Sunday, August 19, 2012

A Pinterest Kind of Day

Today was a beautiful day in Clarksville. 80 degrees, breezy, and glorious! I love days like today. It was the perfect day to put Pinterest to good use. I have almost 200 pins on my "For Elijah" board. Some of them are ideas for his room, clothes, or keepsakes, but I have a few whoppers that are full of sensory ideas. I decided to toss the To Do list for the day and spend the day entertaining (and at times confusing) my son! I used this blog post: 56 Sensory Play Ideas for Babies from Growing a Jeweled Rose blog. There are so many good ideas in this blog and I was so excited to try a few!  

We started the day off at the park. We found an amazing park pretty close to our house that has lots of grass, a tiny river, and a playground. There were lots of other families spending the day there hiking, fishing, and picnicking. Eli loved the swing! And he loved watching the big kids swing. The cool breeze and the motion of the swing made him giggle and it melted me heart. Then we took a little rest and I let Eli investigate the grass. We don't really have grass at our house so this is the first time he's really been able to roll around without me worrying about rocks, mud, or dog poop. Yuck. He was very interested. He would run his hand back and forth and then grab a chunk and let it blow away. This lasted about 3 minutes and then he was more interested in eating the grass so it was time to move on. I decided to try a hiking trail. Now, I'm more of an "indoorsy" type of girl due to my allergies, the fact that I don't really like to get dirty, and my hatred of anything in the insect family.  So this was going to be a challenge. And it was a challenge I decided not to accept because I'm a chicken. One Charlotte's Web-esque spider web and it was back to the car for us. We will save this adventure for Daddy. 

Our next stop was the Dollar Tree.  I wanted to make sensory bags and bottles so I needed lots of supplies on the cheap. I ended up with a few bags of small rubber toys (sea creatures, turtles, and dinosaurs), a few bottles of colored hair gel and body wash, some glow sticks, sponges, puff balls, beads, noodles, and a Reese's Peanut butter Cup (for me, obviously). We headed home to continue our sensory experience.


I had saved some small water bottles and I filled one halfway with the beads and puff balls and then filled it with water. This idea worked like a charm! Eli was so interested! He kept shaking the bottle and then holding it really close to his face just staring at all the floating colors. He kept trying to hold the bottle with one hand and swat it with the other but his hands are still a little too small and he kept dropping it. So I dangled the bottle on a string from his jumper and let him swat at it for a while. I kept a close eye on him because I need to get some tape to secure the lid before I let him really go at it. But this idea was a winner! 


Next I made a sensory bag. I only had big baggies, but I think it still worked okay. I'm going to tape them to the side of the bath tub so he can play with them during bath time. For this I used a entire blue hair gel, a bag of rubber turtles, some sea creatures, and a handful of beads. Eli squished and squeezed the bag with his hands and feet. I think he loved the gel. I didn't let him play with this one too long because I need to reinforce the sides with tape. But I think it will really work in the tub! 


Next, we did sponges in the tub. This one was so simple and so fun! He loved squishing the sponges and flinging them around getting me and most of the bathroom a little wet. But it was awesome.

And I think he enjoyed his bath a little more too! :) 
Finally, I let Eli play with spaghetti! And let me tell you, I thought this would be the biggest hit of all. Well as you can see, he was not impressed with the spaghetti. I think this one just confused him and he wasn't sure if her was supposed to eat it (which he could have!) or play with it. But he seemed a little freaked out. Maya was thrilled with this sensory experiment. 

Now my angel is fast asleep. It was a wonderful weekend. So excited to watch my boy grow! 

5 comments:

  1. "I'm more of an "indoorsy" type of girl due to my allergies, the fact that I don't really like to get dirty, and my hatred of anything in the insect family"- Aside from proving you're a great mom, this line is the best part of this post. Hilarious! :)

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    1. I think I'd be excellent at "GLAMping". Apparently it's all the rage in the Real Housewives crowd. ;)

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  2. Hahaha, I second everything Laura said! You're an amazing mom! Also, could not love Eli's face more in the spaghetti pics. He really isn't havin' it ;)

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  3. Precious bath pictures! Well they're all precious of course. My favorite line is "and a Reese's peanut butter cup" hahaha yum :)

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    1. I went to the park. I deserve a Reese's, right?

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