Mice to Meet You!



My nanny has learned the harsh truth about Pinterest.  It's full of wonderful ideas that somehow make you feel inadequate, especially if you don't own a glue gun.  What happens is that you scroll through page after page of beautiful pictures of craft projects and think, "Oh what a cool idea.  I can do that!"  And then you try the craft and it turns out a lot harder than you think it was going to be and doesn't look anything like the one the semi-professional blogger took with her professional-level camera.  And if you don't own a glue gun, your chance at success plummets. 

 

I still love Pinterest, though, because if you can evaluate what would actually be a feasible project - and not fall into the trap of believing that to be a good mom/wife/woman you have to be decorate your house, design your kids' bedrooms, decorate your kids' birthday cakes and make handmade Valentine's like you see in the pictures - the site is a trove of ideas for the non-creative types like me. 

 

And speaking of those handmade Valentines, I came home early this week to my dining room covered in little red hearts and scraps of yellow paper, kids high on sugar from eating the chocolate instead of gluing them into shape of mice, and a frazzled nanny who had realized that this particular Valentines-making project wasn't one little kids could actually help much with, so she was left to finish the cards herself. 

 

The end result?  Still pretty darn good!

 

Mice to meet you!

And yet again our nanny took one for the team.  I had wanted to be that artsy, creative stay-at-home mom, but the reality was that stuff just didn't come naturally to me.  And now that I work outside the home, I don't have time for planning crafts and trips to Michael's.  So when Oliver showed up at preschool with adorable "Mice to meet you" Valentines, I'm happy to give the nanny all the credit. 

Advent Calendar

Although it's not quite December, Thanksgiving has passed and we can officially get ready for Christmas.  I had been on the hunt for a wooden Advent Calendar, the kind with 24 little doors or drawers, perfect for stashing pieces of chocolate.  I never found what I was looking for, but did stumble across the idea for an Envelope Advent Calendar, where each envelope contains an activity for the day.  Chris and I think this will be a nice tradition for the boys, because it encourages us to do something fun and festive together as a family each day leading up to Christmas.  And the set-up of the calendar is something I can pull off easily despite having few crafting supplies and even less talent or creativity.  With a clothesline and clothespins, a box of small white envelopes, a sheet of labels to print the template of numbers onto and some note cards, I'm set.

Chris and I brainstormed as many toddler-friendly ideas as we could and wrote them out on note cards.  (Including a picture representing the activity would have been nice since Oliver can't read yet.)  Some of the activities we are planning to do anyway, like pick out a Christmas tree, and others are just fun and simple, like eating a Christmas cookie for afternoon snack instead of one of the usual healthful options.  Planning the Advent Calendar made us think about how to instill the fun of the Christmas season with other activities Oliver would like to do.  And it gets us to plan and commit.  It's easy to come up with ideas and then not go do them. 

Some of the activities Oliver has to look forward to in December:

• Pick out Christmas tree
• Decorate the Christmas tree
• Have a snowball fight
• Build a fort
• Build a snowman.
• Bake gingerbread cookies
• Visit Santa
• Take a drive to see Christmas lights
• Read Christmas stories
• Go sledding
• Eat a Christmas cookie for snack
• Open one present early
• Decorate Christmas cards
• Paint a picture of a snow scene
• Shop for a present for Soren
• Make a Christmas ornament
• Go to the zoo
• Help Mom wrap Christmas presents
• Attend Christmas cookie exchange
• Watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas
• Bring a green and red ball to swimming lessons
• Visit the Night Train exhibit at the Twin City Model Railroad Museum
• Skype with a relative we don't see often
• Sing Christmas carols

To keep the activities as flexible as possible, we won't put a note card in an envelope until the night before.  We noticed we have a lot activities that require there to be snow, but if the ground stays barren, those activities will be recycled until next year.

Art class and homemade play dough

Swim lessons for Oliver have not been going well since Soren was born, despite Uncle Andy's incredible patience and perseverance with a wailing child.  Wanting to find something that Oliver would definitely like, I signed him up for a toddler art class at a local rec center through Parks and Recreation.  He loves coloring, painting and playing with play dough, but we don't have the room for large projects, nor do I have the creativity to design art projects or patience for mess, so this would be Oliver's big artistic opportunity.  Oliver enjoys the class so much that he willingly ditched Tot Time when I told him art class was starting down the hall (and this is from a kid who generally protests ceasing any activity even when there's the promise of doing something else just as appealing) and headed out the door with my friend without so much as a glance in my direction as I stayed behind for a few minutes to change Soren's diaper. 

When my dad heard about the class, he exclaimed, "What's a kid his age do in art class?" 

The answer?  Just mess around.  And that's fine.  I'm not keen on highly-structured organized activities for young children, especially babies and toddlers, but the teacher for this class knows toddlers.  Each week, she sets up three stations with a different activity and the children can choose whatever they want to do during the 45-minute class.  When I saw the easels set up for our first class, I assumed Oliver would want to paint the whole time, but he also spent some time at the play dough table and gluing "googly eyes" on a piece of paper at what was supposed to be the make-your-own-sock-puppet table.

The teacher roams the classroom and helps the kids as needed, but otherwise, let's them do what they want.  The best part is that she does the cleanup and kids and parents can go enjoy the last part of the open gym held down the hall.   

Back at home, space and resources permitting, I am trying to foster Oliver's creative and artistic side with ideas gleaned from the art class, his early children education class or playdates with friends.  Two popular activities with Oliver have been the rice "sandbox" and homemade play dough.

Rice "Sandbox"
It was amazing how such a simple setup entertained Oliver and my friend's daughter.  Lay an old sheet on the floor, fill a Rubbermaid tub with a large sack of rice (the sizes you find at Asian markets) and use old measuring cups and other household objects as scoops and rakes.  The kids were (quietly) engrossed in scooping and dumping rice, or transferring it to the bucket set up next to the tub.  When they were finished, the lid went back on the tub and any stray pieces of rices were gathered up in the sheet and dumped outside.

Homemade Play dough
Another activity Oliver really enjoys is playing with play dough.  He didn't really get into the stuff until around his second birthday, but it is quickly becoming an activity he'll sit at the table and do himself, which just might help us keep our sanity this winter when we're more housebound. 

I found a recipe for homemade play dough online, and even though I am NOT crafty whatsoever, I was able to successfully whip up a large batch of this stuff in less than 15 minutes. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 cup salt
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon cream of tartar
• food coloring (liquid, powder, or unsweetened drink mix)
• scented oils or baking extracts like vanilla (optional) - I just skip this

Directions

1. Dissolve salt in the water.
2. Pour all ingredients into a large pot.  
3. Stir constantly over medium heat until a ball forms by pulling away from the sides.  
4. Knead the dough mixture until the texture matches play dough (1-2 minutes).
5. Knead in food coloring.

Store in plastic container.  Should last for at least 3 months.

NOTE:  The high salt content will most likely prevent your children from taking no more than a lick of the play dough, but dogs are not as discerning and can become really sick.  Please keep out of reach of pets.

I found some play dough molding and sculpting tools at a toy store, but you can also use plastic cookie cutters, rolling pins or anything else you think would be fun for the kids to use to manipulate the dough.