"Every day will be like a road trip... with your dad!"
Abbie and I took a road trip today. An infant road trip differs from the college road trip in that instead of spreading beer-fueled mayhem, we spread formula-fueled joy and general grumpiness. The huge volume of cargo is similar, except we carried various baby paraphernalia (diapers, books, millions of Tasteeos) instead of various college paraphernalia (i.e., beer). We drove to Omaha to meet my mother for her birthday.
Traveling with Abbie by car can be quite challenging. For short trips up to about 30 minutes, she just needs to be kept content, which I can easily accomplish by putting a toy in her lap before leaving, playing her Sesame Street CD, or putting down the windows. The main challenge on short trips is keeping her awake. If she falls asleep, even for five minutes, she may not take her next regular nap, meaning she’ll be tired, cranky, and wide-awake for hours, while I’ll miss valuable internet time that I should’ve benefited from during her nap.
Car rides longer than 30 minutes start getting tricky. No one activity will keep her entertained for that long, so I have to keep reaching into her diaper bag and stretch from the driver’s seat to the back seat to hand her new toys. This is only a stopgap measure, though, since each new toy lasts only about half as long as the previous one, so she’ll stay content for 20 minutes, then 10, then 5, and so on until the only entertainment she derives from a toy is to see how quickly she can banish it from her sight. At this point I can start handing her Tasteeos one at a time as long as I don’t mind cranking my arm backwards into the back seat and holding it there until she grasps her ring of dried oats.
Once the trip hits at least an hour, then she can nap provided I timed the trip correctly. Timing a car ride so she can nap is a multifaceted process that involves planning the arrival so it coincides with the end of her nap, at which point she expects a meal, and you will suffer if she doesn’t get it promptly. Timing trips to coincide with naps means that there are currently two and only two small windows to leave every day. Car naps are a wonderful time when I can stop the Sesame Street CD’s endless repeat and divert my attention from entertaining Abbie to more relaxing and less important activities, like driving. The only danger is if she wakes up early and expects her meal. This usually doesn’t happen as long as I avoid loud noises along with starts and stops, meaning I will sometimes drive a little longer than necessary on the interstate just to keep her asleep. A little extraneous gas is a small price to pay for a fully rested baby.
Today’s trip to Omaha* took slightly more than two hours, which is about the upper limit of her car tolerance. The ride combined entertaining and napping, a complex combination that required the full application of my college degree to implement. Fortunately I learned much about road trips in college.
* Our final destination was Village Pointe, a new upscale outdoor mall that’s pretentious enough to warrant its superfluous “e.” While I’m sure an outdoor mall is very pleasant during the two non-contiguous months of nice weather Omaha enjoys every year, I did not enjoy it with today’s cold and wind.
Traveling with Abbie by car can be quite challenging. For short trips up to about 30 minutes, she just needs to be kept content, which I can easily accomplish by putting a toy in her lap before leaving, playing her Sesame Street CD, or putting down the windows. The main challenge on short trips is keeping her awake. If she falls asleep, even for five minutes, she may not take her next regular nap, meaning she’ll be tired, cranky, and wide-awake for hours, while I’ll miss valuable internet time that I should’ve benefited from during her nap.
Car rides longer than 30 minutes start getting tricky. No one activity will keep her entertained for that long, so I have to keep reaching into her diaper bag and stretch from the driver’s seat to the back seat to hand her new toys. This is only a stopgap measure, though, since each new toy lasts only about half as long as the previous one, so she’ll stay content for 20 minutes, then 10, then 5, and so on until the only entertainment she derives from a toy is to see how quickly she can banish it from her sight. At this point I can start handing her Tasteeos one at a time as long as I don’t mind cranking my arm backwards into the back seat and holding it there until she grasps her ring of dried oats.
Once the trip hits at least an hour, then she can nap provided I timed the trip correctly. Timing a car ride so she can nap is a multifaceted process that involves planning the arrival so it coincides with the end of her nap, at which point she expects a meal, and you will suffer if she doesn’t get it promptly. Timing trips to coincide with naps means that there are currently two and only two small windows to leave every day. Car naps are a wonderful time when I can stop the Sesame Street CD’s endless repeat and divert my attention from entertaining Abbie to more relaxing and less important activities, like driving. The only danger is if she wakes up early and expects her meal. This usually doesn’t happen as long as I avoid loud noises along with starts and stops, meaning I will sometimes drive a little longer than necessary on the interstate just to keep her asleep. A little extraneous gas is a small price to pay for a fully rested baby.
Today’s trip to Omaha* took slightly more than two hours, which is about the upper limit of her car tolerance. The ride combined entertaining and napping, a complex combination that required the full application of my college degree to implement. Fortunately I learned much about road trips in college.
* Our final destination was Village Pointe, a new upscale outdoor mall that’s pretentious enough to warrant its superfluous “e.” While I’m sure an outdoor mall is very pleasant during the two non-contiguous months of nice weather Omaha enjoys every year, I did not enjoy it with today’s cold and wind.
posted by Matt at
10:50 PM
4 Comments:
How is the Village Pointe? You'll never catch me east of 132nd street.
By
Anonymous, at 9:20 AM
I didn't think Village Pointe was anything special. It's probably the embodiment of every reason why you'll never go past 132nd street.
By
Matt, at 10:18 PM
Actually, now that I pull my head out from a dark place, I go up to 144th street all the time. I was there last night in fact; AMC's theatre is up there. Omaha is one of five theatres nationwide chosen to get a screen converted to the IMAX format. Too bad it won't be in time for SW:E3. Dude, if you had some time we should have gone to see E3; do you have any good theatres in DM?
By
Anonymous, at 7:52 AM
Well Mr/Ms facilitator, we have several theaters in DM, or at least in the suburbs. Whether or not they're good depends on your definition of "good." There are brand new theaters in the suburbs that are usually pretty crowded. We have a pretty good independent theater/cafe. The theater at Merle Hay Mall is the biggest in the area, seating something like 500. The new science center has Des Moines's first IMAX theater, but they just play educational movies (psssht).
By
Matt, at 10:46 PM
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