Technology, Naps, & Road Trips...Oh My!

I was scrolling through pictures on my phone today and came across a few from our trip to Birmingham that I meant to include in my post on Monday but forgot. Better late than never though, right?!

We recently got a tablet {primarily for Shelby's use}, and it was a LIFESAVER on our trip! Shelby had a blast playing educational games on the tablet {I'm that mom that will only let her child use technology/watch TV if it's educational. I feel much less guilty about giving her "screen time" if she's learning something while she's at it! I typically try to keep her screen time to a bare minimum, but when we're traveling...anything goes! We're just trying to maintain our sanity!} while we packed up our hotel room on Sunday morning. I love how Hadley can never take her eyes off her big sister!

During the car ride, Shelby would pretty much alternate between listening to her Kindermusik CD's, watching Sesame Street or Super Why DVD's, or playing games on the tablet. Looking back, I have NO idea how my sister & I survived all those ten-hour drives to St. Louis when we were little. And more importantly, how did my parents maintain their sanity?!?! I am beyond thankful for technology.

On the drive home from Birmingham on Sunday, Shelby was so tired. This is what she looked like for the first 30 minutes of the drive:

For those of you who may not know/remember, Shelby has not slept anywhere other than her crib/pack n play/bed for as long as we can remember. It does not matter how tired she is, she will not sleep a wink unless you put her down for a nap or bedtime. She usually will not even so much as get tired eyes unless she's in her bed. But now that Shelby is older, it's easier to communicate with her. So I thought I'd try explaining to her that it was okay to sleep in her carseat if she was tired. I told her that Hadley was sleeping in her carseat, and Mommy would sleep in her seat, and that it was okay if she wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep too. This was the look she gave me when I told her that:

I think Shelby just thought we were going to "pretend sleep," which is one of her favorite pasttimes. But I tried explaining to her again that it was okay to sleep in the car, and sure enough it worked! A few minutes later, we saw this:

She only slept for about 40 minutes, but for a girl who never sleeps in the car--that's a pretty big deal! And the best part was Hadley & Shelby were both asleep for those 40 minutes. So we had 40 minutes of peace & quiet in the car..it was amazing! Derek & I kept looking at each other like, "Man, road trips with kids who sleep are a breeze!" Ha!