A Pinterest Fail

Today has been one of those long, bleak, rainy days, the kind described in Cat in the Hat, where little kids gaze longingly out the window wishing they could be frolicking in the sunshine.

Little Loquacious has been doing exactly this, cruising over to the window and banging on the glass. I'm almost certain that the utterances I'm hearing from her mouth are, "Go! Go! Go!"

Alas, there can be no playground play for you today, kiddo. The rain has not abated, and I believe there is still a rainfall warning for our area.

So what's a mama to do? Try to invent indoor games? Yes! And I had found what I thought was the perfect game for her age, on Pinterest. It involved pom-poms and masking tape and one or more cardboard paper rolls. I didn't have any pom-poms, but I did have a paper towel roll that I could spare.

I taped that sucker to the wall, excited about the new game that Little L would be able to spend time engaged in.  In lieu of pom-poms, I figured I would use cotton balls, since we have those in abundance.

Note to self: cotton balls have an uncanny ability to stick to the insides of a cardboard paper roll.  FAIL.

After fishing the cotton ball out of the roll mounted on the wall, I tried to get creative with a second object I could use in place of pom-poms, which I think were originally chosen for their size, softness, and inability to be consumed.  The only thing nearby that might work were some plastic bag clips.  Of course, they needed to be placed in the roll vertically, because they were just a bit too long to fit horizontally.

I demonstrated how to do this to Little L, and waited expectantly for her to copy me.

Note to self: don't use items that can only fit one way, because if it frustrates the kid, it ruins the game.  FAIL.

Since I was unsuccessful in coming up with another inedible option that was of sufficient size, I decided to go with an edible option.  We have some Krave chocolate cereal that is the perfect size for that tube, plus in the event Little L did decide to eat it, she wouldn't choke on it.

So off I went to grab the box and empty out a bit of cereal, which I then placed in a small Tupperware bin beneath the cardboard roll.  I demonstrated how this revised "game" was played to Little L, then backed off again.

Note to self: there's a reason why the original Pin chose to use an inedible item - so it wouldn't get eaten! FAIL.

Little L immediately tried putting a Krave piece in her mouth, decided it was delicious, and completely forgot about the game.  And then she kept eating and eating the cereal.

So much for my attempt to entertain my kid.  Actually, scratch that.  I'm sure she was entertained, just not in the way I had planned, and not by the "game" I had set up.  Pinterest, either you've failed me, or I've failed you. :P