So I wanted to share our recent (well not so recent anymore) traveling experience. Hubby and I undertook the 10 hour drive (which means about 12 hours of travel) to visit my parents for Thanksgiving. Now I know you may be thinking WHAT IS SHE CRAZY? 12 hours in the car with 4 little kids!? Well we survived and lived to tell our tale, as well as did our children. Did I mention that we did it without electronic entertainment?
First off in undertaking such a long trip at crazy holiday times is selecting your departure times. We were pulling out of our driveway at 4am on Wed before Thanksgiving. Kids were in their jammies and told they MUST go back to sleep, which they generally did, though I did catch S trying to read her Where's Waldo book in the pitch darkness of the car! :) Second we planned breakfast in the car: bagels with cream cheese, juice boxes and bananas. Note I should say I can't stand bananas so it was a sacrifice on my part to smell bananas, but it was fast easy. By delaying breakfast as long as possible we ensured that when we finally stopped the kids had already been in the car at least 5 hours and would really have to pee.
Another thing about traveling with 4 little ones: be prepared to stop frequently for potty breaks and standing rule in our car is if one has to pee: THEY ALL HAVE TO PEE! We also travel with a potty in the car, thus if we are on the freeway with no stop in sight or on the NY thruway just past a rest area we can have them pee without squatting/standing. Although my kids are pretty good about not peeing frequently. That being said we also don't dish out lots of drinks when we undertake trips. While it may sound cruel, it saves issues. Although Al did have an accident not that far along into the trip, which is highly unlike him.
We pack lots of snacks to travel: chex mix, nuts, peppers, carrots, cheese sticks, a few cookies and we even had M&Ms kept as a bribe. For the adults we had a large carafe of coffee predoctored and water, lots of water.
But back to the kids. The day before I had them pack backpacks full of car-friendly toys and activities. My favorite trick is each child has a 1/2" 3-ring binder that I fill with coloring pages, mazes, etc. Each child was required to have crayons/markers available to them. The backpacks had carabiners attached to the top hooks and then were hooked onto seat-belts or wherever I could attach it so they would not drop them. Al's marker bag was even hooked into the backpack. Books also, lots of books. My kids love to read and Al and S will frequently trade back and forth.
We did stop and McD's for lunch- it's a real treat for our kiddos and a chance to be a little crazy. I personally don't think it's fair to expect the children to sit and behave in an "adult" restaurant after sitting all that time in the car. It's always a little difficult to reload in the car after a long lunch, but those McD's toys are a good incentive. When we travel the toys are not opened until we are back in the car!
Honestly all in all the trip up to NY went smoothly. It was our return trip that was difficult. Probably because we made it longer by taking a side trip to Niagara Falls and then went to avoid some traffic and wound through some interesting farm roads in OH.
So let it be known that even in 2011 (I know it's 2012, but we traveled in '11) that you can travel long distances with 4 little kiddos without electronic entertainment. The only electronics were our cell phones (for the adults) and CDs we custom designed for travel, one for sleep and one for play.
Hope this helps all you out there in blogland!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
randomness update
An update from the crazy household.
In an effort to get this PhD done I have not been blogging, in fact most nights I am at school or Panera or Starbucks analyzing data, writing, emailing or literature searching. That my friends is the glamorous life of a mom of 4, PhD student who needs and wants to get it DONE. Why at night may you ask? Why not at home? Well baby B (now a year old!) is sleeping a bit bitter, but really still up entirely too much and I just can't work well when she keeps waking up, so off I go. I'm working at night, because the honest truth is money is extremely tight in our household and we are really having to watch how many hours we book our wonderful so that she can still be paid and we can not be any more broke than we already are! Thus we eat dinner, I feed B and off I go until 9, 10 or 11 depending on where I go and how I'm feeling. The good news is that my committee has agreed to let me complete the graduation paperwork. Now I just need to get a move on!
In other notes, B turned a year. We had a nice party planned, and it turned out to just be our family that came. Made me a bit sad for B, since when you look at everyone else's first birthday pictures there are lots of people and she had a really small turnout, but I can't control the world (as much as I try). Generally she's a happy healthy girl. Not yet walking, will take a step or so, but quite content to crawl and cruise. I'm not concerned, she will be a terror when she gets upright and moving! She's into everything as it is already. I have never had a child so interested in the trash or toilet paper or the boys potty......
