:iagree:This is an excellent idea and one I use with my dd all the time. I will tell her, "I can't play with you right now because I have to work on a project, but you can help me with my project." Project is just my word for "chore" or "work" in this case, and I try to give her little jobs she can do. She often does little jobs with me, but sometimes she still whines about this because she'd rather have my attention directly. If that happens, I just forge on with what I'm doing and ignore her.

I'm the OP of the weird preschooler games thread so I had to chime in here. I agree with the poster who mentioned personality. My dd18 was an only child for 4.5 years, but she played on her own from babyhood, in a way that could sometimes be described as eerie. She has just always had a very strong imagination and the desire to see her imaginings lived out, so she could play for hours in her own, made-up world. She is still an idealistic introvert, a personality that closely mirrors mine so I can understand it and always thought it was fascinating to watch lived out when she was so little. (Yes, I use my kids as personal sociology experiements.) DD13 less so. She never played the way dd1 did, never was much interested in dolls or pretend play or most of the play style of big sister. She'd do it with big sister, but never on her own. She'd rather build things in a sort of analytical way or take things apart and put them together, that kind of play. And she didn't like to play alone or even be in a room alone for many years. DD almost-3, the one who covered me with tape, was just like your dd up until VERY recently. I mean, like, in the last few weeks. That's part of why I posted that thread, just because I was so happy that she did something so relatively independently. Honestly, I'm not sure what turned the tide, except maybe getting a bit older? She is much more clingy and cuddly and has always wanted us to be the entertainers. Of course, I have two other "entertainers" which you don't have, and I feel your pain in the sense of being an introvert. I don't have any solutions, really, but I just wanted to say hello and tell you to hang in there. :grouphug:

I feel your pain and so far we have found no good solutions. We have gotten rid of 2 cats due to this issue, and we still have one (a male) who has a problem with it, plus both he and the female poop outside the box, too. :ack2: Maybe we just make cats neurotic? Anyway, we've tried sprays, aluminium foil on the main surfaces, baking soda to get rid of odor, anti-bacterial carpet-wash, professional cleaning.....all cats have been declared healthy by the vet (i.e. no urinary tract infections, anything else like that) Just want to say I feel your pain.

:iagree:My dd is about to get her wisdom teeth out and the oral surgeon said he strongly prefers NOT to do it with laughing gas only. And my dd's aren't severely impacted like it sounds your dd's might be. ETA: She had l.g. and novacaine when she had her four permanent teeth pulled before getting braces, and she didn't have any bad side effects afterwards. She said she did hear the teeth cracking but she was in la-la land and she just didn't care, and she wasn't in any pain because of the novacaine. But that was a much more minor procedure than wisdom teeth. There was no cutting with her other surgery, for instance, compared to what there would be with wisdoms.

Dh, dd18 and dd13 saw it but I haven't seen it yet. They all said that the story left something to be desired, the music wasn't as memorable as it could have been, but the animation and settings were great. I am looking forward to seeing it so I can hear the accents (Scottish is my favorite) and watch the main girl's curly hair fly around. From the NY Times: There was a parameter in the computer settings called “scraggle.” “It takes the straight lines of these curl points and jumbles them up and crisscrosses them, like real hair does.” Mr. Andrews was taken by this look and requested that the animators “turn up the scraggle,” and that solidified the final style.

Would you please move in next door to me? :001_wub:

My children look very similar to each other in coloring, but different from me. DH and The Girls: Blond, straight hair and blue eyes. Me: Brown, crazy curly hair, green eyes. No one has suspected the mailman (since our mailmen are almost always Asian ;)) but people often ask me if my hair is permed (it's not) because they can't believe none of my girls got it. My oldest dd is seeing a man with white-blonde, crazy curly hair, so I have high hopes for grandkids who look like me. :D

Oh, good grief! This is too much. Will you please squeeze those cheeks for me? You must have some fun days!

You're BOTH adorable!

