Travel Triumphs and Tribulations

My husband and I LOVE to travel. We were both bitten by the travel bug in early adulthood, and if we had our way, we'd be in a plane, train, or automobile probably 50% of the time. Having James has put a serious crimp in that part of our life. We tried some mini-vacas when he was still an infant. Results were mixed. While a trip to see G-squared was a success, a long-weekend with friends in Branson had us driving home at 10pm a day early. That one was so scarring that we haven't ventured more than an hour away from the house.

Don't get me wrong - there isn't a place out there that would make me give up my sweet son, but we do miss being able to take weekend trips. So we decided it was time to give it another chance. We figured we'll never make it on a 12-hour trip to the beach next year if we can't master this road trip concept. This past week we took a two-night trip to see my brother-in-law, about 6 hours away.

So, with Explorer packed, we set out. In an attempt to stave off temper tantrums, we planned carefully our route, stopping at the 2 hour mark for some entertainment.

We settled into the car after several hours at the zoo. We'd kinda skipped naptime, so we were thrilled when James crashed in his carseat. We woke him up in time to stop for dinner, and then continued on our merry way. I'd like to say that the remainder of the trip was blissful, but that would be a lie. The use of the word "NO!" was frequent from the back seat, and the DVD player was removed when a certain size-7 foot couldn't seem to stay away from the screen. But we made it without having to pull the car over for time-out. And not to worry - we were apprised of every single truck once the pint-sized-traveler was awake. ("Tuck! Biiig Tuck!")

The visit itself was great. James loved spending time with his uncle (and his uncle's dog), and we also got to catch up with one of Matt's friends from college and his GORGEOUS daughters. Other highlights from the trip included:

* James spontaneously calling the hogs after we'd pulled up behind a Tide-bedecked-minivan.

* Many, many "bus choo-choos." (This would be a bus, but he wished it was a choo-choo.)

* Old McDonald had a sea lion?

We made the return trip about 48 hours later with similar conditions. Were it not for the need to pull over a change a tire in the middle-of-nowhere Alabama, the trip home might have even been uneventful. Again, not that it was the picture of blissful patience from either the mother or the child, but it was certainly tolerable.

Why Hello There... Tales from Toddlerdom

Seing as no one really follows this blog (with the exception of maybe 2 friends), I'm not really sure to whom I'm saying hello. Maybe to the old me who thought "But of COURSE I can have a full time job, be a mom and wife, write a blog and find time for sleep." Maybe I'm saying hello again to the idea of capturing my sweet son's milestones. Or maybe I'm saying hello to the 20 minutes I have until the wash needs to move to the dryer. But either way - hello there!

It's been so long since I last wrote, I can't imagine summing up over a year of James' life. It's been the most precious journey for his daddy and I to take. Of course, I can say that now that he sleeps almost 12 hours a night (and sometimes lets us sleep until 8 am!). So let's just fast forward from that crazy blog about ear infections and move on to what's been going on lately.

We started the family staycation week on Saturday. I've been working some insane hours at work so when I say we started on Saturday... this was truly the beginning of more than just a weekend. To celebrate, we decided to visit downtown LR and do some fun touristy toddler things. We invited some of our besties along for the morning. So three adults, two toddlers, and a newborn trekked along down the steaming streets to the Peabody Hotel for the March of the Ducks.

If you've never been, the Peabody ducks march every day at 11 am from their "palace" to the fountain in the lobby.

I think James and Jane were enjoying just being out and about, but once they saw the ducks... well, this was suddenly a new level of fun.

As if the sight of several ducks strolling down a red carpet wasn't enough, we followed THAT up with a trip up 17 floors in a glass elevator. Let me tell you, if you have a toddler and live ANYWHERE near a building with such an amenity... this was way more exciting than the ducks. Heck, this might have been more exciting than lunch with the entire cast of Sesame Street. And it was free (shh! I bet the Peabody doesn't appreciate my brand of publicity). Unfortunately, no photos exist from that portion of the day. 'Cause if the two shrieking children weren't a dead giveaway that we had no business in the very nice elevator, two moms taking pictures would have been.

However, the fun didn't end there folks. Oh no - next we walked about a block toward the car and hopped on the River Market Trolley, where adults are $1 and children of the wee variety are free. Oh wait, did I say trolley? As James later corrected me "Choo-choo."

The day was going so well and the kids were having so much fun, we tried to draw out the enjoyment a little longer so we hit the end-all-be-all, God's-gift-to-lunch-for-kids restaurant in town and indulged the munchkins in some purple milkshakes, chicken fingers and grilled cheese.

Between the ducks, elevator, trolley, and milkshake, it was perhaps the perfect day for my sweet son. He got a chance to use many of his favorite words - duck, WHOA, choo-choo, mo'?... The number of squeals of delight cause my heart to fill over and over with happiness. Sharing it with our sweet goddaughter and James'-partner-in-crime (and her mama and brother) made it even better.

Hopefully, I can capture a little bit better the wonder of my sweet son's world in the coming days. I've been a total slacker on the whole documentation aspect this last year. But when you're trying to keep up with life... some things have to slide. I'd rather it be the blog than the experiences. :)