Wired

When I was a kid, I remember falling asleep in the car and being carried inside and put to bed, even though sometimes I was secretly awake.  My Mom recently told me that some of her fondest childhood memories include her Dad doing the same thing for her.

Scarlett ... not so much.  If she falls asleep in the car, that's it.  No more sleeping when she gets out of the car.  Just screeching and grumping and maybe even a little flailing.  So when we have the occasional late night or have pushed her nap time to the limit and still have a car ride ahead of us, we encourage her to stay awake until we get home.  This might involve singing, tickling, and bribery.

Here are some late-night photos of a VERY wired Scarlett on the drive back from Port Aransas to Rockport (sweet Max managed to snooze through the whole thing, even though other times a muffled sneeze is enough to wake him up).  I have yet to figure out how to take good nighttime photos with my camera, but I accidentally got some fun streaky effects with the lights outside of the car.  Scarlett entertained us with several rousing renditions of the ABC Song and Rock A Bye Baby.  (Despite having some significant musical talent on both sides of the family, I don't think we've got a future American Idol on our hands.)  And mission accomplished:  we kept her awake, and she crashed when we got back to the house.