics, creating more time than I had before.

Andy Kaufman and Al Capone

Thanks to Magpie, as I am stealing this meme from her.

Happy birthday to me.

Events

• 1605 - First publication of Don Quixote.
• 1949 - The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first airs.
• 1956 - Allen Ginsberg writes his poem "America".

Births

• 1706 - Benjamin Franklin American statesman (d. 1790)
• 1820 - Anne Brontë, British author (d. 1849)
• 1899 - Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
• 1949 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
• 1962 - Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian

Deaths

• 2007 - Art Buchwald, American humorist (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

• Ancient Latvia - Zirgu Diena observed

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Here's the meme:

1. Go to Wikipedia and type in your Birthday Month and day only.
2. List 3 Events that occurred that day.
3. List 2 important Birth days (Magpie listed five, and so have I.)
4. List 1 Death.
5. List a Holiday or Observance. (if any)

The new favorite Maisy

While I still prefer the Maisy Takes a Bath one, Jack has indicated a preference for Maisy at the Fair.  Maybe it's the rides, or the cotton candy which he reports is "sticky" although he's never seen or touched actual cotton candy.  Or maybe it's all the friends that Maisy has in this one.  Whatever it is, it has become the number one request over all other Maisy books.

Educational television for children

Recently David and I were talking about how much we despise Dora the Explorer.  Everyone on this toddler-favorite show talks at a shout level.  It is really a lot for two full-time working parents to bear at the end of a long long day.

And, we wondered, what is the educational value of such a show?

Then David pointed out that when we were growing up the educational value of what we watched was even more suspect.

We learned that it is OK to drop anvils on the heads of others

We learned that we could order jet packs via mail order from Acme

We learned that if we hit our friend on the head with a frying pan, his head would take on the shape of said pan.  But, not to worry. All he had to do was shake his head really fast and it would go back to the right shape again.

Meanwhile, our 2 1/2 year old son is learning Spanish words.  What is the world coming to?