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Bean Box!

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We have all been on Spring Break this past week which has been a VERY welcome event.  Unfortunately, after the first day of sunshine (into which we crammed a zoo trip, park visit, walk, and tricycle ride) we have had rain, rain, rain.  And Miss Leah tends to get ants in her pants when trapped in the house for too long.  Her what-should-I-not-play-with sensor goes into red alert and she becomes quite impossible.  So, while Ryan had baseball practice Leah and I visited the library, the chocolate cafe with the indoor cocoa tree themed playhouse, Target, the Farmer's Market, and other assorted indoor venues.  However, I decided we needed to come up with something to entertain our busy girl at home.

And so, we took one last trip to the dollar store and the Bean Box was born.  Take one long, shallow Tupperware box.  Fill it with dried kidney and pinto beans.  Add tumblers, shovels, sand molds, spoons, measuring cups, etc. and you have a toddler magnet.  Leah played with those beans for 45 minutes straight and was very enthused about it.  There were lots of shrieks and giggles and babbling.  She did really well at keeping the beans in the box too, which was a pleasant surprise.  When I said it was time to clean up the bean box so we could have lunch she had a total meltdown.  She stubbornly tried every trick in the book in order to convince me that it was play time, not lunch time: limp noodle, stiff-as-a-board, rolling on the floor, pounding her little fists on the box, yelling "Noooooooo!  No! No! No!" saying please in sign language, crawling onto my lap and looking cute, crying so hard no sound came out, crying so high stray dogs showed up in the front yard...  She'll soon learn that she can't out-stubborn the Queen of Stubborn.  Eventually, she scarfed down some ravioli, peas, and milk in 2 minutes flat and returned to the bean box saying, "Muh? Muh?"  (More? More?)  

In conclusion, the bean box is both a smashing success and a potential point of contention...




I found this cool sand mill at Target.  The Beans are a little big, so we tried Lentils.  Awesome!


Comments

Anonymous said…
Such fun and smart thinking for a rainy day/week! Love you all and miss you already.
April 9, 2010 at 6:25 PM
Jenny said…
Nikki, you are so creative. I hope when my kid is getting stir crazy I have the presence of mind to make something like a bean box... or to call you.
April 11, 2010 at 6:42 AM
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