Easy Father's Day Craft for Toddlers and Young Kids

Last year I had Lucas make a cute craft for Dan for Father's Day. (I'm going to assume that you all know that "had Lucas make a craft" actually translates to "I mostly made the craft with Lucas doing a few elements of it with lots of help because, come on people, he was two years old last year. I mean, he's smart, but he doesn't know how to do woodworking yet or anything. Though, to be fair, I don't know how to do woodworking either. And I'm 32.")

Moving on... I was going to post this craft last year, but I wanted to wait until I (I mean Lucas) had actually given it to Dan first, which wasn't until Father's Day evening. And then I kind of forgot to post it. Then I remembered to post it this year because my phone started blowing up with Pinterest notifications that people were pinning this Father's Day craft from two years ago, and I was like, "Oh, shoot! Is it that time already??" (What are the chances that I could just repeat one of the two crafts that Lucas already did and Dan wouldn't notice??)

Anyway, here it is:

Ta DA!! Like that clever "hands down" phrase with the hands actually pointing down?? Well, I did not even think of that at all. I told my friend Courtney what Lucas was making Dan for Father's Day, and I was like, "It will say 'Best Daddy Ever, Hands Down' and it will have his hand prints on it! Cute, right?" And she was like, "So cute! And the hand prints will be pointing down?" And I was like, "....huh. That kind of makes more sense than the way I was going to do it." (Also, this is why you cannot feel intimidated by projects that you see on Pinterest where they look all amazing and you think, "These people are more creative than I could ever be in my entire life." Because it's entirely possible that originally they were going to accompany the phrase "hands down" with a picture of hands facing up before someone else pointed out that it didn't make any sense that way.)

I had Lucas paint several pages (I like using Crayola Color Wonder paper* and paints* because they don't change colors until the paint is on the special paper. Which majorly cuts down on mess. That's what I used here.) Then we picked the best one, and used it as a background. For the hand prints, we used a washable ink pad and some card stock, and Lucas made about 50 prints (it's a pretty good time-waster.)

Then I cut two out, glued them on the paper, mounted the whole thing on a larger piece of card stock with some decorative tape, and added letter stickers. I was going to frame it, but I realized that if I have both kids make wall art for Dan every year for Father's Day, we will very rapidly run out of wall space. So we gave it to him as a card, and then put it in a book I made to store Lucas's art.

The beauty of this craft is that you can even do it with a baby, assuming you can get a fairly recognizable hand print from them. (Good luck. It's hard. But possible.)

So there you have it, an easy Father's Day craft your kids can do by themselves (maybe)! Hopefully I'll think of another cute one for this year. If I do, I'll be sure to share it with you all... a year from now. I'm sure you'll all be on the edge of your seats until then.



*Affiliate links - If you buy these after clicking the link, I'll get something awesome like 4% of the $6 you spend. I'll try not to spend my 24 cents all in one place. For more info on affiliate links, click here. 

Easy Valentine's Day Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers

I try to do crafts with Lucas fairly regularly, and this time I decided to videotape us doing it instead of typing up a description. So we'll see if that was a good choice. Kindly ignore my weird facial expressions and the fact that my makeup looks weird - I swear it looked normal in the mirror.

Super Easy Indoor Obstacle Course for Toddlers and Preschoolers

I'm not sure how it is where you live, but it's ridiculously cold outside of my house right now. (I just looked at my phone to see what the temperature is, and it said it was 32 degrees. And I was like, "oh, that's not terrible." Then I realized it said it was last updated on November 25, 2014. The actual temperature is 4. Apparently my phone is so appalled by the single digit temperature that it refuses to acknowledge it. So there you go. It's cold.)

Two days ago, I woke up feeling really lousy. I spent most of the day in bed (luckily Dan was off) thinking I was going to vomit, but I didn't... which was nice. But then at around 2pm, Lucas threw up. And again a few hours later. And a few hours after that. Then Dan got sick. I thought I had escaped the worst of it, and then yesterday I woke up, and... threw up. A whole lot of times. It's been an unfortunate few days in the More Naps household.

