Have preschoolers; will travel

Reflecting on a 4 day, multi-destination road trip/mini vacation with two four(ish) year olds, here are my take-a-ways:

§  Just because you might need help pulling up your britches doesn’t mean you don’t need privacy in the potty. 

§  Allowing children to have toy swords in the car (even if said swords are made of foam) is a very bad idea.

§  Google Maps sucks – no way to sugar coat that one.    

We rolled outta town on a sunny Friday afternoon and got home at dinner time on Monday.  All in one piece, everybody still speaking to everybody else - mostly.  We had great fun, made some great memories and got some great pictures. 

We bravely put our (relatively newly) potty trained kids in their car seats in underpants – yes, people…NO pull ups!  Brave or stupid – you make the call.  We rolled out at three in the PM.  Actually, the kids decided to get in the car on their own while Lee and I were loading up.  As we got underway, I handed the boys their packet of freeze dried fruit bites I’d bought at the commissary the day before.  These were NOT road tested snacks and I mistakenly assumed that the Mickey and Donald characters on the packet would entice my little darlings to eat these crunchy bits of fruit with the water sucked out.  Not so much.  Before we got on the motorway, the boys had both let me know what they thought of my choice of my choice of car snacks.  They were actually pretty gross. 

 

If I were to put our drive to Daventry in to hashtag speak, it would go like this:

#bitemegooglemaps

#intime4dinner

#nobodypeedtheirpants

We got to the Daventry Court Hotel slightly later than planned, but that’s OK.  A bit of background on why we went here:  earlier in the year, we joined an organization called CACH – Children Adopted From China.  If you are living in the UK and have kids from China, consider checking them out. Google it, people. 

Anyhoo…we went to Daventry for the weekend for the CACH annual “reunion”.  I think the count was 179 families with children adopted from China staying in this hotel.  To say chaos doesn’t describe the atmosphere – but it was well organized, fun chaos.  The reunion had the feel of a retreat.  There were activities for the kids based on their ages and some speakers/seminars for the parents.  There was also a raffle, a silent auction and some other fun vendors that were raising monies for various charities connected with China, adoption or orphan care – one of my favorites, Love Without Boundaries was the beneficiary of one of the vendor stalls.

Most of these families have adopted girls from the NSN (non-special needs program).  I am not sure of all the details, but I know that Waiting Child/Special Needs adoptions from China are relatively new in the UK.  Many of these families have been coming to this event for years – I talked to one mom who said it was her eleventh year.  There are quite a few older teens and it was very enlightening to hear some of their thoughts on growing up adopted. 

My boys were a novelty.  There were not a lot of boys, which you can see from the group photo.  Two (ever so stylishly dressed) little guys who totally got taken for twins all weekend produced a round of “ooohs and awwwws” wherever we went.  Novelty or not, they had a great time. 

 

After check in and a buffet dinner, we headed to the disco with our kids.  Yes, with some reservations…I mean…hello?  Responsible parenting equals taking your toddlers to disco at half past eight on a Friday night?  Well, that is what we did and we had a blast.  Our little dudes LOVED dancing.  They loved the bubble machine, the foam machine and the lollipops the deejay kept throwing out, but mostly, they loved the dancing.  They both have some moves…but Kyle does some sort of break dance thing that I am sorry to say I didn’t capture on video.  It’s sort of a hybrid summersault slash dance move.  No idea where he picked that one up.

Our room was pretty nice but crowded.  When you squeeze in not one but two rollaway beds in to a standard room, it does tend to cramp things up a bit.  And, ironically, even though our little bed hopper (Zack) was sleeping in a bed essentially with his brother not three feet from where I slept, he was between Lee and I by dawn each morning.  Go figure. 

After breakfast Saturday AM, the reunion officially opened with a Chinese Lion Dance.  Very cool to see, although Kyle was so not impressed.  In fact, he was straight up terrified and I had to not only hold him, but back far, far away from the “lion”. 

The schedule was chock full of activities and seminars so we could pick what appealed to us – or do our own thing.  Our first event for the day was the “craft deemed suitable for the under 7 crew”.  I think I am to the point where I can write about this without shuddering or needing alcohol.  Since this is the Year of the Horse, someone had the bright idea to have the kids make hobby horses and parade them through the hotel.  “What fun”, we thought and trooped in to the craft room with big happy smiles on our faces.  I’ll confess that we were among the first eager beaver crafters to sit down. 

We were greeted by a sweet and perky lady who cheerfully explained how simple it was to whip together these hobby horses.  She added that since she’d already threaded the needles and made the braids for the bridles, we’d hardly have to do anything beyond helping our little angles stuff some fluff in to recycled socks.  Fun!

