Am I crazy?

I started this post last Saturday, and finished it today... for obvious reasons. 

***

This Friday, after I get off of work, my dad gets off of work, and my mom gets off of work, we are traveling up to Maryland. Aaron doesn't have any days off of work left, so he's unable to go with us. I'm super sad about that, but I know that this will push me out of my comfort zone and will make memories with my kids.

Am I crazy?

The purpose of the trip is to visit my dad's mom who lives in Maryland. We will be gone from Friday till Wednesday. For this trip, which is 12 hours, we normally do not leave at night. We normally leave in the morning. But in an effort to split up the trip over two days, we are going to leave on Friday night and drive as far as we can before stopping at a hotel. Then we will continue our journey on Saturday, and we'll make a little stop in Virginia to visit some family friends. Then we'll continue the rest of the way up to Maryland, and arrive by the afternoon or evening. Sometime on Tuesday, we will begin heading home, and will adopt the same plan of driving as far as we can and then stopping at a hotel. Then we'll finish up our journey on Wednesday, and the very next day is Thanksgiving! 

It's overwhelming to think I'm packing for myself and 3 kids, but I've already started making my list and I can't pack ahead of time by too many days anyhow. So I have my list ready and I'll begin really getting things into the suitcases on Wednesday and Thursday. 

I bought a couple things over the last couple days to make the trip easier. Last year in May, we bought a portable DVD player for the kids to use on our way down to the beach cottage, which is a five-hour drive. We also used a portable DVD player in February when my mom and I took the boys down to Florida to see her parents, which is a six-hour drive. So, this time we're going to be in the van and the boys will be separated in the van. Michael sits on the third row and Noah sits in the second row. So they couldn't really easily share the portable DVD player this time. I went ahead and bought another one on Amazon, the exact same one so that nobody can fight about it. I also bought some padded kids headphones, so that the boys can listen to their own movies and the grown-ups don't have to hear the movies. We'll see how all this goes. I've adopted the mentality of "go with the flow" and understand that my expectations need to be low in order for them to be met. 

I also bought Fisher-Price Rock and play bassinet. I had never heard of this before, but I was looking at the Moses baskets on Amazon in an effort to find somewhere that Avery could sleep that was a portable enough to take into a hotel and also into my grandma's house. So I kept reading mixed reviews on the Moses baskets and I wasn't convinced that they were actually safe. I like to have Avery sleep with the angel care Monitor and that can only work on a flat surface. So I didn't want to take just her regular Rock and play because that has a plastic backing that's curved and it's not a flat surface, so the angelcare won't work with that. As I'm reading reviews for the Moses basket and other mesh sleepers, I read a review by parent who said that they just returned everything and bought the Fisher-Price Rock and play bassinet. So I looked it up, and it is fantastic. It lays flat and it can also be folded up flat for easy travel. I can put it up and get it down very quickly, and I will definitely be able to use the angelcare monitor with this. I am very very happy with this purchase.


***
So here we are on Friday morning and it's today! I pretty much accomplished all of the packing, and I'll be loading things into the van over my lunch break and as soon as I'm done with work. It is definitely overwhelming, but I feel pretty much at peace about it. I'm looking forward to the trip, and the family time that will come with it. I will miss Aaron like crazy, and I know he feels the same. I'm glad that I'll have my parents with me, because I don't really like being a single parent and I'm so glad that I never have to be a single parent here at home. However, trying to pack things for a Type 1 Diabetic, and a spunky three-year-old, and a newborn is pretty crazy. But I think we'll manage, and I'm looking forward to all the conversations that I'll get to have with my parents on the way. And the boys will each have their DVD player and their headphones, so I think it'll all work out. 

And I'll be sure to let you know how it goes! 

Until next time, 
Love, Reba