My six-month-old son finally sleeps well at night. We’re talkin’ eleven to twelve hours per night, waking only once or twice to eat. I know we’re very lucky for that, although we definitely paid our dues during the early months. In addition to sleeping like a champ at night, Q also usually takes a solid two-hour morning nap. Awesome.
Then there’s the afternoon. Totally different story.
Quinn issued an afternoon nap embargo recently. The only way to get the kid to sleep in the afternoon is to put him the stroller and go for a looooong walk, or put him in the car seat and go for a looooong drive. Guess which one my lazy arse usually chooses. Yep. The looooong drive.
Here’s my pathetic excuse rationale. Since we’d have to drive to anywhere worth walking around for an hour, we might as well just stay in the car since he’s asleep by the time we get there anyway. Makes sense, right?
The problem with the looooong drive is that it’s boooooring. Driving aimlessly for an hour suuuuucks. I’m too afraid to talk to anyone on the phone because I know they’ll make me laugh, and I’ll wake Quinn up. (My friends are hilarious, and I’m a loud laugher.) I can’t listen to my music because it’s not appropriate for young ears I would have to keep the volume down too low to hear it anyway. So I just drive. Aimlessly. In silence. *yawn*
To occupy myself, I often – okay, almost always – okay, ALWAYS – end up in a drive-through. Usually the Starbucks drive-through. I get a Venti Decaf Mocha Frappuccino Light because you get a lot of frappe for only 190 calories. As far as drive-through options go, this is one of the most low-cal. However, it costs almost five dollars. Ouch.
There are much cheaper drive-through options to be found, such as the McCafé Mocha Frappe at Mickey D’s. It’s quite yummy and only a couple bucks, but it’s a whopping 470 calories! Tack on another 80 if you want whip and chocolate drizzle. (And who doesn’t?)
The new strawberry Frosty shake at Wendy’s is to DIE for and pretty cheap, but again, high on the calories. The small size has 580!
Even the Baskin Robbins by my house has a drive-through. That’s a problem.
So, because I care more about my waistline than my wallet, I end up at Starbucks. (Or, as I call it, “FiveBucks.”)
Why can’t healthy and cheap and drive-through all exist together? That would be this new mom’s trifecta!
So if anyone knows of a place that is cheap and healthy and I don’t have to get out of my car, please let me know. Or, even better, if you know how I can get my baby to sleep at home in his crib in the afternoons, that would be great too.
If you have any tips, check out Mama Wants This today. She has a great new series called “Tips, Ideas & Advice,” and today she featured my question on this very topic. Whoo hoo! So if you have any tips, ideas or advice, read her post, email her, and she’ll post your response next week.
My waistline and wallet (and husband) will thank you!
