We sent several pictures of ourselves at the airport to our families, but for some reason couldn't manage to satisfy Oaklyn and Ireland. I sent a picture of the boys and they wanted to know where Zoë was. I sent a picture of me with all the kids and they wanted to know where Andrew was. I sent a picture of Andrew and they wanted to know if he was traveling alone or whether we were still with him. So we tried to get everyone in this selfie:They were particularly upset about Zoë (anew) because they had recently had a babysitter watch them while Rosie and Austin went out for their anniversary and the last time (which was also the first time) they had this babysitter is when Zoë had been staying with them. They wanted to know why she couldn't come help babysit them again and Rosie reminded them that Zoë was moving far away to another country, which was...the truth...but also possibly the wrongest thing to tell them in that moment because it resulted in a bit of a crying, screaming meltdown from Ireland as she mourned (anew) Zoë's departure. Just in time for the babysitter. Spectacular.Anyway, we managed to get everyone in a photo for Oaklyn and Ireland to prove we were all accounted for. Except for Miriam, who is coming later. And Rachel, who isn't coming at all. At least we will see Miriam in a few days!*****Our flight left around 10:00 PM, which Phoebe felt was rather late. By the time we were boarding, she was very excited to get into her fancy little pod so she could go to sleep on the plane. Unfortunately for everyone, they insisted on feeding us dinner before getting our beds ready. Phoebe was cheerful throughout this flight, and also rather talkative. She wasn't afraid to tell the flight attendants what was what. And what Phoebe thought was that it was ludicrous to offer her dinner so long after her bedtime. When they came by to take her order she said, "What? I can't have dinner now! It's dark outside! It's past my bedtime!""You are a growing child!" the flight attendant gasped with affected concern. "You need to eat something!""Well then...ice cream!" Phoebe announced pointing to the offered ice cream from the dessert menu (super fun that she can read well enough to navigate the menu). Realizing she should probably also choose something "healthy," Phoebe quickly added, "And an orange!"This time she pointed to a picture of an orange from their information section boasting about their local Turkish ingredients. They don't actually have oranges just sitting around on the plane for fancy-schmancy first-class babies to request apparently."How about a fruit cup?" the attendant suggested and then said to me, "Is it fine? If your baby just eats dessert? Is it fine?""Yes. She already had dinner," I explained. "She'll be fine with just dessert before bed."And she was! Here are the rest of their kids in their little pods:They were all sprinkled throughout the business class cabin. I sat right beside Phoebe, Andrew sat behind Phoebe and Alexander was across the aisle, then Zoë and Benjamin were in window seats on either side of the plane at the very back of our section. I only checked on them a couple of times (to make sure they were settling in well and then to tell them to stop watching movies already and get some shut-eye) but the flight attendants would give me updates when they came by.It was the best sleep I've ever had on a plane.Even Phoebe slept soundly once she managed to fall asleep. Morning seemed to come almost too soon! But here's Phoebe with her lovely breakfast and a few of her puppies looking on:It's once again fruit-heavy, but she also has some bread, some vegetables, a chia pudding, and chicken breast. And then a second course of pancakes. So it was substantial!She enjoyed the colouring app on the plane screens:Our layover in Türkiye was so long (4 hours) that we didn't have an assigned gate when we arrived (but unfortunately was not so long that we were able to leave the airport to explore), so we ended up wandering around while we tried to decide where we should go. We didn't know what end of the airport we'd need to be at for our next flight so really weren't sure what to do. And then I saw a playground icon on a sign. "Let's go there!" I suggested. It was as good of a destination as anything, so we started following the playground signs, noting restrooms, drinking fountains, and food facilities as we went. The playground was a very popular destination, as it turns out! There were lots of little children from all over the place gathered there!Like many other airport playgrounds I've seen (but by no means all airport playgrounds I've seen), this playground was airport themed. They had an air traffic control tower, an airplane, and a little cloud-themed structure.It took a little convincing to make Alexander believe the playground wasn't just for little kids (all the signs stated the intended ages were between 4 and 12 and he fits quite snuggly within that range), but I think he had fun once he joined us!Once we had (a) gotten all (or most) of our wiggles out and (b) been assigned a gate we headed to our gate to play on our new favourite virtual playground: Stardew Valley. Zoë and Alexander had a little spat because Zoë "started" a collective dance before Alexander arrived and then he couldn't join in because he was late...and he was livid. I know nothing about this game, but the whole thing sounded very "ten virgins." I interrupted their actual in-person squabbling and reminded them of airplane etiquette and asked them whether they thought everyone around them wanted to hear their raised voices (and whether this would even matter in 5 years...or 5 minutes). They agreed to tone things down a bit and temper their voices so they could keep playing. But that did not end their fight!"Hey!" Andrew tattled and reprimanded a few minutes later. "They're writing mean notes to each other! Guys—stop writing mean notes to each other!"At that point they agreed to be civil in verbal, written, and every other silent or non-silent