I started to write week 29 of my Triplet Pregnancy Journal, and then realised that I spent a page writing nothing about the pregnancy. I always write the journal in a word document for myself first. (Which is why if you look carefully in my first draft, I often have dropped gender/names that I forgot to adjust!) So, because the journal is a record for our family, I’ve decided to keep it there, but for this blog, I thought I’d still include it as a separate post, since it was a good tale to tell.
This week began by waving the boys and their Daddy goodbye. They all travelled up to the warmer climate of Cairns in North Queensland to celebrate his sister’s 40th birthday. It was a shame I wasn’t able to go also, but completely out of the question, for obvious reasons. Not to mention the plane probably wouldn’t have become airborne with the triplets and I on board. Yep, the kilos keep piling on! Mind you, keeping a plane grounded would be preferable to going into labour mid-flight. But then again, it would be one way to make the national news.
After waving the boys goodbye, I received a phone call in a couple of hours time to say they had missed the flight. Since I wasn’t travelling with them, I had forgotten about our pre-flight routine. It’s the one where The Accountant predicts the time it will take to travel to the airport. Then I go and do my own prediction and disagree with him, saying it will take longer. We will then argue the merits of our suggested time frames for a couple of days until The Accountant will extend the travel time and concede to leave a little earlier, just to make me happy. (Or shut me up.) We will then often arrive early to the airport and The Accountant, who is very fond of sleeping in will lament the fact that he could have stayed in his cosy bed a bit longer.
So this time I had left the timing entirely up to him. He left the house 10 minutes later than he planned. (To be expected. Especially when he had allowed 25 minutes from the moment the alarm went off to when he was supposed to walk out the door with two children.) I had packed a lunchbox for both the boys with some breakfast things like fruit, muesli bars and dry cereal for the trip down. Apparently right after Trent drank the juice he vomited. (Not expected) So Alex had to stop and clean that up. Then he got stuck in Brisbane traffic for another half an hour. (To be expected.) By the time he dropped the car at the car parking facility and arrived at the terminal he was 20 minutes late for check-in. Therefore he had to book a flight four hours later in the day. Soon afterwards I received another phone call. Trent had diarrhoea. Oh dear, the poor boy had caught my tummy bug. My unfortunate husband was trapped in an airport for four hours with a sick kid. I suggested there was a park nearby that might help waste some time and gave my commiserations to him for having to change the nappies. He went to the park, where Trent proceeded to fill a nappy which took my darling husband half an hour to change.
It was sometime during the afternoon that I suddenly realised that in the communal cabin luggage I had packed ample nappies for a two hour flight, but not nearly enough for a two hour flight + four hour delay + diarrhoea. I also hadn’t packed a spare change of clothes. I felt awful. They just made it to Cairns but needed to crack open the suitcase as soon as they were able to retrieve it from luggage carousel.
By all reports the trip was enjoyable for the three of them. Admittedly, Toddler T was at a disadvantage in the reporting back process, given his inability to construct sentences. Were he able to do, the report may not have been as glossy when he expressed his dissatisfaction with being left with a unknown babysitter for the first time all day and night on Saturday in an unfamiliar place. A did admit that he was crying quite a bit that afternoon. At least Daddy had returned during the afternoon for a cuddle was able to bath and tuck him into bed. And the next day at a family barbie on the beach, the T-ster stuck to his Dad like glue.
It did allow The Accountant to celebrate his sister’s 40th birthday at the Cairns Amateur Race Carnival during the day and have dinner with the family that night. I’m so disappointed that I wasn’t able to get dressed up for the race day! I don’t care so much about the horses, but it would have been cool to wear a hat, heels and a fancy frock. Their ride, a Stretch Hummer looked pretty cool as well!
The Accountant has received compliments on his brilliant fathering skills looking after the two boys with absolute patience and attentiveness. This I don’t doubt for a moment. He really is a marvellous Daddy. It’s not all Dad’s that would be brave enough to take a 1 and 5 year old on a plane alone and be responsible for them for four days. The boys came home loving the time they spent with cousins, aunt, uncle and grandparents – not too mention the sunshine, beach and lots of playtime.
2 Comments
Yay for Your Accountant I’ll bet they had a great time. Yay also for missing the plane I mean nothing ever goes quite as smoothly without mum around anyway!!
Family memories for the boys!