Showing posts with label toddler crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toddler crafts. Show all posts

Friday, April 8, 2016

Five on Friday!

Cheers to Friday! After what seemed like an incredibly long and depressing first week of April due to freezing temperatures, snow, sleet, and pouring rain, Gabriella decided to take off walking and nothing else mattered!!

1. Off she goes
Gabriella has been thisclose to walking for months now. She has taken several little steps between furniture and people but never more than 5 and she would usually lunge and collapse into her target. And then yesterday she just got it. It all clicked and now she's off!

2. Homemade play dough
Earlier in the day, before all the excitement of walking started, I decided to make homemade play dough. Nearly every recipe I found was identical, maybe the amounts of each ingredient varying a little. 
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp oil (any oil at all, as long as it's non-toxic! I used vegetable oil) 
1/2 cup of salt
2 Tbsp cream of tartar 
1 1/2 cups boiling water 
Food dye 

Combine all ingredients except for the food dye. Once the dough has cooled, separate and add food dye. That's it! I used gel food dye because that's what we happened to have on hand. The red did dye my hands a bit but once it was fully blended into the dough, it didn't come off onto Gabriella's hands. 

At just under 18 months, play dough is definitely a supervised activity but she loved squishing it and poking holes in it. 

3. 21 day fix
One of my New Year's goals was to do another fitness challenge. Before Christmas I completed the Concept 2 Holiday erg challenge, rowing 100,000 meters between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I had the 21 day fix workout videos from last year and decided to do it again. The goal of this workout is to do one of the workouts every day for 21 days to kickstart your workout regimen. It's been just over a week and so far, so good! Some days I have to get up at 5 to get it in but I don't mind the early mornings. The workouts are only 30 minutes long so it's easy to schedule in. While rock hard abs would be amazing, but let's be honest, that will never happen, my goal is to feel healthy, and now that I'll be chasing around a toddler this summer, I want to feel confident running after her! 

 4. Coaching
The spring season of crew has started and it has been cold. I have complained about the weather in every single blog post over the past few weeks but I do not like being cold. And being out on the water in freezing temperatures while it is raining is not making me happy! Love coaching but my goodness I am ready for it to warm up. Any of my fellow rowers know that this time of year is the worst!! I coach high school freshman and they have their first race in a couple of weeks so I am really excited to see how they do!
 

5. New highchair search
I am on the search for a new chair for Gabriella. I think that she is ready to start being at the table instead of in her high chair but definitely needs to be strapped in still. If you know of any good (or bad!!) ones, let me know!

Have a great weekend!!
xo,
Mary


 


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Toddler Valentine's Day craft

On Friday I mentioned that I was going to try out some Pinterest-inspired toddler crafts for Valentine's Day. Pinterest makes everything look like a piece of cake but let's be honest, is anything with a 1 year old a piece of cake? No. While Gabriella's art looks nothing like the model babies on Pinterest, her cards are funny and will still be sent out to some lucky Valentines :)

This is what Pinterest makes it look like....

toddler valentines day craft... oh yeah like i could get kalliope to cooperate to do this 
The reality is that this is a super simple craft. You take a toilet paper roll, fold it to make it look like a heart, tape it up, and begin stamping.


 We were off to a good start. It took her about 5 seconds to realize the thing she was holding had paint on it and about 30 seconds to get a few good hearts on her first card. 30 seconds in and she was basically a Pinterest baby model.
We could have ended it here but I was reallyyyy hoping to get more than 30 seconds of craft time (aka coffee drinking time) in and I figured we should make cards for grandparents, aunts, and uncles so we kept going. Here's what Pinterest doesn't say... after 30 seconds the toilet paper roll will be thrown on the floor and finger painting will start. So the first card looks like this....
and every other card looks something like this...
The kitchen looked like a crime scene but the baby was happy, albeit covered in red paint, and this mom got to have two cups of coffee. All in all it was a winner :)

Happy Tuesday :)
xo,
Mary