Car Ramp

Today we made a car/airplane ramp in the kitchen by propping a cookie sheet on a bowl. The entertainment lasted quite a while.

Presidential Award

It's hard to find a balance between Mom and self. For a while I was going to the gym every morning before my daughter woke up. This gave me my much needed workout and a little time to myself. Then came my good friend day light savings. Why is it that no one tells 1-year-old's about the time change? Boom! Just like that my morning workout was replaced by a baby who was awake one hour earlier. Upon pondering my predicament I realized that I spend 90% of my time at the gym on the treadmill. Solution? Move the treadmill to the great outdoors. I get my exercise, my daughter loves the time outside looking for planes and listening for dogs, and everybody wins.

My biggest motivator to get out and get going? This website. I was the type of kid who would bend over backward to get a prize out of the treasure chest in Elementary School and I think that's the reason I like this website so much. Every time you exercise, simply log your minutes and they are given a certain number of points based off of the intensity of the exercise. I've already earned my bronze award and most of my points came from my morning baby strolls. I highly recommend this program to get you up and off the couch.

Ribbon Streamers

Tie some ribbon around a chopstick, unsharpened pencil, ruler, or any other long skinny object and Voila! The perfect dance toy. Put on some Raffi or Shakira and dance around the house. You may be questioning my little one's dance skills judging from this picture alone, but the action shots were too blury to include.

Food Blocks

Do you have baby food containers coming out of your ears? You can turn them into a plaything simply by washing them out an filling them up with fabric, colored paper, or stickers. You can quickly build up a large block supply that stack well and are cost effective. The catch is convincing your baby there is no longer food inside.