Road Trip NY-Florida

This was our Spring trip:
2 kids, ages 1 and almost 3, in a car for 3 days, 21 hours from NY to Miami, Florida.

We have done this trip before but never with toddler and never with just 2 drivers.

Our basic rules of the trip were:
When we need to stop, we stop.  We made many frequent trips to McDonald's playplaces along route 95.  Lucky for us there are many along this route

We were very flexible in our route.  We had an itinerary in mind, but we adapted it as needed.  Our motel bookings were all cheap with day of cancellations allowed.  Miami was the only hotel we planned far in advance, the rest were little dingy places along the way.

We did not drive at night, because drivers need their beauty sleep and with only 2 drivers we tended to have the passenger awake to assist with kids and keep the driver alert.  For this reason it took us 3 nights to get there and 3 nights to get back.  We built this time into our trip.

Downloading the kids favorite videos on our phone gave us some piece and quiet during tense moments of the trip when we couldn't stop and this allowed us to cover some distance.  The current favorite videos are Elmo and Thomas the Train.  Unfortunately the 1 year old likes Elmo and the 3 year old likes Thomas, so this caused some disagreements on what to watch and we had to alternate to keep the backseat wailing to a minimum.


Some of our planned stops along the way included: Washington DC, Children's Museum in Richmond (this was a big hit), and Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston, SC (very beautiful in the spring and it has a petting zoo), Savannah, GA waterfront and parks, St. Augustine, FL (splash park at the pier) and of course Downtown Disney.  We decided not to spend the big bucks on the real Disney since there is plenty for kids at the shops in Downtown Disney.  They have a little train ride and all the characters in the store for them to get excited about.  Stop we didn't particularly love: South of the Border. The food was so bad and it was really dead.  I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning there.  Great place to shoot a zombie movie.  We did get some shot of the kids next to the animal statues and Pedro though.

Pictures from Magnolia Plantation and Gardens:

The Price of Christmas

I have some qualms to pick with the world on the prices of some very basic toys.   My two year old loves trains and for his last birthday I bought USED on Amazon the Thomas and Percy trains with a mailcar which totalled about $17 and a Orbrium figure eight train track with a 2 trains included, which cost about $22.  New wooden Thomas trains cost about $15 each for the smaller trains and $20-$25 for the longer trains.  If we were to buy him a whole set of trains this could get very pricey, easily $200 or more.  Instead our son pretends the generic trains from Orbrium are other engines like Spencer, Diesel and Gordon.  The basic circle track on Toyrus.com goes for $29.99 alone, and that does not include the bridge and tunnel I got with my cheaper knock off version.  I also got him the large box of Duplos (with the 150 pieces), which cost $59.99 on sale.  The normal price is $74.99!!
Really?!  75 bucks for a box of blocks and of those 150 pieces most of them are the small square blocks which we all know doesn't support a good building structure.  And this didn't even come with a bucket to store them or the building plate.  Let's not kid ourselves parents, I want good toys for my kids so I can enjoy playing with them too!  (playing with my kids of course)

I may be totally crazy but I do think that the prices of very basic good solid toys nowadays is way too high.  In my Christmas research these are some of the expensive toys that I plan to not buy my son.  This is not because I don't love him, its because I will probably find a perfectly good used one on Craigslist or in the trash tomorrow.

Radio Flyer My First Sport Scooter 

• $39.99
• (really?  It's a baby scooter and we will only use this a few times when the weather is good before he outgrows it!)
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7 Train (Flushing Local) Wooden Train

Price: $12.95

(I was at Grand Central and I get that this is a specialty item for NY tourists or NY enthusiasts, but I think that a train should not be more than $5.  I would buy him this if I could get 3 for $12.95. Instead I will buy a generic train at Target for $2.99 and stick a purple 7 on it)

• 
  

Independence is a Wonderful Thing

"Let me do it myself!"
Its great to hear those words.  
Our 2 year old baby is moving on up in the world: pulling up his pants, trying to use the potty, (with plenty of reminders) washing his hands almost exclusively by himself, turning off the TV, getting into bed. Getting into his booster seat and feeding himself.  

 With an 8 month old who can't do anything himself except get into trouble every second (by attempting to eat wires, outlets, falling down on hard things, eating everything off the floor--it's a game we play every day to keep this kid alive, while he tries to do everything he can to harm himself!) 

