Our Easter weekend in Connecticut started out with the drive from hell. Chris was working in the city on Friday, but Natalie and I had the day off. Never in a million years would I attempt to drive 3 hours with Natalie by myself if she were awake. So, I opted to leave Thursday night around bedtime, figuring that she would fall asleep in the car, then Chris would take the train to CT after work Friday. This traveling arrangement has worked really well for us in the past. Not so this time. For whatever reason, Natalie didn’t go to sleep. She started fussing somewhere on the Jersey Turnpike, so I kept her entertained as best I could by singing every song I could think of (not so easy to think under pressure!). As we approached the Vince Lombardi rest stop, I considered stopping to let her run off some energy and have a break from being in the car. Then I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed her head was leaning on the side of the car-seat and her eyes were half-closed. Figuring she would fall asleep any second, I decided not to stop.
Of course as soon as we passed the exit for the rest stop, she started wailing! The crying escalated until I got off the highway right before the George Washington Bridge and found a parking lot to pull over in. I thought maybe she just needed to nurse before being able to fall asleep. But no, Natalie was wide-awake and had little interest in nursing—she just wanted out of her car-seat and was happily playing with the buttons on the door handle within minutes of being freed. Since we weren’t exactly in a safe place, it wasn’t long before I began to get antsy. I considered checking into a hotel to avoid having to drive the rest of the way. Realizing that that would only delay the torture, I decided to continue driving at night so at least the risk of traffic would be lower.
Natalie launched an incredible arched-back, kicking, screaming protest as I tried to wrestle her back into her car-seat. Man, she is strong. I sang every song I could think of and played every CD we had in an attempt to calm her down. I offered food and water. I narrated every exit sign and landmark. I validated her feelings. Nothing really worked…Natalie alternated between silence (just to tease me into thinking she might be asleep) and screaming her angry little head off. It was the most white-knuckled drive I’ve had since it took me and Chris 17 hours to drive through a blizzard to a friend’s wedding in Boston. After a second stop in a safer parking lot in Greenwich, CT, Natalie finally fell asleep 30 minutes before we got to our destination.
After all that drama, we had a swell weekend. We spent the first day with Auntie Jodi, but got no good pictures. Then we stayed with the Huey’s for our annual egg-dying party. I had the ridiculous thought that Natalie could help color eggs this year, but she’s still a little young. After she tried to eat the egg and drink the bowl of dye, Chris had the idea to give her a bowl of plain water and a spoon. Natalie thought dipping the spoon in the water and licking it was just as much fun!
Here she is opening her Easter basket. She’s too young for candy, so her basket contained rain boots, a hooded duck towel, peeps bubble-blowers, a rabbit hand-puppet, some books and a stuffed duck:
Here’s “Natalie the Duck” with her Dada:
Natalie warming up after her nap:
In her Easter dress:
Sitting with Mama:
My grandmother (Natalie’s great grandmother) who is 93 years-old, painted bunnies on these nested boxes for her:
After Easter dinner was over, we took Natalie to the park to get some fresh air and run around. Here she is going down the (6-foot-high) slide with my cousin Margaret:
Natalie with the giggles!
Our drive home confirmed my fears that nighttime plus car doesn’t equal sleep for Natalie anymore. Funny that in the past, the car used to be our last-resort, sure-fire way to get Natalie to sleep, and now it’s not working easily at all. She did go to sleep, but only after 2 bottles and us singing “Old MacDonald had a Farm” very slowly over and over for 30 minutes (after we already sang about 50 slow verses of “The Wheels on the Bus”). To make “Old MacDonald” extra monotonous, we sing “Old MacDonald had a farm, EIEIO, and on his farm he had a farm EIEIO, with a farm farm here and a farm farm there, here a farm there a farm, everywhere a farm farm…” As if it’s not hard enough to not fall asleep at the wheel…
![The Octophant [Pic]](http://s.buzzfeed.com/static/campaign_images/2008/10/4/18/2d73feb1d3a9aa3708fe53be8f940a93_small.jpg)
