What are your top two most fun things to do with a toddler?

I first read this question as “What are your top two most fun things to do as a toddler? and I thought, “Wheeeeee!”!

Number One: The kind of tickling/tag game all young children love. There is lots of squealing involved, but I still like it.

Number Two: Talk to them. Their views are unique.

Children’s Museums that have hands-on exhibits.

Outside playgrounds with toddler swings.

That age isn’t it going to be more sinking than swimming?

Reading with them.

Going to the zoo is fun up until The Meltdown.

@Adirondackwannabe Not if they’re taught how.

1) Give them back to their parent.
2) Go back home.

LOL @syz!

@Adirondackwannabe yeah, if you aren’t watching them, but the process of teaching them gives you priceless memories. It’s such an amazing and unique experience for them. But all of my kids could swim by the age of 3. To me, that was a vital skill to have. My oldest was fearless. She was jumping off the diving board at the age of 2, and doing no-hands layouts on a 4” wide balance beam at the age of 9.

@longgone it’s nice hearing them giggle, but sometimes the tickling can be taken to extremes where it hurts them but they literally can’t help but giggle. My ex used to tickle the kids unbearably but they didn’t have the vocabulary to tell him it wasn’t fun and it hurt.

At 12 months to 2 years…they aren’t real verbal. But I agree. The most precious things come out of little kid’s innocent mouths once they do become verbal! :)

1) Take them alone to the park. (Toddlers are MILF magnets!)
2) Teach them to change their own diapers. (Which has the added bonus of getting them to stop biting their nails and sucking their thumbs.)

Hey! @AstroChuck! Good to see you! LOL!

You can see me? Yikes! Better put on pants.

Someone posted this question so I got to (vicariously) live the YARNPOCALYPSE and the AstroChuck avatar day. I missed them BOTH! >_<

Build a fort! Get a big huge box, let them draw all over it. Or, just drape a sheet over some chairs or a table. Let them set up stuffed animals in there and play some games.

Swimming sounds great to me; although, more than one per adult takes a lot of attention.

Zoo is good, but I think the drive through “zoos” are even better at that age, esecially if you have more than one with you.

Fingerpaint. Buy or make smocks and let them create something for mom. A good cheap smock is an old adult shirt that will completely cover their clothes.

I think they are too young for the buffet.

Blow bubbles and push them in a swing.

Blowing bubbles is good!

The playground and reading to them.

I have no answer, just waiting for ragingloli to come in here and say something.

Glue, bread, roof, birds.

@Symbeline, LOL! You beat me to that comment I’m wondering if gravy will be involved.
I agree with the buffet. When my daughter was learning table foods, I visited the casino buffet a lot, where eating was free for her. It saved a lot on my grocery bill finding out there what she would swallow and what she would dump under the table.

We also did a lot with the video camera. I would make up fake commercials for her, and she would work on her showbiz skills, or I’d just have her practice spelling words and such. She got a big kick seeing herself when it was played back, so practice was a lot of fun for her. She was a good speller, and could spell Mississippi when she was three. She was also quite the ham, and developed a real talent for building suspense. She would look like I had asked the impossible, then while people are laughing that I gave her such a long word, she’d start in. She’d stop after the first three letters, to get people to pay attention, then she’d roll her eyes and draw out a couple more letters. She didn’t break it up the same way most people do, so watchers would expect her to trip up. Anyone within earshot would be leaning way over toward her to hear the rest.
Lots of her practices were done under a sign I taped on the wall, “Will work for buffet.” She kept hoping she would get to do a commercial for a casino buffet.

Toddlers are a great way to get away with playing at a playground as an adult.

“Hah…these fools actually think I’m just doing this for my kid…”

@JLeslie Why in the world would they be too young for a buffet???

I decorated a big giant box for their first birthday. That was their present. They loved it!

@Dutchess_III Too young might be the wrong way to state it. Honestly, I think kids that young like everything new. Any new experience you up in front of them they take in. But, they can only eat so much having such little bodies, and after a few tastes they will be full.

I heard about a place where you choose a “cake” and then you decorate it. Like how you go to a pottery store and choose a plate or mug and paint it and then they put it in the kiln for you (hey, maybe take them to one of those places!) I once saw a woman take a platter and she did the infant baby’s foot prints on it for her mom. I also have scene very very young children paint a piece for themselves or as a gift for mother’s or father’s day. They could paint a frame and then you add a photo. My husband painted a flip flop box for his mom LMAO! The top was a flip flop and you can put jewelry or paperclips or whatever inside. When he gave it to her she put it right on the shelf with her Lladro. This was just 5 years ago. I’m not talking about when he was a kid.

Back to the cake. They pick the flavor cake they want and decorate it. You can do it at home with cake, cupcakes or sugar cookies.

Sure they get full. I mean, that’s the point of eating. We just pick morsels off of our plate and give them a little bit at a time until they don’t want any more. It’s just fun to watch their reaction to something they’ve never had before, like shrimp, or macaroni salad, tomatoes, all kinds of stuff. :D

Don’t let me discourage you. Go for it. My mom loves Golden Corral.

Oh, Golden Corral! They have the BEST food! Rick and I went there for Thanksgiving last year because none of the kids were available. That BETTER not happen again!

LOL. It cracks me up that my mom, actually my parents, like that place. They have lots of diet restrictions. When they travel they like coming across one since there isn’t one near them.

We have to go to Wichita to get to the nearest one. On Thanksgiving we just got a motel room and spent the evening lying bed and watching old reruns of Andy Griffith. It was perfectly marvelous.

My two year old Grandaughter, Adrionna, has parents who don’t give them a lot of junk food and candy.
One day she was over here. I was at the computer and I had a small cup of mini chocolate chips. She wandered up to me, I picked one up and held it to her mouth. Like an obedient baby bird she opened her mouth. I dropped it in, she turned around to toddle away….then she suddenly froze and her eyes flew wide open! She spun around and raced back to me with her mouth wide open!
Guess that was the first time she’d ever had chocolate. :) LOVED that reaction.