Entries Tagged 'at play' ↓

Yesterday Ezri helped Eric assemble a bookshelf so her books can live right by her bedside. In our house there are never enough bookshelves.

She enjoyed playing with her backpack of plastic tools and implements of destruction. The set has a hammer, screwdriver, wrench, and channel lock, as well as, assorted plastic nails and bolts.

Conversation while Ezri holds up a toy channel lock:
Ezri: What is this for?
Me: It’s for gripping and pulling things out of. . . other things.
Ezri: Pull the baby! Pull the baby! (while waving her channel lock pliers in the air)

Another moment while grinning with her plastic screwdriver
Ezri: I need things to screw! Mommy, what can I screw?

We are playing “Go Away, Monster!” made by Gamewright and recommended to me by friends with toddlers.
It’s a perfect two-year-old board game.
She learns about taking turns and completing her gameboard. You can play competitively, but we played the cooperative style where players help each other out.
Best of all you get to yell, “Go Away, Monster!” at frequent intervals throughout gameplay.

Ezri placing a piece on her gameboard.

The real joy is pulling pieces from the bag. She knows she isn’t supposed to look, but sometimes I catch her peeking.

This game has such a simple concept that I now want to design my own toddler games. The big thing that sets it apart from other boardgames (ones that are still off in Ezri’s future) is that there is no need to be able to count accurately. Even Chutes and Ladders requires consistent counting skills. Sometimes, Ezri can count, but she still loses focus much of the time.

Ezri has asked to play this game again and again – so if anyone’s in the neighborhood and wants to play Go Away, Monster stop by. She already taught Jason and Lori who were our dinner guests on Friday night.

She picked the pink flower barrette and spent way too much time arranging these babies. She liked making sure they all had pacifiers in their mouths.

Maybe she’s being girly or maybe she’s assembling an army of baby doll minions to take over the world.

In any case, after this we had to play with trains and a soccer ball to make mom feel more balanced.

Ezri has a new love for magic markers. Or it may be that she is now mostly trusted to draw on paper and has more access to markers for this reason.

Her favorite thing to draw is spirals.

Here is a composition the artist calls “Spirals”

If anyone needs a drawing of spirals, just let me know. Ezri is willing to make MANY.

Say CHEESE!

While at her grandparents’ house, Ezri asked to go to see the cheese and quickly we figured out she wanted a walk to the Lincoln School playground. It has a cheese-shaped, concrete play structure and is just a few blocks from the house.

She made herself at home in the wagon Eric and his sister shared as children for the walk.

It was a very sunny & nice day and we all had a good time.
Ezri ran all over and proved that there is no playground equipment there she isn’t willing to try to tackle. Though, she definitely still needs a spotter.

Here she is doing something she called, “riding the cheese pony! Neigh!”

More cheese! She enjoyed climbing all over the cheese play structure. She had one small bump, but mostly has mastered the fine art of cheese climbing.

This is in a stagecoach shaped play structure. Ezri insisted it was a school bus and that everyone get on board. She was a little disappointed that the wheels did not go round and round in actuality, but being able to command all her adults to come onto the bus more than made up for that.

After the park it was back for a dinner on the porch with hot dogs, corn, potato salad, and WATERMELON. Yum.

Thanks, Grandma Liz, for taking these photos.

Turn the hose on her and, as long as it has the sprinkler attachment, it will bring shrieks of joy.

A plastic bin, a bunch of marbles, and assorted plastic cups. . .

This game held her attention for 45 minutes which is epic in toddler time.

I also like to think she learned something about relative volumes as she tried pouring marbles from one cup to another.

She counted marbles, sorted them by size and by color. . . all kinds of learning going on.

I recommend this activity for toddlers who are past the putting-things-in-their-mouths stage. Marbles = choking hazards. Roly-poly, super fun choking hazards though.

As Eric strums the guitar, Ezri sings us a ditty. We think she’s made up the lyrics herself, but you can tell us if you’ve heard this one before.
“Panda be a polar bear
Panda bear be a polar bear
Polar bear gets to be a parrot NOW.”

Eric bought me a contoured pillow to help with the expected future back pain of the third trimester.
Ezri got the bonus present of this awesome box.

She was not interested in sharing it with the cats, so they had to wait until after Ezri bedtime to play with it.
Ezri requested to play hide and seek tonight.
“Mama, you count. I will hide in the box.”
Okay, but it isn’t going to be that hard to find you, sweetie. . .

She told us she was “bunny Ezri” and the box was her cage.
She roared and told us she was “Ezri lion” and the box was her cage.

At one point, I tried to huff and puff and blow her box house down.
She said, “No, no, it’s bricks!”

I can see why Ezri loves the book Not a Box by Antoinette Portis.