Rice O' Mania Revisited

It's a cold day. We're stuck inside on a Saturday. Any other Saturday we'd be all over town, visiting friends and their animals. Like the chickens, the goats, the occasional horse. But since it has yet to break the freezing mark, we're shut inside. Going slightly crazy.

I thought we'd bring the rice back out. For those of you who read the original "Rice O'Mania," you might be chuckling. No worries. It is under control. We've started using a cheap picnic table cloth under the rice, so clean up is a whiz. And we've definately started to understand what Mommy means when she says to "keep the rice IN the bucket."

Rice O'Mania

First lesson learned: just because he knows the rules, doesn't mean he will follow them.

We have a rice tub that we use as an 'inside sand table' during the cold weather. It's basically a rubbermaid storage container, about 6" deep, that we fill with rice. He has some little shovels, cups, funnels, etc. that he can use to play with. It's actually a great thing, and was cheap. A ten pound bag was around seven bucks, and we had the container lying around, along with cups and stuff. It helps with motor skills, imaginative play, and also teaches them about space (full vs. empty). Love it! Execpt for today. We've tried to teach him that the rice stays IN the bucket....

I put the tub of rice with him in the living room and turned on his TV show, thinking, I'll just vaccum the bedrooms while he does this...HOW MUCH TROUBLE COULD HE GET INTO IN 15 MINUTES.

When I returned, I could not believe what had happened. Almost every since ounce of a TEN POUND bag of rice was on the floor. And honey, I mean it was everywhere. We have hardwood floors, so you can imagine how far that rice went. I said "ANDREW!!!" He looked up at me, in his sweet, innocent face, and said "Uh-oh!" like the rice had jumped out of the bucket on its own free will! I got out the vaccum, and learned my second lesson.

Second lesson learned: You cannot use a vaccum on hardwood floors to pick up rice.

The vaccum only slung a zillion tiny grains of rice to the faraway ends of the earth. I'm still sweeping.