Road Trip With a Toddler | The After

Ok so I thought I would write this post as we go... Did you read 'The Before'? No? Click here so you'll be right up to date!

8:00 am

Left Adelaide on schedule. Woo hoo!

8:45 am

We started singing 'baa baa black sheep' (requested by Miss M), a couple of snacks already, played with dolly (dancing, hiding and jumping) and doggy with the bumpy ears (which made her want to drive over bumps on the road). Trying to be positive, happy, not stressed, give her attention. 45 mins into the drive and we are watching episodes of Peppa Pig (but not giving in to every demand - "Yes you can watch peppa but no you cannot hold the phone.")

9:30 am

Note to self, make sure the magnadoodle pen is attached to the board. Impossible to find without stopping the car and getting out once dropped!!

But - favourite item so far are these 'view tainers' (raided them from Hubby's boys room - he tells me they were from Bunnings, followed by "I can feel a blog post coming on". Yes James I'm blogging about our road trip!) We spent ages posting Pom poms and pop sticks.

10:00 am 

First stop - sausage rolls for everyone. Patted some friendly dogs, successfully back in the car at 10:30. Driver swap.

11am

Sleep! Yay! Only half an hour but better than nothing. Grizzly for a bit but not as bad as I thought (made me imagine how it would feel waking up, not in my own bed, being tightly strapped in with no escape). Next stop at a playground at 12noon, followed by a bottle.

12:30 pm - 99 kms to go!

Rest of the trip went as well as could be expected. We had a 'toddler who cried poo' incident, thought she needed a change, got her out, no change needed, then refused to get back into her car seat! So I ended up sitting in the back with her for the last half an hour, reading books and putting coins in the money box. 

Arrived as predicted at 2:00 pm

Currently trying to get her to nap - not sure how we'll go...

Nope - didn't happen.

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The drive home...

Left at 10:00 am - off to a good start.

Played with dollies to start the long drive. Predicting it will be hard to maintain my positive, happy, not stressed and give her attention method on the drive home because I'm soooo tired. Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, pitch black with A/C (I'm a fussy sleeper).

10:30 am

First stop already because I wanted to look at the 'trinketry' shops in a cute little town. James & Miss M go to the playground, and a lovely lady at a cafe heats up her bottle for her. Here's hoping a warm bottle in the car = a nice loooong sleep. Are you crossing your fingers for me?

11:30 am

Asleep! Better this time round because she had a warm bottle at the right time and took her dummy. Nice and cosy too in the car. I get to enjoy reading a magazine.

12:30 pm

One hour later - still asleep! We sacrifice our planned lunch stop (one of SA's best country bakeries mind you) and continue to the next town. Does your little one wake up as soon as the car stops or a door closes like Miss M?

1:00 pm

Awake & stop for lunch. Love all the little kid friendly rest stops we have discovered - most have play areas, pencils, chalk boards etc...

1:30 pm

My turn to drive. A few episodes of Peppa Pig kept her happy for a while, but she was quite grizzly on this next stretch. We made a quick stop for petrol around 2:30 and then I sat in the back to read books for a little while. Getting a bit over it now we think.

4:00 pm
Made it home safe and sound!

Phew! What a weekend. Was great to spend time with family.

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Do you have any road trip travel tips that you would like to add? If you're off on a holiday during the silly season, good luck! 

Lauren