Jack is finally at the age where he loves to explore and touch everything! There are no more super secret adult hiding places. The DVDs will never be the same again.
All that being said I wanted to let him explore and create without chasing after him. I wanted him to be able to get messy and let his inner, and in his case outer, child free. So I scoured the internet for way to make edible finger paint. The top two most common ways was either 1) flour, salt, baking soda and water heated on the stove and then cooled or 2) yogurt.
Can you tell which one I went with? Yes the one ingredient wonder! I wanted something smooth and easily squished but that was also thick enough to play in without being runny. And since this was our first attempt the easier the better.
I used plain yogurt. Not even vanilla. How RUDE, right?! Wrong! This paint is obviously still edible but if you have ever tried plain yogurt you might question that fact. It's not very tasty and a little tart. That way Jack could eat it if that's what he wanted but it would at least discourage such behavior so he will eventually learn not to eat it. Which apparently only worked so-so.
Well our experiment started out rocky. I went to the store and got everything that morning, poor planning. We got home and I started prepping. I got the yogurt out and began mixing in the food coloring. I wanted it to be really vibrant so I added two drops instead of the recommended one drop. Really we're recommending drops?! Well I recommend 2 drops. Take that internet!
By the time I was done stirring and almost ready to go Jack started to get hangry. Yes angry and hungry, of course, perfect timing. So I scooped him up and plopped him in the high chair with a snack.
But my mom-brain was still turning; "you can't leave yogurt out on the counter! And who knows how long Jack will take eating. Better put that in the fridge." Mistake #1.
While Jack was eating I laid out the paper on the back patio and duck taped it down. I was planning on basically putting enough paper to cover the majority of the patio. But that was difficult and I figured probably over kill. So I kept it to about a 5'x4' section. Mistake #2
After Jack was done eating I undressed him, because duh, and put on my own swim suit. Because messy kids gravitate towards a clean mother like stink on...well you know.
 |
| This what you look like when you think your husband is taking pictures of the baby. Ignore my baby belly. |
How mistake #3 played out : Well trying to hold onto a squirmy almost naked toddler, opening a sliding glass door, and balancing 4 tupperwares full of yogurt is not easy. Of course I dropped them and yogurt went everywhere! By the way isn't that the point of Tupperware?! To be able to survive dropping! Well this one wasn't obviously. Luckily only one exploded so we still had the other three and most of the last one. Note paper towels in above photo. Fail. But this made Jack cry because I was yelling at the dogs because they came running to lick up the mess which then made them messy and my screaming only made them run around with yogurt paws. It was a hot mess and not the cute baby mess I was looking for.
How mistake #1 played out : So I plopped Jack down on the paper, wiped the dogs off with a paper towel and pushed them back inside to deal with later. In my attempts to calm Jack down I put some of the colors in piles in front of him and dipped his hand in so he could get a feel for it. He did not like it. "Why? Babies love messes." Well maybe it had something to do with the fact that they were freezing. In my attempts to not have spoiled yogurt I had forgotten that the fridge also makes things cold. And as we all know from generally being alive getting cold things smooshed all over your hands, feet and belly is not fun. Remember that ultra sound jelly? Think that but in super fun colors...he didn't think that made it better either.
How mistake #2 played out : After a little while it warmed up and he got more into it; but never fully. He of course came over to pull up on my shoulders and legs and got me covered which was my one triumph since I had appropriate attire on. I will say though it was mighty cold and I felt so bad that I didn't just leave it out on the counter. This activity was "planned" to last 30ish minutes. It was more like 5-10. He was over the cold mess pretty fast and wanted off that stupid paper and onto the dusty dirty patio. Speckled dirty yogurt hands, every mom's worst nightmare was coming true.
Keeping him on the tiny paper section was not easy.
He still had some fun, especially getting a handful and then clapping so it splattered everywhere. It was so adorable. And that goofy smile made all of the shenanigans worth it.
All in all it was mostly a failure sprinkled with giggles and learning, which I guess isn't all bad. I will definitely try it again but with a few changes ;).
No comments:
Post a Comment