Security

Everyone knows the drill when going through security at the airport. Take off your shoes, take out your electronics, put everything of value into a little bin and send it through the x-ray machine. Its enough of a pain in the arse to make you not want to fly.

Now imagine doing that with 2 toddlers.

This is the scene that was me upon leaving CoMo on Thursday.

They didnt open up the security line until about 20 minutes before take off. So, the kids and I tell Caton bye and get into the line. All our shoes were off and into the bins, jackets were off, Kade's backpack (with his and Weslie's toys) was in a bin, and the diaper bag (filled with everything we own) was in a bin. Then I had to hold Weslie while trying to fold up the stroller and put it on the conveyor too...because you know, I may have been hiding a bomb IN the 1/2 inch wide rails of my stroller. All this without ANY help from any of the agents there. Not one of them helped me put the stroller on the conveyor or anything!!!

So, Kade made it through the metal detector fine...but went over to the side and gave Caton another hug. And you would have thought he had been turned into a terrorist. "He touched him, He touched the boy!!!" the agents began screaming. "Send him back through!! Sir, Sir!!! You cannot touch the boy!!!" So Kade has to be re-screened all while everything is coming out the other end of the conveyor and piling up so that things begin to fall off.

I tried to go through the metal detector (holding Weslie) and the bells ring. We go back through and the lady suggests that I take off my watch and bracelets. I comply...sending the goods through on the conveyor. We make it through the metal detector and begin to get everything put back together. And again, no help whatsoever from any of the agents.

At one point, one of the female agents said that we needed to hurry up because we were holding up the plane. Had my children not been there, I would have let her have it. Why dont you help me instead of standing there crossing your arms and tapping your toe.

As the diaper bag came out of the conveyor...they asked me if there was any liquid in it. I said that there was some juice cups...so we had to go into a secure area to open up each cup and allow and agent to perform some kind of chemical reaction test on the apple juice in the cups. Evidently, you can create a bomb out of juice these days. They also took out an unopened jar of food and showed it to me (like I didnt know it was in there), then said that they would allow that...you know for the baby. Thanks, dont do me any favors.

Then as we were showing our boarding passes for the ump-teenth time, I noticed that through all the commotion, I had forgotten to get my jewelry out of the bin. So with rolled eyes, the female agent said, "I will get them...YOU STAY THERE!!!" So we finally made it out to the plane...again, no one there to help me put the stroller on the luggage cart...so I folded it up and left it on the ground.

By the time we finally sat down, I was sweating, Weslie's shoes were in my pocket, and Kade was wanting to know, "What dat man did with his juice cup?"

I just wanted to hurry up and get to the LA!!!

On a side note: On our way back to CoMo...leaving the LA...the security agents could not have been more helpful or nicer about the entire process. There was one agent that came up to the kids and I as we were getting our boarding passes checked and began explaining exactly what would happen, where we needed to be, what needed to be put where, etc. She stayed with us, walking us through every step. It couldnt have gone any smoother. I was not stressed, the kids were happy, and we were through security in a total of about 10 minutes. Props to those agents...I will be making a call to let someone know how awesome they are doing!!!