agjwatson

I would have to say the #1 thing is that the child be sleeping through the night. We just took our son on his second trip at 21 months and things went very well. The trip was 6 nights and while he was gung ho during the day, he was starting to ask to go home and watch Spongebob when he was winding down for the night.

His first trip was a 2 nighter when he was 16 months and he had just started sleeping through the night because he had gotten tubes in his ears. I was so worried he was going to wake up in the middle of the night and not recognize his surroundings and us not be able to settle him down. It ended up that he slept better and longer than he ever had.

We simply put him in his pack and play and he was fine.

Although I didn't do it myself (and got lucky) I would suggest the backyard trip, and then a trip to a nearby park in case you have to up and leave.

One think that I noticed was that he was having such a good time digging in the dirt and throwing rocks and everything else that he wore himself out and slept really well. So if you have trouble with a backyard trip, a trip to a nearby park shouldn't be out of the question since they will have a chance to get rid of some of that extra energy.