Life at Home
We have our routines and schedules pretty much set. There's slight daily variation, but for the most part, we do the same things over and over. The boys (and parents!) are used to it. I have all their gear handy and know where it is. I have a plan for what to feed them and when. Nap and bedtimes are predictable. It's kind of boring at times, but since the alternative seems to involve a lot of screaming, I have accepted that this phase of life just comes with a certain amount of boredom.
Life on the Road
When you travel with kids, you have to do all of your regular parent stuff + deal with lots of changes that throw the kids off. Maybe it's partly our fault for keeping them on such a structured schedule at home. It's hard to learn to be flexible and adaptable!
On the one hand, it was nice to have extra adults around to assist in baby duty. Grandma and Grandpa were eager to spend time with the babies, and we also had lots of other visitors and admirers. But, the boys took some time to warm up to all these different faces. So that meant DF and I were doing extra work to keep the boys calm and feeling safe when they got overwhelmed by too many people. Baby A especially is picky about who he'll allow to feed him a bottle, and they were both sick at the start of the trip so were extra clingy to Mom and Dad.
We visited several different homes on the trip, none of which housed small children usually. So, DF and I were constantly chasing babies around, keeping them from pulling on cords, ripping up/eating paper, and chewing on whatever they could find on the floor. Great Grandma's house was like a minefield of baby disasters waiting to happen. We wound up spending lots of time outside with them where they ate grass, but that seemed better than ingesting the straight pins I found in the carpet...
It was hard for them to sleep in new environments. I can't really fault them for that, as I also have a hard time sleeping in a new place. Unfortunately, their only way to express their concerns is by screeching/fussing/thrashing about. I wish they could understand my soothing words. Instead, we spent many nights holding not-sleeping babies. On the bright side, though, by the end of the trip they were doing a lot better and not waking up nearly as much. Yay for adapting!
Feeding them was tricky, too. I'm used to having a stash of baby-appropriate foods in my fridge and cupboard so when meal time rolls around, I'm ready to go. On the road, I had to plan ahead a lot more, but I wasn't very good at it. So the boys wound up eating a lot of bread/Cheerios. They love carbs and didn't complain, but I felt that I should've been feeding them a more balanced diet!
Now, on the positive side, I think that by interacting with so many new people, they got over some of the shyness and hesitancy around strangers that they had been exhibiting before the trip, particularly A. Baby B has always been a little more friendly, and he seemed to enjoy all the extra attention. They got to play with new toys and developed some new skills, like clapping their hands. I was also glad they were able to spend more time outside. The weather in Oregon was perfectly lovely, and my parents have a nice front and back yard. The boys got to eat fresh raspberries off the bush (a big hit!), play with wind chimes, go on lots of walks, play at parks, and meet some neighbor dogs. We found out they really like animals! Here in Memphis, it has been so hot and sweltering that we hardly spend any time outside. I think they liked the change of pace.
A Peaceful Sunset on the Oregon coast
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