When it's too hot to play outside...

Someone on another website I frequent (babyfit.com) wanted some ideas of what to do if it is too hot to take a toddler outside to play. Here are my favorite top-ten that I used to do with my kids when we didn't have the option of heading outdoors.

1) Cut out oversize footprints from aluminum foil and tape these in a track that loops and twirls all over the apartment while DH is napping. When she wakes up, she has to follow the footprints, step by painstaking step, to her "treasure" at the end of the trail ('nilla wafers.)

2) If you don't have expensive wallpaper, fill up two waterguns and put them in the fridge. Ambush each other at will.

3) Read a book together, then delve into your drawers and closets for make-shift costumes and act out the story (Little Red Riding Hood was my dh's favorite - I know how to sew so I made costumes for all her favorites with material off the clearance rack at WalMart)

4) Put on the radio and teach dh to dance

5) You can blow bubbles in the house without hurting anything, and she can chase them around and pop them

6) use construction paper to make animal masks for yourself and your dh to wear, and have a pretend trip to the zoo in your house (and yes, you CAN feed the bears!)

7) Make your DH lie down on an old sheet, draw her outline with a permanent marker, and let her decorate with scraps of fabric you cut to fit and she can glue on. You can also glue on sequins, feathers, glitter, buttons... Follow up with a bubble-bath because dh is going to be a MESS

8) Have a "pool party" indoors. Let her put on her bathingsuit, zap some pre-cooked burgers in the microwave, put on some music, wear sunglasses and floppy hats, leave your "beachtowels" lying around, and let her play in a bathtub full of cool water. You put on your bathingsuit and get in with her.

9) Go camping indoors. If you have a pop-up tent, push your livingroom furniture out of the way and put the tent up. If you DON'T have one, make one by draping a blanket over your diningroom table. Make a "campfire" out of empty paper towel rollers with marker lines drawn on them to resemble logs, glue construction paper "fire" to it, and "roast" marshmallows on forks. Sing campfire songs, eat some more microwave burgers or hotdogs or other campout food, use sleeping bags or blankets folded to look like sleeping bags, and have nap-time in your "tent". Go fishing in your bathtub. Go on a bear-hunt from room to room - not to shoot with a gun, but pretend to have cameras and pretend to find all kinds of other things on your bear-hunt.

10) Make an obstacle course out of couch-cushions and pillows for your dh to navigate in the livingroom.