Dirt, Sticks, Crayons, Bubbles

Entertaining a three-year-old isn't really that hard, but you'd better have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. If one trick doesn't work -  or doesn't work for long- then pull out the next one. Just keep things moving.

In the course of one day, we've colored three gigantic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles posters, made a couple of really cool bubble-snake apparatuses, spent an hour and a half at the park swinging, sliding, digging in the dirt, and throwing sticks, baked toll house cookies, read two books, and had a variety of snacks and meals. Sounds like a lot - and it was - but I had more possibilities waiting in the wings if any of those failed. As I said, you have to have a sleeve-full of endless tricks.

Somehow I think if we did the exact same list of things tomorrow, GrandBoy would find it entertaining. When we run out of Ninja Turtle coloring pages, we'll find something else to color. The bubble-snake thing won't run out until the dish soap and food coloring do. And dirt and sticks never run out at the park. See? Not so complicated.

After a day of dirt and sticks and crayons and bubbles, GrandBoy's in bed, plum tuckered out. And GrandMary's tuckered out, too. I will say, however, that my coloring skills are improving with every Ninja Turtle picture. I take direction well from a 3-year-old. Good practice for my dotage, me thinks.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm pooped.