Toddler Priorities
Photo courtesy of Hannah Rowland
Hannah Rowland - CRR Staff
We recently drove to Fairbanks from McCarthy. The last time we drove there was four years ago. This trip was a little different, taking along our three-year-old (Leah) and our four-month-old (Ida). Leah has slowly begun to have a good understanding of reality and is saying more and more clever things each day. And even though she had been on many long drives to Anchorage before, she made more observations about long drives and had some pretty clever ideas of her own while on the road.
Since we were leaving early in the morning, I had her sleep in her clothes for the drive. Leah prefers slower mornings, and I didn’t want to have one extra reason for a cranky toddler that morning. Once she was buckled in her carseat, her shoes came off and she curled into her favorite blanket.
I did the usual things to keep her happy–gave her yummy snacks and played a children’s geography CD. But that wasn’t so exciting for the driver. The CD playing did not last long. Thankfully, Leah naps really well in the car, so she soon took a morning nap.
When we were only a small portion of the way through our long drive, Leah shared how long the trip had been and asked if we were going to be there soon. She was pretty disappointed when I told her that we weren’t even halfway there. (I think we may have still been on McCarthy Road when this occurred.)
Without me even mentioning them, Leah remembered our friends who we usually visit with in Kenny Lake when we pass through. We hadn’t heard from them in a while and thought they were still out of town, so we kept driving on and she was sad she didn’t get to see her friends.
We celebrated with some ice cream from the Hub when we got to Glennallen, filled up with gas, and had lunch. Ida did wake up, so I fed her and changed her diaper while we had our little break. Soon after we left Glennallen, we realized we should not have taken such a long break there.
Shortly after our break in Glennallen, Leah shared how she needed to go in the woods. We reminded her that we had just taken our break, but I was relieved when we pulled up to a construction site and the flagger was holding a stop sign. I had Leah get out and squat in the grass and let her stretch her legs a little as we waited for the pilot car to come.
The break was long enough that I probably could have saved feeding and changing Ida for this part, but at least it gave Leah a chance to walk outside a little. Leah is thoroughly enjoying all the dandelions and other wildflowers that are blooming. She had been picking them the day before and decided to pick some and give them to the flagger. I think this may have been the most excitement the flagger had all day.
After we finally got through all the construction zones and to Paxson Lake, the trip was seeming pretty long, and slow. Leah again began to talk about how long the trip was, and she said something pretty clever: “We should make Fairbanks to be here so we can be there already.”
We were soon pushing our time goal for when we needed to be in Fairbanks to pick up a rental truck. We would have just enough time if we didn’t make any extra stops. When we got to Summit Lake, Leah immediately noticed the snow that was all around and asked if we could stop so she could go skiing. Thankfully, we did have enough time to take a short stop in Delta, and it was nice to have a bathroom to use when Leah really needed it.
After we got to Fairbanks and successfully picked up the rental truck for the Crystal Creek job, I was hoping to make a quick stop at Beaver Sports before heading to stay with some friends for the night. I was ready to sit down, eat some food, and go to sleep. Leah had other plans though. She spotted a playground that was bright blue and asked, “Can we go to the playground?”
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