Trying to Entertain a 4-Year-Old

It's all about filling the hours.

My sister-in-law and her son are visiting this weekend. They are having a snack at the kitchen table and I have snuck away to check e-mail and blog (ah ha ha - evil laugh).  I was not looking forward to having them here but in all fairness I must say this has not been a bad weekend, thus far. I had memories from their last visit a year ago where the activity of choice was banging a solid brass belt buckle against my hardwood floors. The nephew seems a little more well-behaved this time around, in part because I think he's grown into some shyness.

Yesterday afternoon Blair spent almost 2 hours playing football and soccer with L. out in the yard. Today Blair had to work (I'll get him for that one) so it was all on me. I loaded them into the car around 9 and we drove into Greensboro and spent several hours at The Children's Museum. VERY COOL place if you've never been there.  They have a giant bubble machine where you stand in the center of a circle of soap, pull on a rope that raises a plastic cylinder dipped in suds and it ends that you're standing in the center of this giant soap bubble.  I was shoving small children out of the way so I could play with that.  That's after I flashed them. At some point in the morning I looked down and realized a key button on my blouse had come undone and been that way for God knows how long.  Well, they do advertise an educational experience...

After that we took L. to his first movie - Ice Age II. He enjoyed it and that killed another 2 hours. Now we're home, it's just before 5 and I have to figure out how to fill the next 4 hours until I can excuse myself and go to bed. It's raining, so we're housebound. My only hope is our day was so full he'll tucker out early.

How on earth do you parents out there do this every day???