Creative parenting

I am sure we all come across those moments when creative parenting is necessary. When all odds are stacked against you and you pray that your kids will be happy instead of winy and you work really hard to make them happy. Elliot is definitely feeling better and no longer sick, but we're in the middle of potty training. Erik is still very sick and lethargic and demands a lot of attention and is very jealous of the extra attention his brother is receiving at the moment. So odds were stacked against me today, but I survived and I prevailed and the kids were happy all morning so I win this round.

The first step is putting away my computer and phone completely. I didn't look at it except a few times, since a good friend of mine gave birth today I had to check a little bit! Besides those emails I sat down on the ground and really played with my kids. My first step was bringing out puzzles which Erik loves at the moment. He can sit for a long time by himself working on one, although he asks for a lot of help he doesn't need. In the meantime I can work with Elliot and every time Erik has a puzzle Elliot has to have one too.

Its so funny in how different these boys are from one another. Even at Elliot's age Erik could sit for a long time and focus on his puzzle. He sometimes would dump out all his puzzles on the ground and then challenge himself to figure out where it all went back. Elliot completely different. He loves taking the pieces out, but doesn't enjoy putting them back. He loves taking them out of several puzzles at once. When he finally does fit in a piece himself, he claps every time. Love that kid!

So in the end we have 6 neatly put together puzzles from Erik and one giant puzzle mess from Elliot. Both very unique in their approach.

There were just so many little things I did today to keep these guys happy and engaged today. One of our other projects is that I made homemade playdough. I had four colors and when I told them all to Erik he choose pink, so we now have pink playdough.

 

 

A 21 month old's approach to playdough.

I decided to simply my life and my organization and contamination problems by just having a couple sippy cups. I decided to get the Klean Kanteen cups, yellow for Erik and blue for Elliot. No confusion, no contamination. It seems to really be working, but I want to give it a week before I ditch the old cups to make sure these guys will really drink water from their new cups. So far I really like them even if they are a bit expensive.

I don't have pictures of everything we did this morning. We played outside for a bit, Elliot wanted out but Erik wanted inside. Elliot follows Erik and vice versa so when Erik went in we stayed there. Honestly it is easier for me to watch Elliot with the potty inside. Then we played a few games, Erik kept begging me to play Chutes and Ladders or Candyland, but Elliot would be left out and I couldn't watch him well and play the game so we compromised. Everyone played Lucky Ducks instead. We scrounged through the toys boxes and brought out lost friends. We read lots and lots of books. Then Elliot asked for the tunnel. This is when the kids burned off the last of that energy before nap. Elliot really needed to burn it off since his brother is low key today and he isn't. So wrestle mania began. Although there is a lot of refereeing I like when my boys wrestle. It is great bonding for them and they laugh hysterically the entire time. Someone always gets minorly hurt, but such is the life of a boy or really any toddler/ preschooler.

Last but not least here is the boys new snack spot. Daddy yelled at me today for allowing it to happen and the crumb mess so it looks like the fun needs to end soon, but it was good while it lasted boys.