Airplane Arsenal for a 2 year old Boy

Last week I posed a question about entertainment for my almost 2 year old (busy) boy on a plane ride, with a very long layover. Here are some of my favorite responses:

Brian Elephant tranquilizer dart. Fixed it!

-Thank you, Brian, for always bringing strange humor to every situation. (he's my bro-in-law)

Rm colored pipe cleaners....seriously, you can find them in the craft sections of walmart or target. They will keep any boy busy for hours.

Whitney Moving sidewalks. Depending where your layover is, all you have to do is go back and forth on them. 

Otherwise, tons of yummy snacks and touch screens (I know, totally bad combo) keep P occupied for hours.

Gloria Well in my day it was Benadryl, or something to make them sleep , but don't panic...something he hasn't played with before, new surprises, sucker to help with the ears, little tiny paper cups that you keep putting surprises to eat in,a couple at a time, this worked for a grandchild, and he had tiny baby sippy drinks (his words)

Alaina  yep, we used benadryl. You'll have to do some research; there's one of those children's medicines that uses melatonin instead of the traditional sleep medicine, which is more natural b/c it's in the brain already (as I'm sure you know). We just used lots of snacks. OH! TSA TIP! You can bring ANYTHING food/drink related on a plane for a lap child, which B still counts as since he's under 2 (you're lucky!), or even a young child passenger. So, if you need juice, water, etc. just tell them it's for him, bring it in his sippy cups and they can use a test strip in it then they'll let you through. We always bring an extra, empty sippy cup too, so we can do something new along the way when there's nowhere to dump out an old sippy. TSA and airport people are SO nice to you when you're traveling with a little one! N's flown 3 times! 

-Thanks Alaina! What a great idea about the extra sippy!!!

Thank you everyone for the funny, smart, and cool ideas! 

After doing some "research", collaborating with my own brain, chatting with my sister in law (who is embarking on the same trip, via car, with 4 kids under 5, she's a saint!), and shopping like crazy, here is what I came up with!

From the words of my husband: "Uh, I think you might have plenty of stuff..." 

Me: "You think I'm spoiling him a little?"

Him: "Uh, YES! More than just a little!" 

Teeehehe.

My Airplane Arsenal includes:

-a coloring book and crayons

-a book of stickers

-several $1 books

-silly putty (can I take it on a plane??)

-a couple cool balls (one not pictured)

-pipe cleaners

-a travel size magna doodle

-a noise making tractor (so fun to try and take away from him at the store, must mean he'll love it!)

-glow stick bracelets

-a couple wind up toys

-3 train cars (also hated me for taking those away)

-a 5 pack of new hot wheels cars, including a fire truck (thanks, Aldi!!!)

-a homemade car cozy! Oh yes, I did make that! (with tons of help from my saintly sister in law)

*I plan on pulling toys out one at a time to make them last as long as possible! 

In addition to the toys, I went a little crazy on snacks:

-goldfish

-pirate's booty

-fruit snacks

-stick crackers and cheese dip

-ritz

-granola bars

-peanut butter and cheese crackers (mostly for me!)

-chips

-apples

-raisins

-pretzels

-and of course, a few pieces of candy

*A tip for snacks: Put small amounts of assorted snacks into a bead organizer or tackle box. Then he can pick what he wants and it's all right there. (thanks, Kathryn!)

  

source

Don't judge on the quality of snacks. It's a special occasion.

Though it will likely stay in our house for awhile afterward.

I'm good at making excuses.

In addition to the toys and snacks, we have several movies and games for our laptop and ipods:

-Cars

-Rio

-Emperor's New Groove

-Finding Nemo

We decided to forgo the purchasing of some sort of tablet for now. 

So, do I have enough entertainment!? Haha!!

Now your assignment: If you have a child under the age of 3, what is their favorite app or game to play on an ipod or android phone? Please let me know! There's too many apps to choose from. Thanks!

Hopefully my list will help someone else out and hopefully we'll have a successful and happy trip!