rainy day

It's hard enough trying to come up with new, fun things to do with your toddler on a beautiful sunny day, let alone when it is chilly and pouring rain and your child is getting over strep, which basically eliminates those indoor activities that might involve him coming within ten feet of another child. I have a stockpile of great ideas for arts and crafts projects for when A gets a little older, but for now, I fear most of those projects would end with Alex ingesting deadly amounts of clay or gluing cottonballs to his forehead.

Yesterday was one of those chilly, rainy days, the type of day that is made for sleeping in, and I was determined not to sit around the house with Alex all day, whining and moping and wishing that I was still in bed. So I got a little ambitious and decided to build a cardboard playhouse using old moving boxes and Gorilla Tape. It seemed like a great idea - which it was, in theory - but I soon realized that Alex was not going to wait until I was done building it before he destroyed it. No amount of time-out threats was going to stop that kid from barreling through my half-built house, so I spent most of the "construction phase" trying not to slice him with my Exacto blade or tape his hair to a box. Let's just say the craftsmanship on this thing is a bit below par.

When he is older and actually appreciates the work that goes into building a great cardboard playhouse, I will design and build the coolest one a kid has ever seen, complete with a gourmet kitchen, working potty, washer and dryer, and room after room of tiny-yet-structurally-sound furniture. But for now, I can't keep him from climbing on top of the structurally-unsound playhouse and caving the roof in. Okay, to be fair, he does like to crawl through it and open and close the doors and pop his head out of the openings, trying to scare me. He has enjoyed minutes of fun playing with it, which is far longer than most things keep his attention these days.

After lunch, A took a long three-hour nap, thanks to the dark new drapes in his bedroom and the sound of the rain falling. When he got up, it was still raining, and when I opened the door to let Murph out, Alex ran onto the front porch to check things out. While this kid loves to be outside under any condition, he especially likes to play in the rain, no matter how cold or windy or wet it might be. It was a little chilly, so I didn't let him play in the rain like I otherwise would. Instead, he just stood on the porch in his t-shirt and bare feet, waving to the rain, kissing the rain, and saying "Rain? Rain?" over and over again (with the occasional "Wet!" thrown in every now and then, just to keep things interesting).

Today looks to be another wet one, so I guess I'll have to see what other tricks I've got up my sleeve. Chances are, he will be bored of his playhouse by this afternoon, that is, if he doesn't crush it flat before the boredom sets in. Boys...