Other news....... we are loving our new van. Did I mention that hubby got in a nasty wreck in the beginning of December and totaled our family car? He's fine, and so is B who was also in the car. The car and car seats had to be replaced. So we switched from a Chrysler Pacifica, which we loved, but had really outgrown to a lovely Dodge Grand Caravan. OMG it's amazing and we only have a basic model, but there is so much room compared to the other car. And by the way did you think that it would be possible to car shop with four kids in tow? Well it is! Have to say that it went surprisingly smooth shopping with our four- hubby and I were impressed with them. The other day in the car they actually asked when we were going to the car store again!
There really isn't much going on these days. Kids are back in swimming lessons, preschool is in session and dance class has resumed. It's a busy week going between all these, trying to study/write and not go insane, but thus far we are surviving.
On a side note I have two sites I would like to refer you all to.
One is for the founder and owner of Cotton Babies who is trying to get legislation in place to help families NOT have to choose between diapers and food. I can say that without our cloth diapers, we would be pretty close to the being one of those families. I can relate to her story about $30 per week for groceries and a WIC check. It's no secret that we live off our WIC checks. Without those, well........ I don't want to think about it. Anyways please read her blog post here and share it with your friends and family.
The second is another blog post from a pro-breastfeeding dad. I found it amusing and I love to hear things from the dad's perspective. Maybe someday I can get hubby to write a post about breastfeeding. So here it is, I hope you enjoy.
In an effort to get this PhD done I have not been blogging, in fact most nights I am at school or Panera or Starbucks analyzing data, writing, emailing or literature searching. That my friends is the glamorous life of a mom of 4, PhD student who needs and wants to get it DONE. Why at night may you ask? Why not at home? Well baby B (now a year old!) is sleeping a bit bitter, but really still up entirely too much and I just can't work well when she keeps waking up, so off I go. I'm working at night, because the honest truth is money is extremely tight in our household and we are really having to watch how many hours we book our wonderful so that she can still be paid and we can not be any more broke than we already are! Thus we eat dinner, I feed B and off I go until 9, 10 or 11 depending on where I go and how I'm feeling. The good news is that my committee has agreed to let me complete the graduation paperwork. Now I just need to get a move on!
In other notes, B turned a year. We had a nice party planned, and it turned out to just be our family that came. Made me a bit sad for B, since when you look at everyone else's first birthday pictures there are lots of people and she had a really small turnout, but I can't control the world (as much as I try). Generally she's a happy healthy girl. Not yet walking, will take a step or so, but quite content to crawl and cruise. I'm not concerned, she will be a terror when she gets upright and moving! She's into everything as it is already. I have never had a child so interested in the trash or toilet paper or the boys potty......
Other news....... we are loving our new van. Did I mention that hubby got in a nasty wreck in the beginning of December and totaled our family car? He's fine, and so is B who was also in the car. The car and car seats had to be replaced. So we switched from a Chrysler Pacifica, which we loved, but had really outgrown to a lovely Dodge Grand Caravan. OMG it's amazing and we only have a basic model, but there is so much room compared to the other car. And by the way did you think that it would be possible to car shop with four kids in tow? Well it is! Have to say that it went surprisingly smooth shopping with our four- hubby and I were impressed with them. The other day in the car they actually asked when we were going to the car store again!
There really isn't much going on these days. Kids are back in swimming lessons, preschool is in session and dance class has resumed. It's a busy week going between all these, trying to study/write and not go insane, but thus far we are surviving.
On a side note I have two sites I would like to refer you all to.
One is for the founder and owner of Cotton Babies who is trying to get legislation in place to help families NOT have to choose between diapers and food. I can say that without our cloth diapers, we would be pretty close to the being one of those families. I can relate to her story about $30 per week for groceries and a WIC check. It's no secret that we live off our WIC checks. Without those, well........ I don't want to think about it. Anyways please read her blog post here and share it with your friends and family.
The second is another blog post from a pro-breastfeeding dad. I found it amusing and I love to hear things from the dad's perspective. Maybe someday I can get hubby to write a post about breastfeeding. So here it is, I hope you enjoy.
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