While You're Two and a Half

While you’re 2 ½, I’ll hold your chubby, sticky hands. I’ll play with your damp, wavy hair while you sleep. I’ll watch you in wonder that you’re no longer a baby, but sometimes still so small.

While you’re 2 ½, I’ll read you the book 5 times in a row…I’ll always read it again. While you’re 2 ½  I’ll savor your sweet voice asking me “Mommy will you play with me?” I’ll cherish hearing your slowly fading-chubby cheeks asking, “Watch this, Mommy”

While you’re 2 ½, I’ll stand at your bedroom door, watching my baby boy become a big boy. I’ll stand in awe of the boy you’re becoming, but I’ll cling tightly to the memory of your newness in my arms.

I’ll cherish your “wisdom” about everything; I’ll even cherish your outlandish demands for sandwiches to be cut into squares, not triangles. I’ll soak up the joy in your eyes when you whisper about doughnuts.

I’ll wrap you in my arms every chance I get because I know you soon won’t want to be snuggled as much. I’ll kiss your stinky, still-chubby feet even if they’ve been running outside barefoot, because I know soon they won’t be so sweet.

While you’re 2 ½, I’ll take picture after picture of your ever-changing sweet face even if you tell me, “no”. I’ll lose myself in that ornery sparkle in your eyes as you tackle me or try to get out of trouble, because I know one day another woman will love that sparkle, too.

I’ll hold you close, spoil you, and indulge all your imaginings – I’ll let you wear your Halloween costume all day and all night if you want. All the while, watching you sleep on the monitor, wondering how my life ever felt complete before a little boy stole my heart.

While you’re 2 ½, I’ll secretly love having you sleep in our bed and snuggling as close to me as you can get, wrapping your arms around my neck, and waking me with your full-face smile, even if that smile is because you’re pretending to walk a spider on my head. I’ll cherish those hands that “cover my eyes” when I use hairspray, that pat my back when I’m holding you, that stroke my hair during nap time, and feed me some of your snacks.

I’ll cherish that little chair constantly pulled up to the kitchen counter to “watch” while I cook. I’ll indulge in dancing with you, running circles with you, and being told, “like this” when I dance the wrong way.

I’ll melt when I hear you pray, saying, “Thank you, God, for Mommy” and see you touch your nose to say, “I love you.”

While you’re 2 ½, I’ll cherish being this loved. I’ll savor your sweet, ornery, innocent, joyful love. Because I know, one day, you’ll have other people to love. But, for now, I’ll soak up this season of sticky fingers and chubby cheeks, joyful laughter and ornery eyes, and I’ll hold you as long as I can: while you’re 2 ½.

Ninja Turtles Potty-Trained My Guy

Ninja Turtles Potty-Trained My Guy.

For real. Without the special ninja turtle cup, he wouldn't have drank enough tea to go to the potty every 10-15-25-30 minutes. "Tea turns into pee-pee, not water or juice." - wisdom from a 2 year old

the ninja turtle cup. he was allowed to watch as much TV as he wanted as long as he drank while watching....is that completely terrible?!?

One Sunday evening, I decided to try potty training. We had tried before with little success with #1, he'd only poo in the potty. Then, he broke his leg and the Hulk Leg (here) hindered potty training.
Then, he was doing well with #2, still not #1, when he announced, "sorry guys. I pee pee in my pants. sorry." Meaning, he wasn't going to use the potty, so we should give up (life with a strong-willed child, can I get an "amen"?!)

THEN, we were making progress again, then his brother was born (here). He then decided that ALL of the diapers and wipes in the house belonged to him. This made for interesting newborn diaper changes when we had to chase him to get the necessary supplies.

(can you just laugh or cry with me already?! ha!)

So, on that random Sunday evening, I thought, "We'll try now. It'll only be for a few hours, if he's frustrated and quits, it'll be bedtime anyway, so it's worth a shot!" He'd been giving me signs like, telling me he was peeing...(is that a clear enough sign??).

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This is what I did:

1.) Cheerios / I dropped a few Cheerios in the toilet and asked if he wanted to shoot them with pee pee.
He thought this was AMAZING, and asked for more Cheerios (to increase his odds of shooting one. ha!)

2.) Cup / I chose a cup I knew he thought was amazing (it was still new to him), a Ninja Turtle water bottle. I filled it with his choice of drink (tea) and gave it to him. I gave him pretzels, too, in an effort to get him to drink more.