 

The stuffing part was fun for the kids.  Then the reality set in that the horsey’s nose, eyes, mane and ears needed to be sewn on.  Our perky craft lady did inform us that there was a pot of paste available for “those people” who wished to take the easy way out and glue the bits on our sock horse but that “sewing was ever so much better”. 

Lee and I looked at each other.  Heck no, we didn’t want to be “those people” who pasted on their horse parts.  So, we set to sewing.  One of us has sewing skills.  It is not me.  I looked up at some point and noticed that people who’d come in after us were sailing out the door with their little darlings toting completed hobby horses.  Although Lee’s mad sewing skills are to be admired, he was definitely going for quality stitching.  Half an hour in and he’d sewn on one nostril.  I was starting to wish for wine and was letting a few curse words slip out. 

Zack and Kyle, having nothing to do that was geared toward them started grabbing scissors, spinning the chairs around and crawling under the tables.  The annoyingly perky craft lady kept reminding us that we needed to hurry up and that it would soon be time for kite making class.  I’d initially thought it would be sort of fun to make a kite, too.  My kite dream was rapidly flying away – pun intended.  Eventually, craft lady took pity on me (really, I think she just wanted to clear the room) and said “give that here, my darling, and let me help”.  She took my horse and sewed on an ear, the mane and assembled the stick thingymadoo in the space of about thirty seconds.  I wanted to stab her.  Then she gave me a hug and I felt just the tiniest bit guilty for mentally comparing her to the devil. 

The kids have hobby horses.  They were able to participate in the parade, which was really cute and good fun for them.  It doesn’t matter now that I have extra gray hair and might still need some talk therapy to address my anger toward perky craft lady (who actually was a lovely woman).  My two little darlings have hobby horses toy mops/pool cues/guns/swords that they will enjoy for years to come for the next week if they’re lucky – the damn things are already falling apart. 

 The rest of Saturday was spent in a fairly relaxed way – as much as one can relax with two little boys in a hotel full of exuberant kids.  We had a picnic outside, spent some time on the bouncy castle and went to a magic show.  The boys went back to the room for a rest and I went to a talk given by a couple and their thirteen year old daughter who had located and formed a relationship with her birth family. 

Millie was adopted from Anhui Province in 2003 and has not only located her biological parents but also the family who cared for her upon her finding.  In China, birth families who cannot care for their children or otherwise choose not to parent them typically leave them in locations where they will be found.  Millie was found by a family who had not been successful in their efforts to get pregnant and who were delighted to find this lovely baby girl on their doorstep.  Unfortunately, her finders were not able to obtain the proper paperwork to keep her and she was taken to the orphanage.  Millie was with this family for a very short time, but she was loved and remembered and finding them was an important piece of her puzzle which ultimately led to the birth parents stepping forward.

This was a “semi happy ending” story – Millie has pieces of her puzzle filled in.  She knows when her exact birthday is (most China adoptees do not…they are given a date range based on estimated age at abandonment).  She also knows why her birth family made the choice they did and got to hear her birth father plead with her to forgive him. 

My kids have stories. I just don't know them. Maybe I never will & maybe they never will, but in some way, I am hopeful that we can find a way to fill in the blanks.  Part of me thinks it is my duty to find out what I can while the “trail is fresh” and part of me thinks the boys should be the one to initiate the search.  What am I going to do if they disagree with the way to approach birth parent searches or if one finds something and the other does not? 

The angst that this young lady is experiencing at facing the birth parents who wrapped her in a blanket and left her on the ground to be found was hard to watch.  The fact that she has answers and finds some comfort in knowing her life puzzle more clearly is encouraging.  Enough with the heavy. 

Saturday’s “gala dinner” left a little bit to be desired.  The room was hot and our kids were cranky and tired.  Kyle fell asleep at the table during the appetizers and I had to get up and get plates for myself, Lee and Zack.  The buffet line was going two different ways and people were colliding and battling for utensils in the middle.  I was underwhelmed by the food – note to chefs across the globe, adding a bunch of ginger to a dish does not make it Chinese.  There were semi decent brownies, though, so that made it all better. 

Kyle woke up and cried for ten minutes but then suddenly decided he was in the mood to disco some more.  Zack was content to dance with the crowd…Kyle was not and kept going up on the stage.  It looked like he was about to crowd surf a couple of times.  The highlight of dinner was when one of my kids peed their pants on the dance floor and had to do the walk of shame to the room to change.  Out of respect for my kids’ dignity should they one day read my blog, I will leave it to you to guess which kid it was.  My lips are sealed.