communication strategy (including facial expressions) under threat of having their computers packed up early should either parent even catch a whiff of aggression. Here's Andrew setting Phoebe up for a few minutes of Minecraft time (he's really rocking those pink headphones):And here's a view of the ceiling, which we thought was interesting:"Is this the same airport we stopped at when we flew back to the states from Egypt?" I asked Andrew. "Because I do not remember it being this nice!"We literally had to park ourselves on the floor of some random hallway because there were no available seats to be found. Certainly there was no playground. All the signage had been greatly improved..."I suppose it has been nearly 20 years since then," I pointed out after we discussed all the changes we'd noticed. Surely the airport had made improvements in that time, so it made sense that it was so different.In fact, it's a completely different airport and is only 7 years old. We would have flown through Atatürk Airport in 2010. Whatever the case, all three times I've been in the Istanbul Airport this year I have been impressed by the facility (because my earlier experiences in Istanbul left me...wanting...a little bit).One small improvement they could make is to renegotiate their policy on the electric buggies they have zipping around. I've seen these as plenty of airports and I understand and appreciate their existence and the need for them and everything. But...in other airports buggies are a little more courteous than they were in Istanbul. Like, if a buggy is behind you in other places they might honk their horn a couple of times to nudge you out of the way but they will definitely slow down and not run you over. The same cannot be said of the buggies in Istanbul. They will plow you down (and glare at you while doing so). So just remember that they have the right of way, not you. Keep your head on a swivel, as it were. (I warned our party about this beforehand since I'd already experienced those speedy buggies a couple of times in May).On this trip, I had one close call with Phoebe, making a heroic (and awkward) effort to heft her, the suitcase she was pushing, and my own suitcase out of the way of a far-too-rapidly incoming buggy while also trying to warn my family ahead of me (all also burdened with suitcases) to jump out of they way. And, boy, was that buggy driver angry.And then Andrew took her to the restrooms just by gate D4...technically I took her first but the ladies' line was super long so I brought her back to the gate and had Andrew take her to the men's room instead...and there's like this...underground tunnel thing...that is clearly just for the buggies but you have to walk in front of it to get to the restrooms...if that makes sense?Anyway, they were just coming out of the restroom hallway when Phoebe ripped her hand out of Andrew's and took off running to the rest of us. She tripped into the path of a(n) (once again way-too-rapidly) oncoming buggy, which slowed down moderately while while she was picking herself off the floor (thank goodness). But then...I don't know what the driver was thinking because she's clearly very small? But they sped up again as soon as she had stood up and she wasn't even walking anywhere yet...she was just disoriented because she'd tripped. So Andrew had to yank her out of the way and...it was honestly a little scary to watch. But other than that the airport was really very nice!Here are the kids ready to board (and excited because we'd just figured out that we all got to be in business class together instead of having some of us in economy):Here's Phoebe looking out at our plane before boarding:And here's Zoë with some planes behind her (from Türkiye and Lebanon): Zoë and I were seated in row 1 and the boys were just behind us in row 2. Here they are settling (kind of) into their seats:I didn't realize it when I snapped this picture (because I was just taking it to document what the seats looked like), but they boys were actually in the middle of a fight (emotions were a little (and increasingly) fragile for some of us over the course of this journey). Alexander had wanted the window seat so he could take pictures of clouds and he thought Benjamin had agreed to this. Benjamin agreed that he agreed to switch seats with Alexander in the middle of the flight so that they could equitably share the window...but he thought that he had agreed to having the window seat for the first half of the flight, allowing Alexander to view Doha as we landed. But that wasn't what Alexander wanted. I told Benjamin that the way he described the deal he wanted Alexander to take sounded so good (he had me convinced about the merits of the deal) that that was the end of the deal he should take, simply giving Alexander what he wanted.So that's what they ended up doing and things were mostly fine...except that our takeoff was delayed for nearly an hour due to "technical problems" so by the time we took off it was getting dark and Alexander missed getting to take pictures of the clouds. Bummer.Phoebe was upset that we were just sitting on the plane, but I told her that they were welcome to take as long as they wanted to resolve any technical issue they encountered because I would much rather fly in a sound aircraft than a shoddy one. But it did delay our dinner...which made her feel a little grumpier than she otherwise might have felt. And I couldn't even get the snacks I packed because since I was in row 1 we didn't have any under seat storage, which meant everything was in the overhead bins. And the seatbelt light was on the whole time. And the flight attendants were...not as...eager to please...as the flight attendants had been on our first flight of the day.In fact, they were pretty miserable to have around, honestly. We didn't dare disobey them. And even when we tried to obey them they were a little bit overzealous in their duties, I think. Like, you know when the school bell rings and students start to gather up their things so