A Whole New World

Well, at our house we have entered a whole new arena of play activities for J. He's been so happy with cars and trucks, books and blocks for some time now. However, it's like something kicked in around 20 months and he's become so interested and excited by little art projects: sculpting with playdough, drawing with crayons and stamping animals. In her blog, the artful parent, Jean posted about creating a portfolio/picture book of her daughter's art projects. I LOVE this idea and hope to do it once we have some more artwork from J.

I found a recipe for playdough online and have made several batches of it over the last month. It's very easy and I feel better knowing that if he gets any in his mouth, the ingredients are all edible. I thought perhaps the homemade type wouldn't last very long, but with storing it in a ziploc bag, it's kept its consistency for a few weeks now. The (super easy) recipe is :

1 c. flour
1/4 c. salt

1/3 c. water

1 t. oil

few drops food coloring

Aside from the art projects, the other new realm of play we are entering into is pretend play. It's just little things right now, like J will find an empty cup or a lid to something and he'll pretend to scoop something into it and then eat it. It's so cute and really makes us realize we've got a toddler on our hands now! I'm looking for ways to help foster and encourage it. I think we may get him a play kitchen for his birthday.