I get the sense that my daughter (17 mo.) can't sit through books the way some other kids her age can, but she loves all of those lift-the flap books, and anything that plays a sound. It keeps her a little more engaged. She loves those books with the animal finger puppets (by imagebooks staff). Again, it's interactive. She also likes the app Animal Sound Box on Palm Pre and my husband has an app that locks the phone on his Samsung Moment called Toddler Lock. It's like babysmash (
www.babysmash.com), but for a mobile phone. I find too that my daughter gets really upset about wanting to have/do whatever we've got. So we try to always have an alternative, like a toy phone, toy remote, etc. The other product that we've found helpful is the sippy cup tether. At least now I only have to worry about her throwing her dishes and 20 forks and spoons (yes another technique-lots of silverware) on the floor and not her sippy cup. She even insists that we put the sippy cup in it. She is very into throwing all dishes and silverware on the floor, and then giving you a taunting look as if to say "what are you going to do about it?". She figured out the suction cup plates in a matter of minutes. A step stool that reaches the height of counters is also helpful because she gets really frustrated that she can't see what we're doing in the kitchen. Giving her an Elmo doll in the car has done wonders for her being upset during driving. One final product=2 dogs. They provide tons of entertainment.