Anyway, the point of me sharing my family's gastrointestinal struggles with you is to say that between sickness and the cold weather, Lucas has watched a LOT of television in the past few days. Like, an embarrassing amount. He felt fine yesterday, but Dan and I both felt like death, so Curious George, Daniel Tiger and Bob and Larry (of Veggie Tales) were babysitting while we hovered over the toilet. Good times. (Thankfully, Calista has remained healthy.)

Today, we all feel pretty confident that we will survive, but Lucas was majorly in "I want to watch TV all day" mode this morning. I figured he should probably actually do something more than sit around like a lump, so I had this idea:

Ok, I'm aware that that just looks like random things strewn about my living room, but it's actually:

See?



Don't mind my messy house.

All you need is a few things they can step or climb over (stools, ottomans, large pillows, small chairs); crawl under (baby activity arch, dining room chair, coffee table); climb or step in (cardboard box, laundry basket); and jump over (swimming pool noodle, rolled up towel, line of masking tape on the floor.) You can literally assemble it in under five minutes.  Show them how to do it (when I showed Lucas, I somehow managed to get my hair tangled in the baby activity mat and was stuck for a full minute, for real,) and let the fun begin.

You can always switch the items up or add a new obstacle if they start to get bored. After nap time, we added the scarf "tight rope" for him to balance on (it's just stretched out on the floor and he walks on it), some pillows to crawl over, and a blanket to do a somersault on. As an added bonus, crawling under the activity arch makes his hair do this:

And if you need more ideas to keep your toddlers or preschoolers entertained while it's ridiculously cold, check out these posts I wrote last winter:

Ways to entertain your toddler inside when it's ridiculously cold outside

Five things that might make your toddler forget about TV (at least temporarily)


And here's another video of the obstacle course from this morning that features a mildly fussy Calista:


He kept referring to it as a magical trick ("mag-i-jul trick,") and as evidence of the fact that he's been watching too much TV, he was doing it while pretending to be Curious George's friend Marco ("Marble,") but it killed quite a lot of time this morning.

DIY Greeting Cards, Baby and Toddler Style

One hidden perk of being the parent of a baby or young child is that you can easily go for a few years without having to buy greeting cards. That's good, because babies and toddlers aren't necessarily great at sitting patiently while you read through 30 Mother's Day cards to find the one that says exactly what you want to say to your mother, which means you could conceivably end up accidentally buying your own mom a card that says "You've been like a mother to me." I'm not saying it's happened to me, I'm just saying it's definitely within the realm of possibility.

But if you have a baby or toddler, you have this wealth of ridiculously cute greeting-card potential at your fingertips... or wherever your child ran/crawled off to in the time it took you to read this. To get you started, here are three easy ideas for DIY greeting cards that your little one can help make:

Handprints/Footprints

This one works for kids of all ages. If your child is old enough to color or fingerpaint, he can help to decorate his own handprints or footprints. But even if your child is too young to willingly participate in the whole "let's not shell out $5 for a card that's going to end up in the garbage in three minutes" process, you can still force them into helping you - but not like in a mean way.

Lucas "helped" make the above greeting cards for my dad and Dan's mom (whose birthdays are one day apart) when he was about seven months old. And by that I mean that Dan held him while I stuck each of his feet on an ink pad (non-toxic and washable, of course) and then pressed them on the paper. Both grandparents loved his little footprints so much that they didn't notice that I'm fairly awful at making cards.

Added bonus: while we were at it, we figured we might as well make a footprint heart for ourselves, so we had an extra for Lucas's baby book.

Cutie Holding a Sign

This is another one that can work for a child of any age. You can make a Happy Birthday (or Merry Christmas, Happy Grandparents Day, Reasonably Pleasant Arbor Day, etc) sign for younger kids, and older kids can make and pose with their own sign. Then put the picture on the front of a card or in a frame (or email it if you don't quite manage to make it to the post office in time, like may or may not have happened with my brother's birthday card when I took the picture above.) Plus, you'll probably end up with some funny outtakes.

Markers and Painters Tape

Over a year ago, when Lucas wasn't quite a year old, I got the bright idea to combine two different ideas I had seen on Pinterest. I wrote the word "Love" in painters tape on ten pieces of folded paper with the intention of putting them one at a time into a sealed Ziploc bag with paint and then letting Lucas paint through the bag onto the cards. In my mind, the end result would be beautifully painted Valentine's Day cards that Lucas had enjoyed painting and that resulted in no mess whatsoever. In reality, Lucas hated the activity, he managed to to scratch holes in the plastic bag with his fingernails so that the paint came out and got on his hands, and when I took the only card we tried it on out of the bag, it was so wet that it fell apart. So... not a success. But I had already spent over an hour putting the tape on all of the cards, so I just held onto them.

Anyway... I recently found the cards again while I was trying to get caught up on Lucas's baby book...

...and I decided to give them another shot. But this time with markers, since we've established that Lucas hates finger painting. I had Lucas color over the painters tape with markers, then peeled off the tape to reveal the word "love" in white. (You'll probably have to peel the tape off really slowly to keep the paper from tearing. Especially if you've left the tape on for over a year...)

Yes, Lucas is wearing a backwards winter hat and water shoes.

My granddaddy is in the hospital awaiting heart surgery (please pray for him if you're the praying sort!), so I decided that if we managed to get at least one good card out of the batch, we'd mail it to him. And as you can see in the photo above, we did! Tra la!! (Dear everybody in my family - please don't show this to granddaddy. We haven't mailed it yet!)

Do you have any other ideas for greeting cards your child can make? Please share in the comments! 

And if you're feeling loving, you can always click the smiling lady below. :)

Five things that might make your toddler forget about the TV (At least temporarily)

As I mentioned the other day, Lucas got a nasty stomach bug that lasted for a few days. During that time, I let him watch an embarrassing amount of Sesame Street and Curious George because he wasn't really up for doing anything other than lying on the floor. So when he finally started to recover, he was still in the mindset of "let's watch television all day." Which, you know, really isn't the most educational thing I could have my child do for hours on end. He's usually really good about entertaining himself with his toys and books for reasonable periods of time (for a toddler, I mean,) and he loves to color, but after he recovered from his stomach bug, he was still dead set on being allowed to watch TV all day. Oops.

So here are some random things we did together in the days after he was sick to get him out of "TV mode" and back into "let's actually do something" mode.

1. Play Dough and Uncooked Noodles

How adorable is this smile??

I had actually never let Lucas play with play dough until last week. And then we really, really needed a new activity to make him stop asking to watch TV, so I pulled out a jar that I had stashed in a closet. Like almost every other mom who uses Pinterest, I had seen an idea to stand uncooked spaghetti noodles up in play dough and then have your toddler stack Cheerios on the noodles. It sounds like a good idea in theory, but spaghetti noodles break really easily, and toddlers aren't exactly gentle. So it didn't work out for us. Instead, we just stuck the (broken) noodles into the dough for a while. Then I rolled the dough into a bunch of little balls, and Lucas stuck a piece of noodle into each one so that they looked like lollipops (except that we called them "flowers" so that eating them wouldn't be too tempting.) Lucas thought it was the best thing ever. Seriously, he played with them for at least an hour. Play-Doh brand is non-toxic, but if you have a little one who's really into eating everything, you can find lots of recipes for homemade play dough on Pinterest.

2. Treasure Box (aka - Box full of Random Stuff)

Moms who are a little more together than I am call these "sensory bins," and these boxes often have a theme. But as I've mentioned before, the theme of my sensory bins is usually "these are random things I found in my house."

