The moral of this story is: bring extra soothers while traveling.
The babies and I are away for the weekend visiting Abuelo and family friends. It’s been going really well. We’ve had lots of fun, I had a couple extra naps, and I even got a pedicure. I have learned a couple of parenting tricks from my Tia, The baby whisperer. She’s run an in-home day care for over 25 years. We talked about the terrible twos, and potty training. We’re on the right track, I have some minor adjustments to experiment with.
My biggest lesson started at Walmart this afternoon. When I snapped at my dad for not knowing where Miss Terrible Two’s soother was. “You don’t know where it us?! It’s the only one I’ve got, without it i’m screwed!” All the while it was in the stroller, where I put it.
Then when we got home, she lost it for real. And it was nap time. Well, beyond nap time. We searched everywhere. Tia had a substitute soother, but it wasn’t the all-natural-rubber, all-one-piece-for-less-germs, orthodontic, incredibly-hard-to-find-and-darn-expensive Natursutten. A substitute won’t do! Tia popped it in her mouth and she put her head down and fell asleep. It did do.
I continued my search. The novelty of this cheap impostor will certainly wear off before the four hour car ride home tomorrow, even with the Dora dvds. I asked her over and over, interrogating her, “Where’s your soother? C’est ou la titine? Donde esta el entretenador?” I threw every cushion on the floor, checked every cabinet, looked inside cereal boxes, dumped baskets of toys and crawled along all the floors. I stopped short of rummaging through the raw chicken bits in the kitchen garbage can.
Dinner, tantrums, birthday cake, and bedtime came and went. The substitute did it’s job. I had given up. Defeated, I realized that she doesn’t care what she’s sucking on. As I got ready for bed, I piled a couple things by the bedroom door while I brushed my teeth so to not disturb her. I turned to walk back down the hall, and in the corner of my eye, on the light brown carpet, I saw the light brown rubber soother in the corner of the hall. I found it!
When I get home, I am buying ten cheap soothers and stashing them in the car, my purse, the diaper bag, her backpack and her lunch bag. Then I am not buying any more. She’s too old for a soother anyway.
My Year On Mat Leave 
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