Boredom Busters

Written for Triad Mom's on Main

I don't know about you, but my kids get antsy when they are stuck inside and can't get all their extra energy out. With the snowy weather we've had lately, I've been thinking a lot about this and so I compiled a list of some rainy day ideas that we use to beat boredom at our house.

X Marks the Spot

My daughter has a game she likes to play. She'll get my husband to draw a "map" of our house on a dry erase board and then he hides an object somewhere in the house. He marks an X on the location of the object on the map and we see how fast she can find it. This requires her to demonstrate map-reading skills, including following directions, judging distances, and reading a legend (if he includes one). We actually haven't played this one in a while, but I saw something recently that reminded me of it so we might hit up the Target dollar bin for some prizes and break out the dry erase board again soon.

Memory Tray

I place 10 to 20 various objects that can be found around the house on a tray and I give my daughter one minute to look at the tray. Then I cover it up and see how many of the objects she can list back to me. Next we switch. She takes a turn finding the objects around the house and puts them on the tray for me to look at while she times me. I list back to her as many as I can remember. This tests our memory and my daughter gets to practice her time-keeping skills. Not surprisingly, she often remembers more of the objects than I do!


Cleaner Than Play Dough

This one really works best for preschoolers, but I will often give my four year old a quirt or two of shaving cream and let her play with it on our island bar. It's very easy to clean up with only a wet rag and as an added bonus, she smells lovely afterward.

Thumbprint Art

Grab an ink pad and make thumbprint art. Kids of any age can do this if they have a little imagination. Ed Emberley has some wonderful examples on his site and there are a nice variety of his books at our local library. Plus, thumbprint art makes a great gift in cards, bookmarks, and on gift wrap!




Kids in the Kitchen

Rainy days are some of the best days to whip up a kid-friendly recipe. We've made trail mix, whale sandwiches, chocolate dipped Oreo's made to look like pumpkins or Easter Eggs, Tic-Tac-Toe pizzas, etc, etc. There are lots of ideas all around the internet but most of our successes have been making things that we would already typically be making and just adding a kid-friendly aspect to it, like cutting the cheese into shapes for a pizza.

pummelvision

My Pummelvision from c525600 on Vimeo.


I saw this on Zoot's blog and I thought it was really pretty cool.  I don't use flickr or tumblr so I had to put  Facebook as my option for where it should pull pictures from and I wish there had bee a way to only do this year like Miss Zoot did.  Anyway, it's still pretty cool.

fourteen months

Dear Joshua,

Happy fourteen month birthday to you today!  Little Stinker.

Ho, ho, ho comes to see you in just a couple of days.  I don't think you'll know what to do with yourself anymore when people stop asking you "What does Santa Claus say, Joshua?" because you've walked around this whole month forming your tiny little mouth into a perfectly round circle and sucking in enough air to say Ho! Ho! Ho!  Jonathan and I have decided that we're going to take the picture of you sitting on Santa's lap at the mall with us everywhere this Christmas just to let everyone see you walk around with it and point to Santa saying, "Ho ho ho!"

One night earlier this week we were checking out in Harris Teeter and you saw a Santa helium balloon for sale at the register.  You got very excited and eagerly pointed, asked me please could you have it/touch it/hold it/whatever said, "Ho ho ho!" over and over again.  The cashier got your a Harris Teeter balloon and you were pacified, but oh how you wanted that Santa balloon for a brief time.

When we visited Santa at the mall I truly thought you were going to grant us one of those priceless family mementos in the form of a picture with the toddler screaming his heart out positioned carefully on Santa's lap.  I even warned the photographer as we approached that you were not going to like me walking away from you there.  Once again you surprised me.  You sat hesitantly, but you sat there listening to your sister talk to Santa and looking curiously at the photographer as he waved silly toys at you.

Praise God we had no ear infections this month and not really any sickness after you got over that forever long cold just after Thanksgiving.  You've been a mostly happy little boy.

You are so empathetic and whenever sister starts crying you look at her inquisitively.  You show great concern always about Julianna's feelings.  But you can scream with the best of them when she takes one of your toys out of your hands.

Even though you still won't eat squat, you use a spoon so well when you do eat that I marvel at your skills.  I don't know when you're going to start teaching sister how to eat with a fork or spoon, but I hope you get on that soon, Buddy!

You're not scared of the vacuum cleaner like your sister was at this age and you really surprised me one day when I grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe up a cup of water that Jules spilled and you went over right behind me to grab the other towel and help Mommy wipe up the mess.  Nevermind that you walked all through the water.  I'll take your help any day, baby.

You flirt with women we see out at restaurants and whenever we're around family members you always prefer to go to the older men.  It's really funny that you have distinct preferences, but I guess that's what makes individual you.

The only words that you will say continue to be Dada, Mama, ball, bye, and occasionally NahNah which we think means Julianna.  You have however, added the word "No" to your vocabulary recently.  You shake your head to go along with that one and if it weren't for the enthusiasm with which you do it, it would certainly drive me crazy.

I know I sound like a broken record, Joshua, but you are ALL BOY.  I've lifted you off of the coffee table a hundred thousand times the past few weeks and once you figured out how to push a small chair over to the couch to get up on the couch and grab pens and pencils off of the end tables I knew I could forget sitting down for one minute.  Climbing is the name of the game for a fourteen month old boy apparently and you've spent the better part of the month with bruises on each cheek and now a slight black eye from falls you've taken. 

And speaking of pens and pencils, being in preschool has really helped you learn a lot about coloring and holding a crayon, pencil, or paintbrush. If you see your sister holding any sort of writing utensil you furiously sign please over and over again until we let you have one too and then to my surprise, you use it properly 99% of the time.

