A nip to the shops

Today is a day where I amazed myself! A road trip to Wales and we only took 6 minor detours! Yes, I take that as success. The delightful voice that is, Mr Road Map, only shouted at us a few times – ‘proceed to route’ proceed to route’ by the 3rd time I insist on replying to the bloody thing? Which somehow turns into a full blown conversation with him! ‘make a u-turn’, yeeess, I’m trying! ‘proceed to route’ – jeasssss, if I new how to proceed to the god damm route, I would! We just about find our way, to then here, ‘re-calculating’ What, noooo, I’m trying to ‘proceed to route’ like you said! Anyway, with Mr Road Map as the only complaint in my life, I deem our journey a triumphant success!

Powerful word ah? ‘triumphant’. It’s not a word I’d normally use, least of all on a road trip. Well, there’s a simple reason for today’s success – I was child free!

Road trips with children, especially my children are never straight forward!

Since that beautiful spring day when Aiden entered the world, leaving the house became a mammoth expedition. Gone we’re the days where you nip to the shop! NIP! I no longer nip anywhere! I would peel the screaming bundle of joy off my breast at the last possible minute just to minimise the screaming and hoist him into the 2 ton car seat, then load him into the car, along with ‘the bag’. ‘The bag’ which was no longer a delicate handbag, but more like an overnight suitcase, was packed with the bare essentials; nappies, 3 spare outfits for him along with a spare one for me (I had been caught out too many times with exploding boobs, exploding nappies or projectile vomit) I wasn’t letting that happen anymore! Wet wipes became my treasured possession, one pack was never enough, and not forgetting the nipple shields, breast pads, a bottle of formula (Just in case) along with a million dummies of all shapes and sizes (something I vowed, no child of mine would ever posses!)

I’d load the wheels of the pushchair in to the car because I couldn’t lift the car seat once Baby Chunk was in it and then without a thought about how I may look (I hadn’t seen a mirror for days), I was ready to go.