3.) Clock / I set a timer for 10 minutes. He loved the timer! He still does - whenever he hears it, he runs to the potty. In these times, my husband and I refer to him as "Pavlov"...except our guy pees when he hears the bell. ;) (he'll love me for this post when he's older, I'm sure of it).

4.) Once he was dry after every 10 minute session (or irritated from being interrupted every 10 minutes), we bumped up the increments to 15 minutes. Then, we moved to 25 minutes. If he was wet before one of the increments, we would shorten the increments again.

5.) A few days later, the wonder of the Cheerios had faded (he was eating them from the cup on the bathroom counter while sitting on the potty..ha!) I let him go on his own. He had a couple accidents, but I blame the water he was playing with. Every so often, we'll remind him to go, but for the most part, he can go an hour or so between trips to the potty. He wakes up in the mornings dry, but we're not risking it with undies for awhile.

Now, he loves undies! We just remind him to go every so often, but we have mostly dry days (except when he's playing in water....I can't blame him too much for that!)

so grown up!

Here are my steps and supplies to potty-train in this way

1.) Let him choose a cup he will want to drink from him. Let him choose a beverage. If it's full of sugar, just grin and bear it - it's only for a few days... the end justifies the means in this situation!

2.) Be prepared to spend a few days in the bathroom all day long...I was juggling an infant at the same time...so, my guy ran around "nakey" for a bit because I couldn't feed my little guy and run back and forth to the potty with my oldest (you do what you have to do sometimes!)

3.) Use Cheerios in the potty for him to learn where to aim.

4.) Set a timer (I used my phone). Start with 5 or 10 minutes, whatever makes you the most comfortable - you know your boy. After he's dry between increments, increase the time. Keep him full of snacks and liquids. If he eats tons of crackers or snacks so that he will drink a lot, don't cringe too much - it's necessary!!

5.) Call anyone important to him for praise after the first few times of being dry and using the potty (my family members received many calls at work. ha!)

6.) When enthusiasm begins to lag, praise him with a small incentive (we used a piece of candy, bc candy is a rare treat around here).

7.) When he's consistently dry between longer increments, let him go for awhile by himself and see if he goes to the potty on his own (if he doesn't, clothes can always be washed!). If he's getting frustrated with stopping his playtime to potty, ease up a bit - my guy refused to go if he became frustrated, so I chilled out and watched to see what he would do. Sure enough, he said, "Mommy, I feel sparkly" and we RAN to the potty. (Sparkly was his own definition. I couldn't love it any more!)

8.) Reward his potty training success with a trip to buy a special toy or new undies. We have a friend who had a cake made for her little girl. Whatever your guy would like, go for it. You've both earned a celebration for your many many many trips to the potty. :)

I Love You...but, I MUST do dishes

Life in this Harner house has been in a transition lately.
A certain two year old and his momma are having an extremely difficult time adjusting to a new little boy needing my time and affection.

I find myself saying these things OVER and OVER and OVER all day long:

"Yes, I will play that game AFTER I ......"
"Hold on, just a few minutes..."
"I said, 'Yes,' but first I have to...."
"I would LOVE to read that book, just let me finish..."

It's not that I ignore my children. It's just that requests for playtime occur every 10 seconds. Then I feel like a terrible mother for not dropping everything and playing each at each and every request. It's a vicious cycle.

I am not a major advocate for spending 24/7 playing and interacting with my children. I believe they need time to play alone. I also believe that I need time to cook, clean, and plan unless I want to raise my children in filthy chaos.

So, the other day, I admitted defeat to my mom and my husband. I said, "I'm can't do this." All the while, God was reminding me that He wouldn't have given me these boys if I COULDN'T do it.

Then I remembered this term: LOVE TANK.

You know what I'm getting at. Samuel's love tank must obviously be low....

find it on Amazon.com, here

I'm a HUGE believer in the LOVE LANGUAGES theory. I believe it with my whole heart. I'm astounded by it. I couldn't wait to have children to discover their love languages.

Little did I realize, those children could have love languages completely opposite of my own. And it appears that for this season, my toddler does.....

(I recommend brushing up on the Love Languages on their site, here. I even took a test for my child to get an idea of his love languages - the results were pretty much what I expected.)

I am very much a Words of Affirmation and Physical Touch...and Receiving Gifts type of gal...(but on the gifts, who isn't??? :) ).

My toddler is very much a Quality Time and Acts of Service type child. Both of which languages, I am not too adept at speaking. He also enjoys Words of Affirmation, which I can handle with ease - I mean, who couldn't with this face???

perhaps I'm biased, but I can't resist that ornery sparkle in his eyes...

