giving my seasonal affective disorder a few days off

We are at t-minus two days for Florida. I am trying to be excited, but remain nervous about the plane ride. Paudie seems to be at full-health right now, so hopefully all will be fine. As you can see by the photo, we hit the zoo last Sunday. The weather was in the 40s so we decided it was a good day for some fresh air. Plus John heard on the news that the animals get lonely in the winter. Paudie had a good time - checked out the lion, tigers, zebras, sheep, gorillas and some random emu type birds amongst some interlopers. What cracked me up is how there were lots of people like us at the zoo that day - two parents, one kid. Bored singleton toddlers. What else cracked me up was how the other kids had on boots and snow pants. Not our one. I am so thick sometimes. It never occurred to me the zoo would have lots of puddles and slush and snow and sand. So there Paudie is in his suede sneaks and cords - he fell into mush and gunk many times. At one point as we were catching up mid-fall, his shirt went up to reveal lots of poop smushed all over his coin slot. And where was the diaper bag? Well back in the car of course. I really need to be more on top of the mommy thing. I figured that he had already pooped twice that day so weren't we good to go? Nope. So once we got back to the car he got a nice and breezy change in the trunk area. He was down with it.

Paudie took a nice long nap when we got home - I thought he'd be all over the Puppy Bowl, but not so much.

Not much else going on - it's all about the trip. What to pack - long sleeves and short sleeves, sandals and socks, hoodies and shorts. And making everything fit into two bags. One thing I have noticed about what happens when you have to travel with kids - you never pack decent stuff for yourself. I agonize over his outfits but when it comes to me, I basically pick up whatever is on the floor, semi-clean, and toss it into my bag. Long gone are the days of traveling with my girlfriends and being so strategic with the going-out outfits. I'm probably one step away from mom-jeans.