On the Road

Edited to add to my son's story according to the notes I took at the time.

My boys loooove hotels. So on the way down, whenever the little one saw a hotel he'd say, "Look, there's a hotel! Are we going to stay in that one? We're going to sleep in a hotel, aren't we?" Well, we decided to keep driving, particularly because it was one hour earlier in Nashville, so we arrived there 11 pm (midnight to us), so I had to explain to my son that no, we were not going to a hotel in spite of the fact that it was getting dark and that we'd sleep in his aunt's house. I also added that on our way back we'd sleep in a hotel for sure.

Yesterday afternoon the little one took a long nap and when he woke up, this was the story he told:

When we were traveling far away I asked mama if we were going to sleep in a hotel, and I said,
"Mama, are we going to sleep in this hotel?"
But you said nothing. And we kept on going... (E a gente foi se embora).

I thought it was so cute that he was still thinking about that, so I happily told him that we were going to sleep in a hotel that night. The boys were thrilled when we selected a hotel by the highway from one of those coupon books, one that had an indoor pool and whirlpool. After I checked in, all the oldest wanted to know was if the hotel had keys or those cards -- he LOVES those! -- and he excitedly took possession of one of them. When we opened the door to the room, little one exclaimed: "This is our home now!" I'm always delighted to know that they can feel "at home" anywhere they are with their family, but I guess it could not be different for a little boy who took his first plane trip at 6 days old and stayed at a hotel room at 17 days old. :-)

They're great in the car too, I always joke with my brother- and sister-in-law that all those 14-16 hour long road trips to spend Thanksgiving with them in Texas (2002, 3, and 4) paid off . In the first two we had only Kelvin, but on the second (slightly shorter at 11-12 hours), both boys, so we did the bulk of the driving at night. And I guess that for our in-laws, it's the shorter (3h) trips to our home that have been getting their sons used to road travel, but in a lesser degree. :-)

We need to have breakfast now although the boys are still sleeping after going to bed at 11:30 last night, and we have a long day of driving ahead of us, at least 8 hours from here (Bristol VA) to home.