Almost 4 years after buying this house, I finally decided to patch that hole behind the front door the movers made.

I love having a little helper around!

Jack gets more excited about going to the hardware store than he does about getting a cookie–and he gets pretty damn excited about cookies. He also loves–LOVES–the outdoors. The weather here has been simply amazing the past few weeks, and we took advantage of it this weekend. We gave our backyard some much needed tender love and care, which included resodding some patches. One thing I absolutely love about Lowe’s is that they not only sell kids’ tools, they put them right next to the adult tools. So the wheelbarrow section had a little kids’ wheelbarrow, and on top of that they were red! It was love at first sight, and I kid you not, he played with it for 3 hours straight. He went around the yard picking up ripped up packaging from the stuff our chocolate lab had snuck out of the pantry over the past week. He picked up dirt with his little kid shovel to put in there. He raked up leaves with his little kid rake and put them in there.

Good times.

Make Him a Part of Your Plan

My wife had been wanting blinds on East-facing bay windows in our bedroom because the curtains weren’t keeping the room dark enough, for over a year. I planned on installing them every weekend, and every Sunday night I’d realize it would have to wait another week. Installing five sets of blinds on the same window would take at least a couple of hours, and there would be a lot of noise with the drill and the saw and it just can’t be done with the baby there. But the weekend is the only time I have with him so I don’t want to send him off somewhere. But I can’t do it while he’s there. And so on and so forth.

So finally last weekend I decided to try it out with Jack there, and you know, it actually turned out really well!

We measured the windows together–I let him hold the tape measure. Then we went to Home Depot to pick out blinds–Jack was still having fun with the tape measure. We walked around the store while the blinds were getting cut. The next morning, we got started on the blinds. One very important thing I learned is, it’s going to take you longer than you had planned it would. Little kids have shorter attention spans, and no matter how interesting what you’re doing is to you, they’re going to get bored. So I did everything in short bursts. Take the blinds out of the box, and play with the box for a while. Hang one of the blinds, then let him play with the blinds. Get a snack. Put up another set of blinds, while he plays with his toy hammer. It only took a half an hour more than I had planned it might and we both had a great time!

Make Your Errands Fun For Him

Let’s face it, you’ve got a ton of errands to run and there aren’t enough hours in the day on weekdays for you to do it. You’re completely out of soap, toothpaste, face wash and hair gel, and the dog raided the pantry on Wednesday so you’re also completely out of bread and salt. But this is the only time you have to spend with your kid and you can’t really watch him and do that, right? And you can’t take him with you because he gets bored and cranky. Yeah, that excuse worked when he was an infant but he’s a toddler now–take him with you and make it fun for him! Yeah, you’re not going to be able to stand in the condiments isle and ponder on the differences between ketchup and catsup for 15 minutes like you do when you go alone, but then if a frog could jump he wouldn’t bump his butt every time he walked. Put him in the shopping cart and run through the empty isles pretending you’re racing him (and he wins). Play peek-a-boo by crouching down in front of the card and popping out. While you’re at it, drift the cart around sharp corners while making car tire screeching noises. Put a bag of chips over your head and catch it when it falls down. Go nuts–trying to entertain a baby gives you the license to be as nutty as you want. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself looking forward to grocery shopping trips!

And it’s not just fun with shopping carts–you can give him things to do. Let him pick out cans of soup for you. Bring a snack trap full of cereal with you and let him snack as you go through the isles. I have found that the more fun he has, the more time I have to shop. Our weekend grocery shopping trips usually go over an hour now, and there’s 0-fussing. In fact, “Jack, do you want to go grocery shopping?” usually results on big smiles and an enthusiastic, “YAH!”

Mowing the lawn is one of those annoying chores that make the week seem too short. “It’s time to mow the lawn again? #@$#@!! Didn’t I just do that?! Well, might as well get something good out of it. Jack, you wanna come help daddy?”

Seeing as Jack says “yah!” to pretty much every question, he’s always ready to join me. For about 5 minutes, at least!

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.

The summer is in it’s final days here in Texas and the weather outside is downright earth-like now! Jack was ready for a swim, but I wasn’t feeling up to it because I was sick, so we did the next best thing–the kiddie pool! Throw in the water hose and you have the recipe for one happy little toddler…

Jack has been going to the Music Together class at the Motherhood Center since he was 10-weeks old, and this class has been the highlight of our Saturdays ever since. We used to go to these as a family when Jack was younger, but a few months ago we made it a father-son adventure, to give the Super Mom some much needed sleeping-in time. These classes are excellent, and our teacher is absolutely amazing. This class has definitely been an important part in Jack’s development as a little baby. The music we learn in this class is a part of our every day life. The first thing I say to him when he wakes up in the morning is the Hello song from this class. It’s the music we listen to when we’re together in the car, and it’s the lullabies we sing to him when it’s time to go to bed.

If a Music Together class is offered in your area, I would highly recommend taking your child to it!