A Ridiculously Easy (and Free) Way to Keep Your Toddler Entertained

Having a little one around the house is awesome. But there are times that she’s not as entertained as normal by the same toys/videos/games she plays with every day. When these moments come we, as parents, sometime are stuck trying to come up with new ways to keep our little ones’ minds entertained. It can be tough to find new (and free) ideas, so why not just go back to an old classic: the fort.

This week I rediscovered how much little kids (at least my twenty month old daughter) love to play in pretend forts (or “house” as my daughter calls it). I remembered this idea when I was flipping through the book Cheap Ways To … the other day. All I had to do was rearrange our four dining room chairs a little and toss a comforter over them. She has absolutely LOVED it. I bet she could play in it for over an hour before getting bored. Best of all, it’s FREE!!!

Here’s a couple pictures of the fort:
Ridiculously easy
She loves playing in this fort

This probably should have been a no-brainer, but I really had just forgotten about it.

Got any other ideas on keeping little ones entertained?

Parenting Skills

I really do love my daughter, but this video doesn’t really show it. We were at the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound, TX. Emory was having a great time running between the pumpkins. Then, WHAM, down she goes. I didn’t immediately run over to check on her. My first thought was, “Sweet! I’m glad I was recording!”

Thankfully she was fine and went on running after we wiped the grass off her jeans.

Toddlers are resilient like that.

Hardest part of being a new dad

To follow up on yesterday’s post about the best thing(s) about being a dad I thought I’d share what I think is the absolutely hardest part about being a father. You may have heard that the sleepless nights, dirty diapers, and the baby crying is the hardest part, but that not it from my perspective. Those parts are not very fun sometimes, but they are easy compared to the real thing that is the hardest.

What really is the hardest part of being a dad is what I call the “cloud of responsibility.” Picture the Peanuts comic strip where the storm cloud follows Charlie Brown around. That’s kind of what the cloud does. It’s there no matter where I am or what I’m doing. Now that Emory is here, I know for certain that I am responsibile for the well-being of another person. That’s pressure.

And when I say responsible I mean EVERY LAST ASPECT OF HER LIFE will be a direct reflection, for the most part, on how well I do as a father. I’ve read plenty of studies that show that if the dad is a positive influence on his child’s life she will be happier, healither, and have a better confidence in herself than if he’s absent. But on the flipside if a dad is not a positive influence her life will pretty much be a wreck. (I’m exaggerating, obviously).

Having this said, I don’t mind the cloud being there. It makes me sharper. It inspires me to work harder. I know that, with God’s help, I will be up to the challenge.