You've Got Mail!

When you're the Mama of a rambunctious, energetic, inquisitive, and easily bored toddler boy (do they make any other kind?) sometimes you have to get a little creative to keep them entertained. And, since MJ isn't easily amused by most common toys, I sometimes have to think outside the box.

And, the longer I do this Mommy gig, the more creative I get.

Like the other day, MJ was bored (again) and starting to get a little stir crazy. So, I figured I'd fall back on old faithful - going outside. But I didn't want to just go outside and run around aimlessly like we normally do. No, we needed an objective. A task. A purpose.

Think, Mommy, think!

Ah ha! MJ's birthday party invitations needed to get in the mail. MJ has never played with the mailbox before. This could be a match made in heaven.

"MJ," I called. "Do you want to go outside and play with the mailbox?"

He looked at me, intrigued. Probably because I said "outside", I don't think he even knew what the mailbox was at this point.

"See these letters? We're going to put them in the mailbox. Let's grab the step stool so you can reach!" I told him.

At this point, MJ was really excited. The step stool is his best friend and it only leads to good things, things that are too high for him to reach normally and therefore must be very, very exciting.

So, outside we went!

Here's MJ climbing onto the step stool in anticipation. This is gonna be good!

First, MJ emptied all the contents of the mailbox. That was fun!

Hmmm, this junk mail looks interesting. Mommy, can I interest you in a new dining or bedroom set for just 0% down and twelve easy monthly payments?

But wait, there's more mail to read! How fun is this?

MJ carefully and joyfully examined each piece of mail. After a few minutes, that lost its luster. Time for step two. Out came the invitations! I asked MJ to put the letters into the mailbox. That was a huge hit.

One by one they went in. Then it was time to take them all back out and start over. We did this over and over and over and over again. (Now is probably a good time to apologize to anyone who receives a grubby invitation from us. No, your postman isn't careless; my toddler was just really excited about putting it in the mail to you. Consider it sent with love.)

More letters, Mommy!

At this point, we started counting our letters as they went in. One, two, three, four, five! Five letters! I only counted once and then asked MJ to count the letters. He took them from me one at a time and proudly counted them all by himself. I was SO proud! It's not the first time he's counted, but it was definitely the most confident. 

We continued to count our letters for at least another twenty minutes or so. We must have counted them 100 times. Nothing like repetition to master a skill.

And when we were finally done with our counting, I showed MJ how to put up the flag on the mailbox so the mailman would know we had letters to pick up. That was pretty fun. Up and down it went - over and over again. 

All in all our mailbox adventure lasted nearly 45 minutes. That's like 4 or 5 hours in toddler time - it's an eternity. When we folded up our step stool and said bye bye to the mailbox, I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself for thinking this gem up.

Of course, I may have created a monster. The next morning, at like seven a.m., MJ pointed at the door and said "mailbock?" Um, yeah...we went outside and played with the mailbox again, and again, and again. Over the last week we've played with the mailbox at least every day. We may or may not have played with the mailbox in our pajamas. We may or may not have played with it barefoot. We may or may not have played with it four times in one day.

My neighbors probably think I'm crazy and that my kiddo is a little odd, but I don't care. After all, he can count to five and he's not even two years old. And if that takes standing in front of the mailbox in my bathrobe for two hours, so be it.