Following on from What Babies Really Want To Play With, you'll note there's a reoccurring theme, that of Moomin's passion to empty things, all the things, every things. Bags, purses, packets, shelves, cupboards and her personal favourite, a packet of baby wipes.  Now I could fork out £20 or so and buy a shiny plastic toy designed to put things in and take them out again, or I could just be a cheap skate and make one because, newsflash, she actually couldn't give a toss what it looks like, it's the act she likes.

I had copious amounts of old cloth wipes that we no longer use (thanks to the lovely Cheeky Wipes that have replaced them!) They're just small baby flannels that you can buy in packs of 5 or 6 from the pound shop.  The Dude had recently got some new trainers, so I wrestled the box from him, tapes it together, made a slot in the top (and taped round this too) and stuffed it with the flannels (and a load of used gift cards, don't ask!) Voila.  Best game ever.  She can now empty to her heart's content, granted she doesn't want to put them back yet but that's all part of the game, if you attempt to refill them it's a race against the Moomin as she crawls at hyper speed to empty them as fast as you put them back!

The money saved?  Can be put into the fund for a trip out somewhere, after all, memories are priceless.

Sensory No-Mess Painting Bags

                            

               

I'll happily admit i'm not masochistic enough to even contemplate paint and babies, even the older spawn, who can now allegedly set it up and put it away themselves, reaching for paint makes me twitch.  This idea, however, I can stomach.  Just.

I know, I lied, sort of.  There's actually no paint involved in this.  All you need is a Zip-Lock bag and some glitter glue because everything is better with glitter.

That's really all there is to it.  No point over complicating things.  If a bag full of glue gives you The Fears, you can reinforce it with parcel tape around the four sides.

What you now have is a smooshy, prod-able squishy bag that glitters.  You can make shapes in it with your fingers 'drawing' then smooth them away so they disappear.  It's incredibly tactile.  Even The Dude and Things One and Two were drawn to it.  

If you have a toddler or preschooler you can tape it to a window and the added daylight makes the drawings show up better and makes it ideal for teaching shapes/numbers/letters etc.

If for a baby,` it's more of a tactile cause and effect experiment and you may want to tape it to a high chair table or something if your baby is anything like Moomin who just wants to nom on everything that isn't nailed down.  She loves to poke and slap it.

Pavement paint

Having seen the term 'Sidewalk paint' bandied about the internet or a while now, I finally found myself   sinking low enough in sanity to actually make the stuff.

You'll find oodles of recipes online for this stuff that all seem to spin off of the same basic ingredients:

* Cornflour (I used one cup)
* Water (I used one cup)
* food colouring (I had some red, yellow and blue so just made various shades through mixing these)

* Bun tray

Piece of piss, you just add the cornflour and water together, decant into a bun tray then add drops of food colouring to each one.

Voila.  Now stand back and admire all the pretty colours (then grimace at your stained hands if you're even half as cackhanded as me)

Let loose your Spawn.

Pro's:

* It's cheap
* Uses ingredients that most o us have in our store cupboard or else are very easily attainable.
* It's washable, you can hose down the pavement afterwards and it'll all disappear or if you're lazy like me, just wait or it to rain.
* As it's an outdoor activity, your kitchen is saved from desecration.

Cons: 

* Yellow food colouring makes your nails look like you smoke 100 a day.  Grim.
* If you let a 3 year old and a 6 year old play at the same time with it, the three year old will mix all the colours up and the 6 year old will get pissed off at this. doh!