Having one child with some independence is a beautiful thing

 

Same Parents, Totally Different Personalities

Now that my youngest is 8.5 months old and my oldest is almost 29 months old I'm getting a much better sense of just how different my two sons are:

 Here are some comparisons:

 Size: They can pretty much wear the same sizing in clothes now with some exceptions. My 2 year old is long and lanky and my 8 month old is big for his age, length and width and full of baby fat rolls!

 Eyes: 8 month old got the true baby blues and my 2 year old is a brown eyed boy. Both my hubby and I have a mixture, I'm hazel (brown with greenish tint) and his are lighter (green, with a bluish tint)

 Beach play:  My 2 year old still dislikes getting dirty and beaches and making sand castles are not really his cup of tea.  He's ok when there is a tool involved, aka using the shovel to put sand in a bucket, but the minute sand gets all over his fingers I hear "Mama, mama, my hands are dirty!"   [Um, yeah we are at the beach]
Meanwhile his brother is not one to sit calmly on the blanket.  He is off in less than a millisecond grabbing and pulling the sand into his hands and directly into his mouth!  Question to all parents of children like my youngest son:  Should I just let him consume the beach and hope he will eventually realize how disgusting sand is as a food source?  Or will he just continue to eat it until he chokes causing himself worse harm?  I ended up compromising with my 8 month old destructive force of nature and let him crawl on the wet sand by the water an immerse himself in a nice muddy mess, while my older son stood on the waters edge holding my hand and trying not to get too dirty.

4 month old & 24 month old at play

Working Full Time is Not Natural or Easy

Yup with 2 babies and a full-time position I'm definitely with them on this one
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-brenoff/work-life-balance-on-the-nail-its-not-natural-work-full-time_b_2679674.html

Baby #2

Our big bouncy baby boy arrived a few days early and showed up very fast.  I had a much quicker labor with #2 than #1.  I woke up at 3:45am feeling cramps that were only a few minutes apart and increased in intensity very fast.  At 4:30am we had made it into the car with my father-in-law and just my luck a huge tractor trailer had made a wrong turn and got stuck on the bridge and we were stuck right in the center of the bridge--no traffic moving in either direction.  I was on the floor of the backseat at that point just yelling.  I believe I was screaming at my husband and father-in-law they needed to start moving that traffic along now!  My husband left the car and ran to the front of the bridge to see about getting a police escort.  My generally talkative and very opinionated father-in-law did not say a word that entire time.  He was as silent as a mouse as I carried on in the back seat writhing in pain.  I could have used something to keep my mind off the pain at that point and I remember thinking I need my husband to come back so he can count while I breathe through this.

In the end after a police escort and an ambulance ride with some very junior looking EMTs who did not look at all ready to assist in birthing a child if it came down to this, we made it too the hospital.  Luckily my OBGYN was on the shift that morning and with the ambulance stretcher and EMTs I didn't have to wait in the waiting room and fill out paperwork this time, they brought me right in.  This was how I should have done it the first time! (more about that episode later).  After the resident determined my status (8 cm), and contractions about 1.5 min apart, she asked if I would like an epidural.  Isn't it a little late for one?  I really wanted the pain to go away, but what's the point if I would be pushing before then.  The doctor came in and asked if I felt like pushing.  I told her I did need to go #2 and #1.  She said to wait.  Well, I waiting until I couldn't anymore and then she said it was up to me if I wanted to try pushing.  I told her I did, I wanted that kid out!  She told me he was still a little high up but I should go for it if I wanted since this might help the pain.  They didn't break the water this time even though the nurse got upset with me for moving with all the monitors strapped to my belly.  The doctor was right, pushing did help ease the pain.  The water didn't break until after his shoulders came out and I had no tearing.  He was also bigger by almost a pound than my 1st, so go figure.  It felt as if that sac acted as a cushion.  I felt ok after giving birth, not like a chopped up piece of meat down there as I was the first round.  Baby was healthy and we only stayed 1 night.  Overall a much quicker and easier experience.  My body knew what to do this time and I knew what to expect.  Like they say, practice makes...well in birthing's case never perfect, but at least a little easier!