An exercise ball, foam roller, & a med ball...

My sister called last week and asked if I would babysit my 2.5 year old nephew, Noah, while they took my niece to the Flames hockey game. I'll admit I was a little hesitant at first since I haven't babysat him yet....I do have excuses for this--I've been travelling so much the last couple years, he has both sets of grandparents in town to spoil him and my brother is really good with Noah, so I'm usually the last resort choice!!

To keep him entertained we took him to the zoo for 'zoo lights'. It was opening weekend, and a little crowded but a good round of 'kick-the-Styrofoam-snowmen', a gingerbread man cookie, and a walk around looking at lights, ate up almost 2 hours of babysit time with no melt-downs! Although, I asked him if he had fun at the zoo and he replied, rather politely; "No, no I didn't"!

Then at home, all we have for 'toys' is my exercise equipment and my previously-folded clean laundry, but it did the trick! That and a round of fort building (destroyed in 30sec flat) had him fast asleep by the 3rd period of the hockey game!

The little devil and the only toddler-approved mugs in our house! He was drinking 'his coffee' all night! Note that we lost a sock when the fort collapsed!

Hmmm...now that I'm done with the exercise equipment, what else can I get into....maybe Richard's guitar hero game?!

But in the end, victory was mine!!

Piece of cake....when you get to give them back at the end of the night!! I think I was more tired than he was!