The key here is that you want to fill a box/basket/container with items that have a wide variety of shapes and textures that will be fun for little fingers to explore. (Make sure that nothing in your box is a choking or strangulation hazard!) If they're not typical "toys," they seem to be more interesting than things your child gets to play with every day.

Here's what ended up in our treasure box:

And here are some more ideas:

- Pieces of yarn/ribbon/lace (make sure they're too short to wrap around the neck)
- Pieces of cloth/felt
- Clean sponge/bath loofah
- Key chains
- Shower curtain rings
- Cupcake pan liners
- Photographs or post cards

As with anything else your child plays with, this will lose its appeal if it's always easily accessible. So get it out for a day or two, then tuck it away in a closet until you really need it again.

3. Wrapping Paper/Crepe Paper

I'm going to say this up front - this activity is kind of wasteful. So maybe either recycle the paper or find another use for it after your child is done.

Having said that, am I the only one who has gotten sucked in by the 99 cent wrapping paper in the front of stores at Christmas time? I'm always like, "Oo, look! It's so cheap! And we need some! I'll buy three rolls!" Well let me give you a little hint. There's a reason that wrapping paper only costs 99 cents: it's not worth a whole dollar. Seriously. After it ripped for approximately the four thousandth time while I was trying to wrap gifts, I shoved it back into the closet and whipped out the expensive stuff. I didn't actually want to throw it away, but what do you do with really awful wrapping paper? Answer: give it to your toddler.

The first time that Dan saw Lucas running around unrolling a barely used roll of wrapping paper, he said, "Um, do you know that he's destroying a whole roll of wrapping paper?" And I responded with something like, "Oh, that wrapping paper would destroy itself if he didn't do it first." Lucas had a blast unrolling an entire roll of wrapping paper; it was definitely way more fun than watching television. (But make sure your good wrapping paper isn't accessible, or it might all become a toddler toy.)

If you've never been suckered into buying the worst wrapping paper of all time, a roll of leftover crepe paper/streamers that you're never going to use the rest of is extremely fun, too. (Lucas also had a blast completely unrolling two rolls of toilet paper while I was making lunch, but that was not a mommy-sanctioned activity.)

4. Stickers

Lucas loves stickers. I taught him to peel them off of the page himself (with medium-ish success,) and he will happily put stickers on paper for a ridiculously long time. I scrapbook (or at least I used to,) so I have lots of stickers, and I try to pick some up at the store occasionally for when we're bored. They're not stored anywhere that he can reach them, so it's always a fun treat when I pull the stickers out.

The great thing about younger toddlers is that anything that sticks is automatically a fun sticker. Price labels leftover from your garage sale last summer? Cool! Those address labels you got for free in the mail on which your name is spelled wrong? Sweet!! Just hand your toddler the stickers and some paper and let him go wild. (Bonus: circular and rectangular stickers are much easier for little hands to pull off without ripping them than irregularly shaped stickers are.)


5. A "New" Toy

I'm definitely not advocating buying your kid a bunch of new things to bribe them not to watch TV. This is more like an in-case-of-emergency idea.

There's nothing quite like a new toy/activity to distract a toddler from saying "George??" for the nine millionth time. Keep an eye out for good clearance deals, garage sale finds, and in the dollar section of Target for inexpensive toys/books/activities that can be pulled out if you really, really need a new distraction. Or, just put a few toys that your kids haven't played with in a while away in a closet, and in a few weeks/months - voila! They're new!

We've been using Pampers diapers on Lucas since he was born, and I've actually entered all of the Pampers Rewards codes for every single one of them. So periodically, I get to cash the points in for toys for Lucas. A few weeks ago, I cashed in some points to get a set of wooden alphabet blocks for him. I had originally intended to use them as a birthday gift, but they came a few days after his party, and he had already gotten a bunch of new toys for his birthday anyway. So I stuck them in a closet for an "emergency." I pulled them out one night when nothing else was cutting it, and even though he builds towers literally every day, building a tower with new blocks was extremely exciting.

*Bonus idea!*
(I thought of this one the morning after I first published this post, and it seemed silly to make a whole new post for it. Also, I was too lazy to change the graphic that said "Five things" so that it said "Six things." So here you go. It's a bonus.)

6. Giant Building Blocks

Yes, my child is in pajamas in every single one of these pictures.
I promise I really do dress him in real clothes.

We tend to shop online more than in stores, and so we end up with a lot of boxes of varying sizes. Lucas loves to play with and color on the boxes, and he also loves building towers with blocks. So I taped a bunch of boxes closed, and suddenly we had giant building blocks! It took me about two minutes total, and it was a lot of fun for Lucas.


What other ideas do you have for distracting toddlers when they've watched just a little too much television?


For more "this is more fun than television" ideas, check out these posts:

Ways to entertain your toddler inside when it's ridiculously cold outside

My "extremely sophisticated" homemade toys, part 1

My "extremely sophisticated" homemade toys, part 2

My "extremely sophisticated" homemade toys, part 3

Lucas's Christmas gifts for our family

I have always loved doing crafts. And so even though Lucas is less than two years old, I'm always coming up with these fantastic craft ideas for him to do that pretty much never work out the way I hoped. (Remember when I wanted him to make a Father's Day gift for Dan, and he thought that the homemade, edible, baby-safe finger paint that I lovingly made for him from scratch was some sort of sadistic form of torture?)

Anyway, in October, I went to the craft store to buy paint for the frame in our library, and because I have some sort of disorder that prevents me from leaving a craft store with fewer than ten items, I had to browse all the aisles. You know, just in case there was something that I didn't know I needed until I saw it.

They had Christmas craft items for kids, including foam trees and foam ornament stickers, and I decided that Lucas could probably (maybe, hopefully) decorate the trees for our family members. If you think that this will be another post about how Lucas hated my crafty ideas, you're wrong! (Hallelujah!)

Here were my supplies:

The foam shape stickers in the bucket weren't in the Christmas section.
I bought them because the actual "ornament" stickers were too expensive to buy a ton of.

Lucas LOVED decorating the trees. In fact, even though we've already mailed them to his grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles, he is still decorating them. He will sit down at his table and say "Tree? Sticker? More?" and then we spend half a hour with me peeling the paper backings off of the foam stickers and him putting them on the trees. When he gets bored of the stickers, he likes to collect all of the paper backings, put them into a cup, and then dump them on the floor. Obviously.

When he started making the trees, it was warm enough to wear shorts. Now we have at least six inches of snow. Sigh.

At first, it was difficult for him to put the stickers on the trees because they got stuck on his fingers, and he needed some help "unsticking" them. But the more he did it, the better he got at it (yay for improving fine motor skills!)

I took the best ones, used a hole punch to make a hole and string ribbon through them, wrote Lucas's name and the year on the back, and then mailed them out to our families. I meant to take a picture of all of the trees before I mailed them, but of course I only remembered that I wanted to do that after most of them had already been sealed in the envelopes. So here's three of them:

Yes, he really did them all by himself with no sticker-placement input from me.
Some of the earlier ones have multiple stickers on top of each other, but he was pretty good about spacing them out.

We have a BUNCH of them left at home, many with only a few stickers on them (I don't know if they just weren't working with his artistic vision or if he was going for a minimalist look, but he was "all done" with some of the trees in about a minute,) and I'm sure I'll never be able to bring myself to throw them away, so maybe I'll make some sort of garland with them. I am still abnormally excited that Lucas really enjoyed this craft, so even if you're not amazed by it, pretend it's the best thing you've ever seen in your entire life, ok??

Have you shared a Christmas craft that's easy for young toddlers? Please post the link in the comments!

Wanna click this? Well, ok.

