Daddy + Mikaela + Jonathan = ROADTRIP!

Some friends of mine were getting together in St. Louis, and Miriam was waaaaayyyy overdue for a break, so I packed up this kids this past weekend and brought them with me for a roadtrip. We headed out late Friday morning, getting as far as Boonville before we needed a lunch break. I stopped at a McDonald’s Playplace, so the kids could get a chance to move around after being cooped up in the car. After stopping off at our hotel to unload and change clothes, we headed over to my friends’ house for Pasta House dinner and hangin’ around fun.

Mikaela played dress up with Maddie, so the two of them disappeared to the playroom right after dinner. Meanwhile, Jonathan developed an obsession for Guitar Hero. I took a turn playing, and just for fun chose to play the Dead Kennedy’s “Holiday in Cambodia”. Imagine the amusement when Jonathan decided to sing along with Jello Biafra! Sorry, I don’t have video - my hands were full at the time. We spent the rest of the weekend trying to keep him corralled while he dragged around a Guitar Hero controller.

We got back to the hotel at about 9 p.m., and after bathing both kids (an unusually frustrating exercise when the tub won’t stay full and there’s nothing handy to use as a bucket to pour water - particularly over Mikaela’s long hair) I got the kids down to bed by 10 p.m. I discovered that my MacBook, with screen shutoff disabled, made a perfect nightlight for Jonathan. It was late, and it wasn’t pretty, but both kids were asleep by 10:15. There was the normal/expected up and down with Jonathan, and by the time we were getting up on Saturday morning, Jonathan was in the bed with Mikaela and me. But all things considered, we had a fun day and a reasonable night’s sleep.