Trips, beds, and "cartners"

What is the longest that you have driven in the car with kids? We are planning on driving ~10 hours next week on our way to Ohio. The longest we have done so far was 8 hours to Disney. It was tolerable but we didn't arrive a second too soon. What activities do/did you bring?

When did you put your kids in a toddler bed? I don't know whether to install the crib in our new house or not. DD2 is 16 months old and she has actually never slept in her crib but our goal for this summer is to work on everyone's sleep issues. Should we just try a toddler bed in her new room? The crib?

And. . .at what age are speech issues worked out for kids? My 4yo (just turned 4) still mixes up a few words. "Partner" is "cartner," "different" is "diffment," "Faith" is "faiph". . .I think it is adorable. I just don't want the kids at preschool this fall to make fun of her. I don't correct her but I just use the word in another sentence so that she can hear it.

My two cents...

The longest car trip with a kid over 6 months old? Maybe 3 or 4 hours? Longest flight has been around 5 hours. Or I have blocked out anything longer. Portable DVD? Books on tape? Play the alphabet game -- a lot? Snacks, plan on lots of breaks? I think that having the novelty of a new toy always helps hold interest. Does she like Polly Pockets? That might keep little fingers busy.

I'd stick with the crib if you can because she can't get out. That is nice. But if she will go for the toddler bed, and that will excite her about moving to her own bed, go that route.

re: language. Similar stuff here. I think that saying it back in a sentence is a good idea. Those cute things disappeared for us around 5...

[DCJenn]

I can really only respond to the second post:

When we moved here, he arrived before the furniture. I had brought the crib mattress with me in the car but quickly realized once it was on the floor that there was no way any of us was going to be comfy w/ that routine.

I went to Babies R' Us and we bought the toddler bed that happened to be onsale. We set it up and introduced it to him as his new bed in his new house. To be honest, he was so tired that first week, he slept like a rock. We had some wandering a few weeks later - he'd end up directly under where Rick would put his feet in the morning. Made for some heart stopping moments for my husband (who never actually stepped on him...)

But there wasn't a behavioral issue- we kept to the same bedtime routine that we'd always had- wash face, brush teeth, read three books and bedtime. (he'll probably be doing this when he's 50)

Jenn

[madeintaiwan]

We have driven across country with both the kids. The longest stretch being 18 hours (Park City to Kansas City and St. Louis to Aspen). Fortunately both of our kids are great travelers. We had tons of snacks, the DVD player with tons of movies (we use movies as destination markers, in 3 more movies we'll be there), notebooks and crayons, and each of the kids had little backpacks filled with their special toys. We are bad, we stopped only for gas and food (mainly just gas, because we packed at least 2 meals).

Toddler bed-- they are so cute and look like a good idea. No real advice to give as both of our kids slept with us until they were 3 and 2.5 at which point they went straight to twin size beds with guard rails. Kids know to stay in bed until the sun comes up (or for DS until the clock says X time).

Language-- I would just continue to replay those words correctly but not in a correcting manner (Oh, he was your "P" artner or oh the cow was diff"erent"). And the "th" is something that isn't expected to be grasped until around 7. My son still has trouble with this. He saw a speech pathologist just to be assessed and they found nothing of great concern. He was having trouble with his s blends (sp, sch, st) and they gave us simple exercises and the problem was seriously resolved in a day. If you are concerned I would get her assessed so you would just know and again the remedy could be very basic. I am no speech pathologist but it sounds to me that she would still fall within the normal range for development.

We considered the toddler bed but opted for a full mattress on the floor instead. I get tired of buying something just to have it outgrown in a few years. I like the bigger beds because we 'snuggle' every night and pillow talk with a kid is magical. Plus I'm able to sleep with them if I'm concerned about something (Ex: Ryan's tonsils are huge and the doc suggested listening to how well he sleeps to see if they needed to be removed...stuff like that.)

I've driven 9 hours with 2/yr/olds and must say a portable DVD player was a LIFESAVER. I would only turn it on half way through the trip and they only watched one movie, but it was 2 hours of peace.

Good luck.

[Flynn]

Until our kids were two years old, long trips were painful on so many levels. Now they are MUCH easier but my kids are older now...

We did twin beds on box springs on the floor with a guard rail -- toddler beds (to us) seemed like an expense we could avoid. I think 16 months is pretty early for a big kid bed -- but as I say that it totally depends on the child. DD was in hers at 20 months so that's not much of a difference.

Finally, I think what you're doing with the language issue is great. I agree with Davita, it sounds like what falls within the normal range.

Trips: The longest car ride we have taken was about 6 hours when DS was 8 months and it wasn't bad. We timed it so that he would be ready for his nap a couple hours into the drive. Our longest day of travel (including transportation to/from airport and flying time) was about 16 hours. It was a long day, but not all that bad. I found that traveling was very difficult from 10-14 months, but got much easier once DS could verbally communicate with us and we could explain to him what was going to happen throughout the day.....we're driving to the airport now, we're going to fly on an airplane to Grammy's house...... Is there any way you can time the drive so most of it happens at night while your little ones sleep?

