Feelin' Crafty

It's been snowing here. It's fun to play in the snow, or throw ice chunks at the house, as Benjamin likes to do, but when the excitement of that wanes, it's good to have a plan B. A friend of mine has a link on her blog to a wonderful craft website - www.notimeforflashcards.com - and since I've been on there, I've been channeling my inner pre-schooler and just can't get enough of glue and finger paint. Benjamin and I have been having a blast making little crafts together. I love the one-on-one time it gives me with him. He gets so excited when I tell him we're going to do a craft. He runs downstairs, carries his table and chairs over to the tile floor (much easier clean-up), puts on his painting shirt, and bounces around in his seat, grinning from ear to ear, and shouting "Paint! Paint!" while I gather the materials. Today we made a thankfulness wreath. We outlined his hand several times on various colors of construction paper, and then used sponges of various shapes to paint them. He loved dipping the sponges in the paint and putting it all over his papers. He has a thing about getting his hands dirty, though. So, once he had to turn the sponge over and use the other side for a differnt color, thereby getting the first color on his palm, he was ready to call it quits. I had to dirty my hands and cheer about it to show him that it was okay and that "getting messy is part of the fun!" Then he pressed forward and systematically used each sponge and each color before he declared "Done!" While he played legos, I wrote "thank you" in various languages on the hands and cut them out. Then I cut out the center out of a paper plate, put glue all around the edge and called him back to let him press the hands onto the glue. He insisted on also adding some feathers for that extra little creative flair. I figured it took the place of the ribbon that the website suggested and looks very cute. Here's the result:


Here are a few of our other creations. Some are from the website and some are not. I think I love doing these because I have zero artistic ability and yet a perfectionist's personality. Not a happy combo. I was constantly frustrated with my artwork in school because I would try SO hard and it always turned out looking like a kindergardner did it. But with these crafts - that's exactly the look I'm going for! I can be artsy and creative without any grandiose expectations for the result. It's been great.





Besides crafts, I've been looking at books more with Bella. She has started to show a slight interest in the pictures rather than just the flavor of the pages.



And not to be outdone by his sister's computer skills, Benjamin has learned how to open Skype and call people, open Picassa and "edit" pictures, and open Netflix and view movies. Nothing like coming back from the bathroom to find your 2 year old engrossed in the latest Michael Moore documentary. How he managed that, I will never know. Another time I thought he was looking at some pictures of himself, but as I took a closer look there was a dialogue box on the screen that said, "Thank you for your subscription! You should receive your first newsletter in the next 4-6 weeks!" I can't wait to see what comes! He also text-messages people after Kelly showed him one time how to text me while I was at the store. It's so crazy how fast kids pick this stuff up! I do something one time and he's got it. Whenever I'm on the computer now, he'll come up to me, point to an icon he wants and say, "mouse here! click!" Time for the internet filter, I guess. Really didn't think I'd need it so soon.