What does a stay at home mom do all day??

As a newbie mom I'm always looking for things to do with my 1 year old that are fun, age appropriate, and educational. Sometimes we fall into a rut where I'll just let her play with her usual toys but on our creative days we have a lot of fun together! So if you're stuck in a rut like I often get, here's our top 10 of activities we enjoy. :)

Top 10 Activities for children ages 9 months - 1 year

Dance Party

Shaving cream ( we put shaving cream on the wood floors and have a blast drawing in it)

Playing in her water table - (We are also getting ready to try different things other than water, such as corn starch, flour, and jello!)

Lego's- I build and she takes them apart :)

Drop In- I used an old coffee can and cut a slit in the lid so that she could drop in lids from her fruit pouches. She really enjoys this simple game!

Bubbles are always a hit
Coloring- I bought a simple scrapbook with the paper already in it and she colors with colored pencils or fat crayons
Cooking!- My little girl loves the kitchen! She loves to stir things so whenever I get the chance we are baking together. Yes its messy, but it's absolutely worth it! We also have a cabinet just for her in our kitchen and she gets to play with her own bowls and spoons and such while mommy does dishes.
Fabric Scrap Bin- I'm sure we all know how hard it is to fold laundry with a toddler in the house! You're folding while they unfold..well I made a little bin of my fabric scraps and let her play with them while I fold laundry. She's practicing folding while I'm actually getting something done!

Baby Obstacle Course- I sometimes set up a little obstacle course for the princess, it was really great when she was learning to crawl and stand up. I used diaper boxes, pillows,she would even try to crawl under our coffee table. It was fun for her and I had fun crawling around being silly with her :)

So..what are some of your favorite things to do with your toddlers?

"I can't keep up and I can't back down..."

This is my daughter..Gorgeous right? 10 months old Sunday and every bit mommy's shadow. I LOVE my daughter. She is smart,sweet,beautiful, and the light of my life. I adore her. But I've been staying home with her for 10 months and I'm slightly restless. You see, my daughter is clingy. She hates to be put down unless I'm right beside her, she sleeps in our bed-and only if I'm holding onto her, she doesn't even like going to her daddy if she wakes up at night...It's been rough. I'm getting a little worn down lately, it's hard never having alone time. It causes tension with my guy, a house that's a mess, and a frazzled me. I don't ever want to feel like that about my daughter...she is honestly the very best thing that's ever happened to me. So what do I do? I'm worried about trying to sleep train her for her crib because it's looking like it's going to be a huge crying adventure..and I hate to see my baby cry. I don't know how to make her more independent but still secure that mommy loves her and isn't leaving.

It's been awhile..

Well life has been a little busy in between balancing school work and staying home with my little princess. I love it though!I've been able to watch her learn to sit up,roll over,get her bottom two teeth in,start scooching around,talking more,standing...It's just been a true blessing to be able to stay home with her! I couldn't be happier staying at home, but it does occasionally get lonely. I have a blast playing with my baby girl but I really needed a hobby when she's sleeping to keep me from going crazy ;) so I've picked up sewing and I've been scrapbooking and cooking and just crafting alot more. It's been a blast! I made the fiancé a Pacman cake for his birthday and it turned out super great! I had so much fun making it and I discovered that I really love baking :). The cake was pretty simple. I used a box mix on it because the fiancé LOVES the rainbow cake mix.The princess helped me to mix it of course :) After the cake cooled I covered it in buttercream icing and then rolled out the blue fondant. I've never worked with fondant before so I was a little worried but it was really easy to work with. I covered the entire cake and then cut out little shapes from a darker blue fondant to make the little maze pieces. I only needed a butter knife to cut through the fondant and it made the cake so cute! Then I put on little edible pearls to make up the rest of the maze and cut out little ghost and Pacman shapes to place on the cake. It took me about 2 hours total to make the cake but it turned out awesome and he was so excited about it.