Here's a great way to keep your toddler occupied for a while on a long plane ride

This is the goodie bag that my daughter-in-law had for our one year-old grandson on a flight to Eastern Europe.

A year ago today, my son, our daughter-in-law, our grandson, my wife and I were on a plane to Stockholm where we had a layover for a flight to Croatia.  We were traveling there to vacation with our daughter and family who lived in Eastern Europe.

The challenge was how to keep a newly-minted one-year-old entertained on a trans-Atlantic flight.  They can get cranky and sometimes real cranky.

My daughter-in-law, Lauren Thorp, is one of the more creative people I know.  She can take a handful of old treasures and turn them into something beautiful that you just want to stare at and smile.  

She did that on this flight.  During the course of the trip we passed the baby.  That's when we each got into our bag of goodies she put together.  They were little dollar store toys and little neat things, including little pieces of tape.  The idea was to have a stockpile of attention diverters for my young grandson.

Did it work?  Almost.  Close.  He was too young.  The tape was a hit.  I could put it on his foot and he would pick it off.  That lasted for a few minutes.

I just bet that with him being two, he'd stay entertained longer.

By-the way, Lauren is the founder of Umba Box, a national subscription box service for curated handmade items.  Really cool stuff.