Drawing and Writing

I am in full cleaning and organization mode at our house so I decided to hold off on our tot trays this week.  Not to mention that Little Man is constantly on the go and I still haven't found the best method for us and our trays.  We've tried the whole "leave them in a drawer" option, but I feel like they definitely don't get used as often as when they were left out on our little table.  Still kinda struggling with that.  Anyway....we have mainly been doing fun art projects, drawing, coloring and playing with stickers.  My little lady surprised me the other day and did some AMAZING drawing and writing!!  It's been so fun to watch her scribbles turn into "people" and letters.

This is a drawing of herself. 

This just blew me away!  This is her name. 

And here is her name again.  (I made her do it again and again because I was just so amazed!!)

Toddler Art - Exploring Papers

If I know we are staying home in the afternoon I try to have some new and fun activity set up for Sweet Girl for when she gets up from her nap.  I found this idea over at The Artful Parent and knew I wanted to try it out!!  Today, I brought out our super fun Crayola Slick Stixs and taped down a couple of different types of paper to her small table.

I used: bubble wrap, tin foil, fingerpaint paper and cardstock.

This activity kept her occupied for quite a while.  She really enjoyed coloring on the different papers and she REALLY loved the bubble wrap.  I'm hoping to try some bubble wrap painting this week!! 

Baby Fun - Discovery Basket

So....this little guy is keeping me pretty busy these days!!  This silly man loves to roam around and gets into everything!!  He will play with a toy for a minute or two, but usually quickly loses interest and moves onto other things....usually things that are not toys.

I put together a discovery basket for Sweet Girl when she was about Little Man's age and she really loved it!  I pulled out the basket recently and added a few new things to it. 

Here's what is in our basket:

Several scraps of fabric with different textures (corduroy, burlap, cotton)

A knotted piece of rope

Bells

Water bottle noise makers

Empty water bottle

Wooden spoon

Two plastic spoons

Bean bag

Plastic container filled with black beans

Paper mache box

Golf ball

Small tupperware bowl

As with most babies his age, Little Man explores all things with his mouth.  I've made sure nothing is too small for his mouth and that everything is sealed very well (shakers, noise makers).

Practical Life - Washing Baby

Let me introduce you to the new favorite activity at our house.....WASHING A BABY!!  Seriously...Sweet Girl has done this a ga-zillion times this week.  We definitely have the cleanest babies on the block!! 

She's really good at undressing the baby and it's getting easier for her to put her clothes back on.  Her face is priceless when she is able to do it all by herself!!  Little. Miss. Independent!

We actually have this little baby bathtub that she got for her 2nd birthday that works perfectly, but any container or even bowl would work!! 

Try it out!!  I guarentee your little one will become addicted too!!

Toddler Art - Contact Paper and Watercolors

Sweet Girl wanted to play around with our liquid watercolor paints the other day so I perused one of my favorite blogs, The Artful Parent, for a fun activity.  Since Sweet Girl isn't able to cut contact paper yet, I cut out different shapes for us and then laid out our watercolor paper and watercolors.

While she was removing the paper backing from the contact paper, we talked about what shape the pieces were, if they were big or little, etc.

Then she used several different types of brushes to apply the liquid watercolors.  She was quite facinated by how the color would only stay on the paper. 

(Couldn't let go of baby long enough to paint, huh?)

Once they dried, I peeled away the contact paper.  It didn't come off as easily as I had anticipated....probably because our paper was pretty saturated, but oh well!!  It was a fun little learning activity!!

DIY Sticker Books

Sweet Girl has a fascination with stickers.  She usually just uses a piece of paper which eventually gets tossed but I thought that sticker books would be more fun and more useful to her!!

For the cover and back of our books we used some of our shaving cream art.  The inside pages are just pieces of colored cardstock.  Then we used the sewing machine to bind them.  Sweet Girl loved helping me sew!!

I love that they are a little "neater".  All those pieces of paper were started to collect in our house!!  I've even stashed one in my purse for when we are out and plan on making some new ones to take with us on an upcoming flight to see family!

Baby Fun - DIY Rattles and Noise Makers

Little Man is actively exploring EVERYTHING these days!!  He will play with an actual toy for a minute or two, but quickly moves onto something else.  He is in love with water bottles and tupperware for some reason so I decided to make him some rattles and noise makers!  They are so simple to make and you can use just about anything!

For ours I used water bottles, small tupperware containers and a spice jar.  In our containers I added: pony beads, wooden beads, sesame seeds and black beans.

These have been quite a hit with Little Man!!