small toys and a baby

[omelette]

I have a 4 yr old who is just getting into playmobil and lego and a mobile 6 month old.
My concern is dealing with all the small pieces b/c my 6m old will get to anything and everything on the floor and put it in his mouth. The main play area is off the kitchen which is the perfect spot for them both to be and ds1 is starting to play in his room but prefers to be in the other area with us. I tried saying all the toys with small pieces stay in his room but when I'm making dinner, baking, etc he wants to be with us and playmobil is the only thing he'll play with independently right now.
How do I keep on top of the small pieces? What works at your house?

[LaughingHyena]

We never came up with an ideal solution, since DD would much rather play where DS and I were. A few things that helped us through the worst of it were

Getting DD to play at the table (which while not in the kitchen was still somewhere I could chat with her)

Getting one of the kids in the pack and play, DD was quite happy to play lego in there and for DS we put the ball pool balls in (somehow a ball pool felt better to me than a play pen )

We also got a stair gate to go between the dinning room and sitting room and had one kid either side. It was better than a closed door since I could still see and chat with both kids.

It was never perfect but now at 3 & 51/2 they play quite nicely together.

[attached2ethan]

I am pregnant with #3 and currently have two boys (ages 4 and 7) who basically only play with lego and playmobil, so I've been giving a lot of thought to how I'm going to control that situation once my baby becomes mobile! I didn't have this problem with DS #2 because they're 2 years apart and we did not yet have "tiny" toys back then.

I've talked to the boys about it and they are willing to have a baby gate put up in the doorway of their room so that the baby can stay out and they can go in, and we've decided that the lego and playmobil stuff has to stay in there. It's going to be a big change because right now it's ALL over my house ALL the time, but I'm hoping for the best! I wish I had better suggestions for you, but my kids room is right off the kitchen, so they play pretty well in there without me because we can still chat, they can see me, etc...

Jessica, Mom of Three
DS #1 (age 7)
DS #2 (age 4)
DD due soon!

[neetling]

I asked my girls to keep small things in their room. I gave them a warning or 10 when I would find small things and then I started throwing stuff away (unless it was very special)

They lost a lot of Barbie shoes and the like.

[averlee]

I second the playpen idea. You could call it a "big kid fort" and make sure the bigger could climb in & out easily.

[omelette]

Thanks for the input.
I'm going to try putting a gate up between the kitchen and the play area which continues on to the rest of the house. That way baby is confined to the kitchen and I can put lots of toys on the floor and ds1 can have the play area. We'll see how long it lasts though b/c this little baby is a mover and I'm not sure he'll be happy only having the kitchen as his turf.
If it doesn't work we might have to do the bedroom only rule too.