Our Summer Vacation: A Train Story

As you well know, we packed up the Sentra and sallied forth to the upper half of our state for a week with Matt's family. It was the longest we'd ever had Ben in the car, the longest time away from home Ben's ever had, and our longest stay up here. We are truly brave souls.

You know about night and day one. Fortunately, that's the worst of it. Sleeping has not been quite as much of a battle since then. We did have one bout a couple of nights ago that lasted over an hour. Lots of crying, screaming, throwing blankies and plush Toy Story characters, and Supernanny. But by 9:00 I was with the other grown-ups, exhausted and ready for bed myself. Man, this kid can really be work when he sets his mind to it.

Other than that we're having a nice time. Swimming, a little birthday party in the park, taking walks, going to San Francisco, playing with the cousins. Well, mostly just one cousin. The other three are sick. Boo. But in all it has been a nice blend of fun and rest.

 
I'm still fighting the good fight as an introvert. This is the longest I've ever stayed in someone's home. Don't get me wrong--my mother-in-law could write a book on hospitality. She's the ultimate hostess. But it's unbelievably challenging for me to go this long without a retreat from people. And it has nothing at all to do with who the people are--it's just rough for me to be in a constant state of *on*. Yesterday I hit the wall. It was a long morning out, Ben was, ahem, unpleasant. He'd woken up early and had to spend a lot of time in the car. He was not happy. I desperately wanted to get home for his nap and not have him sleep in the car, because a) he desperately needed the sleep, and b) I desperately needed the break. I was actually near tears in the car when Ben fell asleep and we still had at least thirty minutes of driving left. I was just imagining the rest of the day, Ben throwing toys, crying, and making me be the one and only person allowed to touch him, and wanting me to hold him and carry his 29 pounds everywhere. A no-nap day is hard on everyone, but mama bears the brunt of it. Maybe I'm being dramatic--whatever, it sucks. Matt's asking me what I want to do for the evening, and all I can think of is sit in the bathtub for three hours and cry. I'm actually kind of impressed I made it all the way to Tuesday before I shut down.

So we got back to the house, Ben was sound asleep. I tried transferring him to the pack and play, but he of course woke up and refused to be in it, and of course he was definitely not done sleeping. There's a bed in the room with his bed, so I curled up with him in the bed. Within moments he was out. I left him in the bed and checked email, read for a bit. Then I thought...well, I needed alone time. So I curled up in bed with him and we took a nap together.

All better.

For the rest of the week we've got a few things lined up. This morning Matt, Ben, and I are going to get away, just the three of us, for a little bit. Later in the day some family will come and play with us. Tomorrow we'll play with the family, go to the lake.

In other news, Ben's Grammie has purchased every Thomas train this side of the American River. So that's pretty much all he's been doing while we're at the house. And when we're not at the house he's pitching a fit because he wants James. And when it's time to go to bed he's screaming and flailing for Rusty. And when we go out to dinner he loads as many trains into my purse as he can before I notice. Who knew appalling materialism would surface when we left Orange County. Other items he has been given that he loves: a superman cape, a talking Ramone car, and a remote control blow-up car.

So, to sum up: family fun, a need to take better care of myself, toys.