Helping Make Baby Shood

Daniel really likes this food mill, as well as the process of making baby food for his sister.  Here are some photos of the first time he helped make her some applesauce.  Since these photos were taken, he's helped prepare what he calls "baby peas", "cereal", carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and peaches.  Nearly every day he wants to make baby food with me, but often he is satisfied by just assembling the food mill and pretending to make some.  He gets pretty excited when she eats some of the food he's made for her, too.

  

This is my favorite shot.  He still shows some of of the soft and calm that have all but disappeared from babyhood.

Rock Throwing

Throwing rocks into a creek/pond/puddle is one of Daniel's favorite activities these days.  If he sees a body of water, his little hands begin searing for a rock to throw.  He and his dad do this together often, especially on hike nights. Here are some photos I took at RB State Park, just off Spring Brook Trail.

Decorating Your Ramp

These are the photos from when you decorated the ramp your dad helped you to make.  You really only wanted to use the color blue, but you found several blue markers to use. They were slightly different shades of blue. You also used a pink crayon for another design.

You spent most of the time coloring on the nails and only a little time decorating the rest of the ramp. It took you less than five minutes to decorate, so I think you enjoyed the building and playing part more than the art project part.

 You were so proud of your work and that you got to use the workbench for the project.

Shaving Cream Fun

I've been reading a lot of teaching preschool blogs lately, and I've been learning a lot about sensory activities for tots.  This is one of the activities suggested so often.  

After three trips to the store with shaving cream on my list, I finally remembered this week!  I decided to set it up one afternoon when it was hot, we were bored, and I knew hose-play was inevitable.

You'll notice he is squishing it in his hands.  He was staying something that sounded like STICKY. 

The shaving cream didn't stay in the tub for very long.  By the time I could grab the camera, he'd already smeared it in his hair.   He actually dipped his entire head in the tub while I ducked inside to get the camera!  What a clown.

Notice how he has some on his face? 

 He recognized the shaving cream as shaving cream, not as the white cream I'd named it to him.  He rubbed in on his face and said, "Daddy! Ho, ho, ho!".  

He also used his sense of taste.  (EW, by the way!).

The shaving cream was everywhere... just everywhere.  He rubbed in his eyes, which promptly ended the activity.

Lesson I learned from this experience:  

It smelled strongly of man.  I need something different than Barbosol, I think.

It burns eyes.

Expect DHH to experience materials through touch.  Expect him to touch it with all parts of his body, even his head.

Try a tray instead of a tub.

Try food coloring, water, small tools, etc.

We repeated the activity this morning with DHH's friend Taylor.  We used the plastic trays, small dishes of colored water, and medicine droppers.  It went better!  DHH was still more interested in the water hose and cleaning up the mess, but Taylor who is nearly four, really enjoyed this activity and used her imagination, too.

She told me she made butterflies with the cream!

It was good for DHH to have a model to follow ... she set some standards and seemed to normalize some boundaries like no cream on the face, using fingers to swirl, etc.

Didn't I snap the photo at JUST the right time?

So, after the second time of this activity, I think we'll do it again in a few weeks!  I think it would also be a fun thing to do in the bathtub with or without water during the winter when its too cool to be outdoors.

Painting Practice

Here's Daniel's first chance at using a paint brush. 

 

I bought him a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse paint with water book for this purpose.

Its a tough skill to learn... he practically scrubbed the water color page!  

Hot diggy... ho.. uh-oh.

He was so focused on this activity!

And loved playing in the water cup.

Splash.

What a beautiful/handsome profile!

This activity turned into a spill the water activity, rather than painting, so we'll try this out again in a few weeks!