How to Keep a 1 year old Entertained on a Road Trip

This past week we drove out to San Antonio to visit Philip's family for a week. While we often used to make the 13 hour drive in just one day, we knew that there was no way we could do that with Michaela. Even with an overnight stop though, it is an awful long time to keep a newly mobile 1 year old locked up in a car seat and we knew we would have to get creative in order to keep her relatively content. Here's the toy that kept her happiest for the longest:


I just bought a very small baking sheet from the dollar store, along with several sets of chipboard magnets. The baking sheet was small enough for her to hold in her lap while in the car seat and she loved moving the magnets around and taking them on and off the sheet. I didn't, but if you are a very creative person, you could also tell stories with the magnets.

Along with this, I also packed a little container full of cards, books, small toys, and a drawing pad with crayons. Every time she got fussy I would try changing out what she was playing with and if that didn't work, we would give her a small snack (fig newton, graham cracker, etc) that would keep her occupied for a little bit. We also played lots of "Patty Cake" and "This Little Piggy."

We took turns driving and sitting in the back seat with her. With one of us in the back seat to hand her food, play with her, and talk to her, she was kept much happier than if she was all by herself in the back.

If you've got a long drive with a little one coming up, good luck! It takes a whole lot of distraction to keep them happy! Also, make sure to stop every couple of hours to let those little legs stretch out and get some activity!

Sleep, glorious sleep...

I have not fallen off the face of the planet. We were in San Antonio last week visiting my husbands family and although I had my computer with me, I was lazy and didn't bother to post anything or really keep up with my google reader. I think I've pretty much given up on doing too much more to my page, but I will try to keep updating my blogroll, it takes forever to add blogs via html!

In other news, Michaela started sleeping in her very own crib in her very own room this week. She has been sleeping in my bed pretty much since the day she came home from the hospital. I tried reading The No-Cry Sleep Solution, and while it did have alot of great ideas, none of them seemed to work very well on Michaela. I know alot of parents let their children sleep in their beds for years, but it was not working well for our family any more. Philip is such a light sleeper that he tosses and turns, and would wake the baby up, so he has been sleeping on the couch for a long time now. For the health of my marriage, Michaela needed to go into her own room!

It hasn't been too too bad so far. I've started doing a better bedtime routine with her, and now I nurse her until she is drowsy, then put her in her crib. The first two nights daddy rubbed her tummy and her head until she fell asleep, and then would do the same whenever she woke up in the middle of the night. I would wake up to feed her after she had slept for 5 or 6 hours and then put her back in her crib. Last night daddy did not go to her when she woke up, we let her try to get back to sleep on her own. I would be lying if I said that this has been a smooth, cry-less situation, but there has definitely been less tears than I expected.

The first night I had a really hard time sleeping without Michaela tucked into my arms. Last night I slept like a rock. So although I will miss Michaelas little night noises, and the feeling I get when her little hand brushes against my arm as she turns over, I know this is the right thing to do right now. Daddy is happy to have his bed back and I am happy to have him back as well. :)

Las Vegas

I've been back for almost a week from my trip to Vegas, but man, things have been crazy around here! We are officially moved out of our house and staying at my sister's until we close on the new house. (A big thanks to my loving husband who moved us while I was at my moms in Vegas!) Here are a few of the highlights of our trip:

Visiting with Grandma Sushie and Auntie Juliet:

Swimming for the first time:

Out and About:

Family Moment Monday

Motherhood for Dummies hosts Family Moment Mondays, check her out to get more ideas on how to spend time together as a family!

For me, Labor Day = camping. It's not always possible to go though, and even if it were, the campsites are usually overflowing with people and noise on this holiday weekend. So what's a camping lover to do?

Go backyard camping! Pitch a tent in the backyard and set up a campfire. Use your BBQ Grill to make dinner and use the campfire to make smores for dessert. For entertainment you could set up a horseshoe pit, play board games, and later gather around the fire to tell ghost stories. It would help keep everyone in the camping mood if some sort of rule were established to limit access to the house, perhaps only for bathroom breaks and getting ready for bed.

This is a special treat for the whole family and will feel like a mini vacation even though you're at home!