I can handle the Acts of Service...we religiously look for toys that need "rescuing." (thanks to Team UmiZoomi) I just need to find ideas and more specific ways to fill this ornery little Love Tank. So, I searched Pinterest (what other reliable soure would I use??) I found this great chart:

Found on The Catholic Connection, here

Now, I just need to find a way to find more time to spend with him while caring for an infant and trying to upkeep the house. I can feel another blog post coming from this...."How I Found Time for Quality Time"

...God gave me these boys...He knows I can handle it all....with my hand fiercely grasping His and pleading for wisdom ;)

Cultivating a Toddler's Heart for Christ...Continued

As Samuel and I were snuggling in my bed (while he stalled, not wanting to go to his bed), he held up three chubby fingers and said, "I like that picture of the cross. Three of them. One is Jesus, and these two are the bad guys."

My heart flipped over with love for this child, praise to God that Samuel is making sense of our lessons, and shock that he remembered that lesson from WEEKS ago! We read the Easter story a few weeks ago after Samuel requested the "cross and Jesus" story in our Rhyme Bible Storybook.

we love this for our devotions!

It was that evening that I fumbled around trying to explain Christ's death and resurrection and the plan of salvation to my 2.5 year old! I thought for sure that he learned nothing from that bumpy, all-over-the-place explanation. Evidently, I was wrong. Evidently, God still uses our bumpy explanations of His Word to accomplish HIS Will.

So, tonight, since I learned that he understands that Jesus was on the cross between two "bad guys," I took it one step further. I explained that, "this bad guy said, 'Jesus, I'm sorry for all the bad things I've done,' and Jesus said, 'I forgive you. You can now go to Heaven with me."...... (that's bumpy! ha!)

I'm sharing this to encourage you to not give up sharing Christ with your toddler. As I mentioned in the first post about reaching your toddler for Christ, God promised that His Word would never return void - it will always accomplish what He plans for it (Is 55:11) - like His plans for us to train up our children in the His ways (Prov 22:6). His Word won't return void...even when spoken to 2-year old ears. :)

So even if your Gospel presentation includes bad guys, chubby fingers, and heroes, take heart - SOMETHING will get through to their young hearts and minds. God's got this. :)


"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Gal 6:9)

Little Eyes and Mommy Exhaustion

We are exhausted. After 9.5 hours of labor yesterday, which suddenly ended with no progress but thankfully, still a healthy baby in my belly, we are exhausted in so many ways... (by, "we", I mean, the hubs and I....he dealt with lots of hand squeezes and requests from this uncomfortable momma...)

Which made today more difficult. We had to unexpectedly leave our little guy with my mom overnight - much longer than he expected...so, he was understandably clingy today. And extra "2 years old" today, if you know what I mean. ;)

Amidst the screaming because he wanted a "different cart" at the market...the tears because we wouldn't let him play outside in the thunderstorm....the drama because I only had one sucker in my purse...and the outrage about our refusal to feed him gummies and cookies at his demand, I learned something. Not only are little eyes watching our every move, but little ears are hearing our tone of voice and the side comments we make on frustrating days.

I must say, aside from the drama, this guy was a sweet little BLAST today. He kept us laughing most of the day!

I noticed when our little man repeated, "WHAT?!" after one of us responded to the other in that way. I noticed whenever his little stress level in the market rose along with mine at the fact that there were TWO REGISTERS open in the entire store!!!! (I'm over it now, though ;) ). In case you're curious, we ended up being one of "those families" who loaded up their entire cart onto a self-checkout lane... ;)

We stop ourselves from saying words like, "dumb", "stupid", "butt" ....you know, those bad words that would sound too awful coming from a sweet toddler mouth....:)

But we're not so great at stopping ourselves from using irritated tones and making side comments on exhausting days such as these.

I can't exactly pursue a God-honoring home whenever my tone and speech become sour during difficult circumstances. I can give myself grace to mess up and pray that God will clean up the messes I make (because I am human, and I WILL make mistakes). God's grace is sufficient and His mercies are new EVERY morning...including those mornings that begin WAY too early - He knows. He chose us to be mommies and daddies to these babies - and HE never makes mistakes. :)

As mommies (and daddies), we have a constant audience. Even if our audience is taller than us and awkwardly lanky... ;)  I need to remember this...some days more than other days...but I need to remember that I'm teaching with my every action...word...eye roll...etc.

