Road Lack of Rules
We went out of town yesterday. The “we” refers to the kids and me. Ellie was already out of town, and she was the entire reason we left home.
Ellie is a working mother, which means she works as hard as any other mother, but is paid for some of her work. Part of her work involves periodically traveling to surrounding areas on weekends, where a weekend is defined as Friday night through Monday morning. Depending on how the rest of her Friday and Monday goes, that can mean she goes almost four days straight without seeing the kids. I’d call that a vacation, but she tells me it’s hard to be away from them for so long. I take her word for it and try to see her on these weekends when possible.
I’ve stayed overnight with her before, which has given me horrific blogging material about minimal sleeping and cranky car rides. Yesterday we made it a daytrip; drive down the morning and back in the evening. That way instead of disrupting a weekend of childcare routines, we seriously disrupted one day of child routines. Our hope is they’ll adjust better with only one day away from routine, though it could just cause a major trauma to cram so much quality parental time into one day. Either way, I get all day Sunday to recuperate.
When the kids woke up, I rushed them through the morning routine to hit the road as early as possible. We made it out the door before the crack of 10am, putting us on target to meet momma for lunch. I hoped the boys would stay on routine and fall asleep an hour down the road, and stay asleep for an hour. They fell asleep before we left town, and woke shortly after leaving the exurbs. A fresh layer of snow on the highways and an emergency stop to fix the DVD player’s monitor slowed as a bit, but we still made it to momma before their hunger pains grew too audible.
Their regular lunch is yogurt and steamed vegetables. Yesterday’s lunch was fried chicken strips with French fries. As long as they never expect to eat like that again, I have no regrets.
I knew the afternoon nap would be difficult. We had an office to lay the kids down to sleep. I set the boys in their Pack ‘N Plays to sleep, but didn’t even try to make Abbie sleep. Since everyone was in the same room, her running around, screaming, and general testing of boundaries would keep the boys awake. Instead, we locked the boys in the office, let Abbie run outside the door, and prayed the boys wouldn’t remember the time we locked them in a strange office all alone.
The boys responded with their greatest nap in weeks, making me wish we had a new office to lock them in every day. Abbie found a drinking fountain, and passed the time by finding new ways to create puddles on the floor.
We picked up pizza for supper. Abbie normally won’t eat pizza, but we brought back a taco pizza so she could make a meal from the nacho chips sprinkled on top. The boys scrounged enough to eat from the cereal and Goldfish I packed, along with the occasional nacho chip Abbie shared, or at least left dangling within their reach.
We, again meaning the kids and me, left shortly after supper, intent on returning home in time for the bedtime routine. A missed afternoon nap left Abbie sleepy in spite of the nacho chips ravaging her system, and she fell asleep in the parking lot. She woke up at the stop sign just outside of town, but she caught enough sleep to stay pleasant for the ride home. Getting to watch the DVD player all the way home helped, and not having to stop to fix the monitor helped us return home sooner.
We returned home with enough time for a bath. The kids were in bed only marginally past their bedtime. They’ve been horrible today, but that’s just the pains of returning to a routine of regular naps and no fried foods. They’ll be pleasant again tomorrow, just in time to remind mamma how much she missed them.
Ellie is a working mother, which means she works as hard as any other mother, but is paid for some of her work. Part of her work involves periodically traveling to surrounding areas on weekends, where a weekend is defined as Friday night through Monday morning. Depending on how the rest of her Friday and Monday goes, that can mean she goes almost four days straight without seeing the kids. I’d call that a vacation, but she tells me it’s hard to be away from them for so long. I take her word for it and try to see her on these weekends when possible.
I’ve stayed overnight with her before, which has given me horrific blogging material about minimal sleeping and cranky car rides. Yesterday we made it a daytrip; drive down the morning and back in the evening. That way instead of disrupting a weekend of childcare routines, we seriously disrupted one day of child routines. Our hope is they’ll adjust better with only one day away from routine, though it could just cause a major trauma to cram so much quality parental time into one day. Either way, I get all day Sunday to recuperate.
When the kids woke up, I rushed them through the morning routine to hit the road as early as possible. We made it out the door before the crack of 10am, putting us on target to meet momma for lunch. I hoped the boys would stay on routine and fall asleep an hour down the road, and stay asleep for an hour. They fell asleep before we left town, and woke shortly after leaving the exurbs. A fresh layer of snow on the highways and an emergency stop to fix the DVD player’s monitor slowed as a bit, but we still made it to momma before their hunger pains grew too audible.
Their regular lunch is yogurt and steamed vegetables. Yesterday’s lunch was fried chicken strips with French fries. As long as they never expect to eat like that again, I have no regrets.
I knew the afternoon nap would be difficult. We had an office to lay the kids down to sleep. I set the boys in their Pack ‘N Plays to sleep, but didn’t even try to make Abbie sleep. Since everyone was in the same room, her running around, screaming, and general testing of boundaries would keep the boys awake. Instead, we locked the boys in the office, let Abbie run outside the door, and prayed the boys wouldn’t remember the time we locked them in a strange office all alone.
The boys responded with their greatest nap in weeks, making me wish we had a new office to lock them in every day. Abbie found a drinking fountain, and passed the time by finding new ways to create puddles on the floor.
We picked up pizza for supper. Abbie normally won’t eat pizza, but we brought back a taco pizza so she could make a meal from the nacho chips sprinkled on top. The boys scrounged enough to eat from the cereal and Goldfish I packed, along with the occasional nacho chip Abbie shared, or at least left dangling within their reach.
We, again meaning the kids and me, left shortly after supper, intent on returning home in time for the bedtime routine. A missed afternoon nap left Abbie sleepy in spite of the nacho chips ravaging her system, and she fell asleep in the parking lot. She woke up at the stop sign just outside of town, but she caught enough sleep to stay pleasant for the ride home. Getting to watch the DVD player all the way home helped, and not having to stop to fix the monitor helped us return home sooner.
We returned home with enough time for a bath. The kids were in bed only marginally past their bedtime. They’ve been horrible today, but that’s just the pains of returning to a routine of regular naps and no fried foods. They’ll be pleasant again tomorrow, just in time to remind mamma how much she missed them.
posted by Matt at
11:45 PM
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