girlfiend

The last few weeks have been incredibly frustrating with the sick and the not sleeping and the molars and the neverending fussiness. But the Fiendling made up for it all this weekend. I didn’t want to go, but Boyfiend was going ice fishing in New Hampshire and I agreed to go along. I was convinced I’d be miserable because seriously- 8 hours each way in a car, pregnant, with a toddler in the backseat just sounds awful.

We left Thursday around 5. The plan was to stop for dinner shortly after getting on the road then driving as far as we could before stopping again so the Fiendling would sleep. That plan didn’t work. The Fiendling who hadn’t napped fell asleep within five minutes in the car and slept for about 2 hours before waking. After he woke up he talked to himself in the backseat and had no interest in stopping even though we were both hungry. An hour and a half later, around 8.30, he decided he was ready to eat so we stopped at a diner where he ate an entire plate of french fries and most of a small bowl of carrots. Back in the car he fell asleep almost immediately and stayed asleep for the rest of the ride. After we got there he woke up for a little, but was back asleep within minutes. I’d been so on edge about how things would go I couldn’t believe our good luck.

The rest of the weekend was just as good. The men fished, the womenfolk did not, and the Fiendling was perfectly charming, even on the day he didn’t nap. We drove down to Concord one day to meet up with one of my friends from college and her husband and the Fiendling was insanely well-behaved in the restaurant and napped for close to three hours afterwards. He held it together during a trip to the supermarket when he was long overdue for a nap and didn’t lose his shit until his father forced him to go sledding through his screams and cries of protest. He did nap later that day. He fell asleep every night and stayed asleep every night but one.

We left Monday morning and this time I was even more on edge about the day’s ride. I was terrified that he wouldn’t nap and he’d be miserable all day long, strapped into his rear-facing car seat. We left an hour later than we’d planned and the weather was horrendous. It was warm, but rainy, resulting in a fog like no other. For most of the first hour and half of our drive we couldn’t see a thing. Boyfiend was going 35 in a 65 and even that felt too fast considering you couldn’t see the brake lights of the car in front of you.

The fog cleared and we stopped to visit with the artist formerly known as Pink and Green Girl while the Fiendling ran around with her little ladybug. This was the least awkward meeting I’ve ever had with a blogger. The Fiendling ran around, playing nicely with Charlotte and her toys while the adults chatted. The house smelled wonderful from the freshly baked banana muffins and there were no toddler squabbles and no tears. The Fiendling was perfectly well-behaved right up until the point where he discovered the wine rack and awesomely smashed a bottle of wine all over her floor. Thankfully the wine was white, no carpets were ruined, and E was perfectly gracious about the accident. While she cleaned up the mess (I was embarrassed and would have liked to help by sucking up the wine through a straw) the Fiendling described the incident by saying, “Fiendling broke bottle of wine.” Yes, he’s not even two and he knows the word wine. He did not learn that from the PBS morning line up.

Exhausted from trashing the joint, the Fiendling napped for two and half hours after we said our goodbyes. He woke some time during the second podcast of This American Life and talked to himself and read his new Thomas the Tank Engine book for an hour before I couldn’t take it anymore and had to stop to use the rest room. We were back on the road in half an hour and the Fiendling managed to make it the rest of the way home without a complete meltdown. He whined and cried a bit for the last 15 miles but 37 rounds of The Wheels on the Bus kept him calm enough to not lose it completely.

To recap:

16 hours of driving and I was fussier than the toddler.

1 huge fish caught in 3 days of ice fishing

1 visit with college friend

1 visit with blog friend

1 broken bottle of wine

1 sledding-related breakdown

3 awesome naps

1 tired mama