Road Trip With A One Year Old

I'll admit that the comments on my pro/con list about whether to go visit my sister after her baby was born kind of bothered me. (Not to mention all the twitter comments.)

None of them were mean and I completely understand where everyone was coming from.

But it made me feel really defensive. I had good reasons not to go, but I felt like everyone was saying they were just silly or selfish reasons. Why wasn't it a major factor that we were going to be spending a lot more money than we had? Why wasn't strapping a screaming baby into a car seat against his will something I should take into consideration?

The plan was never to go to see the baby right away. My sister wasn't expecting us. We would be seeing him in December either way. Me not going wouldn't have been some major insult. The idea of going was a last minute crazy idea I had.

I just found myself so defensive....when in reality I was about 99% sure I was going so I was in agreement with them.

At the time I wrote that post, I already had reservations and an open suitcase that was half full.

But after reading the comments, I was defending the "con" list more and more in my head and I almost convinced myself we shouldn't go.

Adam read the pro/con list and started e-mailing me from work that we were not going. He was serious. Seeing it listed like that made him realize how big of a sacrafice going there would be.

I responded with, "But, did you see everyone's comments? We apparently HAVE TO GO! or we are the worst people ever." He pointed out that people don't know how precarious our financial situation is until we get our adoption tax credit...or how much Jayden really hates even short car rides.

I kept packing as Adam and I went back and forth about whether we should go. It was kind of one of those things that we knew wasn't a great idea, but we also knew deep down that we were going. By the time he got home from work, the suitcase was almost packed.

We left after work the next day.

It was definitely smart to leave in the evening. Adam drove and I sat in the back with Jayden. The first two hours were rough, but then once Jayden's bedtime hit, he fell asleep. He woke up a few times, realized he was strapped into his car seat, and screamed for a bit. Nothing huge, but I did feel awful wiping tears off his face. Poor little thing didn't understand what we were doing to him.

We got to the hotel about 12:30 AM. We checked into our room and saw there was no crib or pack-n-play like we had requested. I sent Adam back to the front desk and the man told him that it was in our paperwork, but nobody set it up and there wasn't anything they could do now because it was too late. I was so mad. They were well aware that we were arriving late and that we needed a crib.

Adam was exhausted and fell asleep pretty quick.

Meanwhile, Jayden, who had been sleeping for hours in the car, was WIDE AWAKE. It was like having a wild animal in our hotel room. Curtains were moving, lamps were shaking, snacks were all over the floor...and this little being was running all around yelling. Jayden and I hung out in the room until about 3 AM when I finally got him to settle down enough to get into bed with me. The bed was smaller than our bed at home so it was not a comfortable fit with all three of us in one bed. I was imagining all the things I was going to say to the front desk in the morning. (None of them were actually said.)

Morning comes and we get a call from my mom saying my dad is sick. Ugh.

Then she tells us that my sister is worried about the germs and she doesn't want us to see my parents at all before coming to see the baby. (We had breakfast plans with them.) It was a really bad start to the trip. At this point I was overtired, crying, and just wanted to go home.

But things got better once we went to my sister's apartment and Jayden got to meet his little cousin.

Although he was much more impressed with their cat!

He seemed to notice all his old baby stuff. And decided he could still use the bouncy seat.

"Mom, I wasn't done with this, why did you give it to the new baby?"

Me with both babies.

Adam with both babies.

It was really hard to believe that Jayden was ever that little. The only way I could believe it was because Ben was wearing Jayden's old clothes and they fit exactly how they used to fit Jayden.

I am thankful we were able to go and see Ben while he was so little, although my sister was still recovering from giving birth and getting the hang of breast feeding so it felt like we barely got to visit with her while we were there.

Adam, my Mom, Jayden, and I had a chance to get out of the apartment for a while to visit a zoo, which was fun.

Ahhhh...this is much more comfortable.

We had a lot of fun in the hotel pool, but I think Jayden's favorite part of the hotel was the other baby in the room.

The trip definitely had it's ups and downs and it wasn't exactly the smart choice financially, but I am glad we went.

One thing I learned was that road trips go much faster if you listen to a book on tape. I highly recommend Bossypants by Tina Fey!

Summer of Suck

We had a great time at the family dinner and the drive-in. I loved Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. We ended up staying to watch Dinner for Schmucks. We were going to leave, but I convinced Adam that we should stay and give it a chance. I was surprised at how much we ended up liking it. Whoever was responsible for making the commercials for that movie should be fired.

We got home around 1:30 AM. We are taking care of our neighbor's fish and getting their mail all week while they are on vacation. We had left for the dinner right after I finished work so I hadn't had a chance to go over there yet. I went when we got home and walked into a horror show. I won't share what I saw, but it was bad. I had nightmares about it all night.
The water is starting to look murky and let's just say they can't get home soon enough. I am scared to walk in that house again. It's really awkward because we don't know them that well and we have killed at least two fish. Maybe more depending on what I find at 5:30 today.

Anyway, after we dealt with the fish situation yesterday, we finally left for the waterpark. As we drove closer, the sky got darker.

When we got there, it was 68 degrees out and dark skies. We debated on whether it would be worth spending $40 to go in. We decided this was our only chance for the rest of the summer so we would go and make the best of it.

You may recall in my last post I said my favorite part about the waterpark was the deep end of the wave pool. We headed straight there and saw a sign saying: Deep End Closed. Uhm....WHAT? What do you mean closed? It's not like a ride that broke down. Why is it closed? We got in and as we went deeper we saw a rope going across so nobody could go into the deep end. I was pissed. We stood there with some of the most obnoxious unsupervised middle-school aged children for about a half hour and then decided to go to the lazy river. We went around it three times and then went home.

