Monday, July 19, 2004
this was easier before the grown-up stuff
So now I have less than a week until Ben and I are stuck in a van with two kids who are both under five years old. Rabbit will be okay, as she is fine with just sitting in her car seat and reading (or nibbling on) books. C will be more difficult, especially since she gets carsick easily. We have medicine to give her for the six-hour part of the trip, so I'm sure she won't be too interested in doing car-trip kind of things, but I have a few ready just in case. Now, I've never gone on a long trip with a kid this age before (my sisters don't count), so let me know if any of these are ridiculous:
* We bought her a MagnaDoodle (it's the Dora one, just because Ben likes to spoil her -- he doesn't get to see her much with the twelve-hour distance between them) and a little Dora dry-erase notepad (sticking with a theme, see?), because she likes to draw and this seems safer than actual crayons and paper, plus it's pretty portable. I like the Blue's Clues version better, but we don't know if she's still into that show.
* I'm going to make a few shapes out of cardboard (probably cereal boxes cut into animal shapes), color them, and punch holes near the edges, then take some long pieces of yarn and coat the ends with nail polish. Voila, sewing for kids. I used to love that crap.
* We'll probly go by Goodwill and pick up a few kid's books that can be left behind when we drop her off at her mom's and will take the road-trip battering well.
What else do smart four-year-old girls like? I'm really lost here.
As for me, this is the first long drive during which I can actually DRIVE, since we've only taken Ben's cars before. Now, since we have The Behemoth, Ben doesn't have to drive all the time, which is good, because we have two twelve-hour drives and two six-hour drives ahead of us. But for my off-times, I'm taking a few books (of course), some mags, our camera, an idea notebook and a trip journal, and some embroidery, for when I feel like hazarding eye-poke-outage. Oh, and I caved to the mass media or whatever and got a handheld Battleship game. Stone me if you must.
I'm anticipating a lot of McDonald's, since our last dining experience with both kids ended with me sitting with Rabbit in the car. That was an IHOP where "scrambled eggs with cheese" equaled "scrambled eggs with a slice of non-melted American cheese laid on top." Yum.
* We bought her a MagnaDoodle (it's the Dora one, just because Ben likes to spoil her -- he doesn't get to see her much with the twelve-hour distance between them) and a little Dora dry-erase notepad (sticking with a theme, see?), because she likes to draw and this seems safer than actual crayons and paper, plus it's pretty portable. I like the Blue's Clues version better, but we don't know if she's still into that show.
* I'm going to make a few shapes out of cardboard (probably cereal boxes cut into animal shapes), color them, and punch holes near the edges, then take some long pieces of yarn and coat the ends with nail polish. Voila, sewing for kids. I used to love that crap.
* We'll probly go by Goodwill and pick up a few kid's books that can be left behind when we drop her off at her mom's and will take the road-trip battering well.
What else do smart four-year-old girls like? I'm really lost here.
As for me, this is the first long drive during which I can actually DRIVE, since we've only taken Ben's cars before. Now, since we have The Behemoth, Ben doesn't have to drive all the time, which is good, because we have two twelve-hour drives and two six-hour drives ahead of us. But for my off-times, I'm taking a few books (of course), some mags, our camera, an idea notebook and a trip journal, and some embroidery, for when I feel like hazarding eye-poke-outage. Oh, and I caved to the mass media or whatever and got a handheld Battleship game. Stone me if you must.
I'm anticipating a lot of McDonald's, since our last dining experience with both kids ended with me sitting with Rabbit in the car. That was an IHOP where "scrambled eggs with cheese" equaled "scrambled eggs with a slice of non-melted American cheese laid on top." Yum.
