Finger Painting

I decided to give finger painting a try this past week. LB had done a little bit of finger painting at OT but it was more mixing color with shaving cream. I brought a big sheet of paper outside and then put four colors in four different bowls. I showed LB that he could put it on his fingers and then put it on the paper. Then I stepped back and just let him experiment. What happened is that he was much more interested in painting himself than painting on the paper. He got a lot of pleasure out of putting the paint on his knees and then crawling across the paper. Admittedly, I was cringing a bit at how messy it was but I kept telling myself, "It will wash off. It will wash off. This is good for him. This is good for him." That should be my mantra. The painting didn't hold his attention for a really long time but I think he had fun and it was a good first experience. I am really trying to focus on the experience aspect of it and not the duration part of it. I've also noticed that as we do certain activities over and over he tends to get a little bit more creative and into it each time. He is like that now with shaving cream. The first couple of times he played with it he would want to stop after 15 minutes or so. But the last time we did shaving cream we had friends over and I basically had to call it quits after 30 minutes because LB's buddy was ready to be done. LB was covered head to toe and if I had let him he would have made the table a shaving cream slide and probably would have continued to play for a while.

The sun was really bright that day but I tried to capture LB's first finger painting creation.

When he seemed completely done I brought out his water table and the hose and as he played the paint came off pretty quickly. The bummer part about the messy activities is LB now enjoys the act of getting messy but is often put off by the fact that he has to clean up. He is sometimes like that in the bath as well. He likes playing in the bath but gets irritated when I try to actually apply a little soap and get him clean. And, oh my, do not even think about going near his ears unless you are prepared to hear some screaming. Thankfully, this time he was playing with the water table and hose so there wasn't much opportunity for him to object. We'll definitely be doing this again.

Simple Things

I thought I would share a few simple but fun things LB and I have done recently.

A while ago I saw a list for 40 Ways to do Sensory Play. (It's a great list. Check it out!) I was pleased as I glanced through the list that LB and I had tried the majority of them. One of the items stuck out to me though because it was such a basic thing and yet I realized I had never let LB try it. Late last week we had really warm weather around here so I decided it was time. Are you ready for it? Playing in the grass barefoot! LB was pleasantly shocked when I told him we were going outside to play in the grass and that he didn't have to wear shoes. I could tell that when he first stepped on the grass he was really testing it out to see if he was cool with it. After a few minutes of walking tentatively he was off and having a blast. I couldn't help it and had to snap a few pictures of his cute, little feet. He spent most of the morning playing with his water table and the hose. I loved it when he started spraying his bare feet with the water. I get so happy when I see him exploring the way different things feel. It just confirms that all of these activities are worth it and helping in his development. He enjoyed every single moment of it.

We had equally nice weather the following day so I pulled out our sprinklers and let him run around barefoot again. His face is filled with such joy in these photos. LB will play with the water all day long!

The other great thing we did involved a $1 purchase at Target and a few cups of warm water. One afternoon LB was getting anxious for his dad to get home but I knew we still had about 30 minutes or so until he would walk through the door. I hoped this little experiment would buy me some time. Do you remember playing with these?

I saw them when I was looking for stuff for LB's Easter basket and was admittedly excited to give them a try. I told LB he could put them in the water and then we would watch them grow into animals. He was intrigued. I could believe it but he sat and waited patiently for something to happen.

After they changed shape and we determined the animal of each of them LB got really into the fact that they were little sponges. He kept dropping them back in the water and then squeezing them. He started to make a bit of a mess so I moved him to his chair. He continued to play with them until D got home and then he asked to play with them again in the bath. 

If you think about it since all 12 capsules were $1 and we only played with 4 of them that day then it was actually a fun activity for less than forty cents! That's my kind of math.

Bubble Wrap

This morning after breakfast LB found some bubble wrap in of our closets that we had leftover from our move. He has played with bubble wrap before but it's probably been around 6-8 months since we last pulled some out for him. I would have never thought of getting bubble wrap for him but my mom, the former pre-school teacher, suggested it and LB played with it at OT as well. You would think that a kid who doesn't like to be startled would not be happy to play with bubble wrap but LB loves it. I think when he is in control of the noise then it doesn't bother him. Previously, the only way he could get it to really pop was to jump on it, which is definitely fun. However, today he was determined to pop it with his hands. It was great to see him try and problem solve. Depending on his mood, LB can get frustrated pretty quickly if a toy doesn't do what he wants it to. But not today. He spent about 10 minutes trying different combinations of fingers and thumbs to get it to pop. He was pretty serious about it and so determined. He finally figured out that if he used either both thumbs or both pointer fingers and really put his weight into it then it would pop. He was thrilled. He then spent about 20 minutes alternating between between popping it with his fingers and jumping on it. You gotta love unexpected fun.

