8 Hours In The Car

The drive from our house to my parents house is about 500 miles, or about 7.5-8 hours in the car. I was very nervous about how Captain Adorable would react, seeing as he does not like the car seat very much. In order to make the trip more bearable for him, we decided to turn the car seat around (forward facing). We also had my Mom in the car, so she could attend to any needs he might have while we were on the road. We planned to stop every 2 hours and to make sure to give Captain Adorable plenty of time (approximately an hour at each stop) to stretch his legs before putting him back in the car.

Our plans worked well. He seemed to really be in favor of facing forward (I still feel weird about it, seeing as rear-facing is so much safer). We left right before nap time, and after rush hour. The driving was easy and Capt. Adorable slept until I asked Mom to put a hat on him to keep the sun out of his face. Unfortunately that woke him up after only a half an hour of nap...fortunately, he did not cry and we continued driving (with Mom and the baby interacting--she kept him from getting too bored) for the full 2 hours we had planned. We stopped at a rest stop and even though it was cold, ate lunch at a picnic table. Captain Adorable was too excited to eat and only took a jar of sweet potato before he insisted on getting down and walking around. He was having a great time, but he fell and hit his beautiful face on a rock that was placed next to the path and he has a big black eye. He cried, but not very much, really. I felt horrible and I called Captain Obvious right away.

We got back in the car and Mom fed Captain Adorable the rest of his lunch. Then he fell asleep for about 2.5 hours, so we drove for 3 hours without stopping. When he woke up, he was not happy to be in the car, so we stopped at the first place available--another rest stop. It was much warmer, but still required coat and hat. He walked around in a grassy area (no rocks this time!) and had a great time. We got back in the car after about an hour. He was fine the rest of the way, playing shake-my-head with my Mom and generally being angelic and cooperative. We stopped once more, because we needed to fill up the gas tank, and while I took Captain Adorable out of the car, we kept him in arms only. We got back on the road after only about 10 minutes.

When we got to my parents' house, he was amazed and fascinated with all the wonderful new things to see and touch. To my surprise and happiness, they had bought a little slide for him! I did not get him into the bath (bedtime ritual) till 9:00! By the time his head hit the pillow, he went to sleep easily and quickly.

I have been taking lots of photos of him interacting with this new environment and I cannot wait to show them all to Captain Obvious.