Some of my major trepidation about going on a trip with the kids is trying to figure out how things are going to work.

My parents seem to me, at least looking back now that I’m closing in on forty faster than I perhaps would like to admit, to have been extraordinarily brave – they had four kids that they were hauling around by any transportion method they needed to use.  We have only two kids, yes, but one is barely over one and the other has Autism.

That’s more of an excuse than an explanation, but there’s something to be said for not disrupting the Monster’s schedule.  We all know at this point how throwing him off doesn’t do him much good – it ends up just setting him off in ways that we can’t predict, which just stresses us out further.

We were considering the idea of a trip to Florida (well, we’re still considering the idea of it, but putting it off for a short while) that would have involved driving there and back.  This was mostly due to the cost involved with flying down, and was one of two major issues that had me hesitating about this being a good idea.  To me, the idea of having both kids in the car for five to six hours at a stretch was just asking for all the more trouble, especially since we’ve not done that with the kids since they were very, very little.  To compare: going to visit my parents is a 3-ish hour drive with multiple stops, and it’s a trip we’ve not made since November.

Sunday afternoon was our nephew’s birthday party, which entailed throwing the kids into the van with the grandparents, and all of us going down for the party together.  From their house to the party is about 90 minutes each way.

I suppose what amused me were the lessons learned:

• The Monster still tolerates car rides fairly well.  I don’t know how he’d handle five to six hours at a stretch, even with some stops, but he seemed not to care less about being in the car.
• The baby, on the other hand, was almost inconsolable.  He slept for perhaps forty, forty-five minutes, and screamed easily for what felt like twice as long.  I’m not saying it’d hold up as well for five to six hours, but… yeah.

Of course, though, the Monster also can entertain himself, whereas the baby can’t.  Still… I think that given what we’ve learned, we might still consider just flying when we do finally go on vacation…