![\"IMG_1661\"](\"http:\/\/saynplaycolumbus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_1661.jpg\")
<\/a>Aside from an old habit dying hard, I’ll blame my poor trip-planning on the fact that we left on December 26. I was so caught up in planning for baby’s “First Christmas” that I didn’t plan for\u00a0the eight-hour car ride I had to spend entertaining baby girl\u00a0the next day!\u00a0I thought (ok, hoped) she\u00a0would sleep the majority of the trip, and I would be able to nap alongside her. Boy, was I wrong! Before we had even reached the state line, I realized that Baby Girl\u00a0would much rather take the\u00a0shortest naps possible so she could spend majority of the trip staring at me waiting for me to entertain her.<\/p>\nSeeing as the babe was content with being\u00a0wide awake, I decided to take advantage of this\u00a0quality time. Using the items that I did manage to pack before we left, we spent\u00a0the time working to\u00a0increase her attention span and language skills through reading and play. Read on for some ideas on how you and yours can “Say-n-Play” on future road trips.<\/p>\n
This is our new favorite high contrast book: Art for Baby<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>created by Yana Peel. (Shout out to Nana and Papa for the wonderful Christmas gift!) Read more about to importance of high contrast books for babies by clicking on the blog post link above.<\/p>\n 2. Bring toys and books that crinkle and can be manipulated by baby with her hands and mouth.\u00a0Baby will be strapped in the carseat all day while your on the road, so if your baby is like mine and decides to stay awake the majority of the trip, you will need toys for baby to explore to distract her from being strapped down. In the first months of life,\u00a0babies are learning how to\u00a0use their hands to manipulate objects. In addition to their hands, baby will also explore objects with their mouths. Their little\u00a0mouths have more nerve endings per square millimeter than any other part of their body. So, baby will take a toy straight to the mouth in order\u00a0to find out what something really feels like! Thus, toys like “Sofie the Giraffe”\u00a0are great for road trips (and every day use) because it is easy for the baby to hold and soft enough for baby to chew on.<\/p>\n Learn from my mistakes and make sure you take more than a handful of toys! Babies have a short attention span with toys, so a new one will be “requested” quite frequently. To build your baby’s attention span, encourage her\u00a0to play with the toy for 15-30 seconds longer than when she signals she is done with the toy. This little bit of additional time can be stretched as she gets older to increase attention and focus.<\/p>\n 3. If you run out of books and toys (or if you didn’t bring enough to begin with like me) be resourceful with your surroundings. For me, that meant a fast food paper bag and a water bottle from a gas station! The paper bag makes a great crinkle sound and can be squished together with baby’s hands. The water bottle makes another great crinkle toy. The bottle made an awesome sound that mesmerized my daughter when she\u00a0squeezed it.\u00a0It\u00a0also doubled as an entertaining maraca\u00a0when I shook the\u00a0water around in the bottle. I turned\u00a0to these\u00a0items in desperation to keep baby girl calm and entertained…and, thankfully, they worked! It was amazing how she focused on\u00a0me shaking a water bottle in different directions for almost 20 minutes!<\/p>\n With these tips, I hope your next road trip with baby will look a lot more like\u00a0this.<\/p>\n …and a lot less like this. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/a>1. Bring books to build your kiddo’s language skills. Don’t make my mistake of bringing only three books. Bring a lot of books! My Baby girl loves to look at illustrations while Mommy reads to her and didn’t mind hearing the same story over and over again. For your own sanity, however, I suggest bringing a wide variety of books. I love “Barnyard Dance!” by Sandra Boynton, but there is only so many times I can “Bow to the cow” or “Strut with the duck” in an eight-hour car ride before I want the book to promenade right out the window.\u00a0In all seriousness, I had a wonderful time reading with her and could truly see her attention span grow as we continued to read together during\u00a0the trip. If you want to read more on how reading builds language skills and suggestions for what types of books to bring for baby, check out\u00a0this blog post.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n