Mother's Day: Toddler Friendly DIY

This Mother's Day project is simple, quick, and toddler friendly. Sydney and I made these to give to both of her Grandma's and I think they will love it.

Supplies Needed:

Construction paper and tissue paper

Scissors

Mod Podge and/or any medium gel

Pencil

Paintbrush

Hole puncher and ribbon/string

Glass vase (we got ours a Wal-Mart)

Pipe cleaners (we used green)

Stapler

Cardstock & printed poem

Dull knife or letter opener

 First we traced Sydney's hand-print on 4 different colors of construction paper.

 I then folded them in half and cut them out so that I got 2 prints from each color.

 We then took our polka dot tissue paper and tore it into little strips.

 We then covered the vase with mod podge using a paintbrush. (This was Syd's favorite part.)

 We then adhered the pieces of tissue paper to the vase and then mod podged over it again when we were done. (The vase needs to dry overnight.)

 Here is the poem that I tied to the vase using a piece of purple raffia. (I got the poem from one of the teachers at my school.)

 Then you fold each hand-print around a green pipe cleaner and staple it into place at the bottom.

 Then take a dull knife or letter opener and curl the edges down to give the fingers a petal effect. (I used a butter knife.)

 When you're done, your Mom or Grandma will have a wonderful, thoughtful gift that they can keep forever. Easy Peasey!

Simple Toddler Craft

 Sydney is really into making crafts lately and she insisted on doing some crafting the other day so I decided to go the simple route and have her make this cute little tree.

 I grabbed a few supplies...scissors, 2 punch out shapes (flower & leaf), a pencil, a glue stick and some construction paper.

 I started by cutting out the tree shape and she helped me punch out the leaves and flowers from orange and red construction paper.

 She then began to glue the leaves and flowers to the tree while I cut out the tree trunk.

 We finished by gluing the tree to the trunk and adding a little owl hole. 

Simple, easy and she loved the punching and gluing.

Dear UPS

See how quickly their emotions change? Scary. 

Dear UPS workers,

So sorry that you had to witness the EPIC meltdown that my adorable toddler insisted on having in your store. Who'd have known that requesting that she simply ask politely for a sucker would cause such mayhem to ensue. While I'm sure it was horrible to be subjected to piercing screams and writhing about on the floor, believe me when I say that I was the one truly in emotional distress. Seriously, is there anything more embarrassing? Also, not sure if you noticed that after I drug my child from your establishment, we spent another 20 minutes trapped inside the car in your parking lot while she continued her tantrum. You see, toddlers have this crazy super strength and I was unable to hold her down enough to get her safely buckled into her car seat. I think I may also have permanent hearing damage from the amount of little girl screams that my ears were subjected to. On a funny note, after we arrived home (finally), she still was delusional enough to think that she was actually gonna get a sucker from me!

Sincerely,
An embarrassed Mom

P.S. I think this babble.com article is on to something. 

Whiny McWhinerson

Hi, I'm Sydney and I am in full toddler mode lately! Seriously, please tell me that this is just a stage and it too shall pass. She whines about everything now....E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. I swear, she's like a menopausal woman, you say one little thing (like please stop torturing the cat) or she drops (or ahem, throws) something and it's all over. Full on cry mode and/or whine mode.

The only thing that seems to make her totally happy is playing outside, which is great but it's still in the mid-90's here everyday and Moma can only last so long before she starts to melt. I, sadly, cannot fit into her kiddy pool to cool off. Also, she loves to help me in the kitchen but if I just need to microwave something or throw something in the oven, she loses it since I didn't, 'let her cook'.

Poor thing is just so pitiful most of the time but I'm hoping this will pass quickly and we can go back to being happy 90% of the time. Sorry to vent but I know I'm not the only one. Any advice?

P.S. I love my kid more than anything even when she is pulling my hair and kicking me. :)

Favorite Toys for Toddlers

I am pretty picky when it comes to picking out 'toys' for Sydney. I generally don't like things that take batteries but of course we have toys like this that she loves, so you can't avoid it altogether. Since she attends a Montessori school, I try to buy things that coincide with the Montessori philosophy...lots of wooden toys and practical life items. One of my favorite brands is Melissa & Doug, their craftsmanship is amazing and reasonably priced. I would say that Sydney's absolute favorite thing to do is read books but that's a whole other post. Here are just a few of Sydney's (age 2.5 years) favorite playthings:

Step2 Water Table
We play with this water table a lot in our house. I keep on the back porch and it usually gets played with about 75% of the year since we live in Florida. Syd loves to pour the water into the spinning wheel.

Mega Bloks
Syd loves to build castles with these cute blocks. Plus us parents love playing with these too!

Memory Game
We just recently got her the original Memory game and she asks to play it non-stop. She always surprises me at how good she is since half of the time I can't even remember where the match is! I usually only do about 6-8 sets of cards at a time rather than the whole box so she doesn't get frustrated.

Wooden Puzzles
Wooden puzzles are all over our house. I love this shape one by Melissa & Doug but we also have animals, foods, etc. Colorful, sturdy and will last forever.

Wooden Cutting Set
Syd doesn't have this exact set but she has about 4 different sets of wooden cutting food all together. I usually get them from Target when they're on clearance. She is always asking me to 'have a picnic' and brings out her wooden food for us to share.

Baby Animals Puzzle Cards
This puzzle game consists of matching adult and baby animals. The cards fit together like a puzzle piece and Sydney usually matches these up at least once a day. There are 20 pairs in here and she can match everyone by name....I'm impressed.

Little People Learning Zoo
Lastly, Syd plays with this learning zoo daily so it's one of the few battery operated toys we have in the house. She loves matching and naming all of the zoo animals to their correct letter and sound. She also frequently plays with just the animals without the mat too.

What are your kids favorite playthings? Any suggestions for Sydney are always welcome.