Arts and Crafts

Recently Riley has been going through a "change"  with his behavior. Lots of fits, lots of hitting, lots of screaming, lots of time outs!  He doesn't take his naps like he use to, during his naps, he has pulled his dresser over twice, torn up 3 books, pulled down the curtains, I found dirty hands prints on the wall that are way to high for him to reach??? (I have no idea)  I am in his room every 5 minutes telling him to get back in bed.  It has been exhausting!

So Ryan and I had a pow wow and discussed this problem...because we refuse to give into the "terrible two's" theory.  We figured out I need to have more organized mental activities during the day.  So I went and bought finger paint, colors, coloring books, games...all kinds of art supplies.  And guess what....so far so good!  Although we still have a fit once in a while, he is 100% easier to deal with.  He is not the most artistic child, but he loves a task.  I guess all he needed was a little bit more attention and mental stimulation...and mom and dad have fun with the crafts too!  It's a win-win!  Here are some pictures from the last week!

Finger Paint!? How about Toe Paint!

 I poked holes in a foam bowl and Riley was so intent on stringing the leaves through the holes

We collected a bunch of leaves, smeared glue and squashed the leaves down!  I then asked Riley to draw a purple flower, brown dog, orange cat, green grass hopper, blue bird...he did his best and I added the faces

We went out and counted stars one night and the next day we finger painted what we saw...I drew the moon and Riley smeared the blue and red paint together, then we added sparkles for the stars!