Hellobee

I love Day in the Life posts, but sometimes when you live with a small child, a full day is an eternity. One day I was observing Jackson play and realized how many things he did in the course of just a few minutes. He flits from place to place, playing with a ton of different toys and exploring everything he can. On occasion, he’ll sit still and play with something for more than 10 seconds at a time, but it’s rare. So, I thought it would be fun to take a peek at what 30 minutes of playtime looks like for him at 20 months old. Here we go!

Minutes 0-2: He’s just finished a snack and gotten down from the table. He runs into the living room to survey all of his toys and finds a small snack bowl. He immediately asks for another snack. I tell him snack time is finished, so he takes the bowl into the kitchen to put it up. While in there, he finds an invitation from a friend’s baby’s birthday party. He brings it to me shouting “baby! baby!” I tell him the party is over and that is trash now, so he throws it away.

Minutes 3-4: He finds a small ball on the ground and brings it to me. He then runs around the room looking for more balls.

Instead, he finds the pumpkins I have placed on top of his play kitchen. He brings one to me insisting it is “lellow! lellow!” I tell him it is, in fact, white so he walks away muttering “green” and puts it back where he found it.

Minutes 5-8: While next to his kitchen he discovers his push toy. He brings it to me and I chase him around the house with it for a few minutes while he laughs maniacally. This continues until my legs burn from basically running at full speed in a squat position and I plop on the floor to take a break.

Minutes 9-12: Jackson runs from one side of the house to the other, crashing into me and giggling every chance he gets.

Minutes 13-15: Gets distracted by random toys next to where I’m sitting. Suddenly realizes I’m still there, pulls me to my feet (“up! up!”), and starts asking for our dog, Hadley.

Minute 16: Looks out the window trying to find the dog. She’s standing behind him. He brightens up, turns to me, and declares, “outside!”

As soon as we step outside, he asks for chalk.

Minutes 17-29: Jackson spends this 13 minutes putting the chalk into the box, taking it out, and putting it back in. At one point, he brings me a piece of trash insisting I throw it away. I don’t respond immediately and he says, “I said trash! Throw away!” Geez, this kid is bossy. He grabs it from me and throws it across the yard.

Minute 30: As if on cue, he asks to go inside. I help him pick the chalk up and he takes it from me to bring inside and put away. After he puts it up, he notices that Mr. Garland is playing Madden on the Xbox and he gleefully shouts “football!” and runs to watch.

I plop down on the couch, thinking I can have a few minutes to myself…which lasts for approximately 45 seconds before he runs back out shouting “mama! mama!”

Whew.

What would 30 minutes in the life of your child look like right now?