Last week was rough. It was one of those weeks that will go down in the family’s history books as “a crappy” week! We will refer to it as “the great stomach bug of 2015” years from now. This virus was especially hard on baby Jonah. The only thing he could keep down was breastmilk. The only thing he wanted to do was to nurse, so nurse we did. But all of our special bonding time took away play time for Jansen. I had to get creative, and quickly. Jansen wanted fun, but Jonah had to relax. We were in need of a quiet toddler activity! 
Tuesday the UPS guy delivered a box from Amazon, and the timing could not have been better. Jansen got the box and we opened it together. WHILE I was nursing Jonah, I made this adorable pumpkin out of felt and cardboard. It was the perfect quiet activity for Jansen. He helped me make it, and we talked about the faces, the emotions and made up stories about why the pumpkin looked sad, happy, surprised and frowning.
[bctt tweet=”Quiet #Toddler activity! Fun and easy #DIY for when you need your toddler busy and calm. “]
You too can make this craft project one-handed! The possibilities are endless, just let your imagination run wild.
Directions:
- Items needed:
Felt – Jumbo Pack of 15 Sheets
Cardboard from the Amazon shipment box! Upcycling at its finest!
2. For this particular project I chose to use three different colors of felt: orange, green and black.
3. Cut out the orange pumpkin and glue it onto the cardboard with the special Felt Glue
- I then trimmed around the cardboard to make it the same shape as the felt.
- Cut out and attach the green stem and the green leaves.
- Everything I cut was done freehand. There is something so liberating about not using templates or outlines.
4. Cut out facial features. This, again was done freehand, WHILE I held a nursing baby. So yes, I could have made many more (and better) expressions. But this particular quiet activity was as much about my quality time with Jansen, as it was the creative results.
5. VOILA! Now your pumpkin face is ready to make expressions and show feelings. We store our pumpkin and his many faces in an old pencil box, which also makes him the perfect car entertainment!
I can’t wait to create more quiet toddler fun with felt over the next couple of months. I have quite a few projects in mind, so please check back frequently!
Did you know that my Facebook page is updated daily with encouraging articles, funny quotes from our kids and a bunch of content meant to make you grateful that your life isn’t as crazy as ours! Follow me here – I promise to give you lots of reasons to laugh and cry!
This is a REALLY cute idea and I’m SO sorry you all were sick!