I Wanna Go Home...

So, I'm in Chicago for a conference. It's my second faraway conference this summer. I gotta tell you I used to enjoy this little trips and would spend the whole summer blowing my extra money traveling. Last summer my kiddo and I traveled several places together and this summer I've had these conferences.

Here's what I thought would happen
1] I would go on my trip
2] I would read a lot...heck, I would catch up on all my reading on the plane and in the hotel room
3] I'd go to bed early
4] I'd sleep in
5] I'd take long baths
6] I'd watch TV

And, while some of those things happened in Vegas...I found they weren't nearly as fun as I wanted them to be. I've gotten used to...being interrupted during long baths or short showers and one can only watch so many "Law and Order" episodes uninterrupted before one gets scared of being in a hotel room alone. I know, I know...maybe I shouldn't have watched sooo many SVU episodes.

Anyway, I missed my kiddo. Heck, I missed Chris too, although he was there for all but the last two days, and we'd done some seen some awesome sites (such as the Hard Rock, the Hofbrauhaus, and Absinthe...all things we couldn't have accomplished with the kidlet with us)! And, although I went out with some ladies I met and we tagged around for lunch and dinner and such, I wanted to come home.

I was reminded of some of the terms (I'm only giving you the definitions, each one has a fun anecdote) Kristin van Ogtrop uses in her book, a book I go to for a laugh or cry when things feel a bit rough, Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom:

Absentee Parenthood: The state of being that sometimes defines your life and is by turns depressing and wonderful.  There are wonderful things about being an absentee parent, namely taking business trips that involve staying in a hotel room all by yourself, or having vital work meetings that keep you from going on the field trip to the local recycling plant. ...There are depressing moments too...

Family-friendly living: The happy-sad reality that your family is actually much, much better off because you work. And we're not just talking about the money. 

Guilt curve: The process by which your feelings of shame and inadequacy about being a working mom grow and then diminish. In my experience, the guilt curve is a bell curve, peaking when your first child reaches kindergarten, with a long tail that lasts until the day of your funeral. 

Homeward bound: The powerful drive you feel to get back into your house at the end of the day. The drive is so powerful, in fact, that sometimes it makes you do things that are irrational or completely out of character.  

Kill the messenger: The action you must take in order to forget about the office for a time--that is, to remove your BlackBerry/iPhone/Treo/whatever from your person and store it as far away as your neurotic self will allow...Any working mom worth her salt knows that it's the integrate-separate ratio between work and home that determines long-term working-motherhood success.

Strangely, it's nice to have people to come home to, it makes me happy to know that I've reached that place in my life were 'having people to come home to' is something I cherish. And, while I feel like I can handle the duality of being a working mother, I really must figure out a way to be gone less next summer...or, take the kiddo with me!

I think I may like my family and I look forward to seeing them tomorrow...

T is for Trips

Lila Jane has been on many trips in her lifetime.


We've gone to...

• The Rocky Mountain National Park...Estes Park and Denver.
• We've gone swimming in...the ocean, various rivers, creeks and lakes.
• Washington DC (The Smithonian, The Capitol) and to visit family in MD. The first time she was on a plane she was 5 mos. old and we were going to DC to visit family.
• Dutch Wonderland in PA.
• Kansas City...to visit family.
• Chicago (The Art Institute, The Natural History Museum).
• St. Louis...to visit friends.
• Various places nearby...Ha-Ha Tonka, Mark Twain National Forest, The Cave Restaurant...I really need to take her to my hometown.

She's also a really great traveler. She sings nursery songs or songs she makes up or songs we find on the radio, she plays with the drawing pad, she sleeps. We take it slow and stop every so often or we bring lots of adventures to keep her busy on the plane/train/in the car.

I can't wait until she's older and the real adventures begin! I can't wait to take my kiddo overseas! I want my kid to see the world and I want to go on cheesy family adventures for the rest of our lives!

10 Places Every Kid Should See
If we start next summer that's one a year until she's 13, about the age we become 'uncool'.

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And, here are our Summer Travel Plans


End of May 
Go visit my family in DC. My sister calls it their Annual Family Party, and eventually all of her family (her in-laws and all of us) are there and there's a BBQ and the Blues Festival and all sorts of DC fun! Lila and I are flying out early to have a chill weekend with my mother, sister, brother-in-law and 3 year old niece.

Colorado
I like that this is becoming a summer tradition. I'm hoping we can stay longer than we did last year as my friends just bought a home.

