Lets Entertain my 1 Year Old!!
Now that Callum is older, he also bores very, very quickly. And as much as I love spending my days sitting on the floor and being a human jungle gym, Christmas is fast approaching and I’d kinda like to get a few gifts I’d planned on making made. Or say, even just one of them would be nice. Or even to have a little uninterrupted time where I could order something online…
I’m very quickly running out of ideas of things to do to entertain this kid. Toys are all well and good, except he’s now officially bored with every toy he owns. And this close to Christmas I’m not bringing anything in. He’s too small to color (I’ve tried) although he can happily play with my scrapbooking markers for a solid 15 minutes and is doing that as we speak…
I need ideas! If he would walk, we could go outside and hang out in the yard but he doesn’t so… a walk around the block in the stroller takes up a grand total of 20 minutes and I need things to entertain him while at home.
Today we’ve already played in a bowl of water, played with all our toys, played in the baking cupboard (and dumped a bag of flour all over the floor), played with all the tupperware and read about 15 books. This afternoon I’m planning to make Tarrah’s play-doh. And in that time the only thing I managed to do was a load of laundry (not yet folded) and attempt to type this post…
Give me some ideas that you use to keep your kids entertained! I’m pretty relaxed (yesterday we went swimming in lima beans on the living room floor – I’m really relaxed, and still picking up lima beans)
Me halls, they be decked!
This weekend I put up the Christmas tree and decorations. There are people out there that hate me right now. In my own defense, I did it because we’re leaving for Calgary before Christmas so this way we get a month’s worth of decked halls. I have no idea why I thought I needed a month’s worth, because usually after a week I’m all decorated out and want to put it away but we don’t reason with a pregnant woman’s mind, we just accept.
Besides, it snowed yesterday so its all pretty and Christmasy. The perfect time to deck the halls.
I also just realized that today is my anniversary, and I suspect Steve also forgot this since there was no mention of it this morning so I feel no guilt. We actually celebrated a couple of weekends ago with a nice dinner out and a symphony concert. It was really nice, beisdes the kid crying in the table not far from us. When you’re out for an expensive meal sans child, you don’t really want to listen to someone else’s child either.
I had much more to wax poetic on, but my kid no longer allows me to spend more than 5 seconds doing anything, so I must go….
A case of the I wants…
I flipped through the Lee Valley Christmas Catalogue tonight. I am now suffering from a severe case of the “I wants…” and having to hold myself back from buying my son a ridiculous number of items.
Today I was thinking about how this pregnancy is whipping by me. I’m 5.5 months pregnant this weekend and up until this evening I was thinking I was 4.5 months pregnant. I lost an entire month somewhere. I hate it when that happens.
well, damn.
Last week while at dinner at a friend’s house Callum developed a facial rash. It went away over the course of the evening and we didn’t give it another thought. To be honest, I didn’t give it any thought when it happened either, but Steve did.
Today another rash developed at dinner. When Steve got home I mentioned it, casually, and said I didn’t know what it was, figured maybe he burnt himself on his eggroll. Steve brought up last week’s rash and then we started to try and narrow down if maybe it was a food allergy.
Narrowing down a food allergy when you’re not exactly narrowing down the food intake is ridiculous. Especially today when the kid had toast, eggs, peanut butter, peanuts themselves, store-bought eggrolls, steamed veggies (with onions something he doesn’t have often), wild rice, random fish crackers and Baby Mum Mums and another cracker that was in Jill’s kid’s lunch, cream cheese, apple-curry soup, plum sauce, rice, etc, etc
… holy crap my kid eats a lot…
Part way through this process I gave up, and Steve is convinced its MSG (although nothing had MSG tonight, which is miraculous considering we had store-bought eggrolls). Not that there is anything wrong with a diet of whole foods, that’s the best way to go I’m sure, but the reality is I’m not really prepared to NEVER have a convenient meal. I LIKE store-bought eggrolls.
The rash is fading anyway. But now what? Should I start eliminating something and reintroducing it? Honestly, all this stuff he’s had before so I’m not entirely sure how to proceed or if I should just chalk it up to he’s a kid. Kid’s have weird reactions to things.
And here I was thinking I was a bad Mom today because I was letting him scoop plum sauce up like it was a food group with his carrot. Never ate the carrot, just used it as a plum sauce carrier.
The Art of Giving…
In light of recent toy recalls, and just generally being more mindful of everything that I bring into my house and my family’s life I’ve become more and more critical of the toys that land in Callum’s hands. Right from the beginning Steve and I had hoped to limit the amount of “plastic” in our home. We never once suggested that we’d eliminate it completely because we knew that was unrealistic, but we did hope to encourage our family and friends to maybe sway from the plastic toys in lieu of natural materials, books or something that would inspire creative and imaginative play.
man, that sounded hippy and a little hoity-toity. My apologies.
Those closest to me have been amazing about honoring this request, especially considering I wasn’t exactly mindful of the toys I’ve given to the children in my life in the past. The books and toys that Callum has gotten have been fantastic, and with the exception of a few choice pieces, most of the plastic toys in our house are recycled favorites from Michelle’s kids or Steve’s niece and nephew. Those plastics that haven’t been favoured by Callum, or are missing parts, have been donated to our local thrift store (I don’t see a point in a toy with missing parts). There is also the fact that our house is small, we don’t and won’t have a playroom and the toys have to be in my living room so I can’t amass tons and tons of toys if I want to remain relatively sane over the next several years. My kids are just going to have play make-believe or go outside.
Yes, I’m that selfish.
In that theme, I’ve been trying to be really considerate in my gift giving this Christmas. Its been really hard, especially for the older boys, to fight that urge to just hop into WalMart and pick something up. That would be so easy and cheap and I’d be done with it but if I’m going to be picky about my own house and kid I feel like I should extend that to my loved ones, too.
Lately I’ve been loving this site – Quiet Hours Toys. I’m trying to convince Steve that he needs to build Callum a barn similar to those on the site, and J a dollhouse 
. He’s not convinced that he has the time for that, but I know he could do it and it wouldn’t cost $200. (Of course, we’ve been waiting for him to cut out a frame for J’s mirror for what? Three years? He might have a point). And finding or making little wooden or felt dolls and animals to decorate would totally be up my alley. I love doing that sort of crap.
At any rate, I’m interested to hear of any sites or ideas that you have for mindful gift giving this Christmas. I love hand-made items, or items that will really stir a child’s imagination. Especially something for boys beyond the age of 2.
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