So…I have 2 boys. If you don’t know me, then you may not know that. I you do know me…then you can’t really miss that. You see, we fought hard to have these babies. We had lots of twists and turns along the way…adoption always being a part of that journey, just unsure of when we would be walking down that road. We thought that road would be sooner rather than later, but God had a different plan and a different design. We are so blessed by our boys and thankful to have them…but man, I’m so excited to see them be older brothers! Fisher’s tender heart and Hamilton’s desire to be a BIG helper…it’s gonna be awesome! Anyway…
These 2 boys are 16 months apart and they are BUSY BUSY BUSY! Always moving from one thing to the other. I mean it took me 30 minutes to get them dressed for the snow yesterday only to call them inside 45 minutes later for the snack I knew they needed because if they get to the point of asking for the snack…well, it’s too late. Hangry has set in and snack should have happened long before that point. Winter months are hard because going outside is a HUGE effort, but staying inside is just boring after we have exhausted all 100 different toy options the basement has provided. Enter: Busy Bags!
A dear friend of mine invited me to join other moms for a busy bag exchange…I didn’t know what I was getting into, but as we are entering into the “home stretch” of winter…I figured we could all use a change of scenery in the way of activities…so I put mine together (I’ll do a separate post with instructions and printouts…) and showed up at a strangers house to be filled to the brim with good food and rich conversations about mothering well in the midst of our own struggles…oh yeah, and we exchanged our bags. Each mom made 7 bags with the same activity in each bag (we signed up on a joint google spreadsheet so we could see what each person signed up for). By the end of the night we had passed out our activities and walked away with 7 new activities to keep our littles preoccupied. I cannot tell you enough how awesome it was! I felt so revived and filled after that evening. Thanks to Ashley for suggesting it! Thanks to the hubs for not teasing me restlessly about the fact that toddlers probably do not care that their little felt fish have the perfectly designed puffy paint scales. (There is no limit to my perfectionism. It will always be something I have to battle…for better or worse. Ugh.) However, I will admit, it was super fun to craft with a purpose!
I got home the next day and as snack wrapped up and I still had a few more thing to get done I thought…here goes nothing…
“Hey guys, you want to do a different activity?”
Fish, “Oh! That sounds like a good idea!”
Me, “Great…here you go!”
I gave Hami the straws and pipe cleaners to put through them. He did that for over 30 minutes! He’s 18 months…if you know anything about the attention span of a year and a half old…then please understand that this was a HUGE win for me! Fish did a few different activities! Rotating through a few of the bags landed me an hour of self play with both child! Woo hoo! Little victories ya’ll! Seriously! It was so great! I got to thinking it would be a fun thing to do for a birthday party or something like that…
“Look mom! I did an B and an I!”
Link to the activities we had to choose from: google sheet -feel free to copy it, change it, add to it, do as you want with it…most of the ideas came from Pinterest…I’m sure if you search “toddler busy bag” you will come up with PLENTY of options. ENJOY! Be sure to shoot me a message and let me know what you make! If you come up with new ones, I’d love to have those as well! I’m already planning my nap time activities to get a few more made. Hami needs a few that are younger toddler focused…
