Fun Activities

I've been on a more deliberate hunt for fun indoor activities. This cardboard house was the first one we came up with. The box was from our travel system. It was just sitting empty in the attic. I think an oven/dishwasher box would have been even more fun to work with, but this seems about the right size for Bella.
She's been helping me put clothes in the dryer for months and now she has graduated to the washer. Emptying the dishwasher and sweeping also rate high on the list of chores she enjoys.Here's another fun activity that I found at www.familyfun.com (thanks again for the site, Claire). Just attach some clear contact paper to the wall and let the kid stick random stuff to it to make a collage. When it's complete, just seal it up with another layer of contact paper. Here's Bella's finished product.
My mom's group went to a pizza place and each kid was able to make their own personal pizza. (Bella decided that she just had to wear my sunglasses through most of it).Some of the ingredients didn't make it to the pizza.The kids each had a balloon tied to their chairs. Bella really wanted me to untie hers so she could play with it. I wanted her to wait so that it didn't float to the ceiling. A little drama ensued, but she calmed down relatively quickly. When it was time to go, I untied her balloon from the chair and tied it around her arm. As I was putting her in the car, the balloon came untied and floated away. Bella was so sad and I felt so bad for her. Thankfully, I had some balloons at home that worked as a great substitute. She even took this balloon to her room at naptime and tucked it in to her doll bassinet. Playing in the kitchen.I know that this photo is super close, her hair is a mess, part of her face is cut off, and her expression is not necessarily 'happy', but I still like it. I decided that it was time to change some of the photos in our frames. Bella thought that the frame was a stylish headpiece. Saturday morning was a very lazy morning for me and Andy. We both kind of just laid around on the couches while Bella tore up the living room! Here she is admiring the mess!Bella's two favorite things right now:

"Pocket shirts" and "lipstick"She is way into wearing any shirt that has pockets. It's an added bonus if Mommy and Daddy are also wearing "pocket shirts". The pockets make a convenient place to store her "lipstick" for those moments when she needs to reapply (which is about every two minutes). It it a requirement that every blanket in her crib accompanies her to the living room after naps and bedtime. When she wakes up, the first thing she says is "Mommy! Mommy!" to get me in the room. The next thing is "living room", which is where she wants to go. And the third thing is "blankets with" because she wants to be near them at all times. I think they are also her secret weapon to get to me stop taking her picture.The weather hit the 40s yesterday and today, so we ventured out a little bit. Bella thought it would be great to lay on the ground. I guess she missed playing outside.

We had a fun time watching the Super Bowl tonight. The commercials weren't that great and the game was pretty boring until the fourth quarter, but then it got really interesting. Finally, a team that I was rooting for has won a game! It has been a while for me. I'm glad that the underdogs won the game!