Activities for 18 Month Old

My 19 month old daughter takes a 7 hour drive well if I make sure to switch out DVD's. I just make sure I have enough movies to last. I also downloaded several games on my iphone. Balloonamils and Adams Game are my daughter's favorites. If you don't have an iphone, bring lots of books and pictures... review all of the people you are going to see. My daughter also loves playing peek-a-boo with us using her blanket.

G.

18 months is a hard age to travel with. Best Wishes! They don't do well out of their element. They are a danger to themselves and are constantly on the move. They don't like to be carried, don't like strollers, don't want to hold your hand.

I don't advocate drugging your kid but you might want to call your pediatrician for some recommendations on safe sedatives like Benedryl or Dramamine. Also for some tips on dealing with constipation.

For the car ride. Expect to stop every 1-2 hours for a few minutes to stretch her legs. Have a ball or something handy for her to play with. Stop at Mc D's, Chick Fillet or the like for the playground or a rest stop for the lawn.

I don't like in-car DVD players. They can cause sickness, crankiness, insomnia, and lack of imagination. We use audio books and music and have never had any complaints from our kids. The audio books we checked out from the library. We found that older kid books like Lemony Snicket worked fine for the babies too. The funny words and voices were mesmerizing. They also helped them fall asleep.

Also, our favorite car toys; mini-doodle pads, noisy button games, small board books, magnetic books and pretend cellphones.

Snack and drinks are a must. We made a few small pb&J's to go and learned to put our snacks like goldfish crackers in cups rather than baggies, snack boxes, or bowls. The fit in the cup holders. Watch out for juice boxes random squirts. I took a pocket knife and transfered juice box juice into sippy cups. I couldn't find one of those nifty juice box holders anywhere.

I kept a 1 L bottle of milk on ice in a lunch box on the road and in the room for those late night requests.

You might consider utilizing a harness/leash thing to prevent her from darting off in a crowd. Also, write your phone number on her arm with a ballpoint pen. There is a DVD by Sesame Street where Big Bird gets lost that all kids should see.

If you can, take an MP3 player with speakers with her favorite lullabies to listen to at bedtime to make her feel more at home in the cabin and block out some of the noise.

You might consider packing her a life jacket. They might be hard to come by once you get there. Don't forget her sunglasses and hat.

Have a great trip!

We have been taking our little ones on trips like this about every 3-4 months since they were born. My oldest just turned 2 and my youngest is 4 months old. The best thing we have found for in the car is a magnadoodle. It is an only in the car or long trips toy which keeps it novel. Stickers are also always good. The really little containers of play dough make waiting at a restaurant a lot easier. We also always take a couple of board books with us that he can read to himself. While you are driving Starbucks, Crackerbarrel,and rest areas are all great kid friendly stops, although no changing tables at Starbucks. The reason we like Starbucks is that they usually have big comfy benches to climb and crawl on. Don't forget to pack her favorite snacks that might be hard to find on the cruise. Good luck and have fun!!!

My husband and I travel a lot with our kids too. Our best time to drive a long distance is at night. That way they sleep most of the time we are on the road. I have family in New Jersey and it takes us 11 hours or more to get there. WE just give them a bath, put on their jammies and load them up. We pack plenty of snacks and make sure we have some good slip on shoes for walks to the bathrooms at our stops. Our drive is so much nicer. You can leave 2 nights before your cruise leaves (which we have done), get a hotel the morning you arrive and spend the day by the pool or at the beach. Get a good nights rest and then be off on your cruise. A word of advice is to pack 1 suitcase for your night in the hotel room so you don't have to lug all the others up to your room and don't have to disturb what you have packed for the cruise. Just pack enough to spend the night and a change of clothes. That suitcase stays in the car while you are on your cruise. Have fun and enjoy!

