The Fort

As a kid, the house itself, albeit overrun by toys, is a grown-up thing.  The shiniest stuff is always breakable and out of reach. The sink requires a step stool to reach.  The corners of the counters and tables are right at head-banging level.  The doorknobs can lock, but Mom and Dad have a secret key to get any of them open.  So, your only escape from the world of adults is your bedroom...UNLESS, of course, you have a super awesome, secret fort!!

We recently moved, and within a few days of moving in my husband and I noticed that the bottom shelf of one of the built-in shelf units downstairs had a curtain in the back instead of wood.  Upon further investigation, we discovered that this was the entrance to a super-secret fort.  With a spiral staircase, we didn't think to look for a closet underneath like you might with regular stairs.

We waited about a week or so before we unveiled the fort to Sammy, our 3 year old.  I wanted to get in there and clean it up, paint it, and make it incredibly awesome for him...or at least give him a jumping-off point to give it his own awesome touch.

It was all pretty brown and dingy, so I took some colorful paint left-over from various home painting projects to brighten it up.  This included the underside of the steps too, of course, and stripes on the vertical ribbed paneling.

 

 I ran some rope lights around the inside, and plugged them into a little dimmer switch controller, so Sammy could easily turn them on and off. I also hung a couple battery powered push lights on the walls.

 During a trip to the fabric store I came across a package of wall "stickers"...little trucks, airplanes, and trains with wallpaper paste on the back.  I scattered these around the inside as well.

 

 You can see above that I left a rectangle of the wood un-painted on one step.  This spot holds the history of the fort, hand-written with pencil by the kids who came before us.  Here you can find out who originally built the fort, who added decorations, who "was here" on various dates, who painted their toenails in the fort, and even a record of who farted in the fort.  Now how could I have painted over that? We'll add our own history to this little record!

 I wanted to reveal the fort to Sammy through a game of hide-and-seek, one of his favorite games that we play almost daily.  He counted with Daddy while Mommy hid, in the fort of course.  Let's just say he was pretty excited to find Mommy in this hiding spot of all hiding spots!

Not long after the reveal of the fort, we took a trip to one of Sammy's favorite stores, Choo Choo Bob's Train Store.  They had a wall of posters for $1.50 so I let him pick one to hang on his fort wall.  Without hesitation he chose this one (above), of "Engineer Emily" from the Choo Choo Bob Show.  As his mom, I'm pretty happy with his choice for his first girl poster.

This fort also has a secret 2nd entrance, under the steps in the corner...it's open but you'd never think to look there if you were coming down the stairs.

Toby LOVES to play in the fort as well.  For a little guy who isn't quite walking yet, it's pretty exciting to have something so cool that is accessible by crawling!

I'd still like to make a new curtain that blends in more with the shelf to make it even more secret, and maybe add a shelf or two inside for toys.  But, this industrial designer Mommy will try her hardest to refrain from doing too much, so that my boys can do what THEY want with the fort as they get older! (As long as they don't take girlfriends in there!)

How to Play: A Step-by-Step Guide for Grown-Ups

Lately my two boys have been staggering their naps. This unfortunately means less productive freelance work time for Mommy.  However, I have been trying to see the positive side of this, and make the most of my individual time playing with each of them.

 [While big brother naps, Toby ponders whether to play with his teething ring, or big brother's toy airplane]

This may sound funny to some, but in fact many parents have a hard time switching gears from their grown-up world and really PLAYING with their kids.  Play with your kids as much as you can, and I can almost guarantee that soon after you will...

- Smile.
- Laugh.
- Fall in love with your child all over again.
- Learn something new about your child.
- Be amazed that your child can do something you didn't even know they could do.
- Notice your little mirror reflecting the things you say and do during the day.

Here are 4 basic starting points to get you playing with your kids!

