Messy Projects

As spring comes and goes and we never really know if we are going to be able to get outside to run off Elliot's toddler energy, I've been trying to find new activities for Elliot. Keeping him quietish and in one area of the house during Preston's naps can be difficult. However we have found a few winners. My "Terrible Two Survival Kit" I got when E turned 2 had some window markers in it. I've been too nervous to let him draw on the windows with them since I can just picture all the frames and woodwork quickly becoming colored too. So we decided to give it a try in the bath tub. It's been great. He gets to color as high and low as he can reach in all directions. And as a bonus, it is a great motivator for me to clean the bathroom after he is done!

I also picked up a el-cheapo bird house paint set  in the Target dollar section. It was a great 1 hour, sitting in one spot and all mess is contained to the table type of project. He just loved it so much. Even drew some murals in the inside so when Mrs. Birdie goes in she can enjoy an Elliot original masterpiece!

Everything went so great. I let him down and told him to hold his hands up and not to touch anything because his hands were icky and we were going to go wash them. On our way to the bathroom, I had a momentary lapse of judgement and let go of him and in that split second he was gone. Across the cream rug, pass my cream colored throw pillows and towards my windows with white trim. But its ok because my white sheer curtains blocked his hand plant into the window and no paint got on the window. In that 2 second span of time I saw the life of all light colored fabrics flash before my eyes and I cursed myself for owning so many non toddler proof  items. 

Oh well, you live, you learn, you tell yourself you had 1 hour of him being ridiculously happy and contained!