Driving or flying – What’s best with a toddler?

I’m so ready for a vacation. It’s been a year since I had a complete week off work and way too long since I’ve been more than a few hours from home. I used to fly at least twice a year, so I’m feeling a little stir crazy.

So, we have two trips planned. One is our annual camping trip in July in Michigan. This is a very relaxing trip. Just four hours away and we’ll camp in a pop-up camper. I think most of my family would rather die than go camping, but I really like it. We spend all our time outdoors, a day at the beach, some time in the cute town of Ludington, and our nights are spent around campfires with my husband’s family. And we’re not exactly roughing it these days. Our camper has heat, air conditioning, a king-sized bed, and the campground has a nice new pool and hot tub. However, it would be really nice to go somewhere new, somewhere DIFFERENT.

Hence our other trip we have planned – in North Carolina. Steve’s sister and her family have rented a house and invited anyone to come join them. They did the same thing last year, but I think Steve was working or something so we weren’t able to go. The house is on a beach and it’s nice to go with family when you have a little one. And lately everyone in the Midwest (except us) seems to be jetting off to Florida and coming back all relaxed and tan and making me extremely jealous with their stories of beaches and daiquires.

But, I have to say, I’m getting a little nervous about taking a toddler on a 12-hour drive! We have plenty of time to get there, so we’ll definitely split the drive in two days. But still 2 days of 6-hour drives. Am I crazy? The alternative, of course, is flying. I’m beginning to think it’s not a bad idea. Of course we’d have to take a car seat, possibly a pack-n-play, a stroller … and the list goes on. And then we may need to rent a car. This brings the cost way up and there is something to be said for the car ride and seeing some of the country. I just hope Ella sees it that way.

Oh well, I know people who have done both – traveled far distances by car and plane with their toddlers and they got through it. I’d rather take the risk of some frustration on the road than sit home, too nervous to go anywhere. So, have any of you traveled with a toddler? The ladies at work tell me to get a portable DVD player. Probably a good thing to have just in case. Any other advice?

Hanging out with the cousins

It’s so cool that Ella’s going to grow up with cousins her age. This weekend she saw a lot of London, who’s 3, and Finn, who’s just 7 weeks older than Ella – so he’s about 15 months. I had a lot of cousins that weren’t too distant in age, but I also had siblings who were closer to their age than me, so I think they bonded a little more with them. But it was cool having some older kids to watch. Ella’s got the best of both worlds.

Sunday we ended up taking a drive out to my grandma’s nursing home. Afterward we stopped by my mom’s house, since it was nearby and we knew the cousins were there. We visited. Finn was napping during our whole visit though so we missed him. Ella just followed London around, did whatever she was doing. London also repeatedly kissed Ella on the head. It was very sweet.

The next day we also met with the cousins. My mom was watching them since my sister was on a business trip. We met them at McDonalds then went to the park. Ella has just discovered the joy of ketchup, so she would have been happy with any food, as long as she could dip it in ketchup. In fact, at times she just dipped her fingers in it and licked her fingers.

Lunch went well, besides half of it ending up on the floor, but you know, that’s part of eating with kids. Next we went to Bixler park. It was really nice. I hadn’t been there in a long time, and the new Kendallville library next to it is beautiful.

They had quite a few things for toddlers, so Finn and Ella went down a slide a bunch, sat in swings, played on a teeter totter. Finn was a pro at the slide. He was kinda doing laps around Ella and he loved going down on his stomach. Ella’s still pretty wobbly on a slide. She can’t really do many slides yet. She seems to tip over or fall back so you really have to watch her. Also, she’ll just be at the top and try to just walk down or turn around and go back. She’s still learning the slide routine …

She has learned some other things lately that I’m really happy about:

1. Blowing her nose. She lets me hold a kleenex to her nose – which is a big improvement over running and screaming – and then she actually blows her nose! At first she would only inhale, but now she’s doing it right. Awesome! I never thought I’d be so happy about someone blowing their nose.

2. To smell things. This is really cute. The other day my husband goes, “Honey I taught Ella to smell!” And he showed me that he holds different things – like potporri – under her nose and she sniffs them. It’s so funny.

3. She, occasionally, when I ask where her nose is – or my nose – will point to my nose. She won’t always do it and doesn’t always point to the right person, but she’s definitely starting to make that connection between the word nose and a real nose. I guess we’re really learning a lot about our noses in general lately … smelling, blowing, pointing to them.

Anyway, we went to the library too. Very fun. They had some really fun toys and a train table, and of course we read some books. Ella kept trying to take Finn’s sippy cup though, even though she had her own in her hand. She always wants want he has. She’s always yanked his pacifier right out of his mouth in the past too. Poor Finn. Guess having cousins can’t be perfect all the time.

