4 simple toddler activities for Halloween/Fall

Halloween is not really a huge deal for me  but I do enjoy the things that come along with this time of year. I love eating anything with pumpkin, I love seeing the trees changing colors and the brisk cool air. Last year was hard because my little guy was only 8 months in October so we couldn't really do too much but I did put pumpkins out for him to explore and I remember that he loved touching them and throwing the small pumpkins.

This year he's older and at 19 months is able to do a lot more even though he'd still rather throw the small pumpkins. So here are 4 very easy activities that you can do with your toddler. 

Activity #1 Footprint Ghost card

Last week I set up an area in the kitchen and started making these footprint ghosts with my little one. He loves to paint and this is only the second footprint project that we've done. He helped me paint his foot and enjoyed stamping his footprint on this black paper. I made sure to describe what I was doing and used descriptive words as we made these prints. It's a great sensory activity and he kept asking to do more until we finally ran out of black paper. I turned these ghost footprints into a Halloween card for our friends and family. Inside I put a picture of my little guy with a jack o lantern hot air ballon behind him that we took at this weekends balloon fiesta, here in Albuquerque.

Activity #2 Pumpkin collage

We started this project by tearing up some orange tissue paper. I had him help me tear it up in the morning and then we completed the activity in the afternoon. I cut two pieces of contact paper into circles and peeled off the sticky part.

I let me little guy feel the sticky paper and then modeled putting the paper onto the paper. He started helping me and then really got into covering the paper with the tissue paper. He did one whole pumpkin on his own and then half of the second pumpkin before loosing interest. 

This was great for fine motor skills, we also talked a lot about textures and colors and sizes as we did this project. I then cut out the black eyes, stem and mouth and added them to the pumpkins. We taped these onto our door under our fall wreath.

Activity #3 Gel Squishy bag

This was a Pinterest inspired Halloween bag. I was looking for Hair gel but ended up using Purell since I found a huge bottle on clearance. I used food coloring to dye the Purell and then added some squishy spiders, google eyes and pompoms into the bag and sealed with duct tape. My little guy loves these gel bags. He's working his hand eye coordination when he lays with them because he tries to move the spider or eyes to a certain area of the bag. I also use lots of words as he uses it, colors, shapes, numbers etc.

Activity #4 Painting Pumpkins

As I mentioned earlier my little guy loves to paint!! I honestly sometimes just give him a wet brush and tell him to paint the patio floor and he enjoys that!! Anyway back to the pumpkins. I used a large plastic square used to put under high chairs for messy eaters and had my little one start painting. I didn't care that he mixed colors, I just let him do what he wanted and I loved watching him look at the colors and pick which color he wanted. It was so interesting to watch him decide which color to use. Towards the end he started finger painting which made this an even better sensory activity. We put some of his handprints at the bottom of the pumpkin. I used some tape to tape off eyes and mouth so that he could paint around them and so the shapes would show once I took the tape off. Here are the finished products.

This activity was a hit!! I'm sure we'll be painting something else tomorrow or even adding darker paints on top of these. I love watching my little guy get into a project, he didn't mind getting dirty and even started painting his hands on his own to make hand prints. 

I love watching my baby boy enjoy these activities, I hope you will try some of these activities. I'd love to hear how your little one liked these activities as well. Leave a comment if you try any of these activities with your little one. Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Table and chair makeover

I've been wanting to buy my little guy a table and chair set for a while now. I thought this would be great for working on projects, eating snacks etc. I knew I didn't want a picnic table type because I was afraid he'd fall, or worse want to balance on the bench like I accidentally taught him to do on our planters. 

I've been checking on Craigslist for several months until I finally scored!! I saw two separate posts, one for 2 chairs ($5) and one for a table ($10). Luckily both were still available.

So I bought them and knew that I wanted to repaint them. After reading several Pinterest posts I settled on going with the valspar spray paint for plastics.

I got it in red so that it could go with his Baseball theme room. This paint was $5.44 at Lowe's. I took the legs off of the table and washed the surface of the table and chairs with soap and water.

