What do you do with your baby during the day?

I think DD is bored



She's bored of all her toys, she's explored the whole house, I'm boring, she doesn't like my singing, pmsl. And we don't go for walks and more because it's too bloody hot!!

What do you do to occupy your little one??

I was thinking same thing the other day!!!!!

I made a cubby out of 2 dining chairs and a doona cover and DS crawled under it and played for a while.

Push him up and down house on ride on Thomas.

Roll balls to and from each other

Shappo seems to be a big hit at present, doesnt often get shape in himself but likes to try and then i line it up and he pushes it in.

We try to go for a walk pretty much every day, if it's going to be hot we have an early or a late walk. Read books, walk around shopping centers, Go to the park. Drawing, making a cubby house with a sheet & hiding in it.

That's all I can think of at the moment

Do you have a jolly jumper or a walker??

What about a little splash pool as its getting hotter?? You know like a clam shell with some water toys.

Play dates with little friends. DD loves other babies she gets so excited.

Will keep thinking...

I wasn't sure either especially with the hot weather, some great ideas in this thread:

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...-hot-days.html

The clam shells are GREAT cos they're nice and shallow and have nice low sides she there isn't that uncomfy hunched over the bath situation. If you have a baby bath from when she was little that could work too.

Grab some pots, some spoons, some plastic containers, take them all outside onto the patio or a covered area, fill the pots with water, and show her how to transfer water, being outside she can make lots of splashy mess!

You could get some paper and crayons and play with that... you could do some tactile stuff... dry rice, pasta, cornflour+water mix, playdough. Put the dry things in containers and make shakers. Add food dye the dry rice to make different colours, to make rainbow shakers, or glue the rainbow rice to paper. Get messy with the cornflour stuff. She'll probably try to eat most of it!

Bubbles? Kids love bubbles!

Jazz LOVES 'cubby houses' and we have a little elmo tent and tunnel that she loves to crawl though and sit in and she cracks herself up hiding in there, she's loved that for MONTHS! It still hasn't gotten old! Before we had the tent we just made a cubby under the couch and high chair hehe.

I second the splash pool idea. We got one in the recent heat wave and DS loves it. Helps cool us all down.

DS loves his jolly jumper. We try and get out of the house at least once a day - go visiting people, go to the shops for milk or other stuff - i think it helps him settle getting out and about. We walk to the creek nearby and get DS out and let him grab the trees, watch the water & the duckies. Sometimes we just walk around the backyard and let him get stuff (safely of course!)

I usually put him in his bouncer wherever I am - hanging out the washing, cooking etc and he seems to like watching whatever goes on.

everyone has said pretty much all the things we do. The splashy pool is a life saver. Before we had a little pool ,i just filled up a drinks tub and sat ds in that. I also push him around the house on his little bike thing. Get out all the cake tins and start a drumming away by hitting them with spoons. Go to the shopping centre and walk around in the a/c. My sister thinks i am a dag cause i pack our lunch and go and have it at westfield sometimes. I cant afford to buy it and DS loves people watching wile we eat, it also kills abot 90mins by the time we drive there, park, window shop and eat

I've recently discovered the joy of libraries and large shopping centres on hot days.

We have a couple of local libraries that are very kid friendly- they have these big foamy block things in the kids book section that can occupy DS for quite some time. And you can grab toys from their toy library to play with, and of course read books.

Shopping centres are another good one- DS gets pretty bored with being wheeled around, but our nearest big centre has these lovely big sofa things in the middle of the aisles that DS loves to play in and around while I watch the people. DS also likes to play on those little mini-ride things they have in shopping centres (the ones you are supposed to put money in)- its going to be our big secret that you are supposed to put money in!!

Um, what else? Oh, indoor play centres are quite good. From when DS was crawling I could take him to our nearest one, which has a special section for the littlies. Of course, the older kids tend to come in there too so you have to watch carefully, but its still great entertainment.

Like everyone else said, little splash pools are a great idea, but when I can't be bothered with that, I take DS's stacking cups out and fill them with water and let him play around with them- he adores that. I also had this big ladybug thing for when DS was about your daughter's age- he could sit/stand in it and turn around and it had all these things to play with. I would put cool water in the base where his feet were to keep him nice and cool and that was a big hit.

Hope that helps! I have to get out with DS most days- he goes a bit mental if he's just home alone with me all day!!

Is there a toy library near you? i go to our local one and borrow toys most weeks, ds gets bored so easily, its a good chance to try out differant toys with out the cost of buying them. We also go to the book library when its hot, he can walk around in the a/c, we read and look at differant books, often there will be other kids there and he has a play with them. And some even have free story time sessions.
sorry thats all i can think of at the moment..

Put all your tupperware in a cupboard down low and let her loose! She'll love banging things round.
I find with DD2 that DD1 entertains her she loves following her around.

LOL Shellbell, Jazz has a 'plastics' cupboard in the kitchen too hahaha! She loves it!

aside from following his sister around, Nate is a bit of a climber so lately he's spent ages crwling over and around little obstacles on the floor, different types of tactile stuff, Darcy's foldout couch, a pillow some corrugated cardboard, tunnel, tent etc
He also loves the utensil jar I keep on the bench. It's only plastic stuff or wooden spoons so he pulls it all out and trys to put it back.
He loves balloons. Half blown up, he bats them around for ages.
also play centres. Even though you might not think she'd be old enough, it doesn't usually cost anything for under 1s and there are heaps of new things for them to explore. Nate and his little buddies love ours.

Ooooh great ideas everyone!

I second the library idea (being a librarian, how could I not!). We go to story time every week, and DD loves it. There are heaps of other babies and we all sing songs and then afterwards everyone plays. Its a good way to meet new people too. And its airconditioned!

Great ideas here! I have also found - as mean mummy as this sounds - pack away some of her toys for a few weeks. When you bring them out again, she will be more interested in them. It really helps with DS - I think sometimes having that massive amount of toys (well, he does anyway ) available to them all the time, they become oblivious to what they have.
I also set up 'toy stations' every couple of evenings for him to discover in the morning. At the moment it is a train station set, with a little village made out of blocks. It is not as impressive as it sounds, it is very basic but he loves it. Last week I made a house out of a box and set up little tables and things in it and he played with his teddies in it for days.
For creative things, the playschool website has some great ideas for making what they make on the show.

we stare lovingly in to each other's eyes!! Teehee!