Any advice/activities to entertain a 14mth old?

[babybells]

my toddler is almost 14 mths and I am having trouble finding things for her to do in her age group. if it were up to her she'd take me by the hand and walk everywhere, or play with her 24/7. i just cant do that, i have been working from home and am 25 weeks pregnant also.
i am concerned she will go nuts with boredom with the new baby comes and i dont have time to play with her as i'll be breastfeeding the baby for 7 hrs of my day!!
she seems too young to draw or play with playdough (she still puts everything in her mouth), she doesnt read books by herself yet.. i just dont know what to give her. the toys she has or if i get some household items for her they amuse her for a couple of minutes but after that she is over it. she is very intelligent, communicates very well and is such a keen learner.
its all good to play with her all day or take her to play centres and playgroups but i have to be realistic about the coming months ahead with a newborn -and no family in town to just take her out or babysit.
what do i do?!

[sarahp]

Hi, I have struggled with this same issue since DS was old enough to want to play! He is now 2yrs old and still doesnt like to play on his own.
We have a side garden that I can see from the kitchen and when he was about 1yr old he used to love playing with small bowls of water that i would put different colours of food dye in each bowl and he would use my measuring cups to scoop it out and onto the concrete or float toys in each bowl. I would supply him with all the playing instruments I could find and hope for the best. He would only last about 20 mins but was happy with that playing on his own.
He also loved putting small items in bigger containers then taking them out so I took a lot of his small toys an put them in bigger containers and then those in even bigger containers etc etc. he would happily 'unpack' them all until all the toys were out.
I can sympathise, some days it really can be difficult, some days I would wake up and think 'now what can I do with him today'...
As he gets older he is more and more content to find things to occupy his time and with another one on the way aswell I am already trying to plan activities for him that dont involve me having to be right next to him as his playmate :)