A Very Toddler Christmas

I actually set up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving (don't judge me,) but I didn't get it decorated until my parents came to visit for Thanksgiving and helped with the lights and ornaments. My ultimate Christmas dream is to have a Christmas tree in every room in our house, so I look for more trees every year, and last year I picked up this pre-lit artificial tree at a rummage sale for (I think) $10.

(Not-so-quick story about the tree: When I plugged it in last year, half of the strands of lights on the tree were buzzing, and while I don't know much about electricity, I figured that was a bad sign. So I got the bright idea of only taking off the light strands that were buzzing and leaving the rest on, and then I left the half-lit tree plugged in while I went to get a snack, and then I smelled burning plastic, and the plug of the plugged-in strands of lights had melted completely onto the floor leaving only the metal prongs still in the plug, so I almost burned my house down with a Christmas tree. And then this year, the nonprofit Electrical Safety Foundation International contacted me and asked if they could send me some stuff [like LED lights that don't get as hot as regular Christmas lights] to help me decorate for Christmas safely, and while I'm fairly certain that nobody ratted me out about the whole used pre-lit artificial tree incident, it seemed like eerily appropriate help for someone who apparently lacks common sense for safe decorating. You can check out some of their safe decorating tips here. They don't specifically say anything about not using strands of lights that buzz loudly, but you probably already know not to do that...) 

The only reason I'm posting this picture is that Dan gave me the letters that say "LOVE" for my birthday.
They're made out of rolled-up magazine pages. Which has nothing to do with this post.

ANYWAY, I set up the tree (with new, safer lights) this year, and I knew that it would be difficult for Lucas to resist playing with it. Like everybody else, I had seen an idea on Pinterest to make a tree and ornaments out of felt for your toddler to decorate over and over. So the same day I set up our big tree, I put up a felt tree I made for Lucas (I attached it to the wall with sticky tack - you know, the blue stuff you used to put your Jonathan Taylor Thomas posters on your wall when you were 13), and told him about 500 times that the big tree was "Mommy's tree" and the little tree was "Lucas's tree." So far, giving him his own tree has (mostly) distracted him from mine. He's only taken two ornaments off of it, which seems pretty good.

I actually moved it to a different spot on our house right after I took this picture.
In case you were wondering. Which you weren't. 

I used the same strategy with the nativity scene by setting up a toy nativity scene for him right next to mine. Other than me having to rescue one of my sheep from him twice, he has pretty much left my nativity scene alone in favor of his more brightly colored one.

So there are some of our lovely Christmas decorations. All together now: Ooo! Ahh!

Do you have any tips for toddler-friendly Christmas decorations? If so, please share (or link) in the comments!

Ways to entertain your toddler inside when it's ridiculously cold outside

Alternate title: Baby, it's cold outside.

Winter has always been my least favorite season. If it weren't for Christmas, my anniversary, and the birthdays of a few of my favorite people (and, you know, the fact that it's not really an option,) I would go into hibernation the first time it went below 40 degrees and refuse to come out until late April. Added on top of that is the fact that now I have a toddler, and taking him outside involves dressing him up like this:

Complete list of the clothing he is wearing in this picture: short-sleeved onesie, long sleeved shirt, corduroy overalls, fleece jacket, snowsuit overalls, snowsuit jacket, fleece-lined hat, mittens, socks, shoes, diaper.

So now I'm on the hunt for ways to entertain him indoors. This list is as much for me as for anyone else (maybe more). On days that we're both a little stir crazy but I don't have the time/desire/energy/clean clothes required to leave the house, I can refer back to this list before I resort to an episode of Sesame Street. My son isn't quite two yet, so these ideas are appropriate for young toddlers (like mine) and older toddlers, too.

(I hate when I read lists of ways to entertain your child and they say things like "build a tower of blocks" or "roll a ball" because, um, I already know how my child's toys are supposed to be used. So I'm going into this list assuming that you've already played with all of the toys and read some books, ok? Ok.)

