Heeeeey......Macaroni!

I've seen a lot of 'sensory bag' and 'sensory bin' pins for babies and toddlers on Pinterest lately, and I've pinned a few myself.  I have every intention of making these - lots of them.  Unfortunately, many of my crafting supplies are still in boxes in our basement (which, if you've never been to Sydney, NS, you may not know that the stairs going down to many older basements are pretty much ladder-like in their steepness).  As long as I'm alone with the baby during the day, I won't be going down there anytime soon.   I've also read a lot of reviews from pinners on these sensory bags, about how the bags will frequently rip or leak, and make big messes.  I'm not a fan of big messes.

I decided that I was going to make Jaelyn's first sensory bag, and that it was going to be simple.  What to put in it?  Macaroni.  That's it.  No liquid, no color, just macaroni.  I found a large freezer bag, put in some, made sure I didn't trap a lot of air in it, and sealed it.  I also went over the opening with packing tape, as I didn't want the pasta to 'escape' and go everywhere...and raw macaroni is not the best play toy for an infant when it is not encapsulated in a freezer bag.

It took about a week for my little sweet Jaelyn to get up the courage to actually touch the macaroni sensory bag...she's shy around things she isn't familiar with sometimes.  She finally is grabbing it, shaking it, squishing it, and throwing it.  She's not sure about it...it feels weird...and that's the point.