This is the third year in our row that we've gone on a big multi-destination summer trip to visit our relatives. Each year we get better and better at preparing for them. The logistics are pretty ridiculous, but let's be honest, my Type A self secretly loves it. This weekend, I prepped busy bags in attempt to keep the girls occupied on our two six-hour cross country flights.
Claire (26 months)
For each flight she's got five new books, a "water wow!" coloring book, crayons (triangular, so they won't roll away) and a sketchpad, play dough and a match box car to drive up hills and such, stickers, and a little stuffed animal. For one flight, she's got an etch-a-sketch and for the other, she's got some craft sticks with velcro dots to make shapes with. I also threw in a matching game, but I think she might be a little young for that still.
Maggie (7 months)
For each flight, she's got a puppet and a scarf for playing peek-a-boo, a car and a top to move across the tray table, a couple relatively quiet shakers, a cloth book, a few board books, a little stuffed animal, and several other little toys to chew on. I'm also planning to throw in some of her favorite Sandra Boynton books.
I wrapped everything in colorful tissue paper and loaded it all into two kiddie backpacks. (We were gifted two of those cute Skip Hop animal ones.) The stuff for the flights home is wrapped up too and loaded into a couple shoe bags for now.
Claire's new activities are mostly from the dollar section at Target and the craft store. All the books are from Goodwill - I was aiming for a mix of her favorites (Little Critter, Madeline) and ones that take a long time to read (Richard Scarry, The Little Engine That Could). The big splurges were a new pack of crayons and those "water wow!" books, which I've heard excellent things about.
Maggie's activities were pretty much exclusively toys we already had. After Christmas, when we got a new influx of toys and were trying to fit them all into our tiny apartment, I went through the baby toys and stored all these ones away specifically so they'd be "new" on our trip. With a couple things, like the Minnie Mouse dolls, which Claire got for her birthday, I put them away after just a few days in the toy rotation so they'd still feel special now.
They each have a little comfort item (Claire has two dolls, Maggie has a teddy bear that helps her tolerate the car seat) but those will be packed into our suitcase because I live in fear of them getting lost.
Of course, on a long flight snacks are equally as essential as activities.
Claire (26 months)
Trail mix, popcorn, cheese crackers, and suckers to help with ear pressure during take off and landing.
Maggie (7 months)
Rice rusks, puffs, yogurt melts, and lots of squeeze pouches.
For the grown-ups, I got a one month subscription to Nature Box because I had a 50% coupon code and all the snacks looked so delicious! Just in case the babies give us a few minutes off peace, we used OverDrive to load a couple new library books onto the Kindle/phones/tablet. If we can read one-handed, it will be much more likely to happen!
Definitely hoping Maggie will take good naps in the air, but we'll be really surprised if Claire nods off. Instead, we've got the Winnie the Pooh movie, the new season of Daniel Tiger, and a few Peppa Pig episodes queued up on the tablet for her. She's never played any apps/games before, but we're not above trying them if we need to. (We have a Surface, courtesy of Adam's work.) I'm willing to bet she'll be the more easily entertained sister, though.
What are your tips and tricks to air travel survival? I'm all ears!
Claire (26 months)
For each flight she's got five new books, a "water wow!" coloring book, crayons (triangular, so they won't roll away) and a sketchpad, play dough and a match box car to drive up hills and such, stickers, and a little stuffed animal. For one flight, she's got an etch-a-sketch and for the other, she's got some craft sticks with velcro dots to make shapes with. I also threw in a matching game, but I think she might be a little young for that still.
Maggie (7 months)
For each flight, she's got a puppet and a scarf for playing peek-a-boo, a car and a top to move across the tray table, a couple relatively quiet shakers, a cloth book, a few board books, a little stuffed animal, and several other little toys to chew on. I'm also planning to throw in some of her favorite Sandra Boynton books.
I wrapped everything in colorful tissue paper and loaded it all into two kiddie backpacks. (We were gifted two of those cute Skip Hop animal ones.) The stuff for the flights home is wrapped up too and loaded into a couple shoe bags for now.
Claire's new activities are mostly from the dollar section at Target and the craft store. All the books are from Goodwill - I was aiming for a mix of her favorites (Little Critter, Madeline) and ones that take a long time to read (Richard Scarry, The Little Engine That Could). The big splurges were a new pack of crayons and those "water wow!" books, which I've heard excellent things about.
Maggie's activities were pretty much exclusively toys we already had. After Christmas, when we got a new influx of toys and were trying to fit them all into our tiny apartment, I went through the baby toys and stored all these ones away specifically so they'd be "new" on our trip. With a couple things, like the Minnie Mouse dolls, which Claire got for her birthday, I put them away after just a few days in the toy rotation so they'd still feel special now.
They each have a little comfort item (Claire has two dolls, Maggie has a teddy bear that helps her tolerate the car seat) but those will be packed into our suitcase because I live in fear of them getting lost.
Of course, on a long flight snacks are equally as essential as activities.
Claire (26 months)
Trail mix, popcorn, cheese crackers, and suckers to help with ear pressure during take off and landing.
Maggie (7 months)
Rice rusks, puffs, yogurt melts, and lots of squeeze pouches.
For the grown-ups, I got a one month subscription to Nature Box because I had a 50% coupon code and all the snacks looked so delicious! Just in case the babies give us a few minutes off peace, we used OverDrive to load a couple new library books onto the Kindle/phones/tablet. If we can read one-handed, it will be much more likely to happen!
Definitely hoping Maggie will take good naps in the air, but we'll be really surprised if Claire nods off. Instead, we've got the Winnie the Pooh movie, the new season of Daniel Tiger, and a few Peppa Pig episodes queued up on the tablet for her. She's never played any apps/games before, but we're not above trying them if we need to. (We have a Surface, courtesy of Adam's work.) I'm willing to bet she'll be the more easily entertained sister, though.
What are your tips and tricks to air travel survival? I'm all ears!
You are so brave, wow! We have only done one flight with 4 kids and they were all older than yours and it was only 2 hours, and I still don't want to do it again :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck! For Amelia so far this summer, my favorite addition to the toy batch has been felt pieces in a small felt-covered box! I should have thought ahead and made you one!
ReplyDelete