ARTS & CRAFTS & WAITING FOR BABY.

if i'm going to be completely honest... i've been resorting to arts & crafts multiple times a day. haha did i trick you into thinking i was doing something cray-cray? :) ah well... we're just nestled into our new NH house waiting, waiting, waiting for baby jacob to make his arrival. it could be any day now or it could be weeks. so while we wait, we do art. here are a few things we've been doing lately:

1) markers & crayons. i prefer when she uses markers because she gets a greater satisfaction, at least at this age, of the juicy marks they make on the page. and it's really good hand-eye coordination practice when she tries to put the caps back on. it's really cute to watch and she rarely needs my help.

2) stickers. i learned at the young age of 12 that stickers were a mothers best friend. it started with my littlest sister and a flight home to thailand when she was rorie's age. stickers kept her busy and quiet. so i always suggest stickers to mothers traveling with their young babies on airplanes. well, stickers are just as awesome on land as they are in the air. i stocked up at wal-mart after easter. $0.12 for a page of stickers seemed to be just too awesome to pass up. i also got a big bag of foam stickers at a craft store. rorie has figured out how to bend the sticker page to get them off herself, but she still needs me with the foam ones. it's really a fun activity and then we usually use markers on the stickers afterwards for double the arts & crafts time.

3) watercolors. i recently took out the watercolors i'd been saving since high school (the markers i have are also from high school... i knew i would need them in the future for my babies!). turns out it was the best decision i've made in a while. almost two is a perfect age for watercolors and they make the most beautiful abstract pieces. in my opinion. let me know if you want a rorie original...we'll get right to work. it's a pretty simple process. i just ask her what color she wants to use and doctor up the brush and then she does the work until more paint is needed. it's very calming and we are working on being soft with the brush. but she's also into polka dots... which is not very soft on the brush, but i'm not going to deny her the polka-dots. it's also really fun to watch her brain work. she painted a "tiger with polka dots, here's his tail" and "snakes" this morning.

it's finally getting warmer out here, too. so we've been playing on our porch and in the side yard every chance we get. we're also buying berries again! and that makes everything better.

any other fun arts & crafts we should try?