Ample Bath Toys

Don't toss or recycle those bottles and tubs, use them for bath toys!

Especially fun are containers with unique lids, such as coffee creamer and squeezable jelly bottles. In general, the bottles with smaller necks add a lot of fun as they bubble as they fill up, and take longer to dump out. Don't be shy, a gallon sized milk jug is great fun too.

Of course, these all combine well with food colors. Have fun enjoying these containers in a new way. ;)

Bubbles in the Bath

Bubbles bubbles everywhere, all too many to eat. Bath time is a great time to blow bubbles for the little ones. They hang around longer, and give the adult something fun to do. They stick onto tile surfaces and wet kids, offering lots of popping fun. Happen to have a bubble machine? (You should.) that makes it quite the event.

Stroller on Steps?

Back wheels hitting step, need a lift.

I was recently speaking with an expecting Dad who was concerned about the upcoming changes to life. I pointed out that while there was much to change, they still had a lot of leeway with just one child for many months. In the first year we took our first born to New York, Chicago, Los Angles, and Europe. It all went rather well.

One of my larger concerns was traveling older cities with a stroller. Cobblestone streets and lots of stairs had me concerned. As it turns out, strollers can do stairs better than you may have guessed. Many stairs fit into a sweet spot where you can rock the stroller between front and back wheels.

Back wheels over the lip, rolled forward till front wheels hit.
Push handles down to rock a bye baby and lift the front. 

When the back wheels hit a step, you lift up till they roll over the lip. Then the front wheels will hit a step, but the back will now be on top of a step. You can then press down on the handles and cause the front wheels to roll up their step, till they crest the lip and roll forward.

The tick-tock rocking motion becomes easy and natural, and you can bounce your baby right up to the top of that medieval castle.

On the way down, you do it in reverse, with you below the stroller of course. If you get into a bind, with spiral steps or an unfortunate step ratio where both wheels hit steps at the same time, it's not so bad to have your significant other grab the front foot strap.

So, enjoy wider travels. At least for ours, until they're walking on their own children seem quite happy to stroll around all sorts of new places.

Pick the Songs

I sing poorly, but a crying kid will get you to try anything. At first, I used the classics. But soon row row row your boat and hush a bye baby were gnawing at my soul.

One car trip I was running out of ideas, and gave a shot at whistling the theme song to Super Mario Bros, and the Water World music. Hey, why stop there? Portal's Still Alive came to mind, and was actually not mind numbingly simple.

So I thought of what other songs would be enough to keep me from degrading further mentally, but were simple enough that even I could sing them. The current top songs:

• The Big Rock Candy Mountains
• Yellow Submarine
• When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again
• Puff the Magic Dragon
• Oh Danny Boy
• Cleveland Lounge Drowning

Some are still on the children's songs side of things, but at least have verses. Others are probably not typical for kids, but Still Alive and Drowning get more requests than you might think.

The moral: kids will love whatever songs you're happy to sing, so pick songs you'll enjoy singing.

Colored Rice

More fun with food colors!

• Put some rice into glass cups or small bowls.
• Add a few drops of food coloring and stir, stir, stir.
• Find some sturdy cardboard and cover with lots of glue. Spread it around to a thin layer.
• Sprinkle the colored rice over the glue.

The idea is inspired by sand art, but is a tad easier to clean up. A warning though, the food coloring takes a long while to dry on the rice, and will rub off on hands in the short term.

Food Colors in the Bathtub

There are lots of toys you can get for the bathtub, including crayons etc. But the best fun and learning I've found to date are simple food colors.

First, stock the bathroom with lots of fun cups. For example: plastic measuring cups, dishwasher cleaned containers with lids from snacks or butter tubs, funnels, etc.

Play time is just adding a few drops of color to kid's cups and letting them mix and splash them out. I often run the shower with the drain just partially open, letting the colors drain away. But sticking with just one or two colors and letting the whole tub turn a nice shade is good too.

What!? Something needs to come first?

I've jotted down the essentials of this simple blog: What!? ...is this all about?.