Mess Maker, Mess Maker, Makin a Mess!

Once again it is Tuesday, Calum has gone down for his nap, so that means it is time to write another blog. Early in the week Calum was still recovering from his illness and so we stayed at home a lot and I got a little stir crazy. There is only so much you can do in a two bedroom apartment, and a lot of that is difficult to do when you have a child clinging to your leg for most of the day. But we survived. I found a website with activities to do with kids. You put in their age and it pulls up hundreds of activities to help them develop at whatever stage they are in. It's a pretty cool website, (it's on my Pinterest if you want to check it out). So we did some of those but Calum's attention span isn't that long so it wouldn't take long for him to begin clinging to my leg again. Kevin says it's just Calum's way of asking for a little buddy. Not yet boys... So needless to say Calum got into lots of stuff and sat around looking cool.

I read an article in the Ensign that talked about letting kids do stuff around the house even if they make messes because that is how they learn to be independent, confident  and do things on there own. This was meant for parents with teens but I found meaning in it for me too. I decided I was going to start doing things with Calum that may be messy but are fun and help him to explore and learn. One of those things is feeding himself. Now I don't let him do it all the time, but when there are foods that don't stain and cling to the spoon pretty good I let him have a go at it. Here is a video of one such occasion. Sidenote- Calum loves food and we can never feed him fast enough, so when I first gave him the spoon he started shoveling food into his mouth.

Another messy activity I buckled down and let Calum do was fingerpainting.

He Loved it and we made this sweet picture for Dad using Calums footprints.

Of course these things were messy but we had lots of fun and lots of laughs. Definitely worth it :)

We have been really busy lately and haven't spent a lot of time together as a family. So Friday night we went out to dinner. We had to wait a while for our table so we played cars with Calum to kill time. It was nice to just be together for an evening, even if Calum was a little cranky.

Our friend invited us to go to the Wildlife Museum this weekend. It was a cheap day so it only cost us two bucks :) It was fun to get out of the house and check out the sights. Calum wasn't too stoked on all the mechanical animals but he really likes the interactive areas. 

Saturday night the Elders Quorum had a Pinewood Derby. It was quite the party. Kevin decided to race his car from when he was a cub scout. It didn't do so hot on the race track. But for a 20 year old car it held its own. (Kevin was a little heartbroken when he realized that the car is indeed about 20 years old). Fun night.

We also went out to Elizabeth for Layla Greer's baby blessing. And finished off the weekend with a scrumptious dinner with friends and lots of carrots :)

As always it's been an eventful week and we are so grateful for our many blessings in our lives.