6) Invest in a portable DVD player. You will thank yourself on long car trips and flights, or in hotel rooms without DVD players. We don't take short flights or car trips. Our family is on the East Coast and we are on the West. Our friends are in SoCal, and we are in NorCal. Going about 6 hours at at time is the norm, so on those trips, we dump the "no more than one movie a day" rule, and enjoy hours of Pixar, possibly the SAME Pixar.
7) Toys and more toys. Pack a toy bag for the kids. Unless you are flying to see Uncle Joe, and keeps a collection of toys for your kid, don't think things will be fine in your hotel room for a week without some favorite items. If you are flying to see Uncle Joe, still pack a backpack for your kiddo to carry. It will make your life much saner on the plane if your child has things to play with it. But think small. Instead of the entire 126 piece train set, pack 8-10 tracks and a couple of trains. Instead of every toy jungle animal in the collection, choose about 5. Do you really need all 98 crayola crayons--take 10. Smaller sets of items, means MORE of other things :)
8) Get a suite, or adjoining rooms. Truthfully, it's worth the extra money to have a separate room to veg out in for the few hours after you put your kiddo to bed, or during naps. We put Charlie in our bed to go to sleep, then move him to the pull out bed or murphy bed when we are ready to hit the sack. And we get some time to watch TV, talk, eat dinner, drink some wine, without it being in the dark, or worrying about waking up the babies.
9) Unless you have a kiddo that NORMALLY sleeps in a regular "big kid" bed, use the portable crib the hotel has, or a pack-n-play. If driving, we take our pack-n-play, but if we are flying, we use the hotel crib. The Kozy Sak (a fabulous product) works on either, and keeps the kiddos nice and warm!
10) To stroller or not to stroller. Hey, it's your choice, but we are a walking family, and although Charlie loves to run, sometimes he gets tired and cranky, and does the really cool "let me fall on the ground and have a huge tantrum right in front of moving traffic" thing, so it's time to go BACK in the stroller. So, we take it. And now with 2, we take the giant double stroller. People can make all the funny faces and give me as many annoyed looks as they want. Consider where you are going, and what you are doing, and the age of your kids. If you have an infant, you could possibly just wear your baby, and use an umbrella stroller with your older one. But if you plan to get in a car, even rented, or with a friend, you have to have carseats, so consider that as well.
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