Tuesday, July 22, 2008

What To Do, What To Do...

E is all girl - she is OBSESSED with shoes. She calls them "eet" (feet), and is constantly asking me to put my shoes on her, L's shoes... pretty much anyone's shoe. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I only have like three or four pairs of shoes to work with, so she gets bored, and wants to walk in Daddy's boots. Right now she's wearing some slippers we got for free that are one size too big for her.
E is 16 months, and a very busy toddler. It appears that she's down to one nap - from two or three the past month and a half. The more awake time means we have to come up with more activities for her to do. We've been going to the beach a few times a week, but she appears to be growing tired of it. Yesterday we went to the playground at the elementary school, and wow... she fell in love. Even after two hours of hard play, she had a mini tantrum when we left. Guess where we will be spending much of our upcoming days?

What are some at home activities that you guys do with your kiddos? What are your child's favorite at home activity? At the moment my kiddo loves books, play dough, dried beans or oatmeal with cups/spoons, markers and finger paints. Any ideas will keep our days moving in a good direction. :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No kiddo advice from me - I don't have any yet!

But the pictures of E are just precious! I love the shoe fasination. I distinctly remember having a pair of pink 'high heel (not really though)' girly shoes when I was tiny. And they were my favorite thing to play with!

knittingma said...

I'm SO there with you. Right now J is completely bored with his stroller. He throws a mini-tantrum any time I try to put him in it. He used to love the stroller--especially because it's usually the gateway to the playground. Apparently he's too "big" for it now. :)

I wish we had a beach nearby. J loves the water and *loves* to swim. But his recent favorites at home are his sandbox and his kiddie pool (both in the backyard), "drawing" (which usually turns into trying to eat the crayons--I thought his obsession with eating things would be over by 18 months?!), walking on the sidewalk around the neighborhood, and tormenting the dog.

Unknown said...

we walk a lot (trails, strolling through the neighborhoods, etc), do side walk chalk, make sidewalk paint, cook together (one of our FAVES), make crafts, READ!, play dress up, play in the kiddie pool, hide-n-seek, 'write' and create our own story books, visit the pet store, go to the zoo, hang at the playground and splash park, have PLAY DATES!, do play dough, set up dominoes in designs and knock them over, spend lots of time watering flowers and plants (it's a toddler fascination!).....

p.s. - the pic on the slide is adorable!!!!!

Unknown said...

To answer your cooking question off my blog:
#1 is nearly 4 years old, and it seems she's been in the kitchen with me, in some sort of capacity, forever. But I think we started somewhere around age 1 or so. She'd stand on the chair that I'd pull up to the counter next to me. We started small - she'd be the dumper of pre-measured items - stuff like that. She now (at 3 and 4 yrs) scoops things herself in measuring cups and adds them to the same bowl. I used (and still do) it as learning time too "can you hand me 2 of..." from ingredients laid out on the counter.
She is also THE master stirrer- to this day, it's her favorite thing to do. She stirs everything that isn't hot. In fact she gets upset if I'm in the kitchen w/out her, or if she sees ME stirring something w/out having asked her to do it.
I also try to make as many things into an assembly line while cooking. She is a fabulous line worker :) It really DOES help me in the process, and is fun for us both!
She helps with anything that isn't hot, involves the burners,the oven, or sharp knives. Basically most of the prep work. Baking and putting recipes together...

I also try to do as many crafts in the kitchen (side walk paint, playdoh, etc) since it's one of her favorite places to be.

I make our meals from scratch and wind up spending a good amount of time in the kitchen, so I really love having her there with me, spending time together. It's become 'our special thing'.

*be forewarned that to this day it's a messy experience. But I really don't mind cleaning up the crumbs, flour, water, and other spilled items. (you should see the kitchen after Saturday morning pancakes!) My husband on the other hand can't handle the mess having an assistant brings. So this is NOT their special time. (they have other special things together)
But I think half the joy of cooking is HAVING fun in the kitchen, esp. with a little assistant by your side! So I don't mind the splatters and spills....