I really appreciate the early mornings with you because they contain the few precious minutes when you want to be held and cuddled.  You love to sit in my lap when you wake up in the mornings and drink your milk while holding your blanket.  If I'm rushing around getting ready you follow me everywhere and the first chance you get whenever you see me squatting down you come over and back up as if to sit on my lap, even if I'm just doing something like putting on my shoes only to get right up again.

There is no doubt that you have a sweet, sweet spirit.  You are loving and show your love for us daily.  You eagerly reach out to hug on sister when she gets down on your level, you pile on daddy when he's laying in the floor, and you reach your arms out to go to me no matter who is holding you at the moment.  Don't ever stop loving, Joshua.  We'll certainly never stop loving you.  Even when you destroy my kitchen in a heart beat.

Love,
Mama

it's lovely weather for a carriage ride together with you

Through Groupon I purchased a gift certificate to Camel City Carriage Company for a carriage ride in downtown Winston-Salem.  We used it last Friday night and it was a lot of fun.  We bundled the kids up and held them close as our horse took the carriage leisurely down Fourth Street.  Doc was our horse and Ginger was our "guide".  Our carriage was rather full as I guess this is a popular time of year for the company.  There was a group with two adults and four high school girls riding with us.  It was a chilly 41 degrees that day and I'm not sure how low it had gotten by 8pm that night, but I'm sure it was already below freezing.  Fortunately, we had blankets to cover our laps with.  Here are the few pictures we got.

 

on gray (or is it grey?)

A few years ago I noticed my first gray hair.  I think it was right after Julianna was born.  (coincidence? he he heee)  It totally took me by surprise.  Not the hair itself, but the simple fact of how much it bothered me.  I never thought I would mind my hair turning gray.

Anyway, I really, really hated seeing the gray hairs sticking up.  I hated finding one on my shoulder.  I hated seeing them coming up out of my part on the top of my head.  I don't think it was so much the color that bothered me as it was the coarseness of the hair which made them stick up tall and completely noticeable. 

You see, I have never dyed my hair in my life.  I've never had highlights or lowlights or even used temporary home hair-color.  I probably sprayed my hair with some of that spray-paint hair stuff a time or two when I was younger, I don't really remember, but I know I've never colored my hair.

So it's taken me a while but I think I'm finally getting to the point where it doesn't bother me at all.  I get more and more grays every day, but I hardly even notice them anymore.  I could be wrong, but I think I'll like it even more when the majority of my hair is gray instead of mostly brown with some gray speckled throughout.

Now my thoughts are more along the lines of wanting to embrace my natural changing hair color always.  Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed in myself for even flinching at the gray to begin with.  I hope to make it the rest of my life with an appreciation for the beauty in my natural hair.  We'll see.

What do you think about your own hair?  Is it gray?  Is it falling out?  What do you like and dislike? 

Christmas lights

Last Saturday night we rode to Greensboro to see some lights.  Julianna had been begging to return to Tanglewood's Festival of Lights, but we (translate: I) couldn't see paying $15 to take our Suburban through a few miles of lights that we've seen half a dozen times already.

I had heard somewhere about a neighborhood in Greensboro called Sunset Hills that had a lot of houses with some sort of "ball" lights on display so we decided to check it out.  It was beautiful.



Here's my crappy cell phone pics from inside the car.  You can click on the pics to enlarge them, but still.  They don't do it justice

Fun stuff!  Check it out if you're in the area.

North Carolina Digital Library

I love to read. I wouldn’t call myself an avid reader, but that’s just because I don’t have as much time to actually do it as much as I’d like. Nevertheless, there’s not much I enjoy more than losing myself in some sort of fictional story.


Ever since my kids were born I’ve struggled even more with finding the time to finish a good book. Beyond summers at the beach I never could squeeze in even the most casual of chick lit. Then my husband somehow got me hooked up with the audio books provided by our local library.


At first I was skeptical. I don’t consider myself to be an audible learner and I thought I’d have trouble concentrating on audiobooks since I had when I gave them a try once before. For some reason now I find it a lot easier. Maybe it’s because having children made me a better multi-tasker or maybe it’s just because I have given up on catching every. single. word. in every story I read, but anyway the NCDL has been a blessing for me because it’s brought me back to “reading.”


Here’s how it works: Anyone with a Forsyth County library card can go online and check out four audiobooks at a time through NCDL. You can browse the digital library collection in a way that is similar to browsing books online at places like Amazon.com. You can download these things in a matter of minutes and have them on your computer to play while you’re folding laundry. Or you can transfer them to your iPod to listen to while you exercise – actually, who am I kidding? – you can listen to them on your iPod in the car while you shuttle kids around. The point is that the audiobook is just as portable as a hard copy.

Each digital file can be “checked out” for one week. After that the file is no longer accessible. You can add your name to a wait list for the more popular books and most lists are not long at all. You are notified via email when a book becomes available. If you don’t finish a book in the seven days you’re allowed to have the digital file you can always check it out again or if you don’t reconnect and sync your iPod to your computer you can continue to play the file until you finish the book.


At this rate I can easily finish a book in a week and it’s such a stress reliever for me to get lost in that storytime again. One day I look forward to actually reading again, but for this season of my life, digital books work for me.

With all of the eReaders that are becoming popular these days, I suggest giving the NC Digital Library a try first and seeing how you like it. You’ll have access to thousands of books instantly and you’ll save a lot of money in the process. Find out more by visiting http://ncdigital.lib.overdrive.com/.