Who's ready to go?

Sydney's packed for our weekend trip to the Cities. Her brother (and Daddy) could learn from her example.

Friday morning, as I was heading to work, I called to Jeff, "Be sure to plug in AJ's DVD player so that it's charged for the trip. Late Friday afternoon, shortly after I returned from work, I noticed Jeff finally getting around to doing it.

As we packed to go, I suggested AJ put some toys in a bag to play with in the car. "No Mom, I'm going to watch my Scooby Doo movie," was the answer I got.

Female that I am, I started packing for him anyway. Soon he joined me in choosing a small pirate toy, along with his Leapfrog game.

So off we went, with AJ watching his movie and Sydney playing with a doll. Maggie begrudgingly took her place, wedged between the two car seats. This worked for about a half hour. Until the unthinkable happened. The DVD player stopped working. Surprise, surprise, the battery already had died.

We continued the ride, distracting AJ briefly with the supper of champions: White Castle sliders. But all good things must come to an end, and so did AJ's attention span. Unfortunately we were still roughly 45 minutes from our destination.

And that's when AJ began to sing:
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it... (insert a couple undecipherable mumbles here) ... in one of Santa's sleighs. Hey! Jingle bells, jingle bells...

Over and over and over again, AJ sang his favorite Christmas carol.

Jingle all the way. Oh what fun...

About the 10th time through, I asked him where his backpack of toys was?

"Maggie's sitting on it."

"...it is to ride in one of Santa's sleighs. Hey!"

About the 20th time through, I turned to Jeff, "I bet you never forget to charge the DVD player's battery again."

Jeff had been doing his best to drown out the singing with the Vikings game on the radio. "I didn't forget," he defended himself. "I just didn't charge it long enough."

Jingle bells. Jingle bells....

The driving, and singing, continued. There was a slight haze in the air. It may have been dust kicked up by road construction in the area. AJ decided it would be very bad to breathe in this dusty air, and so each time we drove through a section of this haze, he would shout, "Close your mouth!"

If he would just follow his own advice, it would be the best suggestion I'd heard all day."