I have been looking for a large, crushable, (you know, to reduce the toddler minor head injury screams) moderately good looking toy bin for ages. Then I saw it on Boo and the Boy...
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| Adorable boy's room. Adorable Blog. You should totally check it out...but later. |
It was perfect for Camp Bed Room! Or the playroom, or maybe even the livingroom! Clear floors here I come!
It was $27. For a brown paper bag. I kid you not.
You know I can do better right?
It's hard to find activities that challenge my 4 year old and engage, but are not hazardous the Mr. Baby (he will eat ANYTHING). This easy peasy no mess craft was great for both of them.
I am aware that the American Association of Pediatrics has some rather prudent guidelines about TV, media, and screen time. Apparently, two hours a day is too much. Kids should be playing, reading, engaging with their environment. I'm cool with the first two, but I could do with a lot less engagement with the environment.
My Personal Assistant's behavior yesterday was so horrible that he has lost TV privileges for an indeterminate period of time. Basically, he can't watch tv or have tech time until he stops asking for it-constantly-at a screaming volume-using phraseology he has not been exposed to under this roof. I am so upset. I really do not know how I will cope.
The following is a true story of what happens when we loose TV privileges. It is not for the faint of heart. You have been warned.
We had a conflict of interests this morning. Kiddo wanted to play in the first snow of the year (sans pants), Baby wanted to sleep in, Mommy wanted to take a shower (solo) and curl up with some tea on the couch.
So we got out my daytime parenting partner: the activity tray.
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| Playing with butter |
"You LET him do WHAT?"
The thing that people question the most about my parenting is The Mess. It is always about the mess. Not the experience, not the fun, not the learning, the mess. As if one should care about the mess. As if the mess is the most awful thing one could imagine.
If I had a quarter for every incredulous question, raised eyebrow, or disapproving look I would be a rich woman rocking a designer diaper bag.
I am stuck on the couch with round ligament pain, the wind chill is too low for outdoor play, and the Personal Assistant want to "make foot prints like a robot." Oh what is a Mommy to do? Deodorize the carpet!
My Personal Assistant loves all things construction. (It might have something to do with the number of site visits I take him on, but every parent drags their kid to work at some point right?) Diggers, dump trucks, skid steers, flat beds, transporters, front end loaders, steam rollers, tractors, cranes...you name it, he loves it. Oatmeal is not oatmeal any more, it is "construction zone oatmeal". Nothing is picked up with our hands, only with our "crane hands". We even have a scripted conversation about diggers that we have every time we get in the car. The script must not vary, this is not improv. This is serious.
Him: "Can we see some diggers today?"
Me: "Perhaps, if we keep our eyes open."
I got the idea that perhaps he needed a construction zone of his own.
The division of labor around these here blog parts is that Daisy writes for Thursday/Friday and I write for Monday/Tuesday, which usually happens on Sunday/Monday evening respectfully. Only yesterday was my seven year anniversary and the night before it was my turn to teach Wee School, my neighborhood's free parent run summer school for tots, and I have been feeling really sick, so I skipped the writing, figuring the five of you would understand. Unfortunately, Wee School got rained out. And I was totally bummed. I had 8+ cups of fresh sidewalk finger paint and a quart of fresh frozen wacky sidewalk chalk plus all the fun water activities I had planned, and no one was going to see it. Then I was all...OMG I have a blog. (Literally, that is exactly what I thought. Total weirdo, I know.) So sweet blog readers, behold, I present all five of you with sidewalk finger paint!
This post is not about THAT Humpty Dance, or the other one. It's about making my Personal Assistant his very own Humpty Dumpty doll. So no juicy tidbits here...but I will admit to singing and dancing to a ridiculous made up song while I ironed Humpty's parts, and announced to the Hubster (who was doing his best to ignore me and watch some sport game called "March Madness". Whatever.) Look at me! I'm doing the Humpty Dance!" (I was not doing the Humpty Dance, I am not that cool.)
I love natural playgrounds. I am crazy about them. They offer so many befits for kids and the environment. As a designer, I also love that they can blend into the landscape, which is perfect in my postage stamp back yard. Read after the jump to see how I transformed a corner of the yard into a natural playscape on the cheap.