I learned today that no matter my circumstances, no matter my frustrations, little eyes and ears are on me to learn how to react....and more importantly, how to reflect God to the world in our everyday actions. A terrifying task, but a blessing that God saw fit to choose me for this job, and yet promises to hold my hand EVERY STEP of the way. Praise Him.

Cultivating a Toddler's Heart for Christ....Don't Give Up!

I'm writing this post at the end of one of THOSE days. One of those days when a super strong-willed toddler has made a scene in a restaurant, made a scene during maternity pictures, and cried for jellybeans during the entire 30 minute car ride home. It's one of THOSE days when bath and bedtime routines began at 6pm (would you judge me if I told you I actually fed him dinner while he was bathing?? ;) ).

...a strong will against pictures ;) ....and my 33 week bump...

But at the end of this day, while my husband and I sat with our sweet/funny/strong willed toddler, Samuel, in his room, a shining moment happened. Samuel picked up his prayer book and began reading to us. He turned to the correct page and "read" his verse: "The Lord's plans will stand forever". He turned a few more pages and said things like, "worship the Lord," and "God has a purpose for you."

we use and LOVE this devotional - Samuel calls it "Dear God" - you can find it here

I beamed. My husband frantically tried to secretly record this sweet moment. ;) We were both refreshed. Because, no matter the nights that Samuel will fight prayers or devotions, no matter the nights when he sings "Twinkle Twinkle" during our prayers, this shining moment was proof that SOMETHING is getting through to Him.

So mommas (and daddies), don't give up on devotions, prayer, Bible stories, etc. Even if our toddlers are flipping circles in their beds or singing the ABCs while you're reading devotions to them, SOMETHING will get through - God promised that His Word would never return void - it will always accomplish what He plans for it (Is 55:11) - like His plans for us to train up our children in the His ways (Prov 22:6). His Word won't return void...even when spoken to 2-year old ears. :) (and while I'm not to that point yet, I'm placing my bet that the same holds true for teenagers, as well!)


"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Gal 6:9)

A PlayRoom TakeOver

I tried so hard to fight it.

I did everything I could to make sure my family room didn't look like a daycare. I really did.

But, when 1400 sq feet must contain a toddler, his toys, and a new baby, some things must change.

So, instead of "daycare," I went with "preschool" ;)

This is Samuel's new play area:

pardon the terrible lighting, I have very little natural light in my family room...

Before the toddler takeover, this wall housed our entertainment center and two bookcases full of baskets of toys and books. Granted, the baskets were pretty baskets...BUT I found his bigger toys taking over the floor for lack of a "place."

I am a firm believer in "a place for everything and everything in it's place." So, this conversion of a family room wall to a playroom was necessary to contain the clutter.

The alphabet rug is from Walmart. The letter and number art is from Hobby Lobby. I made sure that the playroom decorations coordinated with my family room decorations. I didn't want it to seem too crazy and out of sorts. So, the family room is now being redecorated to house navy blue and white (my favorite! and a reason to shop for new decorations!)

I must say, the magnetic chalkboard has been the star of the show! I do not know how a certain little boy lived without it. I highly recommend it. Plus, he can write all over the walls and bookcases with the chalk and it wipes clean! :)

I still rotate his books and toys. We have a closet in the family room that houses some other toys and books. When I find that he's getting bored with the toys in the bins and shelves, I rotate them with some toys from the closet. Sometimes I'll simply rotate the bins or rearrange the shelves. This throws him for a loop when he's looking for something specific, but it brings toys he's ignored to the forefront to catch his attention.

Those shelves house his art supplies, blocks, cars, puzzles, games, musical instruments...etc. It's wonderful to have a space for everything! :)

This space works great for all of us. It freed up the other living space in the family room for us, while giving him a space all his own!

Now...to find a place for a baby swing... ;)

The Hulk Leg Chronicles (or 12 Ideas to Keep a Toddler Off a Broken Leg)

This happened in January:

 

The "Hulk Leg" joined our family...it weighs about 25 lbs and has become a nuisance to a little boy who loves to "go fast!"

To make a short story short, my sweet, sweet husband slipped while carrying Samuel down the steps. By the grace of God, Samuel only injured his leg (he was face-down, silent, and unmoving when I got to both of them. yikes! He quickly started screaming, though, much to our relief!)

My hubs is fine other than the guilt he's carried with him for the duration of the Hulk Leg's existence. Samuel fractured his leg, but has otherwise been fine - even pushing his limits with the Hulk Leg the past week or so. Yesterday, he decided to "clean his pigs" and, luckily, I stopped him right before he poured water all over his cast and toes (eek).

