Always On The GO

Unless my youngest is tired the playpen is more of a hassle than its worth. I purchased one of those pens for the yard, it's like an octagon shaped baby gate for outside, but it comes apart and will for how you want it. I use that and section of an area of the living room where her toys are when I need to do dishes or clean the living room. It keeps her from wandering around behind me making a mess or getting into something while I'm distracted with cleaning. I also use the same fence to block off the kitchen, as our living room opens up into the kitchen and that is not a safe room for her to play in. It is very convenient and she still has the freedom to play and more room than her play pen provides.

At that age, toys that they are able to ride on is a great thing. Or, another great suggestion if he wants to be right there behind you while you are cleaning, you can also get some cleaning toys for him. A toy vacuum clean, a broom and dust pan, that kind of thing and that way he will feel like he is helping you and it won't get you into trouble because he will mock what you are doing. I've done that with my children and it really did make a huge difference.

For me I don't know but take much time to talked him and punished if they are not to good in your sabotage.

Oh yeah they can have so much energy and want to venture out into the entire home in a split second. It is a constant routine to have to try and keep them busy so if you have an area with no harms way maybe a rail in the walk way would be good so that the baby does not venture out into other rooms.

I remember these days I can tell you it will get better sooner or later. My daughter is 3 now so I can send her up to her room to play to get some things done, this however will back fire from time to time. When she was younger I would keep her in the room with me and try to bring something to entertain her with or keep asking her to go and get me things or trow stuff away for me. You have to be creative sometimes and sometimes I would just give up. But try and get him involved in someway that way he is helping just a little instead of destroying your progress. He might need some new more interactive toys, leap frog has some really good ones. They have the tag reader that my daughter loves they make a jr one for the little kids she has always loved books so that is great for her. They also make some fridge toys that are great that way if you are cooking they can play with the stuff on the fridge. My daughter has the farm animal one and the alphabet one. Maybe even see if you can find a toy he really likes and make it a special toy that he only get to play with when you need to get something done. Music was always good too I have wiggles cds and little people cds some elmo and she would be happy to dance to those for a bit. You have to keep trying until you find a few things that work and keep them on hand cause one might work one day and not the next. Coloring can be good too just make sure he doesn't eat the crayons and if he does they pass, just watch you table and walls too they usually have color books at the dollar stores or you can print color pages off line. Good Luck

Wow, my nephew and niece are like that. When they come and play with us, it's like a tornado hit the house. Everything is not in their proper place, not even our chairs! What we did was place them in their walkers, and allowed them to run inside the room. That way, they can still be walking around and playing but they can't reach stuff from the table or the floor (we still kept our eyes on them, but we were also able to finish our chores albeit with a longer time frame). We also try to entertain them with a variety of toys; once they get tired of one toy, then off with the next. Just keep them coming. LOL

Have you tried classes? There are plenty of classes - mommy and me is one of them - that you could attend together. Will he sit still when you read to him? What about taking him to story time at the library. As far as the play pen, don't feel bad. Put toys in the play pen to entertain him. When he fusses, leave him in there. He will probably calm down after a minute when he gets distracted by the toys.