Car rides

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Car Convos

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I’ve been spending a lot of time solo with E in the car, which means we’ve been having some good conversations. A few days ago I had my GPS on (which isn’t unusual for me - with so many distractions in my life I like the reminders on where to go) and he was telling me how he likes to hold up fingers for G, so G knows how many minutes until we arrive at our destination.

I told him that was really nice, and that it must be hard being little and not knowing how long we’d be in the car for or where we were going. Following that thought, I decided to ask him a question I’ve seen a lot of people asking their kids lately: “What’s the hardest part of being a kid?”

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A Dark Car Ride Home

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There are times, and today is one of them, where I look around and I’m so thankful and over the moon happy for this family that I have. Pinch my arm because I’m not sure how I got this lucky, happy. Not all days are like this, of course, and if I’m being honest the whole day didn’t even feel like this. But it ended well, and so as I’m sitting in the dark with a baby that’s almost asleep, I’m holding on to that feeling.

Most days I’m just spinning in circles trying to do damage control and make sure at least the majority of the children are fed and not crying. My mental to do list is constant and never ending, and when I collapse in bed at the end of the day (or the start of the next day? Trust me it’s late) I don’t have a lot of time to think about where we are in life.

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Road Trip

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We recently took a long trip in our car (more on that later) and it was the longest that G has ever been in the car in his entire life. I was worried it might not go well, of course. When you’re that young it’s easy to not be hyperbolic when you say something is the worst thing you’ve ever experienced. It literally could be. And it would be easy to see how being trapped in a car for a long period of time, when it had never happened before, being one of those times.

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Our Weekend

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I have a bunch of posts in draft right now, but I’m having a hard time expressing how I’m feeling at this point in quarantine. My head is in a fog, my feelings change by the day or by the hour, and so expressing it coherently is a struggle.

So I won’t.

Not today.

Instead I’ll tell you about our weekend. We didn’t really do anything, of course. We never do, but it was okay just the same. We went outside and got dirty and did some cooking in the kitchen, although not as much as we have been doing lately. I think the only thing E helped with was pancakes. He’s getting excited about his birthday, and cannot wait to have cake. Which means I need to get his cake from a hypothetical vision in my head to something with a bit more of a plan to it.

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I'm a Car Expert Now

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So we’ve been dealing with some car drama since Thanksgiving.

I remember when I was younger thinking that adults knew everything. They always knew what to do, and how to fix things, and I couldn’t wait until I did too. And then you get older and realize no one really knows what they’re doing. Everyone makes mistakes, new situations are always scary, and all we can do is try to build upon past experiences, our own manufactured confidence, and research what we don’t know, in order to get through a new problem.

New problems like navigating your way through lemon laws.

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Hello Minnie

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I was listening to a podcast recently about perspective. They were specifically talking about renovations, but I thought the advice was great. It was basically saying that we should focus on the reasons behind why we went down a certain path in the first place, instead of thinking about small details that maybe didn’t turn out the way you wanted - focus on the big picture and the overall benefits to your life.

So you might not love the sink you picked out, or the fridge isn’t quite perfect, but if your goal was to have an updated and bright kitchen, if it still accomplishes that, that should be your focus. Remember the problems that you’ve solved and not the small details.

All that to say, we have a new car!

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Bits and Pieces of a Baby

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It had been coming for a while, but we finally did it. Baby G is no longer in a bucket seat. Poor thing was pretty uncomfortable in there. His feet were hanging way over the edge, which meant that more than once we’d stubbed his toe against a car, door or wall as we were trying to carry him in the seat. His head was nearing the top, and he could easily grab the handle with both of his hands. I’d be driving and look back and he’d be holding on to each side like it was a roller coaster and he was afraid to let go.

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The Ride Home

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It’s hard to pick a favorite part of my day, but it might be right after I pick up E at daycare. I grab him first, and then we go to pick up his brother. I open the door and tell E to go find his baby. And he runs around looking from baby to baby until he finds G. It’s seriously the cutest thing ever.

This part of the day is easy and fun. It’s before the dinner struggle. Before I have to fight to get them in PJs and deal with tears because they’re overtired but don’t want to go to bed.

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Yup, That Happened

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I saw it stopped at the cross street ahead, and started hoping. As it slowly pulled out, I got excited and sped up just a tiny bit. Pretty soon we were side by side on the road, me purposely matching their speed, and it hit me. Wow we do weird things for our kids. Still, I called out to E and told him to look out his window, and got exactly the reaction I was looking for. “Bus! Bus! BUS BUSBUSBUS!” Yes, I was in the passing lane, speed matching the slow transit bus on the drive home from daycare so my son could see his latest obsession.

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Carousels

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I’m not sure why, but I really enjoy them. Maybe they’re made for small children, but I disagree. They’re one of those things that I can’t walk past if I see one. I want to ride it. And I usually do. It used to be Nicole that I’d drag on with me (okay drag is too strong a word, I think she likes them too!) and now it’s Tom.

Central Park carousel? Ridden it. Disney World carousel? Yup. Boston’s? Of course.

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Winter Wonderland Wedding

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This past weekend we went to a different kind of winter wonderland.  Instead of celebrating first birthdays, we were celebrating a wedding!  

It's been a while since I've been at a wedding where I wasn't in the bridal party (or the bride!) but this one was so much fun (and less stressful!).  It was weird, because for the first time we had to worry about who was watching the tiny human we'd brought along with us, but luckily some planning ahead of time minimized that problem as well.  

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Just Me and the Baby

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Recently E and I did something we hadn't done before - we packed up the car and drove off for the weekend, without Tom! 

We had a baby shower to go to, and Tom had some work stuff, and so we ended up parting ways.  (Plus when given the choice between weekend alone or a baby shower, he maybe leaned towards being able to sleep in...)