Marc Your Author

Spending the day with toddlers

My wife has been asked to work an extra day a week to meet a deadline, and as I have more accrued leave than I should, each Monday from January until March she has been going off to work on the train and I have been hanging out with 2 toddlers. One of them, “Miss 2.5”, is ours, and the other, “Miss 2”, belongs to our friends, which may sound a bit unusual but we have a child sharing arrangement which works out well for all of us.

So, what is it like swapping higher education, code reviews, and work place coffee for toys, parks, and nap time? Pretty good actually.

Things we have done:

Visiting the park, going in the “big train” or the “little train”, running up and down the decking, playing on the slides and the swings, and looking at all the things. It’s cute how Miss 2 waits for Miss 2.5 at the top of the slide so they can both go down together.

Looking at trains, a favourite of Miss 2.0, she loves trains.

It would have been nice to visit the park more often, but the last couple of weeks have been over 30 degrees, which is a bit hot for little ones to be running around the park, and definitely a bit hot for this bigger one to be running around after them.

Reading stories, or watching stories on the TV. They would, if allowed (which they are not) watch Shaun the sheep or fairy tales on TV all day.

Drawing on the driveway with chalk, including the “what shall we draw” game. We drew houses, cars, bunny rabbits, cats, and a face.

Hanging out in the back yard, playing on the slide and the swings, riding the trike, playing with the puppies, or just having a look at things. Jumping, on the path, on the step, anywhere.

Playing with their toys, or playing with the boxes for their toys, boxes are fun!

Today was the last Monday of the series on which I will be looking after the girls on my own, as next week is a public holiday here in Victoria. Today we read stories and made lanterns.