As I mentioned in my previous post, Stephen coped really well with the flights. To try and pre-empt any problems, I had prepped up his own little carry-on suitcase, filled with toys, colouring books, crayons, and snacks. I’ve listed the best items below – these kept Stephen occupied on the plane and during downtime at the hotels.
The Trunki carry-on
Who ever invented this ride-on, pull-along carry-on suitcase deserves a medal. In this little carry-on I packed all of Stephen’s toys, his bottles for take-off and landing, and a change of clothes. He was excited to pull it along himself at the airport when we were leaving, and he rode on it at the airport when we were coming back.
The Zoobie pet is a cool soft toy that turns into a pillow and opens out into a blanket. Stephen used this as a pillow to sleep with on the plane, which he did for 4 out of 7.5 hours on the way there, and the entire flight back.
Melissa and Doug Vehicle Mini Puzzles
I took these out of the wooden box, and packed them in a sandwich size ziploc bag. These kept Stephen occupied for a good hour; not only did we play puzzles, but we named each vehicle, zoomed them around, and made up stories.
Fun Factory Magnetic Fishing Game
Again, I took these out of the wooden box, and packed them into a zip loc bag. This game kept him occupied the longest as we fished, counted, named colours and lined up the fish into patterns.
As well as these, he also spent time colouring-in with his crayons; instead of bring a whole colouring-in book, I photocopied some pages to take with us.
I also packed some lacing toys, some pipecleaners and a magnetic picture book, which we didn’t get to use. These were all light weight and small to bring, so if he hadn’t fallen asleep when he did, they really would have come in handy.
