Life with a Toddler - Are we having fun yet?

For the last two and a half years I have been a stay-at-home-mom, which is super cool because it comes with its own acronym on all the mommy boards: SAHM. What they don't tell you when you decide to stay home is that you are essentially a cruise director for a very picky passenger. It is your job to entertain, educate, and feed this small human - AND you have to do it EVERYDAY. Oh, and don't forget to limit screen time (yeah, okay, sure thing.)

To make my life even easier, my kid, let's call him Hulk, managed to break his foot and now we can't even do all of our go-to entertainment options - no playgrounds, no running around the park, no gymnastics class. I am fighting cabin fever with a super active 2 1/2 year old. So, I have delved into the interwebs to find crafts and other home activities to try and entertain the Hulk. I am here to tell you all about the messes, tantrums, fails, and even some successes (fingers-crossed.)

Our first craft try is PUFFY FOAM PAINT.

Obviously, I did the tree part.

This puffy foam paint is super easy to make. It is just equal parts glue and shaving cream. Then add some paint for color. I used washable paint - just drop it in and stir until you get it as dark as you'd like.

Puffy Foam Paint Ingredients: Shaving Cream, White Glue, Paint

Doesn't this look super fun to finger paint with? I mean, who wouldn't want to scoop into that and spread it over paper? The Hulk, apparently. My kid, who goes outside for two minutes and comes back covered head to toe in dirt, put one finger in the puff paint and immediately started sobbing that his hand was dirty. We went with a paintbrush.

Painting did not entertain him nearly as long as I wanted. He did a few brush strokes and quickly moved on. I tried to entice him back by doing some myself - it didn't help. At least, there isn't much time or effort put into making this paint. 

To add to the fun, our kitten decided to run through the drying paint and get it all over everywhere. Well, it was funny watching her twitch to try to get it off her paw.

What Hulk did enjoy was pressing his Cheerios into the paint, so this became a new activity. I put dots of the foam paint on a sheet and he pressed Cheerios into it. We turned this into a counting game.

We will probably try this again when he is a bit older or maybe he just needs to be in the right mood. The finished product is cool and the paint dried great, but it did not hold his attention.

Puffy Foam Paint Projects

PUFFY FOAM PAINT

Expense: $2

Effort: 2 out of 5 (for the kitten caused clean up)

Toddler Approved: 2 out of 5 (he liked it for a couple minutes)
Hulk's Age when tried: 2.5 years