Entertaining a nearly two yr old when one is creaky!

Life does exist free from goverment organisation battles or as I call them head banging on brick walls.

 

Onto real life.

 

When children get older they come with new challenges, you spend your whole time as a disabled parent thinking oh please get walking because then I won't have a difficulty getting you around the house and we might be able to do and see so much more, hmmmm ,this is just not the case so don't wish the non walking time away!

Christopher can now walk to my stair lift which means I only need to pick him up to put him on my lap to go downstairs or upstairs on my lift but he also chooses at times to not walk to my stair lift and go anywhere else but in a direction I could do with him going! His pastimes include chasing my assistant dog around,working with my assistant dog to get up to mischief (yes my son knows her commands now eeeek) walking into our kitchen to lock our washing machine, to sneak into the dining room to eat the dogs chocolate buttons, to pull 1950s and 60s antiques off shelves, to throw things around like a disc thrower which scares me incase he hits one of Marks or my joints and sometimes a tap can leave the joint damaged or useless for days. Hence when a child is walking and one is creaky you need to get thinking like a toy shop owner in Manhattan at Christmas, you need to be fun,sell your fun to your young listener,be full of ideas to entertain just to keep the little so and so static for a while.

 

Our list of fun fun fun includes:

I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU START KEEPING AN ARTY DRAWER,YOU ARE GOING TO NEED LOADS OF ARTY BITS ,THINGS TO MAKE AND DO WITH A CHILD FOR WHEN YOUR CHILD GETS ACTIVE NEEDS MORE ENTERTAINMENT. We keep old yogurt pots, toilet roll tubes, wrapping paper, spiral pasta shapes, stickers, paints, glue, brushes,sticky back felt shapes,card etc.

Retro fun, arty, ideas.

Aqua Doodle Matt is a Must buy!

The matt comes with a pen that you fill with water, the water reacts with the matt to produce a blue ink but when the pen is used on the wall your walls are just covered with water rather than ink! A great bit of kit for disabled parents, you can put the mat on a double bed and use to draw on, wash toys in a washing up tub (my son loves bathing his toys). The matt is waterproof underneath so it fully protects a table or bed. This mat would be a must buy for any creaky parent.


 

Saucepan drum kit

Saucepans make great drums, cheese grater and chopstick, spoon make a great scraping sound. This activity can be done from a sofa, a floor or a bed.

 

Painting,drawing, getting messy.

 

Painting.

A great big IKEA roll of cheap drawing paper found in the children's area of IKEA,children's paints and a roll of waterproof table matt found in party shops for a bargain price of £1. We sit at our dining table, place a waterproof tablecloth underneath,roll the paper out, get armed with paint, hands,paint brushes and we get messy! Paint goes on me, on Christopher, on Mark and on the dog but it is fun and it washes off.


 

Funny face paper plates.

Making Pumpkin face plates for Halloween but I am loving the Cookie Monster plate idea!

Cookie Monster plate idea from http://kiboomukidscrafts.com

 

Make a tight snake.

Making a tight Snake or as my friend calls it a tight worm as my tights are obviously small. We simply brought some children's star sparkly tights from a supermarket for £1, cut off one leg and filled it with polystyrene filling but you could use newspaper, old magazines. In our make it drawer we have sticky back felt spots which our son stuck along his snake and Daddy put two big button eyes and a felt tongue on to finish it off. We tied the end of the tight, don't fuss about with elastic bands if your hands are not good at fine dexterity.

Spooky spiders.

Halloween spider instructions found at www.allkidsnetwork.com

Our spiders we made are just not worth showing you as we were so ill as both our illnesses were raging, mark was throwing up with pain and migraines from spurs growing on his neck, I was burning in my knees, ankles, elbows and we just blindly were trying to entertain Christopher and sat on a sofa making these things. However it goes to show you can make these things even when you can not move and in between throwing up.

 

You may find piercing holes for the pipe cleaners, in the egg cup, difficult as we did with our rubbish hands. You can swap pipe cleaners for black wool, cut eight same length strands and stick the legs to the underside of the cup, you can use tape or glue.

 

Retro Playdoh.

Playdoh is a great toy played at a table, when am bed bound we have tried playing it on the bed and have yellow playdoh stained duvet covers, not a great place to play with dough!

 

Pretend cooking

Simply using a bowl, throw in some dry spaghetti, a small cup of flour, raisins, anything not disastrous if it is thrown about and just mix. Do this at a table, a bed is not a great idea!

 

Bread cutting.

You can buy children's cookie cutting sets from Hobbycraft or online. Taking slices of bread, simply take a cutter and push into a slice to cut different shapes ,then stick on lashings of chocolate spread on top and tuck in!

 

This is so far my list of entertainment, it seems a lot when I write it but actually our son probably will entertain one activity for ten minuets if we are lucky and then gets back this favourite past times. Thank goodness Father Christmas is coming soon because we are rapidly needing more things to look at and do!

 

It is difficult when you can't sling a child in a car seat and go out on your own to parent and child groups, it can get very isolating at times and days feel long. I thank god I have my best friend here who not only helps me but makes me laugh and feel loved,my husband is my best friend, like any friend he can annoy me and I annoy him but we are very together and strong, not only do we deal with our individual body failings and pain but we nurture one another and our son.

 

I hope our son doesn't see our pain or difficulties we have every day because we don't want him acknowledging that his parents are hugely different. A child should have a childhood and not be condemned to a life of disability and understanding all aspects of disability just because he has parents who are disabled. My childhood was full of disability, endless hospital appointments, stays in hospital for a year at times, isolation due to not being able to get out from traction which rendered me in bed all day and night. Life can be fun and I want my sons to be even better. I very much enjoy seeing my friends and family because that is time for Mark and I to be adults and enjoy adults chat but my little man has brought so much joy into our lives as well, really life is very happy and I will wheel over hot coals to ensure he has the happiest childhood possible :)

 

Enjoy your weekend all lovely people out there x

 

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