I like to think that my children lead a very glamorous life.
Airplanes and oceans and languages... strollers on cobblestone streets and nursing baby across from the opera house and stamps filling up the passport. These are fantastic memories, and when I load my children into the minivan at 6am in the morning for a 10 hour drive from our apartment to Granny's stoop, I close my eyes and remember.
Fresh, cold wind on red cheeks.
Our life seems not so glamorous now. A catastrophic cocoa puff spill. Pulling of hair and calling of names. Carefully weighing the risk asessment of boredom versus the dvd player. Sitting shotgun, in reverse on both knees, pointing and yelling and throwing paper towels and putting out friendly-fires. At 75 mph on the interstate.
But this is what we do. We get in the van (or the plane), and we go. We travel, we seek, we wait. We wake up early and get dressed and pack our sippy cups for the next mission.
"Mom, remember when you woke me up at 4 in the morning to fly to another country? The sun was up then, not dark like today."
Well, the sun is always up at 4 in the morning in Ireland in August. And he remembers... the 4am wake-up call in 2008 to catch a flight to Hungary.
Yes, these are fantastic memories for burgeoning adventurers.
Blessings on you and your adventurers. I'm in Helsinki with my daughter now. An unexpected and unplanned stay when we missed a flight. Choosing to see it as an adventure!
ReplyDeleteHey, pick up a pack of pipe cleaners in lots of colors from the dollar store before a trip one day. That and big beads once they are old enough for beads make great things to do in the van. Pipe cleaners can be bent, twisted, and formed into so many things - animals, glasses, aliens... and they can be unbent and used again. Of course, you will be finding them all over your van for weeks to come... unless you actually clean you van out - which of course I ALWAYS do at the end of each trip (ahem, year).
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that...