Sweet Home

We're heading back to ChicagoLand next week for a visit. Mark has to travel to Yuma for work, so the children and I are going to spend some quality time with Grandma and Papa. We're all driving home together, then Mark will fly to AZ from O'Hare. It's a long drive--about 17 hours. That estimate is really conservative, too, considering it does not take into account wee babies with wee bladders who will need feeding, watering, and exercising (not to mention referee-ing, cleaning, empathizing, and cuddling.) This will be Ella Rose's first road trip. She is generally pretty content in the car, as long as she is fed, dry, and not over-tired. We're not pushing our luck, though, so this will be a 2-day trip. The half-way mark is Nashville, where we'll hang out with Kiki (Kiersten) and Randy, who have graciously allowed us to use their driveway as a rest stop when we came through last with the RV (and that is another story...). No RV this time, though, so we'll get to mess up the guest room. :)

Change is hard. Especially for Ben. He benefits from lots of warning of 'things to come'. We remind him Sunday morning that the next day is Monday and Daddy will go back to work. He needs the time to process and get himself ready for the experience. Our trip will be Big Change for him. I figured I'd better start today in preparing him. It went down something like this:

Me: We're going to have a busy weekend, Ben.
Ben: (is circling between me on the couch, the chair by the window, and the fireplace "it's hot, be careful" he says often)
Me: In 2 days, that's Friday, we're going to get in the car..."
Ben: in the car!
Me: Right. And we're going for a loooooong drive.
Ben: a looooooooong drive.
Me: And when we stop, we're going to be at Kiki's house!
Ben: (excited) Kiki's house!
Me: We're going to sleep at Kiki's house...
Ben: then go back to our new house!
Me: no, no. We're going to sleep at Kiki's house and when we wake up we'll play with Kiki. And then we'll get back in the car again...
Ben: and go back to our new house!? (getting nervous, pacing)
Me: nooo, not our new house. We're going to take another looooooong drive to Grandma and Papa's house!
Ben: Papa's house!
Me: Right. We'll get to see Grandma and Papa and Auntie Anna...
Ben: and Kiki...
Me: Well, yes, but not at Papa's house. We'll see Kiki first, then we'll go see Grandma and Papa.
Ben: Then we'll go back to our new house. (furrowed brow, wringing of hands)
Me: We're going to stay at Grandma's for 8 days.
Ben: No!! Go back to the new house!!
Me: Oh, Ben, I know you're nervous, but we're going to have so much fun at Grandma and Papa's. It's cold there and there may be snow. We'll see Auntie Mimi and your cousins. Maybe we can go to the zoo or the museum. Remember the library right by Grandma's house? We can go get some books and puzzles...
Ben: Dadda? (really really nervous, high pitched voice, troubled face)
Me: Hmm. Well, Dadda is going to go to work when we're there. He's going to go on a plane... (thinking, and yet ignoring "abort! abort! Information overload! Shut up now!)
Ben: Go on a plane with Dadda?!? (nearing hysterics)
Me: Um, no, Buddy, Dadda has to go to work. We're going to stay at Grandma and Papa's house.
Ben: (starts to cry) NOOO!! Dadda go to work!! (runs around hitting things--the chair, the pillow, falls to the ground) Go back to the new house!! AAAAHHHHH!!!

At this point, our conversation ends as Will needs help with something in the other room. Ben becomes distracted from his meltdown by this interruption and seems to get it together more quickly than usual and on his own.

Several minutes later, I'm feeding the baby when Ben approaches me and says out of the blue, "snowman?"
With that gift of knowing context where there is none offered (that I, apparently, was given when I became a mama) I respond with a smile, "you bet! If there's snow at Grandma's house, we'll definitely make a snowman!"

So, how cool is that?

In the afternoon, we went to the GoodWill and bought mittens.