Days on “holiday”: 4
Days spent travelling: 2
Days actually spent somewhere else not moving, and thus days theoretically defined as “vacation”: 2
Number of days required for everyone to recover from a day of travel: 1 (you do the math)
Nights of decent sleep: 1 for Mama, 2 for Dada, 2.5 for Liam
Excellent meals: All of them
Number of stupid tropical storms that ruined two or three weekend plans: 1 (damn you, Ernesto)
Hours spent in the car on the way to Oakville: 8
Stops on the way: 3 (1 major for Liam’s lunch, 2 minor leg-stretching)
Hours spent in the car on the way home: 7.5
Hours spent parked on the 401 around Napanee: 1.2 (We’re not sure how that math works out either, but that’s the way it happened. We think we bent time because all three of us were hating the car so much by that point.)
Stops on the way: 2 (1 major for Liam’s lunch, one for leg-stretching and a Liam snack)
Number of cars seen and commented upon by Liam: 1,892,459,386
New teeth this weekend: 2 (thank every single god out there, those damn lower molars are finally OUT)
New word: “Home.” (Said very gently but seriously while looking deeply into my eyes, little hand patting the armchair.)
New accomplishment: Going up the grandparental staircase alone to the second floor. Several times, in fact. Usually chasing a cat. (Coming down, still not so good.)
New clothes: 2 shirts, 2 pants, 6 pairs of socks, 1 two-piece snowsuit
New lace-up shoes: 0
New soft slip-on shoes: 1 (They have FISH!! on them and they are teh awesome. Liam chose them himself, although now every once in a while he trips because he’s looking at his feet and saying “fish!”.)
New people Liam met: Smiley little cousin Saya! (Oh yes, and her cool parents.)
The average price we paid for a litre of gas: 86 cents
Cool things: The squirrel that came right up to the back door and climbed the screen, close enough to touch (if Mama had so allowed, she ruins everyone’s fun); the wooden cat on the hearth; the horse brasses; the toy basket and the new Fisher Price Corn Popper walker toy that Liam spent more time swinging around like a club to shake the little balls than actually walking with.
Sounds like a few more downs than ups (hurray for the yummy food, though), but at least you are able to glean the humour out of it all. (Remember those vacations with just the two of you? Sitting around, relaxing, doing what you wanted when you wanted to? Remember when a “vacation” was exactly that?) At least it sounds like Liam is a fairly good traveller. When my cousins were little, their parents could never go on any roadtrips longer than one hour, because otherwise both kids would become very ill and wail. . . and vomit. (Puts a bit of a perspective on things, don’t it?)
Anyway, welcome home weary travellers all!
Oh, we spend a lot of time while away thanking our lucky stars that Liam is a terrific little traveller. I also spent an awful lot of time griping privately to myself about how I won’t have a vacation where I will genuinely relax for another 16 years or so. Part and parcel of the baby gig, I know, and I was fully aware of it when I signed on, but still — argh. The irony of having children is that one needs a vacation all the more once they’re around.
Lookin’ for a place to happen
Makin’ stops along the way…
t!
I decided that was Liam’s theme song about a month ago, when I found the Magellan mix and finally acquired the Hipeponymous set!