Toddler Play: Kitchen Spice Shakers

I am having to get creative these days with my 17 month old son. He is not interested in the things he used to be interested in and he is not quite old enough for many other activities I think of for him. So I have been spending a lot of time coming up with new things for him to do. This was one of our activities today:

I am making a "little man" drawer in my kitchen of things he can play with while I am cooking or cleaning the kitchen. I have things like pots and cooking utensils in there. Eventually I will add play food as well. I came up with what to put in his drawer by watching what caught his eye as I was cooking and cleaning. One of his favorite things is to get into the different spices that I have. I had a few that had expired so I thought I would make a spice container that would be fun and safe for him.

First I dumped the old spice and cleaned the containers really well. Then I took the labels off.

 Then once they dried I gave them a little color with some food stickers.

 

I then filled them with different things in the kitchen that would make noise if he shook them. I went with one pasta shaker and two rice shakers.  This is how it turned out:

 

If you have a hot glue gun I would recommend sealing these up with a little hot glue. Just in case. When all was said and done my little man was pretty happy. He enjoyed shaking these and stacking them. These will be a great addition to his kitchen drawer!

Rainy Day Fun: Yogurt Coloring

todLast week was pretty rough. I spent most of my time trying to entertain a grumpy 14 month old because he couldn't go outside. It was pouring rain for days. And my son thinks everyday should be a day to play outside. So a worn out mom and a cranky son was not a good combination. So we began trying all kinds of things to keep my little man happy.

We tried crayons for coloring. He ate them.
We tried stacking blocks. He was entertained for a grand total of um, 30 seconds and then he threw them.
We tried reading books. Another ten minutes of fun. Then it was over.
We tried edible play dough. Um, not really interested mom.
I was at a loss on what I could do to keep him busy.

Until I talked to my creative sister-in-law and she gave me a very good idea. This is what she came up with:

Coloring with Yogurt!

I put a large plastic tablecloth on the floor and put four tablespoons of yogurt in different places. I then put a drop of food coloring in each one. My son looked at me as if I was crazy putting food on the floor and slowly took steps towards the setup on the floor. He looked at me and then stuck one finger in it to see if I was going to tell him no. When I didn't he started laughing and spreading it all around.

When all was said and done I had one very happy, very messy 14 month old.

What are some of your rainy day ideas?