Oy. The last couple of weeks have been tough. Until recently, Miss G has been a pretty happy-go-lucky, easy-to-please, easy to reason with little lady. Even in moments of real frustration, getting down on her level and calmly talking out the problem was a sure fix. Even when she was very little. And don’t get me wrong. That sweet, loving little girl is still here and melts my heart on a daily basis. But goodness gracious, have we ever been on an emotional roller coaster lately. Little things, like turning off a light, filling a pink cup with water, or putting away a book can set off a wave of disappointment, whining, and tears. She wanted to do it. She wanted the blue one. She was going to read it again. We’ve had our first temper tantrums, she’s marched to her room and closed the door loudly behind her, and today she pulled out the big guns and shouted “I NO LOVE YOU, MAMA!” (ugh). We’re doing our best, figuring things out as we go (thank goodness for Janet Lansbury), and focusing all of the good times, but it can sure be exhausting some days. Especially given my recent run in with a tee ball bat and a set of stairs which has left me hobbling around with highly unattractive purple and blue swollen foot.
Today was just one of those mornings. It started well, Gracen asked to go to one of our local play gyms, and we began getting ready. All was good until she wasn’t able to put her tights on on her own and I was in the shower instead of helping her immediately. And it just went downhill from there. By the time we were ready and had all of our issues sorted out, play gym was half over and would have been three quarters over by the time we drove there. So what do you do when you’ve spent the last two hours preparing to leave the house, but it’s now almost lunchtime and you know that an early lunch and early nap is the best thing for everyone involved?
An indoor picnic! It was special enough that Miss G wasn’t completely crushed about not making it out the door to play gym, but kept our daily routine moving along and neared us to nap time, which was desperately needed. We laid a blanket out in the living room, gathered a few cushions, and turned on some happy music in hopes of a reset.
Miss G requested a “special picnic lunch” and chose a random assortment of foods cut into small pieces, in true toddler fashion. Her lunch included orange pepper slices, baby carrots, grilled chicken cubes, chunks of aged cheddar, a multigrain mini bun with hummus, kiwi slices and some fruit water.
This mama, on the other hand, needed something more meal-ish, especially after the morning we’d had. For me, baby kale and baby spinach topped with fresh veggies, feta, cilantro dressing, and a few mini chickpea patties (yum).
Grae thought the entire set up was very special and went back to being my happy little sidekick almost as soon as we began putting it together.
And thank goodness for that.
♥
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First off, I have to say that I just love setting up fun play invites for Gracen to discover. The way her little face lights up when she finds something new just melts me. And she dives in so enthusiastically that I seriously could just stand back and watch her play forever. 
Gracen got all kinds of really cool cooking and baking supplies for Christmas this year, so I made sure to include them, but you could easily just use regular-sized bowls, pans, and utensils.
For the ‘food’, I filled up some small jars and bowls with dried goods from our pantry and added in a couple of spice shakers, one filled with rice and the other with some of the 
Of course our observant little girl noticed the cooking station within 10 seconds of exiting the bathroom, long before she had completely dried off or put clothes on. After retrieving a shirt, some underwear, and a hat (weird doodle!) it was time to play.
Pie anyone?
She whipped up concoction after concoction, offering us tastes along the way. ☺
She had so much fun that at the end of the night I simply tidied things up a little, made them looking inviting again, and left them out for her to explore again tomorrow. 
Since returning home from a long vacation 2 weeks ago, playing independently has been a lot more difficult for Grae. Instead of playing on her own, she wants to be right beside Mama {if not right on top of me} all. of. the. time. When I explain that I need a little bit of personal space to get something done or encourage her to play, she responds with, “But Mama is the best…” or “But I just want to watch what you’re doing” or “But I LOOOOVE you!” Oy. It’s not easy. 
Magnetic flowers and sunshines.
Hello Kitty, the only merchandised toy allowed in our house.
A new favourite…
Bear dress up.
Snacks.
A new favourite book.
