Fun activity for a two-year-old stuck in the kitchen/family room with a couchresting Mommy: explore, and I mean really explore, with all our senses.
Widget has never been one to put toys and little pieces in his mouth. When we first brought out the little kitchen set at 18 months, he put a piece of toy food in his mouth exactly once. Then we showed him how to pretend nibble on it (with a loud chomp!) and he thought that was so funny he’s done that ever since. So we really haven’t had to worry too much about what he puts in his mouth. Likewise, he eats well, whatever we’re eating … except green vegetables, of course!
Today’s goal? Using all five senses to observe our environment. We often say, “do you hear?” when an airplane flies by, and Widget will ask to, “see it, see it!” when, well, an airplane flies by or something similarly is happening just out of reach. We smell flowers (and pretend to sneeze after smelling the fake ones — I’m not sure why, but it makes us all laugh), and we’ve been encouraging Widget to touch leaves, sticks, flowers, shrubs, and the occasional bug since his first trip outside at 2 weeks old. We color on unusual surfaces and try to take him new places so that his sense of adventure is encouraged rather than stilted by cries of “don’t touch” etc.
But taste … other than serving him grown-up food (mashed, sliced, pureed, and of course cooled off), we haven’t really done anything to encourage the use of this sense. So today we let him taste salt, pepper, and some innocuous spices from the pantry. Widget was tickled and asked for more! The look of delight on his little face when he realized that they taste different was amazing. Fun day!
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