Twins Do Grand Cayman: Part 1

One of the biggest challenges was what to bring on our trip, so I will start there. This was an issue, of course, but for me especially. I am a super-procrastinator when it comes to packing, much to my Grandmother's dismay, and because of that, I tend to over-pack. I don't put a lot of thought into what I should bring, so I just bring tons and tons of stuff. For this trip, we obviously needed the basics and plenty of things for the babies. What that meant for us was:

Clothes for me and Billy (duh)
Toiletries
Every single baby short-sleeved or sleeveless shirt/outfit
100 diapers (5days X 5 diapers per day X two babies X 2 for good measure = 100 diapers)
All "good" bibs (about 15-20?)
Approx. 10 burp cloths
2 sleep sacks
Sebastian's swaddle
Baby swimsuits
Sun Hats
Baby Bjorn
Baby sling carrier
Approx. 20 small toys (small for carry-on, other packed)
2 Boppies (for the plane ride)
Activity with all the fixin's
2 floaties for the pool
6 blankets
Stuffed Diaper bag (diapers, emergency clothes, baby toiletries, bibs, burp cloths, baby Tylenol, bottles for the plane)
6 pacifiers
12 cans of Nestle Good Start
Breast pump
24 extra oz. of breast milk in Medela cooler pack
3 sets of pump parts
6 sets of nipples and bottles
100 bottle liners

So, maybe I have a packing problem. But in all seriousness, we used 97% of the things we brought and needed about 90% of it. For such small people, they require a lot of crap!

As for the actual travel, our flight was at 6am (I just threw up in my mouth a little bit, remembering that...) so we woke up at 330am, got the babies up and in the car seats at 415am and started loading the taxi (a minivan one) about 3 minutes after that.

At that time, there is no traffic so the ride was about 20 minutes. We were flying first class, so check in was quick, too. We got 8 boarding passes (4 people, 2 flights), checked two enormous suitcases and had four carry-ons: my purse, my pump, the diaper bag and an extra bag with randomness. And the boppies on top of the twins in their car seats in the double snap'n'go.



As you can see, this is A LOT to get through security. This was the worst part because TSA employees all get mandatory frontal lobotomies before beginning work at Logan airport. Since both babies were awake, we had to take them out of the car seats and send the seats through the x-ray machine. Why it's ok to wand a sleeping baby in the car seat but an enormous security risk to do so with an awake baby makes no sense to me at all. Thanks TSA. We put all our bags on the belt, and then unloaded the babies. We forgot about the stroller. Oops. Its not very easy to fold a double stroller while a holding a 5-month old baby. Even harder to get said stroller onto the belt while still holding baby. Do you think any of the TSA people helped us? No. Of course not. They simply stared at Billy who was willing his body to grow extra limbs so he could pick up the stroller without dropping Colie. Finally, the guy behind him helped get the stroller on the security belt and we were on our way. A few seconds later, I saw another couple coming through security with a baby, a single stroller and a toddler (walking) and they had their own security guy escorting them through!! WTF!!!! I hate you, TSA.

Anyway, we made it through, headed to the gate, changed the babies diapers and boarded the plane. The flight was fine - we gave them some baby Tylenol and their morning bottles on the way up. Collette slept the whole way after that and Sebastian took a 45 minute nap. I had to walk the aisle with him a lot to keep him from fussing, but that was no big deal overall.

Our layover in Charlotte was no problem either. We had plenty of time to eat, change the babies and play a little. Luckily, Sebastian used this time to have a diaper blowout and we used our second emergency outfit (Collette used the first one in Boston - pee leakage). While this was gross, it was sooooooo much better dealing with it on the plane.

The second flight was pretty much the same as the first, except we had an hour delay, on the runway (grrr). So, what should have been a 2 hour trip ended up being 3. But the babies did fine, much to the amazement of the first class passengers who were sure they were doomed to hours of infant crying.

We landed with two happy babies, in 85 degree Grand Cayman. They had our stroller and carseats waiting for us outside (no walkway, you just deplane directly outside) and we headed to customs. They let us cut the line (sweet!) but we still ended up being the last ones to leave. Why? you ask - because of my illegal immigrant husband. (JK - he's not illegal, just foreign). Apparently, Salvadorans need visas to enter the Cayman Islands. After 20 minutes of back office hoopla, Billy offered his Mexican passport (ya, he's Mexican, too) and that did the trick. Whew - that was a close one!


And so, we successfully got there. Being there was almost as challenging as getting there - more on that later!!