Ruler of the row!

We have entered the toddler phase! The days of sleeping the entire flight are unfortunately gone! What now?! A mom used the perfect word recently, BRIBERY!  In all seriousness, some of our normal rules go out the window, especially on flights more than 3 hours.

Before our most recent trip to Europe, I was definitely worried about keeping Mack entertained on an 8 hour flight!  I took a trip to Target and found a small tin lunchbox in the dollar row.  I filled it with small toys for the plane that I wouldn’t care about losing.  I added small clothes pins, stickers, sticky monkeys, a truck, a small stuffed pirate, washable crayons and an airplane. I also bought a small coloring pack with stickers, a book, and 4 crayons.  That was a big hit!  Unfortunately Mack decided to start coloring on everything so we switched up the crayons and coloring book for a magic coloring book.  Remember the books with the magic pen that only colored on the magic pages?  They still make those!  We found one with multiple pens in different colors! Mack loves it!!

I take huge advantage of the movies and kids shows on the plane.  Mack won’t keep earbuds in but he loves watching a show without sound.  He also loves looking at pictures on my phone and watching videos of our friend’s dog.  That’s usually my go to during takeoff and landing if he’s being a wiggle monster.

In flight we spend a lot of time walking up and down the aisles (as long as the seatbelt sign is off).  Mack loves to say hi to everyone on the plane.  We definitely stay out of the aisles when the drink/food service is happening though.

When all else fails, we resort to another bottle of milk or snacks!  Cheerios are a big hit along with cashews and dried mango!

These days when Mack sleeps the whole flight its a miracle!  I’d love to hear other parent’s tricks for entertaining their toddler for hours on the plane!