Retro Play! ( fail.)

Kids crack me up. They just do. I love watching how their little brains operate-

 how they improvise. Case in point: Selah, my three-year old,

 sat and played with this and only this for nearly an hour....

Yes, it's a toilet.

 She had a little story going on, and had two or three different little voices for the characters she dreamed up.
 Occasionally, she'd flip the lid up and down, and make car noises,
 and there was some random chatter about attending a party, and I thought, it must be cool to live in a world that vibrant and entertaining. 

Then I got all nostalgic and philosophical. I decide that I am going to "unplug" my kids 
for a while and allow them to entertain themselves the way I did when I was a kid. No Disney channel, wii, DSI, or Starfall.
 No sir. Today, we were going to  really help nurture 
those creative little minds! It'll be
"Toilet World" 24-7.

My Strategy
I dug out an old activity book that I picked up at Goodwill, and figured that now was as good
a time as any to truck on through it.

I, for one, think my book is precious. It's a nod to a sweet by-gone era where kids left the house at breakfast,
 came home in time for dinner and did who-knows-what for the hours in-between.
 And on rainy days, they'd open a book like this one and get creative. My kids love fun projects, so I'm certain that they will eat it up. 

Check out the sweetness.

I'm so stoked to get started!

When I pitched the idea to Gabe, he gives me one of these...

(Not quite the reaction I was hoping for.)

Maybe it would be better to get Selah going with her project, and then go through some ideas

with Gabe, to hopefully spark some enthusiasm.

Selah quickly decides she wants to make a dolly, so we open the book to the dolly section.

I especially love the tin foil doll.

 I attempted to start one for her to see just how "out of the box" she would go.

Let me tell ya mamas, when it comes to dollies, you. just. don't. mess.

No amount of yarn hair or google eyes could transform these scary (and might I add) scratchy

 things into anything even remotely cute or cuddly.

I was confused. I mean, aren't kids just... kids? Aren't there universal laws of childlike wonder at play,

no matter what the generation?

Surely you could give a kid a couple of sticks, and they would be good to go.

 It worked for the dollhouse toilet, after all. But I guess it's a kids prerogative to be discriminating because

Selah's response was swift and decisive. When I asked her where her baby "head" was, she said,

and I quote, "It's in my kitchen

 drawer, because that's where it goes."

 and that was the end of that.

Sadly, Gabe wasn't into making surprise balls or hobo sacks.

I'll have to keep looking.

So much for today's attempt at retro fun crafts. I'll endeavor to persevere.

I am not done mining for treasures that I know can be found in that book.

I will let you know how it goes.