Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Seb | Cloud dough heals all wounds





Seb always sinks into a bit of a depression whenever visiting family leaves. It's been this way since the summer he turned one. Poor little soul. I grew up with my entire extended family, so I have never experienced what he has to go through so frequently. I knew that when he woke up from his nap yesterday he would still be pretty upset about Mamaw and PawPaw having left, so when he didn't have the desire to play with his toys and asked for a movie, I came back with this: cloud dough! He measured the flour and oil, and we both mixed it with our hands. He was hesitant at first, but it only took a minute for him to dig in and forget everything else around him. I kept restocking his supply of toys for, oh an entire hour—at least. Did you even know that any one thing (besides movies) could occupy a toddler's attention for that long?! I was in heaven, and he got a nice relaxing dose of sensory play, and time to process those feelings that he can't quite express. Win win win.

P.S. We made a half batch (4 c. flour to 1/2 c. olive oil) and here are a few other sensory activities we plan to try in the future.

6 comments:

  1. you're such a good mama to help him get over the family leaving with some messy fun! :) i'll have to try this with my little one.

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    1. yes you definitely should try it! just make sure you don't let her out of your sight for a second... the next day seb decided to sprinkle himself and a lot of our play area with the stuff. ; )

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  2. BRILLIANT. I definitely bookmarked this.
    ALso, Bruno. The cutest. Make more babies. You do it so well.

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    1. it was such fun, i can't imagine what he'd do with a sandbox! : ) i've really got to start doing more of this kind of stuff with him, so i'll update you via the blog on other stuff i try! toddlers are awesome, but take a lot of mom-creativity to entertain.

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  3. I'm saving all of these...I know we're going to have lots of family visits and leavings.

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    1. smart move. start collecting ideas now! also, going outside also helps. sebastian is still very clingy over a week later. poor little guy.

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