happy tuesday, friends!
we have survived our first month with baby #2 and our transition into a family of 4 is in full swing. that also means that our month-long house arrest is pretty much over (hooray!) and we can be out and about at last. this past month pretty dang exhausting - but also a lot of fun! i think apart from the newborn things - the hardest part was helping our 21 month old toddler transition into big-brother mode and keep him busy and occupied while we are cooped up at home.
before baby, we were out all the time. at least once a day and sometimes as much as 3 times a day (yes, i was crazy!) he was constantly interacting with other kids and other people, running around and burning off energy. hence, this month he was a little bit stir-crazy and restless so we were constantly trying to find things to do. thankfully, eugene being home has been THE BEST and he has been trying his best to take him out and do things with him, but of course we had to find things to do indoors. thankfully, I had saved and stored away (in my mental archive + closet) a few new (to him) and fun activities/ideas specifically for this special time.
and it has PAID OFF!
so I thought I'd share a few of my faves:
ps. this post contains affiliated links. (read more)
ps. this post contains affiliated links. (read more)
PUZZLES
I have been collecting puzzles for over a year now, and though he was way too young for them when I started, I am so glad that I did! I bought many used ones for dirt cheap from other local moms and received many as gifts for Asher's 1st birthday. We LOVE Melissa and Doug puzzles. They are seriously the best! I have been reserving some of the more fun ones for this month so he was really excited to start playing them.
little fishing rod. It's great for hand-eye coordination, concentration
and matching. Best part is, it keeps him quiet for a good amount of
time (5-10 minutes!) which is pretty much golden hour with toddlers at
this age!
Also, being cooped up inside did have some advantages because it gave us some time to practice numbers and colors with Asher. Daddy is the best teacher - and he made doing this particular Numbers Puzzle super fun for him and now he loves doing it. He just needs a drink and some snacks and he's golden.
Do-A-Dot Art Activities!
I scored these Do-A-Dot-paint markers on sale a few months ago and they are really cool! They help keep mess to a minimum, are easy for little toddler hands to use and provide so many cool activity opportunities! At this particular age + stage, there aren't a lot of focused activities I can use these for, but he has fun messing around with them! The chuck pads that I received from the hospital serve as the perfect canvas (completely absorbent, har har) for practice!
I'm excited to use these dot markers for other fun learning activities when he's a little older! Here are some cool ideas that I've found online so far!
Car parking lot
This one is kind of silly but was kind of an emergency one when I needed to do something in the kitchen and Asher kept wanting me to hold him! The best thing about this is it's FREE and you can fancy it up however you'd like. It doesn't keep him preoccupied for terribly long - but it's an easy set up and gives you the 5 minutes of hands-free time. All you need is some painter's tape and toys!
This one is kind of silly but was kind of an emergency one when I needed to do something in the kitchen and Asher kept wanting me to hold him! The best thing about this is it's FREE and you can fancy it up however you'd like. It doesn't keep him preoccupied for terribly long - but it's an easy set up and gives you the 5 minutes of hands-free time. All you need is some painter's tape and toys!
On the Go Water Wow! Water Revealing Activity Pads
These are one of our favorite things ever. They are pure genius and are perfect as an indoor activity or if you need something to help keep toddlers preoccupied during long car/plane rides! They are essentially blank coloring pages that reveal color when painted with water. As you can see, Eugene was completely blown away by it and was having the time of his life and left little room for his son to take part.
Blocks
A few weeks before my due date - I found this building blok set on the floor next to our apartment complex garbage area (yuck, I know but can we say JACKPOT?! Don't judge me!) I threw them in the washing machine and got em nice and clean and they have been Asher's fave thing to play with! It keeps him busy for FOREVER and there are so many different ways to play with them! Here we are building something to hold one of his favorite books in (LOL - see photo below). Don't tell anyone but when Asher is sleeping at night, Eugene stays up to practice building really tall structures in peace (without Asher destroying it every 2 minutes). Do all dads do this?
Besides these things, we have been reading a lot of books, watching A LOT of videos (The movie Moana and the Little Baby Bum Learning Songs show has been Asher's faves) and listening to the same songs on repeat and going a little bit cray. But we survived our month-long stay indoors and these have been our BFFs.
Cheers to finally being able to go outside! But we are looking forward to diving into these fun things during the rainy days (that are hopefully) ahead. once this crazy hot weather realizes it's October and gives us the pumpkin-spice latte/boots/coats weather that we're anxiously waiting for! BOY BYE!!!
xoxo
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