Don’t you love it when you find something your toddler just loves? Like the first time I tried Criss, Cross, Applesauce on AndyZ and immediately asked for MO! MO! I’ve loved that so many people have emailed or commented about tried that on their child and being so entertained by how much they love it.
- AndyZ loves butterfly kisses. You know, the one where you bat your eyelashes against their cheek? Instant giggle inducer. Often he kisses my eyes afterwards, which is so cute it makes my heart melt. He doesn’t do it every time, it’s like he saves it for when he really wants some ice cream.
- If I can’t get him to come to his room for a diaper change? I get down on all fours and offer him a ride on my back. He always obliges then. (And it’s a good workout!) Although, there is a downside to this as he likes it so much sometimes, if I’m just sitting on the floor, he tries to jump on my back for a surprise ride. This often hurts.
- Sometimes NikkiZ and AndyZ are too busy to give me kisses. When I finally get them to come to me for a kiss, I’ll zerbert their lips. They find this hysterical and often will come back for more. AndyZ even tries to do the same to me, but it often just results in me with a mouthful of spit. GLAMOROUS!
- AndyZ loves, loves lotion. He calls it “Moe-Dee” for some reason. I keep a tube at the changing table and give him a skirt to keep him occupied while I change his diaper. He thinks it’s really funny when I put some on his belly.
- AndyZ also loves chapstick. But this is sometimes a BAD thing as he finds it and eats it when I’m not looking. He actually sees it somewhere now and says, “Eat Eat Chapstick?” (Which, actually sounds like, “Eat Eat Daddy?” – a completely different sentiment.) So, before you introduce this, make sure you know where all of the chapstick you own is. Chapstick poop is gross. TRUST ME ON THAT ONE.
Basketball. Tony is OBSESSED with all things basketball. For his birthday, he got a Lil Tykes basketball hoop, and his FAVORITE is when he says, “Daddy? .. bakket?” and Bryan will upend him, flip him over, and dunk his head in the basket.
Mommy cannot do this trick.
Ever fingerpaint with shaving cream? A few random drops of food coloring makes pretty swirls. Or a few drops of paint for that matter.
We do Group Hugs and Group Kisses.
If Piper sees Scott and I hugging, she’ll drop everything and yell, “DON’T FORGET ME!!” or “WAIT FOR ME!!” Sometimes it’s funny to ignore her when she says that and she’ll worm her way between us 🙂
“speeder-bike rides” to bed. (You carry the kid in front of you, his knees bent to the chest, and your arms under the knees. You make various star wars speeder bike noises, and swoop the kid to and fro, making sure you come perilously close to door frames and such.) I did that with the boys until I literally could not carry them that way any more. (roughly, age 10.)
If chapstick poop is anything like “I just ate a stick of butter” poop, I don’t want to know any more. 🙂
Mainly the boys like to “wrestle” with their Daddy. They think that is hilarious and are always telling him that he won’t be able to take them all on once the baby gets here! Quinn and I have a cute thing though. I call him my Sweet Baboo and he says one of two things “I am not your Sweet Baboo, and I wouldn’t invite you to a garage sale” or ” I am not your Sweet Baboo, and I wouldn’t invite you to a chicken race” and then we giggle. It’s from Charlie Brown. They used to like it when I would spray them with my body spray, but now that is yucky because it’s for girls.
My toddler has the same shirt AND eats chapstick too!
If my little guy won’t give me a kiss and hug when I drop him off at daycare, the tickle monster comes! I tickle him in short spurts repeatedly asking with each break, “Are you ready to kiss the monster away?” After a couple rounds of this, we are both giggling and I get my kiss/hug.
Actually the tickle monster is good for lots of distraction…
We also have attacks of “The Floppy’s”. When one of my kids is complaining about a minor injury (paper cut, stubbed toe, etc). I ask if they caught the floppy’s or I say, “uh-oh, I think it’s the floppy’s!” and then I wiggle/shake the affected limb until everyone is giggling. PS- tickling is the only way to cure the floppys! (Yikes- I never realized how much I tickle my kids!) 🙂
We do this thing where if our kids are crying for no real reason – if, say, they are in the midst of a fit that has gone on too long – we have to get the cry bugs off of them. You get cry bugs off by tickling. Sometimes my husband and I accidentally get cry bugs on us when we’re taking them off, and then we pretend to cry. My girls think it is hilarious.
My youngest, who is two, has taken to screaming when she’s mad about something. Just SCUH-REAMING. One day, I said, “Uh oh, you’ve got a scream stuck in there,” and pretend to snatch it from her mouth. Then I feed it to my oldest, who obliges by screaming at me, so I snatch it from her and throw it in the air. Then I chase it around the house. Then I bring it back to my youngest who says, “No,” and throws it away.
By the way – my oldest does “criss cross applesauce, spoons in the bowl” at school, which involves sitting with your legs crossed, hands in your lap. So it’s different than yours but a really handy tool for keeping her behaved when I need her to be still.
We do Christopher Sandwich (or Mom Sandwich or Dad sandwich). Two people stand facing each other and whoever is the sandwich, gets in the middle for a group hug.
My kids are old now so I can’t think of anything off the top of my head except each night as part of the bedtime routine we wrote in that day’s square of a calendar what we did that day. I always tried to write part of it exactly as they said it, which could be quite goofy. They were about 2-1/2 and 6 when I started. They loved it (for several years) and would often want to hear back from a previous time what we had written.
