11 month old activity: two ingredient, five minute safe to eat baby paint

When Boo was 11 months old I was curious to see how she would take to paints and painting. I did not want to use store bought paint though, because she was still a great believer in experiencing the world using her mouth. So I needed to make paint at home, and it had to be super easy, because I have ten thumbs and zero patience. I did some internet spelunking and found a bunch of recipes  - but that was the problem - they were recipes, and involved heating, cooling, stirring and getting proportions just right. One thing did pop out at me though - a bunch of recipes used kool aid. So the next time I was out grocery shopping, I got a bunch of kool aid. Now I had colours, but I still needed a medium. Inspiration struck a few days later during lunch. Lunch included yogurt. We love yogurt around here (the South Indian portion of my genetic makeup is strong in this regard) and always have some plain, unsweetened yogurt in the fridge. Also, though Boo hadn't yet had any cows milk, she had had spoons of yogurt before, so I knew it would be ok if she ate some. And just like that we were off to the races.

I put a couple of spoons of Wallaby's yogurt into each plastic cup, added kool aid bit by bit and stirred until it looked pretty. That was it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I set up our painting station on the front porch where it was sunny and where cleanup would be a breeze. Here is Boo all ready to dive in.

I first set down a water resistant picnic blanket and then put our smaller splat mat on top of that. I used painters tape to hold the paper in place on the mat, put 4 blobs of paint on the paper and then let loose the Boo. She is wearing a onesie because I did this in March and it wasn't as warm as I would have liked. This activity is best undertaken with as few clothes on as possible because it can get really, really messy. Boo explored the paint with her feet......

........ and then came the inevitable tasting......

 Here is our masterpiece.

We had a lot of fun and Boo was occupied for nearly 25 minutes (for those of you not familiar with toddler time, 25 minutes = forever and ever).