Dress Up Fun

Like most children, Max and Susannah enjoy playing dress up.  My sitter has some dress up clothes at her place during the school year and so at the beginning of the summer I set out to create an inexpensive collection of dress up clothes for the kids to play with.

My source for much of my dress up supplies was the $1 bin at Target.  Above Susannah is wearing a purple grass skirt and some fairy wings, both purchased for a $1.  I bought a green grass skirt that Max has also played with.  I won't post a picture of that because his Daddy probably wouldn't like it.

Pirates are much more manly than fairies. 

For a $1, I got Max a pirate set.  In addition to the patch, it came with a stick-on mustache and a clip-on earring.  I quickly decided that he was too little for the latter two items and so I put them away as they screamed choking hazard.

Going along with the islands theme, I bought three flower leis at the Dollar Store for, shockingly, a $1. 

One rainy day we decided to watch Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee while wearing paper crowns.  I had a ton of these left over from an event I was involved in before school let out.  We have so many that we may be having a Kings and Queens birthday party come January.

What else is in our dress up bin? Eight plastic bracelets I got from the Michaels' dollar bin. We also have two headbands with animal ears on them, one with rabbit ears and one with bear ears. I keep it all in a plastic bin I got from the Dollar Store.

This is an obviously evolving collection, but I think we've made a good start.  Every week I look for new additions in the Target dollar bin (like I need another reason to shop at Target).

This blog will go silent again, likely for the next week, as the Bulldog Twins are headed out of town this afternoon and this weekend Mommy gets to go on a trip all by herself. 

Pet Parade

Sorry for the silence last week.  We were on vacation which is always on the top of my list of things to do.

Now that we're home, I'm back to finding things to occupy our time in a fun and creative way.  One of the things I noticed when we got home was that we were low on dog food.  In an effort to ensure our best friend didn't starve, we set off to our local pet store to buy more.

Now, we could have just gone in, gotten the food, and left.  However, that would have taken less time than it takes to get the stroller set up and both kids out of the car and into it.  If I'm going to get everyone out, then we might as well find something fun to do.  So we decided to go on a pet parade around the store.

First stop:  the fish.

This definitely reminded me of our trip to the Aquarium.  There were several rows of tanks stacked on top of one another, so even from the stroller the kids could see all of the fish really well.  We're still working on the word "fish". 

Next, we looked at the cats.  This store works with local rescue organizations to find good homes for pets.  The dogs come in on the weekends, but there are some cats there all the time.  The twins have only recently begun to learn the difference between cats and dogs.  This is probably because we have a dog at home and the two are similar.  My parents have cats, so this began the road to learning the difference.

This cat's name was Pixie and she took a liking to us.  Susannah is pointing to her and saying "CAT!".  Were I not allergic to cats, we might have considered taking her home.

Our next stop was the gerbils/hamsters.  They were mostly napping in their pink plastic houses, so we didn't stay here long because at the end of the aisle, a guy had a store employee pulling out a snake.  We didn't take pictures of this (or get too close) because I figured it would be slightly creepy to start taking pictures of random strangers.  (As if I didn't already look weird enough taking pictures in PetSmart.)

After pulling around the corner from the snake, we found the birds.  The birds were actually awake and flying around which yielded much interest.  I also attempted to teach them the word "bird".  (Keep in mind this whole time I'm walking around the store like an idiot going " say bird", "cat", "What sound does a bird make?"  Anybody who didn't see I was with two one-year-olds probably thought I was nuts.)

Last stop before getting the item we came in for was the dog grooming area.  This dog was staying pretty still and didn't seem to mind if we stared through the window at him.

Just because you have kids doesn't mean that you don't have things to do.  I try to incorporate the kids as much as possible and make every task fun.  And because one of my favorite things to do is shop, it's pretty important that the kids are okay doing it.

Plus, when you get home with your dog food, you have another toy.  What's not to enjoy?

Helping Hands

I have very helpful 17-month-olds.  While often times this is annoying and makes a task take longer, I don't want to discourage the kids' desire to help out as I would really like them to help out with some of these tasks later.

What do Max and Susannah help out with? 

1.  Putting away the Groceries

Anyone who knows me is aware that I have certain ways I like thing done.  One of my routines is to bring the groceries in and set them in front of the island so I can sort them and put them away.  Over the last couple of weeks, the twins have been pulling items out of the bags and handing them to me.  They don't walk off and hide them which is nice, they just pull things out and put them in my hands.  They even try to lift heavy and awkward things (like boxes of diapers) which is hilarious.

