Car Rides Make Me Crazy

I love having kids.  I really do.  But sometimes car rides alone with them give me anxiety.  Or make my anxiety worse, I guess.

We had a great time having my brother here over the weekend, but we had to take him back to the airport on Monday.  After he got out of the car, I turned my phone up so Siri could guide me back home.  Em was sleeping, but Nora was not even a little bit happy to be in the car.  And I'd never been to that airport or driven in that part of the city.  I had to go on three different freeways in a lot of traffic, and ever since our accident when I was pregnant with Em, I don't do well on freeways.  At all.

So, Siri gave me my first direction.  Em, who had been totally knocked out, scared the crud out of me when she yelled, "Okay, Lady!  We are doing that!"  Then after the next direction, she said, "Aye aye Captain Lady!" in the sleepiest voice.  It was hilarious.  Until I realized I'd gone the wrong way.  Even with Siri guiding my every step, I managed to get lost and take an extra trip around the airport again.  Go me.  Apparently I started repeating, "Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!" while I tried to find my way out of that extremely confusing airport.  When I finally figured out which way I needed to go, Em asked, "Mom, why aren't you saying 'shoot' anymore? Are we going the right way now?"  Rub it in kid.  Rub it in.  She's already a major backseat driver, and I have no one to blame but myself for that.

On the second freeway, we got stuck in some major traffic.  Just in time for Em to decide that she really, really needed to go potty.  Well, I was going 5 mph and had nowhere to go, so that obviously wasn't going to happen.  Nora was still crying, Em was kicking my seat repeatedly because "kicking is the only way to keep pee pee in", and I was practically hyperventilating because cars were everywhere and I still felt completely lost.  We ended up making it to Tyler's school (which was a little closer than our house) just in time.  He whisked Em out of her carseat and sprinted with her to the closest bathroom.  Thank goodness she did not pee all over her brand new (read:expensive) carseat.

By the time I got home, I felt like I'd run a marathon.  Not that I actually know what that feels like, but I imagine it's exhausting.  We had spent over two hours in the car.  A little while later, I managed to get dinner on the table.  Em said the prayer and made sure to say, "Thank you that Mom could do good and drive us home." She must've known that I needed that extra pick-me-up after our crazy afternoon.  How is it that little things like that make all the crazy stress just disappear?