Good toys/entertaining tips for long(ish) car trip?

[atlbaby]

We are (hoping to, if my OB gives us the go ahead!) go on a little vacation with Arielle next week. Not too far, but about a 4-5 hour drive. We haven't gone on this long a car ride with her since she was about 8 months old, when she basically napped for a good portion of the trip. I'm looking for ideas of how to keep her entertained while we are on the road.

And any tips for staying in a hotel with a young toddler would be great! The only place we've ever taken her overnight is to my inlaws (local) and to stay with friends a few hours away! We will be staying in a suites-hotel, with one bedroom and a full kitchen/living room too.

Of course I'd love to figure out how to listen to "real" music again in the car (she wants her tape the moment the engine starts), but I guess that's too much to ask? :)

Thanks!

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle Jill, 10/30/01
#2:) EDD 10/24/03

[stillplayswithbarbies]

This may not work for a toddler, but when my son was younger, I had a special treat for him when we stayed in hotels, which he called "home-tels" :) I would buy a can of cheap shaving cream and let him play in the tub with it. He could make a big mess and get it all over the shower walls and all over himself. He loved it, and I didn't have to scrub the tub. (we did rinse it well). You'd want to supervise because it gets slippery. This was something special that he only got to do in hotels, never at home and he loved it.

I don't know if she is old enough to look forward to a special "hotel only" activity or not. But it helped when we were traveling and had a long drive to remind him that at the "home-tel" he would get to do his special thing. He still talks about it today. (he still wants to do it today, but wouldn't admit that in public at the advanced age of 12 of course!)

...Karen
Mom to Jake age 12 and expecting Logan Elizabeth or Garrett Logan, EDD March 21

[egoldber]

We have a minivan and had a DVD player installed in the van. It is the BEST thing for keeping kids entertained on long car trips. Without the DVD player, we can usually only drive for 1-2 hours before having to stop to let Sarah out for awhile. Now that she doesn't really nap in the car, driving long distances is much more challenging.

I would just plan to stop frequently. It will probably be better if someone sits in the backseta with her and helps to keep her entertained. Read her books, sing songs, etc. And I too wonder when the day will come when I can listen to something besides Barney or the Wiggles on long car trips.

As for hotels, since you are already staying in a suites hotel with a kitchen, that's my main advice. Make sure to take along some kind of feeding seat or hook on seat so that you can feed her more easily in the hotel room.

The first thing we do when we get in the room is babyproof it as much as possible. Potted plants and other danger/breakables go on top of the refirgerator. Rearrange the furniture to block as many outlets and wires as you can. Taking along a few outlet covers may be useful, but in my experience most hotel outlets at floor level tend to be in use. Make sure you ask for a crib and find out what type of crib it is if you can (a "regular" crib or PNP type crib) and bring appropriate sheets. Very few hotels in my experience provide appropriate linens for their cribs.

Enjoy your trip!

[brubeck]

One of my favorite travel toys is the smallest Magna Doodle. It has an attached 'pen' and entertains for hours. The package says 3 and up but I don't know why. All the 1 and 2 year olds I know love them.

There are also some good car toys that attach to the carseat like a mini-dashboard. We have one my daughter loves called Beep Beep Traffic Jam. We ONLY bring it out on long car trips.

You could also try the Cheerios cellphone dispenser. Food and toy in one!

[egoldber]

Be careful with the Magna Doodle. We have the middle size one (can't remember what it is called). I can't give it to Sarah to play with yet. Her favorite thing to do with it is to wrap the cord tightly around her neck!

But other toddlers I know that are her age, have and love the Magna Doodle.

[atlbaby]

Hmmm, so maybe I'll stay away from the Magna Doodle for now since she'll be in the back seat (by herself for at least part of the trip). I'm glad I saw this, I was going to Toys R Us in a few minutes! Do either of you think the travel one would be safer than the middle size one? And the cheerio dispenser sounds good--would it work well with Arielle since she's only about to turn 17 months?