Here he is ready to get to work.

In this one he is telling me, "doesn't work," which is one of his favorite things to say.

His ideal stance for hand popping.

Eventually, I had to coax him away from it so I could get him dressed and leave to meet up with a friend. When we got home from the play date he went straight to the back room and started popping again. It was literally the first thing he did.

Some days I just cannot get over his cuteness. Go get some bubble wrap. You won't regret it.

Wordless Wednesday

Spaghetti Sensory Bin

This was by far one of the best activities I have done with LB. It is a must do! I got the idea for it here and here. In both cases, they did more than just spaghetti. One of the sites suggested letting the kids paint the spaghetti when they got bored and the other one added spices to give it to color. Since this was our first time we just stuck with the plain old spaghetti. Also it was a rainy day and if we added the color component then I probably would have wanted to take the bin outside. I just don't trust LB yet to keep the color contained. Maybe when he is a little older. It was really fun to watch the progression of how he played with the spaghetti. I wish I could have captured the look on his face when I first poured the spaghetti into the bin. It was a look of both bewilderment and delight. Priceless.

Here's what we did. I cooked one box of regular spaghetti. Then I put some towels and the rubbermaid bin on the kitchen floor. I let the pasta cool and made sure I ran lots of cold water over it so that it wouldn't be hot to the touch or be super sticky. Then I poured it in the bin. That's it. I tried not to say too much at first and just let LB decide what to do.

This is sort of the look I got when I first put the spaghetti in the bin but not quite. As you can tell, he is pretty happy about it.

The first thing he did was try a bite. Totally acceptable with this activity.

It took him a few minutes before he decided to sit and really investigate. I am not sure if he was keeping his distance at first or what.

Finally he sits and really starts to explore. He started by just running his fingers through the noodles.

I love the look on his face in this picture! We decided it was raining spaghetti and he thought that was pretty hilarious.

The raining went on for quite some time.

The other great thing he did was hide his hands in the spaghetti. He started by just hiding one and would then pull it out and say, "there!" He also asked me do it and then we hid both of his hands at the same time. In this picture he is trying to hide his elbow so he is really sinking his arm deep in the noodles. LB recently learned how to say "elbow" so I think that is why he wanted to hide it. Funny kid.

He played with the spaghetti for a little over 30 minutes and he loved every minute of it. When he was done I dumped the spaghetti in the trash, put the towels in the laundry and that was it. We had so much fun that I went to the store over the weekend and got another cheap box of spaghetti. 

Perhaps I'll get brave next time and let him try and paint the spaghetti. I have a feeling it could either be really awesome or a total disaster. I'll let you know!

Fishing Snack

Thank goodness for the internet. I am not sure how people used to parent without it. There are so many good ideas out there and I have been taking full advantage. Last week we used celery, peanut butter and goldfish crackers and had the best time. Side note: If I ever decide that LB needs to try a gluten free diet then goldfish crackers will most definitely be the hardest thing to eliminate. He is addicted! Side Note Part 2: He won't a eat a goldfish cracker if it is dented or has a hole in it. He flat out rejects it. So weird.

Back to our fun snack. I put some peanut butter in one bowl, goldfish crackers in another bowl and then gave LB a few celery sticks. I told him we were fishing and showed him how to dip the celery in the peanut butter first and then the crackers. LB loves to dip so this was a good activity for him. I also knew he would be super excited about having two celery sticks because he is obsessed with having two of things. Another bonus to this snack is that it gave him practice eating two types of textures. LB still struggles with this on occasion. I was hoping he would take a bite of the celery but he never did. After a while he didn't want to use the celery sticks and switched to just dipping the fish in the peanut butter. Not as fun bit definitely more efficient. Here he is in action.

