The last week the heat wave that swept the nation hit record levels locally. I’ve been feeling sick myself and the high heat and humidity only make things worse. But the biggest challenge has been keeping my toddler happy. She loves to be outside, but even if I could tolerate it, I doubt the high heat index would be healthy. I hesitate to take her anywhere in the car because of how hot the car, and especially her car seat, get. Even running the car with the air conditioning on for a while doesn’t cool down the seat enough to prevent her discomfort. So we’ve been nearly housebound for the past week. So as I lay like a blob on the couch, hot and sweaty with the air conditioning barely taking the edge of the stale air, my daughter got more stir crazy by the day. I let her watch some TV, something which we don’t normally do a lot. We tried reading books, but by the end of the story we were both dripping with sweat from our combined body heat. I’m not sure if her recent insistence to go around naked from the waist down is related to a sudden interest in potty training or a desire to avoid the heat of her diaper. Fortunately today is cooler, though still humid. Hopefully we’ll go outside in the back yard to run around a little bit today.

Do you have any suggestions for keeping house bound toddlers happy and dealing with the extreme heat? I’d appreciate any suggestions.