Thanks again for your advice--I admit I'm a bit concerned about this trip since we've only travelled with her once before, and when I worry I like to Plan, Plan, Plan! :)

-Rachel
Mom to Arielle Jill, 10/30/01
#2:) EDD 10/24/03

[MinnieMouse]

The travel Magna Doodle's string is VERY short..I don't think I'd be concerned about it being a choking hazard. We took one on both our 8hr (each way ) road trip and our plane trip to FL when dd was 15mo. It was a HUGE hit. Dd was entranced with the MD for over an HOUR the first time we broke it out. I was sitting with her and would draw simple pictures on it and she would scribble over them :-).

Other stuff that was good...

Small people or characters....FIL gave dd a handful of Sesame Street characters...she loved playing with them in the car and on the plane. I'm sure Little People would work just great for this as well. One thing dd liked to do is we would give her a small plastic cup and she would put the person in it, dump it out...over and over and over. Big hit!

We kept crayons in the diaper bags with some paper. This helped a lot at rest stops while we were waiting for food. Also we stopped about every 2-3hrs to let dd run around.

The BEST thing we did was travel at night. Dd slept almost the entire way down on our 8hr trip. We made GREAT time...only had to stop once. When returning, we had to travel during the day. We planned it around naptime which helped, but didn't do as well...had to stop 2x...and dd was fussy for the last part of the ride.

HTH

Christine

[egoldber]

FYI, ours is called the "Travel Magna Doodle" and the cord is defintiely long enough to go most of the way around her neck. Arielle may have no problem with it, but Sarah like to put ANYTHING with a string around her neck, so I would keep an eye on her. They make a smaller Magna Doodle (maybe called Compact?) that probably has a shorter string.

HTH,

[Tracey1]

You recv'd lots of good tips for keeping busy in the car. I second the ones that said try to drive at night and the DVD player is nice, but my DD gets tired of that after a while too - I look forward to the day when she has the attention span to watch a 2hr movie on it! You also may be able to use a laptop to play DVD's (but then you'd have to hold it the whole time!), we do this a lot on airplanes and then we use it in the hotel (we park DD's stroller in front of it), which really helps to keep her out of trouble while we're getting ready in the morning. These wouldn't really work in the car, but my DD loves her stacking blocks - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002QUKL/qid=1048536223/sr=1-3/ref=s_ba_0frp_2_1/104-6601099-1728751?v=glance&s=baby
They're a great hotel toy, very portable, and they keep her interested for quite a while - I stack them and she knocks them over, she stacks them, etc. We use them all the time at home too.

Another thing we try to do if we're driving is to bring her pak'n'play with us. That way, she's used to it and knows it's her's and we know that it's clean and we're able to bring the appropriate bedding. Last time we traveled by plane and I wasn't able to find out ahead of time what the hotel provided for a crib, so I brought along both a crib sheet and a pak'n'play sheet and of course, the hotel had a porta-crib, so I still didn't have a sheet that fit! The other thing that I always bring is some type of noise machine. Especially if your DD is used to sleeping with one, but even if not, it's nice to be able to drown out the hallway noise (especially all the loud slamming doors).

I know what you mean about the real music in the car. DD got to where she always wanted the DVD, she'd be reaching for it before I could even shut my door! I found that if I just told her no, not now and turned the music on, she would stop asking after a few minutes and then she'd be fine on subsequent trips. There's also real music that she likes too - she loves the Enrique Iglesias CD, not a peep out of her when that's playing and I haven't figured this out yet, but if she's tired and I play the Tony Bennet/KD Lang CD (lol, not that this is the "real" music you had in mind!) she falls asleep in a second!

Sorry this is so long - hope you have a lot of fun & your trip helps you to feel better too!

[brubeck]

The cord on the travel size one is less than 6 inches long.

[brubeck]

My daughter loves the Carpenters. Okay, I can hear you all groan now. :-)

[muskiesusan]

We have the "Clip on Magna Doodle," which is smaller than the travel size. The string is pretty short, but I was still nervous giving it to Nicholas in the car. I watched him play with it in the house, and then when I was satisfied he wouldn't harm himself with it, I put it in the car. The clip is nice, you can attach it to something so he can always reach it.

He hates being in the car and this has been a big help. It is cute when I get him out and he shows me his drawing!

Susan
WAHM to Nicholas 10/01/01