5:10am, the alarm goes off, I lift myhead to find myself sandwiched betweeen my husband and my daughter.  Sneaky little girl, crawled right on in without being detected.  'Oh well', I thought as I turned over and snuggled closer to David.  I only have a few more minutes with him before its time to take him to the airport.  I stayed in bed just a little longer before I knew I had to start getting ready.  I had dressed the kids last night before putting them to bed.  'Smart', I thought, 'one less thing I have to tackle this morning.  I sluggishly made my way to the bathroom and just stared in the mirror as I thought, 'wow, the day is here.'  I cracked the bathroom door open and peeked out into our bedroom.  'How cute,' I observed, as I  saw him sleeping there with our daughter.  I popped back into the bathroom and started to get ready.

In what seemed a few minutes later, the bathroom door swung open and David walked in, "We've got to be out of here in  20 minutes," he tells me, as he heads for the shower.  I looked at my watch, 5:55am, "OK," I said as I finished up.  Now the clock was ticking.  I walk over to our bed and try to wake our daughter.  She's not in a good mood- who is when you're awakened from a nice slumber?  "Wake up," I request, "we've got to take Papi (pronounced poppy) to the airport," I add.  I pick her up and carry her downstairs to the couch.  "Go potty, while I fix you breakfast," I say to her.  "I don't have to go," she says annoyed. 

I'm running around the kitchen pulling items out of the fridge and the pantry.  "Gotta make the bottle, let me throw those waffles in the toaster oven," I say to myself.  "Gotta make somes eggs, Oh let me pull out the lunches, let me cook some sausages...", I continue.  I keep going like some kind of wind up toy.  David comes into the kitchen,"We've got to go," he states.  "I haven't even gotten the baby up yet," I respond.  Now I'm racing, "Ariana, you're going to have to eat breakfst in the car," I announce to her.  "No, I don't want to!" she declares.   Here we go, I think.  I try to explain to her why we have to go and how it's ok to eat in the car, as I'm throwing breakfast in tupperware containers.  "No, I don't want to," she keeps saying in a groggy but determined voice.  "Ok, keep your cool Marta,"I say to myself.  "You don't have a choice," I inform her.  "Now go potty before we go," I request again.  "I already did," she snaps.  (I forgot to mention that my daughter is 4 going on 13, and reasoning is a new challenge- Do you need another ground crew member, Pete?)  I take a deep breath and reach for my coat.   

Meanwhile, David has taken everything  that had to go to the SUV and has made his way to our son Javier's room to do a quick diaper change.  I take Javier's coat to his room, "Put her in the car," David instructs, as I hand him the coat.  I run down the stairs, throw Ariana's coat and shoes on and rush her out the door.  I strap her in and hop in my seat,.  As I twist to buckle my seatbelt, I look over to the back seat as David places Javier in the vehicle.  "You didn't put his coat on?" I ask stunned.  "We don't have time," he says.  "He'll be fine, he's only outside for 2 seconds," he justifies.  I glance at the digital thermometer in the car, a crispy 34 degrees (F) it reads. "Poor thing, " I thought as I put his legs into the bottom portion of his snowsuit.

And we're off!   I start feeling chilly and notice that the air conditioning is on so I turn up the heat.  "You're hot?" David asks as he turns the temp down to 64 degrees (F).  Apparently David's mind is already in Mexico and our bodies haven't caught  up, I explain to myself.  I turn and throw a blanket on Javier's lap.  "I'm cold," Ariana informs.  Shortly after that, David looks at the car temperature, "It's 34 degrees (F)?" he asks as he increases the heat.  "I don't know why I feel so hot," he says baffled. 

I sit back in my seat and catch my breath.  We've been on the road for about 1o minutes when our daughter starts making whining sounds.  "What's the matter?" David inquires.  "I gotta go pee-pee," she says as she rocks back and forth.   "...Why didn't you go at home?" David bursts.  "Ariana, you told me you already went when I asked you," I added.  "I forgot," she says in a tiny voice.  "There's no where to stop, you're going to have to hold it til we get to the airport," we each say.  She sits back quietly as if to focus on not having an accident.  David presses on, he's a man on a mission.  His eyes are fixed on the road ahead. 

