Macaroni Colors

On a whim, I decided to try coloring macaroni last night with the kids. I looked up the directions online (consensus was 2 tbsp of rubbing alcohol combined with lots of food coloring in a ziplock with 1 cup of macaroni - then pour out onto wax paper and dry overnight). I have lots of macaroni around. I just scooped some out of the macaroni bin I made a couple of months ago. The kids had a blast helping. They held the ziplock open while I added the rubbing alcohol and food coloring to it. They put the macaroni into the bag and then squished all the contents around once I sealed it. Then they oohed and ahhed over the results.

I learned several things.

• This amount of liquid allows you to dye 2 cups of macaroni - not one.
• Do not use wax paper. It gets soggy with the extra liquid and then sticks to your macaroni. Use aluminum foil instead.
• When using blue food coloring, it mixes with the natural yellow of the macaroni for a result of green - not blue.

I now have several trays of colored macaroni drying overnight. I'm not really sure what to do with them though. Any ideas for fun projects with colored macaroni? Anyone know how to overcome the problem with the macaroni being naturally yellow in order to make blue or purple macaroni?

The Weekly Review: Week One

Blog Post I Enjoyed Most:  I loved this post by Swistle.  Technically, I’m cheating here because this post is over a week old, but I didn’t have a weekly review last week so I figure I get a pass on posting this one late.  I laughed out loud when reading this post.  Then I overheard my husband laughing out loud when I made him read it.  It’s such a human mistake and Swistle does a great job of telling the story. 

Therapy product I would buy if I weren’t on a budget:  Word Flips.  This is a great therapy product for apraxia.  Ms. J. loaned it to us to use for our homework for the current two weeks.  It’s great for apraxia, because you can work on the words individually, or mix them up to add complexity if your little one is ready for that.  The words are separated into sections by place of articulation.  You can combine individual words to make two syllable words or phrases (sew and pea make soapy). 

Interesting Apraxia Article:  Apraxia: Speech Therapy in Toddlers and Young Children by Sharon Gretz, M.Ed.   This is a nice article about apraxia diagnosis and therapy with very young children. 

Michael’s Mystery Question:  Did he really eat a blue crayon at school as his teacher claims?  Her evidence:  blue mouth surrounded by crayon crumbs and missing crayon.  He denies it, but the evidence seems pretty conclusive.  He’s never, not once, tried to eat a crayon at home.  In fact, he pretty much never eats anything that isn’t food.  So, who knows?  Maybe another child talked him into it?

Ava’s new favorite word:  Hide.  Whenever she can’t find something, she pauses and then says that it is hiding.  So I ask her to find her shoes, and instead of looking for them she’ll just look at me and say, “Shoe hide.”  So many things have been hiding this week.  It’s been pretty cute actually.

Something I’m proud of:  Coming up with the idea for Ava’s pillows and actually following the project all the way through.  I think they’re adorable and Ava loves the pink one (just because it’s pink).  She’s given the other one to Michael and so far they’ve had at least one pillow fight.  Watching them learn to play together is a joy.

To give credit where credit is due, I was inspired to do a weekly review by the one posted every Friday morning on this blog. (Hmm.  His webpage actually seems to be down at the moment, but it's the first time in the year or so I've been reading him that it's been down so I'm assuming it is temporary.)

Daylight savings miracle

My children wake up early.  They wake up with the light to be specific.  So, in the middle of winter, near the solstice, they are sleeping till 7:30 or so which is wonderful.  In the middle of the summer near the summer solstice they are waking around 5am!!  Ava is particularly susceptible to the light and over the last month she moved from 6:30 to 6:15 to 6:00 and then started waking in the 5:00 hour.  It’s driving me crazy.  I need sleep too!!  And she’s waking up cranky because she isn’t really getting enough sleep.  Well, the daylight savings switch was wonderful.  Saturday morning she was up at 5:45 am.  Sunday morning it was 6:45 am.  Just like that.  I’ll take it. 

Now, what can I do to manipulate things so that perhaps I won’t end up right back where I was a month from now?  I have to find a way to keep her room dark.  I tried it when she was little, but then even the slightest change was enough of a cue to get her up.  I couldn’t block enough of the light for it to work.  Maybe now that she's older, blocking most of the light will work?  Also, then I didn’t have a sewing machine to use to make some light blocking tools.

I have a plan.  Light gets into her room from two main sources:  the window and under the door.  I’m going to make one of those door draft stoppers to block the light from getting in under her door.  Then I’m going to put up light blocking curtain liners.  But instead of attaching them to her curtains I’m going to just cover the entire window opening.  Seriously.  If it works it’ll be worth it.  I don’t care if we can’t open the windows any more.  I’m thinking I’ll sew velcro to the light blocking liner and then glue velcro to the wall around the window and just stick it up there attached on all four sides.  Ugly, yes.  But it’ll be hidden by the curtains. 

So that’s the plan.  I’ll let you know if it works.