Thirty-Four Days of Travel

We've now been on the road 34 days--including our trip to Winnipeg and all over the East Coast.  Mostly it's been a solo-parenting adventure, stopping in to see family and friends.  Jordan joined us for a week and it was a much needed reprieve.

I am definitely not regretting taking the time to travel and do fun things with the kids.  I would and will do it all over again.  I'm not even ready for it to be over yet.  But, man, am I ever zonked.  Being the on-demand full-time parent of two sleep-deprived little ones for more than a month is a job that can be very demanding.  Even when there are people to help out, those early before-6-am-wake-up calls and room-sharing middle-of-the-night wake-ups can be brutal.  Daytime planning is always a bit of a balancing act.  Is today a sleep in the car day?  Early nap? Late nap? One nap, two nap?  Four activities, one?  Stay home, stay out? Low-key, high-key.... Sometimes, at least for me, just making all those million decisions in one day is exhausting enough. 

We've been sharing one room all week which has gone surprisingly well.  I've always been the kind of person who LOVES sleep and needs sleep and needs everyone else to sleep too so that everyone is just happy.  But I think sometimes you get to a point that you are so tired you will all just sleep anywhere anytime.  There has been a lot of wrangling of little ones, a lot of "just LAY down."  A lot of singing and cuddling and little people crawling in my bed at night.  So I have tried to crash around the same time and sneak in naps for me when I can get them.  And when I can't, well, I just lay on the sofa or the floor and sleep with my eyes open.  These pictures pretty much sum it up.

Traveling with little people is always bitter-sweet, am I right?  You want to make these precious memories and do as much as you can wherever you are at, (within reason), doing things that you know the littles will love but also sneak in a few just for you.   I always find that part of me wants to revel in the time away from home and soak in new adventures, new places, new people, while the other side of me cannot wait to get back to a semblance of order and routine eventually.

Sometimes, it feels like we've been "on-vacation" forever...  and yet, it's not that long before it's all over and I am wondering how it all went so fast! Or maybe that's just parenthood.