A passing storm

A hurricane was scheduled to hit Hawaii today, but thankfully it veered north and missed the island. Souvenirs of this hurricane are heat and humidity. The air was so heavy today it was hard to breathe. A light rain fell on and off all day today. A perfect day to nest. To try to stay cool. We turned to comfort food and watermelon. Lots of cold cold watermelon. Currently that is Liam's favorite fruit and we are keeping the fridge stocked with it. A treat that Ross and I are enjoying immensely.

Today was all about this little boy. We read book after book, played ball, sang songs, played with ice, danced, took everything out of drawers (mostly him), put everything back into their places (mostly me), and did puzzles. Oh my, this boy of mine is starting to really understand puzzles. He can put together one of his nesting puzzles, and with each piece that he fits together, he looks up with this big grin and claps his hands and then raises his hand for a high five.

I took the camera outside and took pictures of the flowers surrounding our yard to try and document the passing storm. The rain made everything so green. So alive. There is a clean that perfumes the air right after the rain comes. I sat outside for a bit while Ross played with Liam inside. It was nice. Breathing in while listening to the faint laughter coming in through the screen door.

I had originally planned to get back to working on some long neglected WIPs, but instead paper crafting took precedent. Liam got some wooden animal magnets for his birthday. They are themed. Four themes to be exact. Ocean, Farm, Safari, and possibly animals down under. I have to check on that. We put two of the themed animals up on the fridge: Farm and Ocean.  This is a favorite spot for Liam. He loves taking them down and arranging them. Although it is nice to see that he understands the concept of taking them off and putting them back on again, there was something missing about the activity. It bothered me to see those animals on that stark white fridge. Lonely and homeless and devoid of a place to belong. So during nap, out came the construction paper, wrapping paper, recycled paper, glue gun, and out came a little scene for the ocean animals to live. They even got real starfishes and a shell to accommodate their little home. It was such a treat to see Liam wake up and discover this little scene. How he played with the starfish magnets and moved around the animals. Creating this little scene was such fun. I forgot how wonderful simple paper crafting can be. As I was crafting it, my mind was whirling with so many different ideas. About how this activity could be expanded as he got older. Since there are four themes, a theme on the fridge could be rotated every month. The medium in which to make the scenes could differ as well. Collages, painting, crayons/markers, tear art, thumb print stamping, are a few that came to mind. Collages or drawing/painting a background would be wonderful! A great activity to teach about ecosystems. I am starting a goodie book of all the activities and recipes I want to do as Liam gets older. This will definitely be one of them! Oh the possibilities!

The little animal magnet set was purchased at Target, but I also found them here if you're interested!