Keeping a toddler entertained

The night before last I was haunted by visions of a Regency Era dress for maternity wear and when I saw the flat bedsheet Miss M was using to make a tent, it told me it wanted to be that dress. So yesterday, when I was supposed to be working on my SWAP, I cut out a dress for myself instead. It turns out, a queen sized flat sheet is perfect for the Regency dress pattern (especially since I needed to hack off 5 inches in length).  I cut out the whole thing and the rest of the garments for Miss M...good thing too 'cause I was having a few contractions bent over on the floor like that. I'm listed as "high risk" for pre-term delivery (Miss M was born at 36 weeks), so I don't need to be having contractions at only 6 months pregnant! Now that all the cutting out is done, I won't have to get down on the floor like that anymore!

It seems I woke up one morning, turned around, and my baby girl had morphed into a sponge, soaking up every bit of information and stimulation she could find. She's completely outgrown her baby toys and is in need of new things to do. Just about every day last week I came up with a new activity for her. One day it was a "sand" table consisting of my 9x12" cake pan and some old (uncooked!) rice.

Another day she asked to make pizza, so we she did. I really didn't do much other than premix the spices and even up the cheese at the end.

Her lola (grandma) had a birthday this weekend, so little Miss M made her very first greeting card. She even put the stamps on the "envelope" all by herself.

Miss M has always had advanced fine motor skills for her age. Even before she could walk, she'd crawl around and pick up the tiniest pieces of debris from the carpet -- amazingly, they didn't usually go in her mouth either!  So I've been wanting to get her some lacing cards since she first turned 2 -- even though they have "for ages 3-6" on the box. The cheapest ones I've seen are about $10 (Disney princesses, ick!) and they go up from there. I just couldn't bear to spend that much and it suddenly dawned on me to make my own!  I used a double-layer of cardstock, clear contact paper, a 1/8" hole punch, and some lanyard for the laces.

After I finished the first one, I was a little concerned that the holes were too many and too small.  Oh how wrong I was! All it took was showing Miss M once how to "find the next hole" and next thing I knew, she laced up a whole card!  I'll definitely be making more of these! In fact, I think I might make up a tutorial while I'm at it. These would make great gifts for a huge range of ages...both boys and girls.