Nutella Jar, how I love thee

Do you have an empty Nutella jar at home?  Do you know how wonderful it is?  A Nutella jar has many fabulous features.  Let me tell you about them:

1. It is clear.  After you wash it and take off the label, you can see right into the jar.

I can see the pasta in the jar!

2. The lid twists off and on.  When you are 15 months old, it is very fun to twist lids.

Look, I can twist the lid!

3. The mouth of the jar is the perfect diameter. Not only can a toddler put their hand and arm into the jar without worries of getting it stuck, it is also just the right size for them to stretch their hand across to grasp the lid and twist it off and on (see #2 above).

My hand fits on the lid!

4. If the lid is on, objects inside the jar will rattle around when the jar is shaken.  Need I say more?

Even Superman needs a Nutella jar!

Our Nutella jar has provided Little Guy with endless entertainment.  We have put pasta, wiffle balls, clothespins, puffs, and animal crackers in the jar.

What do you love to play with?

Puffs

I recently made a trip to the dollar store to pick up some materials for play with Little Guy.  This trip I bought puffs (pom-poms, but I think puffs sounds cuter), pipe cleaners, clothespins, and baskets.  We started to use the baskets right away, putting some of Little Guy's toys in them.

This weekend we started to use the puffs.  I got out a small handful (80 came in the package) and a clean plastic food jar.  I showed Little Guy how to put the puffs in the jar, and then he took over.  He really seemed to enjoy putting the puffs in, then turning the jar over to dump them back out.

Mmmm, these feel neat!

We got the puffs out again today.  This time, I got out an empty honey jar.  It had a smaller opening, so it was the perfect size for the puffs.  This was great fun!  Little Guy would put them in, then shake and shake the jar to get them back out!

Into the jar you go!

Little Guy also seemed to enjoy the texture of the puffs.  They are very soft to feel.  He did put a couple in his mouth, but almost immediately took them back out, making a funny face!  I think the stringy-ness must have felt funny on his tongue.  At one point, he also rubbed them on his cheek!

I had also left a Nutella jar out.  Little Guy tried shake the puffs out of the honey jar to the Nutella jar, but I don't think he ever quite succeeded.  However, he took the play in an new direction, putting the puffs from one jar to the other, shaking them around, putting the lids on, and taking the lids off!

Pouring from one jar to another.

I love how something as simple as puffs and jars could lead to several ways of play for Little Guy!

Pumpkin Patch

Now that it is fall and October, we needed to make a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Grandma and Granddaddy A. are here visiting us for about a week, so we made a big trip to the pumpkin patch!  This was Little Guy's first trip, as we didn't take him last year.

Before we took the hayride to the pumpkin patch, we stopped to play in the Corn Box.  This was so much fun!  It was just like a huge sensory tub filled with corn.  There were also some toy dump trucks, scoops, and other miscellaneous toys to use.  All five of us climbed into the corn box.  Little Guy was buried in the corn up to his waist!

Little Guy and Granddaddy hanging out in the Corn Box.  Little Guy is concentrating hard on filling the dump truck.

Uh-oh! Where did Little Guy's legs go?

After playing in the Corn Box for a little while, we went on a hayride to the pumpkin patch.  There were many varieties of pumpkins there, including your classic orange round pumpkin.  Daddy picked this one out almost immediately!

Daddy and Little Guy with our pumpkin!

Little Guy is investigating the pumpkin.

After choosing our pumpkins (we got three: a big one for Daddy, a medium one for mommy, and a little bitty one for Little Guy) we took the hay wagon back to the entrance.  Then we went through the corn maze!  That was pretty fun (the map helped).

Overall, we had a great trip to the pumpkin patch! 

Cloud Dough

Today we made cloud dough for the first time. I was looking for a new sensory experience for Little Guy that would also keep us busy for a little while. I used 1/2 cup oil (I used canola oil, but I bet vegetable oil would work too) and 4 cups of flour. I mixed them (until Daddy took over) with a whisk until it started to clump as it was mixed and I couldn't see any more clumps of oil. Since this made a relatively small batch, I put it in a casserole dish. I knew it would be messy, so I spread an old fitted sheet on the floor to catch any spills. (The advantage of the fitted sheet is if anything does spill, it will stay contained on the sheet and can't slide off, as I put the elastic on top.)

Here is our cloud dough on the sheet.

I put Little Guy on the floor with it and he immediately stuck his hand in! He started squishing it and burying his hand in it.

In he goes!

The cloud dough is very neat in that it clumps if you squeeze or press it, but also crumbles. Daddy even got in on the action, enjoying the cloud dough!

Daddy and Little Guy enjoyed the cloud dough!

For "tools," we used mandarin orange cups. They were fun to pack full of dough. We could have made a great "sand" castle with them, except Little Guy kept breaking them up!  Little Guy really seemed to enjoy the cloud dough, as it was a new texture and fun to play with. I think he even tasted it, but since it was just flour and oil I didn't worry.

He let me know when he was done...he turned around and sat in it!

I'm all done playing, mama!

I put the cloud dough in a zip lock bag for future use. I hope it holds up, I guess we'll see. I plan on getting it back out towards the end of the week, when it will be novel again.

In the bag, it feels similar to brown sugar.