1) Lay down on the floor.  Whether you lie on your back or your belly, sometimes it really is just as simple as that.  My 1-year-old particularly loves this.  He'll crawl on me, bury his face in me, and play on and all around me with a huge perma-grin.  My 3-year-old will usually take this opportunity to instigate a wrestling session, or "doctor" me with his toy doctor kit.

 [Doctor Sammy & his assistant, Toby prescribing PLAY!]

There's just something about getting down on their level, and especially BELOW their level by letting them climb on your or making them fly like Superman on your feet.  Make them feel tall, and worth stopping your busy day for!  Also, try taking photos...you can get some great shots from down on their level!

[Just think about how awesome it is to FLY over the parents that you are normally having to strain your neck to look up to?!]

2) Say "YES."  When you have a few free moments in the day, make the decision to say "yes" to your child's questions that start with, "Mommy, wanna  ______?"  (unless of course it is illegal, would result in injuries, or contradicts your family's morals)  I am usually posed with questions like this all day long.  "Mommy, wanna play Legos with me?  Wanna play tag?  Wanna play hide and seek?  Wanna...." Most of the time I find myself saying, "Maybe later, Mommy has to _______ right now."  It's easy to get swept away with your to-do list, but if you can add "say yes to your kid's play request at least once" to your list and do this once a day, you won't regret it.

3) Play into their fantasies.  The pressure really comes off once you realize that you don't have to control or lead when it comes to play.  You don't need to achieve a list of goals, you have no time restrictions, and you don't have to follow an outline.  Relax and let your child's imagination lead you.  If your son turns the laundry basket into a boat, pretend to be the Loch Ness monster circling him.  If your daughter throws a tea party, invite yourself and share some imaginary conversation with the teddy bears and Barbie dolls.  A little imagination is good for everyone at any age! Having trouble getting some imagination going?  Put on some HATS! (or turn other stuff into hats!)

[who knew a plastic hard hat and a bendy straw could induce such smiles?!]

4) Be silly.  Sure, you may not want to practice your most realistic farting noises at a fancy restaurant, but try to let go of your inhibitions once in a while and be silly at home with your kids. While learning manners is of utmost importance to us, it's okay to teach your kids that there is a time and place for everything, including silliness!!

I get the best photos of the kids when I have my camera in hand while playing with them.  They are already naturally smiling because they are having fun, and I am able to capture some great shots of them doing what they love!  All of the photos in this post were taken yesterday while we played on the floor!

Okay, I've been typing way too long now.  Time to give in to Sammy's pleas to go play outside! (despite the below freezing temps!)  Now get down on the floor and have some FUN!

Powerless in Minnesota

Yesterday, during a record-breaking wind storm in our area, we lost our power at 2:00 am.  With over a hundred flights to Minneapolis canceled, my husband was stranded in Detroit, so I was "home alone." Let's just say I slept extremely "light" that night, subconsciously straining to hear Toby's 4:30 cry for food from upstairs through howling winds and debris hitting the windows, since the monitors were not working! Sammy was a little freaked out when he learned that the lights wouldn't turn on, so I promised him we'd go to Target and get a cool new flashlight.

We spent the morning in between waking up and picking up Daddy at the airport going to various places with heat and electricity...first to Target to get some flash lights, baby food and breakfast since I didn't want to open our frig, then a race to the pediatrician for Toby's 9 month appointment.  I wasn't prepared for Sammy to also have two shots that he needed (by "unprepared" of course I mean having left the all important "Puppy" in the car).  It was a challenge to say the least, comforting two little boys who had each gotten two shots, with no comfort items!  Eeek!  Thankfully my ipod loaded with Thomas cartoons and a couple stickers from the doctor calmed Sammy down, who was more upset about the shots than Toby.  Then we were off to the Mall of America where we stopped in the Apple store for a surprise visit with Sammy's cool Apple Specialist Gramma!  I borrowed some electricity in an outlet in the hallway to re-charge my iPhone a little while feeding Toby some breakfast in the stroller.  Then, off to the airport to pick up Daddy who had finally been able to make it home on his 4th flight attempt...all of this done by 10:30 am!  It was a full morning to say the least!

