toys to take on the plane

One of the friends I've met through blogging is taking an airplane trip soon and asked for any and all advice for traveling with a one year old.

I had already been contemplating doing this post and that cinched the deal. I'll bet a lot of us have wished for advice on traveling with kids before so here's my take on what toys might be good for the plane.

Toys are going to vary by age range for sure and you know your child and his/her interests best but here's what I took for my nearly 16 month old son.

Roughly from left to right starting in the back:

First up the girly pink bag . . . I thought it would be simplest to have all of the toys in one place little pouch that I could pull out of the diaper bag and not have to be pulling the whole diaper bag out from under the seat and shoving it back in while holding David and keeping my seatbelt securely fastened. It worked really great actually and I just used something I already had and luckily David is not old enough yet to care what color it was.

I think I packed three board books, Goodnight Gorilla, one of our favorites being one of them.

This pinwheel was actually part of the decor at my baby shower and I have used them in various ways since then. David loves them and I knew it would be a small, lightweight, interactive toy to bring. It turned out to be my "go to" toy for the entire five days. It was great on the plane, in restaurants or while he was in the stroller and we were walking around.

I brought a straw because I thought again it was extremely small and lightweight and I could blow through it onto his skin or hair and he could bend it, etc. but I don't think we ever even pulled it out.

These pliers are from his toolset that he got for his birthday. We still don't know who gave it to us but it sure is getting a lot of mileage! These pliers are always a fun toy for him to play with and he enjoyed them on the trip as well.

The tinker toy is from his sweet Aunt Kim who let it be taken from the set at her house. It has been a favorite for awhile. He played with it a little on the plane but it is really better for rolling so I probably could have left it at home.

The "I" and the "D" "train cars" are from a set that spells his name that his Grandma gave him for Christmas. They connect with magnets and I just brought two for him to pull apart and put back together. We also use these as church bag toys too.

The plastic fish is a bath toy that squirts water or when empty, blows air. We used that more than once as I sang songs about fishies and made it swim, blew air on David by squeezing it, etc.

I brought the baby spoon because he enjoys chewing on the rubber tips. Since we didn't ever feed him baby food he doesn't really associate them with eating real food but lately he has really enjoyed pretending to feed me with them and I knew that would be a quiet, easy game we could get a lot of mileage out of on the plane. Turns out we didn't ever pull it out but if we had run out of other things I think it would have been good.

He hasn't really taken a pacifier since six months, preferring his thumb, but since the move he has found some and enjoyed popping them in his mouth or playing with them/chewing on them for short periods of time. I thought this might also help his ears on take off and landing.

The adorable lion toy is a gift from his great-grandma last Christmas. You push the bottom and the whole thing collapses. David thinks it is very funny and we used this one a whole lot on the plane.

The red white and blue cloth is a napkin. I stuck it in thinking it would be handy for peek-a-boo or hiding objects under for him to find but we didn't end up using it either.

I got the stickers because my mom had told me my sister-in-law had used them as a great plane toy for my nephew. We did use some on the way back and they were good for killing some time.

The little hedgehog is a finger puppet that his Sweetie gave him. He loved how soft and fuzzy it was and enjoyed me making it kiss him, etc. I also brought a little chick inside an egg finger puppet that is not pictured. He loves for me to pop that little chick out of the egg and say boo. Then he'll push it back in. He learned to say "chicken" on this trip while playing with it!

The bracelet is because I tried to wear fun jewelry that he could play with on the flight but that wouldn't set off the metal detector!

The bath glove with the animals on the fingers is a gift from his Grandma. I think it may have come from France even! I used the animals to "talk" to David on the flight and that was fun.

The toy ring was has turned out to be something we have used from his littlest days until now. It can be put on and taken off things and his Daddy even likes to make him giggle by hanging it on his ear.

This little Fisher Price truck and another we have like it were birthday gifts from his Aunt Gail. He has used them a ton and this is his smallest vehicle. He pushes cars and trucks around all day but I needed something really small for the trip. This fit the bill.

The travel Q-tip box is something I found as I was packing and cleaning out my toiletries bag. I thought it would be a big hit with my little guy who loves to figure things out and put things inside things but it wasn't that big a hit.

As I've written this I've realized how many of these things were gifts and am once again overwhelmed with how blessed we are with people who love us and our sweet boy.

I hope this has helped any of you who are anticipating traveling with little ones and as we're not done traveling, I would *love* to hear any suggestions, ideas and tips *you* have for traveling with little kids.

Thanks!

Kelly