Green Grass: Highlights of our Windsor Roadtrip
If you've been tracking along with my #30daysofgratitude on Instagram, you would have noticed we recently took the kids (Kids! That's like more than one kid. Still surreal and makes me smile to say!) to our hometown for a few days. Now that our little family is on the mend and my house is starting to look less like a bomb just went off, I'll share some of the highlights from our trip to Windsor!
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It had been about two months since we last made the trip down to Windsor. Our daycare was taking the week off to jet down to Cuba #jealous and Elijah had a rough battle with a virus that resulted in two very tired, very defeated parents. So we decided it was a good time to head down to where, basically, all of our family lives. I had visions of time for myself to possibly get a pedicure or have a drink on a patio. We were going to go paddle boarding, walk to Slinky's for ice cream, swim in my parent's pool, go shopping at my favourite stores and hang out with everyone we missed. The grass in Windsor was looking extra green!
Wednesday morning I woke up with an irritated and swollen left eye. Elijah was still whiny from being sick and not sleeping for a week. So, packing us up took longer than expected. One day I'll get better at planning for the extra time required to get anything accomplished with both kids at home. For now, we're just gonna be late a lot! And so we were. We left dangerously close to rush hour. Fifteen minutes into the drive Elijah declared, "I gotta POOP!". It wasn't an urgent situation so we pressed on using all distractions necessary. We finally had to believe him and stop earlier than planned. Of course the child had stage fright and couldn't do it. But we filled our bellies, dealt with a diaper blowout and carried on. Aaaannnd the "I gotta POOP!" started again. We got SO CLOSE to our destination with the help of toys, books, songs, YouTube etc... I'm talking TWENTY MINUTES away. But we had to stop for Mr. Poopy pants again. Thankfully we had success and my recently potty trained two year old pooped in a public washroom with minimal screaming. (Yes, screaming. That's another post for another day ;)) I feel like there aren't a lot of people that will do their stanky business in public AND he held it for over an hour. So I'd say that is mission completely accomplished on potty training! #mamawin We had our poop dance party in the OnRoute parking lot and finished our trip.
Seeing our parents was everything! Some of my anxiety was relieved arriving to Ryan's parents and catching up with them. But I really was needing my own. The next day as soon as I could get to my Mama, I did. And I hugged her SO hard! I missed her. But also, it doesn't really matter how old you get, sometimes you just need your mom to hug you and kiss it all better when life is, well, life. It's called mama magic! We determined my swollen eye to be pink eye when Nolan and Ryan woke up with it as well. Elijah remained clingy and whiny and needing sleep. It felt like a battle of a day but at least we were there and felt reinforced by our families. We managed to get our crew out of the house to go the the Sunsplash Festival in Belle River with one of my oldest friends and her awesome twin girlies! Elijah rode his first carnival rides, the girls got henna tattoos, us Mamas caught up and we all enjoyed giant ice cream cones. It was a perfect summer night together!
Friday we spent the day at my parent's place and basically my Mom took care of us the whole day. *Thanks Mom!* Our plan to go out for breakfast was dropped so we could go to the walk-in and get eye drops for Nolan and I. We picked up lunch from Stacks (the greatest pancake place EVER!), pigged out and the boys had naps. Nolan soaked up the Grandma cuddles so Mama could rest too! Elijah got to swim with Grandpa when he woke up. After being a little nervous to get in, he was jumping in and out in no time. Grandma made a treasure hunt for Elijah that had us all hopping around, going up and down stairs etc to lead to the prize. It was super cute! We were spoiled with a delicious rib dinner before we had to call it a day because my parents had two showings coming through their house. Ohhhh but wait. This day was just not quite exciting enough for Eli! As we are all rushing out the door, I look down to see he has his hand to his mouth, silent and big eyed. When I pull his hand away he has three quarters in his hand. Obviously thinking he ate a coin, I squeeze his little belly hard and pass him to my Mom cause she knows her stuff. He's coughing and getting upset slash scared. We try and find out if he really ate one but his story wasn't convincing. The words coin and sandwich were said in the same sentence so off to emerge we went. After triage and x-rays it was confirmed, he did NOT swallow a coin! Phew! We have no idea why he appeared to be choking. Regardless, no more games with coins or other small objects are allowed! Apparently we are going back to things being put on our mouths. So fun...
Saturday was decidedly don't-leave-the-house-and-no-more-excitement day. We stuck to our normal routine and everyone had a great and much needed nap! Ryan's mom had the family over for a BBQ in the afternoon. It was so nice to just hang out, have some drinks, catch up and play games! Elijah took full advantage of seeing four of his aunts and uncles. He had them playing diggers, racing around the yard and playing wholly board. It was so sweet to watch him soak it up!
Our last day was a blur of packing, nursing, cooking, packing, nursing, cooking. We squeezed in one last meal with each of our families and of course a quick jump in the pool before we were back on the road.
The drive home was .... rough. Thankfully Elijah slept for most of the second half. But Nolan was just not in the mood for a car ride. I wouldn't be either with a sore eye, stuffy nose and upset tummy! We had to stop off at a random exit just to calm him down enough to even try and make it all the way home. Poor babe!
Clearly it wasn't quite the relaxing week I was hoping for. My tootsies never got their pedicure. We didn't shop or paddle board or eat at all our favourite places. It was no "vacation". BUT! My kids got to spend time with our families. They got cuddles and attention and were spoiled rotten! We got to make memories with them in some of the places that we grew up. Places that we also have childhood memories. Priceless! And I was reminded that the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side. Life was a battle the last little while in Brampton and I wanted to run away from it. But the battle continued in Windsor, just a little bit differently. Being a parent, being a mom, is challenging no matter where you are. Maybe not the same kind of challenging but challenging nonetheless. So, I think I'll keep watering the grass right where I am! :)
It's an extraordinary, ordinary life!
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