I love seeing little fingers paint!

I am not happy about my DD wanting to lick her finger paint papers but I do love seeing her art! Look at the tiny finger prints!
I love seeing the little hands even if they do always come out a yucky greenish, gray color.

No Mess Finger Paint.

When my son was little they came out with this thing you pushed on and they called it something like no mess finger painting. I thought it was kind of expensive for something my son "might" have fun with for an hour or two. I thought about it the other day when my DD was trying to lick finger paints. I thought that this is would be better than eating paint. LOL!
It is corn syrup, a ziplock, tape, and food coloring. I poured about 6 oz of corn syrup into the bag (little over 1/4 bottle). I added some yellow food coloring(about 10 drops) on one side of the bag and a bout the same of red on the other side. I let out the air and closed the bag. I cut a piece of card stock a little larger than the bag. I taped over the top of the bag to make sure she couldn't get it open. I ran another strip of tape along the bottom so it was firmly attached to the card stock.
Then let the child finger paint with it. See my DD's little fingers mix the colors.

With my son I did one blue added 2 little fish (from DH's tackle box). I made one a dark dark blue and taped a yellow sheet of card stock on the back. I like adding stiff cardboard to the back. When it is dark blue with a yellow back when they push down the bright yellow shows. I tried candy fish but they didn't hold up (dissolved fast). I will not add rubber fish for my DD because my son would slide the fish around and I know my DD..... She will try to "dig" out the fish and end up making a hole in the bag. KWIM? The push to seal bags work better but I used what we had already.

Something squirrelly is going on!

DS went over to his grandma's house last Saturday. She showed him the squirrels in her yard eating the acorns under her tree. This gave my DS the BIG idea that if he picked up a pile of acorns from her yard and brought them over to our house he could use the nuts to catch himself a pet squirrel. I laughed at the thought of my son (6 years old) catching a squirrel. My DH was NOT laughing when he heard about our sons idea. Once DS was out placing his nuts in the perfect spots I asked DH if he thought our son would ever be able to catch a squirrel and even if he got one to come into our yard it would go away when the food was gone. We live in the country and we have several acres of land but no squirrels. I think the neighbor across the road (might) shoot them but I'm not sure. I have only ever seen 1 in our bird feeders in the 6 years we have lived in our house. Anyway, after DH gave it some thought he did chuckle and decided it would be interesting to see this play out. THIS is what the walkway to our house looks like!!!!
This is a leprechaun trap DS and DH made when he was 2 (it was a great idea I borrowed from AmySue in Texas). OOOPS the trap idea came from her not catching squirrels. LOL!
THIS!!!! This will make you laugh!!! It is a plastic hat (4th of July hat) with a plastic Easter basket on top!!! Do you wonder what is this? It is the home for his squirrel. Yes a bit small and flimsy for a squirrel house. LOL! OH! The bat is what he was using to bust open his acorns to make nut water. The squirrels told him the LOVE nut water..... The pot is also a squirrels home and the 2 storage containers. I don't think a stuffed animal the size of a gray squirrel would fit in any of them. LOL!

I want everyone to know we don't have ANY squirrels in our yard. I know people can hand feed squirrels and that they could make a person ill and such. This is RIGHT in front of my house. He has NO chance of catching a squirrel! If he did somehow lure one in I would sit and talk about wild animals vs pets. I think it is all silly fun for him. It is a lot like him trying to catch a bird with our salt shaker. He doesn't have a pet bird yet! LOL! BUT! He did say he got some salt on a dove but not enough salt to become his friend. LOL!

If he gets one I will let you all know! LOL!

One last thought.

Why do we all compare children all the time? When my son was little I noticed that Moms all over asked the same questions.... how old is he? How much does he weigh? Is he sleeping all night? Does he take a pacifier? Is he sitting up yet? Has he started talking. Is he walking? Walking was the big one! I felt like every Mom (and many grandmas) I met all made it seem that a child that walked early is smarter and a better parent. I never got that. Who wrote the rules? I have always felt that this set of rules can look much different than they really are. This is how..... My son never slept the entire night (8 hours) until age 5 1/2. Didn't matter to the Mom rules because people stop asking that once the child is around 5 months old. LOL! How much did he weigh umm... LOTS he was in the 95% for height and weight. He is now 6 short and very thin under 50 pounds. LOL! Did he take a pacifier? NO. That somehow earned me better parent points. Most people never waited long enough to hear me say I tried and tried and he wouldn't take the pacifier. He sucked on a sippy cup for about 4 years for hours every day. People who saw him with the cup would say WOW! He is thirsty. I thought that it was he was attached to use his kiddie cup like many children a pacifier. He never put anything in his mouth other than food or drinks. Somehow that gains point in the smart baby good Mommy system. Truth was my son LOVED food he wasn't about to waste his time putting other stuff in his mouth. LOL He never needed a blanket or teddy to sleep with but he did need to sleep with the letters C O W. Nobody ever asked me if he needed letters to sleep with. LOL! I guess because his needs looked more socially aceptable I looked better somehow?

Research says a child that learns to walk early 8 months and a child who walks late 15 months both walk the same at 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 30 years...... Why was it such a big deal? I know Moms will love a child that never walks just as much as the child that walked at 8 months. A child that learns to read at 8 years can read as well as a child that reads at 2 years when they are both get to high school. Why would one child be smarter? Maybe the child that learned to read at 8 spent his time learning motor skills so he can be great at sports. The 2 year old reader might love books so much he never gets to try anything else. Sports might not be something he ever gets a chance to do. The 8 year old who just learned to read can catch up to the early reader in under a year.

Why do Moms look upset if they hear someone else has a child can do something first? Why not ask HOW the children learned to do it? OR why don't we ask what that child struggles with? If a child can read at 2 maybe they can't bounce or catch a ball. We all love our children. Why isn't a love for our children enough when another mom walks up to us and says "can he do this yet?" Why don't we pray for that mom who is so insecure that she needs to find something our child isn't doing yet to make hers better in some way? When God blesses us with children why not just enjoy our gifts. I think so many moms could give me so much information to help me become a better mom but I feel I don't get a chance often to share ideas because it so often ends up in a so and so does this kind of thing. I try to stay out of that but I have often felt like I HAD to join in. I always think....I am so happy so and so does this.... And when people ask me directly about what my children do I always answer but I am always thinking Yes he is reading but I wouldn't love him any less if he wasn't. Yes he can kick a ball and if he had no legs I would still have the same love for him. Yes she is walking and running now but if she was just learning to crawl I would love her. Yes she can talk but if she couldn't what would that change......

If I said my son couldn't catch a ball at the age of 6....... What would you say?
If I said my daughter couldn't crawl yet at 15 months I wonder what would be the response.

Am I the only person in the world who wonders about this? I have a very close friend with 2 autistic boys and that might be why I wonder about this. I can only imagine how hard it is on her. I know she must get asked the same questions out in public I do. I hope nobody thinks she loves her boys any less than I love my children because they are not talking yet. Her boys are 9 and 4 and for 9 years she has loved her son just as much as any mom.

I am sorry for that rant. I will now get back to making up games and stuff to play. Thanks for listening. LOL!