Headphones and Dora.
Bottles.
Favorite Book.
Safety Guide in Seat pocket. Open and close a thousand times.
Use Barf Bag as hand puppet.
Get extra peanut bag to use as percussion.
Open and shut window screen over...and over.....
Cheerios! Cheerios! Cheerios!
Headphones and Yo Gabba Gabba.
Walk back and forth on Grandpa's seat while he's in the bathroom.
Up and down the aisle (catwalk) waving to new friends.
Turn pages in SkyMall catalog.
Point out the window and tell her to look for "puppies!" (Her favorite)
Giddy-up Horsie!
Play Peek-a-Boo with passengers behind us.
Push buttons on remote control (yes, I brought it with us).
Open and close Mommy's wallet, pull out credit cards. (Chris is apprehensive about this skill being learned so early!)
Cheerios! Cheerios! Cheerios!
Juice! (Or whatever Mommy is drinking, which looks more interesting!)
Headphones and Blues Clues.
Forget the headphones, she keeps ripping them off. Just Blues Clues.
Grandma's TicTac box as rattle.
Repeat all of the above several times...
Nap.
You're welcome, fellow passengers.
What are your favorite airplane tactics for the kiddos?
4 comments:
When she gets older you can wrap up little presents, (toys she already has or little trinkets from the dollar store). She can open them every so often. Every 30 minutes or whatever. That helped us a while back.
Back when I was little, before they had portable DVD players, these are some of the things my parents would use to entertain my brother and I on car and plane trips:
-Books (especially Richard Scarry, and when we were older, Where's Waldo...there's lots to look at on each page of those books!)
-Puzzles
-Colorforms (do they still make those?)
-Cheerios! :)
-Play "I spy"
-Books on tape (when older)
-They also did the wrapped up trinkets idea, which I loved.
-Dot to dot coloring books
Sounds like you had it covered pretty well!! Girl, I feel your pain trying to keep a little one entertained for 5 hours on a flight. I have been there! More times than I care to remember.
A couple of other hints ...
If you know you are flying on a pretty empty flight (just check the seats the day or two before), bring her car seat and ask the gate agent if they would be willing to block the seat next to you. You get a seat for her without having to pay!!
Of course, once she turns 2 you'll have to pay anyway. We have always strapped Catherine in her car seat, and that seems to work well. It feels like the car, so she gets that she's supposed to sit.
After awhile, though, she will be tall enough to kick the seat in front of her because the car seat moves her up so far. If you aren't flying alone with her, have Chris (or your mom or whoever) get the seat in FRONT of her. That way, you're not holding her little feet the whole time so she won't kick (Can you tell I've done that?).
Last tip: Again, if you aren't alone, one of you should board first with the car seat and bags (yes, I have carried a carry-on, personal item, diaper bag and car seat onto the plane all at once. Can't say it was fun.). The other can stay out with Kendall until last call and just hop on and get her strapped in right before take-off. It's so nice for her not to have to sit there for 30 minutes waiting for everyone else to get on.
OK, I think that's it!
Wowsa! Thanks, Ang! The seat kicking (and seat licking) has already surfaced as a problem, as the seat is in reach when she is on my lap. And the latter suggestion actually makes a lot of sense, which makes me wonder why they have us board first! Why be confined in that little space longer than we need to!
And, I have a feeling that come December, we won't be doing a whole lot of traveling- for the reason mentioned above :)
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