So, as I related in my last post, we had a wonderful time last weekend with family. It was not, however, all smiles and giggles. When you have two parents who prefer to be close to home, you end up with two children who prefer to be in their usual environment.
The kids travelled remarkably well. Boo slept most of the trip, and Little sat in her carseat and talked and played the whole time. Yep, you read that right, she talked the whole trip. She is her mother’s daughter. They made the trip home nicely, too.
The problem arose from being out of routine for four days and being with strange people people we don’t see often. I’m not a strict scheduler (although, sometimes with Boo I wish I was), but we do have a definite pattern and rhythm to our days. The kids know when we’ll eat, when it’s naptime, who we’ll play with, etc. I also have two children who sleep in their own beds, in their own rooms, and in the dark.
All of this was thrown out of whack while we were travelling. Because of the number of people involved, mealtimes were somewhat sporadic. Because of the laid back nature of our visit, naptime would sneak up on us. And because of space issues, Little slept in the room with us.
She was totally thrown off by the fact that Boo and the sun rise before 6 o’clock a.m. Waking up at 5 one morning, 5:30 the next, and 5:45 the last made for one irritable girl well before her normal naptime. Add to the mix that there were 4 children age 3 and under and 10 adults living under one roof with another child (age 5) and several other adults coming in and out, and Little was having a tough time with overstimulation. She did wonderfully the first couple of days, but by Sunday she was definitely ready to be in her home with only her Mommy, Daddy, and brother.
Then there was Boo. His tummy trouble that was aggravated by something(s) I ate; the poor guy was crying in pain on Saturday, and there wasn’t much we could do to comfort him between doses of medicine. He also decided that it was a good time to attempt learning to suck his thumb, so I don’t think he slept as well as usual because he was knocking his paci out of his mouth and waking himself up.
Overall, the children behaved well and were in good spirits, but there was enough crankiness to make me glad we don’t travel again for awhile. Or, maybe I was the one who was overstimulated and cranky; I know I was happy to get home Sunday as well.