PARENTS: This Will Change Your Life
R is almost seven months old. She’s energetic and already very stubborn. She needs a lot of stimulation and heaps of active play. If she doesn’t receive enough of those two things, she’s cranky and cantankerous until bedtime.
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember the types of activities I did with the kids I used to nanny, to no avail. I talked to my mom and her advice was “keep her as busy as possible.” How do I keep a tiny baby busy? We recently moved to Texas and have no friends ( :’( ), I don’t have my license yet (hey, give me a break, I lived in NYC for eight years), and it’s unbearably H-O-T after around 11:00am.
Enter Pinterest. It’s every non-crafty person’s worst nightmare. A reminder that no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be artistic enough to pull off even a fraction of what you attempt. But, as a glutton for punishment, I began my search.
“6 month old + diy + crafts + sensory”
I couldn’t click “pin it” fast enough. And I kicked myself for not doing this sooner. I found so many incredible ideas that were easy and, quite literally, fail proof. I quickly created a list of items to pick up for a bunch of the crafts but scoured my apartment for some of the items I was sure to already have.
Enter: COTTON BALLS** (tiny pillows of magic)
Why had I not done this sooner?? I grabbed about ten cotton balls, a baking tin, eight rubber bands, a small handful of shredded up paper from her Easter basket, and a couple of headbands. Hours of enjoyment. I mean HOURS. As soon as she began to lose interest in playing with *just* cotton balls (seriously, at least 30 minutes of active play), I created a few other easy sensory crafts for her to enjoy. I’ve been introducing more crafts, but these three are still in heavy rotation.
Best thing about this? She’s been easily going down for her naps EVER SINCE. I’ve had an incredible struggle with any type of scheduled nap time, and half the time she wouldn’t even take one, which has caused both of us so much unnecessary frustration. Since I began introducing crafts, it’s been ten times easier. There’s an occasional tear if she’s super tired, and she still might cut her nap short if daddy is home, but she naps well and IN HER CRIB at about the same time every day. This has increased the happiness factor durning waking hours for both of us.
Now to solve the “how the hell do I get this kid to happily eat solids every day??” issue.
**As always, never leave your little ones alone with any small items that aren’t bolted down to the floor. Contrary to popular belief, the texture of cotton balls did not keep R from happily sticking them in her mouth, repeatedly, regularly. Most items are a chocking hazard for tiny ones, these are no exception.
