Things we do after nap :: Ice play

Its been soooo hot! Disgustingly, depressingly hot. Now before you scold me for complaining about the heat when I live in the Seattle area let me remind you that one, I'm getting mui preggo-pants here and two, because it doesn't get hot often around here, no one has AC. That means that when its 85 outside its 100 in my flat roofed, no insulation house. Gross.
Jack and I were melting the other afternoon and so lethargic that I decided it was a good day for ice play. Ice play is a lot like water play. Its easy, so fun for littles and requires minimal clean up. Put a towel down (or not) under your highchair, strip that baby to a diaper and gather a couple of things you already have in your kitchen.

We started with some ice water in a sippy and a small plastic cup filled with ice cubes. We tentatively touched the ice and talked about how smooth it was and how it was slippery like soap in the bath tub. Jack wants to kiss everything right now so he decided to give the ice a little smootch.

"Oooooo cold!" Since we'd just had our faces next to the cup we decided to blow into the cup and feel the cold air come rushing back out.

We noticed that the ice had started melting and that there was now a little bit of water in the bottom of the cup so we talked about how ice is made from water, and then poured the water onto the tray.

Then some of the ice came out too...

Of course the next logical progression was for colored water to join the party.

We eventually added some dinosaur sponges and the color blue.

It was at this point that Mama realized we had been playing for 45 MINUTES, and that it was time to get started on dinner. I was shocked that Jack stayed engaged for so long. It was a great lot of fun and helped us stay just a little bit cooler.

Things we do after nap :: Water play

I've been doing this with Jack for several months but have yet to blog about it. Its such a simple thing and yet for littles, so effective. Its even better now that Jacks a little older. I think he spent almost 45 minutes in complete concentration in which Mama was able to finish the first (hopefully of many) hand-knit sweaters for baby girl.

All I do is lay down an old towel (important in case the food coloring stains) and grab an assortment of things I find in the kitchen. It varies every time and the possibilities are endless. This time we had a Pyrex pie plate, measuring cup and spoon, a straw, an old spice jar and a plastic squirty alligator from the latest trip to the zoo. Then I fill a couple of containers with colored water and let Jack have at it.

He has so much fun. Pouring, scooping and splashing. There is minimal clean up involved with the towel on hardwood floors (I would suggest not doing this on carpet. We've hung out in the kitchen several times) and it gives a Mama time to finish a couple of chores. That being said, I do love to find an activity for myself that allows me to sit near and observe if I can. Without direction the way he chooses to use these objects never ceases to fascinate me. So next time you're bored, grab some kitchen junk and some water and watch the magic happen.

Things we do after nap :: Popsicle stick & Clothes Pin Airplanes

I really didn't intend to be away so long. One post in almost 3 months, ouch. Clearly I've been busy with something, and the something happens to be growing another human. We are expecting baby #2 in early December! This pregnancy has been a bit harder than the first. Chasing a toddler around rather than lying on the couch with a bag of pretzels is a bit more exhausting than I was expecting. I unfortunately, also had much worse morning sickness this time around. Puking with a curious toddler trying to look over your shoulder is a hilarious story for later but not really all that funny in the moment. I am getting some energy back now though. We're into the golden second trimester and other than the emergence of the rotten heartburn I had with the first pregnancy I'm almost symptom free. I've even started to feel my little goldfish move a bit. So fun. I'd forgotten how magical those first little flutters are.

But this is what I really wanted to tell you about. A fun and easy project idea we found (where else?) on Pinterest. Popsicle stick & clothes pin airplanes! Who doesn't have those things laying around? They came together in literally 5 minutes, which includes a few minutes hunting for the hot glue gun. For the little guys like mine, I suggest putting the airplanes together during nap and having them all ready to decorate when they wake up. We used crayola washable markers, but the decorating posibilities are endless: glitter, crayons, stickers, modge podge and paper...

As you can see, Jack quickly lost interest and started coloring on the picture we'd been working on that morning.

No worries, he came back to it soon enough. Now these are a bit delicate, so be ready to re-glue a couple of times before your littles understand how fragile they are. Maybe super glue would work better... I might try it next time. Either way get ready for some silly fun, though your airplanes may turn into hungry bugs or dancing dinosaurs, I'm not really sure what was going on...

Simple sandbox

Seattle weather has been giving us glimpses of summer lately and any day above 60 degrees around here (rain or shine) is a good day for the beach. Jack is thoroughly enjoying all this digging around in the sand and muck. In fact one of his latest vocabulary additions has been "Sand! Sand!" so last weekend when it was better than 60 degrees, 70 and sunny all day in fact, we made ourselves a simple sandbox.

We went back and forth about using an old planter box on the patio but settled on our hand-me-down kiddy pool and about 15 bucks worth of play sand. Easy peasey. The hardest part was getting the sand out of the car. Those little bags weigh 50 pounds each. I'm not really sure what were going to do when/if we need to move the sandbox...

Jack was THRILLED. The man is a fan of sand after all and couldn't even wait to get proper clothes on before he jumped right in. Sadly the weather took a turn for the worse the next day and poor Jack hasn't been able to play in it since. He longingly looks out the sliding glass door and points, "sand... sand". Soon my love. We've got sunshine in the forecast for this weekend. I think there is plenty of digging and "ditty" (dirty) in your future.

Things we do after nap :: Pipe cleaner madness

I picked up a package of pipe cleaners on my epic trip to Joann's a couple of weeks ago with no clear plan, but I did know that these great colors and that delicious pipe cleaner texture would be a hit. I busted them out yesterday while Bruce was on a call from home and needed some space from a curious little man who loves to help Dada by clicking buttons on his laptop. These made for another simple, fun and infinitely customizable activity.

