footprint step stool

This post is a little different from our normal posts because M had little to do with this project.  I wanted to share it though because I think it came out really cute and it was easy to do.  Like a lot of other things, I found the idea on Pinterest.  I was searching for ideas for painting a step stool to put in M's bathroom.  M's bathroom has a monkey theme so originally I was looking for a monkey themed step stool but ended up deciding my freehand monkey painting skills were not quite up to par for that kind of project.  That led me to this idea:

It may not fit the monkey theme but it does match the colors in his bathroom.  Here is how I did it...

I started with an old step stool that has been around at my grandmother's house for a long time.  It was dark blue when we started.  Here is the before picture...

First step was painting it white.  I did two coats of white since it had started pretty dark and I didn't want the dark blue to show through the light blue I was planning to paint it.

The nice thing was that I did the whole project on our deck.  After each coat I let it sit in the sun, which allowed it to dry really quickly.  I was able to space the coats of white out during M's two naps yesterday.  Then later on at night I added the first coat of blue.  I did the second coat of blue this morning.

After lunch we added M's footprints and his name and the year.  I love how it came out and it looks great in his monkey bathroom.  It will end up being perfect for reaching the sink.

garden pets

This morning M and I decorated some rocks we had found while on vacation.  The plan is to put them in our garden as decorations.  They came out pretty cute:

This idea had started as making shell creatures, an idea from a magazine, but we didn't find many shells and M is more of a rock collector.  

So we combined the shells with a paper weight activity from the Kid's Garden activity cards that M got for his birthday and ended up with garden pets.  

This was our first attempt at any activity using real paint.  We've tried yogurt painting and ice cube painting but never real paint.  M is now almost 14 months old.  He did well with it but needed really close supervision.  I wouldn't do it with him if I had more than one child to watch or if I couldn't be right there unless I expected him to either eat the paint or paint my kitchen chair/floor/table.  We set up with newspaper taped to the table and M in just a diaper.  Paint on a paper plate.

M has never used a paint brush but has had some practice with forks/spoons/his toothbrush.  I was actually surprised at how fast he caught on to what he was supposed to do.  After I showed him once he understood how to get paint on the brush and then put it on the rock.  He also painted the newspaper.

He actually got more paint on them than I expected and they came out pretty colorful.  I never know what to expect from him with structured activities like this since he's a toddler.  I always leave it up to him as to how much we do and how long it lasts.  We probably only painted for about 5 minutes today but he seemed to enjoy it and "get" it while we were painting.  It might seem like 5 minutes of painting may not be worth the prep/clean up time but he was exposed to painting/art/colors for those 5 minutes, enjoyed it, and exceeded what I had expected him to accomplish so I see it as a positive experience for him.  

The paint we used was leftover from The Very Hungry Caterpillar pots from M's first birthday.  It's non-toxic, washable Crayola paint from Staples.  With an older child I might use something more durable, especially for something that will be left outdoors, but non-toxic and washable are musts for us right now.  This paint comes right off:

After the paint dried I sprayed the rocks with a sealant since they'll be staying outside then we used tacky glue to attach the eyes.  I sprayed them one more time with the sealant after the eyes were on.  They dried fairly quickly in the sun.  

We'll have a few more posts to share this week.  I have a mom project from Pinterest that I just bought materials for this morning that will be up later this week.

*Edited to include a view of the garden....

Animal sounds

This is my first post from my iPhone. We'll see how it goes...

After we visited Davis Farmland M went through a cow phase. He moo'ed for a week and would wave to the cow on our milk delivery box in the driveway. This week he moved on from cows to sheep. He bahs instead of moos and likes finding sheep in his animal books. There are signs the sheep phase is almost ready to be replaced with a duck phase so this morning we made the most of sheep while we still like them.
This morning we made a sheep. I cut pieces out of black and white construction paper. The body looked like the cutout of a puffy white cloud. I covered it with a glue stick and showed M how to stick on cotton balls.

