Toddler Travel

Every Tuesday that Philip is in we have to drive 2 1/2 hours away for a mandatory safety meeting at his shop. 

It's a really boring, country drive, and he hates leaving us almost all day for an hour long meeting.

So, when he has to go, we have to go. 

This was rough at first, because I quickly learned that 5 hours in the car a day for a 1 year old is really just torture. For the 1 year old and for me. 

After much trial and error I've finally gotten our trips to look less like this

and more like this:

Well more like that face anyway. [While we are driving she's safely buckled into her car seat, I swear]

My best toddler travel tip:

The portable DVD player. 

Philip worked at Sam Goody while we were teenagers where at one point a portable DVD player went on sale for a "can't pass up price". We maybe used it once back then, and it's been stored in a closet ever since.

I never understood why he bought it, but 5 years later, can I say THANK YOU man!??!!!!!

This portable goodness has eliminated at least 60% of car ride temper tantrums. 

Yay for technology! 

My second can't leave the house without is

snacks! Good ones! 

Not crumby ones, not mushy ones, but something she'll eat and not throw on the floor or hide under her butt. 

Animal crackers are a fav right now. 

Also a sippy cup of ice and juice is imperative. 

Hydration is important in the heat, although the cup is my least favorite toddler tool while traveling. Mostly because she throws it when it's empty, and when she's in the backseat and you're in the front, you head seems to meet the cup a lot. 

and lastly, my newest addition to toddler travel:

There's nothing more annoying to baby AND me when she FINALLY falls asleep and is abruptly awakened by the brakes of the car causing her head to tilt forward. That and well it's just hard to sleep in a comfortable head position sitting up in a car seat. 

Every time Adeline would finally get to sleep her head would fall and she'd wake up MAD! 

So I made her a neck pillow by very simply just cutting out a long narrow U shaped pillow and stuffing fully.

The neck pillow has transformed her sleeping in the car! FINALLY!!!!

and because it's so cute, here's your close up Addie Jean:

So yea, Mickey Mouse on the road, animal crackers and juice, and a neck pillow too

[added in with the obvious turtle, books, blanket, and other misc toys]

and traveling long[er] distances is finally tolerable.

Yay for my head

and today's lack of a headache.