DIY pom-pom sorter

So back in February, my 18 month old went in for surgery.  I'm sure he'd love me later for blogging about this, so I won't say exactly what it was for, but it was a pretty simple procedure and we were in-and-out within a few hours. He's doing great. The night before, I was frantic though, worried about how he would deal with everything (especially about the part where I abandon him to strangers), and what I could do to keep him happy and distracted during the wait before and the recovery after.  I needed something new.

I knew he liked filling things and dumping them out, and I remembered seeing something like this on pinterest somewhere, so I stayed up late and made one myself.

 

It's a pom-pom color sorter!

Now, to be real, my 18 month old does not do the color thing, but he really gets a kick out of pushing those little puff balls through the holes over and over again.

I made mine out of an empty cashew can, covered it with fun paper, melted the holes in the lid with my wood burner and painted the colors around the holes on the underside of the lid. (note: although that is what's pictured, acrylic paint does not stay on the plastic for long, I ended up having to use sharpies to redo it a few days later --the red one in the picture is sharpie because I didn't have any red paint).

It was the perfect waiting room toy, since he was already a little antsy when the nurses came near.  This totally distracted him.  It was also really funny how when they gave him some kind of medicine to prep him for the surgery he was so loopy and thought everything was super hilarious, especially disappearing pom-poms. 
After the procedure though, he was mad.  Upon waking, they wanted to calm him down a little before they brought me in, but they decided it would be best to just go get me because he was totally inconsolable. However, even my attempts to console him were futile.  But then, I brought out the pom-pom sorter and just like I turned off a switch he was suddenly calm and happy.  I immediately felt that staying up so late to get that finished the night before was totally worth it.  In fact, I think the whole thing was inspired.

It's a fun and easy toy to make. True, you'll end up finding pom-poms everywhere, and before long they learn that it's much more fun throwing them and poking them down heater vents.  Still, every once in a while we pull it out and he sits there and pushes them all in.  I also hope that as he learns his colors it'll give him lots of great practice.