Rainy Day Fun

Up until a few days ago, we have had a very rainy few weeks! We got all geared up for summer and got Eliana a big inflatable pool for the yard and then it turned dreary out. So to make the best of the situation (and provide a little diversion for indoor play after being cooped up for so long!) here's what we did:

We blew up the pool in the basement!! It's on a mat so it is less likely to get scratched along the floor, and the mat also provides a softer floor for little knees and hands to crawl on in the pool! We didn't, obviously, want to fill the pool with water right there in our basement, so we filled the top section with the next best thing for indoor play:

Balls!! We made Eliana her very own little ball pit! She thinks it's great and played in it all afternoon, affording me a little time to get things done without her whining that we couldn't play outside because it was raining. She had a blast racing the balls down the slide...

... and then retrieving them...

And now that I know we can do this indoors, we have a winter activity just waiting for us once the summer sun is long gone! I'm excited to have another activity to pull out for her and think I'll use that basement corner as a place to rotate activities every week or so once we're inside more due to weather. Plus, it means I can use the pool all year long, which makes it a little more cost effective, and that is nice.

(By the way, if you're going to do this, I highly recommend using a vacuum that can be put on reverse to blow up the pool. I used my Kirby to do that and it still took a good long time, so I can only imagine how long it would have taken if I tried to blow it up myself! Eek!)

Activity Review: White Mud

Do you remember when I said I found that list of toddler activities from the Family Fun website? Well, we tried one of them, so I figure I should let you know how it went! One day last week, while I was sick, I needed an activity that would keep Ellie busy, but wasn't TV. So we made "White Mud."It was fun, really. We sat on the bed and she had fun tearing up a roll of toilet paper and putting it in the bowl. She really likes destroying things right now, so it was fun for her to be ALLOWED to tear something up for once.

Once we had the right amount of toilet paper torn into bits and put in a bowl, I shaved a bar of ivory soap into the tp. If you're not familiar with Ivory soap, it's really soft, so you can just shave it with a regular old table knife, like I did. Easy peasy. Then I added the right amount of water, as per the directions, and mixed away. I didn't really have Ellie help with the mixing part, which was just as well since she was still having so much fun tearing up the rest of a roll of toilet paper.

Even after I mixed everything up, I still felt like it was too soggy, so I squeezed the excess water out of the mixture into the sink. When I got done, this is what our "White Mud" looked like:

It sort of reminds me of cauliflower. Yuck. But it smells like Ivory soap, so that's okay. Now for the real test...

I gave some to Ellie at the kitchen table, though the article recommends using it outside. Since I was sick and wanted to be in bed, outside wasn't really an option for us. At first Ellie wasn't sure what to think of it.

She sort of poked at it a bit before she finally picked some up and started squishing it about. Then it was fun.

She has since asked to play with it a couple times and I am happy to let her. It doesn't require much cleanup, it doesn't stain her clothes, it doesn't get ground into the carpet... really, as far as dough goes, it's great! You can't really make anything with it, other than little snowmen, but she doesn't really care about that right now, so it's great for sensory play!

Cookie Time!

On Thursday it was snowing and I just didn't feel like going into town for our playdate at the Children's Museum. I'm so tired of the snow at this point in the year, and I just wasn't in the mood to drive in it. I was just plain in a bad mood. Instead, Ellie and I stayed home, and while she was down for her nap I decided we should do an activity together, since I deprived her of playtime with her friends, just because I was in a foul mood. So I decided that we would make cookies together, for the first time ever.

I started by measuring and setting out all of the ingredients while she was still napping. That way they were ready to go when she woke up, and she could help me dump them into the mixer.

When she woke up from her nap, I went into her room and asked if she wanted to make cookies with me. She seemed to like that idea, so I put an apron on her (it was one of mine, so a little big, but it worked nonetheless. I need to make her one of her own now!) and she was SO HAPPY to be wearing an apron! She stood in front of the mirror and said, "Cuuute!" so many times. Then we headed out to the kitchen for some baking.

Ellie had a great time dumping all of the ingredients into the mixer, and she did a good job with it, too. Very little got spilled, though she did snitch a little of the sugar! Silly girl!

Once everything was mixed, I scooped the dough up with my little cookie dough dropper (which is a lot like a mini ice cream scoop) and Ellie would hold onto the handle and say, "SQUEEZE!" and squeeze it as hard as she could. Of course, she couldn't actually squeeze the dough out because her hands are too little, but I was also holding on and could do the squeezing in such a way that she thought she was doing it. She didn't try to interrupt me while I was reloading, or get in the way, she just seemed happy to know that the reloading was my job and the squeezing was hers. And she was delighted to have a job.

Once the dough was on the cookie sheets, I put them into the oven and turned on the light, and she stood there and watched them bake. I was shocked that she stayed focused on the project from start to finish, but she did! This was her project and she was very excited about it.

Of course, once the cookies were out of the oven and cooled, we sat at the table and each had one. What a great time to spend together!

Filling the Activity Tote

I made Ellie an activity tote to help give me ideas and diversity in the activities we do each day. So often I want to do something with her other than just letting her watch a Baby Einstein or Blue's Clues, but I just can't think of any ideas. When I reach that point now, I reach for the activity tote. It has helped so much! Inside the little pink tote we have...


Little popsicle stick puppets. When Erika and I were at Hobby Lobby in Billings we found these cute little felted wood shapes. They were around 50 cents each, so I bought a bunch and glued them to tongue depressors for Ellie to play with. She really likes them. She usually puts one in each hand and plays with them, making them "walk" (aka hop) around on the table. I ask her things like what each of the animals say and stuff like that. I have a set of jungle animals and a set of farm stuff. Someday I hope to be able to make a felt board backdrop for puppet plays, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.


But I have made her a felt board and a few felt shapes to play with, and that's the next thing in our activity tote. It folds up, but then can stand up or lay down on the table for her to play on. She hasn't played too much with it yet, but I hope to get a few more shapes made that are a little more up her alley. Probably more animals, and perhaps a head she can put eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, etc. on.


You've already heard me talk about the wonders of Color Wonder markers, paper, and paints, so you shouldn't be surprised to see those in here.


And of course we have to have the traditional coloring books, crayons, and colored pencils, too.


I also have some foam stamps and stamp pads in the activity tote, for those days I'm feeling particularly brave. =D It occurs to me that I don't have any paper in here for her to stamp on, though, so I might have to remedy that. I think I was planning to have her stamp on cardstock so I could make cards with her creations, sort of like I was planning with the Color Wonder creations. I want to foster a spirit of giving and thankfulness in her, so having her make pictures FOR other people, and then using them as a way to say thank you for gifts, etc. is, I think, a good way to emphasize that, even as young as she is.

So there you have it. Our activity tote. It really has been helpful when she is restless in the afternoon and I am trying to get dinner going and we just need a little activity. She usually sits at the kitchen table so I can interact with her and still get dinner made. And it isn't TV.

(I should add that these are all INSIDE activities. I have a different solution for OUTSIDE activities that I'll share later.)