24 in 52

That's us. We're going to drive for 24 hours in a spread of 52 hours. The extra 48 hours will be our sleep, eat, pee, mom I'm hungry, mom I'm thirsty, mom Jack touched me, DON'T MAKE ME COME BACK THERE, emergency side of the road blow-out repairs (I'm not talking about tires there) time budget.

I don't know if there is an intelligent way to prepare for such a trip as you have to be half-cracked to even consider making it. As a mom you have the empirical knowledge of hunger, thirst, whining, complaining, and diaper disasters. Approaching it from that reactionary stand-point you understand that a cooler of food and drinks, electronics, games, puzzles, DVDs and possibly a taser will be all beneficial.

I have been online hunting down those old Yes&Know books that are incredibly hard to find now. Do you remember them? Any kid who spent time in the car in the 70's will remember the invisible ink BINGO, Battleship, Baseball and Detective games. I found two books for the kids, but I bet that they are just that much more sophisticated than I was at their age and they will think they are lame-o. I don't care though because I will get all nostalgic and play them by myself.

Klutz also has a great line-up of car activity games and I loaded up with as many as I could. We have a travel Connect 4 and books (for the kids who don't get nauseous reading and moving at the same time), magazines and various small toys. With this supply I am 100% certain that at the end of day one I will open the back doors of the car and observe my kids wade through a blanket of checkers, plastic action figures, crayons, crumpled magazines, along with food wrappers and drippy juice boxes.

That is quintessential motherhood, planning for the best, but expecting way, way worse...and preparing to accept that eventuality beforehand. It's that attitude that will make the trip successful. Keep the bar low in these types of instances and you are ensuring happiness all around.

Will is the only guy I'm worried about, as he is still in the five-point harness and unable to move around as much as the other kids. Sometimes just getting to move to your other cheek, to relieve the numbness is a blessing and Will is not going to have that luxury. We've lined up hotels with pools so we can introduce our feet and lower backs to circulation again after that full day of driving.

I have packed Will with his own little activity bag, as I'm certain the Teen Beat magazine won't go over well. I feel like a real smarty-pants, extra prepared, uber-mom by sliding a metal baking sheet in his backpack for not only his magnetic letters, but also the cling-on characters as well as a spot to colour, drive cars on and lay a book on. (Additional product endorsement: Have you seen the new LeapFrog TAG? It's a magic pen that rolls over the pages of LeapFrog books and reads them. It does not have any wire or cord attachments, so it is very portable. Will loves his and had a fit when I packed it away in his travel bag. Not only does it help in reading skills, but handling the top heavy pen is great for his fine motor skills, two birds with one, fun stone.)

With the entertaining of the troops hopefully taken care of I know that my trip will be a little more enjoyable. I aspire to play a few Sudoku games, flip through some magazines, but not read the words too closely or I'll have an impeding wave of nausea. (Luckily, the pattern that your eyes need to follow to play Sudoku don't affect the car-sick center of your brain the same way the lines of words do.)

Do I sound like I am prepared? Like I know what I'm doing? I hope so. I hope it looks like I'm even a little bit together, I need to fool myself more than any of you.

Preparing for take-off :)