Kai Project: Bottle Caps

We've been saving bottle caps for a long time now. I finally decided to try this project with Kai - stringing bottle caps on string. I wasn't up to the challenge of letting Kai handle a hammer and nail, so I made holes in the bottle caps while Kai organized them by color:

Kai worked diligently on her project (always improving small motor skills):

This is how my project turned out:

And my second one:

And Kai's (this picture taken at Kai's request "to send to Grandma Judy"):

Of course, I may have slightly destroyed the backside of our bamboo cutting board (oops!):

Notes:

We put a drop of Elmer's glue on the end of the string to keep it from fraying. This worked the best of our other attempts to create a "needle".

I suggest washing your bottle caps so that you and your child(ren) do not end up smelling like a soda/beer/cider factory exploded on you. 

Protect your work surface!

Kai Project: Puffy Paint

Today, we decided to try this project from Pinterest:

As usual, we edited the recipe a bit. We mixed:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup baking soda

4 cups water

It was rather thick and difficult to mix:

After putting that mixture into our bottles (a slightly messy adventure as the mixture was too thick to go through our funnel), we added a packet of kool aid to each bottle. As we mixed, the citric acid in the kool aid had the expected reaction with the baking soda in our paint mixture (that's the reason I added baking soda to the recipe). Several of the bottles came close to bubbling over the top:

By mixing, we kept them from spilling over the top:

The end result is a lovely smelling, puffy paint:

My picture (I'm not terribly creative, but I wanted to try it):

Kai also tried using her fingers to mix the colors together to create additional colors:

Walking

You might remember my tumble down the stairs at the end of July (if not, you can read about it here). My sprained ankle did not heal as quickly as I expected, so I went back to the doctor for more xrays. He sent me to physical therapy for six weeks. While things improved, I still had pain in my foot. My physical therapist sent me back to the doctor with a recommendation that I get an MRI. The doctor took more xrays and sent me off for an MRI.

Looking at my MRI results, my doctor said, "Well...I don't blame you for not getting better." I'm sure he meant this to be reassuring, but I'm less sure how he thought it would be - the MRI should numerous microfactures and contusions to two bones in my foot and three bones in my ankle. In any event, he gave me two options: if I promised to keep the foot non-weight-bearing, he would give me an immobilizing boot; if I could not make such a promise, he would cast my foot. I promised to keep off the foot, a promise I broke the minute I got to my car and realized there was no way I could drive home.

For the next four weeks, I kept to my promise. For the first two weeks, I didn't drive at all, relying on Courtney and Bryce for transportation. I later discovered I could drive Craig's car, because it's bigger and allowed room for me to get my boot out of the way enough to drive with my left foot, but my driving was still somewhat limited.

Despite my crutches, we kept up with our busy lives. We took Kai to Apple Valley for cider and dinner. I've accompanied Craig through Target and Costco and various other shopping adventures. We've toured houses and apartments. And when Dave visited unexpectedly, we stopped at a mall in San Diego and Dave carried me up three flights of stairs:

I returned to the doctor this week with one shrunken calf and an inflexible ankle. He was surprised I had managed to be so compliant keeping weight off the foot. This may be the first time a doctor has called me "compliant" with anything. But perhaps it is worth the effort - I'm off the crutches in four weeks instead of six and I've skipped the walking boot altogether. I've got a brace and several more weeks of physical therapy to look forward to, but at least I'm walking again.

Kai Project: Fun with Fruit

Continuing with our food project theme, we made fruit skewers today.

We used a variety of fresh fruit and dried fruit. Apples were hard for her to push onto the chopstick, but the bananas were so soft they broke apart as she pushed them onto the stick. Fresh grapes, dried cherries, fresh oranges, and dried appricots were the easiest for her to work with. 

After we made fruit skewers, Kai smashed the bananas and I chopped the remaining fruit as small as I could. We added jello and made these "gummies" (Kai's name for fruit snacks).

Kai Project: Faces

Following the food project kick we've been on, we made faces for lunch. First, Kai made a pizza with a face:

For dessert, I sliced an orange, an apple, a banana, and found grapes for noses.

As you'll see, Kai made one happy face and one sad face:

Kai Projects: Rainbow Bread Butterfly

Today's food project selection was a butterfly made from a slice of bread, cream cheese, and fresh fruit. Substituting what we had on hand (and what Kai likes), we used rainbow bread from yesterday, peanut butter, and dried fruit.

After I trimmed the rainbow bread, Kai spread peanut butter:

The finished project:

Kai Projects: Flour paint

We started with simple flour and water:

After transferring the mixture into our bottles, we added food coloring:

Kai painted outside (for easier clean up):

She wanted "glitter" for her surprise for Grandpa, but I talked her into using baking soda and citric acid (if I haven't written about my purchase of 10 pounds of citric acid, I should). We put it in a spice container I saved for crafts:

The results have been entertaining. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to post a video from my phone. I'll have to see if I can add those later. 

Kai Projects: Rainbow bread

Kai has been fascinated with "food projects" lately. We look through Pinterest together to find things to try. Her first (and most frequent) selection is always felt cut into food shapes - I guess that pictures best. But I've been able to guide her toward edible projects for which we already have the ingredients on hand (important because I'm still on crutches).

To make rainbow bread, we first mixed food coloring with milk:

Kai "painted" the colored milk on bread:

And I toasted the bread in our toaster oven:

She loved it!

Unfortunately, I'm still somewhat disturbed by colored bread. I remember when they started selling tie-dyed white bread in the store when I was a kid. I think my mother's distress at this product carried with me. 

Kai Projects: Salt Painting

We saw this salt, glue, and food coloring project on Pinterest. Kai and I decided to try it. Using glue, we drew patterns on paper. We sprinkled salt on top of the glue. We initially tried using the food coloring directly on the salt, but it did not spread as much as expected. So we mixed food coloring with water and used a straw to drip it onto the salt.

Kai's:

Kai's attempt with a bit of help from Courtney:

Courtney's:

Mine:

Yes, I don't draw, I doodle. I learned from the best.