It seems I'm running out of ideas to keep my little boy entertained. Being an active tot, you wouldn't catch him sitting on a single activity for a long period. Recently though, I've been feeling really stressed over his obsession with "The Circle of Life."

It started when Kuya Pei popped in the Lion King dvd. I was surprised to see that Miguel was interested to watch. Whereas before, when I tried to let him watch Barney, he didn't pay any attention. I didn't mind that he watched simba's tale that day. Fortunately, he's only interested in the part when rafiki would lift simba up in presentation. (You may notice by now that I've watched it several times already that I know the names of the characters, hehehe:)) But when he kept on "asking" me to play it again the following day, I got concerned.

You see, the problem with our house is that you can find TV in every corner, literally! And there's one that's meant for magic sing and radio and dvd. Miguel would take my hand and lead me to where that TV is so I could put in the dvd for him. Apparently I have a Disney sing-along DVD which has the circle of life as the first song, so one time that's what I put in so I could take it out again after his fave part is done. It worked for a while until the once a day tv time progressed to twice then three times a day. At times I am successful at distracting him with other activities but there are just too many things that remind him of tv!!

I don't dream of ever having a kid whose eyes are glued to tv all the time so I'm taking every possible precaution. Besides it's easier to not let him get addicted to tv than to reason out with him someday why he couldn't watch barney and thomas and what-have-you all day long. And besides, I believe there are a lot of other activities that are worthy of our time than watching tv.

I took the opportunity this morning to introduce him to a new activity. Since he's an early riser, we would normally be running around the neighborhood at 530am. This morning was no exception. At around 630am, we went back in the house and he spent a few minutes scattering all his clothes and putting them back in the closet. I just let him. When he got bored he took out a book and I read a few lines. After a while, he tugged at my shirt again and led me to the moondeck (this is our laundry area that doubles as a garden). We don't normally spend time here but since it's summer and we couldn't head off to the beach, an idea came to me. We went up to the moondeck and I filled two basins with water, gave him a few tools (plastic toys such as a seahorse, crab, shovel and sprinkler) and we're set. He had the grandest time of his life sprinkling water on the plants, getting soil from the pot and just messing up. I'm happy to have found a new activity he could enjoy.

And he didn't remember to watch TV. :)

PS.
Dear moms, can you share your toddler's activities with us, please? We need more ideas. Thanks!