What I mean by that is we are constantly tossing recyclables into the recycle bin, saving things to be reused later, planting new things in the yard, etc., etc. But the biggest thing that we do is cloth diaper! My newsfeed on Facebook was full of statuses asking me, "What have you done to help the Earth?" and well, I definitely think that cloth diapering my little Avalyn has definitely been helpful. Not only have we saved ourselves some money, but we have significantly reduced the amount of waste that we put out.
Anyways, what I am trying to say is that every day we are trying to improve our way of living not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of the planet that we live on. I am anxiously awaiting the time that Avalyn is old enough to understand why it is we do what do and why I am constantly trying to create new (and better) routines for ourselves. I want her to understand the benefit of having electricity and running water and why it is we need to remember to turn lights and electronics off when we are not using them. I want her to know the benefits of recycling and why it needs to be done. I want her to see us doing these things and then turn around and teach her children.
But all of that will come in due time. :)
For today, I thought it would be fun for her to create one of my favorite sea creatures out of things that we had hanging out in the house.
First, you will need:
1. Tissue paper-I had saved all of the tissue paper from Avalyn's baby shower and Christmas that did not have any tears/rips in them.
2. Scissors
3. Coffee filters-these are ALWAYS in our house.
4. Spray bottle with water inside-the cats were not pleased to see this in my hands...
5. Markers-I love Crayola brand because they are non-toxic!
Then, you take your markers and color, doodle, scribble, or whatever you want onto your coffee filter!
Avalyn enjoyed holding the marker and she did even make a few little scribbles on her coffee filter on her own.
She did need a few pointers...
...but she really was more fascinated with the filter and stuffing it into her mouth.
It is kind of hard to see, but she had stuffed the filter into her mouth and given herself a blue tongue.
So I let her play with some closed markers while I finished up our sea creature.
Any guesses yet as to what it may be?!
Once you have colored onto your filter, take the spray bottle full of water and spray the filter. This will cause all of the colors to bleed and make really cool designs. You will want to set it onto a cup or bottle to dry. Oh! And make sure you lay some paper or something down when you spray the filters because the colors will bleed onto the floor or table if you do not! I just used some of the moving paper we had left from when we moved into our house.
After it is dry, you will cut the tissue paper into strips, crimp them with your fingers, tape them to one side of your filter and...
VOILA!
You have yourself a little jelly fish!! Avalyn LOVED watching these things once they were finished. She got so excited when I made them do a little jelly dance over her head. I made about four of them and we plan on hanging them up somewhere in her room (hello! perfect addition to her beach themed room!).
I also stamped Ava's hand and feet and we made an "Earth" to hang up on the refrigerator for Daddy to see when he came home from work!
So cute!
Before having a child I probably would have never gotten so into little things like Earth Day (even though I remember loving all of the activities and festivities when I was a kid). But I am so glad that I did something today so that we have it to look back on.
Besides, today was a pretty memorable event despite it being all about Mother Earth...today Avalyn said "ma ma" for the first time!! :') It was an incredible moment and as most moments are, a complete and total surprise! I was sitting on the couch with Ava's Grandma Lisa (aka Gamma) and she of course was throwing a little tizzy and as she was doing so she looked at me and said some baby babble followed by "mama". It took me a few seconds to realize what she had just said. I looked over at Gamma and she smiled at me...I think I had tears in my eyes as I said, "SHE JUST SAID MAMA!!!".
I immediately sent Brian a text message telling him what had just happened. He was on his way home from work so I was really hoping that it was not a one time incident.
Thankfully it was not!
During dinner tonight, I managed to accidentally capture a three second video of Avalyn saying it again!
Can't believe that my little bug is TALKING...well, sort of! She is sitting up and saying "ma ma" and can almost say "da da" to the point of us understanding it. Oh man. Can't handle all of this growing up so soon!! Bring on the mommy melt down!
So with that I leave you with these adorable photos from dinner time tonight; Daddy Marine finally able to sit and feed his daughter some carrots...the best part was when she sneezed and he got hit with the orange goo. Ooh man do I cherish these moments.
p.s Happy Earth Day, everyone!!
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