Just bring lots of snacks, coloring books, those Crayola markers/paints that only work on Crayola paper, small cars/trucks. For our last trip, we bought DS a cheap Dora portable CD player and he spent at least an hour of the flight flipping through the songs. He also listens to the same CD every day during naptime, so we brought that with us and he listened to that before he napped on the plane. Portable DVD/Media players might buy you an hour or two of quiet time. Bring lots of books....both new and favorite oldies.


Toddler bed: I can't help you much on this one. DS is two and still in his crib. He has never once tried to climb out and he loves his crib so I have a feeling he'll be in it for a while. When the time comes, we plan on switching him directly to a full size bed. Some of his friends have switched as early as 14-15 months, though.

Speech: I have no advice, but it sounds like you're doing the right things.

14 hours. Car dvd player is INVALUABLE. Coloring books, toys they can play w/in the seat, gameboys ... I leave no stone unturned. I also don't take long breaks - that just adds to my trip.

I agree w/Nellie & Davita on the language thing. Repeating back correctly is all you (usually) need to do. Preschool kids won't be making fun of that yet. Most of them still have some of that going on.

Last month we did 16 hours with our three boys. We took breaks about every two hours, if needed. We would stop at church parking lots and then run races, figured it was about the safest place to just let them get out and run.
We also had movies, and use them as markers...'by the time Cars is over, we will be in Arkansas.' They also had their own books and drawing supplies. DW was the monitor for all that stuff...it was my job to haul-a&& and get us there.

[diggitydot]

Re: Trips, beds, and "cartners"

What is the longest that you have driven in the car with kids? We are planning on driving ~10 hours next week on our way to Ohio. The longest we have done so far was 8 hours to Disney. It was tolerable but we didn't arrive a second too soon. What activities do/did you bring?

The longest trip we've taken at one time with our three stooges was 25 hours from Phoenix to Portland, stopping only to pee, refuel, and get food/drinks. And yes, it sucked for DH and I, (we arrived in Oregon as total zombies). But the kids fared much better.

We took DH's laptop and hooked up the Nintendo Gamecube to it and took a couple games. Laptop also had a built-in DVD player so we took a half dozen of their favorites. We also had GameBoys, books, CD players and CD's, books on CD's, etc. They slept at night and mainly watched movies during the daytime. But our kids were 4, 6, and 11, too. That might be the big difference from your kid(s).

When we originally moved to Phoenix, we took about 3 days to drive down, stopping every few hours to let the kids get out and run around. We'd grab food and head to a park to let them play for an hour or so before we'd get back on the road. That worked REALLY well, but just took forever.

When did you put your kids in a toddler bed? I don't know whether to install the crib in our new house or not. DD2 is 16 months old and she has actually never slept in her crib but our goal for this summer is to work on everyone's sleep issues. Should we just try a toddler bed in her new room? The crib?

Our kids went from their crib to their toddler bed at about 2'ish.

And. . .at what age are speech issues worked out for kids? My 4yo (just turned 4) still mixes up a few words. "Partner" is "cartner," "different" is "diffment," "Faith" is "faiph". . .I think it is adorable. I just don't want the kids at preschool this fall to make fun of her. I don't correct her but
I just use the word in another sentence so that she can hear it.

Our middle child did this and still does it, but not to the same extent, (she's now 7). It used to be REALLY noticeable, but now, not so much. I had her checked out by her school's speech pathologist and she told us that it's totally normal for kids to mix up some sounds until about 2nd grade. That if she still has some of the same issues next school year that they'll absolutely begin working on it. But for now, she's completely normal. Heh. At least someone in this house is considered normal.

[Rapunzel]

Re: Trips, beds, and "cartners"

What is the longest that you have driven in the car with kids? We are planning on driving ~10 hours next week on our way to Ohio. The longest we have done so far was 8 hours to Disney. It was tolerable but we didn't arrive a second too soon. What activities do/did you bring?

The longest trips we have taken were 30 hours between Dallas and Boston the first cross-country trip (with four kids - youngest was 5 months) and then 35 hours between Cape Cod and San Antonio last summer and then this summer (each time with five kids - the youngest being one and then two these last two trips). We've taken four, five, and three days on this cross-country venture respectively.

Activities?

DEFINITELY a couple of dvd players and screens!!! LIFESAVERS!!! Bring tons of dvd's and it really, really saves your sanity. Yes, your children will be vegetables for those hours - but you will have your mind and your eardrums spared! I've learned the hard way that almost all other activities are too short-lived and result in a huge mess in the car.

[peggyfromwastate]

Longest trip: with 3 kids, two 22-month olds and one 7 year old was about 8 hours or so. We used a DVD player and became hawks for signs for McDonalds with play areas. We also stopped at random parks, schools, etc. where they have playgrounds. I have a friend who would do 10 hour trips often with 2 small kids and she would just start really early (330 am).

Toddler Beds: We kept the kids in the cribs until about 3.5 years. Toddler beds are optional, really, but we use them because they take up less space than a full mattress and we can use all the space we can get.

Language: Isabel had a lot of speech problems as recently as yesterday. When she was doing the KG orientation at age 4 (almost 5), the speech therapist said that they really didn't start correcting common mispronounciations, etc until the kids were older, maybe 1st grade. So we thougth Izzy had some real issues (she can't say the "s" sound clearly, and instead of "th" she uses an "f" sound), but the speech therapist wasn't impressed. We have been working with the "th" sounds with her and she's gotten better...