...my child sold your honor student the answers to the test...

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Trip: Part 1

Well we survived the car ride...barely. Soren had it the worst with being stuck in a car seat for 14 (16) hours bored out of his everliving mind and sobbing for a lot of it, despite numerous stops to feed, change, and cuddle him. J and I are seriously contemplating getting me a one way plane ticket so Soren and I can fly back. Everyone else did fine, myself only holding on to sanity by drowning out the sobs of my baby with my iPod up to max volume, most likely permanently damaging my ear drums. J and I created a code, with him tapping me on the shoulder if the kids needed anything so I could listen to Black Eyed Peas repeatedly in order to ensure my stress level wouldn't go further than white knuckles and mouthing OMG OMG OMG through 3 state lines.

Leaving yesterday, everyone excited, minus Soren who was clueless as to what lay ahead, I asked J if he had directions to our hotel for the night in Delaware. Nope, he said, I don't need them. I rolled my eyes knowing that we were screwed and nagged him a bit about being unprepared. I was scoffed at, said we were fine, and he knew where we were going.

8 hours later, driving around lost in Delaware with a screaming infant and 2 whiny kids I was seriously ready to smack J upside the head. Now, I don't condone spousal abuse whatsoever. But there ARE certain situations where I think it is not abuses but more of a physical reminder to learn a very important lesson. Last night was one of those nights. I refrained from doing so and instead clenched my teeth, reciting "Thou shall not kill" 100 times or so until we found our hotel and got the kids inside.

After a few threats of tossing Zavis new DS into the trash and Ashe's Dinosaur books along side it, I got the kids settled (after J passed out in literally 2 minutes) and we spent the night in a comatose state.


This morning started off nicely. We all woke up at 6:30 am, hung out a bit then meandered down to the free breakfast offered. You know the kind, stale breakfast cereal, way too concentrated OJ, and week old bagels. I had Soren snuggled tightly in my Moby wrap. As we entered the breakfast room I surveyed the people in and noticed that we were the only family. In fact I think I was the only female. It seemed that there was a good amount of truckers who used the hotel. Gruff looking men, quietly nursing their coffee. I can empathize. I wanted to be stuck in a corner myself with a cup of coffee, uninterrupted until I was ready to interact with the outside world. Alas, I had 3 munchkins. Funny thing I noticed though, as one does when surveying a room wondering who she will be apologizing to for one of her kids antics. I noticed a lot of the older folk looking our way, specifically at Soren, whose little fuzz head was poking out of the Moby, watching everything. As I got everyone settled I glanced around and noticed a few smiles our way. That's not something I'm used to when surrounded by my rambunctious boys. A few minutes after settling in I looked over to a table surrounded by 5 men in tank tops and ripped jeans. One man caught my eye nodded to Soren and said how cute he was, looking at everything and he seemed very happy. I smiled back and said thank you. The man then turned around to his companions and started talking about his niece which then cause all the other men to talk about their own kids or relatives. I smiled and turned back to my kids who had already spilled apple juice all over the table.

5 minutes later a man who reminded me of a retired Marine, having been sitting behind us, came up to our table, threw a cell phone right under my nose and declared "THAT'S MY GRANDDAUGHTER. SHE LOOKS TO BE ABOUT THE SAME AGE AS YER YOUNGEST" nodding his chin at Soren. I smiled, looked at the photo of his cute baby, and made the proper responses. he went on for a couple of minutes about how awesome she is, as all proud grandads do, while Ashe hopped up and down on his chair trying to take the guys cell phone.


Back in the car, we traveled as fast as we could stopping every 90 minutes to reset Soren. We made it to the hotel we'll be staying at for the next week by 5:30 right across from the Mall I used to hang out at when I was younger. We headed to the food court and after grabbing some grub, we walked around the mall to stretch our legs. Again, I noticed a lot of stares and smiles from strangers with Soren in the Moby. I even had about 3 people stop me and ask about the wrap and how dang cute Soren was watching everything. Maybe Mobys aren't that well known here in Massachusetts. Either that or Soren is even cuter than I realized. Either way, as a native New Englander I was ready for the normal ignore your fellow neighbor in the mall thing only to be taken aback and feel like we hadn't left NC as I thought. maybe this is all a dream (or a really bad nightmare with Sorens screaming still echoing in my cranium, with some good parts thrown in).

So now everyone is prepping for the night. J and the baby are passed out on the bed. Ashe and Xavier are on the couch bed watching Shrek while I blog and catch up on the net world. Tomorrow we hit the rainforest cafe (closest one to us in NC is in TN so we promised Zavi we would definitely make it there) then head over to my moms. We've got a packed week so I'm sure more moments will pop up I'll need to write about. In the meantime, goodnight, from a very tired Mom.

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