Over-stimulated Toddler Aaagh!

We made a 750 km car journey to my cousin's house to spend my granny's 90th birthday all together as a family on Thanksgiving (i.e. Thursday). My cousin has a 3yo and an 11 month old and Johnny is in toddler heaven. We arrived yesterday afternoon and he got way overstimulated/overtired and we all had a hard time at bed time. He woke up an hour later, sat up, said "Katie. Where is Katie?" and then lay down again and fell asleep. Then he woke up at 5am and didn't go back to sleep until 7am, and after a morning of shenanigans just could/would not take a nap. We tried the car journey trick, and I thought he might fall asleep while cuddling me in a front carry in the patapum around the shops, but no. He did that toddler narrative that they do at bedtime for the first time.

Eventually when we got home we whisked him upstairs without seeing the other two and after a small struggle he crashed like a ton of bricks. Bedtime tonight was another nightmare. He'd be 90% asleep and then suddenly pop up and say "Where is Ouma?" or "I want to play" and then when he finally gave up, he started trying to count to 10. He knows parts of the sequence, not all of it, and the middle part he knows seven, but kept tripping over it. It was very cute but so frustrating. The poor boy's head was spinning. I hope the car journey back cures him, or it will be a long way home.