When You Give A Two Year Old A Marker

Monday I will return to talking about Becoming Friend Worthy BUT for the weekend I interrupt the New Town to Hometown series with a silly story from the journey

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I looked up the distance of our trip just recently and found out that we traveled  2110 miles during out trip from my husband’s hometown in British Columbia to our new town in Indiana.  The site  also stated that without stopping the trip should take 1 day and 10 hours.

For normal people who travel on average 10 hours a day that would mean the trip would take roughly 3 and 1/2 days of driving. But as I shared yesterday we were not your average moving convoy.

Taking out the time we spent visiting family along the way we were actively  traveling for 7 days.

If you do the calculations that means on average we made managed 5 hours of driving time a day and yet we started just after breakfast and ended right around dinner time.

What Were We Doing The Other 5 hours?

The days were hot. In fact it was the hottest summer in years. The old cube van could not take traveling at high speeds without risk of over heating. Our newborn needed frequent nursing. There were potty breaks and fueling  breaks for both humans and vehicles.

Each of those breaks was a 20 to 30 minute process and if food was involved it took close to an hour. Needless to say everyone got hot, tired, frustrated and grumpy.

Which is how our two year old turned green from head to toe one day during the trip.

You see our cube van was not the only thing that overheated easily. From the day he was born our middle child has had a low heat tolerance. To keep him cool I was stripping him down to his diaper to travel in the van whose air conditioning just could not keep up with the heat.

In the van I had 2 activity bags. One bag had things age appropriate for a  6 yr old to stay busy with and the other for a 2 yr old. On the day of the incident a certain very over tired parent put the wrong bag by the wrong child.

Another overtired parent went to get the two year old out of the van come lunch time and started screaming in horror “OH MY WORD, what happened to him?” “We can’t possibly bring him in like this” and on and on until the other  parent finally made it out of the drivers seat of the van to see what the panic was about.

There was my adorable 2 yr old green from head to toe  thanks to a marker he found in his brother’s car kit that was placed by him. “oh no wonder he was so quiet” I said. My husband who tends to be the neat freak of our family  was not happy with my total lack of panic in seeing a marker covered child.

A box of wipes later and much grumbling from the neater parent the child was no longer a bright shade of green but a light shade.

The marker incident is just one example of the mayhem the children brought to the trip. Remember the poop explosion from day one. Let’s just say that by the time we finished the trip we had tossed several brand new outfits that were destroyed and we also had to buy a new car seat as the old one was stained beyond saving.

Then there was the day that they all decided to start crying at the same time while we were in a traffic jam with no exit for miles. In that moment I was so envious of my husband. Even though his cube van did not have air conditioning forcing him to have the windows wide open and listen to road noise at least he was not trapped in a small space with three crying at the top of their lungs children.

So I sought the only relief I could; I pressed the walkie-talkie button and let my husband hear the unbelievable amount of noise the fruit of his loins were creating and joined in myself “Do you hear this” I said between sobs. His reply was “yes I do and I wish you could feel just how hot it is in this van”.

Overwhelming heat or a van full of screaming children, which would you choose?

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This post is part of the New Town to Hometown series. Use the links below to dig into the series.

Introduction: My Story

Part One: Becoming Friend Worthy

1. It all begins with fellowship with God
2. The most important lesson in friendship building
3. Are you welcoming?
4. Create mutual bonds
5. Meet a need and make a friend
6. Don’t try to look perfect
7. Not everyone is going to be your friend

Part Two: Places To Find Friends

1. Start the search online
2. Church
3. Community
4. MOPS
5. Homeschooling groups
6. Be the neighbor with the active porch swing
7. Breaking the ice and setting goals

Part Three: Creating Community

1. Research before you leave

2.Visit your new local visitors center

3. Make a to see list

4.Take a Sunday drive

5.Study the areas history

6.Take part in all things local

7.Explore local state parks and playgrounds

Silly Stories Of My Moving Adventure

1. It is going to be a long trip
2. When you give a two year old a marker (you are here)
3. I was a soap opera star for just one day
4. A sign that the long trip was about to end
5. What happens when your landmarks become cornfields