My new summer philosophy? Keep it simple and let her help.
The best day we had was Tuesday this week. When my daughter woke from her afternoon nap, we had a smoothie and watched one episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. [My daughter is terrified of the blender, so I gave her Super Ted- a teddy bear in a Super Man costume who protects her from anything that is loud.] I whirled up a healthy snack, let her watch one episode of her beloved Gabba, and then I turned off the television.
1. Paint a picture, or two, or three. I picked up some simple Crayola
paint, a pad of paper, and some cheap paintbrushes at Target. I laid
out the newspaper on our front porch, squirted a little of each color
into the cupcake pan, and let her have a go at it. (Let the paintings
dry outside in the sun while you move onto activity number 2.2. Good old fashioned outdoor play:
a. 1 soccer ball: Kick the ball, bounce the ball, roll the ball, throw the ball. Whatever she wants to do with the ball.
b. 2 jump ropes: They have jump ropes and bigger kids at my daughter's day care. She has been asking for one for the last couple months so I got her one. Okay, she's 2 and she certainly isn't coordinated enough to actually jump rope. But, she sees Mama jumping rope and know that you move your arms and jump. So, she moves her arms wildly, jumps, and looks totally adorable as she tries to do it. It cracks me up. Then she starts cracking up.
Wednesday was a little more rough. She came home from day care wound up because they got to play in the water. She completely skipped her afternoon nap and drove me crazy for a couple hours before I decided we needed out of the house.
3. Have a coffee date. Okay, she doesn't drink coffee. But, I do. When it's warm a Frappucino feels good. She gets to order the Vanilla drink that doesn't actually have any coffee in it. We get drinks and a snack. Then we sit down and talk (usually about whatever exciting thing happened at day care or the bus that stops across the street from the nearest Starbucks.)4. Window shop: This serves a dual purpose really. She walked around and killed some energy. I dragged her into stores I had never been in or hadn't been in for a while and got some errands done. (Let's see what's in here!) We found Leotard's/Tutu's in one store. I let her sit in all the chairs in another store. We found mango flavored marshamallows and candy in another store. We looked to see how much pink bed sheets cost in a third store. Okay, so I got to run a couple errands- like looking for new sheets. I made my errands into an adventure for her.
5. Glow bath. There are a lot of creative ways to do glow baths that take forethought and preparation (ie making the special purchase of tonic water and blacklights.) Instead, I simply dropped a few glow sticks in the bubble bath and turned out the lights. (We did leave the light on in the hallway so she wouldn't freak out too much.) She loved it.Note: The only picture I can take credit for above is the one with the paintings. The other two represent the ideas, but are not mine.