As they hand me each item, I place them on top of the island to be put away

2.  Unloading the dishwasher

At first, this "help" was super annoying, but I've learned to accept it (and unload quickly).  The first thing I always take out is the basket with the knives in it (of course, I'm not a neglegent parent!).  From there, Susannah will hand me the lighter things like the toddler plates and spoons.  (She's handing me the top of my water bottle above.) 

Max, of course, is less intersted in helping unload the dishwasher and more interested in the fact that there are wheels.  He will push the rack back and forth to the point that it becomes irritating to get anything out of it.  He also enjoys pushing the door up.  We always finish by pushing the door up and saying "DONE!".  It goes something like this:

3.  The laundry

Both kids will throw laundry in the washing machine if I pick them.  They mainly help with the dryer.

The heavier laundry is more difficult to put in the dryer, but if I place items on the door, they will place the lighter things (like the wash cloths above) in the dryer. 

Although I could often get things done quicker without help, I love the fact that the twins are interested.  I want to encourage their help and involvement in the future, so I allow their help for now and even thank them for it.  Bonus:  If they are helping me, I know they aren't up to any mischief while I get the business of the house taken care of.

Everyday Cures for Toddler Boredom

Sorry I haven't posted much this week, but we've actually been busy with fun things like swimming (our community pool is FINALLY open) and going to lunch (add both of those to lists of things to do).

Despite our fun the last few days, sometimes you aren't so busy. Some days your toddlers drive you nuts with things like the continual touching of the tv/DVD player/satellite box even though you've told them NO about 100 times. Sometimes you need a list of simple ideas to distract them from the things you don't want them to do. This will give you a few minutes of time for yourself (and by time for yourself I mean enough time to go and take a pee).

So here's my list of everyday things around the house that can entertain a one-year-old. These are things we've done more than once that the kids enjoy.

1.  Learn to go up and down the steps.

2.  Have a tea party.

3.  Go outside and pick some flowers.

4.  Take clothes in and out of the laundry basket.  Push the laundry basket around and put other stuff inside it.

5.  Play with your dog's (empty) bowls.

6.  Read the newspaper with your Dad.  (This is almost a daily occurance at our house - the kids LOVE this!)

7.  Read some books.  We have tons around the house and check out new books from the library every two weeks.

8.  Invent your own toys by recycling things you might otherwise throw out.  The toy above is simply a shoe box with foam cut to fit the box.  (The foam was padding for the new glass for our oven door.  That's another story.)  Susannah had a great time taking the foam in and out of the box. 

9.  Play with your shoes.

10.  Hide underneath your dining room table.  This is a little clubhouse for Max and Susannah.

11.  Learn to climb onto the couch and the ottoman.  (This has been Susannah's goal this week.  As you can see she can get on top of the ottoman now and is almost able to get on the couch by herself.  I had to add this one because I love this picture of Susannah because it's so representative of her little personality.)

12.  Play with boxes of macaroni and cheese.  These are on a low shelf in my overflow pantry shelves in the garage.  Susannah picks them up, shares one with her brother, and then they shake, shake, shake.  There's currently two boxes of mac and cheese in my car for toddler entertainment. 

13.  Help with the cooking.  We were making pizza (obviously).  I gave each child a little bowl with cheese to put on their pizzas (we were making two).  Most of the cheese ended up in their mouths, but they had a great time "helping".

Making the Band (Part 2)

Editor's Note:  This is the second of two posts about the formation of the Bulldog Twins Band.  Friday's post was about making the instruments.  Today we're going to play with them.  Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday - our Saturday was busy!

Once the children were up from their naps and had a snack, I chose a music station from our satellite (Classic Rock) and let the kids choose their instruments.  They wanted the maracas before they'd even eaten their snacks, so the activity seemed promising. 

Once again, here are our band's instruments:

I'm glad I had more than maraca or else I feel certain that a fight may have ensued. 

I realize the picture below isn't perfect, but I love the expression on Susannah's face as she shakes her maracas. This is fun!

Luckily, Max quickly took interest in the reverberating microphone.  I had to show him how it worked, but once I did he enjoyed the echo.  He quickly figured out that if you drop microphone on the floor, it also makes an echoing sound.

There was less interest in the drum and drumsticks.  (Of course, that's the part I spent the most time on.)  I finally managed to get the kids to try them out.

At this point, I realized a flaw in my drum design.  The drum kept falling over as the kids tried to hit it with the drumsticks.  Max was not interested in playing with the "drum" after he realized it would roll around.  My son LOVES anything with wheels on it and quite frequently repurposes anything he can find so that it will roll/move along the ground (think about his genius invention of diaper sledding). 

