Well we're back in CT safe and sound. Until the return drive home, it was a lovely trip.
We left Thursday around 1pm and drove until 11:30, which brought us just past Cleveland. Josh did all the driving - I was in charge of where to stop and when. We stopped at a Dairy Queen for dinner and Jocelyn flirted with another baby in there about the same age (who was already talking!). She was smitten. Morgan did well eating inside up to a table.
In general our pit stops were well coordinated. Timothy with Joey, Morgan with Josh, me with Jocelyn. I'd change Jocelyn and then everyone would play outside while I ran back in to use the bathroom myself, and then we'd get going. Easy peasy! We stopped at a Country Inn & Suites for the night, which was roomy enough for all. Jocelyn was amazingly well mannered throughout the trip out.
Friday we made the rest of the trip to Bay City - only hitting traffic in one spot for 7 miles. I know it was 7 miles because there was a big yellow sad face on the side of the road that said 7 miles. At 6 miles, he was a bit less sad. By 4 miles he was straight faced, and by 1 miles he was smiling big Ahhh, Michigan - what a sense of humor!
We got to the hotel in plenty of time to have a swim before dinner. We had dinner with Susan and Jonathan and also met Susan's cousin Gloria and her family who stopped by. Morgan was kind enough to fall asleep prior to their arrival and to stay that way.
Saturday night was Jacob's Bar Mitzva. Timothy headed over early with Susan and Josh and I brought Morgan and Jocelyn a bit later. Jacob greeted us at the door as we came in - he's so grown up now! While we waited for services to begin, Morgan entertained himself by kicking the chair in front of him and repeating some episode of Charlie Brown over and over - LOUDLY. Soooooo - Morgan and Jocelyn and I spent all but the first 10 minutes of the Bar Mitzva in the car singing Stuff it in the Closet repeatedly for about an hour.
We came back in after it was over and at least got to say hi to many relatives. Still though, Morgan wasn't having it (he started out content to stim off of various items in the room where the services were but would not go to the party room, and then eventually wasn't happy stimming any more) and Jocelyn was in a horrible mood, so we left Timothy there to have the time of his life and went back to the hotel.
It's too bad too - it was a western theme with line dancing and everything and looked like so much fun!
Susan and Jonathan and Joey and cousin Chelsea brought Timothy home a little past ten. Timothy has quite a crush on Chelsea and had danced the night away at her side. He first developed his crush 5 years ago when a then 9-year old Chelsea with bouncy hair made the then 2-year old Timothy her pet and let him play with her and all her friends. Now 14 and all grown up with smooth straight hair and open-toed shoes, she was still very very kind to him, which I so appreciate. He was so devastated at the thought of not seeing her again for a while that all I could do was hold him while he cried himself to sleep Saturday night. Sunday morning he was still upset and cried quietly for the first 2 hours of our trip home.
We got on the road at 7:30 - only a bit late of our desired 7am departure. However, somehow we had lost our mojo. Morgan had chewed off all his finger nails on the way out, so the only thing left for the way back was his actual fingers, so he chewed off enough to cause himself to be pretty much covered in dried blood. When we noticed, we stopped to clean him up and just Timothy and I went in to use the facilities (we had only stopped 60 minutes earlier).
Timothy was following me but as I went to open the ladies' room door he stopped. And that's when I realized that it had happened. He had grown up and suddenly going into the ladies' room instead of the men's' room was simply unacceptable. I paused for a moment and we looked at each other, wondering who would concede. I knew it had to be me. I didn't want to, but I did. So instead of dragging him with me, I went over the rules for independent use of a men's room. Go in, use it, wash, get out, wait here, talk to no one, do not leave the building without me. I peed fast but he still beat me out. I knew he did just as he was told. So off we went back to the car, me and my no-longer-little boy.
90 minutes later we had to stop again due to smell burning our nostril hairs. I got Jocelyn and Josh got Morgan. Josh got the short stick, and it was a major problem, but I'll spare you the details. At least we combined stops and got lunch after everyone was cleaned up.
We continued to stop every couple hours due to someone, and each time we re-applied the bandaids to Morgan's thumbs and cleaned the blood off his face. We were making crappy time so didn't stop for actually food at dinner. Instead we just did a potty break and then gave the kids twisterroni in the car. 30 minutes later Timothy announced he needed to use the bathroom. In 7 years Timothy has NEVER asked to use the bathroom during a car trip (in fact I often wonder if he is scared to do so), so we knew this was not the time to make him wait, and we stopped again. 90 minutes later Jocelyn was crying so hard that she threw up all over herself, so we stopped again. I think by now you get the idea, and in case I didn't mention it, Jocelyn was decidedly less tolerant of the car on the way home vs. the way out, and spent way more time crying than any of us cared for. Even Morgan was trying to quiet her down by handing her blankets (which was actually incredibly cute).
Oh, and did I forget to mention the weather? Between Toledo and Cleveland it started hailing big fistfuls of slush and if I had been driving I probably would have pulled over but Josh is braver than I so he outran it.
We went until we needed gas - about 20 minutes, then stopped for gas (the restroom was so gross I changed Jocelyn in the car) but the credit card machine was down and it took us so long to get gas that the storm had caught up to us and we had to outrun it again. Luckily the hail part hadn't caught us.
It started raining again around NY and continued all the way home. We got home a bit past 9pm with Josh in even worse shape than the kids. His back hurt, his knee hurt, and he was cranky as hell. He said no-more-one-day-drives-from-Michigan! I put the boys to bed and played with Jocelyn. We still haven't fully emptied the car.
So anyway, that was our trip! Besides the drive home, Jocelyn was an angel and very happy to meet all the new people. She's quite a social little thing!
Today I met with Morgan's teachers - Mrs. Freitas (special ed) and Mrs. Cutler (the regular kindergarten teacher - the one he bit). They say he is doing very well and we may have to re-do his IEP in January because he is making so much progress. Mrs. Cutler actually apologized about the biting incident saying it was her fault (she had reached around him from the back he doesn't like being snuck up on). She said she had forgotten that he had limitations and was doing what she would with other kids - which is sort of a compliment if you think about it. I was just happy she wasn't planning on suing and didn't mention the fact that I hadn't gotten the blood work done on him. Anyway, she felt sure it would not happen again. They said that his tantrums and flapping have gotten so much better than the other kids are starting to interact with him a lot more, great news!!
He has no issues with the academic stuff, which is not a surprise really. At least not to me - I know there's a smart cookie in there somewhere. Anyway, they are both very pleased with his progress, and Mrs. Freitas says he asks to go into the regular classroom a lot (which is unusual) and so he spends a lot of time in there because she always says yes. More great news!
Morgan's class pictures came home today and they turned out very cute. He's not looking at the camera but instead giving a sort of sly sideways glance, more representative of his personality I think. I need to take a close up shot of Jocelyn or else *gasp* actually take her somewhere to get her picture taken.
No comments:
Post a Comment