Lately, my personal sanity saver has been as much outside time as humanly possible. It resets her in a way that constantly astounds me. And I feel much less guilty to ignore her while she’s out licking pine cones (enrichment! Immune health!) than “ignoring” her inside lol. Although since she’s only 15 months, her independent play periods are also just staggeringly short.
But also just… solidarity. She still tries to eat everything, so any of the awesome sensory bins, enrichment stuff, etc ALL just instantly goes to her mouth. So I don’t bother most of the time. Not worth the stress at this point usually.
We spend 3-4 hours a day at the local park (2 hrs in the morning, 2 hrs in the afternoon) but that’s only possible because we’re in Southern California. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the summer when it’s 100 degrees out at 9 am.
I also half-listen to podcasts with one headphone in so I don’t go out of my mind touching every single tree in the park.
Yeah I worry about the hot way more. We’re making do with the cold we have currently. It’s more than a bit maddening to get her fully geared up 2-3 times per day, but it’s been well worth it.
Did he ever get angry about them or try to take them out? Latte gets super pissed that she can’t have mine and play with them, so I never end up using them when she’s awake unless I’m breaking down aka she can’t scream anymore anyway
Freezing rain so I couldn’t get the baby back out again- brought a mixing bowl worth of snow in and plopped the baby naked into the tub with it. Easy fun then straight to warm water to warm her up after. She mainly ate the snow, but it still kept her occupied a while.
Same my kid would take the earbuds. He likes “doodads.” I like Elle’s strategy because then kids get exposure to all the new words! Get those brain cells goin.
A week late, but it’s not just you. We usually have the TV on 1 hour weekdays and 2 hours weekends. I wish it was less.
My near 4 year old is getting a lot of play out of kinetic sand lately, she can play nicely for 45 minutes at a time. My near 2 year old will jump on the trampoline for 20 minutes straight.
Today we got a good amount of play out of a dollar store hula hoop. I know it will break quickly, so I feel bad about the waste, but it broke up the bored of winter.
Both kids are also loving duck duck goose. We play with the dogs and stuffed animals. No one seems to understand the rules but me.
I teach a “judo class” for toddlers that is really just letting them burn off energy and not really judo because 3-6 year olds can’t be expected to learn judo. Their favorite thing to do is play duck duck goose and none of them understand the rules and it is loosely controlled chaos but they love it.
Putting things through holes was, I am pretty sure, part of the development screening BB received before he started speech therapy. (I vividly remember that his speech was pretty bad but the therapist enjoyed working with him because he had “excellent play skills” ). She said you can use cocktail straws and a parmesan cheese carton, IIRC.
So I don’t bother most of the time. Not worth the stress at this point usually.
Latte gets super pissed that she can’t have mine and play with them, so I never end up using them when she’s awake unless I’m breaking down aka she can’t scream anymore anyway
yaaaaay for observant children 
). She said you can use cocktail straws and a parmesan cheese carton, IIRC.