Since my DD is turning 3 this weekend my memories of how she was as an infant and what we did to keep her occupied are a little foggy. She was a very demanding baby and never slept. All my friend's had babies who would take those typical naps we all have heard about but I never had that. So on top of the kid that never slept; we also had to constantly entertain her. My mom refreshed my memory a few months back about my frustration with it all by reminding me how I use to say "Everyone else has a baby, I clearly don't have a baby!" The kid never wanted to lay back even as a tiny thing but was constantly doing tummy crunches to sit up, so we had to hold as such or deal with a very upset child.
The nice thing for me is I had immediate family in the area and utilized them A LOT, b/c really what made DD the happiest and content was interacting with other humans. Her favorite time was having someone read to her. Actually books were her entire world when she was still a baby. By 6 months she was pointing at images and asking "What's this?" and "What's that?" building her vocabulary and this is when she found some little abc block books that she would want to go through. By 9 months she had learned all her abcs.
We also utilized the TV and this one DVD from tinylove that came with an interactive stuffed dog. (She was around 3 mths old when she started watching it.) She loved that DVD and would sit calmly through it all. Was a great tool when I was home by myself and needed to get something done! Other than the one DVD it was pretty much constant interaction with DD. She wouldn't have it any other way.
Wish I had the magic formula figured out that would give you a break!
