Sensory Box

Every once in a while we make sensory boxes. They last a long time and little J is crazy about them, they are perfect for a quiet indoor activity.
We add whatever we have at home, dry beans, pasta noodles, this time i had a lot of old fashioned oats that had seen better days so i added them too along with our colored rice and some sand. Little J loves scooping and touching it as well as finding random 'treasures' that we bury in it (like alphabet magnets, foam shapes or small toys).

Here he is very busy scooping

... and dumping...

So happy :)

Colored baths

Little J went through a phase where the sight of the bathtub made him scream, this was the way i found to get him involved. These are great for learning and reinforcing colors as well as how to make secondary colors.
Or just for fun, of course :)
We use a tiny bit of food coloring in the water and voila :D much easier and cheaper than buying the special pellets and a whole lot more versatile too!

recycling cardboard

This morning as i got ready to take the trash down I grabbed a big piece of cardboard from a box that has been sitting here for a few days to take down. As i picked it up i thought why not do something with it before trashing it? So here's what we came up with that has had little J over the moon all day.Grab some markers and draw a road along with a park, a lake and whatever else you want on your 'town'.i am horrible at drawing but little J didn't seem to notice!
Of course little J had to help too! Our drawing skills are very similar :)

Daily Josh-ism

Little J comes up with the most random, silly and amazing things, so i decided to start writing them down on a photo from the same day... these are things i would hate to forget one day! Precious memories of his 3 year old amazing little self.
Today's random Josh-ism had me researching i must say...

i finally realized he was in fact correct and was talking about this kind of bass

and size comparison

thank you son, what would i do without your 3 year old self teaching me these things?

Rice fun

Coloring rice is so messy but can be so much fun for little ones!
We did different colors:

Then we mixed all the colors up

A nice little tree

Add some blue beans and T-Rex feels right at home!
Look how happy:

Then little J wanted to scoop it from side to side!

Then into the dump truck:

And dump it back into the box

My verdict, after keeping little J busy for almost an hour it was absolutely worth the mess! He loved it to say the least and has played with it everyday since. All that scooping is so good for his fine motor skills too!

Shaving cream drawing

Every once in a while we attempt this. Josh doesn't like the feel of it so he uses a straw, toothpick or a q-tip to draw.

Very serious about this drawing thingThen a big breakthrough


Which meant we were done

Spaced out!

Little J is going through a solar system phase. He is extremely interested in all the planets and which ones are hot and cold and what not. He can tell us the same thing over and over again throughout the day. So today, using some printable planets i found on Nick junior, we made a solar system mobile which was, as expected, a HIT!

*Don't mind the Lady Gaga obsessed child in the background lol*

Mess free fingerpainting

My little guy really wanted to paint today but my brushes got lost during the move and it just wasn't a good day to get his hands messy, he wasn't having it.

A while ago i remember seeing somewhere this idea and thought it was perfect!
Fill a Ziploc bag with some paint, close it and go to town using your fingers or a q-tip
Advice: be sure to tape it down so it doesnt move
I know I should have
Here he is enjoying 'fingerpainting'

So cute! he was a little wary of the feel of it but overall he did enjoy it!

At 3, you CAN be sweet

After a very rough night and day, I tucked Josh into bed and told him
'You have to sleep because momma has a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning'
he asked me whether they would check my blood pressure (he is obsessed with medical instruments) to which i replied that they always did
He patted my shoulder and told me
'Don't worry momma, I'm sure your blood pressure will be just fine'
Melts my little heart <3