Keeping two toddlers busy! (and their mom sane)

Keeping two toddlers busy! (and their mom sane)
(February 2011)

It never fails that once February hits the cabin fever is in full force. The kids are sick of their toys, movies, and routine, and mom is sick of the toys, movies, and routine too! hehehehehe

The past few February's it has just been Jacob and I, there was either no Andrew, I was pregnant with Andrew, or Andrew was a tiny baby. So this year has been extra hard on me because now I am at home with TWO bored kids and pregnant! WOW what a combo!!

I usually depend on my craftiness to help alleviate boredom and this year has been no exception. Jacob as usual has been very open to crafts and has loved them this year, Andrew however is almost 18 months so is experiencing the boredom without having the concentration needed for crafts so I have had to be very creative (and forgiving) during these boredom relief sessions!

Playdoh was the first choice, but was quickly eliminated from Andrew because I am pretty sure that Playdoh is NOT one of the main food groups! However Jacob loves playdoh and will play with it alone happily which lets me do things with Andrew like reading books!

The second choice was some washable paint, and believe it or not has worked wonderfully! Andrew likes to smear it with his hands (again I have to watch for the occasional taste!) and Jacob liked creating folded images with blobs of paint! (image below).

Of course if I am desperate all I have to do is fill up my double kitchen sink with some bubbles and water and BOTH kids will play for an hour with no help from me!

All of these things of course cause a mess in the house, but I have weighed our sanity vs. having to clean up after the kids and the sanity is always clearly the winner! Sometimes you just can't worry about a little mess if the kids are having fun, exploring their imagination, and most importantly bonding as brothers!