Ideas for entertaining 2 year old...

[goldscraps]

So, we went on a family vacation camping out to the west desert in Utah this past week. We were there only a day and my Ian who is two fell out of the motorhome down the stairs and broke his leg pretty bad. It was frightening. We had no cell phone service and 50 miles of dirt road to cover on the way to the nearest hospital. What I wouldn't have given to have had a phone to get a medical helicopter out there. It took us 3 hours to get to the nearest hospital in Tooele, UT and they said they were not equipped to help him because it was so bad. So, we ended up at Primary Children's Medical center in Salt Lake City and he had emergency surgery at 2am Friday morning to save his leg. Now, he is doing good and at home, but he is in a body cast from his chest down for 6 weeks.

Please help me with suggestions to entertain him. There's only so much Netflix one can take. He's very active and stubborn. Most day's it's an all out war to even get him buckled in his car seat because he hates being confined. You can imagine what we are dealing with. He's little so he doesn't talk well yet and can't play wii or gameboy with much success. He's been playing a baby piano game on my ipod touch but I need more for him to do. He can't sit up at more than a 45 degree angle so he can't really color or anything like that unless I figure out a better way to prop him up. He's going to be in the cast for at least 6 weeks. Please, help!! :)

[clcayer]

Oh my goodness....not the vacation you hoped for I'm sure!
Ok...I'm not sure exactly how much he can do, just brainstorming here:
Play dough
lacing beads
large legos
board or peg puzzles
doodle pro (fisher price)
toy cars
magnetic letters on a cookie sheet
bristle blocks
shape sorter
magnetic fishing pole..fish game
leapfrog chat and count phone
walkie talkies
xylophone/maracas/small drum
board books
leapster or leap pad
can he draw on his cast?
music/preschool songs/fingerplays
puppets

A lot of this may not work...just not sure---since he can't sit up well. Anything he can hold and manipulate??

[j_camargo6]

Oh, Andrea! How horrible! Poor little guy.....I know my little ones LOVE those (I'm not even sure what they're called) but the clear bags with clear little beads in them, as well as bunches of little treasures to find as you shake and manipulate the bag...we also saw one at the doctors office that was a cylindar with tiny seed beed-sized wooden beads and then all kinds of treasures to find as you shake and turn it.
Depending on his attention span, the "I Spy" books might be fun, too.
Good luck, and wish your little guy quick healing!

[tweederbug]

Oh you poor thing .. what a horror story to get help for your little one. I have no ideas what to tell you on how to keep a 2 year old occupied. Just thought that I would tell you how sorry I am!

[landofoz]

Oh Andrea, thats terrible! I feel so sorry for the poor thing;
sorry i cant help as mine are all grown up ! I did have my great gd here and she is 15months she was climbing on the glass top table (my heart was in my mouth) she annoyed the daylights out of the dog, it was hiding underneath the chairs to get away from her ,They left and my neice arrived,with her dad and DD 4yrs old, she would not leave me alone, she climed over me jumped on my sore knees.( I go into have a operation In 2wks) and when we went out to eat i wore her tomato ketchup over my white pants as she was jumping and running around the place, Whats wrong with the kids of today, they are so Bold? TG they left this morning, George and i are exhausted. we ended up buying her 2 videos and a drawing book ............EEck im passed this LOL

[donakat]

So sorry for your little guy, Andrea, that's an awful experience for all of you. Am glad they were able to fix him up, but that body cast does limit his movement pretty drastically. Are there any books on tape for kids his age, that might help, especially if you have the picture book he can look at at the same time. Ask the nurses at the hospital how they keep kids occupied who are in the same situation.

Here's an article with some ideas: http://www.mamapedia.com/article/full-body-cast
and another one:
http://www.circleofmoms.com/welcome-...onnect_check=1

Good luck!

[elenasworld]

Oh my goodness Andrea
How frightening!

I cannot even imagine trying to confine my dd when she was two
I had a hard enough time with the dog last year, and him I could put
in the cage.

how about paper airplanes? might occupy him for a while?
not sure if movement hurts him -- but my dd has a little nerf
basketball and net that attaches to the door. she would try for
hours to get it in the net. maybe you could modify and have a
couple dozen planes made up and he tries to shoot them in the
wastepaper basket -- it could start with the counting and make
that fun. not sure if that would work, but it is an idea

does he like music? I used to get my dd books on tape for long
car rides and while a lot was lost on her, she did enjoy the ones
that had an accompanying book. there would be a sound or beep
on the tape and that signalled turning the page.

can he be propped up enough to do some of those big chunky
puzzles that have little pegs to pick them up? my library allows
us to check out games and puzzles for a week, and it helps
sometimes to change things up.

I used to do an interactive storytime iwth my sisters kids
where each child would add a small portion of the story,
and the next would add his/her bit. they always turned
silly towards the end, but they were little so didnt have lots
of words, but they could come up with some idea

my last idea is those felt boards. they make all sorts of
playsets to stick to the stuff. at our storytime, the librarians
just cut up their own shapes and follow through the story, but
I have a felt Elmo book the dd got as a gift that had lots of
characters and about four or five different scenes. Kept her
busy for a while.

I sure hope you can find something that works, for both
of you

[dylabel]

I can't imagine how you must have felt! My cousin once fell down the stairs while holding her daughter at about the same age and she broke her leg as well - I'll see if there is anything she can suggest.

Poor little guy - I hope that it gets easier for you both :)

[goldscraps]

Thanks for so many great ideas everyone! I'm definitely going to use them. Keep them coming if you think of anything else. It's going to be a long 6 weeks here.

[marshmella]

OM GOODNESS!!! I am so sorry! Poor little guy That must have been so scary for you. I can not think of anything... I am sorry and I will pray that he has a fast recovery!