The table and chairs had water in them so my dad drilled a small hole for the water to drain from them. He then sprayed the table top and chairs.

Here's the finished product. 

The fresh coat of paint gave new life to these old faded items. I can't wait to move into our new house and find the perfect spot for this.

Don't mind my little guy, he was smelling rose petals. He loved the table and chairs too!! For a little over $20 I have a great  table for my little guy!! This was a very quick and very easy project and well worth it. These sets run anywhere from $50-$60 for the set.

No Sew Fire Fighter outfit

I love to make things for my little guy, however, I usually have a very limited window of time where he is asleep long enough to get much done. With that said, I'm always looking for simple yet nice things that I can do myself. 

A couple of weeks ago I was asked what my little guy was going to be for Halloween, I honestly hadn't given it much thought with our upcoming move and all. I started thinking of what interests my little guy has and also the weather. He gets hot very easily so I didn't want a bulky costume. I remembered that he loves his rain boots, I usually have to hide them otherwise he wants to wear them everyday. So I started my Pinterest search so that I could create a fire fighter outfit.

I found several ideas that I liked and started gathering my materials. Here's the link to the Pin that inspired me. http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/10/happy-

halloweenand-look-at-what-you.html

I purchased a black jacket and black pants 

and the helmet. Total spent on the clothing 

was about $14 and $6 for the helmet.

I also purchased some duct tape ($3) in a neon 

green, I could not find red or yellow but my 

dad reassured me it would look fine. I

followed the example and added the stripes 

to the clothing.

 

I wanted to add the silver line but the duct 

tape I had at home was very wrinkled so I 

used some shimmery sticker paper that I had

in my craft room and just cut it into strips and 

placed  in the middle of each neon stripe.

And there you go a fire fighter outfit. I had seen

 some that retailed for $19.99 but the quality 

was horrible. I know my little guy will be 

comfortable in this outfit and if I really 

want to I can simply take the tape off and 

reuse the clothing.

I can't wait to see my little guy in this outfit :).

This project didn't take much time maybe 

two hours max and that's with interruptions. 

Zevia soda review

My good friend and fellow blogger introduced me to Zevia several months ago and I fell in love with this all natural soda. With 15 different flavors you are sure to find a flavor that you like. I am guilty of drinking 3 or 4 diet sodas a week and by switching to zevia I get the sweet and fizzy craving satisfied but I feel better about drinking it since its all natural!! 

My favorite flavors are strawberry, grapefruit and cherry cola. Now don't expect these sodas to taste like your average soda, they are naturally sweetened with stevia and naturally flavored. Zevia recommends to drink them when they are very cold and they even have recipes that you can try. You can check out more information on this great soda on their website http://www.zevia.com/.

Since Zevia is sweetened with stevia, it’s naturally zero calories. The unique formulation makes Zevia ideal for oodles of people including the health conscious, “bad soda” enthusiasts, dialysis patients, diabetics, moms, dads, kids, grandparents, cousins, strangers and neighbors. In fact, a branded form of stevia is now the #2 most purchased table top sweetener behind Splenda, and the #1 natural sweetener.

Request your coupon here: http://www.zevia.com/coupons

Now the fun part, Zevia recently sent me a free six pack of their awesome soda and offered to send five of my readers a free six pack too!! 

Here's what you need to do:

1. Like my Facebook page: Crazy Wonderful Motherhood https://www.facebook.com/mommyhoodismessy/posts/1420903588136862

2. Comment on this blog post: why you'd like to try Zevia or what's your favorite Zevia flavor.

I will randomly pick 5 winners. I will notify you as a response in the blog comment and send your information to Zevia. Zevia is responsible for sending out your Zevia six pack. Crazy Wonderful Motherhood is not responsible for prize fulfillment.  Ok Ready, Set, Go!!! I will take entries until Tuesday (Oct. 1) at 5 pm (mountain time).

