Big Bottle Ball Drop

So as I put this post together I had a little bit of Mama shock when I realized that I can no longer classify activities for Little Brother as "baby play," he has officially entered the realm of toddler hood. Somehow my little guy is no longer so little.

Little Brother continues to be a pretty on the move guy, so I'm always looking for ways to engage his energy. We spontaneously tried this activity one day, and it was a hit.

Last year we wound up with this big bottle from a job my husband was working on; we saved it because we figured it would be good for possible power outages. Little Brother had so much fun with some of the pom pom drop activities we did last month we were looking for other similar activities. We pulled the big bottle out one day with a handful of ping pong balls and gave it a try. 

Ribbon Rings

Little Brother is an early walker; he's been walking since just before Thanksgiving which means that by this point in time he is really cruising. These days we're often looking for ways to entertain Little Brother as he only wants to be moving and can often find himself getting into things that we don't want him discovering.

I noticed the other day he liked dragging blankets behind himself and thought he might find something with ribbons fun to pull. Today as I watched him play with some mason jar lid bands, I realized they were the perfect thing to tie ribbons to.

Materials include four to a dozen pieces of ribbon, at least a 18 inches long each, and mason jar bands. (I used wide mouth bands.) 

At first I just used some ribbon scraps. I folded each piece in half and looped it through itself around the ring. After I completed the loop, I again tied the ribbon on the outside of the ring. 

After I made a few rings with scraps, I couldn't resist making a "rainbow ring" with new pieces of ribbon. In the end we had three rings.

Little Brother did enjoy walking around the with the rings, dragging them, and even trying to put it on his head like a hat. 

Big Brother also couldn't resist the ribbon rings, which is why we made more than one. He decided to start a dance party with the rings. 

By the end of the evening, they were hanging on our bedroom door knobs awaiting some more fun tomorrow.

On a side note, you've probably noticed that for the past month Little Brother has a large band-aid on his forehead in most of our posts. Unfortunately, as a casualty of being an early walker, he took a spill into a hard object and needed to get stitches, twice. Although the stitches are out, the cut is still healing and the tumbles still happening, so we've decided it's just safer to keep it covered. We're looking forward to some pictures without the bandages soon. 

This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties. 

Pound A Pumpkin

A few weeks ago Big Brother participated in this activity at preschool, and loved it so much we had to recreate it at home. We've used it as a way to get out some extra energy now that the afternoons are cooler and shorter, and it's a little harder to get outside. It's perfect for using up any pumpkins left over from Halloween.

The materials are simple a pumpkin, golf tees, and toy hammers. Ahead of time a grown-up could poke holes into the pumpkin although we found it pretty easy to pound the tees in without preset holes. 

Big Brother would get the tee started by twisting it in and then use the hammer to pound the tee further in. 

Older kids could work on designing patterns but Big Brother just enjoyed getting the tees into the pumpkin. He even pounded one into the stem. We did find we could pretty easily use our fingers to pull them back out if we wanted to. Using the tee and the hammer both promote fine and gross motor skills. 

Not an idea we can take credit for, but it definitely got a lot of play time in our house. 

This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties.