my little artist

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to let Carson paint a birthday gift for his daddy. With this tutorial as inspiration, we made our own smaller version. I cut out sticky vinyl letters with the cricut and stuck them on the canvas. Then, I gave Carson a brush with blue paint and another with green paint. He loved it and would sign and say more when his brush got dry. It was lots of fun for both of us!

It was a great big mess, too! When your nose itches, you gotta scratch it, even if your hand is covered in paint, right?! After I got the everything cleaned up and the paint was dry, I peeled the letters off to reveal the message for Daddy. Carson was excited there was an o! O is his favorite letter and he loves to find them everywhere:)

I thought it turned out pretty cool. Carson was excited to give it to his sweet daddy, and Daddy loved it!

playroom decor

I've had some colorful crafty fun lately. Using this tutorial as my inspiration, the first is a rainbow-colored list of playroom rules. My canvas is 16x20 instead of 24x20, and I cut the paper instead of tearing it, but the idea is the same. I had a hard time deciding what to write, and I wish I would have thought to use the cricut instead of my handwriting (duh, why didn't I think of that?), but it was fun anyway!

I decided to paint the edges multi-colored too, so sponging a bit of white paint on the edges seemed to give it a more finished look.

Then, I did one of those fun crayon melts with the hair dyer that you've probably seen on pinterest. It was fun and a bit messy, too:)

More crafty fun to come. What have you been crafting?!

baby food!

I've been enjoying making Carson's baby food. It is super easy and SO much cheaper than buying it ready-made. With this website and this cookbook as my guides, I've been cooking and pureeing away. All you have to do is cook the vegetable, put it in the blender, add a little water, and puree! Pour it in ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze over night. Then, label a gallon freezer bag and pop the frozen cubes inside. Each day, take out a couple of cubes so they can thaw. Easy peasy!

Now, if only convincing Carson to eat it were that easy....hopefully he'll get the hang of it before too long!

five senses: see

Another fun sense to explore is seeing. I’m amazed at the concentration and focus such a little guy has as he explores his sense of sight and learns about the world around him!

For a while now, Carson’s sense of sight has drawn him to look at bright lights and contrasting colors. He follows things he sees with his eyes. We have lots of fun experimenting with his sense of sight by playing peek-a-boo. One of the newest ways we’ve played with his sense of sight is with bubbles. He lies on his back, I blow bubbles towards him; watching them seems to relax him. The very best part of his developing sense of sight is the way he responds to things he sees. When we smile at him he smiles back!

He uses his sense of sight when we read books. Because our extended family all live in different states and Carson doesn’t get to see them too often, I made him a book reminding him of how much his family loves him with a page featuring each grandparent and aunt so he can see their sweet faces with his own and be reminded of how much they all love him!

His sense of sight is encouraging him to move, too! When he’s on the floor and sees a toy in front of him, he wants to get it! The problem is, right now, he goes backwards when he’s trying to go forward. Poor buddy. This can be frustrating, but I know his sense of sight is what’s encouraging him to move and it will be the thing that motivates him to master forward crawling before I know it. My baby boy is growing up quickly!

five senses: hear

Another way Carson is learning about the world around him is through his sense of hearing. He began hearing our voices even before he was born, so once he was born they were another way of providing comfort and safety. Talking, singing, and reading to him not only calm him down, but they are also how he begins understanding language.

talking

singing

reading

In addition to our voices, Carson enjoys toys that make noise. He likes things that rattle, squeak, and jingle.

I drink ridiculous amounts of peach tea, so I toss 3-4 of these handy dandy cylindrical containers in the recycling bag every week. I knew there had to be some way to repurpose them, because, after all, cylinders are the coolest three-dimensional figure:), since they’re the only one that stacks, slides, and rolls! Finally, I had an idea; these would make fun rolling shakers for Carson! I filled one with rice and one with pasta for two unique sounds and secured the lids with packing tape.

Then, I found some cute scrapbooking paper, cut it to fit, wrapped the shaker in paper, and covered it with packing tape (to protect it from slobber, of course!).

Carson's having fun exploring his sense of hearing (and touching and seeing, too) with these free toys! I wonder what other trash can become a treasure around here?!