Monday, March 12, 2012

Riot on the Road Trip

I stressed and stressed and stressed about driving to Boise.  With Koley.  5 hours. 
I don't know why I was stressed- I mean what happened was going to happen.  But I have zero control over my stress levels.  (Or my junk food consumption.  If it's there I will eat it.)

Friday we were leaving and I only let him sleep for an hour at nap time.  Figuring he'll be super tired when we took off.  And, I was so so right.  He was super tired.  So tired that he couldn't/wouldn't sleep.  Don't you love that?  So you just have a cranky wanky kidmo.  Ugh.  Luckily I loaded up on the snacks.  I know when I am grumpy and off kilter I like to eat!  Figuring the same would go for my offspring-I planned ahead and it worked for about 2.5 hours.  Then I had to break out the books, and crawl into the back seat. (Recipe for carsickness) I read a bunch of books to him and he hated every one.  Threw them on the floor.  Told me, "No!  No!  No!  No!"  over and over and overandoverandover.  I started to get a little offended because I was trying to be nice.  Offering all kinds of fun toys and yummy snacks and getting them all thrown (literally) in my face.  I've got a bruise on my right temple to prove it.  We stopped at a Wendy's and Kole was happy to be out of the car, eating chicken nuggets, and doing some people watching.  He was not happy to be put back in the car all of 25 minutes later.  I put in a DVD.  We've always had the player in our car and never used it.  Although I always bring it up as an idea for date night.  "Let's go watch a movie in the car!"  Yeah- somehow Ken feels it's more comfortable in the living room.
Anyha.
The DVD only puts sound through the headphones, which we didn't know, and they didn't have any batteries in them.  So Toy Story 3 turned out to be "Not a Talkie" as Ken put it.  Kole didn't mind.  He was hypnotized. 
We made it there- in one straggly, worn out, ratty old peice.  And were all happy to go to bed.

We only stayed until Sunday.  Kole decided to pull an all-nighter Saturday night.  Lovely.  Which meant I did too.  Ken took the shift from 5:30am-7:30 am so I could get in 2 hours.  I don't know what gets into that Koley-Critter!  Again, I thought, he didn't sleep last night he will definitely sleep the WHOLE WAY HOME.  He slept the whole 5 hours. Minus 4 hours and 35 minutes.  (Let me help you on the mental math.) He slept for 25 minutes.  Yeah.  Ouch.  Then he whined the rest of the way home.  Well, alternated between whining, crying, screaming, hitting himself in the head, and moping silently.  It was a long.  LONG ride home.  At one point I decided we should all let it all out.  And me, Ken, and Kole all screamed and yelled everything that was bugging us.  "I hate it in here!"  "It's too hot!"  "It's starting to smell funny!"  "More treats!"  It lightened our spirits for a good 3 minutes.  During one of Kole's more major breakdowns I said, "You know, me and Dad are being really good here.  And that is how you should behave in the car.  It is difficult at times but you just make the best of it.  Can't you follow our example?"  To which Kole replied, "WAAAAAAAHH! grumblegrumblegrumble HEEEKSHHHPOOOO! WWWWAAAAAAAAAAHH!"  Which I think meant "Go to Hell."

We put Koley to bed at 6:15 last night.
He slept until 9:30 this morning.

*sigh* So nice.

We put ourselves to bed at 9:30 last night.
We slept until 8:00 this morning.

*sigh* So so nice.

Talking this morning over breakfast, Ken and I realized that with Daylight Savings... we really went to bed at 8:30 last night.  I think the last time I did that I was in 3rd grade.


7 comments:

Sean and Rachel said...

Ugh! Traveling with a toddler is so exhausting! Sorry you guys had a bad time. Sean wants us to drive to Ohio this summer. I'm already dreading it. Some things that (temporarily) helps is to go get some toys/books at the dollar store and wrap them up. When McKay's on the verge of a meltdown I give one to him. It takes him a few minutes just to unwrap it. I also load up my iPhone with a bunch of kid shows (Sesame Street has some free ones called "Learn Along with Sesame). McKay doesn't sleep in the car either so that makes for a grumpy boy. Sounds like Kole's the same way!

SkippyMom said...

What a nightmare Patty. I cannot even imagine. We took longer trips when are kids were little [7-10 hours to go to the beach] but we travelled at night. While not always possible - it made it easier on the 5 kids because it was their bedtime anyway. My Mom would gnash her teeth at us about how "dangerous" nighttime travel was, but I figured we had new or newer cars, Pooldad was driving and besides she didn't have to deal with the kids if they acted up. [she always drove me nuts with this argument - can you tell?] In all our years of doing it we never had one hiccup - behavior or danger wise.

Thank goodness you had that DVD player. It sounds like a gift. When I have grandkids I will be sure to have one in our car. As it is now they are old enough to enjoy their own handheld electronics. YAY! Just wait, Kole will be there soon too. First a game boy. . .then an MP3. . .heehee

Juli said...

I am still cracking up over the Princess Pride reference. :)

Seriously. Still laughing.

I need more sleep.

DoublClik said...

BaaaHAHHAHAHAH! Love this post, thanks for helpin me out with the mental math! Ya know that one was for me!

johnandjana said...

What a horrible trip. I am so sorry that it was so bad. Not to ruin your day any farther, but Linds and I just traveled for 2 1/2 hours one way with 3 little rugrats and they all slept the whole time. It was great! Better luck next time.

Cinderella, the A-Train and Our Little Caboose said...

I have totally had road trips like that! The worst part is night time though, when they are so tired that they won't even sleep at night. That happened to us the first night in Boston with Clare. Seriously, she was up all night long. I cried that night, sobbed. I hated it.

I hope you were able to enjoy at least some of your trip!!

Kar said...

Oh my GOSH. I'm so sorry. So, so sorry. That is a nightmare. Traveling with toddlers is really awful.