Lazy Parenting

A few months back Cookie magazine had this great article on ways to occupy your busy toddler while you are exhausted. They all involved the parent laying somewhere pretending to be a patient or lazy zoo animal while the child is a doctor or zoo keeper. I recently discovered another variation while at the community center playroom: For 20 solid minutes I sat on my butt while Matilda pretended to be Jack the boxer fetching rocks from my dad's pond. It was hysterical to watch as she went through an elaborate show of picking up the imaginary rock with her mouth, carrying it back, "spitting" it into my hand, and then waiting for my throw motion before tearing off to repeat the process.  At one point we even had another little boy join us in the imaginary fetch game. I just hope his parents weren't offended that I was treating him like a dog.