Landed

We are back, and we are exhausted. It was a great trip, in the way that must be our new normal in terms of traveling with small kiddos. Things have improved significantly since our first forays with baby Mateo, and since we first tried to travel with the two of them. On both this trip and our recent weekend in Washington, we did get to sleep throughout most of the nights. The kids did nap on their regular schedules. And the process of getting to and home from our destination was actually pretty smooth. The days of wanting to do some primal screaming upon returning home seem to be behind us, at least for now!

And, we had a lovely time with my parents. The basketball game was really fun and we got to see Cal win (at least a share of) their first Pac 10 championship in 50 years! There was confetti coming down from the rafters and it felt like something you might watch on tv. My mom's willingness to babysit for that was much appreciated! Despite Mateo's under-the-weather-ness, we made it out to a local wildlife museum for a little while on Friday, and also went to a toy store in town earlier that day. Sacha made it down to us safely, and she and I got to go out for dessert on Friday night (thanks, Mom and Dad!), which was nice. My parents made sure we had as many treats, delicious dinners, and designer coffee as we could possibly handle. We had lots of quality time with both of my parents, and we even hit the steam trains in Tilden Park this morning before going to the airport.

Simultaneously, Mateo's behavior was really difficult the whole time we were there. He wasn't feeling well, as he informed us about ten billion times. He whined incessantly and wanted to be touching me (or Sacha, once she arrived) at all times. This was especially true when I was holding his sister, who also wanted to be held or paid attention to AT ALL TIMES. Mateo wasn't interested in leaving the house, didn't want to eat anything, didn't want to drink anything, didn't want to do anything, and so on and so forth. The kids woke up at night more than usual, which gave me less sleep and less patience during the day. To add insult to injury, once he finally started to recover from the stomach bug, he woke up last night with a barking cough and wheezing breathing that I thought must be croup. Thank goodness it resolved into only a regular cough in the morning.

Anyway, I suppose my point is that our trip was both very good and extremely frustrating! I guess that's the way things are just going to be at this point in our lives. I think that had Mateo not been sick, things would have flowed much more smoothly for all of us. And, the fact that, even with our illness and behavior struggles, the plane flights went as well as they did must mean that we're heading in a good direction overall in terms of traveling.

Of course, this morning, the kids finally got that they could run around in my parents' backyard and play mostly on their own. And, they rode the steam trains with just their grandparents and not a mommy or mama in sight. Maybe we should have stayed for a week instead of a long weekend? Anyway, we had fun overall and will cross our fingers that the preschool stomach flu spares us on our next trip!