We had to stop to play with the cotton balls (he had never seen them before).  He did well sticking them on.  With the exception of the initial cotton ball that I put on, he put them all on.  Then I added the legs and head.  We added some googly eyes that we have been saving for a project we're going to try in a few weeks when we get home from our beach vacation.  He's not the fuzziest sheep but we like him.  

We hung him up and M likes pointing to him and bahing.  Maybe we've prolonged the sheep phase for a few days.

homemade play dough

This morning M and I made a batch of homemade play dough.  I hadn't made homemade play dough since I was little but I think it came out pretty well.  There are a few different recipes for it but the one we used was:
1/4 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
1/4 cup of water
Mix the salt and flour then add water and knead to form the dough.  We probably ended up using an additional 1/8 cup of water to get the consistency we wanted.  I split the dough in half and added 1 drop of blue and green food coloring.  I did the mixing but I think this is something M will really enjoy doing at 2 or 3.
M's favorite toys are baseballs, footballs, beach balls, rubber balls, etc. so I formed a blue and green ball for him to start with and he jumped right in.  We flattened them out like pancakes and rolled out the dough like snakes.  I attempted to make a few animals and we practiced our animal sounds (currently he has sheep, cow, and monkey down).  One of his favorite things was picking up the little dough balls (marble size) I was making and squishing them between his thumb and finger.  We also tried some cookie cutters:

M liked pushing the cookie cutters into the dough.  Our favorites were the stars:

M's table and chairs are near his play kitchen so we also used some of the kitchen toys with the play dough (his idea).  He liked stabbing the dough with the fork.  He also liked putting a bunch in a bowl and stirring it.  I showed him how to cut with the play knife.  This is M stirring:

If I remember correctly the homemade play dough doesn't last that long before it hardens up.  I wrapped ours in saran wrap when we were finished to try to preserve it but it's so easy to make that it doesn't really matter.  I also put out a white tray to play with the play dough on because I wasn't sure what it would do to M's wood table.  At a few points we were rolling the play dough right on the table and it did nothing.  The homemade variety seems less greasy than the store-bought kind.  I had thought about trying play dough with M before and decided not to because I thought he might be too young (currently 13 months) but he really enjoyed it and did a lot with it.  I also loved that he thought to use the kitchen toys all on his own (I should have thought of that!).  

treasure hunt

Our blog has been on the slow side lately because two weeks ago we moved into our new house.  We've been doing a lot of unpacking and rediscovering the toys I had put in boxes weeks ago (I didn't put them all in boxes weeks ago but for the ones I did it's been like Christmas in July for M).  We haven't done too many "out of the box" activities because we've been so busy.

This afternoon M and I went outside to play and kind of inadvertently began a treasure hunt in the backyard.  M loves all things small and since we've been spending more time outdoors this summer he's discovered rocks.  He finds one or two and carries them around in his hands.  He did this today and I decided to grab his bucket and take him on a treasure hunt.  After about the third "treasure" we found he seemed to get the hang of it.  He was surprisingly very picky about the things he put in his bucket.  Here's how it went....

- I would spot something.

- I would say, "look M, a treasure!" and point it out.

- M would pick it up, inspect it carefully, and either put it in his bucket or throw it back on the ground in disgust (i.e. this is definitely not a treasure).

Some things that made the treasure bucket: at least 4 rocks, a three-leaf clover, a twig, a few flowers, an acorn, a weed

Some things that did not make the cut: a dandelion, a piece of mulch, a handful of grass M pulled up

As I said, after the first few things I found he really got into it and liked filling up the bucket.  Of course, we had to stop our walk a few times to dump out the bucket, inspect everything again, and put each thing back in.  

One of the things I liked watching M do was balance while walking and holding the bucket.  Tricky...

Overall, a good little unexpected activity.  I'm sure it's something we'll do again many times but it was fun to see him enjoy it at this stage.