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.

Painting Party

My parents provided the fun entertainment the last two days as I had a class for work.

Today the entertainment was back in my court.  After consulting my handy library activity calendar, I saw that today was finger painting day at a nearby branch.  After a quick snack, I loaded the kids up and headed to the library.

Guessing that finger painting could be a little messy, I dressed the kids in their play clothes and shoes that could easily be cleaned.  I also brought two old dress shirts of my husband's to use as smocks.

The library was prepared for the kind of messiness that toddlers and paint create.  The floor and tables were covered with plastic, they provided plastic smocks, and used washable paint.  They also provided all the needed supplies at no charge.  (I LOVE the library!)

I stuck with four colors (there were lots of choices) and Max dug right in.  He pretty quickly seemed to "get it" and began putting his fingers to paper.  He also had a great time smearing the paint on the plate.

I realized something about Susannah today.  My daughter, the fearless one, doesn't like getting her hands dirty.  She did the same thing today that she did when we were pudding painting.  I had to put her fingers in the paint and then the paper.  She didn't go back for more. 

The kids had fun, but it was over pretty quickly.  Max finished his picture, finger painted the table behind him, and then was ready to wash his hands.  That's the point when I decided we were done.  The library (again thinking ahead) had a place for hands to be washed. 

Another successful library trip yielded beautiful works of art!

The Power of Consignment

Since becoming the mother of twins, I've learned a thing or two.  One of them is the power of consignment stores and consignment sales.  I've found the best stuff for a fraction of what I would have paid for them new.

The most recent purchase that I'm pretty proud of is a toy kitchen for the kids.  On my last day of work, I got out early.  I was driving around, trying to kill some time, because showing up at the sitter's too early interrupts naptime.  I popped in the consignment store nearby just to see what there was to see.  The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was this kitchen playset:

I couldn't find a price sticker on it, so I automatically assumed it was out of my budget.  I looked around the store and picked out a smaller kitchen.  It was one that was probably about the size of the white cabinets to the top of the kitchen above for $9.99. 

I took the toy I'd selected to the checkout counter.  While the clerk looked for the accessories, I asked how much the larger one was, thinking that if you have to ask, you can't afford it.  Her response?

$20.

It took me about 10 seconds to decide to leave the smaller one that the kids only would have used for a short time in favor of the larger kitchen that the kids will be able to play with for years to come.

It was a great decision.  Both kids enjoy playing with the kitchen.  There's a microwave with buttons to push that make noise (they both love buttons), a refrigerator, oven, and stove top.  There are a couple of buttons on one of the burners that makes noise.

The little blue pot ("Potsie") was given to us by some friends.  It has a spoon and five pieces of "food" inside.  I bought two more skillets for $.40 at Michael's last week. 

I'd like to get them some more "food" to play with, but for now they're having a great time with what we have.  We've had this kitchen for almost three weeks and the kids play with it every day.  Max can now say "cooking" and will go get the spoon so I can sample what they're making.  I'd say it was a great investment.

There are some downsides to buying used.  For example, apparently there were some accessories that came with the original set which are missing (including the pan that made the burner make noise on its own).  However, I paid $20 vs. the $110 this toy is listed for on the manufacturers website. 

If you find your toy routine becoming stale this summer, check out your local consignment store to see if you may be able to find something inexpensive to spice things up.

If you can wait, there's only a couple more weeks until fall/winter consignment sale season begins.  This is where you'll make your real finds.  I can't wait!

Hands On Holidays

Today is Father's Day.  We've been celebrating since Thursday and our trip to the Aquarium.  Yesterday we had a family outing to the Farmer's Market, lunch, and a little shopping.  Today we're having a quiet family day at home.

Since Daddy's gift was more performance in nature, the only thing we had to give him today was a card.  Since we're still a year or two away from the twins being able to write their names, I've come up with another way for them to "sign" cards.  Since they were just babies, I've been tracing their hand prints into cards for birthdays, Mother's Day, and Father's Day, etc.

They're actually pretty cooperative with this process.  I normally do it when they're in their high chairs so they can't move around too much and we have a good flat surface. 

For those who keep cards, they are not only keepsakes but also a record of how the kids have grown.  Needless to say this usually gets the best feedback from grandmothers. 

The hand prints are getting larger!  I'll have to begin figuring out what to do when I run out of space!