Get Rid of the Toys
9:37 AM
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| Balloon Baby My house has been taken over by baby toys and matchbook cars. They are everywhere! |
After stepping on my fifth toy while trying to walk through my living room; I declared to myself...Get Rid Of The Toys!!! I was on a mission to clean up the toys and find a simple "toy" for my baby. What happened was not what I expected.
I gathered a bucket full of rattles, connector rings, stuffies, stackers and cars. A BUCKET filled with toys to occupy my six-month-old daughter and four-year-old son. I decided to blow up a balloon, tie on a piece of yarn and asked my skyscraper tall husband to pin the strung balloon to the ceiling.
Yes, I thought, what a great way to incorporate a gross motor skill building activity, hand eye coordination building and I get to hear some baby giggles.
I placed my daughter in front of the air filled pink balloon. She looked at it like the foreign object it was. With the big eyed, O shaped mouth look with tiny hands held up as if to say what is going on. She sat rod straight and refused to touch that simple air filled pink balloon. It was an invader in her little personal space bubble. It took exactly one slight sway of that invader to make my daughter start the wail for help! You know the one that all parents dread to hear, so loud the dog runs for ear saving safety.
That was definitely NOT, what I had envisioned for this innocent and pretty balloon.
To save the mommy and daddy sanity, we re-dumped the bucket of toys on the blanket-covered floor for the kids to play peacefully. As we sat, watching our kids with the balloon hung just over the baby’s head. The inner child in me called out to the swaying ball of fun. My hand reached out and lightly tapped the balloon toward my husband sitting in the chair across from me. Oh Yeah….he hit it back!
For the next three minutes, we tapped, slapped, bumped, kicked and flicked that pretty pink balloon.
Then it happened...Family play time!!!
We spent over an hour entertaining ourselves by this yellow yarn hung pink balloon. We had laughs, learning moments, stories from the past and a blast with each other. We all laughed and nobody cried. While doing so we DID work on those skill-building activities too but they were over shadowed by the family fun we experienced.
If I can toot my own horn... getting rid of the toys was my best idea by far.
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6 comments
Fab game, and glad you had a Mum win in the end! It's surprising how we have to show children how to have simple fun sometimes! Thanks for linking #ABrandNewDay
ReplyDeleteIn a high tech world it seems it is so hard to have simple fun! Love #ABrandNewDay!
DeleteThat's a lovely story. We had a similar love / hate experience with balloons. They are a great leveller. I managed to get a grumpy teen to smile at a baby party by playing balloon tag!
ReplyDelete#stayclassy
That is quite the accomplishment!
DeleteAw this is so sweet. It's one of those very small moments that could easily be seen as 'doing nothing,' but really in that moment you feel more joy than you ever could without them. : ) Who knew a balloon and some string could do this, it's the simple things in life. Thanks for linking up with #StayClassy!
ReplyDeleteYes it really is the simple things. Sometimes its those little things that keep me going.
Delete