He weighs about thirteen pounds, not even as much as a standard issue bowling ball. And yet his possessions are enough to fill up the trunk and rear passenger seats of our Acura MDX sport utility vehicle, the largest vehicle Acura makes mind you. How did that happen? Even for a road trip down to our Nation’s Capital, a trip with my wife, my three month old infant son, and my dog, we managed to travel in a way that I, an expert traveler, have never traveled before.
Packed with us were an infant carrier car seat, the car seat base, his stroller, five bottles of formula, three empty feeding bottles, dish soap, a pack-n-play mattress, bedding, toys, diapers, bibs, burpies, at least two changes of clothes per day, binkies, a Baby Bjorn, a play mat, a dog bed, dog food and treats, dog toys, our luggage, my briefcase and laptop, our food bag, and, if I’m not mistaken, a partridge in a pear tree.
We left at night and though it was a five hour trip at a minimum, traveling during hours that our son would predominantly be sleeping was a brilliant plan. He might have ordinarily minded being in the carseat this long but since it coincided with sleep time he was accustomed to, he was quite the little angel. The trip home required more stopping and finessing since it took place during the day. But even so, he was quite the trooper. And he got to add Maryland to his rapidly growing roster of states visited!
Given this was our first such excursion, I must admit with an awful lot of pride that I don’t believe we forgot anything. I was truly blown away at the level we were able to execute this travel and the amazing team that we as parents made. The advantage, surely, of driving is that if we had forgotten anything, and I stress that we didn’t, we would have easily been able to procure it. Air travel is just a few weeks away so more than anything, this was a wonderful test. And we passed with flying colors.