What To Do With a One-Year-Old On a Rainy Day

Last Tuesday I woke up hearing rain hitting the roof.  I just wanted to crawl back under the covers, but of course the Little Man does not understand that rainy days = lazy.  So, we had breakfast, I drank a cup of coffee while CJ played in the family room.  We try to get out of the house every morning now that he is only taking the afternoon nap- even if it is just to go to Target to spend the obligatory $100.  However, this morning there were no plans, and no motivation to go anywhere as just getting CJ out of the carseat would have make me soaked.  And it rained like this ALL MORNING.  Well, at around 11 I figured that CJ needed some structured play (and to get out of his PJ's).

I guess his pants are a little too big. 

What to do with a One-Year-Old?  Here's where I actually revisited a pin on Pinterest that had activities for 1-2 Year Olds.  I follow a lot of blogs, many of them parenting (with ideas for kids) but CJ is just too young for most of the activities.  So, Pinterest it is.  I also needed to find something that I had all of the materials for- so I decided on "Sensory Tub with Shredded Paper."  Basically, you fill a bin with paper from the paper shredder and then add a few "surprises" (I put in some cars) and let the kid go to town.   Just a week ago I witnessed CJ be able to entertain himself for at least an hour just playing in sand- same thing, right?

I set the tub in our living room, where there wouldn't be any distractions (he's not into ceramic bowls or expensive coffee table books quite yet) and thought he would dig right in.  Nope.  The stairs were just too close and he hardly ever gets the opportunity to climb them on his own accord!

Then the Little Man decided we were going to play a game where he walks (on his knees of course) around the house in circles while I chase him.

Finally, he thought maybe it would be fun to take out all of the paper and put it back in the bin again.  This occupied him for about 10-15 minutes until it was time to do another circle.  The circles and actual time at the bin took us up to lunch- so success if you ask me!  Here is the website that provided the activity- http://www.icanteachmychild.com/1-2-years/