Creative Kimpire: Passion for Repurpose—wine corks, pb jar, oatmeal lid

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to decorate for Christmas this year and I think there’s a good chance our tree will be naked, minus the lights and maybe some garland. I am not going to fight a toddler for ornaments all day long. Quinn’s new favorite pastime is putting things away so he would probably just spend his days trying to take the tree back apart anyway 😉. He helps unload the dishwasher most mornings and I gave him a spatula and a slotted spoon the other day and asked him to put them away. They live in the second drawer by our oven. He took them over to the drawers, opened the third one (where the measuring instruments live), closed it half way, and then opened the second one and put them in. I then gave him some measuring spoons and asked him to put them away. He had left the second drawer open so that it was covering the third and he went back over, closed the second drawer, and put them in the third. The only instructions from me were to put them away. I was amused that he knew where they went. This new avocation of his extends outside of our home, too. I got a new phone last week and I sold my old one to my niece, who also kept my case, which means it still looks like my phone. When we took it down to give it to Haleigh, Quinn would not stop stealing it from her and giving it to me 🤦🏻‍♀️😆. He was certain that phone belonged to me and was determined to get it back to me, away from that thieving teenager 🤣🤣🤣. He can also retrieve items from another room when asked. My dad was at my house and he mentioned getting Quinn stuffed dogs that look like ours and I told him Quinn already had some (thanks Kiki 😘). I told Quinn to go into his room and get Baby Sansa and Baby Sophie. He returned with his animals to show his Pap.

He’s holding Baby Sansa and Baby Sophie is in the corner of his bed by Big Sophie 😉.

He’s becoming so independent and I love it and hate it at the same time. He helps wash himself at bath time, according to his dad, who handles that duty. He’s been able to brush his own teeth for awhile (with a touchup by an adult afterward). Philip and I both have Burst toothbrushes and Quinn has a banana shaped toothbrush. At bath time he uses his but whenever he sees either of us brush our teeth in the morning, he wants one of our toothbrushes. We don’t turn on the vibration for him but we make the sound it makes while he moves it around in his mouth 😆. He can point to several body parts when asked and can identify body parts on other people, dogs, and baby dolls 😁👏🏻. He tried to find the belly button on Kate’s doll last week and seemed confused when there wasn’t one 🤣. He can walk backwards and run forward in a Naruto run like he’s about to storm Area 51. That one’s my favorite 😆😆. He’s very into leading Philip and me places by taking our fingers in his hand and pulling until we follow. He often won’t let go even when you reach his destination. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to pry your finger away from a determined toddler but it’s comparable to getting stuck in a Chinese finger trap 🤣. I no longer hate his duck walker toy because he can finally push it on his own 🙌🏻. Now I’m hating the dump truck ride on toy Philip’s brother and his wife got for him because his feet just aren’t quite long enough to reach for him to push himself on it. We’ve adapted though and came up with a hack that parents in their 30’s need because we’re old and back pain is a daily struggle 👵🏻👨🏻‍🦳. I bought a grabber when I was pregnant because I didn’t want to bend over my huge belly to retrieve the collection of dog toys that Sophie likes to strew out into the yard. This grabber is the perfect length to push him on his dump truck and not have to bend over 🤣👏🏻. Hopefully he’ll grow into it soon and I’ll have something new to hate 😂🤷🏻‍♀️.

Enjoying his ride 😁

“ Where’s her belly button?” 🤣

Quinn loves to play hide and seek. We usually split up, one of us either hides with him or helps him look for the other parent, and we have usual hiding spots—behind doors or curtains, in a closet, etc. He is hilarious to hide with because he laughs the whole time and tenses his entire body in the anticipation of being found 🤣. When we played the other day, he was first hiding with Philip while I found them and then they started looking for me. When we finished, he took it to the next level and went and hid on his own behind the bedroom door. He was so proud of himself when we found him 😊.

It’s not rainbows and sunshine all of the time though. Quinn’s learning to self-regulate his emotions and sometimes he resorts to biting; usually when you make him do something he doesn’t want to do, like come inside. He can sometimes restrain himself if I catch him soon enough and tell him to stop. If he gets the chance though, he’ll chomp on you when he’s pissed. He also likes to pinch. We’re working on it but I’ll be glad when he’s past this. He likes to test his limits with me on the regular, too. We normally start dinner with him on his stool at the table but he usually wants to sit on my lap after a few minutes. I let him because I want him to eat but I almost always regret it 😂. He tried sticking his hand in my food, which got him put down. He has mostly stopped doing that but now he will push my plate away when he’s done eating, even if I’m not 🤬. This also gets him put down. My biggest pet peeve is when he tries to put his feet on the table. He’s really been pushing that button a lot lately. Again, he gets put down. That usually stops the behavior and he can come back up but the feet thing has been a struggle. I can’t wait to eat a hot meal, without a troublemaker on my lap.

Those are really my only complaints about this stage. He’s learning lots of new words and tries to say just about anything you tell him to. His dad taught him his first cuss word—shit. I know you all assumed he would learn that from me but I didn’t do it. I’m sure I’ll get the next one though 😉🤷🏻‍♀️. He does all kinds of funny things with his face as he’s trying on all of these new sounds. His snoot has gotten pretty pronounced and more prevalent. He even snoots at the dogs now 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️. When he does it to us, we, of course, do it back, so it’s a form of communication. Like, “Hey, pay attention to me,” and then we reciprocate to acknowledge him. However, Sophie doesn’t understand this discourse, obviously. Even if she could, I doubt she would. As we like to say about people who just aren’t that bright, “she’s so pretty.” 🤣😉. Quinn has learned something from her though; whenever we’re sitting on the floor he will back up to you to sit on your lap 😂. Classic Soph move right there.