On the way home, I got a tweet sent to my phone that my sister wrote. It said my grandpa was starting hospice care. That was news to me.

We stopped at Best Buy so Adam could use a gift card he got for this birthday. A fire started. Two fire trucks, a couple ambulances, and a bunch of police cars came. I told Adam we needed to go home because clearly some bad luck was following us around.

My mom went to the nursing home and signed DNR paperwork for my grandpa this morning.

I do have to give this summer credit, it continues to find new and interesting ways to suck.

We have our home visit from our social worker tomorrow. Fingers crossed for no disasters.

Is it Fall yet?

Vacation Day, Take 2

Last week's attempt at enjoying a vacation day was a disaster. I spent the day crying.

This week we are going to try again.

After work today Adam and I are having dinner at my parents' house. My sister-in-law, who is in town from Portland, Oregon for a few days, will be there so I am excited to see her. (I wish my brother was able to come home with her.) My Aunt and Uncle will also be there.

After dinner Adam and I are going to the drive-in to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The second movie is Dinner for Schmucks, but I doubt we will end up staying for that one. We both had to get up very early for work this morning and if we stayed for two movies we wouldn't get home until after 1:30 AM. Also, based on the commercials, it does not look funny, which is sad because I typically enjoy Paul Rudd. (If you have seen it and it is funny, let me know. Maybe we will buy something with caffeine during intermission and try to stay up.)

Then tomorrow we are going to a water park!! It's not supposed to be very warm but I am determined to go since we missed out last week. There is nothing more fun for me than a day in water.

My favorite place in the park is the deep end of the wave pool. :)

Birthday Extravaganza

I never get a day off. Ever.

So, it was pretty exciting when I realized I only had one child scheduled on Adam's birthday and could work it out so I had the day off. (The child will be spending the day with her grandma.)

Starting at 5:30 today we are officially on vacation until Friday morning at 5:45 AM. (That's what time the kids arrive Friday mornings.)

SO EXCITING!

We are going to the drive-in tonight.

Then a waterpark tomorrow!!

Then dinner at Adam's favorite restaurant tomorrow night.

I have been feeling burnt out from all the long work hours this summer. (Not to mention homestudy renewal.) I really need this mini vacation!

Franklin Park Zoo

You've already met my friend the stork.

Here are some more of the animals I saw at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Wordless Wednesday: New England Aquarium

The aquarium is built around a huge 4 story coral reef tank. You walk up a ramp that takes you from the bottom of the tank all the way to the surface. My favorite part of the aquarium was when we got to the top of the tank. It was so cool to look down from the surface and see sea turtles, sand tiger sharks, barracuda, stingrays, moray eels and hundreds of colorful reef fishes moving around the tank. You can see one of the sharks in this picture.

If you are wondering what I was wondering, the reason the shark does not eat the fish in the tank is because in the wild this type of shark only eats every couple weeks and in the aquarium they are fed twice a day, so they are not hungry and have no interest in eating the other animals in the tank.

African Penguins

Little Blue Penguin (the smallest type of penguin)

Rockhopper Penguins

80 year old sea turtle

Japanese Sea Nettle

All photographs were taken by my sister Katie. Adam left our cameras plugged in and charging at our house, so we didn't have a camera on our trip. Katie was generous enough to be the photographer and share her pictures.

The Stork

I met a stork this past weekend. In fact, I ran into him just minutes after falling on pavement and cutting my knee open. I figured it was the universe's way of evening things out after the fall. My lucky day. I was finally getting to meet a stork in person.

I asked him where my baby is. I thought maybe there had been a shipping delay.

He wasn't very helpful.

I even took the time to read his sign to see if there was any fine print about baby deliveries.

No such luck. I guess I will keep waiting.

Road Trip!

After my sad post about how I can't possibly celebrate another childless Easter, we decided to go away this weekend!!!

We are leaving early tomorrow morning to go to Boston!

It's about a seven hour drive from here. We should get there sometime early tomorrow afternoon and we are coming back on Sunday. It's a short trip, but we have a lot of fun things planned. I'll tell you all about it when we get back!

Time to start packing!!

Easter

Easter is hard for me. Well, I should say being childless at Easter is hard for me.

All holidays are hard, but I feel like Easter is a holiday that really is for children. Easter baskets, egg hunts, coloring eggs, etc. There isn't a lot to do on Easter if you aren't a child and you don't have children. Especially if you don't go to church, and you don't eat ham, haha.

The first Easter I lived with Adam, I filled plastic eggs with candy and hid them all around our apartment. When he woke up he was surprised to find a whole Easter egg hunt just for him. I also bought us Easter baskets and filled his with candy and other surprises. It was fun for the first few years, but then I eventually just felt sad about not having children to do those things for.

Adam being a good sport and coloring eggs with me a few years ago.

Last year I didn't even take out our Easter decorations because it just made me too sad. I decorated eggs with the children I work with, but Adam and I didn't celebrate Easter at all. I told myself I just had to make it through that year and by next year we would have a baby and everything would be different.

Well, another year has gone by and still no baby.

Easter things started showing up in the grocery store a few weeks ago and it has gotten harder and harder to walk past those aisles. I walk by with a knot in my stomach. Hoping I don't cry right there in the store.

I took our Easter baskets out this year. I even bought a few things to fill Adam's basket with. Shh. Don't tell him. ;)

But, what I really want to do is run away. I have off on Friday and I was hoping we could go on a little trip somewhere. I know we don't have the money for it, but I would really like to get away. I have been hinting at it for the past month. It would only be for two or three days, but we've actually never taken a trip longer than three days, and that is really all I need to relax and come back a new person. I could really use that right now.

I think I am going to go do some research and daydream about going somewhere nice....