Mattyphus
When the gods of ancient Greece were really mad at Sisyphus, possibly for committing some sort of celebrity-groping infraction before an ancient awards show, they devised the cruelest punishment they could imagine for him. They condemned him to spend eternity rolling an enormous boulder up a mountain, only to see it fall under its weight every time it neared the top. That’s not bad, but if the ancient gods were really devious, they would have doomed him to spending every weekend for eternity taking three-hour car trips to see his family with his 20-month-old and newborn twins in the back seat. I should know after doing just that this weekend. I mean traveling, not pushing a boulder.
Going back to see our families this weekend was not my first choice of activities. We knew we’d have to take the twins back eventually to let our extended families see the twins, I just hoped it would be around Thanksgiving, and when I say “Thanksgiving,” I mean “Thanksgiving of 2012.” I did not want to travel with our three young children, partly to prevent exposing the twins’ delicate immune system to potentially nasty diseases, and partially because I knew someone would scream at some point during the entire three-hour trip. Ellie’s grandfather’s recent health problems, though, necessitated moving the trip up to as soon as possible. He’s doing better now, so it’s not like he’s on death’s door, we think.
We started packing Friday night, paused briefly for sleep, and continued packing until the children woke, at which point we tag teamed feeding creatures and loading the car. Our original goal was to be on the road by 9am, and amazingly we only missed that goal by a few minutes. Possibly even more amazingly, everything you need to care for three small children for a weekend plus the children themselves fits into a Subaru.
The twins took the car ride better than I thought they would. Considering they had spent maybe 90 minutes in a car total in their entire lives, they did very well, sleeping most of the trip. Entertaining Abbie was the bigger problem since she’s too big to sleep in the car unless we really want her to stay awake. At first we tried playing her music CD, but that only worked for so long, specifically through nine repetitions of “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad.” We tried handing her toys, but the only entertainment she derived from them was by throwing them. After a lot of complaining and a little nap that was just long enough to ensure it was her only nap of the day, we arrived at our destination,
We stayed in one place all weekend, letting family come to us. On Sunday morning we packed up and headed home. We were smart enough to let Abbie watch a movie on the laptop on the return trip, something she periodically enjoyed. With important football on the radio, I had hoped to commandeer the stereo to listen to a game, but I needed to keep her CD playing because Abbie liked to randomly alternate between the movie and the music, and heaven help us if one wasn’t there when she wanted it.
We returned home exhausted from the car ride and stinky from having not showered since Friday. It was a good feeling to show the twins off to family for the first time, and who probably won’t have another chance to see them for months. Hopefully our next extended car ride will be around the holidays when the twins will be old enough to enjoy that portable car DVD player that you can bet we’re going to buy before then.
Going back to see our families this weekend was not my first choice of activities. We knew we’d have to take the twins back eventually to let our extended families see the twins, I just hoped it would be around Thanksgiving, and when I say “Thanksgiving,” I mean “Thanksgiving of 2012.” I did not want to travel with our three young children, partly to prevent exposing the twins’ delicate immune system to potentially nasty diseases, and partially because I knew someone would scream at some point during the entire three-hour trip. Ellie’s grandfather’s recent health problems, though, necessitated moving the trip up to as soon as possible. He’s doing better now, so it’s not like he’s on death’s door, we think.
We started packing Friday night, paused briefly for sleep, and continued packing until the children woke, at which point we tag teamed feeding creatures and loading the car. Our original goal was to be on the road by 9am, and amazingly we only missed that goal by a few minutes. Possibly even more amazingly, everything you need to care for three small children for a weekend plus the children themselves fits into a Subaru.
The twins took the car ride better than I thought they would. Considering they had spent maybe 90 minutes in a car total in their entire lives, they did very well, sleeping most of the trip. Entertaining Abbie was the bigger problem since she’s too big to sleep in the car unless we really want her to stay awake. At first we tried playing her music CD, but that only worked for so long, specifically through nine repetitions of “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad.” We tried handing her toys, but the only entertainment she derived from them was by throwing them. After a lot of complaining and a little nap that was just long enough to ensure it was her only nap of the day, we arrived at our destination,
We stayed in one place all weekend, letting family come to us. On Sunday morning we packed up and headed home. We were smart enough to let Abbie watch a movie on the laptop on the return trip, something she periodically enjoyed. With important football on the radio, I had hoped to commandeer the stereo to listen to a game, but I needed to keep her CD playing because Abbie liked to randomly alternate between the movie and the music, and heaven help us if one wasn’t there when she wanted it.
We returned home exhausted from the car ride and stinky from having not showered since Friday. It was a good feeling to show the twins off to family for the first time, and who probably won’t have another chance to see them for months. Hopefully our next extended car ride will be around the holidays when the twins will be old enough to enjoy that portable car DVD player that you can bet we’re going to buy before then.
posted by Matt at
10:07 PM
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