Kids and Koozies

Keep It Simple, Silly!  I need to remember this when entertaining Little Lady.

Somehow one of our can koozies migrated into one of the toy baskets a while ago.  Little Lady likes pulling this one particular toy out of it (after I jam it in first) and then chewing on the empty koozie.  

With a half hour to kill before nap time and a baby wanting to play, I realized that we had dozens more can koozies smooshed in the top of our pantry, waiting to be used.  So, we used them.  

 I stuffed various toys and baby-safe paraphernalia into the koozies and let Little Lady pull them out.  I suppose it's a variation on the popular baby play of emptying buckets or cupboards.  Little Lady just prefers things that involve smallness and detail.

As usual, Mini Me joined in and shared the joy of putting the koozies on his hands to dance around and be puppets.  We saw that the koozies are also good for trying to stuff things back in, crawling around while still jammed on her hands, and of course, chewing.  

An entertaining toy with no batteries or set up that also gets unused things out of closets is my kind of toy.

 A few days later, stuffing the koozies and getting ka-razy with them was still fun for all...

Wordless Wednesday - swinging at the park

Fourth of July fun: a craft, a snack, and some songs

I intended to start doing some fun red, white, and blue activities on Flag Day, but it slipped my mind and we started later.  However, we have still been doing some festive things to get in the spirit of celebrating Independence Day.  

Even though we live across the street from the public library and a church, both places where the American flag flies proudly, I realized that we hadn't talked to Mini Me a lot about the flag and what it means.  I'm not sure how much soaked in but I talked to him about the colors and how the flag represents the country we live in.  He was struggling with how we can live in a town, state, and country so I left the explanation at that for now.  By the end of our first activity, though, he was able to rattle off the colors and shapes in our flag.  

A craft:
We used this craft idea from Family Fun to make a spinner.  The assembly went great (and I had all the supplies!).  Mini Me decorated it with our flag colors, of course!

 I pulled the rubber band through the straw and it looked ready to spin.

 But, it was a dud.  I think the rubber band is too thick for the straw so we can twist it up but it doesn't spin out.  And, Mini Me keeps thinking he should be sucking or blowing through the straws.  Ha ha!

 Then, Little Lady got a hold of it.  

 Uh oh.  We're still waiting for Daddy to try and repair the spinner so that it actually spins.  It does look great, though!

A snack:
Our snack (which we ate with supper the other night) stemmed from a distant memory of something I read last year, the need to use up our blueberries, and the note on the fridge that said "make Rice Krispie treats".  
We used marshmallows, blueberries, and cut strawberries to make a pattern on a skewer.  Don't worry, Mini Me was closely supervised with the skewer.  

We talked again about the colors on the American flag and discussed what "pattern" means.  This was the first time that I remember him actually making and continuing a pattern on his own.  Go Mini-Me!  This was pretty and tasty.  I think we'll do this activity again.

Some Songs:
This one I have been doing at least since Flag Day - singing patriotic songs.  Mini Me requests "Yankee Doodle" or "Yankee Doodle Boy" about once a day (yes, they are different songs and I had to look them up).  I've merged them into a delightful medley.  
We also like "Glory, Glory Hallelujah", "America the Beautiful" and "The Star Spangled Banner".  Did you know that our national anthem has four verses?  I did not! 


See more of our 4th of July activities here.

Letter C - a year of ABCs

Read about how it all started - A year of ABCs.

Art - Cactus.  Paint potatoes and toothpicks green then stick toothpicks into potatoes.

Science  - Clouds.  Make clouds in a bottle with the instructions here. 

Math - Counting.  We practiced counting to three and counting cars. 

Spanish - coche (car).

Movement - Copying and catching. 

Phonemic awareness (Part 2)

Mini Me and I had a lovely time again when we did another phonemic awareness sheet after our first time was such fun.  Watercolors were his choice of medium (not a surprise) and he did a wonderful job choosing the colors for each item based on their initial sound.  

This time we had yo-yo, giraffe, ball, rainbow, penguin, and pinwheel.  Giraffe was a tough one because the initial /g/ sound does not match the /g/ sound in green and we really had to talk about that one.  Like last time, I was surprised that he chose black for ball instead of blue.  Also like last time, after we did a few pictures together, he could successfully figure out the rest of the 'right' colors on his own.  We said the name of the item (pinwheel), thought about the initial sound (/p/), looked at the watercolor palette for a color that started with /p/ (pink or purple), chose a color, and then painted! 