About 30 minutes later, we pull into the airport .  David yields to the departure lane, "You're going to have to drop me off," he says, as if he was answering the question I hadn't asked.  "We'll have to say good-bye here," he divulges, as he quickly pulls up in fornt of the Delta entrance.  "We have time, " I insist, looking at the clock.  It was 6:50am, he wasn't due to depart until 7:50am.  "There's not even a line," I add.  He looks at me as if to say I understand you really want to see me in.  He takes a breath and says, "Stay here, I'll go and check in, I'll be back."  he grabs his bags and heads into the airport. 

I sit back and watch as he whips through to the Delta counter.  I anxiously watch as he moves about.  David comes back to the car and I open my door.  "Sorry I parked next to that water," he says and I look down to see a big puddle.  "I've got to go," he says breaking it to me gently.  "I made breakfast for you," I inform him as he reaches to help me over the puddle.  "Why didn't you tell me?" he replies.  "I would have eaten it as I drove.  I've go to go now." he adds.  I wanted breakfast to be a nice surprise.  I had hoped that we would have had some time to sit and enjoy a few minutes witht he kids before he left.  I had no time to respond as he went to say goodbye to the kids.  "I should have had you take Ariana to the bathroom while I was in there," he states.  Poor Ariana, with all the hustle and bustle we hadn't taken her in to relieve herself.  She mus t have been too busy watching her Daddy  get ready to go that she didn't remind me.  "I'll take her at my mom's," I said. I don't think she can wait," he says.  I agree, my mom only lives 10 minutes away but this child has been waiting quietly for a while.  I give him a hug and kiss goodbye.  I got in the car wishing  I had had that time in the airport with him and the kids.  I slowly pulled out and watched as he went through the security checkpoint.  I felt bad that he didn't get to eat breakfast but consoled with the fact that he had the lunch I made him- three PB&J sandwiches,  a slice of banana bread, 3 apples, oatmeal cookies,  3 granola bars, chocolate chip cookies and a variety of sweetart candies.  (Ok, so it was alot more than lunch.)  I'm so proud of him I thought as I slowly drove away. 

"Mami (pronunced mommy), I got to go pee-pee," Ariana pleas.  I assure her that I'll get her to the restroom and I take off on my own race.  The race against nature calling in the backseat of my SUV.  I loop around the airport anmd park in the closest spot I could find.  At this point my daughter is chanting that she's got to go.  "Ok, honey, I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying," I inform her.  I jump out of the driver's seat and get ready to grab Javier from the back seat.  "Ah man!," I exclaim.  He doesn't have his snowsuit on.  We never completed the task.  I begin to put his feet in the snowsuit, the wind is picking up and I think, 'why did I wear a skirt today?'.  I decide that it's too cold to put his coat on while I stand outside the door so I climb into the back seat and shut the door.  Meanwhile, Ariana has unfastened herself and is now doing the tribal pee-pee dance.  "I'm hurrying honey," I keep telling her.  Got it- I zipped up Javier's snowsuit and pull the handle to open the door but it won't open.  "Sh_t!, I've child locked myself in the backseat with a squirming 16mos old and a 4 year old who's about to let herself go!  I grab Javier under my arm like a football and crawl over the center console to the driver seat.  I get out and rush to the back to grab Ariana.  We make a mad dash to the airport entrance.  Javier is slipping from my arms as I try to make my way through the crosswalk  while holding Ariana's hand.  Boy, you must weigh 40 lbs, I think to myself as I shift his weight in my arms and continue jogging in my heels.  We make it into the airport and through the restroom doors and it dawns on me, I fogot the stroller!  Where am I going to put him while I help Ariana?  Too late now, I press on.  We get in a stall and I grab Ariana with one arm, as I hold Javier with the other and I plop her down.  Yeah!! Mission accomplished- No potty accidents in the car or on her clothes!

While Ariana gets washed up, I give David a call on the cell.  "Where are you?," I ask hoping that he'd be somewhere in the airport where we could see him.  "I'm getting ready to board," he responds.  I felt an instance of disappointment as we spoke briefly.  "I'll call you later," he said and then hung up.  Suddenly I realized, 2.5 months is a long time.  "I'm going to miss him," I thought as I walked back to the car with the kids.