Pumpkin Decorating

We have a few pumpkins on our front steps, by few I mean four.  I really have no desire to carve them this year.  Okay, maybe I'll carve one, but really... that's it.  I just can't fathom carving four pumpkins.  My husband isn't interested in carving any.  But Halloween is around the corner and really, how can you go through Halloween without having a Jack-O-Lantern by your front door? 

So I decided to let my son decorate his own pumpkin.  He had a blast at the idea of painting.  I never realized how much he enjoyed painting!  He used every color we had and painted in the same spot, over and over again.  I'd suggest painting in a different area, but he insisted on painting in the same spot.  Over and over again.

He's so excited to start painting!

We included some foam stickers shaped like dinosaurs, trucks, cars, planes, trains, and helopcopters.  Then we glued some pom poms... just to add some extra flare =)

He didn't want to stop.  He whined to keep painting and sticking and gluing.  I'm glad he appreciated the quick craft we completed together.  Actually, HE did the crafting while I did the gluing.  He didn't want me to help in any way.  I don't mind though since I was thrilled to see his artistic side.

My crafty kid... he was so proud =)



Homemade Finger Paint

My 17 month old son has loved coloring since he was 12 months.  We introduced crayons to him very early and it's been something we do together as a family quite frequently.  He calls it: cah-cah because he can't quite say cah-lah.  We live in New England and the R's are removed from most words so I doubt he'll be pronouncing those for a while. 

We cah-cah a lot.  Almost too much.  I think he enjoys holding the crayons and inspecting them more than he does seeing the color on the paper.  But there are days when he surprises me and he is starting to understand the actual activity of coloring.

Since his perception of coloring has evolved over the past few weeks, I thought I'd give finger painting a try.  J still likes to put anything and everything into his mouth so I opted to make my own finger paint.  At least if he swallows a finger full of finger paint, it's only full of corn starch.  I'm not very crafty but the recipe seemed easy.

Boil 3 cups of water
Add 1 cup of corn starch
Stir food coloring as desired

So that's what I did, boil and mix.  But my mixing became clumpy.  Did I mix too quickly?

So I thought, maybe if I add food coloring it would get better?

No matter how much I stirred, smashed, mixed, crushed those little corn starch crumbs, they wouldn't break up into the smooth texture I was expecting.

But did this matter to the expert?  Unfortunately I haven't tested the waters with J yet, but hope to later this week.

Rainy day indoor fun with my toddler

We're expecting a few days of rainy weather in NH and I can only imagine what our weekend will be like.  Our son absolutely loves playing outside.  I may need to invest in some galoshes for J.  He has been known to stand by the front door and sob because he wants to go outside.

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J loves frogs and I think these boots would be perfect for him.  I suppose it will be my project at some point this weekend.

I've been doing some other research on what fun activities I can do with J during the next couple of days.

I plan on making homemade finger paint.  I recently bought an extra container of corn starch, apparently I thought we needed more for baking.  Except I rarely bake and only needed baking soda and flour.  That's another story though. 

So I have a lot of corn starch at home and did a quick Google search and low and behold there were a ton of things you can do with corn starch.  One of them is making homemade finger paint!  The recipe also suggests using glycerin to make the paint shiny, but I don't think I'm going to have time to search for glycerin as I don't even know what it looks like or what department in the drug store I'd find it in.  Maybe if I have some time I'll go out in search of it because I think it would be fun to have shiny finger paint.

Decorate our own toddler pouch.

My toddler loves to put toys in anything that will hold them.  Our cupboards, closets, backpacks, pockets, trash can... anywhere.  I think J would like to decorate his own little pouch with crayons. 

Camp indoors!
If I feel very ambitious I'll drag out our small 4-man tent and set it up in the living room.  We recently bought J a junior sleeping bag and this could be a perfect time to play pretend camping.  Drag some pillows from the couch and a few of his favorite stuff animals and toy, I may even allow a snack inside the tent.  :)

March in a Parade
We don't have much pretend play clothes for J, but he loves wearing our shoes and hats.  I think letting him spend some time in our closets could make for a fun activity.  Once he's found the perfect outfit we'll march throughout the house like we're in a parade.

These are just some of my ideas and I may end up doing something else.  But I feel like I need a game plan for something to do when J starts acting up.

Venting to reflect

I found out yesterday that J has a double ear infection.  He has been teething for a while and his 7th tooth cut through on Friday.  But since then he has lost his appetite.  I stayed home with him over the past two days and finally took him to see the doctor.  He was so lethargic on Sunday, he could barely pick up his head.  With a 104.3 temp we knew we weren't going out, despite the very mild weather, we spent the sunny day indoors and cuddled.

There were moments when J would be hungry and want to poke through his cabinet.  Yes, we have a cabinet designated for all of his snacks.  I helped him up on the counter so he could pick what he wanted, but when it came to actually eating something, he got mad. 

He would stand in the kitchen and scream.  Not a playful scream.  He had tears and the screams were meant for pain.  I cannot imagine what he was feeling like but his expression was painful to watch.  All I could do was give him some Mummy hugs and hope he wasn't mad at me for the way he was feeling.

So when I found out he had a double ear infection, along with 3 teeth cutting any day, the poor child needed help.  As soon as I got his medicine I gave him a dose.  We had a small bite to eat for lunch and he was off to take an early afternoon nap.  He slept for almost 3 hours and when he woke up he actually look rested.  He was still grumpy but I could tell the antibiotics were already working.

The doctor had asked me if I could tell if he had an ear infection.  "Doesn't he pull on his ears?"  No.  He sort of pokes at them but he likes to acknowledge his ears from time to time as a game so it didn't occur to me that he could have been pulling at them. 

This morning we had to wake J up and he was still a little groggy when my husband was putting on his shoes.  J slept soundly throughout the whole night and we even got a good nights rest.  I was pleasantly surprised to see J acting like his silly self again.  I missed my silly putty.  He still has moments where he cannot communicate with me and will just scream.  It seems that he has discovered how screaming can relieve a lot of different emotions that he is unable to communicate.  But he also is known for walking around the house giggling. 

It's been a long weekend for me, a whole 4 days with a kid who has a bad head ache.  I'm back at work today and it's only been a few hours but I miss him like crazy.  Through all the bad moments we had, the ones I remember the most are when we colored (cah-cah), read books (boog), and made play-doh.

My silly putty

Being a big boy and mixing the play-doh

"OOOHHHH"

One of our happier moments from our long day