Entertaining a Toddler with Pom Poms

Let's face it.  Keeping up with an incredibly active 19-month-old at 30 weeks pregnant is a hard job.  Lincoln is never still.  He pretty much runs nonstop from morning to night.  I am actually too scared to take him to parks or the zoo or anywhere fun, because he is just so fast!  With me moving at the speed of a slug, he could easily get away and run into the street or jump off the playground equipment - so unless I have reinforcements (aka Daddy), we are basically stuck at home.

Which means we are really, really bored.

Sometimes he looks at me and I think he wants to say Seriously mom? You want me to play with these same old toys again today?  So I've been forced to get inventive.  I spent some time scouring Pinterest and came across this great list at Simple Little Home: 40 Ways to Distract A Toddler.  The idea below was inspired by item #9 on the list.

How to Entertain Your Toddler Using Random Household Objects - Part 1!
 All you need to get started:
- A package of pom poms (I got mine in the $1 bin at Target)
- Old container you don't mind destroying - ie yogurt cup, whipped topping, etc (you could technically make a whole collection of these and mix them up - so far I only have one and it works fine)
-Knife, Scissors, or some other way to cut holes
-Muffin Pan (optional, additional fun)

Now it's time to make this super easy at-home project! 

Obviously you could do a much better job at cutting holes than me.  I just took a knife and stabbed in random directions until I had three openings of varying sizes.  I was going for circular holes, you can see how that worked out.

Finding your toddler likely won't be a problem, as he/she will likely have been watching you try unsuccessfully to cut the holes in the lid.  He/she likely thinks you're crazy.  OR they may have run off and dragged an entire roll of toilet paper through the hallway while you crafted this fun toy for them!

Once I showed him what to do with the first pom pom, Lincoln was all about stuffing them in the holes.  He dropped to the floor immediately to check it out.

In our case - I got about twelve minutes of quiet playtime.  In toddler time, this is huge.  This unfortunately only applied to the very first time he played with these, though.  After a couple weeks of pulling this out every few days, he will play with it for about five minutes at a time.  After he tired of the plastic container, I pulled out a muffin tin - and that kept him busy for another couple minutes.

Some people have toddlers who have outgrown that whole let's-eat-everything phase, but I am not one of them.  If your little one also likes to snack on various non-food items, make sure you are sitting right beside them as they play in case you need to extricate a pom pom from their mouth. 

I suppose in a perfect world, I would have a hundred varieties of toddler entertainment crafted by now.  So far, this is all I've got.  But it's been successful around here so far - here's hoping I get inspired to create another fun toy from random household items soon!