When Joe leaves on a trip I end up working twice as hard to entertain the two-year-old. We made a new rule about a month ago that we don't watch t.v., use the Internet, or play video games between 5-9 pm. Since that time the stress level in the evenings has gone down tremendously. However, it's a lot harder to do when Joe is gone. While he was deployed I would let Joli watch a show while I made dinner, but since we're trying to stay consistent with rule, that no longer works. So now I have to come up with an activity every night that Joli can do in the kitchen while I make dinner. Some nights my brain works better and it's not that hard. Some nights I'm exhausted and I wish Mickey Mouse could step in a do the entertaining. It also makes the nights seem longer now that it's getting dark earlier. And Joli's attention span leaves something to be desired. All of this comes down to and lot of activities and a very tired mommy. So after my child went to bed I started putting some effort into creating easy activities that can work every night! I used a few of them tonight, such as having her set the table and help me clean up. I'm looking forward to continuing to try out new activities!
One thing we did today was to take a walk around the neighborhood without the stroller. We walked very slow and talked about different things we saw on our journey. We also talked about safety while walking. Joli learned that it's not safe to walk in the street even if she doesn't see a car and that cars can't always see her because she's so small. Here she is getting ready for our walk. I'm not sure why she thought we needed a back pack?
After dinner I showed Joli how to make play-doh. She thought it was pretty neat and then spent almost an hour creating all sorts of things with it!
I had to teach her that if she smooshed it down really far she could get more shapes out of it. She was putting a lot of effort into this.
It's always so excited when you're able to do something for the first time!
After the play-doh got boring we used a daddy trick and made a fort in the living room.
It was so cool to hide in. I want one in my size!
Tomorrow will be a new day and we create new things!
One of the things that I was looking forward and that made Joli excited about going was getting a milkshake.
They were soooo yummy. Joli wanted a pink one so she got strawberry but I love regular vanilla.
They also have this totally amazing mac'n'cheese. I ordered a sandwhich that was pretty good, but nothing compared to Joli's mac'n'cheese.
Charlotte was also very interesting in the yummy drinks. The waitress actually asked if she wanted one. Kacie and I just laughed. Hello!
After we were done eating Joli and I played a few games in their arcade. Joli's still a little young to get the concept but we played enough for her to get a little prize so she thought that was cool. It was still fairly early when we left the restaurant so we made a stop at the park.
I've never taken Joli to the pretty little park across the street from the airport, but she was very excited. She was a little bummed that I wouldn't let her swim though.
After about 25 minutes of playing "chase me" up the stairs and down the different slides, I was exhausted, so we headed home for a little rest.
