Rainy Day Fun

We had quite the rainy and blistery day. We've always heard about the rainy season of Japan but the two times before that we've been here we never experienced it. This year however it was proven to not be mythical. 

It's cherry blossom season right now which is very short, about a week. Full bloom will be in a few days so we figured that Sunday would be our best bet for getting the full experience up in Tokyo, hoping to visit Shinjuku Gyoen again. Unfortunately with the weather we decided to forgo the trip until next weekend hoping the blossoms will still be impressive. 

Chris has been battling some cold bugs and I'm still working through all my kidney stuff so we've been tag teaming this weekend between napping and watching Gabriel. This particular day I got to sleep in but once I woke up Chris went back to bed for a few hours. Gabe is a huge lover of the outdoors and if it's showering outside we'll venture but today was a little too wild. Books, puzzles, blocks, cars, and balls can only distract him so long before he starts to demand 'side' and throwing my shoes at me so we had to bust out the big guns and went for painting! 

I've tried painting once before but made a newbie mistake and gave Gabriel highly toxic (guessing) dollar store acrylic paint... Yes I actually didn't think he'd try to eat the paint nor did I think he'd go outside the large piece of paper. For our second go round I laid down a dollar store table clothe, dollar store child's apron, and used washable non-toxic finger paints. In addition to the paint brush I added the much enjoy matchbox car! 

Gabriel was a little hesitant at first but slowly gained speed and had a great time! Afterwards he took the still saturated paint brush into the bathtub and continued the painting fun on the bathtub walls but not before getting a glimpse of himself in the mirror and getting a tad scared. 

 I'm sad to say that we haven't done many art projects aside from crayons and whiteboard drawing. I hope to continue to find time and ways for us to get creative! What kind of art activities have you done with your under two year old?