I've always had great success buying and selling there. So easy to list, so organized, easy to search.

That's a game waiting to happen.

I'm trying to remind you (which may be counter-productive since I'm the OP) but there are some days I have to remind myself, even though I live with her. Just yesterday I was looking at a tiny newborn at church and I practically felt my ovaries flipping. And I'm 44 years old. Nothing beats the charming, bizarre little worldviews of kids this age. Not to mention the chubby wrist creases. But that's a whole 'nother thread. :tongue_smilie:

Totally genius. I've always felt that most office products were one of the best preschool "toys" ever. Especially if you can find a little suitcase of some sort to put them in. And double bonus points if the kid can have her own little table. So much cheaper than traditional preschool, none of the socialization heartache, and you get to watch the weirdness happen!

I told Wolf about it later, and he said, "It's a good thing that we don't give a sh*t about what other ppl think." :lol: Bwa ha haaaaaa!!!! :lol::lol: Priceless.

:iagree:My dd is in her third year of EG, and she loves it. She wants to take high school Greek at Lukeion.org, but she didn't want to wait until high school, so she's been working through EG mostly on her own for the last couple of years. I started working through it last year with the first book and admittedly I haven't gotten very far, but that's not because of the program. :tongue_smilie: The format is very easy to use, and the amount of information in each lesson is very manageable.

Dude, you're SO not the worst. I still haven't finished Missie Lee (part of the Swallows and Amazons series) and I started it when my middle dd wasabout....7? She's 13.5. It was good, too! Sometimes I think I had another baby just so I could read certain books aloud again. I can't wait for Swallows and A's. And the Borrowers. And Betsy-Tacy. And The Wolves Chronicles. There are worse reasons to have babies, right?:tongue_smilie:

Tape is cheap and basically quiet and doesn't make a mess, really. This was all running through my mind while I was being "treated." It felt sort of genius at the time (on her part, not mine) and I'm now wondering how much mileage I can get out of it. Like, maybe she could cover some inanimate objects around the house? Start small, but then work up to....I don't know. The local Trader Joe's? She could be like the artist Christo. "I be an artist and a taper. Someone give me a commission!"

:iagree:Seriously! I am so happy that this one is moving into the stage of.....playacting, I guess. Playing "doctor," mommy, whatever. All of which require me still to be there (or at least, she would prefer that I also be one of the characters) but I can generally do it face down on the carpet. She also sometimes "reads" to me, which is so adorable I can hardly keep from weeping every time. I was secretly hoping other people would add their weird preschooler games, too. I wonder if anyone will?

:iagree:I'm using this with my 13yo and it's excellent.

WONDERFUL! Praise God!

Gorgeous! Very smoochable nose!

This afternoon, my almost-3yo dd and I have been alone in the house for several hours, while the rest of the family watches Brave. I'm very tired so I was lying lumpily on the couch. Then, out of my peripheral vision, I saw my dd, shirtless yet official-looking, standing by the couch holding a small dinosaur suitcase and roll of scotch tape. "I be a doctor and a taper," she said. "Now, what happened?" I told her a story about crashing into a hippo while riding my bike. Fortunately, she had the solution. She proceeded to pull off long strips of tape and cover my clothed and unclothed body parts, all the while telling me comforting stories of her own encounters with wild animals while bike riding. When she got to my chubby midsection, she grinned elvishly and said, "Now I put tape on your fullness!" This went on for 30 minutes. Then she removed all of the tape, which was less painful than you'd think. Altogether, this was a cheap and funny way to spend a half hour, and I found the preschool bedside manner to be very healing. :lol:

We're TRIPLETS! I also sniff inanimate objects, especially things from the earth, like leaves and rocks. I don't even notice I do it, but people point it out to me. *sniff, sniff*

REPRESENT!:hurray:

No, I'm sorry. I refuse to believe it. I also refuse to beleive that Charlotte is nearly 3. I guess wanting your kids to stay young and chubby-wristed isn't a weirdness on this board. Is it?