If you were to take a poll of public opinion on who enjoys sitting in a car for 4 hours straight, chances are you would get punched in the face. That is how much people hate being on the butt for that long. Now let's say you were a hungry 11 month old who cannot see out of the window or communicate what you needed, or shift position in any type of way.... I think you see where I am going with this.
Team Oakley left Atlanta in good spirits. We had a great trip, and we were all tired, but happy to be heading home to our own house, our own beds, and our two kitties.
Emery had his bunny buddy to keep him company. We were ready to go.
Beka and Emery fell asleep pretty soon into the drive, for about three of the four hours. Not bad. Michael kept himself awake and alert with his usual cheeze its and candy. This is how Team Oakley operates on road trips.
Now we are three hours in, one hour to go, and we are all getting antsy. It is about an hour past dinner time for Emery, and he is starting to fuss. I would like to point out that after three hours in a car he starts to mildly fuss. He was being awesome. A champion even. But even champions get sick of being restrained in a car seat with a wet diaper on...I have heard.
Beka suggested we pull over and Michael get into the back seat to keep emery company and give him a snack to tide him over. This is usually Beka's job, as the non primary driver, but she was already feeling car sick, and she did not want to risk tarnishing this so far vomit free trip by riding in the back seat. No one did.
So we pulled over, did the switch, and got going again. Michael was talking to Emery and giving him some cheerios, and though Emery was still borderline fussy, he was getting by....until.....
Emery offered Michael a cheerio, and Michael said "no thank you, buddy."
That was the tipping point for our poor boy. He screamed, he cried, and he lamented over the fact that Dad did not want the snack he was so graciously offering him. This was when we knew we had to take a break. Emery had done really great so far, and he needed to get out of the car and be a kid for a while before we pushed though this last hour leg of our trip home.
We exited as quick as we could, and we saw a McDonald's with an indoor play place. We don't ever do McDs, but this was a special circumstance.
We got in, changed Emery's diaper, and him and Michael went crazy pants on this disgustingly filthy play place. We did not even care that it was so dirty. Emery needed to get his wiggles out, and we had wipes in the car....go boys. Get your play on.
And that is what they did.
They climbed, the jumped, they ran, they crawled...they went wild in that play place. Beka stayed outside, and when Emery saw her though the glass, he was very happy.
This is our boy....how can you not just want to eat him up (after I thoroughly disinfect his entire body)! He is such a goof, and a really good boy. Yes he had a melt down in the car, but he just needed some play time. Thank you, world of fast food, for providing this for us, and for turning my son's white socks so black with filth that we threw them out.
After the play on the mighty mountain of plastic was conquered and Emery was back to his normal cheerful self, Michael was released from the bowels of the play place via the pink curly slide.
He was such a good dad for going in there with Emery. It served it's purpose of resetting the rest of the ride home for our sweet boy. Once we washed our hands a few times, it was into the car and on our way, the rest of the way, home. Emery was happy and the continuation of the trip was a breeze.
We got to our door not too long after that. We ate, took baths, and we all went to bed early. We had so many photos, memories, and stories from our ATL trip, but they would wait to tell tomorrow.
The stress of an unhappy baby can take the energy out of even the toughest worrier. And Michael spent the better part of an hour in an McDonald's kids play area! We all were very tired, but very happy to be home, and to have had such an awesome, safe, and fun trip.
Thanks for everyone who followed us on our journey in Atlanta. If you have twitter or Instagram you can search #teamoakleyATLtrip2012 to see some highlights of this fun time we had.
What an adventure! Thanks for coming along with us.
Stay tuned for more!
Love,
Team Oakley
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