It's In the Bag (travel post 3)

Jeffrey is the kind of kid who LOVES his toys. Every toy gets played with almost every day. He is so amazing when it comes to his Hot Wheels, we filled up a case that holds 100 and I swear no two are alike! He loves his toys and sometimes I think maybe I should have named him Andy. His imagination is just like the one portrayed in Disney Pixar's Toy Story. The down side to this type of personality is that when we travel he thinks ALL of his toys should travel with us.

Over the past few months I have really struggled getting our car packed when we make the 2 hour journey to Grandma and Grandpa's house. You would think that we were moving to Alaska where there was no store the way this kid packs. He makes sure every choo choo train, every train track, every single car and truck are packed and ready to take along on our journey. I have made him travel bags and tried to help him contain his needs to just what will fit into the bags but some how or another a book or a big digger doesn't make the cut in the bags and still ends up in our car.

Knowing that this was a problem for us I prepared him for our long trip to KY by telling him that we only had space for ONE BAG. I told him this for several days leading up to the adventure thinking that he could evaluate what was important and have a packing plan.

On packing day I realized that I was totally out of my league with this kiddo. I told him to go get his one bag and begin packing it. Now let me tell you that he has a hook in his room where he has multiple bags hanging. I figured that he would go into his room, select a bag and pack it as full as he could. Boy was I wrong. After instructing him to pack his bag he looked at me and said, "Mommy, I know. I have a good idea!" He went running into David and my bedroom and came out dragging behind him the biggest bag in the house. I didn't even remember we owned it! David had used it in the army to replace the bags they gave him because it had comfortable straps for your shoulders and held soooo much more. I remember packing that thing out at over 75 pounds one time. It is ginormous! Sure enough, Jeffrey had discovered this bag along the way and remembered where it was located. I began to say something and realized that in my attempts to lessen our travel load I had not been specific and instructed WHAT bag counted as his one bag.

Oh me, I learned a very valuable lesson that day as I watched him fill all the pockets. By the end of his packing he had managed to fit every single car he owned plus several of Bubba's toys in the bag. I weighed his bag and the thing was just under 50 pounds. It weighed 5 pounds more than the kid who packed it.

The next problem I faced was where on earth was I going to put this thing? The back of our car was completely full of luggage, mom's wheelchair and things we were taking to a friend having her first baby this summer. What was I going to do? I tried to put the bag on the floor under Jeffrey's feet but it was too big and didn't fit unless mom wanted to sit with her knees in her face as it pushed the passenger seat all the way up. I knew that the space under Bubba's feet was going to be taken with our hotel bags and his pack and play. Oh me, where was I going to put this ONE BAG? As I was packing I realized that the space between the car seats was pretty empty so I attempted to placed the bag there but the weight combined with the stretch over the car seat caused me to hurt my back a little. I decided the only option was to remove a car seat, put the bag in and then replace the car seat back into it's original location. Oh thank you for letting the thing fit. I managed to get it into the car and make sure it was along on our trip up north.

So what have I learned? Be specific. You just never know how smart or how observant your child may be. If you are not specific about stuff, don't complain when they do exactly what you say.:-)