Hilarious. (Listen to it 
Treat time. Homemade 
Taste test in progress.
Pooped.
After drying off the coins, we spread them out on a plastic serving tray…
So tonight, as I was whipping together some dinner, I thought of a little game that would allow Miss G (my purple dinosaur) to be right there in the kitchen with me, while allowing me a wee bit of space. Flipping some chicken using tongs caused me to remember the mini tongs we’d put in Grae’s Christmas stocking. I added two bowls and some shell pasta to the mix, and we had a game on our hands.
The goal? Simply using the tongs to pick up the shells from one bowl and transfer them to the other bowl.
Now this may sound ridiculously easy, but for a toddler who’s had minimal experience with tongs and whose motor skills are not yet fully developed, it’s quite a challenge at first.
But not for long. After successfully transferring all of the pasta pieces twice, Gracen asked for something new. I quickly scanned our kitchen and came up these honey mandarins.
I could already see that her tong transferring skills had improved this time around.
After a couple of rounds with the oranges, Miss G wanted to try something new again, so we dug these bells out of a craft box to use. 
For the last few days, Miss G has really been enjoying the new set-up she has happening at her creative table (for a little bit of background info on the whole idea behind her creative table, click 
The sewing station consists of things we mainly already had on hand… Two types of beads (pony beads and meltable beads like 
And some homemade lacing cards (simply made by cutting shapes out of card stock and cardboard, and punching holes around the edges).
When Grae originally discovered her new sewing materials, she was by far most excited about the needles and thread, and got to beading right away…
After a couple of days, she had completed not only a bracelet for herself (I helped with the tying of course), but one for her Mama too!
After that, she begun working on the lacing cards. Right now she’s working on a lacing circle that has beads woven throughout. She works on it a little each day, moving onto something else when she feels like it and returning when the urge returns.
Something that often happens when it comes to her creative table {and sensory play} is that Grae adds to the materials as she goes. These mini cupcake liners were all her idea. 
This is her most recently completed project… A bracelet for Papa! He couldn’t be left out, now could he?
For the last few days, Gracen’s been working on these sweet little nature wreaths at her 
It started out as a very simple painting station with a few cardboard o’s and some paint in different shades of green.
When the paint was dry, I added a few other things into the mix… Glue, mini pinecones, bits of evergreen tree, and dried out red berries from her 
Though this creative table set-up didn’t take off quite like the 
This morning, after walking past the wreath on our door, she asked if she could have some bows for her wreaths, so I brought out my glue gun, cut up some ribbon, and added a few to the table.
After adding her bow, she put on the finishing touches…
And voila! A beautiful little Christmas wreath made of things {mostly} found outdoors.
What I wash’t prepared for however, was the fact that as soon as her toy box top was cleared off and wiped down, she said “Mama tells Grae Grae ’bout da NEW toy box prajet (project)!” Uhhhh… I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Oops. I explained to Gracen that I wasn’t sure what would replace her beloved building station, but I would think of something FUN, get it ready during her nap time, and surprise her with it when she woke up. No pressure.
Since I had about a gazillion other things I had planned to get done during my baby girl’s nap time, I knew the new station had to be something quick and easy to put together. I dug through our little living room toy box in search of inspiration, came across her bar magnet, and that was that…. A magnet station it was. I gathered up all kinds of small things from around the house – some magnetic and some not – and placed them on a tray along with the magnet. At first, I thought I’d just leave it at that, but then I decided it would be fun to add a sorting element since Miss G loves sorting/matching games so much. I remembered coming across 
When Gracen woke up, she asked about her new project immediately (this girl doesn’t forget a thing). I brought it in, explained that it was a magnet station, and let her jump in.
After a couple of minutes of exploration, I explained the jar drawings to her. Without hesitation, she started placing things in the appropriate jars.
She was so into it that it didn’t feel like too much at all.
Before long, she’d sorted every last item into the jars and announced, “All done! Dump ’em and do it again!” (A sure sign of success, I’d say. ☺)