I never got around to posting about Caity's first big road trip. We went to visit my friend Abbie in Philadelphia over Memorial Day Weekend. Traveling with a toddler is an interesting experience. I don't know how my kept my brother and I entertained on our long and frequent road trips when we were kids; I'm amazed.

Normally the trip would be about 5 hours. With Toddler Time it took us about 8 or so. She held up pretty well through most of it, though during the last couple hours her patience started wearing thin. We were stopping at just about every rest stop to let her walk around and take a break.

We didn't reach full meltdown territory until we were about 45 minutes out. She'd had enough, and started just wailing "all done" (accompanied by her 'all done' baby sign). Of course by that point we were so close that the only thing to do was try to distract her and get there.

Once we arrived, all was forgiven because Abbie had a dog, which was the coolest thing Caity had ever seen. For almost a solid hour after we arrived (and for most of the weekend) it was: "Puppy! Puppy! Puppy! Puppy!" He was such a patient puppy. By the end of the weekend she had even learned to pet him nicely. Once she tried to give his back a kiss and ended up with a mouth full of dog hair. Seeing her rub her tongue and try to spit it out was hilarious.

It was a fun visit. Abbie hosted a barbeque for a bunch of folks, so there were a few other babies for Caity to play with. Mostly they entertained themselves standing up and knocking down water bottles and running around the deck. We also went to the Ben Franklin science center and saw the Star Trek exhibit. Caity had fun running around the kids zone there.

Coolest car toy: a toddler-friendly 'etch-a-sketch' thing. Surprisingly we got the most mileage out of an Elmo coloring book. Not the coloring part, mind you, but taking the crayons in and out of the little crayon case attached to the front. Go figure :)

Neatest travel invention: "Mommy and me" stalls in the restrooms that have a big potty as well as a child-sized potty. I wish the rest stops had more grass area to play around in though.