Holidays...

While the hustle and bustle of the holidays sends me into a whirl, spending time with my family seems to be the most important thing also the most fun. From Las Vegas, NV to Ogden, UT we have family spread all over so the holidays spread us pretty thin which means people get left out and we are sorry for that but now with a little one we are all at the mercy of how he is feeling on a day to day basis.
  Traveling is super exhausting especially with a 6 month old.  You have to be sure to grab everything the baby may or may not need, but you can never be too safe.  Also if you're traveling in a car and have a baby like mine you never know when the baby will scream from the back seat and you will need to rescue them by hurdling over the front seat into the back just to give the slightest bit  of comfort to him until you can find a nice stopping point along the three hundred mile trip. We have found a few vices to ease the traveling woes so now I will share them with all of you just in case you are having the same issues.  So here is my not so secret list of car essentials:

• Some sort of light (flashlight, or in our case a glowing red rose, I know weird) this will make it so the baby can see and the lights from other cars don't startle them in the dark.  Also it will make it so you can keep the inside lights off, which in turn makes driving safer.
• Crinkle paper, it gets annoying sometimes but is well worth the annoyance believe me.
• Some one sitting in the back seat (see above) this will give comfort as to the baby believing he is abandoned if he wakes up and your not there.
• Also if all else fails I have been known to give him a little bit of Tylenol....I know it may make me a terrible mother but if it gets us the last 50 miles then so be it. 

I should explain that when we travel by sweet baby boy can scream and cry for almost 200 miles, which can get on your nerves and cause you to resort to final measures which is why the last vice seams so terrible.

Now on to the never ending woes of the packing before the trip...ew I hate this part so so so so much!  I always forget something it seams and it's always something the baby seams to not be able to live without that day. Here is what is always a must:

• Play pen, you never know when you can use it and it will make it so you don't need to sleep with the baby unless it's super cold and you all need every ounce of body heat every one can give to stay warm, yup been there done that already.
• Plenty of blankets! You never know what situation you'll be in or how many blow outs or how much vomit you will encounter so always be prepared.
• Stroller, trust me it will save your back if you just find space to bring the stroller especially if your planning any sort of walking adventure.  Those baby carriers I swear are all made for tall women, I can't find one that doesn't put all the weight around my neck and keeps his legs off my hips so the stroller is an absolute must for me.
• Double the amount of clothes as days being spent, same reasons for blankets
• Bumbo/Jumper babies are never happy with the situation they are in it seams so I always want several places to put him to make him happy for at least ten minutes.
• Toys, Toys and toys. They need distractions and you need some peace so just bring the babies toys.  No need to buy new ones every trip, who has that kind of money any ways, just grab a toy that they already have and that they haven't played with and give that to them, they won't know the difference.
• Diapers/diaper wipes.  We always take one of the big packs out of the boxes of diapers with us no matter if it's 1 or 3 days we'll be gone and 2 packs of wipes.  We ran out of wipes twice and both times were unfortunate which made the trip almost unbearable so take more than you think you'll need you never know.

My 6 month old has little to no interest in toys but I've just observed other parents and it never seems like they can bring enough toys, so maybe I will get a special tub of small toys to take with us on trips and they will be the "vacation" toys that only come out when we are away....hmmm

In any case traveling is exhausting and we always need a vacation from our vacation but we love our family dearly and love seeing them so we will continue to do this until we either live in the same places or we die either way we will see them and love every minute :)