We start 'em young...

"Auntie Cassi" and "Uncle Gabey" had the pleasure of babysitting our good friends' 19 month old son, Ethan, last night, and oh! the fun we had.  I had been planning activities for days, some of which we didn't get around to playing, but that's okay.  I documented the activities we did partake in, and even flipping through them today tickles me.  He is a total love and so smart--and at such a fun age!

When the parents, T & M, dropped him off, he had just awoken from a long nap and was kinda out of it...too soon for games, so we started with some dinner: pizza.  Success?

The photos speaks for themselves.

Next, we moved to the floor for a project I was really excited about, because I read toddlers love these things: the Discovery Jar.  Sounds exciting, no?  Luckily, the kid was totally in to it, and we spent a good hour playing with all the fixin's.  We began with a tray of random household and crafts items I already had, and a canning jar, lid, and top.  I filled the jar halfway with brown rice, then encouraged Ethan to add whatever items he wanted to it.  As you can see from the photos, it started out as an organized task, but the real fun began when we let him take the reigns.   We won't talk about my outfit--they're my play clothes.

I read that toddlers are generally mesmerized by the Discovery Jar.  Below is the finished product--we put a lid on it once he seemed to be getting burnt out.  Now, if this isn't the face of a mesmerized kid, I don't know what is.

We also got some video footage of him dancing to David Bowie and the Labyrinth soundtrack--a must for the evening's playlist.  Next, since the weather was cooperating for the first time that day, we decided to grab the kid, the dogs, and the popcorn popper (Ethan's fav toy @ Auntie and Uncle's), and head out for a nice walk around the neighborhood.  You know, walk off the pizza, expel some energy, show off the cutest kid in the world to the community...

Ethan really enjoyed it, as did we all, and about halfway through (and a half-hour in) he became Mr. Chatty Chatterson.  No words, just sounds, but no less entertaining.  After returning to the house, about an hour later--no complaints here--I scratched the painting activity I had planned and we all decided to cozy up on the sofa for a viewing of an all-time classic: Disney's Alice in Wonderland--a movie he had never seen I later found out from M.  I didn't see him blink, and his jaw was dropped for most of the movie, so I can only assume that he LOVED it.

This photo was taken just after Uncle Gabey smiled and said, "easiest babysitting gig ever."

We're homebodies, the hubs and me, and our lives currently revolve around our two dogs and each other.  Entertaining a toddler, or rather, being entertained by a toddler, was the highlight of our week.  When T & M picked him up and took him home, we looked at one another and smiled, talked about how fun it was, and agreed we could stare at him for hours, mimicking all of his many facial expressions and engine-revving sound effects.   We had a blast, but I'm pretty sure Bowie is glad to be back at center-of-attention.