Marble painting
One challenge of keeping a preschooler happy is to regularly introduce new craft projects that are appropriate for her level of dexterity. But they can't be too boring either.

In my search for a St. Patrick's day craft that wasn't too hokey, I googled some preschool teacher sites and found a pretty fun craft that I think even a 2-year-old could do and enjoy. This activity could be adapted to any holiday or season.

You will need:
-construction paper
-scissors
-tempera paint
-a box or baking dish (I used an 8x8 aluminum pan)
-a marble or small ball
-tape

Prep:
-cut construction paper into desired shapes (I made 8 shamrocks)
-tape one of the shapes into the center of the box (tape circle on back works well)
-pour dollops of paint, the size of a half-dollar, in each corner

With the child:
Have the child drop the marble into the box. Let her roll the marble all around the box by tipping it left and right, forwards and back. The marble will pick up bits of paint and leave trails across the shape.

When one paper shape is covered, remove it, tape in another and continue until the child loses interest.

The completed paintings have fun, random line patterns with swirled-together hues. Theoretically, this is a low-mess craft, provided you can keep the child gripping the box rather than grabbing the marble or dabbling in the paint.

Alive or not?
In the past few months, Claire has had a fascination with the concept of death. Several weeks ago, she told Joel, "I think Ning-ya [security blanket] is dead." Joel explained to her that her blanket was never alive the way she is, or the dog, or our flowers in the garden. The blanket is merely inanimate, like a rock, not dead.

So the other night, Claire was resisting bedtime. We'd put on pajamas, read stories, brushed teeth and said our prayers, but she didn't want to stay in bed. When I insisted she get in bed, she hurled her stuffed lamb across the room in anger.

"Claire!" I scolded, "that was very mean. That's no way to treat your toys. You don't want to be like that mean boy in Toy Story who hurts his toys, do you?"

"No." Angry pout.

"Well, I think you should apologize to Lamby for hurting him."

"No, I won't! I won't say sorry!"

"Claire, you were very mean to your toy."

"I won't 'pologize. Lamby is an inanimate object!"

Well, how do you argue with that? I'm glad she can differentiate fantasy from reality. But frankly, it was one of those moments I wished my husband weren't a philosopher.

Surreal joke of the day
Claire recently took her first foray into humor when she was introduced to knock-knock jokes by a church friend. This variety of joke relies largely on bad puns that don't necessarily make much sense to a 3.5 year old. (As in, "Little Old Lady who?" "I didn't know you could yodel.")

She begs for long sessions of trading "jokes," which requires us to get creative on the spot. The most likely thing to garner a tremendous laugh from her is a silly rhyme. Of course, she now tries to create her own jokes that are hilarious largely because they're so bizarre.

Claire's surreal joke of the day:

C: Knock, knock.
M: Who's there?
C: Butter.
M: Butter who?
C: Arm butter water fish.