Leaving the House: Kids Edition

When Bentley was just two months old, Craig and I decided to be brave and venture into DC to see one of the many museums there.  We knew it would be difficult going somewhere with a baby, so we tried to set our expectations low: we wouldn't stress about what time we needed to leave the house, we'd just go when we could.  I think we didn't even manage to leave until 2pm.  By the time we had driven in on I-66 and found parking (or maybe we took the Metro in?), we didn't have a whole lot of time to even see things before they closed, but we did still manage to see the Declaration of Independence and then wander around some of the monuments in the dark.  Success!

Bentley was so little!

Craig was so young!

So was I!

We still laugh about it taking us most of the day to just leave.  I realize now that our mistake was thinking there would be a time when the baby was neither hungry, nor sleeping.  With a nowborn, no such time exists!  The key is to leave as soon as they're done eating and then hope for the best.

Since then, we still try really hard to leave the house with kids, even though it still can feel overwhelming.

Something I noticed around that same time, though, was that whenever we had plans to go somewhere new, when it got close to time to leave, I would feel ill.  Something just won't feel right with my stomach, or maybe I have a headache?  It's a peculiar feeling, but it's very real, and it's the same every time.  And every time, I start thinking we should just scrap our plans and stay home.  I usually tell Craig, "I'm really not feeling great.  We may have to postpone this."  We push ahead anyway, and I turn out to be fine.

Craig put Camille's hair into piggy tails before we left

She was being shy about having her picture taken.  That's Ga, her lovey, at her feet.

I am forced to conclude that this feeling is all in my head.  I've started thinking of it as my "child-induced agoraphobia."  And ten years later, it's still there.  I don't notice it very often (there aren't that many new places to go), but a few days before Christmas when we took all the kids to DC to look at the temple lights, it flared up in a big way.  (I think this time what was really stressing me out was both the long drive and knowing that I would be in charge of all five kids on the potentially cold temple grounds while Craig was in the temple.  That felt scary.)  But I pushed through it.  And when we pulled into the temple parking lot, I felt a sweet calm come over me, it was just like coming home.

We parked the car and I ran into the Visitor's Center to find a bathroom (3 and a 1/2 hour drive, y'all!).  As Craig was getting the kids unloaded and putting coats on, all the colorful Christmas lights around Visitor's Center blinked on.  When I came out for my own coat, I saw as the white lights on the trees lining up directly in front of the temple turned on, too.  Craig headed inside, and I doled out snacks.  And took pictures.

I like that you can see the statue of Christ behind them, the temple model, and the actual temple reflected in the glass

Same bench, looking the other direction.  I like that I managed to catch Bentley smiling here.

Sunset!

Anyway, we had snacks, took pictures, walked around looking at lights.  We went inside, managed to hang up everyone's coats and change a couple poopy diapers.  We looked at the collection of nativity sets from all around the world, and shortly after that Craig called to say he was done.  I had done it!  While I was getting ready to go into the temple (and leave Craig with the kids for his turn!), Ryder came running up announcing that his friend Oscar was there!  We went looking, and sure enough our friends the Johnses were looking at the nativity sets!

Craig's turn with the kids!

As I headed into the temple, I shot a text to Emma asking if she wanted to meet us at the new Shake Shack at Tyson's Corner once we were all done, so we ended up doing that.  Shake Shack food was amazing and getting to hang out with Emma was fabulous, as always.  Sitting outside to eat our food (poor Camille shivering because we didn't know we'd be outside and had left her coat in the car, parked a mile away), losing Camille's Ga, and wandering around lost all over the biggest most crowded mall I've ever seen was the less enjoyable part of that experience.

Never go to Tyson's Corner at Christmas time.  It will NOT be worth it.  I'm going back in May!

Anyway, it was a wonderful, if exhausting, day.  I will continue to fight off whatever fear tactics my body tries to ambush me with so we can have experiences like this.

And we managed to order a new Ga for Camille that night.  The day after it arrived, we discovered the original Ga in the pocket of Craig's coat (which he'd wrapped around Camille while we were outside eating).  So now we have a back-up!  And more happy Christmas memories.