I'm New At This

I have been blessed with 3 beautiful children. Rylee, 7....Sophie.....5, have been pretty easy to handle (physically). Now emotionally is a different story. However, overall, they are wonderful girls. When they were younger, and as they've grown, they've always played very well independently. They would sit down and read books, play a game, play dolls, do puzzles, play with ponies or stuffed animals, color, paint, do play-doh. The list could go on and on. They were very good at doing those things and doing them in an orderly manner.

Then Heavenly Father blessed me with a very adorable, very active little boy. He LOVES to read books (the same 3 over and over again), but I can't do that ALL day. He'll do puzzles, but we only have 5 that are "age appropriate", and after we finish, he's done. I've tried coloring, but then I find very creative artwork on my table, chairs, and walls (if he finds markers laying around that sisters have left out, then artwork also appears all over his body). I've tried play-doh, but it ends up smashed in the carpet, nose, or in the mouth. And don't even get me started on paint. I've tried to build forts for him, but he'll play in them for all of 5 minutes and then he's finished. He'll just start running around climbing, pulling things out of cupboards, etc. With these cold winter days that we are SO blessed to have 8 months out of the year, most of my days are spent chasing this squeezable toddler around my house so he's not racing to put his hands in the toilet anytime he hears the bathroom doors open, climbing on top of the table numerous times a day, climbing up the pantry shelves trying to get food (which eventually ends up spilled all over the floor), climbing to the highest point of my sofa as if he's a tight rope walker, getting things out of the garbage can, or pushing the garbage can over onto it's side, or going into my fridge and finding the eggs and smashing them while smearing the yolk into my carpet (yes, we have now purchased a fridge lock).

So I guess my question for all of you out there with active little boys is.....

How do you keep them entertained when they are stuck indoors and not sleeping? I am open to any and all suggestions......PLEASE!

And while your brainstorming, I thought I'd share a few pictures for your enjoyment.....

(please excuse my camera and all the blurriness, the lens hasn't been cooperating with me for the past few weeks)

Went to Costco the other day and to burn energy, let Charlie and Sophie, pretty much demolish my paper towels. They had a lot of fun and it kept them busy for about 15 minutes!

Yes, this is a "opened pantry door, climbed up on the shelves and found the pretzels incident."

And this is a "mom forgot to put the fridge lock back on and since I have a sensor in my head, it told me that it was unlocked. So, i went to the fridge and pulled out the strawberries and started eating them incident."