Buddy's Clues

This morning, John woke up and came into our bed.  It was really early and we snuggled.  After a few minutes of snuggling, he said "Mom, I saw something in the hallway."  I asked him what it was.  He said "It looked like a hand, but it was dark.  I couldn't really see it."  We talked about it and John decided it must be something that Buddy, our elf on the shelf, had created for us.  We got out of bed to investigate.  I told John that we needed to be super quiet, because Gillian was still sleeping.  He tiptoed into the hallway and I turned on the light.  Then we saw it a little red mitten with a tree on it. 

We were trying to whisper and not make much noise, but before we knew it Gillian was out in the hallway.  "Hi Mommy!"  We showed her the mitten and we decided it was a Christmas tree.  So we went running downstairs.  John looked at the Christmas tree and said "What are we looking for? Gilly, you look at the ornaments and I will look on this side."  They searched the tree and didn't see anything.  I said "Is that the only tree we have?"  Gillian went running to our little wooden Christmas tree.  She said "There it is!" 

John looked at the mitten and said "It's a present!"  I said "Look again."  He took it back and said "It's a sink!"  He went running to the kitchen.  He didn't see anything on the kitchen sink, so he moved on to the bathroom off the kitchen.  He was disappointed and said "It's not in here.  Where's there another sink?"  He remembered and we all headed to the basement.  On the cabinet in the bathroom in the basement was another red mitten.

 
This was an easy clue, and John immediately yelled "The measuring ruler!  In the kitchen!"  And we ran back to the kitchen.  In the kitchen, we found another mitten. 

John saw it and said "Really Buddy?  My room?"  He has a huge Capitan America shield painted on his wall.  We headed up to John's room.  And there on the shield was another red mitten.

 

 

"No Way!"  John was surprised to see the mitten on his wall.  I think he was surprised that Buddy was able to sneak in his room while he was sleeping.  He looked at the mitten and said "Gill's room!  You made me come in my room to go to Gill's room?" (Gillian has an argyle pattern painted on her walls)  I love that he was talking to Buddy the entire time.  We went into Gillian's room and found another red mitten.

 





This clue was a little harder.  John wasn't quite sure what it was.  I had to help them decipher it.  I asked "Where is the arrow pointing?"  He said "To the right."  I said "What does it look like?"  He said "Two doors."  I pushed a little farther and said "What is to the right that has two doors?"  Then the light bulb went off.  He said "The closet!  Gill you get one door, I'll get the other door."  They opened the doors and sitting on one of the shelves was Buddy!

 
"Come on Buddy!"  John laughed.  He made Gillian close the doors so that "Daddy can follow the clues too!" 

Daddy's Clues

This weekend John went into our art supplies and started to pull out blue paper. He drew something and then started cutting. He got frustrated because the three sheets of paper were not staying still. I asked him what he was doing. He said "I'm making hands for Blues Clues!" if you read our blog regularly, you will remember out Betty's Clues post.  I thought that John would come up with something for Daddy and I to solve. But no. Once he was done cutting out his hands, he handed them to me and said "OK. I'll close my eyes when you put out the clues." I asked Daddy to set up the clues. John waited patiently downstairs while Daddy set up the clues.  Then he came upstairs got his notebook ready and pencil behind his ear and he was ready.  Here's John solving "Daddy's Clues"

 

The first clue: he found one of the hands on some of Daddy's tools. John quickly drew a picture of the tools and went to find the next clue. 

The second clue: John found a bag in the loving room with the next hand print. The bags had wires in it. John scratched his chin and drew a picture of the wires. 

The third clue: John was very confused. He didn't know where to look next. He wondered around the living room looking high and low. Luckily, Gillian pointed out the next clue. "it's right here!" she proudly said as she pointed to a big box. 

 

 

John had all of his clues. So he sat in a chair and scratched his chin and tapped his pencil on his forehead. "Hmmmm. I wonder what Daddy wants to do? Tools and wires and a box." Daddy gave him a little hint and said "What's in the box?" "I know! Daddy wants me to help him set up the new TV! I knew it!!!"