Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Monkey Business

Now that Ryan is a full-fledged monkey, we have to do things like this:
He loves to climb onto the dining room chairs and then up onto the table. He fell twice yesterday and cut his lip in the process, so this is what I have resorted to. I'm having a hard time finding things to keep him occupied while I'm in the kitchen. And I'm in the kitchen a LOT, between preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner, and doing about 10 million dishes a day. Ryan is constantly pulling on my legs and whining/crying. He no longer enjoys his toys, and he is tired of playing with kitchen utensils. I just read that a child his age should be able to play by themselves for up to 45 minutes at a time. I'm lucky if Ryan focuses on one thing longer than 45 seconds. So I have 2 questions for the moms out there: First, how do you keep a 15-month old entertained for more than a few seconds? And how do I prevent him from climbing on everything?

3 comments:

  1. I am sorry to say that the easiest option is TV, but lately it's been more like background noise to Maeve - she wants it on, but plays happily by herself while it's on instead of just sitting and staring like she used to. Also, new toys are very good! Maeve also sits and "reads" books sometimes, which keeps her busy ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh dear! Some of Susannah's favourite activities include
    -emptying her toy box
    -emptying the cupboards in the kitchen (she has one that is "hers")
    -reading books with mommy
    -playing with a ball
    -putting on and taking off hats or similar objects
    -going outside (we have an enclosed deck just off the kitchen, which is AWESOME!)
    -carrying around a pail with toys in it (and emptying that!)

    She also has a leapfrog farm on the fridge, and she occasionally spends some time playing with it. Like Clara said, new toys are good too.

    She doesn't climb too much yet- just up on the couch, and likes to look out the window behind it- not too dangerous so I usually let her. She took a tumble once, but that didn't stop her!

    Sometimes I find that if I sit down and play with her or read to her for awhile, she's better able to play on her own for a bit. Not 45 min though... do 'they' even HAVE toddlers??

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sorry to say that I don't have a solution for you other than maybe we need some more playdate time. Maybe some that don't include us actually hanging out with each other, but where the boys can hang out, one of us watches and the other takes care of things such as kitchen duties! Also, you're not alone. Every day I go through the same thing, the hanging on the legs whining while I'm trying to make lunch. And activities that don't last past 45 seconds, it's exhausting. As for climbing on everything I don't know what else to do past flipping the chairs over. :\

    ReplyDelete