Elijah is 9 mos

He is very mobile. Around Memorial Day when Oma and Opa visited us, he was just rolling and scooting and sitting like a tripod and just a few weeks later he was crawling and really sitting up. Now he is pulling up to standing and trying to cruise along the toy bins and couch. He is eating more baby foods and acts like he could live on Cheerios if I let him. We gave him some baby food pouches to try and he has gotten good as sucking on them, which made our weekend trip to Mall of America a little easier. I forgot a pouch one night for dinner and after some resistance he ate some mashed potatoes.
He says "ba-ba-ba" all the time and has started to say "ma-ma-ma" and "da-da-da" sometimes. He has two tooth on the bottom and at least one tooth coming in on the top.

love my toy at 7 mos

7 mos

7 mos -getting so close to crawling

still kind of a tripod in this pic

Cheerios

tea time with sister at  8 mos

8 mos

time to lower the crib

only one hand to stand up

9 mos old

in the car for a roadtrip

For our recent car trip to Mall of America (about 7 hours with kid stops) I searched online for things to occupy my toddler and infant in the car (and the hotel). I did find some good ideas but a lot of ideas didn't work for us since both kids are rear-facing and I was worried about choking and projectiles. We have another roadtrip from NE to IN at the beginning of August and a Christmas trip from NE to GA.

So I thought I would make a post about what I did bring. First I pulled things from the house and put some of them away a few weeks before the trip so they would be "new" and then I purchased a few things for this trip. I had a few travel things from trips with just our oldest as well. I try not to bring things I would hate to lose, so lots of things from the dollar store, target dollar spot, ikea, etc. I hand them each just a few toys at a time and then hand them more as them seem to be  done with those or get bored. The oldest knows to put them in them in the middle when she is done with them. Other trips I wrapped up some like presents, this time I didn't. I did use some felt baskets from Easter to hand them some things.

• soft/cloth books - I have several including Peek-a-Boo Forest and Sunny Day
• indestuctibles books 
• dollar store board books 
• chik-fil-a under 3 kid meal books
• finger puppets 
• hand puppets
• bath mitts 
• small plush toys - target clearance,dollar store, ikea - we have a few of these in the car all the time
• look n find book
• plush toy cars
• Soft Travel Tray (we only used this  part of the time with the things below)
• Two-sided activity 
• mini water painting mat (aka aquadoodle)
• homemade playmat - inspired by this post - I printed some scenes on paper and put them in a clear plastic envelope with a zip closure.
• homemade sponge blocks

trying out the sponge blocks before the trip

Farm playmat with some plush farm animals

Plus I packed toys for hotel, if your kids are older you could use these in the car, but I like to have different toys from the car so they aren't tired of them.

• toy figures (like Mickey and friends)
• ponies
• zip bin playmat box
• Little People -duplicates from home
• kid meal toys
• mess free coloring (water surprise/water wow or color wonder/imagine ink)
• magnet drawing (aka magna doodle) I used to use this one when my oldest was younger but now I just use this one
• crib/stoller toys
• teething toys
• rubber ducky (this one tells you if the bath is too hot)

other ideas that I might use when we stay with family at Christmas, either brought by me or ask them to get before we arrive in addition to the handful of toys they have already.

• cards (flash cards, playing cards, or memory/matching, etc)
• soft balls such as splash balls
• sand/water toys like stacking cups 
• colander
• measuring cups/spoons 
• chenille sticks (aka pipe cleaners)

Since the trip at Christmas is longer I might buy some more toys for the trip home such as

• lauri toddler tote
• colorform
• felt storyboards
• take along sorter 

if I had more time I found lots of ideas on pintrest for- printable travel games, quiet book pages, felt activities

road trip with a toddler and infant

So we spent  a weekend at Mall of America (and Ikea) and overall it was a pretty good trip, there were a few moments of why did we do this to ourselves though. It was good practice for the roadtrip in August for my brother's wedding reception and our Christmas trip to the in-laws.

Our family room/playroom looks like an Ikea ad now with a tent for Eli, a roadmap rug and a collection of toy boxes with wheels that also stack or divide the space when they dont want to play together.

Bribes are the name of the game with a toddler and our trip long bribe was a teddy bear from Build-a-Bear with  daddy if she was (relatively) behaved at the Mall. Plus we thought it would be a good bonding experience since she is so clingy to me. After we talked her into an actual bear (not a Little Pony), the one she picked only had a display one left, but since I don't think she understood the whole stuffing process/line it worked out. It is two shades of brown with velvety fur including a brown embroidered heart belly button. After they got it I was looking at the care instructions which said it was machine washable if it didn't have any mechanism, so I was feeling around and found it has a box in its paw to make it roar which sounds like a combo of a grizzly and a dino.

Some of the other highlights from the trip include Rainforest Cafe, Bubba Gump, Lego play area, cookie sandwiches, and countless toy stores, we tried to do a little shopping but only ended up with a handful of purchases since a toddler has a short attention span.

We had planned a few other things but then actually seeing them (mirror maze, mini golf) worried they wouldn't be right for her at this age. We think it deserves a future revisit when she is old enough to ride the rides in the Nickelodeon Amusement park in the middle (it looked like fun but we both commented on the outdated theme-ing from shows we don't think are even on anymore) Also we skipped the aquarium this time since it seemed expensive although we kept getting coupons for it.

Rainforest Cafe

"pink car" -Barbie's VW bug

Bubba Gump 

Lego play area