And Then We Tried on the Pants

We took the kids on a short "vacation" this weekend. It included a 6-hour drive and several house viewings as well as carry-out sushi (three times), an hour in the hotel pool, and an hour at the park. Come to think of it, our "vacation" kind of stunk, but the kids were good sports about it. They played hard at the park and laughed hard at all the DVDs we brought along for the ride.

Considering our international lifestyle, we haven't really gone anywhere lately. Someone's always getting sick or having back surgery, so this was actually the first longish trip we'd taken since Stow joined our ranks. All things considered, it went pretty well. There was the hour we sat in traffic and the two missed highway tolls (relax, I paid them later, sheesh). There was the time Pink P picked up Stow's pacifier from the restroom floor and plunked it back into his mouth without washing it--ewwwwwwwww--which reminded me of the time I caught her licking the window on the Yamanote-sen train (in Tokyo) and the picnic table in Ueno Park and the handrail at Ikebukuro Station. And, somehow, that made me feel a lot better.  And then there was Ren's back going out at just about the same time that Stow figured out he could climb over the side of the pack-n-play.

After that, it went something like this:

put Stow in pack n play
turn around to do something
find Stow in the bathroom trying to turn on the shower
put Stow in pack n play
turn around to do something
find Stow on the bed punching the wrong access code into my iPad disabling it
put Stow in pack n play
turn around to do something
find Stow with the door open and headed for the elevator

You get the idea.

Five people, one room, one incapacitated adult, and one extremely curious one-year old = one very long first day.

The next morning, as we prepared to go on a marathon house hunting tour, I discovered something awesome. Stow's new pants are magical. Okay, maybe not magical, but definitely totally wondrous. See, even though they are plenty big for him, they allow for zero lateral movement.  I put Stow in the pack n play, turned around to do something, and turned back around to discover he was still in the pack n play. He stood in the corner desperately trying to lift his leg up and over the top as he'd done the day before. No dice. Every time he lifted his leg, it only made it about halfway before being mysteriously restrained. It. Was. Awesome. I admit it, I had a good laugh as I watched him try to figure out what was going so wrong. He never did. Instead, of crying or getting angry, though, he stoically accepted his plight.  And, in that moment,  I felt inordinately grateful for two unexpected but very welcome treasures: new toddler pants and zen-like children.