activities with toddlers – Days With Grandma

Adventures Right Outside My Door

The sun is out. It’s a beautiful day. Who says that a day’s event has to cost money? Instead, you look at me and make the back up sound of a construction vehicle. It’s “beep-beep-beep” but you make the sound with your mouth closed.

“Oh, you want to go to the construction site today?” You nod, “Yes”. It’s your favorite place right now; so many things to point to. So, that’s a plan.

It’s a busy place this morning. Lots of action.

“That’s a forklift, little man. See how easy it is to lift things that are heavy?”

“Look at how high it can go!”

Oops! Distracted by a siren…

Ambulance going by.

Now, back to the business of construction.

“Do you see those men way up high? Hmmm, can’t tell what they’re doing but it must be important otherwise why would they be in that bucket?”

“Let’s go to the other side of the project and see what we can see.”

You have the cutest little gasp! You see a digger just like your’s! Oh my gosh!

And then a cement truck and another forklift.

Every machine is busy. AND LOUD!

You add to the noise by making your own motor sounds and that back up “Beep-Beep-Beep”.

As long as they kept busy, you were entertained.

Placing a steel beam…welding…and then more heavy lifting…so much to look at…so much to see.

It was hard to see through the fence and around the posts.

Sometimes, that frustrated you!

But pretty soon you could see the forklift carry away the heaviest load of all.

And then you waved good-bye as it drove away.

Time to head home, but with lots of stops to say good-bye for the day.

One more look at the men up high. Now, they’re doing something but we still can’t tell what.

Then we counted the number of floors so far.

And then we headed home.

But not before we stopped to look at the motorcycle.

The best yet, though was when we walked up to a restaurant and you made the sign for “eat”.

Now, that’s impressive. “Mama and Daddy take you this restaurant, don’t they?” And…you’re probably hungry.

Before we leave, we have to stop and see the fountain and touch the evergreens – it’s tradition.

Then we turned the corner, the last stretch till we reach home, and what do we see?

Window Washers!

Well, what a day!

So, first we watched them from the outside…

And then….we got to watch them from the inside!

I mean, really! Days with Grandma are full of adventure. One would have thought I planned all of this.

Time To Get Dirty!

Time to plant some flowers, little man.

You can help.

At least, that’s the plan.

I can dig, Grandma,

just like you.

You have a shovel

and I have one too.

Oh, wait, this is a little path

that must be meant for me.

I can walk right through it.

Check this out Grandma. Can you see?

Do you see this fence

on the other side?

It doesn’t come down.

Trust me, I tried!

Wait, I hear something.

What’s that going by?

That’s a helicopter, little man.

Wow, I wish I could fly.

Ok, Grandma, I’m done with the dirt

and I’m getting kinda hot.

But, we have to water the flowers first.

Actually we have to water them a lot!

Oh-oh, Grandma,

I don’t think I understood.

But, my watering can is empty now.

Is that good?

Can we be done now, Grandma

or is there more to do?

Here, I picked up this dirt

for you.

A Walk In The Woods With Grandma

You probably don’t remember but about 7 months ago, I took you for a walk in this woods? Same woods, same stroller, but now you are a bigger baby! It’s a beautiful spring day; the perfect kind of day for another walk in the woods with Grandma. Let’s see what we see this time, shall we? First, you are now 17 months old. You don’t say many real words but you communicate just the same. It starts with you pointing to things. So, I decided to take a picture of everything you pointed to. First were the branches way up high, then the trees and path straight ahead. I didn’t judge. I just accommodated, labeling everything that you pointed to.

With the next photo, you pointed towards the pond and said “uck”; your word for duck and goose. You couldn’t see them but you could hear them.

Yes, we’ll find a duck soon. Let’s keep looking.

Remember no judgement!

You don’t say owl but you make an owl sound with you mouth closed. Try it. Say “Hoo-Hoo” with your mouth closed. That’s the word for owl right now; any owl, every owl you see. You seem to find them everywhere.

Time to get out of the stroller.

Last fall, you crawled into this little house. I think you stayed about as long this time as last time still.

10 seconds into the house,

5 seconds to look out the window, and

2 seconds to get out.

You were far more interested in continuing the walk. So, onward! Back into the stroller, you went.

A duck, a duck, we finally spot a duck.

Well, it’s a goose

but remember,

to you,

duck, duck, goose…

one and the same.

Then, time to get out of the stroller again.

Now this is something more interesting than the “uck”. You spot a ramp!

Up and Down,

the ramp you went.

I grew tired of this activity. You probably would still be there going up and down, up and down.

But with a bit of protest, I got you back in the stroller and in no time, your fingers were pointing again. This time…

Yea! Your way of saying flower is in sign language. You put your fingers up to your nose and sniff. Mmmmm, pretty flowers. Man after my own heart.

Then, you spotted a trail marker post. So, I pointed to both of the colors but then gave you a job.

“Which path are we going to follow, little man? How about if we follow the yellow. Can you be on the lookout for the yellow markers?” You were doing a great job until you became distracted with this: