Spring break

Well, you guys, I did it: I drove from Atlanta to Central Florida with both kids alone. Yes, you read that correctly; I took an almost-8-month-old and a just-turned-4-year-old on a road trip for just under eight hours by myself. Truth be told, I was a little bit nervous (OK, I was very nervous) about it, but I also knew that I could do it if I didn’t expect too much out of myself and allowed myself enough time to travel.
The last time I traveled with both kids, Jesse was with us. It was several months ago when we went down to Florida for Thanksgiving last year, and Akira was just under 4 months old. It’s hard to believe that that much time has already passed—and in those quick months, Akira has grown exponentially in both size and temperament.
This trip was not as hard as I thought it would be. I left Atlanta right around the time Akira typically takes his morning nap. And knowing that he was nursed, had a clean diaper and was ready to sleep, I wasn’t too worried about how he would fare. If anything, I was patting myself on the back for getting all of our things packed up and ready to go at a reasonable hour. Once the kids were all loaded up, we hit the road. Within 10 minutes, I asked Anaïs how her brother was doing, and she confidently replied, “Oh, he’s asleep!” Phew!
For the next two hours, Anaïs and I chatted and listened to music until she herself nodded off. Once both kids were out like a light, it felt like it was just the open road and me. For those fleeting minutes of quiet, I was able to listen to what I wanted to on the radio, focus on driving and get lost in my thoughts. It was glorious.
When they woke up, we had about an hour before our halfway pit stop. And they were surprisingly quiet when they awoke. It was as though they both just opened their eyes, realized we were still in the car and continued to sit patiently and look out the window. I peered through the rearview mirror and noticed Anaïs and asked her if her brother was still asleep. As soon as I said his name, he started cooing and squealing like a baby pterodactyl, which evidently is his preferred method of communicating these days. (Check out the video below to hear for yourself!)
After we stopped for lunch and a bathroom break, we were back on the road. Aside from the inconvenient traffic along the way, the entire trip was pretty seamless. No one had a breakdown. No one was impatient. Both kids took their naps. In short, it was pretty much as great as it could be with two littles strapped in their car seats for an extended period of time.
Although it wasn’t as difficult traveling with them as I had anticipated, I don’t think I’d want to do it regularly. Don’t get me wrong—it really wasn’t that bad! But, not gonna lie, I feel like time would have gone by much faster had Jesse traveled with us. Unfortunately, he had to stay up in Atlanta for work but is meeting us and flying down here on Friday! It’ll be great having him back with us as we spend the last leg of the week on vacation as a family reunited once again.