Activity Fail

Last week I tried a sensory activity with LB that I have been wanting to do for a while. Sadly, it was a total fail! I got the idea from one of my favorite websites for toddler sensory activities. She calls it Cloud Dough. LB loves his play dough so I was convinced this would also be a hit. I decided we would do it outside and that may have contributed to it's demise. However, it was very messy and I am not sure how I would have contained all of the flying flour if we did it inside. The idea is that you mix flour and oil to create a moldable dough. I brought out some bowls and spoons and cookie cutters and I thought we would at least get 30 minutes of good play out of it. LB played with it for a whopping 5 minutes. Boo! His favorite part was helping me dump cups of flour into the bin. It's also possible that LB is still a bit young for this. Perhaps it is a better activity for three year olds. I will definitely try this again when LB is a little older and I think I will also try and find a way to do it inside. LB is very distracted by sticks, rocks, dirt and open areas to just run. For me, the key to doing it inside will be mixing the dough while LB is asleep and then just introducing it to him as is. Letting him help pour the flour is what made it so messy in this case. As you can see in the photos he was covered in flour.

After about five minutes of playing in the dough he was off and running. Literally. Luckily, it was a nice day and we still had fun doing the usual outside stuff like.....

playing with sticks,

digging in the dirt,

running into the neighbor's yard,

dragging sticks in the dirt,

playing with outside toys,

running AND pushing,

blowing bubbles

and then dumping the bubble solution all over our shoes.

Have I mentioned that this kid loves to be outdoors? Yes, I think I have.

**Update. I wrote this post while LB was napping. After his nap we went straight outside. I had left the cloud dough bin in the garage to be cleaned at a later date. LB spotted it and asked to play with it. I brought it out and he messed around with it for about 15 minutes. So it still wasn't as long as I would like but I think it was a good sensory experience. I have to remind myself that even if something doesn't occupy his interest for a long time doesn't mean it wasn't worth our time to do. All of that to say, there is hope for cloud dough.

The Three Questions

I have two books by Jon J. Muth that are written and illustrated for children but actually contain wonderful lessons for adults as well. One of them is Zen Shorts and the other one is The Three Questions. I highly recommend both of them. I recently wrote down a quote from The Three Questions because I felt like it was something I needed to keep in mind for times when I get swept up in the stress of parenting. It doesn't just apply to parenting but to life in general.

"Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For those, my dear boy, are the answers to what is most important in this world. This is why we are here." Jon J. Muth

I find that it is so easy to worry about what is to come rather than really focus on meeting LB's needs in the present moment. I have been working hard on that this year and I think it has made daily life so much better. Instead of fretting about how LB's noise and touch issues will play out in a pre-school environment, I am focusing on creating fun times for us NOW at home. Or rather than worry if LB's GI issues will result in surgery, I am trying to just take each day as it is and be glad that he seems to be feeling better. I am not sure if it is his age or this renewed focus but I've been feeling like we are in a good groove these days. Perhaps it is a combination of both. I do realize this could all come crashing down on me at any moment, like when his two year molars start coming in. But I think we are prone to mark the tough times and it is just as important to recognize when things are going well and when progress has been made. Maybe I am just better at parenting a two year old than I was a one year old? I remember over the summer LB and I were having a particularly bad day but I really wanted to go buy him a water table, with the hopes it would provide for good outdoor entertainment. We were at the store and a sales woman approached me to see if I needed help. She asked how old LB was. When I told her he was 16 months she commented on what a cute and wonderful age that was. I had to hold back from punching her. I wanted to scream, "Are you kidding me! This age sucks. He can walk and get into everything but he can't communicate yet so he just throws fits!" Instead I just smiled at her because that's how I am. But I am glad that if someone said that to me today I could smile and not feel like a total fake.

On Mondays, we rarely have anything scheduled so I have been trying to make sure I have a fun sensory activity for us to do. Yesterday we played with shaving cream. LB did this at his most recent OT appointment and loved it. His therapist and I both thought he would need to be coaxed in to playing with it but he proved us wrong. He took one look at all the shaving cream on the table and dived right in with both hands. He kept asking for more. Then his OT added red and blue paint and he loved that too. I tried to create a similar scenario here at home but I did want to contain the mess as best I could. I strapped LB in his high chair and put the shaving cream all over the tray. Initially he only played with one hand but then on his own he started playing with both hands. I was glad I didn't have to encourage him to do that but he did it on his own. Sadly, I don't have any washable paint but after he tired of just the shaving cream I added some rice to the mixture to give it a different texture. That definitely helped prolong the activity. He asked me to play with him and I have to admit that it did feel funny to have all that squishy shaving cream on my hands. Maybe I need some sensory work too.

