Toddler Art

This was a fun and easy art project. First my daughter used marker to color the paper. I then gave her water and a paint brush and she was able to smear the colors around. I had read about 'clean painting' before and it was as fun as I imagined.

Dining Out

Today we went out to dinner at a local burger joint. My daughter is pretty patient for an 18-month-old. That being said, she still doesn't have a real long attention span. Tonight at dinner she lined up four empty ketchup cups. I remember I had packed grapes in the diaper bag. I put one grape in each of her four cups. Every time she'd eat one, I'd replace it. She thought it was hilarious and she ended up in her little wooden highchair long past the time both my husband and I licked our fingers clean from the last french fry. It turned out to be a pretty successful dinner out!

Playing Spices

This 'game' often gets me through that long half hour of making dinner. My little one loves to take all the spice jars, put them all in a big bowl, stir them around with a wooden spoon, put them in a pot, stack them up on top of each other, and on and on.

Prevent Button Mashing

Button mashing: basically this is my term for that thing your kid does on your computer when you're not looking. Maybe mine's the only one who does it, I'm not sure. All I know is she's very good at it. I look one way and then look back and there are multiple new windows open on my screen because my daughter has been playing with the mouse and keyboard. The other day I found the solution! I simply found an old keyboard and old mouse, placed them on the pull out part of the desk (and put my keyboard on the top), tucked the cords in behind the computer desk, and VOILA! She can now play for hours mashing as many buttons as she wants and I don't have to worry any more about her accidentally purchasing anything on Ebay.

Unsanitary but Fun!

Is it gross to make cookies on the floor? Even if it is, we had a blast doing it. Using the cookie press was just as exciting (if not more) that using the Play-Doh spaghetti factory!

Valentines Are Also Good For....

Playing mailbox in your bicycle. Special delivery!

Personalized Valentines

This week we made Valentines. My daughter started off with artistic design:

Then we cut out her drawings into hearts. We also cut hearts out of scrapbook paper to be the background. Finally, I sewed the two together. I'm sure I could have glued them, but I liked the way the stitching looked.

We liked them so much we made lots and lots of them!

Sink Play

A sink full of water, a little dish soap, and some measuring cups, ladles, and spoons can provide wonderful entertainment. After her fingers had turned into prunes and her shirt was soaked, I had a hard time tearing my daughter away from this set up. I finally just had to pull the plug.

Looking Fancy

A few months ago my daughter started showing interest in dressing up. As a person who spent most of her childhood in either a leotard or princess cape, I couldn't be more thrilled. Today she wanted to dress up in all of her bows. She then got a kick out of looking at herself in the mirror and making all sorts of faces. Our favorite library book right now is Funny Face by Anna Walker. As the book describes each face, we both do our best to look happy, sad, surprised, etc. As my little munchkin was looking in the mirror admiring her hair accessories, I saw her go through the whole list....happy, sad, angry, and finished it off with a couple of kisses to the cute girl in the mirror.

$15 Sandbox

As stated in my last post, sometimes the simplest thing are what kids like the most. Last summer, after going to the park and watching my daughter playing in the sand, I started to really want a sand box for our back yard. I didn't want to invest in the big green turtle I've seen at so many houses (especially because we rent our house and I didn't want to kill the lawn). After one trip to target and one trip to Home Depot, I found my solution. 1 storage bin from target: $10. 1 bag of play sand from Home Depot: $5. A very entertained little girl: priceless!