The mind of a three year old...

Keegan has been having trouble deciding on extra-curriculars.  He wants to do everything, but we won't let him do more than one or two things at a time...because we just don't need an overbooked three year old on our hands.

So a couple weeks ago I told him he had three more swimming lessons left and then we would take fall session off so he could do something else.  His response "I want to keep swimming.  I don't want to do ice skating, I want to keep swimming."  He was adamant about it and almost in tears at the thought of halting his beloved swimming lessons. So I said "Okay I will sign you up."  $200 some dollars later he is signed up for Littles 2 swimming lessons.  Then I remember the other reason we skip sessions it is because it is so freaking expensive.

Fast forward to last night.  I pick Keegan up.  "Mommy, do I have to go to swimming?"  I tell him yes he does, it is his second to last session and darn-nit he is going to finish up these last two lessons.  He complains and whines about how he hates swimming.  I am thinking "Geez, we just signed him up for another whole session of it!"  He stomps into the swimming school with his arms crossed and his face all pouty.

Finally Lyle and are are like "Dude, why do you hate swimming all of the sudden?"

Keegan: "I don't like doing the Humpty Dumptys"
Me: "What don't you like about Humpty Dumptys?  When you go under water?  When you swim back? When you jump in?"
Keegan: "WWeeellllll....I uh, don't like sitting down to fall in the water?"
Me: "Have you asked your teacher if you can jump standing up?"
Keegan: "WWeeeellll, maybe Humpty Dumptys are okay."
Me: "Okay, so then why don't you like swimming?"
Keegan: "Well swimming is okay I guess."

Keegan proceeds to have a great time in swimming class.  He tells his teacher he would like to stand and jump into the pool instead of sitting to fall in.  She thinks it's a great idea and lets him.  Then it is after class.

Me: "So how did you like swimming?"
Keegan: "It was fun mom, I love swimming!"
Me: "So you like swimming?"
Keegan: "Yep!"

Then what was all that complaining about?  I am confused.

A similar thing happened with soccer lessons.  For a fee Keegan can attend soccer lessons at daycare once a week.  Last week was his last session, so we had to sign him up for 4 more lessons if he was going to attend this week.  Not wanting to waste money on something he hates we had the below conversation.
Me: "How do you like soccer?"
Keegan: "I hate it, I don't want to do it anymore."
Me: "But you loved it last week.  Do you want me to sign you up for more lessons?"
Keegan: "NO, I never want to do again."

Okay...so I email the soccer teacher and let him know that Keegan will be sitting out this session.  Time passes, now it is Tuesday, the day before normal Wed soccer, which Keegan will not be attending. 

Keegan: "I get to do soccer tomorrow right?"
Me: "No you said you didn't want to so we canceled your lessons."
Keegan: "Why are you so mean to me?"
Me: "Do you want to do soccer now?"
Keegan: "I love soccer, I am not talking to you anymore, you are so mean to me, why did you make me stop!"
Me: "Umm...so you want to sign up for more soccer?"
Keegan: "What did I tell you?!  I told you I love soccer!"
Me: "Maybe you should talk to you dad about soccer when we get home."

Then Keegan had a similar conversation with Lyle in which Lyle was a "mean person" for not letting Keegan play soccer.  Geez, I can't keep up with the kid's sudden changes.  If this is a premonition of what he is going to be like as a teenager shoot me now!

So I e-mailed his soccer teacher to let him know Keegan has had a change of heart and he should pick up Keegan for soccer lessons.  I went online to purchase more sessions; their website was down.  I e-mailed his teacher to let him know that really we were going to pay for more sessions, but we couldn't because their website is down.  I check over and over, finally two hours later (9pm) it is up and running and we are golden.  Keegan has his soccer lessons reinstated...I am exhausted by all this changing and all of this emotional trauma we are apparently putting my son through. 

So you guys tell me does this get better or worse as they get older....???

We got paid!

Lyle switched jobs to Medtronic in July and for me it is always nerve-wracking while we wait to see when we will actually get paid when he switches to a new contract...so when I came home last night to find a check from them in the mailbox earlier than expected I was estatic.

I did a happy dance and jumped around yelling "yay, we got paid!"...to absolutely no one.  Then Lyle came home and I told him and he was like "uh, yeah, of course we did".

Anyway, I am excited and feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  Especially since the remainder of our Disney trip is due next week and Lyle is talking about ripping out the carpet in the playroom...

So Yay to Medtronic for being prompt and having a finance department that is functional!

Crazy weekend...again

We love to fill our weekends full of lots of fun things.  It keeps us moving and prevents too much vegging out on the couch (which is hard to do anyway with a 3 year old around).

This week was a wonderfully fun yet crazy weekend.

It all started on Friday.  Keegan and I stayed home together, we only have one more Friday together until I go full-time, so we decided to make the most of it.  This involved doing whatever Keegan wanted to do with the caveat that we had to fit grocery shopping and laundry in there somewhere.

So, Keegan wanted to build a mini-golf course with his duplos around the house.  No, I don't know where he comes up with this stuff...  Well that's what we did for a number of hours.  Then off to grocery shop.  After that we did the next thing Keegan wanted to do, go to the Adventure Park...a wonderfully air conditioned play area that makes me feel like a large gerbil.  After all of that we stopped by the library and then came home for lunch/nap.  Yes we did all of that before 11am.  Keegan was kind to me and took an extra long nap.

