Travels with a Toddler

Here, in no particular order, is our Memorial Day whirlwind trip through SoDak to see the Moore/Jansen fams, all through the eyes, comments, and experiences of a little but very loud 2.5-yr-old:

* "Grandpa! You so funny! HAHA (imagine the "haha" in PeeWee Herman's voice, because that's totally what RL sounds like)" - This was in response to Grandpa Tom's "flip eggs" - eggs he cooks in a little skillet and then flips in mid-air to cook the other side. Totally impressive (whether you're 2 or 32), totally tasty, and apparently totally amusing.

* "HAVE TO GO POTTY!!!! HAVE TO GO POTTY NOW!!!!!!!!!" - Oh, dear me. A 2.5-yr-old bladder is not my favorite travel companion. We had four days of travel in five days of the total trip and each day should have been less than 4 hours in the car. Instead, it was always at least 5, if not longer thanks to nursing stops for LT and potty stops for RL. We were insane enough to let her ride in undies the first day, too, so it was really terrifying when we realized that while she would warn us that she had to go, she did not do so until about 90 seconds prior to her pee being a Stage Five emergency. We learned for the remaining legs of the trip to put her in an invisible (the name my kids have for pull-ups) but were still at the mercy of random and frequent roadside pit stops.

* "Cake in the sky? I see it!" - Sunday night while the kids were eating supper, my mom tried to superstitiously show me a fancy cake mix that was stashed on the top shelf of her baking cupboard, except my daughter was clearly paying more attention than Grandma thought, though, because a few minutes after I had given the kill signal and the mix was safely tucked back out of sight, we heard Raegan say this little gem. Cake in the Sky. I like it.

* "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" - Reason my 2.5-yr-old was crying? Just told her she couldn't ride her bike. In the van!!! As we were traveling down the highway!!! Such nerve I have.

* "Want Tiger!" (Daniel Tiger music) "Want book!" (any book would do, but of course it's always better if it is the book her brother is currently reading) "Snack!!!" (Can you say "goldfish?") - Music, reading, and food are our travel coping skills since we don't do videos in the car and holy wow, did Little Miss have a lot of requests as we made our way here, there, and everywhere. And let it be known, if you chose not to listen and/or acknowledge her, she'll just keep saying it, louder and louder, until you do. Consider yourself warned.

* "UP!" Good thing she's little and light. Baby Girl still wants picked up and carried all the time. She does it to me and if my arms are free, I oblige, but typically I'm holding Lincoln, so if her No.1 Person is around, she's perfectly content to be in his arms instead. Because she's tired. Because there was a loud noise. Because she can. It's just that simple.

* After asking "We going home?" every time we got in the car, all long-weekend long, when we finally did hit the road back to Hastings on Memorial Day, we weren't ten miles into Nebraska before she sadly started saying, "Go back to Grandpa's? Want to go back to Grandma's!" It's nice to know she enjoyed the trip and that she loves her family. It's also quite nice to have survived another road trip with three small Littles and be back home. Traveling with a toddler (and her brothers) is not exactly a vacation!