Here are some things you can make that I have made for my kids and friends and family (as gifts) that will help keep her entertained and you won't have to spend a lot on new toys. Make them while she's napping before you leave, and then pull them on the way down. It'll last longer if she has never seen them before!
I know I bought the smaller size bottled water at Walmart (I think about 6-8 oz). After drinking them, I put oil and food coloring in some to make bubbles, colored sand, different colored pasta, jingle bells, etc. All kinds of different textures/sounds. I super glue or hot glue the cap back on so nothing gets out. You can really have fun with that! Another thing I did was get some free paint chips from Lowe's in all the primary/main colors. I glue them to a piece of cardstock and print the name of the color underneath and laminate them. I have also made a texture book before. I bought a small board book at a scrap/hobby store. Each page had a scrap of something different - sand paper, foil, velvet, flannel, silk or satin, etc. Then write the name - rough, smooth, soft, etc. under it. You can make a picture album of all of the kids/family. Just got a cheap photo album. Album like they used to give you when you ordered pictures at Walmart. Put pictures of each person in the family and then use labels to write their names. Walmart/Michaels's usually have wooden shapes (car, flower, diff. animals, etc) that are painted. Some even have different textures on them. I bought several of those and a roll of magnet tape and made a bunch of magnets. You can use a small cookie sheet to stick them to if you want. Great - car toy. I made multiples of all these things when I put them together, and it didn't take that much longer, but makes a nice homemade and inexpensive gift that you can give to other's with children.
Good luck.

Hi D.!! First and foremost you will have a blast.. Just last week we drove 15 hours to Miami for our cruise. with my 2 1/2 year old..

On the trip we took along crayons, coloring books, markers,and stickers (highly recommend). We also had a cd of childrens songs ... It was a big hit but after a few hours it was somewhat annoying.. LOL.. But she loved it.. Also we had a DVD player and we took along her favorite DVD player..

We would also play the game .. I get the Blue Car.. Or Yellow Truck.. so on and so on..

Hope you have a blast.. Dont forget to take baby tylenol or motrin just in case.. You never know.. Be sure to take a hat for your little one.. Hope some of the advice helps..

Have fun and relax..

When my kids were young we had kid music cassettes, (dating myself). The kids loved the music but my husband could only take so much of it. We also got some books on cassettes for them to listen to and books. I am sure they have the same thing on CD now. The other thing I have seen is the DVD monitors that you put on the back of the headrest. I think these are pricey and if she does not really watch TV much it probably would not be worth the money. I am sure you plan on stopping for breaks and meals, that will help. We made a trip from Missouri to Montana when my sons were 1 month, 3 years and 7 years of age. It was a 20+ hour trip. The older kids also enjoyed the scenery, animals, farms, trees etc...They also slept a lot. The older ones had some issues with car sickness so we gave them Dramimine. I am not sure of the age restrictions on that though.

travel at night and pray she sleeps. That is a tough age to entertain!!!! LOL Good luck and God bless!

D.,

As against this as I was at first, invest in a DVD player for the car, portable or already installed in your car can be live savers on long and not so long trips in the car! Have a goody bag ready and beside her in the backseat where she can grab lots of toys, books, snacks. Play games and give her small NEW (cheap) wrapped toys that will interest her a bit longer than an say an older already "used" toy. Sit with her in the backseat to play/read. I've seen, and I need to get one myself, but a soft, plush lap tray that will attach to her seat and she can color/read/play on and is safe in case of an accident in the car. Plan ahead to make several stops at rest areas so she can run around and get some exercise and eat lunch outside of the car. If you can look into small, inexpensive side trips to different areas and if you have to make it a two day trip to go easy on you and the little one. AND, if all else fails, I've heard that traveling at night is sometimes the way to go to get to where you need to and allow the kiddos to sleep while you drive. BUT only do that if you all can drive all night to get to where you are going.

As far as the ship...hmm....there are lots of stuff to do on the ship. What cruise line are you going on? They sometimes have a kid zone where you can "drop" off your kid while you all eat dinner or go see a show. I've heard of hiring some of the staff to be babysitters while you are on the ship. Depending on your room size and what you all like to do will depend on what you can do on the ship with her. There is usually a pool, lots of places to run around inside the ship, sometimes they play kid like movies on deck, they might have arts and crafts for her to do in the kid zone, but your usual bag of tricks to keep her happy at home should do just fine on the ship, just with less space to keep it all in.

Good Luck, have fun!

A. B