Trip Log (Part One) – Getting There

Two weeks ago we embarked on our first road trip with two kids (that of course doesn’t count our move from UT to TX when Dylan was 3 weeks old). Our destination? A reunion of my mom’s side of the family in Missouri. An event that I had been helping to organize for over a year. And a secret. A surprise for the oldest sibling, my Aunt N.S. There was no way I was going to miss this trip. The last time the whole group had been together was in ’98.

Unfortunately, Lij was not quite on board. The night before we were scheduled to leave he woke up suddenly with a burning fever. We held him, sang to him, consulted our favorite parenting/medical books, decided to give him some baby Tylenol, a snack and then put him back to bed. He slept peacefully the rest of the night and we were able to finish packing.

In the morning, we loaded the van and continued to ask Lij how he was feeling. Okay, he consistently replied (pronounced Do-Day in Lijahese). With the van packed and a self-professed “okay” boy, we decided to press forward with our trip.

We had a few ground rules for our voyage…

First, we would stop ever few hours and let the boys run around a bit. Having traveled with a toddler before, we anticipated that this would solve many of the problems we had encountered on our first post-parenting road trip. Plus it would give the burgeoning pregnant woman time to stretch her painfully swollen feet and use the little girl’s room. Win-win situation. Sadly, whenever we stopped we realized that our “okay” little boy was a little south of okay. He would walk stiffly next to us for a moment, then ask to be held and finally rest the whole time snuggled up against us. We took turns. One would “rest” with Lij. The other would use the bathroom and “exercise” with Dylan, who had no problem running around.

Second, we were well armed with snacks. We had a wonderful supply of everything our kids covet but don’t get on a regular basis: graham crackers shaped like teddies, cheese crackers shaped like fishes, and red licorice shaped like, well, red licorice. The key with snacks when traveling with kids, according to Alexander, is come with plenty but never let ‘um know how much you have. This worked exceptionally well. They were always delighted when a new snack mysteriously materialized just at the moment of meltdown. Lifesavers, those chocolate chip teddy grahams are. Only two hitches: Lij the “Okay” boy was really not okay enough to enjoy many of the snacks. And red licorice is the messiest food ever invented in the hands of a slobbering sixteen-month-old – just in case you didn’t know (as we obviously didn’t).

Third, all hail the portable DVD player. And the in-laws who gave it to us. This was the one measure that seemed to satisfy Lij better than Dylan. All Lij seemed up to was watching some of his favorite cartoon characters in between bouts of sleep.

So overall, getting there was not half the battle. In fact, it wasn’t really a battle at all. Our poor little “okay” boy spent the night in the hotel with a heating pad on his neck (the only part of his body that he claimed wasn’t “do-day”). Then he spent the night waking several times with a fever. Alexander and I took turns with him in his bed and this seemed to comfort him. We asked him in the morning of the second day how he felt and he said “do-day” so we pressed onward, reaching Missouri in the afternoon.

How nice to have arrived and to have traveled with two very okay little boys. And one very okay husband.

Tomorrow (or possibly the next day), part two… stay tuned.