Summer grillin'

My mom says that food usually tastes better when someone else prepares it and I agree.  One of my most favorite meals is one my husband makes on the grill.  I could eat this meal every night.  I say that every time we have this meal, and every time my husband rolls his eyes... because I really do say that every time.  


We start with Grilled Teriyaki Chicken - the Betty Crocker recipe.  My husband is now a consummate professional at grilling this chicken.  Whenever we really want to impress guests that we're having over for supper, we make this chicken.  It is awesome.  I prepare the marinade the night before and let it soak almost 24 hours before we grill.  


The next piece to this fantastic meal is Asian Grilled Green Beans, a recipe from Taste of Home.  I usually add sliced red potatoes to this, too, and sometimes omit the mushrooms when I prepare it.  It has a good kick with the crushed red peppers.  My husband grills these up wonderfully.  


Finally, I also prepare homemade rolls or bread.  By homemade, I mean that I toss the ingredients in my bread machine and wait.  

Oh - and we can't forget some fresh fruit on the side. 


Hm.  It seems that I do a lot of preparing for this meal... especially considering that when my husband is grilling, I'm trying to set the table and cut the fruit and pour the drinks and take care of everyone's potty needs and wash hands and ...


Well, regardless of who prepares this meal, it really is one of my summer favorites and it's certainly worth all the work!

Markers, water, and paper towels

I read about this science experiment in the June 2011 issue of Parents magazine.  The first experiment in the article, "Mystery Markers", caught my eye.  I wanted to do it for my own curiosity to see the results and thought I just as well have Mini Me do it with me (that way I wasn't some crazy mom with magic markers and a bowl of water at 11 pm...).  

We got our supplies - washable markers, paper towels cut into strips, and a bowl of water.  

Mini Me drew jaggedy lines about an inch from the bottom of each strip.  The non-primary colors yielded the best results.  

We dipped each strip in water, getting the bottom of the paper towel wet but not the ink line.  

We watched as the water creeped up the towel and started to spread the ink upward.  


What happened is called chromatography, the dissipation of the different dyes in the marker.  


After we let the marker ink spread upward we lay each paper town on the table.  

I took these photos right after we were done getting the paper towels all wet but we left them on the table all day.  The ink continued to spread and separate until all the water dried.  We were left with paper towel strips that looked like they were tie-dyed very vibrant colors.  It was beautiful!  We were amazed at how many colors were "hiding" in the gray, black, and brown markers.  I've been trying to think of a fun art project we could use those colored strips for.  Any ideas?  I'd love an excuse to do this interesting experiment again!


Mini Me thought it was "pretty cool" to see the colors spread up the paper towels (he was especially surprised to see the bright colors a few hours later), but he also enjoyed dropping the markers through the empty paper towel tube after he decorated it for future use as a horn.    Ah, preschoolers.

Bubbly water and another monkey

As I was carrying Little Lady past a sink full of soapy dishwater one night, she leaned toward it and scooped up a handful of bubbles.  It was clear she was fascinated as she moved her fingers slowly and watched the bubbles drift and pop.  Sometimes I forget how simple it is to fascinate a baby.  


So, on the next warm, sunny day I gathered some beach towels, measuring cups, and two big bowls full of soapy (baby soap) water and out we went to the backyard.  


We swished our hands and scooped some water.  I'm not pointing fingers but someone dumped it all over her legs and shorts, and proceeded to chew on the measuring cups.  We had a great time for about fifteen minutes and then climbing on the tree stump and trying to pick up the tiniest blade of grass visible to the human eye was more fun.  

We've done this activity a couple of times since and I've helped her scoop the water from one bowl to dump into the other one.  She has fun trying to move the bubbles herself, and of course, the swishing and dumping on her legs is still the most fun.  And that darn stump must be pretty attractive to the little monkey, as it dominates much of our water play...

When our weather took a chilly turn I adapted this for indoor use.  I gave her some smaller bowls of bubbly water and scoops and she had a grand old time in her high chair while Mini Me and I made Rice Krispie treats.  Once the bowls had been flung off the tray, it was a delight to use her hands to swish the water around the tray.

Do not be fooled, those who know me and are shocked that I was willing for a huge mess of water to occur in the kitchen.  She is wearing two bibs and has a towel in her lap.  I was okay with the water on the floor but changing the little wiggle monkey's wet clothes is a challenge I wanted to avoid...

Monkey finger puppets

Using Curious George as my inspiration, I made these monkey finger puppets one afternoon along with an alligator to go with them.  I intended to use them with the Five Monkeys (Cinco Monitos) song we have on our Dr. Jean Olé Olé Olé CD.
Mini Me had a huge grin the day I brought them out and wiggled my fingers around to the song.  He couldn't wait to try them on and act it all out.

