The Missing Afternoon Nap

Aiden is teetering between the two-naps-to-one-nap-a-day continuum. This is really a good thing as it's a sign that he's growing up, but the one nap days can wreck havoc on a well-tuned schedule that is based on two naps a day. Those are the days that force me to flex my creative muscles and come up with more activities for the little guy. And I have no choice but to be up for the challenge. I've found that these spontaneous moments of creative projects are usually the best ones, and give Aiden and I a chance to build some more stellar memories that I'm sure I'll cling to when he's all about sports and girls and hanging with his buddies!

Earlier this week we had one of those afternoons. When I realized that my attempts at getting Aiden down for his afternoon nap were going absolutely and positively nowhere I had to come up with some activities on the fly.

The first activity we did was a very scientific science experiment figuring out what sinks and what floats in Aiden's water table. For this, we filled up the water table, grabbed some random toys - a plastic bunny, a lemon squeeze bottle, a mini water gun, a couple of boats, and some ice cubes, and dropped them in the water. We watched to see which one sank and which ones floated. And then we raced boats around the table seeing how we could make them move across the water. Yes, I told you, very scientific!

The other activity we choose to do was some face/body painting. As we were already dressed in shorts and t-shirts I decided to quickly whip up some homemade face paints (recipe below), move us into the bathroom, grab some q-tips as brushes and paint each other red, yellow and blue. This was a huge hit and kept us entertained for the better part of an hour. The cleanup was also quite quick as I kept us in the bathroom. I wouldn't recommend these types of paints if you have pictures or need to look smart in the near future as the paints didn't come off right away.

Here's the recipe I used:
1 tsp. corn starch
1/2 tsp. water
1/2 tsp. cold cream
Food coloring

Mix together in small containers (I used an ice cube tray) as many as you want colours.

Now however, Aiden is taking a second nap, so I will bid you adieu so I can snooze too.

Happy napping or non-napping as the case may be,
Creatively yours,
Maya:)