Well, dear readers, we survived the drive to Florida! We left in the evening, thinking the kids would sleep for a portion of the drive. That worked, to an extent. I’d been telling Peanut for a week how they’d sleep while Mommy and Daddy drove, and she did go to sleep eventually.
I told my youngest that too; the day we left he refused a nap and then he fell asleep as soon as we pulled out of the drive. The problem was we had to stop to eat dinner 15 minutes later. (Not the best in scheduling, but we were meeting my parents for the drive, so that’s how it had to be…) When Monkey’s nap is off schedule, so is his sleep for the night. After a lengthy round of “Wheels on the Truck” (Hey, he kept seeing trucks and wanted a truck song -), he fell asleep, but then he woke every hour and I had to sing all over again because he would just keep saying “Big ‘uck (truck), big ‘uck”. I was pretty sure he was scared, and I didn’t want him screaming and waking big sister so we’d have two screaming kids, so my husband got to hear a lot of my lovely singing voice…
Anyway, when we pulled into a roadside park around 2 a.m. so the adults could get a little rest, they both woke up. Peanut figured we were in Florida already (we still had 10 hours to go), and who knows what was going on in Monkey’s head. He decided he had to read books. Very loudly. I tried to hold him, sing to him, ignore him… Nothing worked. His sister couldn’t sleep because he kept making so much noise, and when I took his books away he’d scream so Daddy couldn’t sleep. (I don’t think he got much sleep anyway, since we were all crammed into my little Honda CRV – It’s amazing how a 6’2’’ man can scrunch up in the passenger seat and sleep when he’s desperate…) At any rate, we let my parents sleep peacefully in their car for a few hours, oblivious to the chaos in our car, before we headed off again. And after their 2 a.m. party, the kids did fall back asleep while we drove.
Then there was that little incident when I-75 did this split and I thought the middle lane I was in was one of those that went straight and also split off… And it didn’t… If you were the car behind me when I made my “can’t think because I’m so tired” move into the lane I needed to be in, I’m sorry. (Lots of prayers were said after that one, by the way!)
The only other major issue we had was my car. I guess it was making noise as we drove, whenever we turned the wheel to the right, which, trying to keep the kids entertained, I somehow NEVER heard. Thankfully my husband heard it, and thankfully there is a Honda shop nearby, since it turns out the front axle has issues; and when they checked the rest of the car they said we need brake fluid. Since the car has over 110,000 miles on it, I’m sure it does. Anyway, I’m glad it is getting fixed so we can get to Disney and home again safely. Now to get my husband’s mind off the car and into this thing called VACATION. (Am I the only one whose husband just can’t relax?)
Kim says
Long trip but hopefully the vaca will more than make up for it!
admin says
So far they are loving the beach! Hopefully Disney will go great too, and the trip home goes smoothly… Thanks for stopping by! I’m heading to your site soon!
Jill says
I hope the rest of your vacation goes smoothly! Enjoy Disney!
admin says
Thanks! I’m sure Disney will be loads of fun with 2 little ones!