Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Road Trips + Babies

Happy Monday! As a little prelude, I want to be forthcoming and let you know that this is a sponsored post. However, all road trip tales and opinions are true and my own ... except I'll keep the amount of time since my last shower up to your interpretation. Thank you for your support

Two weekends ago, Conor and I roadtripped up to Duluth, Minnesota, the beautiful land of temperamental weather, to see one of my closest friends get married. It was a gorgeous day, and I hope Aubry shares the professional photos with me when she gets her hands on them. 

The road trip was not as long as my last solo trip with a child of mine, but with a stop in Chicago to drop Chris and Ryan off for some boys time with our college friends, horrible Chicago traffic, missing a key exit and not realizing it and having to stop to nurse Conor a few times, I was on the road for about 14 hours. Despite that, I think eight months old is the perfect age to road trip alone with a baby. He can go longer between nursing so I didn't have to stop as often as if he were younger. He can feed himself things such as mum-mums or puffs (I wish those had better names!) that disintegrate in his mouth so I don't have to worry about choking, and it stretches the time between nursing even more. He can play with toys and hold them himself so all I have to do is chuck a toy from my front seat arsenal, and when he throws it away after a few minutes, I just throw him another. Most helpful of all - he isn't mobile yet so he doesn't know what he is missing! Eight months is a golden window for road trips. 

So that + some music for our rap-loving baby helped a lot with our voyage, but what about the problem that I'm a messy road tripper? I mean, don't we need those Chipotle napkins for later? We do, right? It drives Chris crazy! So away he throws them even though later it will be become apparent that we do in fact need them when whatever mess or tear fest from emotional me comes up. Anyone else hoard napkins? 

We also have the problem of spotty a/c in the car + the hot, humid month of June in the Midwest + longer than I'd like since my last shower when combining the previous two. I was happy that I had these Huggies Clutch 'n' Clean wipes in the car with me. I had them dangling from the headrest within arms reach so when I finished my cheese curds from Culver's (when in Wisconsin ...), I didn't have to go in search through the depths of the toy pile and other hoarded goodies (that did not include Chipotle napkins because I had the wipes!) to find something to adequately clean the grease off my hands. Convenient and excellently did the job. As for the sweaty state that I was in, I just took the clutch, placed it next to my ice-cold cup from Culver's, let it cool for a bit, and voila - cool cleansing wipes giving me a road trip version of a shower. When Conor had a blow-out as he tends to when I'm without Chris and traveling like here, here and here, the Huggies Clutch 'n' Clean wipes excellently did the job that they were meant to do. 
What have we here? 

Now that we are home, they have been a great addition to my camel of a stroller during our daily caravans to the park or campus or anywhere outside. The wipes easily dangle from the stroller handle so Ryan doesn't have to make a mess of my diaper bag while searching for something wipe his hands with after getting 50% of his PB&J on his hands and 50% on his hands. For when it is in my diaper bag, I love that it doesn't take up valuable space. You can unzip the clutch and refill it to your liking. 






Would like to learn more about the Huggies Clutch 'n' Clean wipes? Just click here. And do you have any road trip recommendations for really long road trips with a baby and a toddler? Like South Bend to San Diego road trips? We are doing it later in the summer for David and Becca's wedding so any tips would be appreciated. 

6 comments :

  1. Chipotle napkins occupy my glove box right this second. And they always come in handy! My husband doesn't understand why I do it, even when he uses them ALL THE TIME.

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  2. My husband is the opposite, he hoards the napkins into my diaper bag and I throw them out of my diaper bag when he isn't looking. I always use wipes, for everything... Never napkins. Napkins don't get sticky off of hands.

    Anyway, I just bought a bag of those wipes about a month ago, the one with stripes. Husband said it was cute! I like it because you can fit way more wipes into it than those plastic wipe containers, and it is cuter.

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  3. I'm a total napkin hoarder. As is my husband. Marriage made in heaven! I have a center console in the Suburban that is primarily just for napkins. And we ALWAYS need them. I have even been known to appropriate some from whatever fast food place we stop to fill up the console when it's running low. Four boys - enough said. And the long road trips....... lots of snacks, a portable DVD player for Ryan, frequent stops, and plenty of extra time built in - don't stress about the timetable. Drive during naps and later into the evening so they can sleep some in the car. I was just saying to my husband how much easier it is to go places now that the kids are bigger. I used to dread driving to his parents and it's only 3 hours away. This weekend we zipped over and back in 48 hours and it was nothing!

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  4. Cute post and pictures! Also congrats on the solo road trip!! For long road trips I do something that my mom did for us when we traveled on long car trips! I wrap up little packages to open every couple hours. It can range from a coloring book to a pack of raisins! The girls would just get excited to open something small and it just helped pass the time with a new activity or snack! I just used whatever wrapping paper we had and put them in a small bin under the front seat! We also use a magna doodle a lot! Just a few ideas that helps our long trips!

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