We traveled to my MILs house this weekend to visit her and my other in-laws.  Plus, Monkey did some trick or treating with his cousins.  Overall, it was a good visit.

If only ...

We left Thursday night so Monkey could sleep while we drove.  We’ve found this method to be most effective in the past.  And on Thursday night, he stayed asleep most of the way and woke up for good when we were about 45 minutes away.  Unfortunately, he stayed awake for another 2 hours upon arrival then woke up four hours later.  So his sleeping schedule was messed up all weekend long.  Today no exception.

I used to love traveling.  Pre-hubby and pre-baby it was really easy.  Just quickly pack and off you go!  While single or dating, upon return you might have one, maybe two loads of laundry and unpacking was not a hassle.  Although, I must admit, pre-baby I was a meticulous planner for packing (especially if it was for a long trip).  But the reasons were completely different then — it was all about having the right outfits with the right shoes and the right accessories, etc.  Now, even though I SHOULD be meticulous due to the amount of stuff needed to travel with child, I am not.  Luckily, most of the time I get the major things packed (dividing it all into categories has helped me tremendously in this area — i.e. diapering, feeding, bathing, clothing, play).  AND I’m lucky if I pack enough underwear, socks, etc. or remember make-up for myself.

Traveling now is just not as fun.  Not only do I have pack all of the crap to go on the trip (minus DH’s clothes and toiletry) but usually end up unpacking it all and doing all of the laundry once getting back home.  Now the unpacking seems to take at least a week from getting the luggage and other bags unpacked, to putting things in their correct spot at home and then getting the laundry from the trip through the rotation.

Then there’s the getting the child back on track with eating and more importantly sleeping.  We opted to not travel last night per our original plan but decided instead to leave early this morning.  Monkey’s nap schedule was WAY off track today.  I shouldn’t complain too much because it’s 8:15 and he’s sleeping well.  But keeping him up after a messed up nap schedule during our travels home today meant he was miserable and made sure to help us feel the same way.  Not to mention the time change last night which meant in order to get him on track with that we needed to keep him up an hour later.   Again, I shouldn’t complain too much because he made it — barely, but he did.  Poor thing actually tried to crawl into his crib!

Anyway, all of this whining just leads me to my point (sorry it took so long to get there).  I wish there was a magic reset button where you’d press it and the unpacking, laundry, sleeping schedule manipulation, etc. were done in an instant.  Wouldn’t that be great?