Kids and Jell-O just seem to be a match made in heaven, and luckily I don’t need to deprive Travis of the fun just because original Jell-O isn’t vegan. A few brands without gelatin are now on the market, my favorite being Simply Delish Natural Jel Dessert.

I gave Travis Simply Delish’s Jell-O to play with when he was quite young, as a very early sensory experience. A few globs on his high chair tray provided much amusement for poking and squishing.

This week, at 22 months, we made our play a little more tool-oriented. Travis loved using cookie cutters in star and circle shapes to poke at the Jello-O, which he quickly identified as “wibbly wobbly!”

He was quite happy making shapes for some time, but very reluctant to poke at the stuff with his fingers. I did get him to try Jell-O “painting” by smearing some onto an elephant page from a coloring book he had started, but he quickly lost interest and went back to the cookie cutters.

The Toddler’s Busy Book recommends letting kids explore Jell-O with a different part of the body, too… feet that is! I added some to our tub just before bath time, thinking if he got all messy I could give him a quick rinse before a proper bath. He giggled at the “wibbly wobbly” in such an unexpected place, but try as I might, I could not entice him to put his foot in – even once I used my own as an example!

We finished the evening with Jell-O for dessert of course. Don’t worry: it was a different batch from the one that had all those hands and feet in it.