 He did wonderfully and had a blast.  It's good for his small motor skills to waggle his fingers and have the alligator snatch the monkeys.  The alligator I rigged up was a little wonky and he got frustrated that it kept turning the wrong way on his finger.  He wanted to take the alligator off, so then he ran the monkeys and I ran the alligator.  We had double the fun! 

He reminded me that we know another tune about five monkeys... "The one where they jump on the bed, Mommy!".  So, we did that one, too.  I love things that are multi-useful!   

Every time we use our monkey puppets to sing the songs or just goof around, Little Lady enjoys watching and tries to do her own monkey-snatching.  I think the googly eyes entrance her.  Whether she is wiggling a monkey puppet on her own little fingers or crawling around with one balled up in her fist, she has fun with them, too.  

I think more felt finger puppets are in our future...

Two Father's Days

I was all prepared to spend Father's Day letting my husband relax to his heart's content.  I bought steak and mushrooms and after he grilled, his jobs for the day were done.  


He had other plans: he wanted all of us to go on a picnic and a take a little hike.  It sounds like a very fun and normal thing to do unless you know the lengths of coercion and manipulation I used to have to go to in order to get him to do these things with me.  I love going on picnics and hikes and he never used to care much for them.  But, for Father's Day, it was Daddy's choice and that's what we did.  


I could have felt frustrated that since church ran a little late, we got started on our jaunt a little late.  We were deep in the buggy, muggy woods right at lunchtime and I feared a certain 11 month old would start squawking to eat.  It took all of five minutes for the mud to splatter up Mini Me's legs, who was then too muddy to be carried when his legs got tired on the hike.  I was wearing Little Lady in the sling and she got mighty heavy on the walk.  I also feared that the hungry and tired 3 year old would have a melt down because he couldn't see the deer Daddy and I kept seeing. 

Yup, those frustrations passed through my mind.  Briefly.  Instead I decided to focus on this Father's Day:


The sun was shining.  I got to worship freely in a church I love.  My family spent the day together.  Daddy chose a really fun outing for us all to participate in and we each had a great time.  There was not one tear or one melt down or one whine.  We saw several beautiful deer and a lovely field of bluebells and my son enjoyed his first hike in the woods.  We smiled, laughed, and talked a lot.  Daddy was disappointed Little Lady didn't want to ride in his back in the sling, and I was surprised to learn that he was even interested in wearing her!  We had a wonderful picnic and played at a new playground.  Daddy had a great day.  For that matter, so did I... so good that it almost felt like Mother's Day!

Letters, letters everywhere

While Little Lady is no where near identifying letters, letter sounds, or of course, reading, I think playing with our letter bin still qualifies as a literary experience.  With a set of foam letters (and numbers) intended for the bathtub and a set of plastic cookie cutter letters plus a few small books, we have ourselves a little literary bin.  I would love to find a few more baby-safe sets of letters to add to our collection.

She mostly chews on the letters, or knocks down the stacks of letters I make for her, or tries to put the mini books in her mouth.  However, as she's doing these things I say things like, "Mmmm... does that letter G taste good?" or "Aw, only the letter T and the letter I are left in the pile after it got knocked down".  I guess I believe in repetition and the fact that seeing the letters and hearing the terms for them will do some good in the long run.  If not, well, she has fun and I narrate crazier things throughout the day, anyway!

Mini Me also enjoys our letter bin.  We sometimes work together to sound out short words or do sets of word families (pig, jig, dig, etc...).  Sometimes he just wants to try and hook all the foam letters together.  

We also have this fun game that helps practice with lower case letters and building words, but only for Mini Me - I can see those letters getting a real chewin' from Little Lady.  

Occasionally we experience a moment of academia with our letter bin, though most of the time it's: letters, letters everywhere but not a word in sight!

Mom wear

I am blessed and grateful to have a husband who loves me. 


He met and fell in love with me knowing I was far from a fashionista.  I would love to dress in fashion but I'm generally too behind the times and too cheap to look fabulous all the time.  I did my best back then.


As a high school teacher, I tried to not look too frumpy and boring and amassed a sort-of fashionable work wardrobe. 


Fast forward to being a part-time employee and a part-time stay at home mom to my newborn son.  Read: part-time nice dresser and part-time sweatpants and t-shirts. 


For the first time late last summer my husband gave me a wardrobe suggestion.  Our newborn was about six weeks old and I could still only fit comfortably in maternity clothes.  He said, "I'm kinda tired of seeing you in those sweat-shorts.  Just go buy some new clothes".  He wasn't talking about the size of clothes I was wearing, but it was clear that seeing me in the same gray or black maternity sweat shorts every day of the week was getting a little old. 


