Travel Season: Car Trips

We have begun our travel season for the holidays. For Thanksgiving we drove down to Georgia to be with Jonathan's family for a few days off. The trip takes them 5.5-6 hours without a toddler, for us we usually end up in the 6-7 hour range, unless you count the terrible trip into our average where we got a flat tire and had to sleep in a hotel making it 14 hours then coming back with traffic and melt downs (Heath's) it was 8.5. We are making the same drive in another week as we go back to Georgia to celebrate graduation with our sister-in-law Master Whitney from GA Southern! Then we will turn around and three days later begin our travel west for Christmas in California. 

Our October drive to Knoxville- 3.5 hrs.

With Heath now 2.5 years old (today!) he is in a new season of travel too. His active body has the potential to work against him with such confined spaces of sitting still. But that's where our many trips have turned experience into a skill of knowing how to keep him occupied and keep our family sane and even enjoying the trip, not just waiting for the vacation to begin when we arrive. 

Car Trips:

• Music- Jonathan is our resident DJ, mixing up play lists before we go. He will ask for requests earlier in the week so that my tastes are taken into account. Our family loves music and when there is good music on, we all are just in a better mood. This last trip to GA Heath was really rocking out and singing with music- including playing the instruments in the air. When we ask him what was that? He'll explain- that was my guitar (sadly he has moved on from calling it tar-tar). 
• Snacks- It's key that I have access to food at all times, a trait that my son has inherited. As Heath has gotten older we now share a lot of snack foods. Trip favorites are: fruit leathers, goldfish, almonds, nut thin crackers, string cheese. And of course a bottle of water for mamma and Heath each. 
• Books- Heath enjoys reading books and he has just begun to memorize some of the stories so that he can 'read' to himself. We have some holiday books that have been put away since last season so he was excited to see those again. He loves pop up books, but we aren't at a point where he can be gentle enough with them to handle it on his own in the backseat solo. A good book for mamma is helpful for the ride too. And when we are flying- a good magazine/book for dad.
• Toys- Giving Heath something new to play with that he has never seen may be the biggest key in our travel tool belt. This last trip it was a finger skateboard that came in a happy meal. Anything with wheels can give him something to roll along his carseat, the window, his head. 
• Distractions- I'm convinced that at least 90% of parenting is the art of distraction. To keep Heath engaged with the trip and not thinking about how he is sitting strapped in to his seat, we talk. Talk about what he did that day, what his friends names are, how many numbers he can count, what do you see out your window, what is inside that truck, what will we do when we get there, name all the people we will see, what do you see out your window, names of body parts, alphabet, multiple rounds of Old Macdonald, tickling games, what do you see out your window, and on and on and on until we get there or bedtime :)
• Computer/DVD player- When we are in the car we usually travel with both the iPad and the laptop. We don't pull out a show right away, rather save it for the cranky time or transition to bed time as a way of calming him down. This last trip he was so wired from singing and talking to all the trucks on the highway ("Happy Thanksgiving Truck") that when it got to his bed time and it was dark outside and his pj's were on, I needed the show to distract him. We mostly use Netflix at home so for trips I will check out some dvd's from the public library, whatever his flavor of the month is- lately Thomas or Bob the Builder. 
• Bedtime Routine- Even though we are in a car and not in his bedroom, traveling late at night still requires this kid to get some sleep. We are usually more flexible and he tends to fall asleep 40 min - 1 hr later than usual. But when we can tell he is ready to snooze we put on some bedtime music (U2 lullaby from Uncle Adam is one of our favs). Then because I have read certain stories 100x over, in the dark of the car I begin 'reading' to Heath. We follow that with a few staple songs we sing nightly and then some hushing. This is usually where he will whine for a bit, but in reality it is probably only 5 minutes before he is out.

Next up- Air Travel!

We are 16 days away from this veteran toddler traveler having his next flight.