On the road again . . .

This week has been a fun little road trip with my two kidlets.  Yep, 550 miles under our belts in two days, and it has actually been fun!

My keys to road trip success have changed dramatically from pre-kids, though I am pleased to report that we still only stopped once each travel day.  Here's what worked for us:

1. Jude is temporarily forward facing in his car seat.  I couldn't see making the little guy face the back seat for 1,100 miles total, and he is over a year and a half.  We'll turn him back around when we get home until he turns two per the recommendation.  The bonus is that it is way easier to hand him snacks and interact with him . . . much less pulling over to figure out what is wrong with the kid!

2. DVD player.  Yep, I did it.  Yet another "I'll never do that" broken.  I put all of the kids DVDs in my portable CD case, and broke out the DVD player for an hour each day when the kids were ready to melt down.  Melt down averted!  The player conveniently wedges right in the space between the two front seats, so both of them can see it just fine.

3. Books on CD.  We are in the middle of "The Cricket in Times Square" now, which Sophia and I have been enjoying very much and Jude has been sleeping thru.  Whatever works to get the kid a nap!  Turns out our library only charges for adult books on CD, so I borrowed five in total.  Which was good, because Sophia totally didn't go for Winnie the Pooh, and there was a haunted house in another one.  Three out of five isn't too bad!

4. Snacks.  I am not above bribery.  I figure there is plenty of time to get eating back to normal when we are home next week, and anything goes (within reason) on a road trip.  The best thing I discovered when shopping for our trip?  Individual Craisin boxes in a 6-pack!  The kids both love them.  And of course we have a bag of M&M's, per Sophia's request that I get "some chocolate to have in the car, please.  From Walmart."

5. Perhaps the best little thing for our road trip has been Sophia's camera.  I bought a little Fisher Price digital camera from Walmart on clearance over a year ago, and we decided to give it to her for this trip. Sophia has been pretending that blocks or pretend telephones are cameras for a while now, and it seemed like a good time.  Well, that camera is the best present she has ever had.  She LOVES it . . . she marches around taking pictures of everything, and pulls it out in the car . . . "Can you pull over, Mama?  I need to take a picture of that house.  Oh no, it only took a picture of the top!"  Little budding photographer.  Blog post by Sophia coming up!

We're off to visit with friends, more road trip fun to come!