Which brings me to tonight's post about those precious runny nosed toddlers. Every day I plan things to do with them that should enrich their lives in some way. Art projects, educational games, pretty much anything that will make them use their brains. But normally, something I set out on the side ends up being much more fun and interesting and will entertain them for the whole day. I work 11 hour days, so these thoughtless things I casually set out with no planning, will keep their interest 10 hours and 55 more minutes longer than the things I actually spend time planning for them to enrich their lives. This blog shares my secrets.
10 ways to distract a toddler.
1. Frozen. The movie. With Elsa. Enough said.
3. Paint your nails, or someone else's. Kids taking a nap wake up and toddle into the room following the smell of nail polish. And usually the recipient wants a different color on each nail - then a different color on top of that color. (And...not that it matters, but they all have totally different opinions than me on what looks good. My opinion is not valid to them - they must be practicing for when they are teenagers.)
4. Glitter. OMG. I do own containers of glitter for very special occasions - that Valentine's card that requires glitter so much it is worth having glitter on my floor THAT JUST WILL NOT SWEEP UP, and therefore, the floor babies who crawl, will go home with glitter on them for weeks. The glitter however, is in a very top secret spot in a sealed container in the dark recesses of my craft drawer. And if by some miracle a toddler finds it - the world stops spinning until I get it back. But man, that Valentine's card is going to sparkle.
5. Any kind of fort. My daughter is a really good fort maker - as is my husband. Friday he made one with zip ties. The Wizard Of Oz couldn't have taken that fort down. Usually the forts take up the entire length of my living room - and my living room is a through room, which means Miss Jayne has to get down and crawl through the fort every time 1. Someone has to go potty 2. Someone comes to the door which is frequent. 3 My $##% phone goes off, and I don't know where it is. That is annoying anyway, but when you are rushing around trying to find it - because it could be anybody and who knows what they could be trying to tell you - but you have to crawl through a fort to continue trying to find your phone.
6. Sit in the recliner. For even a minute. Either kids climb up on me and dive off the side, hang off it, push the reclining lever down always, and/or sitting on you and pushing the back of the recliner back so far I am standing on my head.
7. Put a blanket in the floor. I like to play a game where the kids go around the house and find objects to make a sidewalk with throughout the living room. The idea is that the living room carpet is really an ocean and the ocean is filled with sharks, and the sidewalk we make is the only way to get out of the room alive. Every time though, someone will bring a blanket in, and then the whole "sharks will get you" game is gone. The blanket is front and center. Kids like to lay on it, jump over it (jump the river style), or the most popular is to just lay under it. Doesn't matter where it is. Or, if a blanket from our fort falls, within 9 seconds their is a small child who has found there way underneath it. It's actually really cute.
8. In a real pinch, when I am desperate for 5 minutes i.e. need to unload the dishwasher - I always sacrifice the cat. Our cat Lucy is the smartest person in our house and spends her days in an undisclosed hiding spot away from the noise/chaos. Since she is so elusive to the kids - they are fascinated with her. So saying, "Hey kids! Where could Lucy be? L-L-L-U-U-U-U-C-C-C-Y-Y-Y, and zip - they are off to find her. The funny thing is, they usually find her. And when I am done furiously completing my task in 30 seconds flat, and I join them, boy does Lucy look p***ed. If looks could kill.
9. If we are outside and I need to sit down for JUST A MINUTE, using my last bits of energy and raking a pile of leaves. Voila! Boy do they love that. I have had some good times with my own two kids and leaf piles. We used to live in a house with a really high front porch, and my husband raked our leaves to the top of the porch for our then 3 year old to jump into. We were young and dumb and were surprised when he jumped off the porch, that he sunk straight to the bottom. And made no noise - we knew we had killed him with the super high leaf pile. But when we frantically dug him out, he was fine - he wanted to do it again. We probably let him, I don't remember. Young.
And the grand daddy of toddler distraction -
10. Play doh. So many things. I try to be creative and make roads around the table with play doh and give the kids cars - then encourage them to use their brains and building skills and add signs, bridges from our train set ect. to really add on to the roads. That keeps them entertained a maximum of 15 minutes. What does occupy them - putting the raw play doh in the bottoms of play purses, stuck inside cookie cutters, or in their play refrigerator in the play ice cream cones. I think that is pretty creative! Once, I found the youngest, and therefore most vulnerable toddler, with playdoh on his fingernails which must bring us around to #3. Who knows who "did" his nails, but it looked pretty good! And he left them like that. LOL.
And Over All These Virtues
Put On Love
Which Binds Them All Together
In Perfect Unity
Colossians 3:14
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