Finger painting and puppy cuddles

Lots of fun was had with
our edible finger paint

We have been looking on pinterest a lot lately since we got Harper's yumbox (see my previous post, there will be more about that soon!) and we discovered lots of different edible finger paints recipes, so we figured we'd give it a little go!

A masterpiece,
I am sure you will agree

We have a bunch of baby rice and stuff that we never used and probably never will so I decided to pop a bit of food colouring in that and see how we diddled - it was a great success! She really enjoyed herself - more "paint" on her than the paper, but a good time was had by all nonetheless. She really enjoyed squishing the paint in her hands and er... throwing it across the room too. She painted her first picture and once it's dry (providing it keeps) it'll go on the fridge until she's 20 probably, if it doesn't keep I have a photo of it that I will print out and keep on the fridge instead, with her name and age on it. I really enjoyed doing this with her, of course she sits on her own now but I sat just behind her and watched her have fun and it was nice for me to watch (despite the colourful baby rice that is encrusted on my jeans now).

After all her painting she was quite tired, so we put her in her bouncy chair (that she's pretty much outgrown, but still loves) for a nap, and the dog got in and joined her, making probably the cutest thing that's ever happened ever happen in our house - shortly before I fished him out because he's not allowed in there, which woke her up and I got this beautiful picture. That's one for the album!

Sensory play!

She loved messy play today!

Now Harper is a little older and sitting a little better I am always trying to think of new things we can do to help her development. I've seen a lot about sensory play and messy play and I've been thinking I'd like to try it with her, but wondered if she was maybe a little young. She is holding her head up a little better I thought it would be quite good to trust a messy play can see how she enjoyed it - as you can see by the smile on her face she loved it! What I did with make up some baby rice because we we won't be using it for weaning any way because we'll be doing baby led weaning. I used the baby rice because it didn't matter too much if she put it in her mouth, which she does with everything else! She had a lot of fun and was giggling the whole time, as she smooshed it all up in her hands and rubbed it on her face and on me - so I'm thinking maybe she is old enough for basic sensory and messy play and it might be good for her! In a couple of months we'll be using colours in the rice or smooshy stuff so it's visually developmental too, but for now I'm pretty sure her little system wouldn't appreciate the food colouring! We've also got her a paddling pool which we fill with ball pit balls (she likes to chuck them round the room when she's in there) and she also loves to splash in the bath - we are thinking of getting her a small paddling pool to use in the garden with toys that she can play with in the hot weather (she hates it, just like her mummy!) I've seen that blowing bubbles is good for hand eye coordination too, so we might be giving that a go - but I am really looking forward to using edible finger paints in a couple of months! Does anyone have any sensory ideas for 4 months olds? Comment below with your suggestions!