Quinn loves to feed the dogs and it drives me nuts. I like for him to eat while standing on his safety stool so that his food is out of the reach of the girls. This does nothing when he willingly throw his food to them, or gets down and gives it to them, often without opening his hand all the way so that it becomes a game for them to get it out 🙄. I always worry, mostly about Sophie because she doesn’t quite understand him yet, that they will take food out of his hand without him offering. It’s one thing for him to give it, it’s another for them to take it. That I’m not okay with. He was gnawing on a beef stick one day and got down from his stool when I was busy doing something. The next thing I knew, the beef stick was gone. I looked around but didn’t see it on the floor anywhere so I knew someone else had consumed it. I found the guilty party when I sniffed Soph’s mouth. Beef sticks leave a very pungent smell on the breath so she was exposed by her stinky snout 😆.

The snoot I got when I told him to come off his bed and get his diaper changed 😝🤦🏻‍♀️

Quinn is a such a rotten little shit and some days he drives me crazy. Then some days he gives me spontaneous kisses out of the blue and all is forgiven. I love that kid with every fiber of my being. I am truly enjoying staying home with him, which is never something I thought I would say. I’ve had an identity crisis before—if you’re interested, go read one of my very first posts called Has Anyone Seen My Comfort Zone 😉—but this is like a reverse identity crisis of sorts. I spent many years thinking being a mother probably wasn’t something I was going to do, and I especially couldn’t fathom being a stay at home one. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that, I just didn’t think I would be satisfied with my life if that’s what I did. However, now I’m truly so happy doing it that I’m having a hard time understanding it. I’m not quite sure how to explain it yet, I don’t think. I always thought I could be a good mother. Like, I worked for almost 8 years in early childhood development so I knew how to form an attachment, help him meet milestones, and all of the other important things that happen in the first years of life. I just didn’t know I would enjoy doing those things. Doesn’t that sound silly? I always envisioned like a super needy baby that sucked the life out of me and needed me 24/7. I actually kind of struggle when people become too clingy with me and we don’t have an established relationship. I know some of you mothers felt attached to your baby from the moment of conception but that wasn’t the case for me at all. I actually tried pretty hard not to get attached, just in case something went wrong. We had tried for many years to have a baby and then tried not to that it was completely likely, in my head, that it wouldn’t work out. So it took a while for me to form a real bond with Quinn. I cared for him as you do anyone who is helpless and depends on you but our bond is so much stronger now than in the beginning. He has a personality and I like him as well as love him. I think sometimes it’s hard for moms who don’t feel that immediate, intense attachment to feel “normal” but I bet more women (and dads!) feel that way than we think. People just don’t talk about it.

Anyway, that was a lot of words to say that I love my kid 🤣🤣🤣.

Told ya he’s a little shit.

But oh man 🥰.

Soooo if you spent this weird year that is 2020 drinking away your frustrations from learning everyone’s differing political views and the idiocracy of anti-maskers and now have a collection of wine corks, I have some ideas for how you can entertain your ultra bored children. Or yourself, there’s no judgement here. Except for anti-maskers. Just wear the damn mask.

But not like this 🤣.

Anyway, option #1 is for the littles. I discovered that wine corks fit perfectly into a shaker bottle hole. So if you have a babe that is into filling and dumping, this is an ideal game.

Option #2 does not include a great pic but I’ll do my best to explain. Quinn had his first sleepover last weekend with my brother’s kids. We’ve kept our quarantine pod pretty small over the last 8 months and we see them regularly. Kate begged to come stay so we had all 4 come. She said she wasn’t happy about it at first but then she was 😉. Anyway, to keep them entertained I had them build a boat or raft from wine corks and then we raced them in a long under-the-bed tote filled with water. They created the air in the sails using straws to blow them along. They loved it. Link told me he had fun racing the boats. I said, “I’m glad you had fun, buddy” and he corrected me with “racing the boats.” I don’t know if he wanted to make sure I didn’t mistakenly think he had fun the whole time or? 🤣

Building boats. If we’re friends on FB, I posted a video of the races. I’m a pretty good commentator, if i do say so myself 😉.

If you’ve not been driven to drink this year, good for you! Here are a few other options to amuse your children. Behold: color-wheel flashlight fun.

This is the lid from an oatmeal container and I used sharpie markers to color the dots on it. Shine the light on the dots on a light colored wall. Boom, instant entertainment 😉.

This last one is my ULTIMATE Repurpose of a Repurpose. When the quarantine first started, I made a pull jar from a peanut butter jar, ribbon, and beads. Quinn has outgrown that so I removed the ribbons and viola, a pom pom ball push game! We’re still working on playing without putting Every. Single. Ball inside his mouth first but...🤦🏻‍♀️. It’s definitely a game that should be supervised if you have a mouther.

Great for building fine motor skills 🖐🏻 ✍️

Sansa & Sophie Segment

The girls are still good. Except Sansa seems to have hurt her back leg somehow, she’s been limping on it this evening. I took them for a walk and didn’t notice but after we got home she started doing it. I’m hoping after some rest tonight she’ll heal up. If not, I’ll call the vet tomorrow.