Author: Keira

Dear Reader

My kids love finger Play Songs! I think (though I’m not in their heads) they like that they can follow along with something and be part of something even if they’re not super great at communicating, yet. They get so excited to know what to do in the song.

So far, our favorite finger play Songs are definitely Itsy Bitsy Spider and Pattycake, but some old classics that are super fun are Wind the Bobbin and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

The interesting thing is how each of my babies (all of them, not just the two that came together) have loved a different part or action. The oldest loved to throw the cake in the oven, with big wide hand gestures. The middle child liked clapping. One twin likes to “roll it,” and waits to that part of the song to even act interested, though she is listening and waiting. The other twin likes to mark it with a B, although I have no idea why. I mean, I can see personalities in all the other choices, but why marking it with a B? We do a big trace of a B with our arms, so it kinda looks like a bunch of arm flaps. I wonder how that ties with personalities?

But, I’ve just gotta say, watching little fingers try to do Itsy Bitsy Spider is one of the cutest things ever!

Dear Reader,

I don’t know what it is, but my toddlers are *obsessed* with my laundry baskets. I have a few different shapes and they love them all. It doesn’t matter if there is laundry in them. They’ll climb up onto the laundry and throw the pieces out one at a time. If they’re empty, they’ll fill them. And once they fill them, they will climb up into the basket, on top of all the toys or clothes or whatever they filled the basket with, and throw those out one at a time, too!

Today’s favorite thing to fill the basket with: lids from applesauce pouches. I’ve been saving some of each color to come up with some kind of game, eventually. But the girls just like playing with them, so no game is necessary, I guess.

That being said, I knew I wanted some game while they were playing with baskets and I couldn’t think of any “on purpose” game until my mom told me to flip the basket over this afternoon. The lids go between the holes in the basket really well, so, I spent a few seconds showing them to poke the lids through the upside down basket, and they played with the basket that way for a few minutes.

The nice thing about flipping the basket is the extra hand/eye coordination it takes to fit a lid through a smaller hole. And it was a new game, so it was worth thr little extra work for them to want to keep at it. I’m sure they’ll still play with the baskets like before, but maybe they’ll get a little extra hand/eye practice in now that they realize they can flip the basket over, too!

Dear Reader,

My house was a disaster! I needed to vacuum, but there wasn’t enough space to even push the vacuum around! I always start with the same area of the house, it’s usually the cleanest, so it’s a good way to get the ball rolling, so to speak. And I progressively move to the toy room, which, consequently is my front room while we are trying to remodel the basement (aka two rooms of stuff in one room. Not a good lifestyle vibe. Not ever to be pictured in a home magazine or Pinterest board). By the time I got one room clean and moved onto the next, the previous room was in shambles! I’ve got 3 little tornados following me and undoing everything I’ve done. I was exhausted! I just needed to catch a break! I needed to vacuum, so I couldn’t just wait until naptime for fear of waking babies up. But cleaning while they’re awake is like, as my mother loves to say, “shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.”

Sound familiar?

I was at wit’s end! I don’t like messes. My brain is a direct mirror of my house. If my house is crazy, my brain is, too (And I am not a neat freak. I’m not really good at cleaning, so my brain is often crazy). I needed this place clean and I needed it clean days ago! I needed clarity. I needed a way to keep my kids wrangled. So, I buckled my kids in their high chairs, raided my kitchen for something safe to ingest (though that wasn’t the point) but fun to play with, and landed on my oat bucket. I grabbed the paintbrushes that still weren’t put away from Halloween activities, poured a handful of oats on the trays and walked away.

Did I have a mess to clean up afterwards? Definitely yes. But a) it was dry, so the vacuum took care of it (and I had to vacuum anyway… yes, I have carpet in my kitchen. I am currently typing this while sitting on the lifeproof flooring that may eventually get installed…. I hope. I plead with my to-do lists to eventually have time) and b) it was in one spot instead of every room of my house.

But furthermore, I could give myself a little pat on the back because while I was obviously just trying to keep them busy, I was also being a good mom and giving my kids sensory play. I’m teaching them the basics of holding writing devices. I’m letting them explore taste, texture, little items to squish in their little hands. And, oats are totally good for your skin! Score, lol.

After I had the rest of the house all clean (which was surprisingly fast when I didn’t have kids undoing my progress; though it was still a little hampered because I demanded that older sister got involved and she needed coaching on how to stay on task and where things go, and oldest sister needed reminded to speak nicely and not worry about dictating and just clean up for herself while she was being “forced” to clean, as well – we’ve all been teens before. We remember), I gave the girls a drink (figured dry oats needed some moisture in those little tummies), sent them to watch a show with everyone else, wiped down their trays and vacuumed below their high chairs and celebrated my victory!