EuroTrip

Slacker Builder reporting in. You all know that less blogosphere time usually means more real-life insanity, and that has definitely been the case here. At 33.5 weeks of pregnancy, my prenatal “must-do” anxiety has taken our family of four on trips through 3 European countries in the last month. After all, we are only stationed in Germany for three years and any trip would be easier with two children than three, I assured my overworked Army husband. Most recently we returned from a weeklong beach vacation on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Visiting the Balearic Islands has been a dream of mine for years, and their beauty did not disappoint. Nonetheless, I cannot count the number of times that my husband and I looked at each other (over the head of a twitching, gaggling 19-month-old boy in a plane seat) and swore “no more traveling for a long long time.”
This trip was difficult. Foreign travel with young children is always difficult and expensive and exhausting and rewarding. That last adjective is the tricky one. Whenever we were tempted to look at the latenight paella-eating, Sangria-drinking couples and think that maybe the next time the kids should stay home with neighbors we would do a 180. All it takes is to hear an enraptured 4 year old girl describe a stalagmite in an underground cave as “the world’s hugest wedding cake.” Then you realize that you could never leave them home. Traveling as adults it would all become a rush of itineraries and shopping and dining. Whereas, with our insane little ones in tow we are forced to axe many of the sites we would have visited, but watching Daddy explain the significance of a Michelangelo statue of Mother and Child being housed outside of Italy to his daughter is worth the price of admission to all 4 other museums we didn’t visit. Thus, our conclusion was that a romantic weekend away in some Euro-city will have merits of its own at some time in the future, but we are glad we pushed through these last few big ones with both children along.

Sidenote, in the T.M.I. category – I think all my walking and lifting and what not caused Baby Brother to descend further into my pelvis. You know, to lighten? My hips feel way weirder than they typically have at this point in the pregnancy and my Braxton Hicks are much more noticeable. Is it ok for the baby to drop this early? Am I still going to make it to 40 weeks? Note to self for future pregnancies — no travel beyond 30 weeks.