A homemade gift

I don't think I ever posted anything about this, but back around Thanksgiving Renee's primary infant teacher, Erika, changed positions and ended up going to a different daycare center.  And Rajvir, an udergraduate student at UC Davis who was working part time at the daycare, took Erika's spot as soon as she graduated at the end of Fall quarter and became Renee's new primary teacher.

Renee moved into the toddler room about a month ago, something I intend to write a post on soon, and so now she has another new primary teacher.  Anyway, when she left the infant room I had planned on doing something special to thank all four of the teachers for taking such good care of my baby girl, but I never got around to it.  

So last week on Monday, when we got an email that said Rajvir was going on to nursing school, and her last day at the daycare center was going to be Friday, I knew I had to do something for her and fast!!

I've always loved crafting and just can't wait until Renee is old enough to really appreciate it too!!  And because I'm sometimes really impatient, I decided our gift to Rajvir should be something crafted by Renee, with maybe a little bit of guidance from me.  I know she's only one, but if they can get elephants to paint works of art, I should be able to get my 1 year old to make a small going away gift, right?  Not that I'm comparing my daughter to an elephant, she's a lot more like a monkey than anything :D

After a quick Google image search for toddler crafts I found this cute little frame that I was sure Renee and I could do together.

Clay Photo Frame by ActivityVillage.co.uk

I needed something that I could set up for her and that would then only require 5 minutes or less of her time.  She is a very busy toddler these days and can't be bothered to do many things for very long unless they are super fun and/or totally new to her.  And this seemed to fit the bill perfectly!

Off to Michael's we went and picked up some supplies:

I rolled out the clay and then just cut a rectangular frame shape with a kitchen knife.  I didn't measure it or bother making sure the edges were straight.  I figured it wouldn't look like a toddler had a hand in making it if is was too perfect :D

Then I set Renee up in her high chair with the clay frame on some parchment paper and showed her how the whole project was meant to work by sticking one gem in the clay myself.  She's pretty good at copying whatever I do these days, so I figured it would work great.   

I thought it would be more authentic Renee art if she got to pick out the gems herself.  But the first thing she did was stick a gem in her mouth.  After digging the gem out of her mouth with my finger (being careful to avoid getting bit), I remembered she was only 1 and proceeded more cautiously!

What worked best was when I just gave her 1 gem at a time.  I would then point to the frame and repeat cheerfully, over and over again, "put it right there!"  She would sometimes oblige and try to stick the gem into the clay like I showed her.  But about half the time she would smile at me and stick the gem in her mouth again.  Of course I couldn't get mad, I was the one asking her to do something that was way above her maturity level!!! 

And after a few minutes of the back and forth gem in mouth, gem on frame business, I gave up, filled in the blank spots myself and called it done.  She did seem to enjoy the process a little bit at least, but it probably would have been a lot more fun for the both of us if it was something more age appropriate.  

The Model Magic directions said that it would take up to 72 hours to dry completely, so I just left it on the counter for a couple of days.  On Thursday, after our trip to the pediatrician, we had to go to Walgreens to get Renee's albuterol prescription, and while we were waiting we went over to the instant print photo machine and printed out one of the pictures I had taken of her that morning.  I love that photo machine, you just stick in your camera's memory card and it prints out the photos while you're standing there, and they're only 33 cents each.  Perfect for those last minute magnet photo frame gifts!!  

Back home I cut the picture to size, glued it on the back, stuck on two of magnets and voilà!!!

A beautiful magnet picture frame "made" by Renee, with just a little help from Mommy.  

I've never used Crayola Model Magic before, but it was pretty cool.  It stayed nice and bright after it dried, and it was super light, perfect for a magnet!  We only ended up using half of it, and there are a ton of gems left.  I think I'll wait a while before we try to craft anything with those again though!

On Friday morning, we went into the infant room and gave Rajvir her gift along with a thank you card.  She also got a big hug from Renee, so cute!!  

Good luck Rajvir, we'll miss you and we know you'll do great in nursing school!!!