It’s only a long weekend, really, and neither the traveling nor the bedtimes will be easy, but I’m still looking forward to our “vacation” in Moorhead, Minnesota, from Thursday through Monday. It’ll be nice to think about proposals like, “Hey, girls, let’s see if your cousins want to go to the park!” rather than the other kind, of which there have been roughly eleventy billion since my last break from work – at Christmas.
And the girls – except at bedtime – absolutely love being up there. Nonna! Boppa! Nonna and Boppa’s dog! Cousins – including two “big girls”! Novel foods! Nonna’s collection of books and videos! The excellent Moorhead library! New playgrounds!
In short, this time is much more for them than for me or for Shannon – which is one of the reasons that I insist on using the word “vacation” to describe a period of time that will be decidedly unrestful and anti-relaxing. Julia and Genevieve deserve now to look forward to and later to look back on a time that we called “vacation” – even if their Mama and Daddy will be much more tired at the end of it than they are at the beginning. The girls deserve this not only because they’re kids and they ought to have a tradition of actual summer vacations, but also because in just a few weeks, their lives as they know them will be permanently altered when Vivi goes to preschool and Julia (*gulp*) goes to kindergarten.
So: let the vacation begin!
We call that “cousin time!” and enjoy every minute. But I do remember the crankiness, the missed naps, the too-late bedtimes, etc. Vacation is a relative term. Just call it “making memories”.
When our girls were little, somebody told me that when traveling I should try to catch the girls in a good moment and tell them that they were “good travelers” and pretty soon they would be good travelers. Lo and behold, it worked, and from about age 7 or 8 on, both of my girls were great travelers — flexible (usually), cheerful (mostly), willing to try new things, etc. Have fun on your vacation!
Margaret and Mary, those are great ideas. 🙂 (Oh, and Margaret, I laughed SO HARD–and nodded in agreement–at your Facebook comment about how you always tried to remind yourself that visiting the grandparents was really more like “camping” than anything else (cramped quarters, hot, uncomfortable, etc.). SO TRUE–and thinking like that is a good idea!