My Airplane

This month our Little One has been on an airplane three times.

Late last month I started bringing books about airplanes and airports and reading them with her.

She had her first flight and when it was still fresh in her memory we built a plane of her own to fly.

If you have a little one still in diapers then you probably have a lot of empty diaper boxes just like in this house.  

They are the perfect size for infants and toddlers to play in.

The walls are not too tall so they can climb over them to get in and out, all by themselves.

And they are easy to cut to create anything that our imaginations can design.

Today it's an airplane.

Mom is adding a steering wheel with a cardboard tube and a lid from a yogurt container.

She is pretending how to 'drive' the plane.

A day later she discovers that this steering wheel will slide in and 'out' (as she says).

Watch how she focuses to put the tube back through the hole.

The hole is the natural handle slot in the box.

We added a few props from my airport kit.

A behind the seat pocket that holds emergency instructions and later on a barf bag that they brought home from one of their flights.

We filled a Kleenex box with old plastic grocery bags for a seat and added an old belt for a seat belt.

The seat belt was her favourite thing.

Which was not surprising because she loves to click every belt she sees.

Her high chair, car seat, back pack and stroller.  

That is her job and she won't let you move on until she has done it up.

It's a good skill to know.

I look forward to when she is strong enough to unclip them herself.

Needle Felted Carrots

Last week I attended a needle felting class to learn how to make fruits and vegetables.

The teacher had samples of carrots, beets, pears, and a pumpkin.

We started learning a carrot and I was so excited by how easy it was that I decided to make a little garden of them for my grand daughter.

She loves them.

We found a couple of rabbits for her to feed, instead of herself.

The carrots are different sizes as they do take time to make and I wanted to get 5 done during class time.

So one for her and

one for the rabbit.

She harvested all the carrots with no problem until she reached the last one.

It was stuck in the ground and she pulled and pulled

but it wouldn't come up.

She let go and signed for help.

I showed her how to use two hands.

One to hold the container in place and the other to pull the carrot.

Yay it worked!

When she was finished feeding herself and the rabbit she put all the carrots back into the garden.

Ready for another picking tomorrow.

Individual Smoosh Painting

We did an art activity with the Little One and her cousins last month.

Start with a canvas board and give your little one pieces of tape to stick down.

I think this was her favourite part of the activity.

Next squeeze paint all over.  I chose the three primary colours.

Then cover it with Saran Wrap and tape it on the back.

Finally put it on a flat surface and let them smoosh.

When they are done take the Saran Wrap off, let the paint dry a bit and then peel the tape away.

The Results!

 At the same time that the Little One was painting her even younger cousins were starting.

It was a beautiful summer day so we did this outside.

They are just crawling and I noticed that they used their whole bodies more than their older cousin.

Occasionally they would stop to try a pinch and a poke.

Then head off crawling again.

Their mom did the tape work for them.

Another Recycling Gift

Do you recognize this?

If you've been to a hospital lab and had blood tests you might recognize that it is the foam that the vials stand in.

Last time I was there, the last vial came out and she threw it in the garbage so I asked for it.

I thought it would be perfect to hold the Little One's crayons.

We showed her how to stand the crayons up in each hole.

Look how she moves and reaches and controls where she puts the crayons. 

 Lots of drawing has been happening.

The holes work well to help move it too.

Try it!