International Travel with my Toddler

Evey and I did the trip over here just us girls, since her daddy had to be here earlier than us for his job stuff. I was *slightly* terrified of doing an international flight with my toddler and totally terrified of having to do it by myself. But terrified or not, it was going to happen!
The traveling itself wasn't so bad. Guy's mom took us to the airport and got a pass to help me to the gate. The help through security was wonderful.

What I had with me and didn't check was:

• My backpack (crammed with diapers and sippy cups and snacks and military paperwork)
• The carseat (the lil hobbit had her own seat, so even though it was a pain to lug around, the carseat was lovely to have her sit in during the flight)
• Her backpack (her Grandma got her an itty bitty pink backpack that I put some fun new toys in for her)
• The stroller (which I used to cart all this crap around on or I would have been found dead on one of those floor escalator things in the Chicago airport)

We had a three hour flight to Chicago, a couple hours layover, and then our big flight to Frankfurt. My favorite thing that day was the tablet. I loaded it up with toddler apps and episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It was worth its weight in gold! I had even ordered Evey her own pair of headphones so the other passengers wouldn't have to listen to Mickey doing the hot dog dance. When we were in Chicago and I found our next gate I let the munchkin run around like a wild woman. She was having a blast and the other passengers were very sweet to her. 

It was when we were checked in to our Frankfurt flight that it sank in that we were leaving the country. Signs for our airline were listed in German first, with English underneath. People around me were having conversations I couldn't understand. I'm pretty sure Vernon Dursley has a German brother and that he was on my flight. This man was huge with a magnificent mustache and thick accent. He was outraged when he was informed that his carry-on was too large and would be checked at the gate. His face even got purple like Vernon's, I'm convinced they are related. 

Evey fell asleep not ten minutes before we were supposed to board out flight. She was in her carseat and with the help of an airline employee we managed to get her on the plane and buckled in her seat without waking her up! It was miraculous! She even slept through the safety announcements (both the German and English versions). I thought for sure she would be out for a couple hours, she hadn't napped all day and was TIRED. Then the woman seated in front of her fully reclined her seat 45 minutes into the flight which squished Evelyn's feet, waking her up and destroying my hope of a break. Looking back now the flight is a blur of weird airline food, cartoons and rocking/cuddling my baby trying to convince her to go back to sleep. 

There was a child who screamed "Nein, nein, NEIN" at his mother for about 6 hours of the flight (not exaggerating) It was awful, but I'm just glad the tantrum thrower wasn't my kid.

I got lots of help from some very kind strangers and I survived flying to Germany with my toddler. I even survived the Frankfurt airport pushing a cart loaded with our 5 suitcases with one hand while pulling the stroller with the other. We found the USO and caught a shuttle to Ramstein where the husband was eagerly awaiting our arrival. The End (whew, even just thinking back about that day is exhausting...)