My husband drove us home and headed to work.  We decided to stick around home since it was still 65 degrees inside (cold, windy, and snowflakes falling outside), so the boys could nap in their own beds.  We had some "analog fun" without electricity between then and nap time...

It was a struggle between having fun with flashlights and conserving the batteries in case we needed them when it actually got dark.  But, they were NEW and AWESOME and we just HAD to play with them!

Here we are clearly trying to see how many battery powered devices we can use at one time:

Sammy wanted to cut some paper so we spread out on the floor and made paper Thomas engines.  Here he is helping glue the wheels on Gordon:

More flashlight fun.  I had just read some magazine article about how you can help teach hand-eye coordination by having your kid point the flashlight at things.  So, I named things around the house up high or across the room for him to shine his light on:

Somehow every game comes back to belly buttons...we shone it on each others' of course...

I was afraid that after this morning's painful shots Sammy wouldn't enjoy his doctor kit so much.  However, it wasn't long before I heard "doctor me, Momma!"  He even "doctor'ed" his new paper engines:

 I did notice that when he gave me shots he pushed as hard as he could this time....he must have made the connection that shots are supposed to hurt!

We all sat on the floor in the basement and made a nice big mess playing with toys...

We rolled the ball back and fourth...

 ...and got good and worn out by nap time!  I got them all tucked in and less than 5 minutes later, the power came back on!  It was quite a relief as we lose our power during just about every major storm, one time for 4 days.  So, 11 hours without power was a short stint for us.

So, that is how we spend our power-less stretch!  While I had a TON to do this week, it was a bit of a blessing in disguise to be forced to stay away from my computer for a while and just focus on keeping the kids' minds off the fact that we had no power! Hooray for forced, electricity-free family fun!

Two Great, FREE Twin Cities' Splash Pads to Check Out This Summer

We had a blast today, during what is supposed to be the only day this week without rain, playing at the Oak Hill Splash Pad in St. Louis Park with our church play group friends! 

If you live in the Twin Cities, this place is definitely worth checking out.  It's completely free, and fully fenced in, so you can really let your kiddo's run wild.  There's a great playground right there as well, if getting drenched isn't their thing.  Sammy wasn't so crazy about getting his head wet last year at 1 and a half, but this year, he was LOVING it, as you can see... 

There are plenty of benches and lounge chairs around the perimeter, as well as a few large umbrellas, and bathrooms both indoors and portable.  Just outside the fence you can enjoy a picnic on a table or in the shady grass.  The water park is open June 1st through August 31, and is located at 3201 Rhode Island Avenue South in St. Louis Park.

If you live south of the river, Nicollet Commons Park in Burnsville is a fantastic splash pad type park as well, also completely free!  This one is very different but also very fun.  It is NOT fully fenced, and is very spread out, so it can be a challenge if you have more than one kid to keep track of.  It is not painted all colorful and playground-like, like the previously mentioned park...if you walked through it and didn't see kids playing in it, you might think it's just a pretty park full of water features and not know that it's actually meant for kids to play in. 

This park is very spread out, and features waterfalls, fountains, rivers, and all kinds of fun areas for kids to get wet.  It was surprisingly not busy, even when we went on a very hot Saturday afternoon last month.  I'm thinking that either not a lot of people know about it yet, or people are just too afraid to let their kids climb on waterfalls that go over jagged-edged rocks.  ;-)  Yes, there are quite a few jagged cliffs at this park, so you definitely want to keep an eye on your kids and make sure they don't get hurt.  But, there are other areas of the park (again, spread out) that are more harmless if you can keep your kids in one area.

This park is surrounded with a lot of nice grassy areas where you can spread out on a blanket for a picnic, as well as a few picnic tables.  Water features are running from mid May until the first week of October, and close from 5:00-9:00 am for maintenance.

I know I'm planning on chasing around these little wet footprints a lot this summer!