When Bean was 10 months old, we took her on an 11 hour flight to Japan. Huzzah! I have no idea what we were thinking either.
But, it all worked out! For months beforehand, I fretted about how to keep her occupied. I bought almost every trinket I could find on Amazon. And then…she ended up playing with these things for hours.
Yep, three nested gift boxes from a set at the Container Store.
I have no idea why this was and continues to be a hit, but I’m not questioning it.
On the way to Japan, Bean occupied herself for a solid 45 minutes, taking the lids off, nesting the boxes, stacking the boxes, putting the lids back on. Dave and I were able to eat our tiny airline food dinner like kings. We may have nodded at each other and clinked soda cans. She returned to them again and again throughout the flight. I didn’t even have to break out all the new toys I bought.
We’ve taken them with us on every other trip (obviously) and at nearly 2 years old, they are still a hit. On our last cross country flight, we brought the boxes and multi colored pompoms. Bean occupied herself first by filling boxes with pompoms and then playing basketball with them. They’re also useful for color play — putting all the pink pompoms in the pink box, all the blue pompoms in the blue box. Or, hide the pompom.
(For tiny fingers, use the smallest boxes in the set. Also, use alternate nesting boxes at first for a looser nested fit.)