In an effort to correct this flaw, I tried to come up with something in the house that would weigh down the drum enough so it wouldn't fall over.  I finally came up with three four-ounce applesauce containers (I also tried a bottle of salad dressing and a bottle of mustard.  Both were too tall.)  This was enough to prevent the drum from falling over.  Another idea for weight might be a 12-ounce can of soda.

As I expected, the drumsticks were used for things other than hitting the drum.  Luckily the kids never hit each other, but Max did make sweet music around our fireplace.  I was just waiting for one of them to try and hit the tv or the glass in the door.  Luckily that never happened, but the protected drumsticks turned out to be a good idea nontheless.

Most kids love music.  Turn on some music, whatever you like, and rock out with them.  If you don't have time to make instruments, it's no big deal, just find a few things from around your house.  You could use a hairbrush as a microphone, a box of macaroni and cheese as your maracas, and a bowl and spoon as your drum.  Or You could skip the instruments all together and just dance.  The whole point is for everyone, even you, to have a good time.  Plus, it's never too early to expose your kids to good music.  Hopefully your influence will help them to develop good muscial tastes and prevent you from having to listen to hours of the Justin Bieber of their generation in the future. 

Making the Band (Part 1)

Editor's Note: This is Part 1 in The Bulldog Twins' first two part series.  Today's entry is about how to make a few homemade band instruments.  Tomorrow's entry will be about actually playing with them.

I love having Editor's Notes.  It feels very official.  

This third line just feels like a Kevin Smith movie.  See Dogma if you haven't already. 

Both of my kids love music.  We tend to listen to music in the afternoons, typically things like my Beatles station on Pandora or the Classic Rock station on the satellite because "kids music" with children singing badly drives me nuts. 

I've been trying to come up with a music activity for the kids for a while, but especially since a couple weeks ago when the twins enjoyed the musical instrument component of our Gymboree class.  There are a couple of musical instrument kits on the market, but they aren't cheap.  (The one I'd been looking at was $25.)  I finally finished gathering ideas and made a few homemade instruments during nap this afternoon.

First, I started with drumsticks.  Here are the supplies:

All of these items were gathered from around the house.  I almost bought some wooden spoons this morning, but these two spoons were taking up space in a drawer.  I also used two old (but clean) socks that were slated for the trash can, two old dish cloths, and four rubber bands. 

First, wrap the first dish cloth around one of the wooden spoons.

Then, secure it with a rubber band.

Next, put a sock over the top of the secured dish cloth.

Secure it with a rubber band.

Lastly, trim off the excess material. 

Repeat this with the second spoon and you have two drumsticks.

Why cover them?  I asked that question myself.  I see two reasons.  First, I can totally see one of the two kids hitting the other (or themselves or something else) with a drumstick.  Second, it makes a better sound when you hit the "drum".  (I tested this out.)  If you don't have time to cover your spoons, it will still work. 

Next, make your drum.  For this part, there are a variety of materials you could use including a box or a kitchen bowl covered in paper.  I used an oatmeal container.  Because I've been making things out of found objects the last couple weeks, I had an idea to cover them with contact paper so the kids could tell the difference between food (or other items) and toys.  I bought the contact paper at Target for $5.99.  It's HUGE and will last a really long time.

The last time I used contact paper was my freshman year of college when my roommate and I decided to cover the mustard yellow metal furniture in our dorm room with green marbled contact paper.  It worked pretty well and was a lot nicer to look at all year than mustard yellow metal.  The reason why I bring this up is that this contact paper was easier to work with than I remember.  I could easily pull it up and reposition it if necessary.

I covered the oatmeal container with contact paper. 

I found this was easiest if you pulled the paper off and positioned it a bit at a time rather than pulling the paper backing off all at once.

Next, outline the top of the container on the back of the contact paper.  Unfortunately the spot where the contact paper needed to go was a little smaller than the entirety of the top, so I trimmed the paper down little by little to make sure it fit in the center of the lid.  I'm sure there's a much more scientific way to do this, but it worked.

And here's our finished drum.

Next, we will make maracas.  Here are our supplies:

I used old medicine bottles (we ended up with three total) with the labels taken off, our previously used contact paper, a pen, scissors, and something to fill your maracas with.  I used rice for two and an empty bottle of ear drops for the other.  There are tons of other possibilities such as beans or small pieces of pasta.

I thought it was especially important using medicine bottles that regular ones not look like toys.  Therefore, I covered the bottle and its top with contact paper using the same procedure as with the oatmeal container.  Then, I filled it with the desired contents.

And so now we have our instruments for a three person band.

We have our drum and drumsticks, three maracas, and a microphone.  I purchased the microphone at Target for $1 in the party section.  It sort of echos your voice back to you.

Check back tomorrow for the formation of The Bulldog Twins Band.