Pinteresting with W&D

So...morning naps are gone.  I tried to keep them around, for my sanity and the boys' midday meltdowns, but to no avail.  Sigh.  This means...no more quiet morning coffee while eating my breakfast and reading my devotion, no chance for me to sit and blog, no time to plan out the boys meals and snacks.  I am reduced to one 1.5 hour time in the day to...shower, prep dinners for adults and children, make "healthy" snacks for the boys, clean the house, fold the laundry, and search for developmentally appropriate activities to help Warren and Dean catch up.  Notice how there is no longer a coffee/rest time built into my day.  I miss it.  But I do love watching these little guys play, and it will be so nice once we are free to leave the house to not have such a small window for activities or park dates.

So, my goal for this year was to be more intentional with some of their play time.  To provide them an "activity of the day" which focuses on helping them to catch up developmentally.  It was a lofty goal, and one I am failing miserably at.  BUT, we have done a handful of fun indoor activities, thanks to Pinterest.  I love how every toddler activity comes complete with photos of said toddler grinning, slightly messy but not overly so, and just loving everything.  Where are these happy children??  This is what I got:

You would think I was torturing them, making them do all sorts of awful things.  They did eventually warm up to the idea of sticking their hands in slime, dough, beans, finger paint, and pom poms.

Here's some of our fun but non pinterest worthy pics

Warren would maybe poke his slime.  Not really a fan.

Dean, not surprisingly, enjoyed his.

"I will not touch that slime thing in my chair.  I will play with it for 20 minutes in the floor"

Next came cloud dough.  We love cloud dough.  It creates the biggest mess you've ever seen in my kitchen but keeps them happy.  Well worth the clean up.

Warren, much happier sitting with cloud dough than slime.

Beans.  There are an assortment of ice cube trays and containers with small holes on top to work on improving our fine motor skills.  The activity that won?  Sweeping.  Let's push the beans around with a broom.  If this carries over into real life and real cleaning, this is one happy mama!

Finger paints.  This was the second go around, much better than the first. Homemade, toddler safe, edible paint recipe here.

No need for paper here!

Sensory bin.  They loved pouring and scooping, a dream come true for these future chefs!

There it is!  Our January in review.  I'm so excited for them to continue to grow and develop, to quit putting it all in their mouths, and to learn so much more in the coming months!