I have utilized my extra organizational capacity that is usually used for work to prepare for this trip. I'm in charge of packing logistics and entertainment for Nathan. Jason will drive. He always does. :)
We were thrown a little bit of a curveball this morning- usually when we road trip we take out the middle row of our minivan and put Nathan in the back row, with all of our stuff in the middle. Our middle row only seats two, and the back row three, so we'd planned to put both boys in the back and I could sit in the middle. When we removed the middle row and flipped up the back row (I usually just keep the whole back row down), we discovered that the back row only had one LATCH system, and it took up two seats! WTF?! This meant that both boys and me could not be in the back. Ultimately, I put both seats back in the middle row and folded down the back. I won't be able to sit next to either of them. So annoyed.
What I have planned for Nathan (besides for the destinations):
This is a "scrapbook" for him to use on our trip. I have different colors of cardstock and each day we'll do a page chronicling what we did and maybe including some kind of related item (i.e. we can glue on leaves, postcards, brochures). I also precut some pieces of lined paper so he can dictate to me what his favorite thing that day was. There's sheet protectors for each page, and then it's all in a 1/2 inch binder. When we get home, I'll probably let him have at some of my scrap stuff to decorate his pages more and add pictures that we took while away.
This is an idea that I stole from someone's blog- a kind of hide and seek game. You are supposed to use an empty peanut butter jar, but I didn't have one so I used a dollar store jar instead. Fill it most of the way with rice and other items like foam letters. I used "warm fuzzies" (pom-poms), and glitter foam stickers with flowers and butterflies. I'll see if I can find a few more small items to hide in there. Then GLUE the lid on so there's no rice explosion. The game is to find various things ("find a blue dragonfly," etc.).
I used a bunch of $1 sterilite shoebox sized containers to organize essentials. Then I made tags that are labeled and have distinct shapes and colors, so that Nathan and Jason (mostly Jason) will be able to find things easily. I can't count how many times he's brought a bag (that I described in DETAIL) to a hotel room only to have me say "no, the OTHER duffel bag!" The photo you see below has overnight things for the kids- washcloths, soap, medicines, toothbrush, changing pads (we're using disposable ones on this trip). I also have a diaper bin that contains both sizes of diapers, changing pad, diaper bags, hand sanitizer, and wipes. Then there is an "overstock" bin that has refills of everything- this will be stored in the basement of the van.
This is possibly the coolest toy Nathan owns, from his great aunt Rosy. It's called a Neat-Oh bin, and I believe she got it at BJ's, although they sell them on Amazon too. It's a bin that has zippers on the corners so it can fold out into a play mat. It velcroes closed and has a handle. All of Nathan and Noah's toys for the hotel room/house are in here.
Books, coloring books, and crayons have their own labeled bag.
Other items not pictured:
- Potette Plus
We were originally going to bring Nathan's frog potty but it's pretty big. Nathan has refused to poop on the potty, which pretty much guarantees that he's going to decide somewhere along I-95 that he wants to poop on the potty NOW. I researched portable potties and found this one that I liked best for several reasons. It is one piece (pretty small) that has legs that fold down so a kid can sit on it, or fold outward so it can be placed on a normal size (i.e. public) potty. It doesn't have a "bowl," instead it has disposable scented liners. The whole thing fits in a little plastic drawstring bag.
- Lap desk
This will allow him to play with cars, color, etc.
- Superprize bag
I bought a bunch of stuff from the dollar store and "recycled" some things Nathan hasn't played with in a while. Whenever he gets bored or antsy, we can pick something out of here. I have things like a Cars stamper set, toy cars, dinosaur finger puppets, a Kindermusik egg shaker, dinosaur flash cards, mini animal books from Target dollar spot, and lots of stickers. By the way, the reason it's called a superprize bag it because Nathan confuses surprise and prize and calls anything he gets a superprize. I kind of likes it, so it stuck.
- Travel beds
Nathan has a blowup Cars bed that can go on the floor. For Noah, we are deciding between a pack n play or a little peapod type bed that I borrowed from my SIL.
- Touchpad
Jason has preloaded our touchpad with games and movies. I also have our virtual fish tanks of course.
I also have packed my pump and accessories, just in case, a beach bag for Jekyll Island, and then everyone's clothes. For Noah's clothes and Nathan's socks, they are organized into ziploc bags so I can just grab the bag I want without messing up the order of things. Of course, I also have a diaper box full of snacks, and we plan to take a small cooler as well. The entire pile of stuff that needs to be packed doesn't look that big to me, but I could be mistaken. I'm going to try hard to be one of those awesome bloggers who takes pictures of everything as it's used, for the post-trip-post.
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