Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Sneaking up on toast




My daughter and I invented a new game. Now, whenever we make toast, her job is to listen for it to be done. Then, we act as sneaky as possible and tiptoe into the kitchen to sneak up on it before retrieving it and sneaking back to the table. Now every night she wants to know "Can we make toast and sneak up on it?" The best part for me is the conspiratorial look of excitement on her face. Plus, she likes to 'put on her listening ears' (she must have learned that at day care) and be very quiet waiting to hear it spring up.

Invented any good games with kids lately? Lets hear about them!

5 comments:

hemisphire said...

I think Landlord looks like fun...

Maren said...

Yeah, we have one that we use at clean-up time. I take a laundry basket into their room and fill it with everything on the floor. Then they line up with eyes closed and arms outstretched. I hand them something and yell "Surprise!" They have to figure out where it goes and put it away (even if it belongs to the other one). It's a bit unfair to the older sister, since the younger one makes 85% of the mess, but so far it's been an effective way to pick things up at the end of the day. Actually, its effectiveness is directly proportional to MY enthusiasm.

Anonymous said...

You forgot to mention that after she puts on her listening ears, she "turns the volume way up" to make sure she hears the toast pop.

Disco Mom said...

Well if that picture doesn't make me crave toast I don't know what would. It's perfect! And buttery...mmm...

I don't know if they're really games but when I do things to Ginger, like squeeze her cheeks or tickle her ribs or pump her legs so it looks like she's running, these things make Hazel crack up hysterically. So at dinner time I put Ginger in the bouncey seat and use these maneuvers as leverage to get Hazel to eat. She eats 2-3 bites and I'll do something that makes her laugh. She asks for more, I tell her to eat more bites, etc. It really only works when Hazel is contained to the highchair; otherwise she wants to try the moves herself and she's too rough.

I hope more people chime in - I'd like to hear more of these.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of a game that my kids made up that has to do with our toaster. I had nothing to do with it. Our kitchen has a long counter with stool for the kids to eat at, usually breakfast, and way across the kitchen is our shiny chrome toaster. The kids discovered that when sitting at the counter their faces are the right height to be reflected in the toaster. The toaster has slightly curved sides, so their faces are fun-house mirror distorted. By making small adjustments to their head position they found they can make hilarious changes in their distorted reflections. They call this "toaster TV" and they used to like to talk into their spoons and give a morning news report.

They're also really inventive about games while killing time waiting for the school bus in the morning, using sticks, leaves, rocks, etc. Again, I have zero to do with those, but I know they get very involved with lots of interesting rules.