Aaah … TGIS

Yes, TGIS, because I really just want Fridays to be over with. Thursdays and Fridays are soooo busy at work that by the time I get home Friday nights with Ella it’s the most I can do to call and order us a pizza.

And this Friday, ugh. I had a sinus headache all week long. And I seemed to be running short on sleep everyday. So when Thursday night rolled around and Ella went to bed at 7:30 I thought this was my chance at last to catch up. I read for awhile (Tori Spelling’s book Stori Telling-more about that later). Then tried to fall asleep by 8:30. No luck. 11 p.m., which is exremely late for me, rolled around and I was still awake. Crap! I finally fell asleep and it seems like minutes later it was 5:30 a.m. and time to get up. My head was killing me. I couldn’t miss work though. I was counted on to help out with the daily newspaper and I have so many things to finish up for the weekend paper as well on this day. So, off I went.

It was so hard to concentrate. By 9 a.m. I decided I couldn’t take it. I needed to go home. I made a list of must-do items and informed the proper people I would have to take some sick time. By 11, I was out of there. I headed home without Ella. Steve agreed to go pick her up at the babysitter’s later. I crawled into bed, read the last two chapters of my book and slept for 2 hours. It was so needed.

That night Steve got home with Ella and I was so happy to see her. And she was in a great mood. Steve and I just were couch potatoes all night and she was content running around with us watching her. After she went to bed, I felt a lot better and even went to see my sister and London for an hour or so.

So, today is Saturday and things are so much better. Ella and I have already spent a lot of time outdoors. Our neighbor boys came over and played and it was really nice.

There was an incident with the washer though this morning. I pulled her clothes from the washer and starting noticing all these little white things all over everything.”What in the world,” I thought. Then I found it. A diaper. I washed a diaper with all her clothes. Not good. I shook them all out over the floor then vacuumed the floor and the inside of the washer. Then I ran them through the washer again. And it all came out! I was very relieved. There were lots of cute outfits in that load.

Anyway, my sister and SIL have sorta started an impromptu trashy book club. Not really, but sorta. Sara just informed me one day that she bought the book Mistaken Identity about the victims of the Taylor crash (not trashy) and the Valerie Bertinelli book and that I should buy Tori Spelling’s book. My SIL Rachel mentioned she wanted to read these and offered to buy a book. I suggested Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea (get the Judy Blume reference?) by comedian Chelsea Handler. Also, Sara borrowed another book, The Heroin Diaries, by Nikki Six (of Motley Crue fame). Should be interesting. So, there you have it. So far I’ve read Mistaken Identity, which is amazing and inspirational. Everyone involved in that tragedy went through so much and are such admirable people. It’s heavy though, so I was glad to read something lighter like Tori’s book Stori Telling next. It was really good, I have to say. I have a lot more respect for her now.

Ella’s taking nap #2 now, I think I’ll read a magazine and maybe we’ll head to our local greenhouse when she gets up to get some nice summer flowers. I love Saturdays …

Fun on the playset

You may remember I ordered a little plastic playset – even though my husband didn’t think we needed it and I thought it was overpriced. But it came yesterday and I am really glad about it. Of course soon after I bought it I saw something similar for about half the price. Does that happen to you? I feel like I look around pretty well when I’m buying something relatively expensive too. I usually scope out Target, Meijers, Wal-mart … look through my Sunday flyers. I did forget to check Wal-mart this time though and that’s where the cheaper item is. Oh well. Ours is really cool. And Ella really likes it!

As soon as we got home she was ready to go outside. And daddy had it all put together in the yard for us. She went right over to it. Of course, like all kids, I’ve noticed, she tried to climb up the slide. I redirected her to the stairs and she does need help going up. They’re kinda steep. But that’s OK. And even if she fell from this thing it wouldn’t be like falling from the 6 foot tall danger mountain playset we already have. Also, she’s inclined to go face first down the slide. It’s pretty funny. And even when she goes down on her bottom sometimes her shoes catch her and she nearly falls off. She’ll probably be a pro by the end of the summer though. Can’t wait to have cousin Finn over to check it out.

Besides going inside for dinner we spent most of the night outside. Steve did a few things and I trimmed up a huge shrub that would have probably swallowed our house soon. And I began cleaning out the litterbox, I mean sandbox. My next project is to clean it all out refill it and get a COVER for it. Ella really wants to play in there with me though so I never get much done.

After all the bubbles and running around and climbing I though Ella would go to sleep with no trouble at all last night. But nope. You just never really know what to expect with kids. She would not go to sleep. And we let her cry for awhile, but she just wasn’t having it. Finally it was way past her bedtime – 9:30 so I took her to bed with me and she was asleep in minutes. I’m guessing her teeth may be hurting her. Poor girl. Or maybe she was overly tired. Like I am today.