Preparing for the big flight

I must admit; I’m a little nervous about flying with our four year old this august. It will be her first flight and it will take us a whopping eight hours to get to Canada. Eight hours in a confined space with a four year old can be quite stressful in itself, but also feeling the desperate need to keep her calm and well behaved for those eight hours…well… add to the mix that the trip isn’t just a trip but that it is a move… I’m not too sure how that’s all going to work out for us.

Me being me, I’ve decided to prepare a toy suitcase for our girl. Her hand luggage will be a suitcase filled with toys for her to play with. I could have easily gone to the toy store and spend a small fortune to fill the suitcase but hey, that would have been a little too easy, right? So I’ve decided to make her lots of cute stuff to play with. It’s still work in progress so I’ll post a blog in a few weeks when everything is finished but I wanted to go ahead and share some ideas right now.

I’ll be making her a stewardess outfit. That way she can pretend to be a real stewardess and hopefully the other passengers will think that is cute so they won’t mind her coming up to them and talk to them (I just know her, that’s what she likes to do). It will make boarding a little easier I think, because people will probably comment on her outfit and that will keep her mind of nasty, scary things. I’m also making her a little stewardess bag with her very own pretend passport and pretend ticket. That way, we won’t have a fit when I refuse to give her a real passport and ticket. 

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Once we have set off and she’s bored with the plane and everything around her, I’ll introduce her to the suitcase. In the suitcase I’ll put a coloring sticker book, crayons, a pen etc. I’ve also seen a cute sketch book, shaped as a house. But boy, 20 pounds was a bit too dear for me! So, I’ve created a knock off! I just cut big pieces of paper in the shape of a house, illustrated the front and decorated with masking tape. I then sewed the papers together. I think it looks alright and it will keep her busy! All I need now are some stickers for decorating a house :)

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I also saw a cute pack with a small doll with a dog and some puppies. I could’ve tossed them in the suitcase but she’ll probably get bored with the quite quickly. So I bought a container with a lid and found some brick paper. The paper made for the walls and on the inside the little girl got flowery wallpaper. Some felt for a carpet and a small tin for the supplies. She now has a house to play with.

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I’m also making a small fabric suitcase with a small bunny doll (I bought that one). The bunny has clothing (some bought but mostly made). It’s going to be like a small dressing room for the bunny. Hopefully she’ll try on all the different outfits and that will keep her busy some more.

I’ve got my hopes up for this suitcase! Hopefully this will keep her preoccupied until she’ll fall to sleep (we will be flying three hours longer than her usual bedtime). It’s at least a way for me to stay a little sane while preparing and thinking about this trip. I’m guessing I’m more nervous than I should be (or I’m secretly hoping).

I’ll be posting some more results when I get them ready. In the meantime; please give me all the tips you can think of! I’ll be needing all the tips I can get!