Trial Run

As usual we were very much behind schedule with the leaving of the house. But it was too cute to see Jacob sprint up the stairs when I told him it was time to back his bag. He happily conversed with me as I picked a few shirts and pants out, and when I found socks to match he agreeably set to folding them. I left him in the room to finish with the socks while I finished up my packing and he came out a minute later all gleeful and ecstatic. He was prancing around so excitedly that I knew something was up. He fessed up to having packed all three pairs of footy pajamas, and totally knowing the feeling of not be able to decide (because how do you know what you’re going to feel like wearing when you get there?), I agreed to compromise and let him bring two pairs instead of the one I requested he pack. The last thing I needed was Jacob’s toothbrush and toothpaste but they were nowhere to be found. Jacob overheard me asking Zach if he’d seen them and he shouted up that he’d already packed them. Yup, there they were in his bag. So responsible.

On the drive out we had to get dinner for Jacob, so we ended up at a Burger King in one of the rest areas. The only 'fast food' that Jacob has ever had is a bean burrito at Taco Bell (and this is only when we are desperate), and Dunkin Donuts, if you can count that as fast food. Thankfully they have veggie burgers at BK, but they also have French fries, which Zach got for himself. When they came out of the line with the bag in hand, I heard Jacob ask Zach, "What are those?" pointing to the French fries. He's never had them. He doesn't even know what McDonalds is, and I consider this an accomplishment of mine. We didn't give Jacob a name for the fries, but we did let him eat some. I guess I figure that if I can't stop him from eating them, I can at least hold off on naming them - my thinking being if he doesn't have a name for them, then maybe it will be more likely that Jacob will forget he ever had them. It's not like we'll be sitting around a week later and Jacob will say, "Can I have some French fries?" He'd have to be like, "Um...can I have some of those things that we had the other day?"; "What things, honey?"; "Those things that were in the bag and then me and Daddy ate them..."; "I don't know what you're talking about, maybe you imagined it..."

So we made it out at exactly midnight, Jacob having fallen asleep just 45 minutes prior. He stayed awake for over five hours in the car. What three year-old kid does that? Jacob was really good though. He's used to taking frequent car trips like that, thanks to my once-a-month ventures to Vermont for a regular appointment. During the drive Zach and I figured that the length of this trip is about what we'd have to do every day that we are away in July. About six hours in the car every day, on average, if we're going to make it to the other side of the country and back. We'll hopefully be riding in an RV with (I am so not liking this) a DVD player. But I'm torn because I want the trip to be about Jacob looking out the window at all the sites because, who am I kidding, that's how we're going to see most of the country - through a pane of glass. I don't want it to become one long marathon of videos. I think the DVD player should be reserved for the most desperate of times, but I also know that it's just another line to cross, and once we make that initial trek into that territory, it will be that much easier to do it again because we will have already paved the way.

We all had a good time, Zach at the basketball games, us moms shopping (I lusted over the maternity clothes in the window of Motherhood), the kids being generally naked the whole time. Three year-old nudist colonies tend to crop up when you're all staying in the same house, I guess. "Jacob's nudie! I want to be nudie too!" We had a five minute trip to the falls in the freezing cold because of my crazy need to fulfill a technicality.

Our hosts were wonderful, and we miss them already. Jacob was planning our next trip back there before we even left. And in the end I realized even though things were perfect, I was kind of homesick. Being out of my comfort zone really highlighted all the fears I walk around with every day of my life. We were only gone for two days, but it was the longest we've been away from the dogs. It's Saturday monrning as I write this so we've been back for half a day now, but already the memory of the sadness I felt being away from the dogs is fading. I remember talking about it with Zach on the drive home. how we missed the dogs, and pledging with Jacob that we'd be better to Mango. But back here, enclosed in these three and half walls with Mango stealing licks over my shoulder, her eye goop threatening to land somewhere on my person, I'm having trouble getting the feeling back.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that it hit me how really far I will be out of my comfort zone in July, and for a lot longer. And I will be away from my mom. Even though I went to college a few hours away in New Hampshire, I don't think I was ever gone from home for more than two or three weeks. I'm a homebody and I'm a big, fat Mama's girl. I don't think I have ever gone for three weeks without seeing my mom, in my whole life. This is all coming up sooner than July though, because next month my mom and Jamie are making a cross-country trip of their own. They will be gone for three weeks and one day. And I'm not quite sure how I'm going to cope.