Keeping Little Ladybug Entertained

As our little Ladybug gets older now she has been crawling and climbing all over our house. Unless we have her blocked into a corner of the living room she will use the whole floor as her playroom. She loves to sample each toy -- checking their strength, density, battery strength and taste, and then toss them aside and move on to the next job. And while I want to buy her only the best toys flashing, dancing and talking to me from the toy aisles at Target, our families' finances have me dashing away trying to hold my head high.

Since Ladybug was born, My Love and I have had to be a bit frugal when it comes to buying non-necessity items for our family. And what started as a sound financial decision, has turned into more one-on-one time with Ladybug and more freedom for her to explore and discover.

When you come to our house you still see our floors littered with linked rings, talking books and Sesame Street characters, but I also try to give her the freedom to explore Mama and Papa's treasures --with boundaries. We let her hold the remotes (away from her goobery mouth!), peer outside and scream through the windows, take a tumble when she's a little to mischievous, and help with an intriguing basket of clean clothes. And I've found that babies are just as easily entertained as they ever have been. I have given her a large plastic spoon and Tupperware to play with, clean washcloths and abandoned socks, and a large empty box from the grocery store. Why spend upwards of $50 for a baby toy (that they might not even enjoy!) when babies can still play with safe household items like when we were all kids. I cut little squares out of the box to plunk blocks through, hung some rings on the "door" and cut a few flaps to bend about into her box and she's spent all day playing with it!



Giddy-Up!

If her curiosity is getting her into too much trouble I intervene and become her playmate until we're both wore out. Her new favorite game, horse back ride! If I'm sitting on the ground she will crawl behind me and put her hands on my back, and when I look over my shoulder she is smiling and starts to giggle. We also read books, play peek-a-boo around furniture, fetch with the pooch, and Little Indian (as I've taken to call it), Little Indian started as a way to quiet her screams in public. We would pat our hand over her mouth as she squealed, and now she crawls around the house doing it to herself. If we're doing it with her she'll laugh and take our hand and pat it over our mouth. Oh the simple things that entertain our little family!

And my one piece of advice for new or first time moms -- from a mom that's still trying to figure out this motherhood role, is if you MUST have some extravagant toy for your little one borrow and swap with other moms, scoure online resources for a deal (Craigslist, eBay, your local paper), shop thrift stores (where I have scored numerous Leap Frog toys for around $3!) or stores like Once Upon a Child. They're babies, they don't know that another baby broke it in for them or that you got it for a bargain. And in my Ladybug's case, her favorite entertainment is her Mama and Papa-- getting down on her level and acting silly with monster noises, tickling tummies, and infectious laughter.