Homemade Toys

Everybody always talks about the Terrible Twos but they don’t give enough credit to the sanity suckers one year olds are. Is it because there’s not a good alliteration that goes with one? I like a good characterization as much as the next person but believe me when I say one year olds deserve a label. I can think of several that Quinn deserves, especially last week 🤪. I’ve always had a great respect for single moms because I was raised by one but there are days that Quinn gives me renewed awe for anyone who does this parenting thing alone. I couldn’t be more thankful for Philip, who comes home from work and immediately changes his work hat to his dad/husband hat without missing a beat. Quinn doesn’t always cooperate to let him help be entertainer/picker-upper/feeder/playmate, but he sure tries and that’s what matters. Why is it that the moment you just want your kid to get away from you for 5 minutes, they seem to become more determined for you to pay attention to them? 

I’d say it’s been a day but really it’s been a week or two or three with about 1.5 good days thrown in. I want to hope his relentless need to be picked up and super frustrating habits of face smacking and boob pinching can be blamed on his four incisors coming through at once but I’m beginning to wonder if he’s not just a jerk 🤣. Okay, not really, but he has some days that earn him the title of Grade A Asshole. I know it’s possible for children to go to sleep without a fight, because it’s happened like 5 times in the last 19 months, but why, WHY, have the other 500+ times been such a hassle?! Kid, you’re tired, just go to sleep. It rarely happens like that though. Nap time is actually worse than bedtime for some reason. He gets especially handsy then and I sometimes just sort of cuddle/restrain him and he’ll fall right to sleep 😂😉. When he’s not being malicious, he says, “belly,” and pulls his shirt up so that I will hold my hand on his stomach. By the end of the day, with all of the “up” requests and belly touching, I’m so touched out, I don’t even want the dog to lay on me. Poor Soph is a cuddler and when Quinn goes to bed she gets all excited to have our one on one attention but there are days where I’m like, just get off of me, please. Quinn has taken an interest in my chest recently and gives anything within reach a nice squeeze any chance he gets. Between him and Sophie, who will stick her nose in any lower body crevice she can manage, I don’t know who is more violating!

Quinn sure is a button pusher and he’s been testing limits like it’s his job lately. Well, technically, that kinda is his job right now, to figure out how life goes, but it’s frustrating as hell for his teachers 🤪. He’s very experienced in time out now, and he set a new record the other night for 4 times for the same thing. I told him one of us was more stubborn than the other and we were about to find out which one. Spoiler alert, I won. When I started working for Head Start several years ago, my supervisor, Laura, told me not to get into a power struggle with a toddler. I. JUST. CAN’T. 🤣. Maybe that doesn’t apply to your own kid? If not, I can’t take your advice, Laura, sorry. 🤦🏻‍♀️. It’s not like I want him to be a little machine that jumps when I say so, but he does have to learn there are rules to be followed. So far so good and if I survive his toddlerhood we’ll be doing okay, I think 😉. Well, so far so good aside from the lying that he does, and the diaper ditching stunts 🤦🏻‍♀️. He blames Sansa for EVERYTHING. “Who peed in your diaper?,” “Sansa,” “Who made this mess on the floor?,” “Sansa,” “Who got your shirt wet?,” “Sansa.” As for the diaper, it either gets put on backwards or with duck tape, for the time being. We’ve had three episodes and the third time was the charm. Last week I was trying to get him to lay down for a nap but he wasn’t quite ready. He left me in bed and I was pretty sure he went to go poop so I let be him for a few minutes. When I went to check on him no more than 5 minutes later, he was completely naked in his room with the biggest smile on his face. His poopy diaper was laying in the kitchen hallway and remnants were on the sliding glass door and his legs. His hands were suspiciously clean (I cleaned them anyway) so I really don’t know what happened. Fast forward two days later and I was attempting a nap again. I had let the girls outside though so I told him I was going to go get them and for him to stay in bed. He said, “kay,” and off I went. It took a few minutes to get Sansa’s stubborn ass to come inside and when I came back to bed, there sat naked Quinn, surrounded by a puddle of pee, all over the sheets and duvet cover I had just changed, as well as Philip’s pillow 🤬🤦🏻‍♀️🙄. After we stripped the bed AGAIN, he was out of the nap zone so I decided to take a shower. I put tighter fitting pants over his diaper and watched as he struggled to take them off, unsuccessfully. I felt secure in this decision so I went ahead with the shower. When he didn’t barge in and leave my door open to let all of the warm air out, I knew he was up to something and yelled for him when I got out. He came in the bathroom completely naked 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤬. I found his pants and diaper in the living room and huge pee spot on the floor. This was the incident that lead to duck taping the diaper. It works like a charm 😉. 

Some days I swear he just wants to get in trouble. Maybe that’s part of being bored or tired of being stuck in the house but it works to get my attention. One day while I was eating breakfast, he finished eating and got down on the floor. Sophie was laying beside me (of course 🙄, she wouldn’t want to miss a dropped morsel) and he sat down there, too. I was scrolling FB and he kept saying, “mom,’ trying to get my attention. I looked down and he was pulling Sophie’s tail. He knows he’s not allowed to do that. I asked if that’s what he was doing and he told me yes. I said, “you need to let go or you’re going in time out.” He said, “yeah!” So he went to time out. Three times. For the same thing. I finally had to abandon my breakfast and take him to another room so he would quit. 

