Finger painting... without fingers!

A couple of months ago I really wanted Lucia to do something other than watch her HI-5 show, so I bought her some finger paint. I sat her in her high chair and handed her the materials needed for the activity. I thought it would be a great idea to have her do that next to me while I made dinner. Well, as soon as she saw the paint, she got VERY excited... because it was something new. But she immediately grabbed my hand and wanted to use my hand as a brush (picture it if you know how controlling she can be). The purpose: NOT get HER hands dirty! She cannot stand having dirty or sticky hands. So instead of giving her a painting brush (which probably would have been the best choice for this) I gave her plastic knives. She was extremely happy and very focused on her work. So what? She likes finger painting with knives :).

On that same "not getting her fingers dirty" note, we had tons of fun one day making pizza dough together. I wasn't planning on having her make pizza dough with me, but since she got into this "carry me when you make dinner" phase, I had to come up with something to entertain her. So, I sat her on the counter (with my supervision) :) and gave her a tupperware bowl. Every time I added new ingredients to my bowl, I added less amount of it in hers! It worked out great. She sat there mixing for that half hour I was working on my dough :). However, everytime her fingers got her sticky with dough, she placed her hands in front of me so I could wipe them clean. She would then go on with her mixing task. Gotta love her!