After dinner was the parade of hobby horses and the closing of the raffle/silent auction.  I have never seen a raffle done quite this way – instead of calling out the prizes, the winning numbers were stuck on the prizes and people were on their honor to take the prize they’d won.  I didn’t win anything here but I did catch myself starting to elbow a few nine year old girls in my effort to make it to the frenzy to get to the table.  Yikes.

I did have some success with the silent auction, though.  I got a very nice Pampered Chef serving set for about a fourth of the price I’d have paid in a catalog.  The money toward the auction benefits a charity called “CACH Back” which awards grants to older teens/young adult to embark upon education or a service project that reflects their Chinese heritage.  Pretty cool. 

We said our goodbyes on Sunday morning and drove on to Kenilworth Castle.  Kenilworth Castle is an English Heritage property – castle ruins and Elizabethan gardens.  There’s a sign out front that said “Queen Elizabeth slept here”.  Not really, but she did spend some time at Kenilworth on one of her summer progresses “back in the day”.  We have a membership to all of the English Heritage sites in the UK, and they usually make nice days out if you like history and stuff like that. 

The day was gorgeous, so spending time outside was pleasant.  We broke out the bubbles, climbed up some steep steps, looked at some rooms that were staged with furniture from Elizabethan times (did pretty good with not touching), played some hide and seek around the garden area and just generally enjoyed the sunshine.  Lots of people having picnics, walking their dogs and just hanging out.  We spent several hours here and ended the day with a purchase of foam swords…so not my idea. 

 

We went on to spend the night at the Old Mill Inn.  The room was so-so but the scenery was completely beautiful.  We sat on the patio and relaxed for a bit before enjoying a really nice dinner.  We did let the boys take their tablets to dinner and we had a relatively “adult” meal in peace.  The boys had homemade ravioli with mushrooms and ice cream for dessert.  There was a couple sitting next to us that was clearly on a romantic night out and they didn’t give us a single glance.  I am pretty sure they weren’t ignoring us…I think that my kids were just that well-behaved.  Yes, I am bragging.  Boom to all of you parents who can’t control your kids in McDonalds.  I am going to claim parenting superiority on this one.  I had a desert and an after dinner sip while my little darlings happily played Angry Birds with the sound turned down. 

Our night was relatively peaceful…the beds were not cushy and the shower wasn’t great, but it was a quiet night and that was good.  The hotel served continental breakfast.  The boys were clearly spoiled by the extensive buffet at the Daventry Court and wanted eggs.  They seemed a little put out to have to settle for cold cereal, yogurt and muffins, but they didn’t starve.  We took a detour on the way home to Wimpole Estate and Home Farm, a National Trust property.  National Trust is similar to English Heritage, but National Trust properties tend to be houses and estates versus castles and ruins. 

We went through the house, which was really cool. The boys do fairly well at things like this, although we have to watch them pretty closely.  There is loads of stuff to look at, but most of it is strictly off limits to touching.  Kyle had to stop and examine the badge of every English Heritage worker.  He was quick to point out that their picture wasn’t on their nametag.  Sometimes he’d ask if they were a doctor and sometimes he’d just declare “you doctor.”  Poor baby…he equates the nametag with medical personnel. 

 

We took a walk through the gardens where Zack tried to feed a very curious cow some turkey jerky.  After that we boarded a tractor (way cool) for the short drive to the farm.  We saw cows, pigs, chicks, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, ducks and geese and a turkey.  We got a good look at most of the animals, but this wasn’t a petting zoo and it’s not set up to allow kids to pat the animals.  This was all well and fine with Kyle who is apparently afraid of any animal, fenced, caged or otherwise.

We got to witness feeding time in the piggery which was super noisy.  Who knew pigs could make such a racket?  Zack got to throw a couple of eggs in to the pigs and thought that was big fun.  He’d have probably crawled in the pen if he’d been allowed.  Kyle, on the other hand was content to observe the animals from a far, far distance.  He did not like being in the piggery one bit and was pretty excited to get back on the tractor and go back to the car park. 

This was the first road trip that we took with the two little guys in tow.  We haven’t exactly been homebodies since we came home from China at the end of August, but this was the first time we’d ever taken the boys on an overnighter.  They seemed to do really well with hotel living although Zack asked once if we could go home.  They seemed to have a good time, there was minimal whining in the car and they both seemed to settle back in to normal routine once we rolled back home. 

We were pretty “get up and go” people before these two little guys completely rocked our world and turned it upside down – in a good way.  Traveling with little kids can definitely be done.  Maybe at a different pace and doing different things but I foresee some more road tripping as we gear up for our last summer in England.  Wish us luck!

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