Matthew has never been to excited to be confined to a car seat for more than 5 minutes (tops!). Boy did we find this out!
On Thursday we headed from home to Louisville, KY about a 7 hour trip that was half way to Alabama. Matthew had two major breakdowns and the tension in the vehicle was high.
We brought along some books that Matthew loves to read, his favorite bath-time duck, a stuffed dog and a DVD player with some neat movies. Let's just say that those things didn't keep his attention very long. For most of the trip he took off his Velcro tennis shoes and then had a crying fit because he couldn't get them back on his feet. When the shoes would come off, sometimes he would also take off his socks and would have a fit about that too. When he wasn't mad about his shoes/socks he would say over and over "Mama... IWannaACookie" or "Mama... IWannaJuice". The little guy pretty much ate or drank the entire trip!!!
On day two from Louisville, KY to Tuscaloosa, AL Matthew did a lot better. I think he finally realized that we were going somewhere and there really wasn't anything he could do about it. Also, I think "day 1" helped him get more acquainted with long car rides.
We made it to Alabama and had a great day on Saturday seeing Jenny graduate, spending time with her seeing and where she worked.
We started our journey home on Sunday, made it half way and then completed the drive home on Monday.
Below are some notes I made during the journey:
When traveling with a toddler -
Make sure to speak in code. If you don't and you say the wrong words you will pay the price. One that had us almost in tears laughing was - "if we stop at MD he'll want FF". (MacDonald's/french fries)
Don't use Velcro shoes on a toddler on a long road trip. Boredom will set in an he will take them off, then cry and scream because he can't get them back on. If a shoe comes off the sock won't be far behind. That too will result in the same window cracking screams.
If he happens to somehow fall asleep don't stop the vehicle for ANY reason! If the tank is on empty, so what. Drive on fumes if you have to!
If we could just have one dollar for every time Matthew said "Ma ma...." I want cracker/I want juice... We would have a million dollars and would have been able to charter a private jet for our journey.
One funny thing was almost every time Matthew would see the Golden Arches of MacDonald's he would say "shy shy" (French fry). That's pretty good for a 23 month old toddler. He's brand loyal and I'm sure I'll be stopping by many MacDonald's over the next 15 years!
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