Cheap Thrills: Part two

Mama J and M are back for the second installment of Cheap Thrills (the first can be found here.) I spend a fortune on toys and craft supplies - things I think she will love - but she always ends up coming back to something that we have around the house, or isn't a toy at all. Here are the latest cheap ways in which M entertains herself!

1. Snaps, buttons, clips and any other fasteners. M is obsessed with clipping and unclippling or buttoning and unbuttoning the fasteners on anything and everything. Her carseat, the stroller, the booster seat we just bought her, the dogs collar, the dogs leash, all of her jackets, her pants - just sit her by it, or in it and she could spend hours just working with the fasteners. Her new favorite thing to do is strap her giant Elmo or Minnie Mouse doll into a car seat or booster seat and show off her handy work. Thankfully she can't do the main buckle on her car seat, but the chest strap is baby school. There's no tying down my kid!

2. Mama's purses and wallets. I apparently have amassed a large collection of wallets and purses over the last 10 years, including some awesome old Dooney and Bourke shoulder bags, countless Coach wristlets in the oddest colors and a numerous Louis Vuitton fakes that I bought on Canal street (I think they say Larry Vitton on the label :). Thankfully I didn't throw them out, for fear that they will come back in style, because now Marlo loves to walk around the house with purses on her arm. She will sit there and zip and unzip them, and move them from arm to arm and say "look Mommy! Fancy!" I have put a few old cards in the wallets and she will sit there all by herself and take out a card and hold it up to something and say "Swipe!" I wonder where she learned that...

3. Felt shapes and silk flowers. I purchased two packages of felt shapes and silk flowers for craft projects a few months back. Well, she showed no interest in sticking them on sticky paper, but she did show an interest in dumping them all on the ground! So that is what we do now - I have a bin filled with all these little shapes and flowers and we dump them out on the floor. I will then ask her to find certain shapes, or name shapes I hold up, as well as asking her colors of flowers...I am amazed how quickly she picked up every shape and color we have in there. It is a great learning tool for toddlers!

4. Find that ornament. We put up our tree and decorated the house on Thanksgiving. I will  be writing a whole other post about it, but now that M is old enough to somewhat understand what is going on, it is an even more magical time of year. We now like to play the "find that ornament" game every day. Our tree has photos in little frame ornaments, as well as her favorite Disney characters all over it so she is totally into it when we play. It is also another great way to learn shapes and colors by having her "find the red ball" for example.