Son of Beadzilla

I thought I'd show you a couple of the Short One's favorite things today. I may have mentioned before, but we don't have a huge amount of storage space in my house. I have a small set of plastic drawers full of the beads and findings that I use daily on the fireplace mantel in our living room - a space that I fondly think of as the "final frontier", as it is one of the few areas that is still completely inaccessible to the SO's curious little hands. Although the SO has a set of cute wooden stringing beads that we use to practice motor skills, he definitely knows the difference between these and Mama's beads. As you can imagine, it drives him bonkers knowing that all of the fascinating shiny baubles are just a few feet out of reach. One day, when he was being particularly eloquent about the unfairness of it all, I rummaged around and found these two beads that I felt were big enough (it's hard to tell from the photo, but they are slightly larger than his Duplo blocks) and sturdy enough for the SO to handle without being so heavy that they would cause injury if dropped on a foot, etc.

I'm embarrassed to say that the SO has enough toys that we could easily open a play center in our home right now. However, when the mood takes him - which is often - the only things he wants are his "two beads", and he goes around the house all day playing with them (often putting them in and taking them out of a cardboard jewelry box, which is hours of fun) saying cheerfully, "two beads, two beads!" He is still too young to actually string these beads, but I still find it very encouraging that he will cast aside his usual toys to make up creative play with them, or with origami or the little paper cutout figures that I make for him. One of the things I think about quite a bit as he grows is how to encourage a sense of creativity in his everyday life. In a few years, I imagine he will participate with me in working with clay, drawing, and designing beads, as well as many other crafty endeavors, and I hope as he outgrows his interest in these things that being inspired to work with his hands and be creative will stay with him. In the meantime, however, he has two beads - it's a sign of good things to come, don't you think?

Thanks for visiting!

ps: I'm giving away a pendant to celebrate my one year blogging anniversary! Please go here for more details.