I do love and respect my husband, but... I didn't buy new clothes... and I spent the following winter in sweatpants and long sleeved t-shirts.  Unless I was at work, of course, but believe me: If I could garner respect from college-age students while wearing sweatpants, I would do so. 


In my defense, I shower every day.  If I'm sick?  I shower.  Tired and want to sleep in?  I still get up before the kids and shower.  Kids sick?  Still I find a way to sneak in a shower.  I'm clean, the (frumpy) clothes I'm wearing are clean, and the house is clean, so who cares if I'm fashionable, right?  Also in my defense, my husband enjoys paring down to a white t-shirt and a certain pair of black sweatpants after work...


So, I'm not a great dresser.  I do have a nice, new summer wardrobe that has gotten me out of sweatshorts.  Today I'm going no place in particular and I'm wearing a shirt with a collar and khaki shorts.  What?!? 


I know that God cares about what is in my heart and what shows in my actions, not the clothes I wear.  That's what I kept reminding myself on a recent Sunday night when I took the kids out for a walk still wearing my church clothes - knee-length casual skirt and casual top, sport sandals, and a pony tail.  Little Lady was wearing a dress with no shoes (she was in the stroller), and she was sporting a Sumo-wrestler ponytail in her sweaty hair.  Mini Me was wearing a too-small shirt drenched in sweat.  We looked a sight. 


But God loves me no matter what I wear... and so does my husband.

Our counting game

My mom found a piece of material in her scraps a few years ago that had all these great number graphics on it.  I didn't really know what do with it but I really wanted to use it.


I thought for a while and fashioned a little math board with the pieces.  I sewed the numbers to Pellon and attached hook-and-loop squares to the back.  On the board, I sewed some clear vinyl on to make pockets. 


Little Lady enjoys pulling all the numbers off then chewing on them.  They make a funny rrrriiippping noise and they must taste good.  Mini Me uses it for matching, counting, and number order practice.  We can put items into the pockets and then match the number beside the pocket.  Sometimes we put the numbers on first, then fill the pockets.  On the back of it I sewed three extra pockets and removable pieces with plus and minus signs, so when Mini Me is ready, we can start doing some simple math equations.  

 I sewed the pockets on a little too tightly so only small things fit in there like Cheerios, raisins, our sponge capsule creatures, and the all-purpose colored pasta!  We think the best things to use are raisins and Cheerios because it means we get a snack when we're done playing!

Repetition

I find myself saying the same things a lot:

*Did you wash your hands?

*Please play kindly with your sister. 

*Watch out for her fingers!

*You did a great job!

*How did you learn how to kick a ball that far?  Wow!

*Yucky!  Get that out of your mouth!

*Yay!  *hand clapping*

*You need to eat all your food groups.

*Seriously?  You're still hungry?

*Why are you under the table again?

*You're not alone, Jesus is in your heart.

*Where are you?

*Did you poop again?

*Please be a good listener. 
*How did you climb up into your brother's bed again?  
*Why are you trying to climb the duck chair?  
*Put your feet on the floor, please don't try to climb in your toy grocery cart.

*We can go outside, but remember, when we say it's time to come in there will be no crying. 
*What a creative idea!
*Are you the only baby on the planet who hates to sleep?!? 
*You did a marvelous job!  
*Look at that beautiful smile.
*Of course we can read a book!

Planes and fulcrums: making toys fly

Mini Me has a much beloved toy at Nani's house... one of my childhood toys, actually: a Weeble house with little Weebles and their car, swimming pool, slide, and teeter totter.  With Papi's help, it didn't take long for Mini Me to learn how to use the teeter totter to launch the Weebles across the room.  Possible broken picture frames aside, it really is a great science lesson to explore about levers.  


I was thinking about the flying Weebles one day and wondered if Little Lady would enjoy a similar activity.  I got out a Tupperware lid for the plane of the lever and used a wooden car for the fulcrum.  I explained to her what I was doing with the plane and fulcrum and I'm absolutely convinced that she is going to remember those vocabulary words and become a world-famous scientist.  Finally, I grabbed some small, noisy toys (it was funny to turn their music on and hear it take wing) and we were ready to make them fly.  

I counted down, "One, two, three, PUSH" and pushed down on the lid.  We watched the toy fly in the air.  She wasn't quite sure what to think at first.  

I thought she would just get some entertainment from watching, but I soon learned that she wanted to help out.  She started trying to push down on the lid with me.  Yay!  

