The first intl flight with 2 kids

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Positives:

- we were all in a row together. The flight had about one open seat per row! M and I sat in one row of the 3. The steward moved the other person in our row. G and L were in the other row of 3.  The guy in their row was already sleeping by the window when we boarded.  He said he didn't mind L's car seat in the middle, so we put him there with G on the aisle.  G and I were able to switch seats. L was able to go between the two sides. It was a flying miracle.

- take off and landing were like butter. Seriously the smoothest I've had in ages. A few bumps (of course) but no turbulence. 

- G sat next to M during takeoff because we realized that when I sit next to her, she screams to get out of her car seat to get out. She doesn't pull that with him.

- G handled M for feeding her dinner.  I realized on the flight into Philly that I'm already stressed and nervous to fly and taking care of a 1 year old who does not like her seat and screaming to get out is also a major 

-  The tres chic woman Gina who was sitting behind me. She is a NYer married to a Parisienne living in Brussels.  She wrote down her brussels recommendations for me, which I'll share later.  She also gave me her business card and told me I could email her with questions. She is a mother of an 12 yard old girl. She also gave me advice with kids on planes.  She said you first let them look around. Show them the plane and people.  Then you tell  then, "now you are going to take a nice long nap, and when you wake up, I will have a surprise for you." And that's when you give them the little wrapped gifts.  This motivates them to try to sleep when they know they get the prize after they sleep.

Negatives: 

- L's car seat made his tray table sit angled on his knees.  So he refused to eat dinner since he couldn't eat it off his tray. I barely ate because i was balancing 2 trays of food on my tray and trying to coax him to eat. I had thought he'd be more comfortable in his car seat for sleeping but when he woke, he moved the the empty seat by me. Considering that the flight home is 11 am til 7 pm, and he will be mostly awake, I think we may check his car seat. 

- L only slept 3 or 4 hours. He woke screaming and belligerent (disoriented and exhausted, pushing glasses of water out of my hand, etc.) 

- the steward brought me a full to the rim glass of wine when I finally got around to ordering one. So G was holding it for me and passing it over for sips while I nursed M to sleep. M reached her hand up to play with my scarf and knocked the red wine. It went all over her, 'roo, her face & clothes, me, my favorite new pants, and my new chambray shirt that matches my entire travel wardrobe.  

Tips:

- don't mess with public transport like trains to get to your hotel. Save yourself the stress of language and exhaustion and disorientation and gear and book a private airport transfer to your hotel.

So worth it!