I find it absolutely fascinating to follow along with the ever-evolving activities that my kids find “fun”. Here are a few of the most recent ones:
- Parker played with playdough…for real….for the first time this morning. I would roll little balls and he would smush it, pull it apart, and then give it back to me to roll into a ball again. He almost tried to eat it – he would put it up to his mouth and look at me and then when I said “no”, he put it down. Whew. The reason why I know it is going to be an “instant favorite”? When it was time to stop, he started to scream!
- Another one of Parker’s activities is to take food items out of the pantry or refrigerator. I try to be really quiet when I open them up, but he always hears me – he must have a sixth sense about it – dashes over and squeezes his way in so he can complete such amazing tasks such as taking out anything he can grab, setting them down on the floor, and then returning them to unusual locations in the fridge. If he gets into the pantry, he loves to build towers of bread crumb containers, roasted peanuts, and frosting. Usually…the bread crumbs end up in the refrigerator (they are right now) or the Country Crock ends up in the living room…and when I halt his fun, he screams! (See a pattern developing? Whenever I stop one of his “fun” activities, he gets pretty mad…)
- Madi’s went to Ben’s office last week for “Take your child to work day” and watched a mock trial of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Goldilocks was on trial for “bad manners”…and Madi has translated this story into a fun family activity. She plays Goldilocks, and Ben, Parker and I are the Three Bears. We “go on a walk” into the kitchen while she eats the porridge, tries out the chairs, and ends up sleeping on the couch. We then come into the living room, go through the whole rest of the story and when we “find” her sleeping, she runs away screaming. Then…we start over again.
- Another fun activity that Madi and I did last night for the first time was scrapbooking! My Mom bought her a kiddie scrapbook kit for her birthday pics that included all the supplies, including glue, paper, stickers, and die cuts. I had been postponing it because I thought it would be easier to “prepare” the pages first, but I decided that we should just jump in. So we did three pages last night, and I had to just go with the flow and let her cut the paper with the “bumpy scissors” and choose the stickers she wanted for the page. Funny story though…she wanted to write a heading, “It’s Pretty”, so I told her the letters, “It’s Preety”…whoops. I got a good laugh at my spelling abilities.
- The last activity that both kids love is the craft table. Madi loves to color paper, cut the paper up, glue it on other paper, write Madi, Mom, and Dad on everything, and any other “project” she dreams up. Yes, she calls them “projects”. Parker does NOT want to be left out, so he trots over, climbs up and wants to color too. Today they were both at the table, and Parker was scribbling on the paper with his favorite writing utensil – colored pencils – and Madi was giving him stickers to stick on his paper – it was fantastic, because they were actually doing a “project” together, and neither one was upset. Plus, if I’m doing dishes, I can see them both and referee as needed.
So, that’s just a few of the Hammond activities lately…makes me kind of tired to think about it!
