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Traveling with kids

Yesterday I took my cousin and her 7 month old daughter to a doctor check up in SLC (they had a bit of a scare when baby girl’s intestines turned in on themselves and surgery was needed. This check up was to make sure all was healing right a month after the surgery). We found that 3 carseats do, in fact, fit in the back seat of the Saturn with a bit of a nudge from each door. Mardson was in the middle and i was hoping he wouldn’t take too much advantage of being able to reach both babies. He liked to peak at them and occasionally swipe a toy, but was otherwise very well behaved.

We had a two crying little girls for the first little leg of the trip and an occasional “stop crying!” from Mardson, but eventually the two sad ones fell asleep and Mardson played happily on his own. We dropped Nichole and Madison off at the hospital (after a little detour and finding the wrong hospital) and then went to find some food. We were first planning on going in with them for the visit but my sister advised against that because kids in the hospital are sick (naturally) and she’s had friends take healthy kids in for a visit and come down with weird viruses shortly thereafter. So we stayed away.

We found a McDonalds and Mardson liked the fries best. He was super excited when stopped in a parking lot so I could feed Penelope and he could ‘drive’ the car. We soon had to pack up (Mardson was extremely reluctant) to go pick up the girls. On our way over, Penny decided she hadn’t finished eating, so we found a church parking lot and I tried again. Mardson was delighted to get out of the carseat again and this time he was able to run around outside with Nichole and Madison. Well, it turns out the church lawn had managed to get over-watered and Mardson magically tripped in the only mud puddle around. The poor kid was so sad about it. He didn’t cry, he just sort of whimpered as we tried to find a way into the church. Thank goodness for the mother’s lounge! We stripped him down and rinsed out his brand new clothes and then put him in his pj’s. It’s amazing what a clean set of clothes did for his attitude. He was instantly my happy boy once more.

Well, skip ahead to us stopping at Costco for gas and Penny deciding she’s wasting away and starving again. So we stop by my parents’ home (the closest known domicile to said Costco) and I get to feeding Penny. Somehow, in the act of eating, she mysteriously learns how to ignore the front of her diaper and send all her baby poop shooting up and out the back instead. Her face was so shocked as the stream went up her back, it was priceless. Though I’m sure my face was a mirror of hers because I was just as surprised. And this is exactly the kind of thing that prompts mothers the world over to always pack a spare outfit in the diaper bag for infants. I rinsed her other clothes out and put them to wash, got Penny cleaned up and changed and then took a moment to eat something.

We finally get packed up in the car again to take Nichole and Madison home and both girls are again working on their decibel levels. Mercifully they both fell asleep quickly and all was quiet. Well, except for the 1500 times Mardson tells me, “Momma, I need some milk. Need some milk. Need some MILK!!” Sigh, it’s the little things that make life worth living

We got the girls dropped off and made it home safely. I might even consider a road trip now!