Alone time with you will make her feel extra special. A morning at the park playing with you. Take her out to lunch at a family friendly restaurant. After her nap, she gets to choose a video with watching it with her.

I am not from the area and happened to be traveling north and I see this sign for Big Bone Lick State Park I was like HS I HAVE to get a refrigerator magnet from there!! Anyway it turned out to be a pretty cool park with discovery stations that show you how Mammoths came there to lick at the salt deposits and you can see actual skeletal remains around the property. It aint Great America but I thought it was a very interesting place to check out!!.

You two might enjoy feeding birds at the park. I’m sure she would enjoy a playground with a sandbox. If you do that, you don’t need to buy special sandbox toys. An old wooden spoon and a plastic bowl will work nicely. Choose a park with swings and other things to climb as well.

Two and a half is probably a little young to get the most out of the Build A Bear experience, and maybe a little too small for a petting zoo (some of those little animals will be bigger than she is, and some can get downright aggressive! I swear the goats tried to eat my daughter.)

Some things I’d consider age-appropriate: water play (nothing too deep, obviously… maybe just running through a sprinkler?), a park with baby swings, getting down on the floor with her and playing at her level, a toy store visit, coloring, a short nature walk (take paper lunch bags or ziplock bags, and collect leaves, pebbles, flowers, whatever), reading to her (even if it’s the same book, over and over and over…), a kid-friendly restaurant meal.

She’ll probably be thrilled to have some daddy/daughter time, no matter what you do. Whatever you decide, have fun!

Is there a children’s, hands-on museum where you live? My daughter loved that when she was that age.

You can get some preschool toys from TOYRUS and play with her. Whist doing this put on some nice kid music and have a fun day indoors. Have candy, pizza and soda at your disposal and when that is finished take her for nice walk and get some ice-cream. Have a camera ready as well. Not much money would be spent and you and her would be totally safe and have fun at the same time.

As you mentioned in your question, the zoo. In my experience, kids of all ages love it.

You don’t have to pack too much into a day with them that young. Take her to the Highfield Discovery Garden Or take her to the nature playscape at the Cincinnati Nature Center. Look at bugs and butterflies, splash around in the water.

Take a bunch of flat sheets and make a tent out of the dining room table and have lunch under the tent. Play house with her. Does she have balls to kick around? Take her out and play with balls. If she has blocks and things to build with, spend some time doing that with her.

You could take her to the Bonbonerie for “tea” and let her go in dress-up clothes. Let her go in the princess outfit with the boa and all the trimmings.

Research shows that the value of difference in play style when girls play with their fathers as opposed to their mothers can be important to overall development and confidence.

A small, but interesting thing to do with kids that are older than your daughter is to take the Anderson Ferry across the Ohio. It runs from just west of downtown, and puts you out on the KY side not too far from the Airport. It’s fun to do on your own; crossing the Ohio like that is a great experience.