Before motherhood views meets REALITY

As I mentioned in one of my previous post, I had my list of "I'd never" items. The one I thought for sure I'd never do was put my child in a harness. The realities of motherhood and my little guys temperament has led to him wearing a harness.

After a trip to the store where he refused to sit in the shopping cart I took him out and put him right next to me, we were in the toy section and I was reaching into a bin to get an item towards the bottom. In those 5 seconds that it took to pull out the item I looked, and my heart stopped, he was no where near me!! I started to panic, yelling out his name, it was a small store but he wasn't anywhere in sight. I walked around frantically and found him in another section puzzled and looking around. In that instant I had a flashback of when my parents lost me at Kroger and I vowed to break down and get a harness.

I know, I know... You think well why don't you just hold his hand. Well I would if he would let me but he usually shakes and pulls away from my hand. He has a mind of his own and when he gets it in his tiny head to do something he does everything he can to complete the task, so instead we went to go get him a harness. 

He likes it and I enjoy giving him the freedom he wants while still keeping him close to me and safe. I feel so much guilt and often wonder what people may think when I use the harness. Honestly most people can't stop commenting on how cute he looks with his little back pack. 

As a new mom I've realized that its my job to keep my little guy safe and happy no matter what. If wearing this gives him that little bit of freedom he needs then I say why not. I mean don't get me wrong he doesn't always wear it. Sometimes I intentionally go to the store for no purpose but to chase him around, he really loves those trips to toys r us or target. 

In these pictures we were at the botanical gardens with friends and yes my little guy enjoyed his time with and without the harness. 

Oball Sliding Spirals Chaser- Product Review

I was recently chosen by the Oball company to review one of their products. AJ loved getting the package in the mail. He couldn't wait to see what was inside.

 

Once we opened up the package he quickly began to explore the toy.

 

Here's my review of this product:

My 17 month old really enjoys playing with the sliding spirals chaser. It is very light weight so he can pick it up easily and take it with him from room to room. The toy itself is very visually appealing with bright colors and many types of textures. The plastic beads range in thickness and texture and are easy for him to grab with his fingers and move along the spindles. I can see where he would've really enjoyed the bright colors, sounds of beads and textures when he was younger. It's a toy that could've kept his interest for many, many months. Overall I am very satisfied with the quality of this product.

To check out this product go to Oball Sliding Spirals Chaser  http://tgt.biz/1cKCoaz

 

* I received this product for free from the company for reviewing purposes but the opinion and views expressed are my own.

Motherhood and friends

This may surprise everyone but I don't make friends very easily. I tend to have lots of people I get along with but those close really close friendships are really hard for me to find. I can honestly say I have two maybe three really really good friends who I can call anytime and pick up right where we left off. 

Since becoming a mom I feel as if though I've made so many friends and not just acquaintances but really really good friends. I feel like our struggles with motherhood, struggles with being a good wife, struggles with figuring out who we are have lead us to develop these friendships. Motherhood is such a huge change in anyone's life and I am so thankful for those moms around me who have heard me cry, have helped me be a better mom, have listened to my fears of not being the wife I'd like to be, who have shared my struggles with my picky eater, breast milk loving baby boy. 

Yesterday I was at a play date and realized that my little guy is going to miss his little friends, friends that have been around us for the past year. I know he won't remember this past year but it is ingrained in me forever. This group of moms and babies have been growing together and now we are moving far away from them. It just really broke my heart to know that I'm leaving this great group. 

This morning while at the park, I met a mom that just moved into the area. It was so natural for me to talk to her and tell her how wonderful our neighborhood is and explain all of the things that keep me and my little guy busy. There's the library, story time at the museum, the zoo, botanical gardens and on and on. Oh and don't forget to tell her about MOPS and moms clubs etc. As I walked home I realized that in a couple of months that new mom in the neighborhood will be me. I hope there's a Melissa in that neighborhood that will take the time to tell me about all the awesome things to do in the area. I hope I find that MOPS group that will take me in and be the comfort and support that my current MOPS group provides. 

As we get ready for another adventure in our lives I can't help but be a little scared and a little more excited.