Noticing the Happy

I love sensory bottles.  I think they are good at almost every age, but I especially love them for baby play.  I’ve found it’s a way to include Mabel in our Theme Weeks that safely lets her explore the world.  It gives her access to small items that I couldn’t otherwise give her. Sensory bottles are fun to look at, fun to shake, fun to play with.  My kids love them!

For All Things Cactus Week, I wanted to figure out how to share the theme with Mabel, my 8 month old.  I had already planned on dying rice green, so then I just had to figure out what other items would teach Mabel about a cactus.  First – you need “pricklies” so I cut up some toothpicks for inside.

If you want to do this at home, I recommend taping the toothpicks together before you cut them (so the pieces don’t fly everywhere). I leave the top part of the tape open, then tuck the tape on the bottom (to keep them together, but have an easy way to take the tape off).  See picture below:

Once I had those cut, I put the green rice and toothpicks in an empty Voss waterbottle that I had taken the label off of (these are my favorite shaped bottle for sensory play).  To add color, and because my favorite time of year is when the cactus are in bloom, I threw in a few fake flowers.  These ended up being my favorite part – they end up kind of sitting on top of the rice, however you move it, and when the flowers hide, there’s this pretty pop of pink through the green.

For this sensory bottle, I put clear packing tape around the opening (to make it toddler proof).  Sometimes I will use hot glue to secure the top, but the tape allows me to reuse the bottle later and for dry goods, the tape seems to do the trick.

Happy baby, happy Mommy! xx

 

 

See more about our All About Cactus Week here!