toiling by the faint glow of an IPod

I made it! Home from vacation that is. Yes, in one day, myself, smart daddy-o and our three smart boys travelled from Richmond, VA. to home. We broke it up with a stop off at the Air and Space Museum at Dulles (where my boys decided the IMAX theater was way to loud- and we saw the enola gay, the Concorde, the space shuttle, and tons of other cool flying things!) Then we headed to Germantown, MD to see my smart daddy-o's sister and family. The boys loved going on a walk to feed the ducks with their cousins, making their own pizzas for dinner, and just getting to hang out and be silly cousins. After dinner we hit the road and we drove from MD all the way to our home in fair New England. It was a long journey about 13 hrs total driving time with traffic stops, and detours. The trick was staying awake until 3 am and keeping my driver, smart daddy-o awake. We exhausted audio books, dvds, almost every song on the ipod, every piece of candy we had, and a variety of other distractions. The greatest trial of our journey was silencing a wailing baby who cried through part of maryland, all of delaware and a nibble of new Jersey (this included breather stops, feedings, changes, etc. ) He was just plain tired of being in a seat, despite our stops. I offered drinks of various liquids, baby food, club crackers, fingerfuls of grape bits, cool cloths, toys in all their varieties, puppet shows, smart mama dance party usa, glowing wands, flash lights, peek a boo, soft blankies- you name it. Finally the combo of food, vigorous plastic rain stick shaking, repeated blaring of Saint- saens Aquarium (from carnival of the animals) silence and slumber was achieved. He awoke and repeated this in a NJ turnpike traffic jam just before the George Washington Bridge (where of course there is no place to exit), but due to exhaustion and energy expenditure from his previous bout it was shorter in duration. By this time both the other boys had also crashed. I was left to clean up the mess from my frantic endeavors, and not wanting to chance waking anyone by turning on one of the overhead cabin lights I employed the light of my ipod as a sort of makeshift headlamp. There by the meager glow of my ipod screen I attempted to recreate van order, searching for lids, disposing of trash and half eaten materials, tucking blankets around sleeping boys, wiping up spills, and retrieving fallen crackers and finger puppets. Oh the tireless toiling of motherhood!

sorry no pictures- smart daddy-o has my camera cord hostage at work in his computer bag! Tomorrow I promise.
1. a safe trip
2. boys who were so helpful and kind tonight we decided to have a kindess party tomorrow night
3. a fridge that is no longer empty