First we dumped the whole package out on the floor (that kind of mess seems to always be exciting to little people and grabs their attention right away). We talked about the pretty colors, we felt the soft texture and tickled them against each others faces and necks, we bent them and noticed how easy they were to manipulate. Then Mama made some creatures and Jack stuffed them into an empty cookie box.

I feel like this could work easily for a group of children of diverse ages. There are just so many directions you could take, structured art projects, sensory exercises or completely free play. I'm pretty sure that pipe cleaners will become part of my "go-to" arsenal from now on. And 15 minutes of pipe cleaner madness keeps a busy work-at-home dad and an under-caffeinated mama very happy.

Things we do after nap :: Mirror art with bath tub crayons

I'm finding that sometimes its hard to fill time with a toddler. Our biggest obstacle right now is Jack's attention span. When planning activities, I have to find short, uncomplicated things for us to do.
Bruce was on a work call from home yesterday so I needed something to keep Jack busy on the other side of the house. Having daddy work from home certainly affords us moments that I'm sure many moms and dads aren't able to experience together but it also presents some interesting logistical challenges with a rambunctious little boy in a 1200 sq foot house. I had bought our first bath tub crayons a couple of days prior and when I walked into our bedroom to change Jack, the light bulb went on.

I drew some silly pictures and Jack scribbled happily. This actually kept us both busy for a whole 20 minutes or so. Enough time for Bruce to finish his call and wander into the bedroom to find out what the heck we had been up to.

I like that we were creating on a unique surface. When you get up close, the reflection of the line work in the mirror makes it even more interesting. From further away our own reflections can become a part of our drawings. I suppose Jack's a bit young for these musings just yet but I hope I'm sowing the seeds. Either way, I got some sweet, baby hugs so that's a win for this Mama.



Animal flash cards

I'm almost done with the homemade gifts. Well... Jack's homemade gifts anyway. I have one left to go. I'm doing so well, I may have to throw in a couple extra projects before the big day. Anyhoo. Here are my animal flash cards.

Ive been talking to a friend about how much she loved using flash cards with her son and how much she thinks his language skills developed because of them. I thought about buying some, even took a gander around the interwebs but the graphic designer in me always comes out at times like these and says "You know, you can MAKE some that will look exactly how you waaaaaannnnt...". That voice is always a little sing-songy. Of course, I listened to the voice. I bought a roll of Duck clear laminate from Staples for $9.49 and 10 sheets of scrap book paper (for the backing) at JoAnnes for about 3 bucks. I have TONS of laminate left. Plenty to cover the food cards I also designed but have yet to print out as well as, I'm sure, several more sets.

All that cutting was a bit time consuming. I'm so glad I thought to bust out my rotary cutter and mat for trimming the edges. Stacking 4 at a time and just running along a straight edge was sooo much better than scissors. Plus scissors always get stuck to sticky stuff and then you have to stop and pull the extra bits off. Anyway, this worked beautifully.

Not sure how interested Jack is yet. Truthfully, this is what happened next.

We've got over a month till Christmas. Perhaps they'll hold his interest a little longer by then.

I put the PDFs up on a file sharing site if anyone is interested in making their own. Just click through to download.

http://www.4shared.com/document/4n0S4H9p/animal_flashcardsA-F.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/8_SmeC1Y/animal_flashcardsG-L.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/I4QvJVNQ/animal_flashcardsM-R.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/HnhKOw7B/animal_flashcardsS-X.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/U48wdaOY/animal_flashcardsYZ.html
 

Things we do after nap :: indoor "leaf" pile

I've been fascinated lately by "things we do after nap" going on over at Sew Liberated, mostly because I've found it hard at times to find creative activities to do with a 13 month old that aren't completely exasperating for one of both of us. Jack is old enough now for independent play which gives this happy momma a little more time to get some things done around the house. Jack isn't quite old enough not to put things in his mouth, or pay attention for more than a few minutes in any kind of guided environment. He is however, beginning to understand simple instructions and I wanted to encourage that by doing something a little more specific together. I was inspired by both a recent trip to the park and a recent trip to the mail box. Jack and I were admiring the lovely fall colors and I was reminiscing about making piles of leaves in my parents front yard as a kid. All that jumping and throwing was a blast. We only have evergreens in our yard so piles are unfortunately out. When we went to get the mail that afternoon and I saw the ridiculous stack of junk mail I had my ah-ha moment (the light bulb, not the band... but now I need to listen to "take on me").

Here's what we did. We tore all the junk paper into strips together.

And made our own indoor pile of "leaves". We threw them about and stomped around.

And then practiced putting them away in a paper bag.

I'll save this scrap paper for more indoor play as the weather continues to get less friendly around here and when we're finished Jack will hopefully be old enough for his first simple paper mache project. I do love me some paper mache. Theres recycling at its best my friends!

Technicolor Baby

Lets be clear. This is not my original idea. Though I'm not sure where I've seen it in the past, its popped up several times in several blogs over the last few years. Its one of those things I saw before Jack was born and filed into my "rainy-day with kids" memory bank. For those of you who live in and around Seattle, you'll know that today was a perfect day for such an activity.

It couldn't be much simpler, just 2 ingredients. Plain, vanilla, or in our case, honey flavored greek yogurt (it just has to be white and without fruit chunks) and the food coloring you undoubtedly already have in your cupboard.

I mixed up one of each of the colors I had, stripped Jack down to his diaper, and plopped a bit of each color onto the tray of his highchair. Instant, edible finger paint. Perfect for trying to get enough dairy into this slowly weaning baby and keeping him entertained for 15 minutes or so.

A nice rainy day mess and a fantastic excuse for a cosy afternoon bath.

Update: Squee! Jack and I got ourselves featured on Naptime Crafters!