Genius ideas for toddler and baby combo nightmare!

[pancakequeen]

I have seen so many threads on here recently about the baby/toddler combo, I have one of my own DS 2.5 and DD 3mos,

I borrowed loads of books from the library about toddler entertainment but they all seem to involve preparation and flower pressing......

I thought it might be good to share some of the things we all do to get through the day and achieve something like cooking the dinner!

So far I have found 2 failsafe toddler occupiers....

1. Give DS a tub full of water and a paintbrush, tell him i need him to paint the house.... on especially hot days it dries very quickly so he has to redo..... this has given me a lot of time recently!

1. This has been the best impromptu find, give DS a pair of large barbeque tongs and a variety of objects, including large bowls, ask him to see if he can pick them up with the tongs, ds turned this into a great game where he was a crane moving everything in and out of the bowls which gave me enough time to cook dinner and feed dd perfect!

Has anyone else got any ideas?

Can't think of anything as wonderfully clever as the painting-the-house idea!! Just thought I would give you the thumbs up for such a stroke of genius (though I would worry about books/electrical goods etc. being damaged!)

i assume you meant outside!
genius though - going to do the tongs one & ds is obsessed with them

I would imagine the 'paint the house game' is an outside game mamaeff
DD1 is 2 and I'm BF a 6 week old so require some toddler entertainment too.

DD1 likes to gather stones from the patio and put them in a bucket. Takes a while but I do have to check all her pockets before loading the washing machine as she likes to stash some in her pockets too.

It was the outside of the house! and obviously I check back and make sure he is doing it right.... Stones and a bucket! I like it, will try that later

DD washes up standing on a chair at the sink . I run a small amount of water into the sink and give her a pan and a teapot to washup. She will pour for long enough to let me feed ds and get dinner cooking.

Pastry can also work well - kind of like playdough but with the cooking and showing to daddy...

Sweeping the kitchen floor. Dusting. (You have to clear up a bit afterwards, but still.) Love the painting the house idea.

stones or sand and toy dumper truck, digger, tractor etc. boy very happy creating a pile and then moving it to some where else.

DS's nursery give them all paintbrushes and a bucket of water and they have to 'pain' the shed too . Now I make him do it at home. Bloody genius idea IME.

Digging in the dirt in the garden seem to keep the peace and filling little pots up with water. I once got 90 mins peace out of ds doing that . Hasn't happned since though, his little sister tends to interrupt.

Love the painting the house one, we'll be trying that tomorrow! DDs almost 2 1/2 and DS is 10 months. That's quite a combo in a small garden...

Anyway, there's always old the shaving foam and cars / plastic animals / blocks on a tray ploy. Most toddlers seem to love it.

Some big chalks for drawing on the patio / path a a real winner too.

Oh, and a bowl with some dry pasta to stir can work well too. DD loves to stir flour but I can't really take the mess.

DD is loving painting the house, thanks for the tip!

a bucket of water and a small watering can kept our DD amused no end when she was 2. Now she is 3 and has a baby sister we are finding things a bit more difficult. Our best bet is the kids next door!