Deconstructing The Road Trip and a Green Gator

*100th Post*



Home, home again & I want to thank you all for the wonderful (coping), creative ideas for keeping Little Man content in the car......and in all the cases for the moral support and positive "vibage" sent our way. :)



I had meant to go a slightly different direction for my *100th post* (100th?? Wha? Wha?*gasp*), but after reading the ideas and noting that many of you also were seeking sage pearls to manage babies/toddlers in the car, I decided to give y'all the skinny on our most recent road trip AND recap Lauren's First-Ever soccer season as a member of the Green Gators...........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr/SNAP! Happily both sagas have a happy ending & naturally I've included some glimpses! :)



BIZNESS first........ Our previous road trips with Tyler had always included both Scott and I with Scott as driver and me often as co-pilot, relegated to the middle row for better 'grability' and access to said munchkin. Previously our 4 hour trip had broken down into the following 4 segments, each about 1 hour in length: First hour: Lauren reads/sketches & doodles & or listens to a book on c.d. , while simultaneously gobbling every morsel of preplanned snacks, crumbs & all ~ Tyler (hour 1) watchful, pointing and babbling at passing scenery and vehicles, passing interest in books Mama is reading aloud to him. Second hour: Lauren, hungry again, now requesting her music (much to Daddy's dismay), playing D.S games ~ Tyler (hour 2) napping.......angelic.....(code: Mama reading a book or catching up with hubster) SCREECH......Tyler wakes up completely refreshed and ready to rumba at EXACTLY the halfway point of hour 2................so begins the fun. :) Hour 3 (following a nice break and potty stop) Lauren, happily engaged in a DVD ~ Tyler, frustrated by car seat restraints, pulling off shoes and socks, batting away offered snacks, CRYING for 2 minute intervals at a time. Hour 4: Lauren's movie ends......back to books and endless refrains of "are we there yet?" Also possibly rummaging through my bag to play with mirror and various sundries. ~ Tyler, mildly amused by my frantic efforts to sing, engage in patty cake/itsy bitsy spider, etc. but mostly READY to be outta the car...........ditto Mama and Daddy! Oh, BTW, add one tiny furry girl, cowering in the back, coming out only to bark at passing semis. Ack!



Now fast forward 5 months and YES, it has gotten easier! Yay! This time Dadddy had to stay home, so Lauren took the seat next to Tyler and maybe its the age, maybe its the familiarity with said travels, maybe it was the secret weapon otherwise known as "Lauren".........but it was a much improved journey and with more road trips to come as the holidays approach, just label this Mama as R.E.L.I.E.F............in fact, consider it my new middle name! ;)



So what did we do? Snacks baby, snacks......LOL I'm not super comfortable giving Tyler snacks when I'm not right there, so we had to pick special (i.e. small and yummy) ones that Lauren could dispense as needed. M&M's ( hey, it was a first and kept the tears at bay!) VERY teeny tiny pieces of cut up purple grapes ( a HUGE treat for Tyler) & Ritz crackers (one for each hand!) Why Ritz? I have no idea, but he LOVES LOVES 'em and that's good enough for me!



We also played kids music, 2 kid books on c.d. for all to hear, watched snippets of Baby Einstein/ a movie pick of Lauren's choice, enjoyed Big Sis reading many of Tyler's favorite board books, took a longer than usual break half way through AND sang lots of silly songs.



The frustration factor was way down for us all and even though Tyler still only napped for exactly 23 1/2 minutes (yes, I timed it!) everyone was much happier! Many of these ideas were also shared by some of you in my last post and I encourage everyone to take a peek at the comments, as there were some GREAT ideas! For both car trips and plane travel!



I also dug out one old time, long forgotten idea from our days of travel with Baby Lauren ( who was much more easygoing in the car!)...............an almost empty water bottle, with the cap screwed on VERY tight.........in baby's hands its an instrument, a crinkle toy, a scientific experiment AND you can add small pebbles, beads, etc. later in the ride to keep it fresh! HE LOVED IT!



Now if I can just figure out how to help Tyler sleep better when we travel AND if anyone knows of a set of magic elves for hire who unpack luggage and help organize AFTER the journey, please forward their contact information to me! :)



Finally, Lauren participated in her first season on a soccer team and we all had fun at her Saturday a.m. games and weekly practices. I think the pictures/captions can tell the story for me & already she is anticipating her Spring soccer season with the same team/coach. Go Green Gators!
How lucky that they had virtually the same soccer uniform for Lauren's look-a-like! Can you tell which one is the real doll? :)

Our Very Own Green Gator standing ready for the game to begin. I call this her "game face"!

While the color green was SO NOT her first choice for uniform "flavors" our Fancy Nancy always managed to add a splash of her own style! :) Don't you love her pink/black cleats! So fun!

The team's biggest(& smallest) fan & we even found a soccer tee in green to support the team! Of course his eyes weren't always ON the game field! LOL

Close-up of the action and often she would kick the ball, dash by us on the sideline, wave & smile....LOL....don't think the coach approved, but we sure thought it was cute!

Sometimes the games got long for Little Man................and chilly near the end of the season. We found ways to amuse him and keep him off the field which is where we really wanted to be!

Joyful celebration after the game! We always included a brief stop at the playground & always celebrated win, lose or draw! :)

P.S. We had a wonderful wonderful time at my folks: our destination for this road trip! Its always worth the effort to get there! Always! Thanks for everything Mom & Dad!