That's tough. Does she have lots of toys within reach to play with during the day? She can probably occupy herself for quite some time every day usefully (and develop her thinking ability) by playing with building toys like blocks, Magneatos, Duplos / Quattros, wooden trains, etc. as well as puzzles (we have tons), and a bit later on stimulating toys like Capsela, marble runs, Legos, etc. Both of my kids have also loved plastic dinosaurs, Little People and other sorts of early role-playing imaginational toys. I'd make sure that her play area has plenty of toys of different types available for her to get out and play with on her own. An easel with dry-erase markers, paper with colored pencils, etc. is another idea of something she could use mostly on her own. Then if when you get home there's a mess, you can nag hubby to clean it up.
I personally don't think that the main problem here is lack of time with dad, if he's willing to read with her when she brings him a book, especially as a lot of free-play activities can be done alone. She probably gets a lot just from his presence and occasional emotional reinforcement as she goes about her day.
Still, and this is tough to recommend, I would demand that your husband keep the Xbox and TV shows off-- being a parent involves sacrifices, and those are pretty petty on the grand scheme of things. Maybe you could hunt up some news articles on the negative impacts of too much screen time.
Her favorite toys are her wooden toys and books, plus anything that plays or makes music so she can dance to it. She builds towers, "reads" a lot to herself, and likes putting toys together / filling and carrying around containers, etc. right now. She pushes buttons on music toys over and over so she can dance and kind of sing.
I took some time this morning to try to teach her about her 3 piece shapes puzzle and sang the ABCs to her while showing her the wooden letters.
Yeah... I think he might be a tad addicted to / reliant on? the video games. When he plays, he wants to play for hours. We've talked about it before. He got me into games, too, and I understand a little better why they get addicting. I have favorite games, too, now, but I play maybe once a month or less.
I also get that it gets
really boring up there. I watched shows sometimes, too, to pass the time when she was really small. What I don't mind is when he is doing homework or writing software (he is making a game for fun right now.) Even though he's plugged in (as am I working on the comp all day), he is being productive...But really, what business is it of mine whether he is productive or not while watching the baby?
I don't really see a way to significantly stop the game usage unless I want to take her all day. If I impose my parenting ideals on the situation it is like "FINE. YOU watch her." sort of thing. I am pretty lucky right now, you know? (In fact, I need to get back to work now lol)