I'm also going to assume you've already dressed your kid up like a giraffe
and then given them a coloring book. Obviously.
(No, this picture isn't from Halloween. It was just a giraffe suit kind of day.)

1. Super-Sized Coloring

Take a large cardboard box, then tear or cut it at the seams and unfold it so it's flat. Add crayons, and voila! Giant coloring surface! I was going to explain why toddlers like it, but that's pretty self-explanatory. (If the box is big enough, you can also let them color inside it without tearing it open.)

2. Dance Party
Crank up the music and bust out your best dance moves, because dancing is a million times more fun for toddlers if mommy or daddy is dancing too. (Just make sure you close your blinds before you start showing off your dance moves. Trust me, I know this from embarrassing experience.) An empty plastic bottle with some rice or beans inside makes a great maraca so your kid can shake along with the music.

3. Crafts

You might think your toddler is too young for crafts, but chances are there's something (s)he can do. Lucas loves decorating things with stickers. (Large foam stickers are especially easy for toddlers to handle.) Lucas and I did that painting above together when he was 16 months old, but to be fair, he kind of hated it because he doesn't like getting messy. If your kid is ok with mess, you can read the instructions (including the recipe for homemade, toddler-safe finger paint) here. And next week on my blog, I'll show you a Christmas craft that Lucas made for our family.

4. Magazines
I get a few magazine subscriptions in the mail for free, and I pretty much just skim through them once and then leave them in a magazine rack until I need them for something. Like a craft or... entertaining my child. Lucas loves just flipping through them and looking at the pictures, and unlike with my books, I don't mind if he tears them. To prolong the entertainment factor, ask your toddler to find a picture of something that you know will be in the magazine (For example, I'll ask Lucas to look for a picture of a baby in a parenting magazine.)

5. Fun in a Box

I never get rid of boxes until we've played with them first. What's so fun about boxes? Honestly, I have no idea. But toddlers like to play in them. If you need some exercise and want some extra toddler giggles, push your child back and forth across the room or down a hall in the box. (Warning: once you start, they will never, ever let you stop. Ever.)

6. Play Stop and Go
I can't take credit for this idea - my friend Rebekah suggested it when we were talking about teaching our kids to obey. She'll have her toddlers stand still, then when she says "go," they walk or run until she says "stop." They have to stop immediately and freeze in place until she says go again. To them, it's just a fun game, but it's teaching them to obey the word "stop" so that if she ever needs to shout it before they run in front of a car or something, they'll have had practice. Until Lucas gets a better handle on this one, I hold his hand, and we both run at the word "go" and freeze at the word "stop." He thinks it's hilarious!

7. Clean

I know, this doesn't sound fun at all. But toddlers will often enjoy "helping" you clean if you give them something specific to do while you're cleaning. Give them a rag and let them "wash" the windows or kitchen floor. Lucas loves the vacuum cleaner and will very diligently follow us around the whole house vacuuming with his toy vacuum while we vacuum with the real one. Toddler tip: paper towel tubes or wrapping paper tubes make a great substitute for a child-sized vacuum.

8. Homemade Toys

Ok, so this is kind of a shameless plug for some of my other posts, but in case you missed them, I've written three posts of homemade toys that you can make in about five minutes or less. So when the real toys aren't cutting it anymore, let your kid play with jar lids or an empty oatmeal container. Click here to see the homemade toy posts I've written.

9. Call Grandma (or other relatives)
Lucas loves the phone. So occasionally when he's bored with everything he owns, I'll call my mom, put my cell phone on speaker, and let the two of them chat. Lucas's half of the conversation consists mostly of "Hi! Hi! Gramma! Hi! Gramma! Hi! Hi!" but my mom loves it, and so does Lucas. We also Skype with my parents and my sister every once in a while. Guaranteed entertainment, and my family members (none of whom are local) get face time with Lucas. It's win/win!

