Seven Quick Takes: Attempts to Entertain my Young'un Addition

--- 1 ---

I've been grasping at straws with ways to entertain my ONE CHILD in the summer heat.  Do you understand that there are people out there with 2 under 2, 3 under 3, 4 under 4, 5 under 5, etc? I am limited. I cannot compete. As evidence by the above photo. "I know! Let's go to Abuelito's house and sit on the cat! Ok, Max?" "Ok, Mom!" Seriously, my child is obsessed with the family cat. He calls her "Neh." He calls all animals "Neh." And we don't encourage that at all. Nope, no reinforcement of that to see here, folks.

--- 2 ---

Wear a superman shirt. That's it. That's all I've got. I put on my best shrill, high-pitched, overly excited voice that morning. "Max! Oh wow! A superman shirt! You get to be superman! Yay! Oh wow!" In my head, the higher the pitch of my voice, the more his imagination would be stimulated. I thought he would engage in dramatic play at the tender age of 18 months. What really happened? More of the same.

--- 3 ---

One day this week I decided to tape a roll of easel paper to the floor of the garage and Max and I set out to paint thelargestmostcoolestamazingestpictureever. Max was all "I want to walk around with my crocs instead."  And I was all, "Ew, stop walking with bare feet on the garage floor.  Come fingerpaint instead."  So then Max was like, "Fingerpaints are dirty."  And I was like, "You're right.  This idea stinks.  Let's go inside and eat goldfish crackers instead."  "Ok, mom."  

--- 4 ---

Sweep the floor with a dust mop.  This one is my personal favorite.

--- 5 ---

A great way to entertain a child is to have their grandmother travel to a foreign country, buy a piggy bank, return home, and give the piggy bank to said child.  Even better?  Have the grandmother go through their own wallet to find coins and dollars to fill the piggy bank.   

--- 6 ---

I made these color matching cards with paint chips and velcro.  I sat Max down for our daily circle time and showed him each card while stating the name of the color.  "This is red, Max.  Say red."  "Red."  This is blue, Max.  Say blue."  "Blue." I'm stopping now.  My fingers are getting bored.  After introducing the colors, I gave Max the matching card, and wouldn't you know it?!?  HE MATCHED EVERY COLOR ON THE FIRST TRY.  After that, we looked around the room and identified blue, yellow, and red objects.  I recorded our findings on chart paper.  Next, we went outside for a walk and filled paper bags with red, yellow, and blue items from nature.  

BWAHAHAHAHA.

None of that happened.  But this did:

Note the poor, dejected paint chip color cards scattered on the floor.  You can't fault me for trying.  But you can laugh at my parental naivety.  I'm so green.

--- 7 ---

And my final attempt at entertaining my young'un was a game of indoor soccer.  Max made sure he was wearing the proper footwear for the occasion.  

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!