grab bored toddler and any suitable receptacles that can be found around the house. add 50 cents dry rice, add toddler and viola! instant, cheap fun! easier than sand, and completely non-toxic :)
reuse the rice for future play too. unless it gets eaten. as you can see, some unfortunate grains did not survive the experience...
like many a creative toddler, thomas comes up with some inventive ways to entertain himself. he sit in his yellow elmo chair. then he says "one, two, three!!!" and slams his head back as hard as he can. plunk. over the back he goes. yup the reason he looks funny in the pic is because it was taken right after he pancaked himself back onto the rug. then he chuckles to himself, rolls off, sits back down and does it again. and again until he has had enough head banging and decides to stop. i figure this is pay back. what goes around comes around right? i was a crazy kid and this is pay back for all the wild stuff i did (tree climbing, falling, big wheel stunts, tripping) that gave my poor mom heart attacks. *sigh*...
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thomas always helps unload the dishwasher. probably since he could reach high enough to put stuff in the drawers (maybe 14-15 months??). he would always take each utensil one by one and then go drop it into the drawer, and back again to get another one. this past january, right after he turned 2, he surprised us by grabbing the entire basket, lugging it over the utensil drawer and efficiently loading the drawer up. no more going back and forth. wow! i mean yikes... our kids are going to keep us on our toes. i mean we thought we were smart when we were growing up right? i can't think of many high schoolers that don't think at some point that they can outsmart their parents. those little brains, even as toddlers, are already devising ways to be more efficient. ... or wait, maybe this is unique to thomas? perhaps... as a result of genes passed down from his super freak dadwho loves to make everything run as efficiently (and as budge-wise) and with as many back-up contingency plans as possible? ha ha...
even though it is recommended for infants and toddlers, i found out only about 18% of kids get the flu shot. well, i was lazy and didn't have thomas vaccinated, and now, both thomas and william are sick. not just with colds but the flu. we went to Superfranks last tuesday and on friday morning, thomas' nose started running like crazy. he was still not too bad over the weekend, but by Monday he was getting worse. plus really really clingy and needy, and whiney. william started to feel sick saturday, but on sunday he thought he was ok, so he went for a night ride (yeah at 10pm in 40 degree cold and for an hour) with our similarly crazy neighbor (yeah that's you lawrence). Monday, william was ok at lunch but by 2pm was headed home with terrible chills and body ache all over. he has been completely wasted since then, and pretty much will have to take the entire week off work.
funny thing though, william felt better after driving to the doctor's this afternoon, and confirming that he did have flu and not just a common cold. maybe something about knowing that it wasn't just a cold that was causing him to have to take 4 days off work. :)
the worst is watching thomas try to sleep. even with his eyes closed as he is trying to fall asleep, you can see him trying to breath and struggling to hold his breath when he feels a cough coming. so sad to see such a tiny creature have to go through this. i hate having a cough, the kind that keeps you awake b/c just as you are falling asleep, you get that insuppressible tickle in your throat which brings on a bought of coughing. he gets so frustrated, he starts crying and thrashing around just trying to express how tired and frustrated he is with not being able to go to sleep. then passes out from exhaustion. poor little guy.
when he is awake, he still wants to play, but he has been much more clingy and needy, and whines at the smallest thing that goes wrong. plus he has molars coming in, which adds to his overall discomfort. i caught this little clip of him yesterday, while wiping his runny nose with his sleeve. so sweet. i gave up trying to stop him saturday from smearing his snot everywhere and just let him use what ever he wants. i wipe and make him blow his nose once in a while, but that area is getting so tender and red, it is hard. i have been putting Aquaphor ointment on whenever i can, but he hates that and wipes it off half the time. on sunday, i caught him, with all his fingers, rubbing a huge amount of clear, runny snot all over his mouth and nose. he was clearly enjoying the sensation and stopping occasionally to stick his finger up his nostril as high as he could, or to suck in his entire upper lip. gross!!!!
recent posts on sara's and isabel's mommys' blogs made me ask myself, does thomas watch too much tv? so i am taking an informal poll. how much TV does your kid watch? and how often is the tv just on in the background? i almost always turn the evening news on, ABC, from 5:30 to 6:30. oh yeah...sometimes i turn it on at 4:45 to see who the musical guests are on oprah and ellen. then it ends up being on until 6:30.
thomas watches an average of 1 hour per day. before 2008 i would limit it to about 30 min per day. it starts in the morning at 9am with SuperWHY!. it is a new PBS show that features 4 main characters that problem solve using letters, spelling and reworkings of classic children's stories. the focus of the show is teaching preschoolers that reading is the key that opens everything. thomas LOVES this show. he can serious watch 2 or 3 of them in a row. they also have 4 really cool games online that thomas is getting really good at. he truly excels at computer games. SCARY! other shows i let him watch are curious george, sesame street, teletubbies, mommy & me (sing-along-songs), thomas & friends christmas time, and a couple korean & mandarin language DVD's for preschoolers. all shows that don't have anything really scary or dark or mean.
i got mad at william the other day because he taught thomas that dark closets are scary. do NOT let your toddlers watch thomas & friends until they understand the concept of scary. thomas had no idea what scary was until he watched the thomas train show. they have tons of references to scary shadows and noises in the dark, as well as being naughty. there is even a song called "boo choo choo" where the main line is "don't be afraid of the dark. it's just your imagination." now whenever he sees a dark hallway/closet or shadows he says "boo choo choo." bad daddy!!!
anyways, put in your vote! how much TV does your kid watch? inquiring minds want to know... oh wait, i forgot to mention - it doesn't count when the little ones are sick. we let thomas watch lots of tv when he is sick. lots... :p
here is the funniest pic from a friend while we were hanging out at the Dublin library. they have a great toddler time every wednesday morning with songs, lots of movement and interactive story telling. there are 4-5 of us that hang out for a bit afterwards b4 lunch. it was so hard to get a pic with all of them. there is still one other little boy that just wouldn't sit still long enough for them to all be looking (sort of) at the camera.
another pic from our Paso Robles trip. we all slept together this time and one night i woke up (for no reason), to find thomas snuggled up against william. his little leg was even thrown up onto william's stomach. so cute i had to get a pic! just want to eat him up... or pick him up and hug him to death. hardly a day goes by when we don't talk about how we wish he would stop growing just for a bit so we could enjoy his cuteness a little longer.
this last pic is scary - he looks so much bigger, like he's 3 or 4 almost. ugh! of course, i love pics where he still looks like a baby :) on a food note - he loves bananas now. he will eat half to a whole one in one sitting. he loves the fact that he can peel it, if i start it for him. a couple weeks ago, he bit clean through the side of one trying to get it open.
grab bored toddler and any suitable receptacles that can be found around the house. add 50 cents dry rice, add toddler and viola! instant, cheap fun! easier than sand, and completely non-toxic :)
thomas watches an average of 1 hour per day. before 2008 i would limit it to about 30 min per day. it starts in the morning at 9am with SuperWHY!. it is a new PBS show that features 4 main characters that problem solve using letters, spelling and reworkings of classic children's stories. the focus of the show is teaching preschoolers that reading is the key that opens everything. thomas LOVES this show. he can serious watch 2 or 3 of them in a row. they also have 4 really cool games online that thomas is getting really good at. he truly excels at computer games. SCARY! other shows i let him watch are curious george, sesame street, teletubbies, mommy & me (sing-along-songs), thomas & friends christmas time, and a couple korean & mandarin language DVD's for preschoolers. all shows that don't have anything really scary or dark or mean.