they can get to wherever they need to be next (whether class or bus or home or whatever) and then the teacher growls out, "The bell doesn't dismiss you. I do!"Or something like that. Surely that's a fairly universal experience (I say...when half my children haven't ever attended school). Anyway, we didn't dare disobey the seatbelt sign while we were waiting for repairs to be made. And then we took off and the flight was just fine...though the food was scary. Prawn salad did not go over well with our traveling circus. Phoebe mostly just ate bread (though in all fairness, I think she tried the prawn, which is more than I can say for anyone else).They neglected to bring Zoë anything (in business class!) so she couldn't even pick around the prawns (but then again Zoë didn't mention to the flight attendant that she had been missed though you'd think that in business class they'd notice if not during the salad course then at least during the main course...which was a bit better than the salad course, though still very...regional (as the menu extolled)). Anywho...when we landed in Doha and Phoebe realized that she was going to miss her old home and started crying...wait! I forgot to tell you that Phoebe thought it would be "cool" to stay up for the whole flight. Her words. "Wouldn't it be cool if I stayed awake the whole flight?!""I actually kind of think it would be cool if you napped for a little while," I said. "Because I'm a little tired.""Don't worry!' she said. "I'll keep you up!"And...she did. And it was...fine. She mostly watched movies ('Shrek Forever After' and 'Sing') while I read my book (The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion). She'd poke me whenever I'd accidentally (or purposefully) doze off. It was...so neat. Every day we've been here she's reminded me that she stayed awake that whole time and asks me to validate how "cool" that was.So, so cool.It's not every day you get to stay up all night. I actually told her this because she was so convinced it was so cool that she thought maybe she could just do it every night. She loves crafting hypotheticals (and then when her older siblings tell her something like that could never happen she responds, "But if it could..." or "But imagine if it could...") and she often does so in...meme-talk? Or like...a script?"Imagine I stay up all night every night!" she'll say. Then she'll say something like...Nighttime: Comes.Me: Stays awake. But she says the whole thing, like, "Nighttime: comes. Me: Stays awake. Wouldn't that be awesome?""I don't think it would really be that great to stay awake every night...""But if I did," she said. "That would be cool, right?""I don't know that I'd call it cool...""But it would be a little bit cool. Oh! What if I did a pattern like, one night: sleep, next night: stay up, next night: sleep, next night: stay up? Maybe something like that!""I'm pretty sure you'd get too tired doing that.""I'm not tired now!""Agree to disagree."Two tremendous meltdowns would convince me that she was, in fact, tired, even if she remained unaware of her tiredness herself. The second was the meltdown she had when we arrived in Doha and had to put everything we were carrying through the x-ray machine again...including her baby doll (Anastasia). There were big tears over that whole situation.The first was the sudden and terrific crash out about missing her old home (completely valid but surprisingly volatile). I wanted to pick her up and comfort her right away because, as I said, her rush of emotions was completely valid given the circumstances (old home to new home, a full day of traveling, making the unwise decision to stay awake the entire flight, etc), but I was afraid of the flight attendants so I just tried to comfort her in her seat—they were staring right at us! We were in row 1, remember. And their jump seats were right there in front of us. So, like, you'd think they could have acted with, um, compassion...maybe? Such an attribute was completely absent among this flight crew. When they made the announcement about remaining in seats until the airplane had come to a complete stop and the seatbelt light had turned off they were...extra stern. Like threatening international court and banning people from airlines should anyone defy them. Maybe they had also had a long day of work? And I get it because people always unbuckle early. But seriously, these ladies had been so surly the whole flight that not a soul got up before the seat belt sign turned off. I didn't hear the click-click-clatter that one usually hears after the plane lands as it's taxiing the gate. It was silent. We were a well-behaved class!And then we came to a complete stop. Everyone felt the lurch as momentum halted. Everyone heard the engine powering down (szhooom). Everyone watched the seatbelt sign with bated breath. We were so well-behaved!The seatbelt sign turned off.click-click-clatterI unbuckled my seatbelt, unlatched Phoebe's seatbelt for her (she was absolutely sobbing), and pulled her into my arms. Zoë appeared beside us, anxious not to get off the plane but to be by her mother after sitting next to a perfect stranger the entire flight (as the flight attendants well knew) and not getting any dinner (as they may have innocently overlooked). And the aisle filled with other passengers all within seconds. We were a well-behaved class...but we people get antsy about disembarking planes, okay? They're not the most fun way to travel (especially for those crammed in at the back). "RETURN TO YOUR SEATS!" the surliest flight attendant barked. "NOW! EVERYONE BACK TO YOUR SEATS! SEATBELTS BACK ON! YOU WILL GET UP WHEN I SAY TO GET UP AND NOT BEFORE!"I was like, "What is even happening??!?"So I quickly sat down in my seat (with Phoebe in my lap) and pulled Zoë down into Phoebe's seat where she shakily put on the seat belt. It was...surreal. But we eventually got off the plane and made it through the airport and security and all the way to our hotel. And so far it's pretty incredible to be here!