New Forms of Entertainment

I don't know if it just my son (I don't think it is) but he seems to enjoy playing with anything that takes me extra long to clean up. And, it's especially fun if the items are mine and not his. For quite some time, C's favorite thing to do was to unload a basket of travel brochures I kept in the living room. It occurred to me to put the basket up, but I've run out of tall shelves and the activity did keep him busy for awhile. He didn't like to clean it up, but usually agreed to helping me without too much fuss.

Now, C loves to play with all of my measuring cups and spoons. I gave him his own set of measuring spoons but I've never seen him play with them. He opens the kitchen cupboard, holds the box containing the spoons and cups up to me, and motions to the living room, babbling something and nodding his head. He then proceeds to pull 2 empty baskets from the living room shelf and fill them with cups and spoons. He moves them from one basket to the other and back again until finally dumping all of them on the floor. As you can imagine- I LOVE THIS! Especially when I'm about to cook dinner and would like to measure something.

C has been suffering from a cold for the past week and it has left him very grumpy and clingy. He hasn't really wanted to play or be silly or dance or sing. Not much fun at all for anyone in the family. But today, he pulled out a big bag of plastic balls and smiled as he carried it to the living room. He unzipped the bag and one by one, threw all of the balls all over the floor. I didn't mind one bit as he was laughing his head off and allowing me to continue with cleaning the kitchen. When all of the balls were gone, I asked him to pick them back up again and put them in the bag. He did as he was told but after a couple of balls, his interest in the task was beginning to wane. I kept cheering him on, tossing balls to him that had rolled far away. Then, much to my surprise, he went and got the broom from the kitchen and began sweeping all the balls over to the bag! I was so impressed! He loved this game and once all the balls were swept up and placed in the bag, he dumped the whole thing so he could do it again!

We used his tiny kid-sized broom the second time. Less damage done to his surroundings without the long broom stick.