Back From Civilization

We went to see my husband's parents over the weekend. We went to the beach, got ice cream all over our clothes, and a great time was had by all (although Xavier may have gotten a sinus or ear infection from a dip he took in the York River -- we'll see how that turns out.)

Sometimes when we go on travel to see relatives, I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice if we lived here, so we wouldn't have to drive four to six hours to get here every few months?" Any thoughts like that were quickly dispelled when we were driving on 64 between Richmond and my in-laws' home. Feeling pretty pleased that we had managed to get around the beltway so quickly in what is typically early rush hour, I glanced at the mile marker -- twenty miles to go -- and the clock -- 4:20 -- and thought to myself, "Geez! We're going to be there in less than half an hour!" About this time, the kids started chorusing that they wanted to watch a video, and there were the usual tears over whose turn it was to pick said video (finally it was decided that it was my husband's turn), and then that his choice -- Aladdin -- was too scary. "Don't worry, Miranda," I said cheerfully, "We'll be at Nana's house long before we get to the scary parts."

Of course, no sooner were those words from my mouth when traffic came to a complete standstill. It took us over an hour and a half to go the last twenty miles to my in-laws. And if that weren't sad enough, when we reached the bottleneck, it was nothing so noble as a car accident or road construction (or both) -- it was half a dozen men walking along the side of the road with weed-eaters, trimming the brush around the guard rails. How does anyone stand to live there? Not only did we finish Aladdin, but we were well into the second video before we turned into their driveway.

Tonight was karate night. We went to the kids' class, then to dinner, then I came back to meet Adam and tell him that I think Xavier has a fever (which, as it turns out, he does) and then they went home and I went to the adult class. Class ran over a little, so I rushed home and got home in time to tuck the kids in, but too late to help put them to bed or read them a story. I asked Adam later if he had remembered to give Miranda her allergy medicine.

He smiled and said, "A funny thing about that ... we were halfway through brushing Miranda's teeth when she said suddenly, 'Dad! We forgot my medicine!'

"'Well,' I said, 'honey, we can either give you your medicine now, and then rinse out your mouth and finish brushing, or we can give it a miss tonight. Do you think that you need it tonight?'

"Miranda thought for a minute, then said, 'No, I don't need it. But Mommy does.'"