Nine to Nine

May 8, 2007

Tuesday we were in the car from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. My wonderful amazing blessed children were amazing. Cash had some trouble sleeping his morning nap. Even though he was exhausted (5:45 a.m. is his new wake up time) he only rested for 30 minutes. So, when about 12:30 rolled around and I knew he was getting tired again, Jimmy told me to give him some Benadryl. For those of you who may not know, it's an antihistamine that causes drowsiness. The meds paid off and he slept for like two hours.

Meanwhile, Jackson and Libby are in the far backseat of the van by themselves, doing their thing. What's their thing? Well, it's acting like an old married couple. Jackson is the man, of course, and Libby is the woman, who knows the better way to do things, but has her hands tied because she's strapped into her car seat. (Jackson can at least bend over and pick things up or unbuckle for a short time because he's in a regular seat belt.) So basically, Libby calls out things like, "Jackson, keep your hands to yourself...My headphones aren't working...I dropped my water..." and Jackson says, "What do you want Libby...I'm trying to help you Libby...Here, have your sandwich...No, you can't use my headphones..." the bickering back and forth is really pretty entertaining. Within minutes of our first day on the road there was a big problem because Jackson was trying to adjust Libby's pillow and he just couldn't get it just like she wanted it. Like I said, an old couple.

Okay, a few more comments. I am in awe of how many cords are involved in a family trip. It's a good thing I'm pregnant because if not I'm pretty sure the number of electronic devices would outnumber the number of people in our family. We have a computer, a DVD player (2 screens), a cell phone, a digital camera, iPod, and a video camera. Between these devices I laid in bed last night trying to count the number of cords I am required to make sure we don't forget and I lost count somewhere around 18. What is up with that? Are we aliens? Crazy.

At about 6 p.m. We thought we were only about 90 minutes from our destination and we decided to stop for dinner. We did something crazy. We went to Chili's. I hated to spend the money but I just wanted a waiter. I didn't want to squirt ketchup out of plastic packets. I wanted silverware. I say it was crazy because it's so expensive, mostly. And because my kids had been in the car all day. But they were fine, and only one person commented on how much Cash can eat. I asked for sweet tea, only to discover that in the course of a day, I was not in the south anymore.



You know we had to stop.



Cash likes to spit to pass the time.



This is about 9 hours into it. She's really hungry.



This is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It was long.



This is Maryland. It looks like Kansas.