Saturday was even crazier.  We meet some friends for breakfast and then went mini-golfing with them.  Saturday morning was dreary but actually kind of nice for mini-golfing.  We played both courses at the Spring Lake Park Amusement Park; totaling 36...yes 36...holes of mini-golf.  It was fun.  After that we skipped lunch and took naps.  Then it was up to run down to Whole Foods to recycle our number 5s (yogurt containers mainly) and pick up some of the less necessary but oh so yummy items we can't find anywhere else.  Then over to my parents' house to play games.  Keegan is into games right now, I think I mentioned that in my last post.

We were pretty wiped out after all of that so then it was bedtime...at least for Keegan.  Lyle and I had some obnoxious things to blow-up in the latest Borderlands expansion.

Sunday morning was more craziness. We went out at 8am to start doing yard work, finished that up and then had to come in and build some cars with Keegan's new Lego set.  Then off to Alec's 1st birthday party.  Keegan had an absolute blast at Alec's bday party.  There were a lot of other kids there his age and Alec's parents gave out inflatable swords as a party favor to all the kids.  Keegan ran and was crazy forever (almost 4 hours) and ate cake and then played some more.

By the time we got back from the party it was too late to put Keegan down for a nap so we did the logical thing to wind down from it all and packed up and road our bikes to the beach.  At the beach we swan in the lake, shot each other with squirt guns, built a castle, built a dams, and splashed in the splash zone.  It was again fun but exhausting.  To top it all off we ran over to Green Mill for dinner because I was too tired to think about making anything.

Finally Keegan went to bed and Lyle and I got to do other things that involved more sitting than running.

It was a wonderfully fun, but exhausting weekend.  And just the first of many exhausting weekends to come.

Let the games begin...great games for preschoolers

There are only about a million things I could blog about...I could blog about home much fun we had at the Minneapolis farmer's market on Sunday and how much fun we had at the outlet mall.  But instead let's talk about games.

Lyle and I love games.  We love board games and video games and just games of all types.  So of course we want Keegan to love games.   Well this last week or two he has been totally into games.  It is awesome.  It beats chasing each other around and slaying dragons (although that is fun two) or capsizing the pirate ship (clothes basket) and drowning at sea...although that also has its place in playtime.  But to sit down and play a good game as a family...well nothing beats that.  We have a ton of kid games and keep getting more.

So what great kid games are out there for preschoolers (and younger)?  Let's start with the mediocre ones and go to the ones that are awesome for everyone.

Well we have your typical mediocre ones....
- Candyland: I know I loved this game as a kid and Keegan does too, but it only lasts one playthrough and then he is bored.  Not a great game for parents, I need my coffee when I play this one.



- Hi Ho Cherry-o : This one is a little better than Candyland.  The novelty of taking the cherries on and off the tree is fun for a while.  The game can get long though and it gets boring.


- Cooties: Love this one and I still like it...although the new version has Cooties that don't stay put together as well as the original set did.


- Silly Faces: This is a cool concept but the colorforms work like crap so it ends up being kind of a bust.


Then we have the ones that are more fun:
- Cariboo: Love searching for the little balls and opening up the treasure.  Not a ton of fun for adults but it helps kids learn letters and counting, shapes and colors.  It also has an advanced way to play (which at 3.5 yrs old Keegan finds a little challenging but can do, so it's not that advanced)


- Polar Bear ABCs: You go fishing for letters and spell words.  Again tons of fun for Keegan and comes with a ton of word templates.  Not much fun for mom.


- Hungry Hippos: Okay I have to admit this game holds a special place in my heart and is fun for the whole family.  Does it teach you anything...well maybe how to smash those hippos around as fast as you can but that's about it.  Also the new version of it has cheap hippos that get jammed a lot.


- Memory: There are so many versions of this out there for kids.  And it never gets old.  It is something kids and adult can play together and it is interesting.


- Elefun: This is another one that is fun for everyone but it is way to short and really only teaches you how to run around like a crazy person catching butterflies.  Great for winter!


- Can You See What I See?: A game based off of the books.  Super easy to play and pretty fun.  Gets boring after playing it a couple times.


Then there are the ones that are a blast for everyone:
Hisss: You put together different colored snakes.  Super easy to play, Keegan started playing this around 2 yrs old, fun for everyone.  You can spread snake parts on the floor and make it more active.  Teaches color matching, order (need one head and one tail), and taking turns.


Animal Upon Animal: We play as adults all the time.  Keegan is still a little young for it because it requires a lot of coordination, but we take it easy on him and it is fun.


Wild Wool:  The only Lego game Keegan is old enough to play.  This is a lot of fun.  You build the sheep and wolf and then take turns adding wool to your sheep.  We have a blast and Keegan can fiddle with his sheep the whole time....


Hullabaloo: This is Keegan's all time favorite game.  He loves it.  It is awesome.  You place pieces all over the floor and have to run, jump, swim, etc, between them.  Think Simon Says crossed with Twister.  Helps Keegan learn shapes, foods, musical instruments, animals colors and how they are spelled.  It is fun for adults too because everyone has to act silly...


Zingo!:  Like Bingo with Zing!  This is probably the adults favorite kid game (tied with Animal Upon Animal and Wild Wool).  Has a cool little machine that puts out plastic pieces that you have to place on your bingo card.  Super easy, super fun because it is a free-for-all when the pieces come out (the quickest to grab them gets them).  And the adults get to sit down and not contort on the floor like we have to for Hullabaloo.


Flapdoodle: This one is again a bit old for Keegan, we have to read the cards for him and some of them are just too tough (it's meant for ages 6 and up).  But it is a crazy fun game and I highly recommend it if you are up for some craziness.



What do you guys think?  Do you have any games that you love playing with preschoolers or older children?  Any recommendations?