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This post came from my friend, Cindy, at "so the cook said" when she mentioned the idea of blogging about how I have managed to keep Samuel off of the Hulk Leg for 5 weeks, so far. I am hoping no one else finds themselves in a similar situation of keeping a 2 year old little boy off of his leg, but just in case, I'm giving you some ideas. (Especially if your doctor suggests "pull him in a wagon around the house all day..." like ours suggested....  what???

1.) A Chalkboard

     Not just any chalkboard, a big chalkboard. We already had one, so I was thankful it became such a great distraction. We have used it for everything from practicing letters, numbers drawing pictures, to drawing race tracks for our cars to follow. Chalkboard and cars = happy boy.

 2.) Rocks.
     My parents were thoughtful enough to think of giving a little boy some trucks and rocks (duh!). These rocks entertained him for two days. He made pictures with them, lined them up, but them in his tent (i.e., anything covering his head, usually a blanket held over your own head and his). Buy a bag of decorative rocks (if you don't want dirt all over your house) and you have a happy boy, off his leg!

3.) Balloons
     While the balloons tempted him to move and chase them, he enjoyed crawling around with them and hitting them once they started to sink (attach extra long strings so he can reach them).

4.) Visitors

     Visitors were essential!! We invited family and friends to play. Seeing new people kept his mind off wanting to be on his leg. He could show them all of the toys he was bored with and they became new. Visitors also gave this mommy and daddy a break so our backs could rest from the heavy lifting of toting him and The Hulk Leg around...

5.) New Art Supplies

     You'll see in our pictures of our visitors that colored pencils were a hit. I didn't have to buy these, but because I hadn't trusted our "go fast" little boy with colored pencils yet, they became a treat once I had to keep him off his leg! The same goes for stamps and ink. My genius mother brought out stamps and ink around Week 5 of The Hulk Leg. These distracted him for hours - creating pictures, and even using the stamps as blocks. His hands were dyed blue from the ink, but at least he was happy!! We gave him 6 different colored shoe laces, and he played for the longest time! He would make shapes, roads, ladders, etc on the floor. I was amazed.

6.) iPad and Movies
     Samuel has spent much more time than I like to admit playing on our iPads and watching movies. But, when The Hulk Leg is swollen and little boys are fussy from dragging around it's weight, these are the only things to keep him entertained and still. We introduced a new show to him ("Team Umizoomi") since he's interested in letters, shapes, and colors now. He loves it.
     We also purchased a few new apps for him to play. I'll blog about our favorite apps later.

7.) Dr Kit
     You'll see in the above picture, a stethoscope. Samuel has spent SO much time playing "doctor" and listening to everyone's heartbeats. My mom had a real stethoscope - he's been on Cloud Nine with it. We've taught him to check out his animals with his kit. He's a fan of getting check-ups from us. Whatever keeps him off his leg is fine with me!

8.) Flashlights
     I'm not sure what little boy doesn't like flashlights! He has spent SO much time playing in our aforementioned "tents" and looking behind our couch cushions with his flashlights.

with his best friend, Frosty, by his side!

9.) Window Clings
     Really, any magnetic toy for the fridge or clingy toy for the windows. He's been entertained by these. I like the idea of the paint in a freezer bag and taped to the window, but I never got around to doing it. Perhaps in this last week with The Hulk Leg, I'll break that out for him...

10.) Random Toys
     This isn't really an "idea," but I found that he sat and played for the longest time when I gave him a bin filled with random small toys and musical instruments. This bin is part of my organization in attempts to contain the clutter in our small townhouse. He's used to pulling out these bins and playing with the toys inside, but when I mixed up the random/extra pieces into one bin, he loved it!

11.) Picnics/Play Food
     Samuel loves stuffed animals, "I love ALL my animals". So, we've spent lots of time having picnics with his animals. He's spent quite some time playing with his kitchen and pretend food. We moved his toys to his level, and we've found he can entertain himself somewhat with little help.

