Mar 3
Jack has been going to Prelude Music Classes since he was 10 weeks old, and it is the highlight of our Saturdays. Every semester the class has two concerts, where they bring in musicians to play live music for the kids. We went to one of the concerts last weekend, and Jack had a really great time.
Jan 4
If your toddler is anything like mine, he loves playing with your computer. My wife and I are both software developers, so we are on our laptops often, and if Jack ever sees us he loves to come and bang on the keyboard. We got him a baby laptop
So go download it–it’s free! And if you like it, make a donation to the developer.
This is Part 4 of a 5-part series on fun things you can do to entertain your toddler. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.
That doesn’t sound right, right? It’s obvious when you say it, but little kids have shorter attention spans (and shorter tempers), and if you don’t plan our outings things can go down really fast. When you plan an outing, have a plan. More than that, though, be ready with a spontaneous contingency plan when the plan doesn’t work out.
I started writing this post and after four days of working on it, realized it is too long to fit it all in one place. So I decided to split it into parts. Here is part 1 of, what I hope to be, a 5-part series.
If you’ve ever had a toddler, you’ve probably struggled with this question many times: it’s 4 hours before lunchtime/naptime/dinnertime/sleeptime–what can we do? I struggled with this for a long time before I realized some things–things that may help save you some time.
When you don’t get a lot of time with your child, you want to make the most of the time that you get with him, so there is so much pressure that you have to make this time count. I know I put a lot of pressure on myself for the first year of my son’s life to make all my time with him memorable, which is why this one came as a shock to me–you don’t have to be doing something special for it to be something special to your child. Some of the fondest memories of my time with my dad are surprisingly simple things–where he was paying attention to me. On days when you come home too tired to take him out to play in the park or for a long walk in the stroller, you could just hang out around the house with him–read him a book or just sit with him and watch him play. Just the fact that you’re there, paying attention to him, may matter much more to him than a hasty trip to the park when your mind is somewhere else.
So go get a towel and play peek-a-boo with your kid. He’ll have tons of fun and you’ll forget about the crap you were dealing with at work earlier.
Dec 5
Oct 1
Today is Thursday. I love Thursdays. Why, you ask? Because Thursday evenings are when business is slowest at Somping Grounds, a kids’ play land near our house. They have a great ages 3-5 play area that Jack loves, but can’t play in alone because he’s only 21 months old. Jack and I go here most Thursday evenings because there usually aren’t many kids there and I can take him there to play without getting (knocked over by) in the way of older kids. We’ve been doing this for about 8 months now, and he’s got to where he really wears me out. I always come home exhausted and bruised, and Jack’s not even phased!
What’s even more exciting than having some father-son time, is that I get to watch him grow. Being able to do something this week that he couldn’t last week, or getting excited about something he was too afraid to do before. Check out the video below (or at this link if your reader does not embed videos).
This is a 20 foot long tube made out of netting, 15 feet off the ground. At first, he didn’t care about the tube. Then, he saw some older kids go through it but was too afraid to do it himself. Then a couple of weeks ago, out of nowhere, he just walked over to it and started going through it–and he made it look so easy! (Daddy is clearly very proud of his little one!)
But I digress. The point I was trying to make with this post is about traditions. Kids thrive on routine, and when the routine involves something fun, it becomes a tradition. Traditions are something you remember even when you’re older, and if it’s a good one, maybe even cherish. My father and I don’t share a good relationship anymore, but I still smile when I think about the excitement I felt while sitting through a haircut (even though I was terrified of the razor blades our barber used), because I knew that when we were done my dad would buy me cookies from the store next door. Not quite the same thing, but you get the idea. Good times…
Sep 23
Jack’s going through a phase where he wants to do everything he sees daddy do–a phase I hope he never grows out of! The day before he saw me sweeping the floor and immediately had the uncontrollable need to sweep himself. I was using one of those Swiffer
Sep 21
Jack had some ice cream today. He tried a spoon at first. Then he decided, he prefers his hands. Good times…
Jack and I went to the park the other day to play on the jungle gym. On the way back, he found a rain puddle and wanted to walk through it. Normally, that sort of thing is not allowed but mama wasn’t around so… Hey, he got a bath afterwards! If your reader doesn’t show videos, you can view it here.
The family went to The Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science today, and it’s a wonderful place to go with the little ones if you’re ever in Houston. Jack had a great time looking at the butterflies and the iguana. And about 20 minutes later, we were done. If you’re not in a hurry, you should look for parking at the meters along side the museum. At $1 for 2 hours, it’s a far better deal than the museum garage, which is $20/day and $10/day with a museum ticket stub.
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