mystery

I recently did an escape game as a work activity, and I had a blast! A few of my coworkers and I were locked in a room and couldn't leave until we had solved a mystery. It was so much fun. When I got home, I told my son about it, and he loved the idea. My brain must have been working on it all that night while I was sleeping, because when I woke up, I had an idea for creating a mystery for my son in our spare bedroom.

After spending 30 minutes setting up, I gave the following photo to my son and his friend, who was at our house for a playdate, and told them that Paduba the Dog was missing! They needed to find out where he was and who had taken him.

Here are the clues they found (plus a few more, like a washcloth and spare credit card that weren't actually part of the game):

To get some of the clues, they first had to find keys / combinations to open locks for the suitcase and safe:

There were also clues hidden here (although not in the Kleenex box, as they discovered through their meticulous searching):

They spent almost an hour in the room! It was fun hearing them talk to each other and to see how well they had done when they finally asked for a hint. They had found almost all of the clues and just needed a little help to figure out how to use the clues to solve the mystery.

Here's what my son thought about it all:

He immediately got to work making more clues so that we could set up the room again, with a slightly different mystery, for Daddy when he got home from work.

don't try this at home

I recently decided to paint the red accent wall in our kitchen white. I started on Mama and Son Day. My son was super excited to help. We got supplies and started painting primer with brushes. This kept his interest for about five minutes. Then he played by himself and watched "Dogs with Jobs" for the rest of the time I was painting. I'm so thankful he is old enough to entertain himself for short periods of time!

 

 

 

P.S. Painting white over red took 2 coats of primer, 4 coats of paint, and 4 weekends to complete. 

P.P.S. I enjoyed this sign my son made to keep our painting a surprise from my husband. I'm not sure how much my husband enjoyed not being able to enter the kitchen...

 

why 4 is the new 3

I know I always say that whatever age my son is, it's my favorite age. Well, it's true of 4 too! I love the conversations we have, the things we learn about (space! water treatment plants!), the activities we do (Legos!). I also love the skills he has gained in the past few months: getting himself dressed, brushing his own teeth, and going to the potty by himself. Awesome.

Here's an example of how grown-up he is. The other day when I was home with him, we were getting ready for Family Movie Night. Our preparations usually include cleaning up the living room after "nap" time (the one downside to four is that no naps occur during naptime). This time, I made him take a bath, too. After his bath, I left him in his room while I went to take my shower. While I was enjoying a hot, uninterrupted shower (!), he got himself dressed. When I got out of the shower, he came to tell me he had started cleaning up the living room. By himself. Without me even asking him to. This guy is amazing!!

shields

My son asked me to make him a shield with one of the leftover pieces of cardboard from our appliance box house. Having just finished the second book in Game of Thrones, I got totally into it. Here's the one he made. It shows a picture of him in a castle, with a dragon below.

 

Here's what we did on the back:

 

  My art projects always pale in comparison to his, but here's mine. I call it "Red Lightning."

new house

We got a new refrigerator and dishwasher the other day, and we've been making the most of the boxes they came in.

Waiting for Daddy to cut holes...

My son made a sign for his new house:

And then helped with some of the construction:

Once the door was punched in...

...he was in business.

How does he like it? Thumbs up!

 

No, two thumbs up!

 

No, wait, four thumbs up!!

where i've been

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! I don't have any good excuses about where I've been, except that I've been taking a little break. In the past month, we've had the usual ups and downs of life: busyness at work; sicknesses to battle; house projects to do; Game of Thrones books to read...

My son also turned 4 at the end of June and had a police-themed birthday party. Nana and Bumpa (and others) dressed up. It was awesome!

I've been posting twice a week since I started the blog, but moving forward, I'm going to post on more of a casual basis, when something strikes me as worthy of sharing. As always, thanks for reading and for all of your support!

Best. Game. Ever.

I am a genius. I have come up with the perfect bedtime game to play with my son. It's called "Let's See Who Can Get Ready for Bed the Fastest". Here's how you play:

1. List the steps child must complete to get ready for bed. I.e., potty, brush teeth, put on pjs, find stuffed dog and bring into bedroom.
2. Go get yourself ready for bed while child scrambles through tasks. Take your time. When child comes in to see how fast you're going, tell them how much you have left to encourage them to keep playing in spite of whatever difficulties they're having wrangling those pjs.
3. When child announces that they are done getting ready, act really disappointed that they beat you. Celebrate on the inside. NOTE: It is very important not to let on how happy you are that they got themselves ready for bed; otherwise they might catch on.

That's it! Now, instead of the long, drawn-out process of nagging and stalling, you have a streamlined process that also allows you to fall right into bed after tucking in your little one. Double win! Sure, their pjs are on backwards, there's toothpaste all over the sink, and they probably didn't brush their teeth as thoroughly as you would have. But you know what? I'm not losing any sleep over it. In fact, I've gained 15 minutes of sleep. Hurrah!