Sounds way too simple, but my 21 month old loves LOVES when I get on the floor and pretend to be a puppy or kitty. LOVES.
I will be stalking these comments since I need hints particularly right now. *sigh*
My two favorite games are these:
1. I Love You More Than Cupcakes: I start off by saying “I love you more than cupcakes” and the little one replies by saying “I love YOU more than cookies”. We continue this game ad nauseum, moving on to animals, people, places. It is fun to play, it makes all of us laugh and I have noticed it often involves word association. for example, if I start talking animals, then they move into animals, too. If I start talking zoo animals, instead of dinosaurs, they do the same, too. Fun stuff.
2. The Submarine Game: In the car, we pretend like the car is anything BUT a car. Usually, it is a submarine and we talk about all of the things they spy outside their windows. Sometimes, the car is a boat, sometimes it is a rocket ship, other times it is a boat. Usually, it is a submarine, though.
Now I am off to learn Criss-Cross Applesauce. They will think that is funny because currently, all it means to them is to sit down quietly and cross their legs (as learned at school). They will be thrilled to learn it can be more.
We do super high fives…which entails starting at different parts of the room and moving in slow motion to give other a “super high five” We actully got this idea from a kid’s rap group here in mpls…koo koo kangroo. Awsome, fun stuff and free downloads.
Along those lines we do dance parties too!
We do the sign for “I Love You” a lot. Like when she’s getting on the school bus or leaving to do to my parents’ or after scoring a goal in soccer. You know, you hold up your thumb, pointer and pinkie and fold down the other two fingers.
It’s our special sign and even if she’s not wearing her “ears,” we can tell her we love her.
Heh I’m going to have to come back to this entry when I have kids to do all this fun stuff with! 😉 My friends might react strangely if I tried 😛
Love love LOVE Andy Z’s shirt!
I did many of the things you did when mine were little. They loved piggyback rides and when I did laundry, I’d pile the clean clothes on the living room floor and they’d tumble in them when they were still warm. All folded clothes had to be put away quickly, though, or they would tumble through those, too!
Now that they’re teens? I love it when they come spend time with ME by playing cards or board games or watching tv or a movie.
No kids, but when I was little we used to love when our dad walked and quacked like a duck. And when he let us walk on his back. And “airplane rides!” That’s a trick I used to use when baby-sitting a lot, lay on my back and put my feet on the kid’s belly and fly her over me making airplane noises. My grandma also used to do this thing at bedtime; we always called it mousey-mousey because she’d walk her fingers up and down our backs saying, “Mousey mousey on your back, up and down his little track.” I’m sure there were a few more lines I can’t remember. Another fun baby-sitting game I used was called Huckleberry Beanstalk. No idea why. But anyway you’d hide something in the room with at least part of it showing. Could be a shoe, toy, fork, whatever. And the kid had to find it and the further away they’d get, I’d tell them they were getting colder, freezing, antartic, and closer they were to finding it, they kept getting warmer, hot, burning!
Madeline currently loves:
Eskimo kisses (rubbing noses) – makes her giggle hysterically every time;
shouting “BELLY!!” in growly, threatening voice, and afterward attacking said “BELLY!!” with zerberts;
pouring water, anywhere, anytime;
alternately dancing and then holding still upon command (thanks Yo Gabba Gabba!);
spinning in circles.
I just thought of another one…
My husband chases the kids around threatening to crack an egg on their head. When he catches them, he pretends to do that and they all giggle.
When you corner them- put one hand in a loose fist, cover it with the other hand held flat. Bop the child gently on the head and open both hands. Slide your hands down their hair, face, and body while wiggling your fingers.
Buckin Bronc, but if you have a bad back this may not be a good idea. We do this at bed time. I get on all fours on the bed (this sounds more like a game for the hub and I) and my daughter climbs on my back and I buck her off onto the bed. She loves it.
I did the criss cross applesauce to my daughter (7 years) last night and she loved it.
Mine’s only 6 months old, but LOVES it when we start to go in for a kiss on one cheek, then at the last minute kiss the other cheek.
Another weird one – if he’s sitting a little bit away from me, I look all around the room (saying doo, doo, doo, doo), then look at him quickly and say “LOOKIN’ AT YOOOOOOU.” Guaranteed huge giggles, every time.
Mine also can not get enough of looking at pictures of other babies on the computer (including yours, so thank you for posting your beautiful family photos!)
Lil’bug loves lotion and lip balm/lip gloss, too, though she doesn’t eat it (she does have a few years on AndyZ). If I let her have it she’ll use it every 5-10 minutes.
My kids loved “Pony Boy,” especially the “WHOA” at the end.
Lil’bug loves basketball. She’s actually gotten very good with the eye-hand coordination of dribbling. She’s allowed to have a ball in the hall while Scout is at practice, not at games, which she still doesn’t completely grasp.
In the summer she likes to wear Scout’s outgrown t-shirts.
Books, books, books! Scout has read all of the Harry Potter books a few times, all of the Eragon series at least twice, the Lightning Thief series. Lil’bug loves all kinds of childrens books.
Lil’bug: dancing, singing, being tickled, and hand games and cheerleading routines she learned from the older kids at aftercare at school.
If they get bored while we’re out shopping he likes giving her piggy back rides (which is good, because my back couldn’t handle it).
“Pennies”: put a coin in your hand, put hands behind back, switch coin (or not), bring hands to the front and have her guess which hand it’s in.
I didn’t know criss cross applesauce did anything beyond getting kids to sit quietly, I’ll have to check that out.