Flitting about Missouri
We like to go visit my St. Louis friends, my aunt in Cabool, my in-laws in KC and at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Texas
I have family and friends in Texas who have never met my kidlet (I know I'm a horrible person)...we have been making plans to remedied this!

So, what are your summer plans? Have any plans with some kiddos?

R is for Riding in the Car or Road Trip Prep

Feel free to hum "Born to Be Wild" as you read...imagine toddlers on Harleys, sippy cups secure in their fringed leather jackets.

How To Prepare For A Road Trip

What We Bring for Her

1] Snacks (it seems that no matter how many times we stop being in the car makes her hungry) such as fruit snacks, crackers, Cheerios and raisins. And, water to drink...
2] Books, I've noticed something about our kidlet. She does not get car-sick and can read or play games or draw in the back seat. I am jealous. I can't do that even in the front seat. Read all about some of our favorites here.
3] Layers in the form of jackets, sweaters, blankets. We've used layers to block the sun from a spot that just couldn't be covered any other way. Sometimes the air is too cold, but we like it that way in the front...so many ways to use layers.
4] The Nook, read all about what she does with it here.
5] Toys...of the squishy, noiseless variety. Pillow Pets, while expensive are AWESOME for this. She has two; a big purple unicorn and a tiny Dora (yes, Dora the Explorer) one, complete with a Backpack that works. This is the strangest looking chimera/Sphinx thingy, but it was the best Christmas gift from her Great-Uncle.

What We Bring for Us
1] Patience...lots of patients
2] Time...see #1 of this list if you have a hard time understanding how it might work on a road trip.
3] Strategies, for instance, we like to leave around nap-time if it's going to be a long trip...something about the car just makes her sleep and sleep...and, sleep. Or, I'll sit in the back if she needs someone to talk to...I mean it has to get lonely back there, right!?

What we do when she finds a pen
and writes on herself and then falls asleep
so we don't know about it
until we stop to get gas?
Take a picture of course!

4] "Fun Parent Mode" as in cheesey Mom and Pop time...yes, there's singing...yes, there are road games (which are so much cooler now that she knows her shapes and colors)
5] Music that is kid-friendly (just so you know some classic rock can be clean and sound cool and entertaining to a 2-year old), but doesn't drive us crazy. God Bless MP3 players!!! We also understand that there are songs (namely by Justin Bieber...how did she even find him?) that we'll have to listen to more than once...

What We Do When...
1] She has to go to the bathroom?...we stop, of course, each time...
2] She gets fussy in her car seat?...we stop at a rest-stop or a park and we don't get back into the car until she's ready (about 15 minutes).
3] There's bad weather? We wait...safety first!

And, oh my gosh, when Road Trippin' with your tiny one know that they rule the road, and if you are trying to make it somewhere in record time that's not going to happen! It's just easier that way.

Friday Five: Long Journeys

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I love doing surveys and questionnaires. I love reading peoples answers to surveys and questionnaires. They are a weakness of mine, and in looking for topics for my blog to make it easier for me to post everyday once school started...I found this. So, Fridays we're taking a break from talking about reading and books and words to answer silly surveys and questionnaires. Feel free to post your answers below, on your own blog, or both!!! Ideas from Friday5.org

Long Journeys

1. What is the longest distance you’ve traveled (in one trip) by foot?
2. What is the longest trip you’ve taken by car?
3. What is the longest trip you’ve taken by plane?
4. What is the longest trip you’ve taken on some kind of water craft?
5. What is the longest trip you’ve taken aboard a bus or train?

Answers

1. Um, I walked home from my college classes a lot. I didn't have a car...one day I had to talk all the way across down in the summer heat because my friend forgot to pick me up...what took 20 minutes to drive took about 2 hours to walk...you know staying in the neighborhoods and not walking on the busy streets. It was rewarding to finally make it home.
2. We went all the way to Rye, TX (about 650 miles) to visit my mother's side of the family, driving there wasn't bad as we stopped in Arlington, but it's so far away that on the way home Tulsa felt like familiar territory.
3. To London...6 hr. plane ride, I believe.
4. Not very long as I can't think of anything that didn't involve a pontoon and going to a restaurant at the lake...
5. My friend and I took the train to Kyle of Lochalsh (which is so beautiful it's unreal) from London...we had a sleeper car on the way there, but not on the way back...we (well, she more than me...I fell asleep) talked to this movie producer about life, the universe and everything as we were seated facing directly in front of him. I always wish that we'd gotten his name...