I must be crazy. (Planning a long car trip - Help!)

Many factors converged and it occurred to me that I might - just might be willing to attempt a 24 hour (round-trip) car ride with my children without my husband. (I must be crazy.) This is how I arrived at that rather startling conclusion...

There are several factors playing into this decision. Many of my loved ones live a 12 hour drive away in the New Orleans, LA area. We don't get to see them as often as we'd like but they are dear to us. I desperately want my children to have significant relationships with their extended family. They are wonderful people and true connections with wonderful people are gifts to be treasured in life.

The children are slightly, yet significantly older than the last time we made the trek (8 months ago). School is going to start soon, so now is the time. Also, the children are nearing the end of their first set of swimming lessons and my Louisiana relatives have a pool. Finally, I mentioned the idea, somewhat offhandedly, to my mother and she jumped at the chance to drive down with us.

And so, in a couple of weekends I'm going to pack up the children, leave my husband behind, and my mother and I are going to take the children on a 12+ hour car ride to New Orleans, LA for a three day visit before the return trip.

I'm less worried about the actual stay (wonderful relatives, pool in the backyard, a backyard the size of a small park to explore...) than I am about how to fill 24+ hours in a car with a 3 and 4 year old. We'll have access to videos, but even the power of the television wears off. Any suggestions?

Liquid Watercolor Activity: Rubber Cement Resist

Take a piece of watercolor paper and let the children drizzle all over it with rubber cement. (If you have never used rubber cement, be warned - absolutely do not try to clean spills up with water. Seriously, take my traumatized word for it. Just let it dry and then rub it off.) Having completed the project I'll say this. Lay the rubber cement on thick. It'll be easier to rub off. The color bleeds through the resist and the rubber cement is harder to rub off where it is thin. It is still a pretty effect, just not as dramatic and harder to work with.

Once dry, let children paint over the rubber cement with watercolors and let it dry again. Optional: Give the children rice to sprinkle onto the wet watercolors and let it dry with the rice in place for an interesting extra effect. Once dry, shake off the rice (if you did that) and show them how to remove the dry rubber cement by rubbing it off with their fingers.

You should be left with a beautiful abstract painting that demonstrates a resist technique very well.

Notes from the trenches:

• Again, it cannot be stated too many times, do not attempt to clean up rubber cement spills, drips, or paintbrushes with water.
• Do use watercolor paper. I forgot and used cardstock by accident. The paper didn't hold up well and we got some tears when trying to remove the rubber cement.
  
  
  
  
• Do not offer salt as an additional technique for adding effect. The salt will stick to your rubber cement and make it much, much more difficult to remove the rubber cement from your painting.

(This activity was inspired by this post.)

Other Liquid Watercolor Activities

• Painting a Polar Bear Landscape with Preschoolers
• Salt Art
• Contact Paper Resist (Nameplate)
• Painting a Wooden Mosaic
• Paint Prep and Organization

The Weekly Review: Week 70

SLP Idea of the Week

Think one piece of white paper, a bunch of matchbox cars, and some free printable car pattern templates (you can custom color them with the colors of cars you happen to have) and you have a great game most young children will love to play. During the game, you work on colors, directionality, patterns, following directions, turn taking, counting, etc. It is a simple, entertaining early language activity. Find it at Toddler Approved.

Ava this Week

Ava will occasionally (twice a month perhaps?) wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and wander into our room extremely upset and disoriented. She can't seem to articulate any reason for the nighttime wandering. Someone (usually my husband, his nighttime response time is better than mine) simply has to reassure her gently that everything is all right and lead her back to her room and tuck her in again. She goes right back to sleep and doesn't seem to remember any of it in the morning. Strange.

Weekly Michael

Oh my goodness. I witnessed the birth of potty humor in our household. I was sitting at the table eating a weekday lunch with my children when our world went from one with no awareness of potty humor to a world where small children fall off their chairs laughing hysterically at the word "peepee".

We were innocently discussing nicknames. That led to increasing silliness where the children were rhyming with nicknames and pausing to see the other person's reaction to their rhymes. Ava, discussing a friend she calls "DeeDee" rhymed, "DeeDee PeePee" and paused for her brother's reaction. I turned to look at him. There was an exaggerated pause where I could practically see the wheels in his head turning and then he cracked up belly laughing. I started laughing because he was so funny. Ava just looked at us like we were crazy. Then, after Michael repeated , "DeeDee PeePee" about five times in a row, she understood too.

Things spiraled quickly downhill from there. The children took turns attaching "Peepee" to the name of every family member, friend, and casual acquaintance we know. The children laughed every-single-time. Next they moved on to every animal they could think of. And then it occurred to Michael that if "Peepee" was funny than "Poopy" must be even funnier.

I wish I had taped it. It was actually pretty amazing to watch them have so much innocent fun. Of course, I should probably mention that those jokes aren't appropriate for school...

Weekly Weight Loss

As I discussed last week, I'm using a combination of an online/app food diary and an activity tracker to work on reversing my weight's upward creep. Since this time last week I've lost 0.2 pounds. Not great, but on the positive side I'm still working at it and still motivated. I've dusted off my husband's old bowflex introducing a little weight resistance exercise into the mix which I enjoy. And I fought through several days of increased cravings and bloating that were, I think, related to monthly hormonal changes. So, all in all, an acceptable week in (comparatively) healthy living.