The Best Activities for Toddlers (while Mama is sick)

Hey guys! While I was sick over the holiday break, I did some looking back over the years at the content of my blog. It’s wild to think that I’ve been writing here for 7 years this month! I began my clean-living and eating adventure right here, and documented my findings and opinions here! Now, 7 years later, we are elbows deep in topics revolving around living intuitively and I’m still enjoying sharing what’s most relevant in my life. Does anyone else miss the nutrition debates as much as I do?

I digress from my original thought- over holiday, my family and I came down with the absolute worst cold/stomach flu/bronchitis epidemic I have ever seen. To make matters worse, my mother had come up for the weekend to visit for Christmas! She brought her germs, we shared our germs, and it wasn’t pretty.

My husband, Curt, had to return to work luckily right after his 24 hour bug. But, that left me with a sick toddler and a sick self to look after. Mamas you know, there’s no rest for us sometimes!

I found myself struggling to make it to my 20 month old’s nap time, in desperate need of a nap myself. Luckily, in the darkest hour (HaHa!) I remembered a few great activities that doubled as distraction techniques that lasted for periods of 10-45 minutes. (The more involved I was, the longer the activities held his attention.)

Magnetic Blocks from Amazon

These were great to use by themselves building larger squares, towers, and fun designs. They were also fun to use on magnetic surfaces around the house, like our baby gate and washing machine!

Empty Box Coloring

We had a few larger items come in over the holiday, and we saved the boxes for a “rainy day” which was perfect! Calvin loved sitting inside the box to color. This activity always lasts a good 15-30 minutes.

Oatmeal Sensory

This is a great sensory tool for your little one that he/she will love touching and moving around. We put railroad tracks and a helicopter inside the pot for him to bury and find over and over. This one gets messy. My husband came home from work after this activity and was pretty alarmed! But, it cleans up quick as long as it’s contained well.

Reading

First 100 words book — Click the images for Amazon link

My little guy loves exploring the pages of our books. He would read all day if my voice would allow for it! Some of his favorites kinds of books have picture flaps.

Being sick is no fun, especially when you’re responsible for another (very busy) person. I hope these activities we used can give you some rest before your next nap time!

It’s wild to me that 7 years later, there are over 2,500 of you still tuning in as I live intentionally and share my journey. Thank you for being here, I’d love to get to know you all better! What are you most interested in hearing about?