Traveling Mercies Part Deux

I may have been on an airplane in July more than I was in my car.  (Hooray?)  Our first family trip to Puerto Rico was such a joy, and quickly followed by the first trip that Geno and I have taken without Mateo.  The trip was brought about because I had the honor of officiating the wedding of our dear friends, Kate & Per, (or KaPer, as they are now known,) in the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon. 

At first we thought we would bring Mateo along with us, but given the amount of wedding responsibilities I had and the inability of any family members to come play babysitter, we decided to leave him at home.  As fortune would have it, my parents were actually on the east coast to visit my sister, so in our absence Mateo got to be entertained by both sets of grandparents, aunts, an uncle and all his cousins.  Lucky kid.

Spending 5 days and 4 nights apart from Mateo was definitely hard on us, (especially since we were so far away and he had been quite sick earlier in the week), but it was also wonderful to have time just to ourselves.  We each celebrated in our own unique way:  Geno went for long runs and watched the Yankees while lying in bed.  I took 45 minutes to blow dry my hair.  Ah, the freedom.  (Of course we also enjoyed getting to have long talks, seated dinners, plenty of sleep and by-choice late nights.)

All in all, the trip was great, and I think that it was good for the three of us to figure out how to function outside of our usual nuclear family routine.  And, in addition to learning more about who I am, who Geno is, and who we are as a couple, I was also forced to get my parenting ducks in a row.  Preparing to leave Mateo meant doing the following:

• Creating an emergency medical treatment authorization.  This form gives the caregivers of your choice the ability to make medical decisions for your kid when he or she is not in your direct care.  (You can make it time specific or open-ended.)
• Talking to our family members about what we would want for Mateo's care in the event that something happened to both of us.  Yes, I know this is really morbid, and yes, as an attorney, I'm painfully aware of the fact that we don't have this spelled out in a will.  (That's on my next to-do list.)  (Also, just fyi,  if your kid has godparents, this role in and of itself does not give them legal standing in terms of custody.  You actually need to put your wishes in a will, otherwise state law will determine custody by next-of-kin rules.)  Nonetheless, despite being a tough conversation, I'm really glad we did it.  No discomfort outweighs the relief of knowing that we are doing all we can to look out for Mateo.
• Putting together a little morning and evening checklist for his antibiotics doses.  I know that I sometimes have a hard time keeping track of giving myself medicine, so I figured it would make it easier on the grandma's to have a little box to check-off each morning and evening. 

Happily, only the checklist got put to use!