So, as you can tell, I’ve had my hands full lately. Quinn is a little sponge right now and seems to learn a new word every day. When he picks up a new word or phrase, he gets stuck on it and says it over and over and over and over again. He learned “nerves” one day. Go ahead and guess why he heard that one 🤪. He loves getting out the air mattress and playing on it so he learned the word mattress. It was pumped up in his room all day and that evening he went in while I was cooking dinner and yelled my name continuously. When I finally went to see what he wanted, he told me “mattress!” I said, “You just yelled your head off to get me to come in here so you could tell me about the mattress that has been out all day?” He said, “yeah!” 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️🙄.

He learned the word running a few days ago and now that’s all he wants to do. He also learned “coming,” so now when I tell him to stay in bed and I’ll be right back, he says, “coming!” and holds his arms up 🤦🏻‍♀️. He impolitely tells us to move so we now make him say “please,” too. He likes to take us to his playroom in the basement and sit us down in the bean bag chair. He then says, “move,” and we’ll say, “move what?” and he says, “pease.” That’s funny but sometimes when you ask, “move what” you actually want an answer. He’ll tell me to move and gesture toward an object but when I ask what, all I get is please 😄🤦🏻‍♀️. 

When he learned “running” we had a battle getting him to come back inside 🤦🏻‍♀️😅. He said it the entire time he ran. 

He can be helpful sometimes and tells me when he makes a mess. Later in the day that he had peed on the bed, when we were getting ready for bedtime he touched the spot and said, “mess.” I said, “yes, there was a mess there earlier. What did you make a mess with?” and he answered “pee.” Yep. 

We constantly tell him he needs to be nice when he’s pinching, smacking, etc. When we go to take him out of time out we ask if he’s ready to be nice so now when he’s been mean and he’s gets reprimanded he’ll say, “nice” in the saddest voice ever 🥺😅. 

His communication skills are really good and it surprises me how aware he is sometimes and what he notices. Philip and I both wear contacts and so that’s one of the first things we both do in the morning, is put our contacts in. Quinn always insists on sitting on the sink while I’m brushing my teeth, washing my hands, and putting mine in. He watched me one day and then he stuck his finger into my empty case and then touched his eye. He was cracking me up. Ever since he learned the word boo boo after his burn accident (which has healed very nicely and I have hopes won’t scar him for life), every time he see my c-section scar he tells me boo boo. He’s too young give him a guilt trip about how I got it or I would 😉🤪. 

One positive to come from his communication proficiency is that he has gotten really good at telling us what he wants to eat, which is almost always noooooooodddles or cheese. He tells me 20 times a day that he wants to go downstairs (“stairs”) because he wants a pop. We have an extra fridge in the basement that is literally only used for extra drinks and a turkey once a year. He’s not actually allowed to have pop but I let him drink La Croix sparkling water and he calls that “pop.” 🤣. He loves it. 

He recently said, “love you,” in response to being told that (to Philip, of course 🙄). When I tell him I love him and ask he if knew that, he always smiles and says, “Yeah!” I do love him so much. He gives me 100 new gray hairs every day but he’s worth it. 

He didn’t actually care for sledding all that much and this might be the only time he smiled 🤣. 

We’ve been wrapped up in changing rooms around and doing some painting so I’ve had to come up with some new ways to entertain this toddler in order to get anything done. 

Repurposing yoga blocks into stepping stones worked to keep him occupied for quite a bit. This pic happened when he first started walking on them. By the time he was done, he had several pillows and blankets surrounding his path as a safety net. He’s reckless! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Amazon sent us a huge box for our monthly dog food and diaper delivery so we repurposed it into a tunnel. I poked some holes and hung paracord to make a sensory curtain. Quinn enjoyed chasing us through it and rolling his ball. 

We’ve made a few different sensory scooping/pouring bins. This one had sprinkles in it. He did a really good job keeping them in the clear tote. Maybe he can teach my 14 year old nephew, Coen, how to play with sprinkles and not make a mess 😉😅. Love you, Coen! Co, as Quinn calls him, is one of Quinn’s favorite people. 

This one had ice cubes in it. He loves scooping the ice cubes, and saying ice cubes, which sounds like asshole 🤣🤣🤣. 

Quinn still plays in the sink several times a day but apparently, pouring water and making a mess on the floor is still fun, too 😉. I got the pitcher at Dollar Tree just for this purpose. It’s small enough for him to handle. 

If you’re looking for ways to entertain your bored kiddos, I hope maybe I gave you some ideas. Another thing he loves to do it smell my perfumes and lotions and the spices in the kitchen. You could make a guessing game with different scents for older kids using cotton balls. 

Sansa and Sophie are pretty tired of being stuck inside and rarely getting to go for a walk. I try to take them just around the block when I can so that they feel like they got to go somewhere. Sansa loves the snow and goes out in the yard often to roll around. Soph has little fur and doesn’t last very long. She’s such a love bug and a sweet girl but man, she has absolutely no regard for anyone around her. Miley Cyrus could relate to her because she comes in like a wrecking ball, especially if she thinks Sansa might be getting loved up. Sansa still holds the title for best big sister ever. 

I wonder if Sansa get touched out too 🤪.