Posted on

I might run out into traffic

To soothe a baby, go on a car ride, right? Not if the baby is Sam! He hates riding in the car, and he doesn’t let us forget it. He screams the entire time he is buckled in. He could have just been fed and changed and be the happiest baby around, yet the second we get rolling, he starts screaming.

The kid has stamina, too. One might think he’d eventually wear himself out, but not so much. Tuesday night we drove to Cincinnati (a trip that should take an hour but took two thanks to traffic) and he did not stop. The whole time. Between him and the horrible traffic, when we finally got to the Reds game my nerves were shot. I was about to take to the drink.

He’s always fine (albeit a pool of sweat) as soon as we get to our destination and get him out. He just wants to be held, which I understand, but occasionally we do have to be in the car.

I feel so bad for him when he is upset like that, but I really don’t know what to do. We’ve tried sitting back there with him, singing, playing music (and radio static), holding his hand, talking to him… everything we can think of, but nothing helps. Even if we stop and get him out and settled down, he starts up again as soon as he’s back in the car seat.

I am scared to death of our upcoming trip to St. Louis (for a Cardinals game… do you see a pattern here?). It’s six hours of solid driving.

I am open to suggestions!! Actually I am begging for them. And help me decide this – on a long road trip, how long is too long to just keep chugging along even though he’s crying??

Post to Twitter

Posted on

WFMW: Tottoos.org

I’ve been meaning to write this WFMW for, oh, about 11 months, but with summer here, now seemed like the perfect time to finally do it!

Last June we took a trip to Disney World. Kate had just turned three. Being the giant dork I am, I was researching everything I could. You should have seen the notebook in my purse with maps, the order in which we’d ride each ride, “must see” tips and more. It made Jenny and her coupon binder seem well adjusted.

But anyway! Right before we left I found out about Tottoos. They are, as you might imagine, tattoos for kids. Here’s what they look like:
tottoos.jpg

Yes, I planned to tattoo my cell phone number on my child’s arm! We were about to leave on our trip, and I wasn’t sure I could get them in time, so I called the tottoos people and they were SO nice and sent my order to me with time to spare.

Tottoos aren’t like the regular temporary tattoos you’re used to. They are more plasticky (yes, that is the technical term) and you have to use their special remover to get them off, so they are water proof and will stand up to a long day at the amusement park or whatever.

They also have a medical alert variety that can be used to warn people about a child’s diabetes, allergies, etc.

I took a lot of razzing when I told my friends at work that I was going to order these (paranoid much??) but they were great. Having been lost in Disney World myself as a child, I really wanted to make sure that we would be quickly reunited with Kate should we become separated. She couldn’t be trusted (and still can’t, really) to remember a phone number, especially if she were upset, so this was perfect. I just told her that if she couldn’t find us, she should find a Disney worker or another mom with kids and show her Tottoo.

Fortunately, we didn’t need to put the Tottoos into action, but I was very glad to have them. And many, many moms stopped me throughout our trip and asked me where i had gotten such a thing.

Keeping kids safe – that works for me. For more Works for me Wednesday fun, head over to Rocks in my Dryer!

I just got an email from the nice Tottoos people and they are offering our readers 10% off – just use the code MOM10.

Post to Twitter

Posted on

Let’s work on that ‘freezing time’ thing again.

A while back, I said I wanted to freeze time because Sammy was getting too big too fast… now I want to freeze it again, but this time for a different reason.

My maternity leave is almost over. Ok so I still have a month left (I go back July 7th), but still.. it is staring me in the face. And I don’t like it. I want more time to sit and stare at my baby as he’s sleeping, more time to watch him smile.

I know I’ve been really lucky this time around… three months of fully-paid leave is way better than what the majority of women get in this country. I only had four weeks off with Kate, and yet I am dreading going back this time much more than I was then.

I need to just enjoy this remaining time instead of focusing on the countdown to d-day, work on enjoying today instead of worrying about tomorrow. Which really, should be the goal all the time, right?

Post to Twitter