June, Part I

I have the best job in the world. It might come with long hours, no pay, and an extremely fluid job description, but it also allows for a certain freedom-of-movement that no other job offers.

One day last month, Jared came in the door and told me that he would be traveling for two straight weeks. Two. Fourteen days and nights. Which meant, obviously, that for those fourteen days and nights, me and the munchkins were on our own. Fourteen bedtimes. Twenty-eight naptimes. Forty-two mealtimes. Is your head going to explode yet? Yeah, mine too.

And so it came about that I decided to take my little boys on a roadtrip. An epic roadtrip.

We left town less than two days later and headed east for sunny Florida. Inlaws and old friends...seemed like a perfect place to go. I made arrangements to stay a night with friends in Biloxi on the way there. I was worried that here to Biloxi would be a stretch for Baby J, as he normally doesn't believe in sleeping in cars. Normal went out the window this trip.

On day 1, to my delight and disbelief, both boys took normal naps the entire day. Nobody shed a single tear the entire day. At one point in the trip, I needed to hold them off for about 20 minutes while we made it to a good food exit, so I gave them each a book to 'read'. For twenty straight minutes my 15-month old and my almost-3-year old 'read' quietly in the backseat. Yes, I'm serious. I called my spend-the-night friends as we flew by their house to say, "I'd be crazy to stop now...these babies are doing great!!" Three hours later (12 hours on the day), we stopped for pizza and hoteling. It was nothing short of amazing - the twelve perfect hours, the cute little hotel we found for less than $80 a night, and the fact that Hungry Howie's delivered thereto for a special hotel guest price. Henry still talks about our 'pizza hotel'.

After everyone slept like a dream in the hotel, Day 2 was just as easy breezy as the one before it. We woke up leisurely, ate breakfast at the pizza hotel's resaurant (a hot/cold breakfast bar in the lobby), waited for James to take care of his morning diaper, and away we went! The kids, again, did great. Everyone ate, slept, pottied, etc. as if nothing were different about their day. And, once again, not a single tear shed. I could hardly believe we were already there when we pulled into Tampa later that afternoon.

First up on our big adventure to the sunshine state -- a visit with Nina (Jared's mom) and a rendezvous with Heather at her castle. Details and pics coming up in the next post. For now, I leave you with the two secrets I discovered for flawless roadtripping by yourself with two kiddos under 3 -- stop once every two hours and let everyone out for at least 15 minutes (even if you have no other reason to stop) AND don't be afraid to use a dvd player to get through the long, boring stretches.

June, Part II - tomorrow.