I’ve always been taught that toddlers aren’t prone to bone breaks. Sure they get hurt, but my mom’s big Irish family has been lucky when it comes to health. We always bounce back.

My husband’s family is very different. His sister, cousins, and himself all have stories of breaking a bone in their toddler years/early life. It seems insane to me. Sure I’ve handled watching after my share of rough and tumble boys, but I was a tomboy, I always kept up.

So of course, while I’m on maternity leave with my newborn son, my toddler boy has decided he wants to test his limits. He was climbing everything to the point that I just knew he was going to crack his head open.

Naturally, my husband and I took him and the baby to the playground where there was plenty of equipment to climb. Aaaand he broke his leg going down a slide… with me.

I’ve done this tons of times with his older sisters, and him. But apparently it’s one of the most common ways for toddlers to break their limbs.

He’s a tough little dude. Usually when he gets a cut or busts his lip all he needs is a hug or a kiss and he’s up and running again. This time he was crying and couldn’t put weight on his leg. That’s when I knew something was really wrong. We tried giving him a nap to see if it would ease up, but he was having a rough time after he woke up so to the ER I took him.

I’ve spent most of this month testing my ability to keep a broken toddler entertained. Especially that first week. He was place in a splint and unable to walk to allow the swelling to go down.

The Doctor straight up told me, “This will be hell.”

Thankfully my little man is a smart guy. I told him that his booboo needed extra time to heal and that his splint was like a big band-aid that needed to rest.

My son listened. He didn’t try to walk on it. Between the pain and what he could grasp he left it alone. I went and got a wagon for him so he could still take walks around the neighborhood and go out in the yard to play. We filled our time with activities like:

Riding in the chariot

Playing candy land and other simple games

Music time

Playing catch and bubbles in the backyard

Crashing cars

Building lego stuff

Petting a snake at the Ren Faire

Playing Lincoln logs

Painting crafts

Whatever this sibling weirdness is…

Bubble wrap popping!

Turtle playing

Wagon naps

Pretending to be a chef

Singing and going for car rides, and playing learning games at Starfall.com, then maybe watching just a little TV.

We never run out of things to do!

It got MUCH easier once he got his walking cast. We’re still taking it easy but never skimp on the fun!