She is also wonderful at fetching the toys that are launched and many times, brings them back to the red lid for more flying action.  


We've done this several times and sometimes she just wants to sit and watch the spectacle.  Sometimes she tries to push on the lid with me - she's getting more accurate.  And I swear, she has started saying "pa pa pa" when we set it up to play so maybe she's trying to say, "push"?  She's not too verbal yet, so I'll take what I can get!  At any rate, this is an ongoing activity for us that is fun in a we-can-make-toys-soar-into-the-air-and-not-get-in-trouble-because-we-aren't-actually-throwing-them kind of way.

Letter B - a year of ABCs

Read about how it all started - A year of ABCs.

Art - Make binoculars using toilet paper tubes.  Color, paint, or add stickers first then glue together.

Music - B-I-N-G-O.  The clapping part is fun!

Science - Watch boiling water and talk about heat and bubbles.  Mini Me also helped me do some baking.

Spanish - barco (boat).  We played with barcos in the bathtub.

Movement - bounce balls.

Math - Count "b" objects in the house such as: ball, bus, broom, box, banana, balloon, bear, book, blanket, etc.

Recycled photo rattles

We had one extra Christmas card left last year and it has just been sitting in our desk.  I don't know why I couldn't throw it away... I felt like I could use it somehow and I didn't want to throw away photos of my sweet babies!  The other day I was cleaning out our desk and finally decided I was sick of seeing it in the pile.  On my way to the trash with the Christmas card in hand, I saw that Little Lady had pulled her junk treasure basket out of her kitchen cupboard.  I have random goodies in there: funnels, old spice bottles filled with beads, beans, and even one with Tums (all duct taped shut), lids, egg separators, and so forth.  I looked at the spice container rattles, then at the Christmas card in my hand and an idea struck me:

Some scissors and clear tape helped me transform the homemade rattles into homemade photo rattles (and a photo lid for chewing).  I saved the Christmas card after all!  Little Lady had the most awesome grin on her face when I handed her a couple of the rattles, like, "Hey, I know these people!".  We played 'What do you choose?' and she had fun shaking her brother around.  She laughed pretty hard about that.  It was also funny to make a stack of faces and knock it down.

So, the photo rattles are a definite success and I won't feel bad when I eventually get rid of them... talk about re-purposing things!

Letters to Daddy

Dear Daddy,
Thank you for giving me great snuggles and tickling my chubby thighs right in my ticklish spot.  I love it when you hold me upside-down.  One of the best parts of my day is hearing your voice at the back door.  Can you tell by the way I crawl as fast as I possibly can, shrieking all the way, to get to you so you'll scoop me up and smooch my neck?  I love to call you on the "phone" (train tracks, cars, blocks held up to my ear) and I say: da da da da da.  I love how you try really hard to do my hair and how you always try to teach me new things.  You're the best daddy in the whole world.  
Love, 
Little Lady


Dear Daddy,
My favorite part of the day is always playing with you.  It's fun when we wrestle on the floor and play soccer outside.  I like shooting hoops with you on the porch, too.  I think you read bedtime books better than Mommy and I never want to have a bedtime snack without you.  When I grow big I want to be tall like you and a daddy like you.  I like it when you ask me funny questions and when we tell stories.  You are my best buddy.  When we were on a walk the other night and I looked up at you and said, "Daddy I love you", I meant it with all my heart.  When you looked down, ruffled my hair, and said, "I love you, too, Buddy," I know you meant it with all your heart. 
Love, MiniMe




Dear Husband,
Thank you for working hard every day of the week to provide for our family.  Outside of that, thank you for coming home to be a dedicated husband and father.  You scoop up the kids right away and shift seamlessly from worker to daddy.  Thank you for doing the dishes when I'm out running errands and for helping with bedtime every single night even if you've worked 13 hours on your feet that day and would rather sit down and watch the game.  Thank you for doing the laundry and vacuuming when you see the floor is dirty.  Thank you for working with me to make our marriage stronger.  You have helped make every single one of my dreams come true.  I'm blessed to have you.  
Love,
Me

1 Corinthians 13:4–5
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

My sewing machine is smoking now

It only took eight nap times, three phone calls to Mom, and two help sessions with her to sew this romper for Little Lady.  Patterns are hard for me!  She looks pretty cute in it though...

I got brave after accomplishing working with a pattern so I rigged these up on the fly in a mere two nap times, complete with bottom ruffles and leg ruffles.  Boy, do I feel like big stuff now.

That pair went so well, I decided to make another ... with a double ruffle...  I'm pretty biased, but those are darn cute!  The baby isn't bad, either...