Twenty four hours in the car with two little kids is a long time.  Believe me, we did it last summer.  Okay, we didn't do 24 hours straight.  Each way was 12 hours, but 12 hours can seem like a lot when you have a four year old asking every two minutes, "Are we getting closer?"  I always thought that was a joke that parents told to be funny, but it really does happen.  I haven't gotten around to blogging about the logistics of our road trip until now, but with the holiday season coming up, I figure people are going to be making some road trips, so I thought I would share my experiences.

I will say that the trip went remarkably well and was truly better than I would have thought possible.  Before we left, I spent hours getting our "busy bags" prepared.  This took a lot of time and effort because I had to really think through everything.  For example, I originally considered bringing beads so the kids could string necklaces, but then I realized that the kids would likely drop a few beads and then I would have my backside in the air the entire way, searching for missing beads.  In in the end, this is what I packed.  Each kid had their own backpack filled with several "new" items.  I tried to pull out something new about every hour or two, as soon as everyone got restless.   They were pretty simple stuff, like new coloring books from the Dollar Store, but just something they hadn't seen before made the trip much better for them.  For some other strategies, you can check out this article I wrote for Circle of Moms on Tips for Road-Trip Rookies.

So, here are the contents of our Busy Bags:

We had plenty of new new coloring books.  I also packed a Zip-Lock bag for each kid with brand-new crayons.

This next one was inspired by the "Friendship bracelets" I made a kid. Did you ever make friendship bracelets when you were growing up?  Munchkin Girl isn't quite old enough for the real kind, and I had all this extra yarn left-over from our Strawberry Shortcake craft, so I but up dozens of yarn in the same length and tied them together at one end.  I brought a safety pin, just like I did with friendship bracelets and I affixed them to the traveling tray.  (On a side note, I don't really think these traveling trays were worth the money.  They were flimsy and I think I could have done this same thing with a pillow in my daughter's lap)

The next item was a favorite of the trip: a clip-board.  I printed out dozens of different coloring pages, all in their favorite characters.  I put them all in this sturdy folder, along with lots of colored construction paper.  We used the construction paper for lots of different stickers, which are great for keeping them busy.   Not only did they use their clip-boards for coloring pages and sticker games, it seemed to come in handy for lots of things.  We used them for the coloring books too.

Lastly, we couldn't have made the trip without our DVDs!  I'm not a fan of being a hero on a road-trip.  If the kids are game for watching a little bit of TV, I say let them!



Thank you so much to everyone who has bought my book!  If you haven't seen it yet, I would love it if you checked it out!  If you have ever asked yourself questions like, these, then this is the book for you!

Why do my kids drive me so crazy sometimes?
Why do they just want to watch TV all day long?
How am I ever supposed to get anything done when my kids won't stop pestering me?

In this book, I teamed up with former Kindergarten teacher, Susan Case, and we worked together to give a Mom's point of view and a teacher's point of view, so that we could give you activities that not only keep the kids busy, but also keep them motivated to learn and develop their natural curiosity. Here is what one of the reviews says on Amazon:

"This book seriously saved my sanity. I've read a bunch of parenting books but this is literally the only one that actually gave me real and specific advice and ideas for things to do with my daughter. I'm a stay-at-home mom to a 2-year old and I was at my wits end trying to come up with ideas of fun, easy, creative things to do with her that will keep her busy and occupied and help her learn. I wasn't very good at following through on ideas that I heard about from friends or read in other books or online because they seemed too complicated (aka: messy!) but this book broke it down and made it so simple. I highly recommend it!"

Sometimes my daughter's memory really amazes me.  She'll say, "Mommy, can I have a cookie?  Remember that one time, when I was two, when we drove by this one store and you let me get a cookie?  Since we're going by that store again, can I have a cookie again?"

So, I decided to put her memory really to the test.  We gathered up about seven toys and I put them on the table.  Then I told her to close her eyes and I took away one toy.  She opened her eyes and was supposed to tell me what was missing.  She was really good at it.  She would yell right away, "The Pony!"  I finally had to get some things that were more similar to make it harder.  Even Little Buddy (2.5 years) enjoyed this game too, although he wasn't quite as good at it!

 

Last weekend I made an important discovery:   My older brother was in town and we sat around one night, telling stories about when we were little.  Surprisingly, the boys were telling me things I never knew about them.  About fights they'd gotten into and other bad things they'd done and it suddenly hit me: my brothers and I weren't perfect when we were growing up.  In fact, we were sometimes real jerks. This is surprising for me because in my humble opinion we all turned out pretty great so I have totally blocked all bad behavior out of my mind.  Today we are a family that laughs together, wants the best for each other and adores spending time with each other.  But the truth is, it wasn't always this way.  Here is a picture of my brothers joking around and making fun of my pregnant stomach (about five years ago). 

But we weren't always this fun.  I think this is significant because sometimes as a Mom, I cannot understand why my kids just won't listen to me.  I am constantly baffled with the way they pester each other and then cry about the fact that the other one has decided to pester back.  I think sometimes I expect them to be perfect little angels and honestly they often are.  After all, I do all the right things.  I am consistent with my discipline, I make them eat healthy food, and I try to have as much fun with them as possible.  Yet there are days on the weekends when my husband and I look at each other at the end of the day and wonder what went wrong?  Why did we have such a rough day?  Why were the kids at each other's throats and why did they do everything they could to annoy us?

The answer is that this whole thing is a process and my brothers made me realize that.  If my Mom had written a blog or a journal back when we were growing up, she would have had amazing stories.  She would have told about how my little brother loved toy guns almost a little too much.  About how he once shoved another Mom and yelled, "Get away you dork!  That's my Mom and I need to talk to her!!"  And my older brother is now the sweetest, most mild-mannered soul, yet at one point in high school his debate teacher honestly thought he needed anger management counseling (due to a long list of bizarre behavior, which I won't get into right now).  And how my Mom once told my Dad about me, "Take her somewhere.  I can't take take any more whining.  I JUST CANNOT TAKE IT!!!"

These new memories about how we kids weren't perfect at all has really lowered the bar for my own expectations and it's quite a relief to know that one bad day or even one bad week full of whining and fighting doesn't mean that I am failing and my kids are hopeless.  In fact, every time I have to discipline and teach them a lesson, I am re-enforcing everything so that one day, hopefully, in the very distant future, they will understand. I am looking forward to telling them some of these stories.  I hope they laugh and say they're sorry, they way my brothers and I have done to my parents.  My fingers are crossed!

I also want to say thank you so much to all of you out there!  I love writing my blog and I love having so many visitors!  I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the support on my book too!  I have been so honored by all the wonderful comments we have gotten!  One of my favorites was from Dawn@Prickly Mom:

Love your book! Seriously, I rate it up there with my heroes Elizabeth Pantley and John Rosemond in terms of day-to-day usefulness. Bravo!

You can download the first chapter for free on Kindle to make sure you like it! 

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