Excitement and Hesitations

Sometime soon, Tyler, Genevieve and I are leaving on our week long vacation.  I am getting SO excited for the trip to see family in Chicago, then visit my best friend Kevin and his wife and daughter up near Grand Rapids, then head to our big family reunion down in Cincinnati.   This has been a trip in the making for almost 2 years.   We've been saving money, planning my vacations days for this trip, and gotten pretty excited about seeing everyone.  I haven't been this excited for a vacation in a long time.

However, there is one aspect of the trip I'm not very excited about... in fact, I'm pretty hesitant about it... it's the 29 hours of driving in the week.... with a one year old.  Before you all give me your amazing ideas about how to travel with kids, I promise I've heard most of them.  Not to shoot you down or anything, but I've met with other moms, I've looked up ideas on Pinterest, and I am as prepared as a mom can be... it doesn't mean I'm looking forward to it.

She's at that fun age where she can't quite communicate or participate in almost any road trip games... and... my child is sensory driven.   Most kids like to go in and play with their toys, my child does not.

What we have here is a box full of uninteresting, unimpressive toys.  I haven't bought her any toys personally, these have all been generous gifts that my child is just not interested in.  Sure she'll play with them sometimes, if just to take them out of the box while laughing as she throws them around the room.   But as far and playing with or engaging with the toys...she's just not quite there yet.   So if I want to entertain my child for any amount of time, I can do so with things around my kitchen.  A sure way to keep her entertained for at least 45 minutes is rice or beans with a bowl, spoon and cup of some kind.  Cups or bowls of water...finger painting... piles of leaves... also successful entertainment for my child.  Sure it's messy, but the kid loves messy, that's what she lives for.  I love watching her doing what she loves... if you want to see sheer joy on a one year old's face, come watch my kid when she's playing with one of the messy things I give her for entertainment.

Joy in painting.

Playing with rice, not happy that I'm interrupting her play by taking a picture.

Which is why I'm kind of nervous about 29 hours in a car.   How can I entertain this wild, sensory driven child?  I've got all the tricks I know hidden in a bag to pull out as surprises throughout the trip. 

These are some kind of rubber tile samples that Karlie got from a home improvement store of some kind for the child care.   I borrowed them for the trip, the different colors, textures and sizes should keep her entertained for a little bit.

These are some sensory bottles I made up for her.  The first one is some multi-colored rings (you can't seem them until you shake it) in with some glitter-glue and some water.  The second bottle is aloe vera and red marbles.  The third jar is just water and some fun items, pom poms, beads, a little rubber frog, a marble.    Not pictured are lots of touch and feel books, bubbles, magic markers, beaded necklaces, a little mirror, and lots of movies to go in the portable dvd player we are borrowing from a road travel pro friend.    I'm not sure how the movies will work since for the most part Vi isn't that interested in watching movies with the exception of those Wee See videos.   She could just watch those over and over, but unfortunately we don't have them on DVD, we just watch them over and over for free on YouTube. http://www.weeseeworld.com  Maybe it'll rain on the way and we'll be able to stop and let her out to play, that'd be perfect. 

Splashing in rain puddles is the most fun!

So wish us the best!  I'm sure we'll be fine, and have a fantastic time!  Maybe she'll be perfect the ENTIRE time, I'll be sure to let you know.  Also, if you feel you have a sure fire tip that I am missing and would save us completely, leave me a comment, but quick!