San Francisco!

Our trip was fabulous! Technically we were staying at Philip's brother's house in Hayward, which is a suburb of Oakland, but in my little New Mexico mind, we were in San Francisco. All of Philip's brothers and his mom came and we all just hung out and had a good time. I was very proud of Michela, she did much better on the flights than I thought she would. She pretty much just nursed and napped the whole time!

In a trolley in Monterrey.

She loved looking at the fish in the aquarium in Monterrey!

Our happy little family.

Us, Phil's mom, and two of his brothers. (The other one is taking the picture).

On a boat tour in San Francisco.

Going under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz
The famous sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf

Going home!

Puppy, puppy, baby crying

Whew, today has been hectic! We finally met with our realtor this morning to sign some papers and put the lockbox on. Our house is officially on the market!!!! Other than that we spent the morning doing last minute touch-ups to the house and packing for our trip to San Francisco.

The real highlight of my morning, however, was taking the dogs to the kennel. Two very hyper doggies (one of them howling because he's afraid of the car) plus a screaming baby (who hates her carseat) equals a very stressful car trip. Not to mention that our vet & kennel are on the complete opposite side of town. Or that there was construction on the bridge going to that side of town. Or that since I never leave the house anymore I forgot how long it takes to get to the vet even without construction!

Well, now we are off to the airport for our first flight with baby! I have no idea what it will be like, but in the interest of making our encounter with security a little less traumatizing for all involved, I will not be taking my laptop. How I am going to get through an entire weekend without my daily blogger fix, I have no idea! See ya monday!!!!!!

Home again...

Road trip over, most disasters averted. We are home from our week-long trip to grandma's, and our experimental, first long road trip with baby. The road itself was not to bad. Michaela slept most of the way, and when she was hungry we would pull over at a rest stop or picnic area to feed her. On the way over, we stopped in Pecos overnight. Unfortunately, our room (one of the best I could find) was dirty, mildewy and not anywhere I would want my precious baby to lay her tired head. What could we do? We made the best of the situation and decided that next time we would stop in Fort Stockton. Oh well. The second day of driving was not too bad, although by the time we reached San Antonio, Michaela was definitely ready to get out of the evil carseat. Highlights of the trip:

*We got to eat lots of yummy vietnamese food, thanks to Philip's mama.

*Michaela got to meet her Uncle Paul and cousin Breanna (unfortunaly all the other cousins were sickos, so she'll have to wait until next time to meet them), and Great Aunt and second cousins.

*Michaela had her "coming out party" for all of Philip's mom's friends. She was charming all the women, and flirting with all the men as she giggled and cooed her way through the dinner. I take solace in the fact that she has about 10 various pairs of Grandma's and Granpa's whenever we visit San Antonio.

*Michaela got to take studio pictures for Grandma. Even though was in a bad mood and didn't smile for any of the pictures, they still came out beautiful. Gosh that girl is going to be a heartbreaker when she grows up.

The trip back was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that Michaela, who already hated her car seat, probably hates it much more now that she has had to endure almost 4 full days stuck in it in the past week. I love San Antonio, but I am always so glad to come home. There is no place like Albuquerque for me. When I catch a glimpse of the Sandias, oh, I can't even describe it. Until next time...

I'm not taking my sneakers off.....

I'm starting to get a little bit nervous about our impending roadtrip. On Sunday, we'll be leaving to visit Philip's mom in San Antonio for a week. That's a 12 hour drive from here without children, so we are splitting it up into two days to make it a little easier on Michaela. Even then, two long days worth of driving is probably not her idea of fun. I'm just hoping that she sleeps through most of the trip! Oh well, worrying is as pointless as trying to get Sneakers O'Toole to take his sneakers off.

We're still working on packing up the house. After I painstakingly chose which books to leave on display in the bookcase, I called it a done deal and moved on to the kitchen. This is probably the hardest part because we have no idea how long it will take to sell our house and move into the next one. It could take a week or it could take several months, so I have to decide what food/appliances/cookware/etc. to leave and what to pack. Moving is stressful already and we've only just begun! (Sorry quel, couldn't find the Happy Gilmore version)!