I survived.

(and so did the kids)

My thoughts on traveling alone with two small children:
- Thank you Ivy for sleeping all the way to Amsterdam and most of the layover. However, it would have been nice if you'd slept for more than 2 hours on the long flight.
- Eliot, it would have been nice if you had slept for more than 2 hours too. However, I do appreciate you sleeping, and I promise not to threaten "The pilot will not land the airplane until after you take a nap. That's the rule." on our next flight. Nevermind, I'm not making any promises.
- Basinets are great... if your baby will sleep in one. If not, they are great for holding all the miscellaneous stuff that seems to materialize out of your carry-on when travelling with two kids. They also make for a good tool for a toddler to bump his head on. Repeatedly. And cry.
- If another person tells me my crying baby is hungry, I will get physically violent.
- A special note to KLM- Pure sugar, thinly veiled as fruit-like juice, gummy bears, cookies, raisins, and a granola bar is not the best option for a kid's meal when the kid in question is confined to a 1x2 foot area for 10 hours. Even if macaroni and cheese is also included. We all know the kids aren't going to eat that once they've clappped eyes on the cookies.
- Another special note to KLM: I really appreciate the idea of a goody bag for my toddler, and give the sticker pack a big thumbs up. However, the colored pencils so well sharpened that I felt I could probably use one as a weapon to hijack the plane were not designed by a mother, hmmm? And the miniature deck of cards was not designed by the crew that has to clean airplanes after all the passengers get off, I'd be willling to wager. After Eliot got the box open and immediately invented the game 52 Card (refused to) Pick-Up, we moved on to the toys I'd brought.
- It is impossible to fill an empty backpack with enough stuff to entertain a 2 year old for 10 hours. It is actually laughable to think a backpack that must also contain diapers, changes of clothes, snacks, money, tickets, etc would ever hold enough to keep a toddler entertained for more than, say 30 minutes.
- Despite everything, my two kids were better behaved than a number of adults on our flight and waiting in Amsterdam.
- When you travel alone with two kids and manage to keep total crying time to uner 1 hour, combined, people should congratulate you as you're getting off the plane. Or even bow down at your feet. Or even let you cut in line at Customs. But they don't.

Thank you to Eliot and IVy for being such great troopers!!! I couldn't have done it with just any two kids!