12.) Lastly, Spoiling.
     We have spoiled this child to no end during these last 5 weeks. I'm sure it'll be incredibly difficult to get him to play by himself after The Hulk Leg leaves us. But, for now, we spoil. We cuddle, carry, play, whatever we can to keep him off of his leg.

he lives a rough life... ;)

How to maintain SANITY and a BUDGET while entertaining an 18 month old

     My child is now 20 months old. Is it okay to still calculate his age in months?? It makes me feel like he's still a baby, so I think I'll continue to refer to his age in months (how will he like that when he's 168 months?? I don't care ) :)

     This age between 18 months and 2 years has proven the most difficult for me by way of entertaining him. He's too old for baby toys, but not yet old enough to pretend on his own. If left to his own devices, he'd watch Charlie and Lola or old Sesame Street episodes (we'll discuss why I despise newer Sesame Street episodes at a later date...) all day, while working shape sorters, playing memory match games and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox on his my iPad. He's a smart cookie, so I've struggled to find new ways to pique his interest.

     After scouring Pinterest, blogs, and toy shelves, I found some success - mostly without new toys!
     Here are some ways I've discovered to keep him entertained and out of my cupboards (and the dog bowl)  ;) :

No dog food was eaten during this picture ;)

1.) Melissa and Doug toys. I mean, where have these been all my life?? They make the classic wooden toys without the annoying flashy lights and crazy music (mostly). His favorites? The sound puzzles, shape sorters, ice cream cone set, and a magnetic "fishing" puzzle.

    All of these work on hand-eye coordination! We work on shape and color recognition and problem solving with them, as well. We also use them for pretend play :)

2.) Rice. Rice, bowls, cups, and spoons. My little man LOVES "wice," so he jumps at the chance to play with it. I sit him in his high chair with it while I'm prepping dinner, and he plays quietly, sneaking mouthfuls of uncooked rice while I'm not looking ;) ha. But best of all, it can be easily vacuumed and put away.

3.) Water. Just like rice, he'll play with water and two coffee cups for a long time. Of course, this always necessitates towels and, in the beginning, a change of clothing, but I've learned to only give small amounts of water and refill it only when he spills or drinks it all. The more often he's practiced, the better he's become at keeping the water in the cups, stirring and pouring, so there's little clean up now.

4.) Flour and a colored plate. We work on drawing our letters in the little scoop of flour spread on a colored plate. My man doesn't like anything on his hands, so I gave him a plastic baby knife - he loved it. He drew letters for quite awhile. This, though, is messier to clean up, but it bought me 5 minutes to unload and load the dishwasher without my "helper" touching every dirty dish and grabbing every sharp utensil I loaded :)

5.) Crayola Color Wonder products. This is something to buy, but my guy loves them. Since he doesn't like anything on his hands we've put away the finger paints and pulled out the paintbrush. We focus mainly on the color and his coordination now. We have such fun! He's a fan of purple, so I have lots of "abstract" purple pictures for my walls :) These can be messy, but only sticky, not stains. He uses LOTS of the paint, so I may need to invest in plenty of refills :) His favorite right now is the Paint Palette:

6.) Stickers. My child has discovered a love of stickers. I can stick one on his arm and he spends a few minutes playing with it - taking it off, putting it on, losing it between the couch cushions... :) He also likes to decorate cards and pictures with them (as long as he can stack like stickers on top of one another... ;) ).

7.) Color Wonder markers and a cup. Literally, he played, on and off, all morning with these. I say Color Wonder so that your furniture, carpet, and clothing are saved from stains. He takes the lids on a off, fills the cup, and spills the cup over and over. Cheap and easy!

8.) Food containers. I washed out an empty plastic coffee creamer container and a gummy vitamin container. Hehas  played with those two containers more than any plastic pretend food I have purchased at a store. It's unreal, but he loves them. Aforementioned markers, rice, stickers, and water, all join these containers in play. So, instead of throwing away those big plastic containers, wash them out and replace some toys with them!

9.) A key to entertaining my child has been to rotate his toys. I'll post pictures of his toy storage later (I strive for my house to still look like a home and not a daycare...), but he has a basket full of toys on the bottom shelf of the entertainment center. He pulls out that basket, empties it and sits in it, and plays. :) The toys in this basket, and all other baskets, rotate every few weeks (sometimes sooner if he's bored). This keeps him interested and his toys seeming like new! I'll rotate his toys from room to room, so the toys upstairs, which aren't seen as often, become new when brought downstairs. I rotate his books on his shelf in the family room. This keeps him interested in the books and keeps me from buying WAY too many books (my downfall).

I have plans for crafting a few more projects for him - my "FunMommy" pinterest board is stuffed with ideas. I'll update when those are complete. 

In the meantime, check out suggestions from my friend, Liz, at All Kinds of Things. She's a teacher with great ideas for entertaining a toddler while caring for a newborn (whew!)...ideas that work on a budget!