One thing that I do from time to time, is keep my niece and nephew occupied while their mom and dad are busy. Often this means that I'll play with them. I've downloaded some appropriate games on my tablet that we've played, but with the weather warming up, we've been playing outside more lately.
One game that they liked a lot was simply a game of catch, except that we use dodge balls and we bounce them to each other instead of simply tossing them. Yesterday we were playing this and Henry came up with the variation that instead of me tossing the ball so that he could catch it, I should make the ball bounce gently off his head. After the first bounce off his head, his response was, "Cool!" Clara must have thought so too, since she joined in.
After that, they ran up to where their swing set is and asked me to push them on the swings. I obliged. Their response was lots of giggling and shouts of "I'm in the sky!" Since Clara's older, she has more experience on swings and was able to pump her legs which helped to stabilize her and that meant that I could push her a little higher. Henry, being a year younger, had trouble with the timing and every time he started to get a little height, started drifting to one side and I started worrying that he would smash into Clara. I did coach him, but his coordination is still developing so the timing was too much for him. Still, both kids loved it and I think the only reason they ever got down was because they were called in for dinner.
Playing not only kept the kids busy while their parents were fixing dinner, it also helped to work up their appetites. Henry usually has trouble eating much of his dinner, but having been outside for a while, he ate everything and asked for more (mind you, he still needed reminding to eat, but he still finished everything).
It's super enjoyable to be the "fun uncle" since I get to play with the kids without having to dish out discipline when they act out. I could totally get used to this.
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