Once he was done I just stripped him down, put his stool at the sink and let him clean himself. LB's favorite thing to say these days is, "I do." So I try and accomodate the "I do" as much as possible. It worked well in this case because while he was rinsing off I could clean up the tray and chair. Don't be afraid of the mess with this activity. I just used a few dish towels and everything was cleaned up pretty quickly. And then LB continued to play in the sink and I was able to eat breakfast uninterrupted!

Please remind me of this post the next time I feel defeated, which could easily be tomorrow.

"People gather bundles of sticks to build bridges they never cross." Author Unknown

Play Dough

My sister was in town for the weekend but sadly had to leave today. LB and I were both pretty bummed. After I put LB down for a nap, I found myself wallowing over the fact that my family doesn't live closer. To beat the blues I decided a distraction was in order. I have been wanting to make play dough for LB for a while and so today was the day! I know I could just as easily buy some at the store but I wasn't sure if LB would try to eat it. He still occasionally explores things with his mouth and I didn't want to risk him ingesting it. But if I made it then I knew it would be safe just in case. Plus it is cheaper! I was weirdly a little nervous to give this a try. Crazy, I know. It is the easiest recipe in the world but making play dough falls under the crafty category and the cooking category. A double whammy in my book. Those are definitely two areas where I am still building confidence. However, I actually enjoyed myself. I got the recipe from my mother-in-law. Here it is:

2 cups water
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2-3 tsp cream of tartar
3-4 Tbsp oil
food coloring

Put all the ingredients, except the food coloring, into a large saucepan. Mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture pulls from the sides of the pan. Once done place on cutting board and knead in food coloring.

Here is a link to a website with a recipe as well. It is basically the same but makes a little more. Her play dough also looks much prettier than mine.

I was surprised by how quickly it cooked. I may have cooked it a touch too long but it was fine. I put wax paper over the cutting board to help contain the food coloring mess. I also divided mine into three sections so that I could do three colors. The first two colors, green and blue, turned out pretty well. Sadly my yellow was a bit of a fail. I had to rush at the end because LB took a super short nap and I could hear him as I was trying to finish. So I got a bit careless and some of the green coloring mixed in with the yellow and I didn't get to knead in nearly as much for a pretty yellow. Oh well. We still used it even though it wasn't pretty.

I put glad press and seal on LB's little table in the basement and put some play dough out for him. He totally didn't know what to do with it. So I started showing him how we could smoosh it or roll into balls. I also brought out some cookie cutters and a little rolling pin that he has for his kitchen. I should not have shown him how to make balls so early in the process. Given that he is obsessed with balls this meant that he always wanted to hold a ball in one hand. It is also something he tends to do when we are trying a new thing involving touch. His OT says it is like he is keeping one hand "safe." I tried to take it away at one point so he would play with both hands but he wasn't interested in that and I wasn't in the mood to battle. Even though he used mostly one hand throughout the whole thing I think he really liked it. I was also glad we finally got to use his new, little table for something other than coloring. I bought the table at a garage sale in the fall for $8. It was in bad shape but just needed a paint job. D painted it when the basement was finished and I think it looks good as new. I remember having a little table like that when I was growing up. I have memories of using it to play school with my sister or to watch Saturday morning cartoons while eating pancakes. Hopefully, LB will get a lot of use out of his table as well. Today was a good start.

He loved making the shapes with the cookie cutters. I only have a star, a heart and a gingerbread man. I need to get more. I remember seeing an Africa shaped one some where. I am now on a mission to find it. LB couldn't really do the shapes himself but he helped me. I thought it was pretty creative of him to give the men belly buttons. The funniest part was when he decided that one of the men had a tattoo. I guess that is what happens when your dad has tattoos. After a while he didn't want to sit any more so I just pulled the chair away and he was able to continue playing while standing. I showed him how to make letters and I made him a little airplane. He played with that airplane for a while. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the clock and we had been playing for an hour. That is an eternity for an indoor game at our house. I know it was the first time so future play dough adventures may not be as long. I'll probably try and make more as well so we can have lots of different colors. Apparently, if you store the play dough in tupperware it will stay good for a long time.

This was a really easy project to clean up as long as you don't count my hands. I can't tell you the last time I used food coloring, if ever, and I was not expecting the food coloring to stay put on my hands after multiple washes. Although, I have to admit that the stains made me feel very crafty. Totally worth it.