151 Things to Do With a Child on a Road Trip

I recently came across a list ideas of how to entertain your toddler on a road trip. The author claimed there were 101 activities on her list, the list went from 1 to 10. She was planning for a 5 hour drive. Wow. I hope she makes it. Her list included blowing bubbles in the car. I kid you not... anyhoo...

Being that we live approximately 1,300 miles (no joke) from our families and we have approximately 4 too many children to be able to afford to fly to Grandma's house we're familiar with road trips. It takes a hair more than 22 driving hours, not counting stops, and one night in Albuquerque to get us to Utah. Dad and I started joking about our own list...

So, without further adieu... here's our list of 151, thoroughly tested, things to do with your children on a road trip:


1. Watch a movie, but not until we've past the airport. Until we pass the airport it's not really traveling.

2. Read a book. You remember books right?

3. Listen to your mp3 player.

4. Look out the window. Farm country is beautiful.

5. Keep your hands to yourself.

6. Watch another movie.

7. Quit bickering or I will pick the movie for you.

8. Eat your snacks. DO NOT shove your uneaten snacks between the wall and your seat. Ahem, Pinky!

9. Shut up and watch the movie or something.

10. Group screaming session.

11. Take a freaking nap. You're going to be in here for 2 whole days... napping will make it go faster.

12. Try not to make Mom climb over the seat to sit between you two. No one will be happy about that.

13. Fold your arms and look out your own window. Do not touch, look at, or breathe on the person next to you.

14. Holy crap! It's dark out, go to sleep. We won't be there for at least three hours. Sleep. NOW.

15. Group crying session.


You're welcome and enjoy your trip.

Recap

Where to start...where to start? As I'm sure you have guessed by my week long absence we have been insanely busy. It's for this very reason that I have a love/hate relationship with the holiday season. I love the decorations and the picking of the perfect presents and of course Christmas morning with the kids... but all the rest... the crowds and the dozens of parties and the many many more things that must be done and seen...it just makes me tired. Which makes my short fuse a bit shorter. Or maybe it's the being awake until 2am that does that? or maybe it's the teething baby who hasn't slept really well since we moved the crib out of our room? Either way I am feeling a little grinchy this year and sort of looking forward to the quiet after the holidays; to having Dad home for the whole week between Christmas and New Years (and being able to say "Go ask your Dad"), and to having Grandma and Grandpa come and visit us, along with Dad's little sister Breezy.

Last week I threw a GNO gift swap party. It was awesome and I am SOOO glad that I did it, and I plan on doing it again next year... even if the stress of executing it just about did me in. A major player in the pre-party stress? This stupid flower...

For some reason we got a bunch of duds this year. I asked Dad to pick one up while he was at the store one night and he came home with this. Believe it or not it was the best looking one at the store that night. It may look like it was half bald but it was really more like three quarters. As long as it was turned a certain way and you stood in a certain spot you couldn't tell, but if either of you moved... ugh. It sat up there and mocked me. It had to go.

So I asked Dad to try again on party day. I was actually hoping for two, one to replace this one on top of the entertainment center and one to put on the table with the treats. He even called me from the store to give me the run down on the plants (I love that Dad has a phone now!). I'm not really a fan of the glittery kind but they looked the best so he got two. I understand now why the cellophane wrapped around them wasn't clear... It would have made it very easy to see the death and decay that lurked below the brilliant red canopy. They went straight back out the door they came in and I gave up on having at least one decent looking poinsettia this year. When Dad came home with a nice, full, and not dead one a few days later my exact words were, "Oh h#$& you bought another one?"

I got about three months of the gargantuan eight month newsletter done. I have a feeling that it'll be a nine month newsletter before I am finished. Sigh.

I had some miserable throat crud the end of last week. The kind that feels alright when you get up in the morning and makes you get your hopes up that maybe you're over it and then WHAM! about eight o' clock that night the brillo pad in your throat is back. I am so tired of being sick...

We took the kids to the annual children's party at Dad's work the end of last week.They give each of the kids a present, like real present. It went pretty well. Except for the part where Pinky made such a sour face at the unicorn pillow pal she got that the lady working the window gave her something else before I had a chance to help her adjust her attitude. If she pulls that crap again next year she'll be donating the unwanted gift and leaving empty handed...