10. Give them a bath

I'll be honest. I kind of hate bath time (I mean, not my own bath time. I love bathing myself. Please don't back away - I promise I don't stink.) So bathing Lucas is usually Dan's job. But Lucas loves baths, so when all else fails, half an hour of playing with toys in warm water is a great way to kill time and make him a happy camper.

What else would you add to this list? How do you entertain your kids indoors when it's cold outside?

If you could click this, I'd be ever so grateful! 

8 More Non-Toy Gifts for Kids!

My post 12 Non-Toy Gift Ideas for Kids is my most-visited post of all time. So here are eight more ideas, just in time for Christmas!

1. Pillows
A few years before Dan and I became parents, we had a Super Bowl party, and some of our friends were bringing their kids. Since we didn't have toys laying all around the house (like we do now,) we were kind of scrambling to find some things for the kids to play with, so we filled a basket with some random things like balls, crayons and coloring books, and two small pillows. Nobody even bothered to open the crayons or coloring books, the balls were thrown once and ignored, but the pillows never got put down. I think a few fights actually broke out over them. Kids love pillows. It's just one of those things. Need help finding a good pillow? Check out the Perfect Toddler Pillow from Sew Cinnamon. Plus, through December 12, you can get 10% off of a purchase of $33 or more by using the coupon code "MORENAPS."

2. Stuff for their Walls (aka - Art)
Everybody likes to have something fun on their walls. Especially kids! For awesome, creative word art for your kids' walls, visit The Meek Boutique!

3. Christmas Ornaments
Dan and I have a tradition of buying Christmas ornaments from any vacations or major events that happen throughout the year. Since Lucas came into our lives, we've added to that tradition by buying him a Christmas ornament and giving it to him every year on Christmas Eve (you know, for the one Christmas Lucas has been alive.) This year, we're giving him an awesome cat ornament from Heart of Clay Girl. Check out her shop for an ornament of your kid's favorite animal.

4. Personalized Books
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: there's no such thing as too many books! And what's better than a book with your child as the main character? Reading books to your child is one of the very best ways to increase their language skills and vocabulary, and even children who don't typically like books will be interested in a book with pictures of themselves with their favorite things, people or places. Let's Read About Me allows you to easily (very easily) customize a book with pictures and words about your child.

5. Bookplates (aka - Labels to put in their books)
So you've gotten them books... now get them adorable labels to put inside of them! Either wrap these to give as a gift on their own, or keep them and attach one to every new book you gift your child. For most kids, there's just something special about seeing their name printed on something (I can't be the only one who vividly remembers searching the racks of personalized license plates/magnets/keychains/ridiculously tiny mugs for her own name. Why was there always "Beth" and never "Bethany"??) Plus, bookplates look much nicer than writing their names in their books in pen. Check out Strawberry Street Designs for some adorable personalized bookplates and other personalized items.

6. Super Hero Cape
You already know your kid is super. Why not make it official? Capes are great for imaginative play AND for encouraging your kid to get some exercise (you can't wear a cape without running really fast to get it to billow out behind you. That's a well-known fact.) Pipsqueek Bowtique makes all sorts of super hero capes for less than $20, and they're offering 10% off of your entire purchase through November 1, 2014 using the coupon code MORENAPS10.

7. Hats
It's almost winter. If you live somewhere that it gets cold, you're going to make your kid wear a hat anyway, right? So it might as well be one that they love and actually want to wear! Bonnie makes all sorts of custom hats, including the fabulous minion hat below, and she's offering free shipping to all of my readers!

8. Chalkboard
I can't speak for your kid, but mine loves to color. And occasionally that means that we get crayon on the floor, the wall, the cabinets, and various pieces of furniture. So chalkboards are great. And fabric chalkboards that are light, portable, and won't break if your kids jump on them are even better!! You can buy one from Tammy's Sewing (with free shipping through December 31, 2013 using the coupon code CHRISTMAS2013.)

What non-toy gift ideas do you have??