Toys on the Fly!

At every bend around motherhood, we meet other moms whose kids are going through the same phases, same tantrums, same fascinations. There was this one time when Monster rejected all toys except for my leg and I was in tears wondering how can I distract her enough to make lunch, shower, pee or sit down.
At a play date of course, we moms went about wondering what IS the fascination with our legs! And one mom had the solution. A tupperware filled with beans! Umm, really? They'd go for that?
Apparently so.
Jessica of Mommyhood Next Right listed a number of things she'd created to distract her little one in WMD (Weapons of Mass Distraction).
I thought of commenting with some of our own innovative toys but then remembered, I didn't really come up with anything. I think I lost at least 85% of my brain cells post-baby and whatever gain and loss has gone on in the two years since amounts to a nominal recovery. So I looked to Sunnymoms for some ideas, considering that in a few month I'm about to lose whatever brain cells I DO have left.

These are some of the suggestions they offered:

1. Just toss them a used paper towel roll.
2. Fill mini water bottles with different items: elbow macaroni, rice, lentils etc. This mom's 6 month old was fascinated by the different sound of each bottle.
3. I did remember cutting out the bottom part of an old tube style laundry bag and letting Monster crawl in and out of it. Yup, minutes of fun.

Ok ladies, this is all I got. If you can help me, please do. This post is labelled under "What to do when it's 5 minutes to dinner and your child is still hoggin all the pans you need for cooking."
Ok it's really "when nothing else works"

Edited with additions:
...for diaper changes, we hung a few family photos on the wall above the changing pad. Every time we change a diaper, we go through the names of the people in the photos. [Daughter] has learned who everyone is and points at them when we say each name.

Patricia R.

...how about using old magazines or their every day book collection or even family photo album like an Where's Waldo book.
"Is anyone in that book wearing red? How many circles/ squares etc... Can you find on that page? Can you find grandma/pa, daddy/mommy on that page?"
And so on...
Of course this works for the toddler who's learning these concepts , but it's a wonderul diversion.

Janice