The correct response is "Thank you!" Pinky.

The boys got some neat stuff too... Stinky got a stomp rocket that he has been DYING to try out, we just haven't had time to go to the elementary school field yet and the dang thing goes 100 ft. in the air. Ralph got a stuffed Mickey Mouse that has become his new best friend...

And Baby Booger Head got a really cute little set of stuff that had a rattle, one of those satiny blanket pal things, and a hooded towel. 

I started opening my 12 Days of Christmas Swap gifts too... except I am an idiot and started opening them in the wrong direction. Sorry again Cassie... I got the note when the box arrived, but managed to forget the directions in the week I waited to start opening things and I was WAY too excited to read it again before I started. I don't mean to be stupid but it happens sometimes...

Just FYI

In case you were wondering what the Mother of the Year was doing this afternoon around 1:15pm she was running to the elementary school under a thick blanket of gray clouds. Her baby was tucked into the sucky stroller, because the good stroller was in the back of the car at work with Dad, and her preschooler was running along side the stroller singing "We've got to run, run, run!" and looking around nervously every time the sky rumbled.

Why may you ask was she out in the impending rain with her baby and panicky preschooler? To take her Kindergartner her library book. So she wouldn't get her first color change of the year and be sad and mopey all day long.

Lucky for her the rain didn't really start falling until the very second she pushed the crappy stroller back into the safety of the garage. Thank heaven. That totally would have ruined her pageant hair.

Safety Glasses

I've been sort of absentee blogging lately, I blame baseball. Thank heaven we are almost done...this is the last week and we won't be going to Stinky's game because he got a huge scratch on his cornea. Again. In his short 7 years he's done this three times, though never this bad. I'm debating making him wear a pair of these full time...the kid already wants to be a scientist when he grows up.

I picked him up early from school, with my little kids and Sam's little kids since it was our volunteering day, and took him to the eye Dr. as soon as they could get him in. As a side note I was THRILLED to discover that the eye doctor we see, that is literally 5 minutes from my house is covered on the stooopid new insurance we got this year! Hooray! So I didn't have to take him to the pediatrician 45 minutes away and it's good to know it'll be covered if I get another big nasty sty! Yay! Anyways, back to the story...

I left Pinky and Ralph at my house with Sam and all of her kids and took Booger Head and Stinky with me. Pinky had her last TBall game last night (Thank the heavens above!) so I left her uniform out and discussed having Sam's hubby Roon take Dad and Pinky to the ball park if needs be. (Sam is the greatest by the way...three cheers for Sam!)

I took him in and he was totally miserable and the gal tried to check his vision in the scratched eye but he couldn't open it without crying so his vision was 0. They got his eye all numbed up and we hurried through the exam, since the drops only last about twenty minutes. His vision had decreased a bit and the cut was more like a gouge and it was huge. She said it covered almost the entire pupil and was deep enough she was concerned that his eye may have been punctured. Luckily there didn't seem to be any fluid leaking from the scrape itself. She dialated his eye with some stuff that should last a few days, which will help with the spasming every time he opens it, and they put a bandage lens on his eye. It is just like a contact lens, he did really well for that, I was surprised...but he was still very numb at that point.

I made it home just in time to take Dad and Pinky to Tball and then headed to WalMart to get the boy some sunglasses to help keep the light out of it and to fill the prescription for antibiotic eye drops made of gold. OVER AN HOUR and $50 later we left the pharmacy. Don't get me started. There is no reason whatsoever it should take that long to put a sticker on a box. Morons.

He'll be home from school tomorrow so that I can put eye drops in his eye every hour all day long (sounds like fun, no?) and maybe Thursday too. He's really concerned about missing trick or treating but he should be at least okay by Friday night (church party) and able to go with Dad and the kids on Saturday night...at least I hope so or my late-night-candy-stealing pickings will be a bit thinner. :) Chocolate tax baby!

Now I just have to track down the child who poked him in the eye and ransom the $150 this is going to end up costing me out of his parents...haha, kidding. Mostly.