Toddler Activities

One of my Baby Prep tasks I wanted to accomplish was to set up a slew of toddler activities to keep the littles busy when I was busy nursing, etc. 

They had to be fresh to keep youngins interesting, so for a very long time i've been trolling Pinterest (💜!!!) for ideas. 

They also had to be easy-ish to assemble and clean up. I know me, and lots of hands on prep isn't going to happen at this juncture, so simplicity was key. 

When ordering Christmas presents, I also ordered items that would be used for these activities, which often helped me reach the "free shipping" goal from various sites, and saved me from running all around town looking for the elements I needed. Clearly, this was long before my third trimester brain appeared. 😉

Pom pom transfer activity using kid chopsticks. I did have a nice pair of wooden tongs just the right size for kids for this, but he snapped them the first time using them. If he snaps these, it's a cinch to make new!

A mirror for mirror play - using the rainbow arch is just one way to explore the gazillion options with mirror play. Leif loves this one, too. 

Clockwise from top L: Matching Block Shapes, Rubber Band Block, Lacing Beads, and Clothespins & Bowl. 

The Matching Block Shapes are miniature blocks that I traced onto cardstock. I only did 4 different blocks to start with so as not to overwhelm little brains. 

The Rubberband Block makes me a little nervous with rubberbands snapping and such. The point is to remove all the rubber bands, and then put them all on again. I once had a ponytail band snap while I was putting it into my hair. It went right into my eye, leaving me almost blind in that eye for over a week, so I'm VERY wary of rubberbands and toddlers!  

I'll give it a few tries myself, then try it with stretched out potholder loom loops, and see if they work as well. If so, I'll switch to them. 

The Lacing Beads are just standard lacing beads, but I limited the amount to one bead of each color, since James has not seemed interested in them as a whole before. We'll see how he likes this new simplified version!

Top: Color Matching. Bottom: White China Marker on Black Paper. 

The color matching activity I made for Leif long ago. I simplified it for a younger babe (it had gotten very difficult with all the additional similar colors - even I had a hard time with it!) with just a few distinct color choices. 

The White on Black Drawing activity is a Pinterest find. Most people use a white marker, but all I had was this white china marker from either my high school yearbook days, or my sister's (so, um, OLD). It works wonderfully and makes for neat art. 

I'm a big fan of not only using what I have on hand, but also using items that can be used for multiple purposes, not just schooling. For instance, many of my trays and bowls are also used for entertaining. Other smaller containers and utensils are used in both the play kitchen inside and the mud kitchen outside (as well as my kitchen!). Items used in the treasure basket can easily be repurposed later (a natural sponge for sensory exploration now is used for water transfer later, then sponge painting after that!)

Simple Stamp Activity, again reducing the options for toddlers and easier cleanup! :)

Those are just some of the activities I pulled together today (easy, like I said!)

I made lots of others that unfortunately, I don't have trays for right now, so am packaging them up to swap out with these activities. 

Happy Days!

Toddler Activities

Long before Thanksgiving of 2013 came around, I started working on toddler activities for the wee ones (James and Camille).  They are getting to the age where they can handle more structured activities.  I knew after the New Year, when I wanted to start said new activities, I'd be way too tired (3rd trimester) and overwhelmed (homeschool starting back up, plus baby prep) to have any brain power to do much of anything.  So, I planned ahead (sacre bleu!) and ordered the items I needed along with my Christmas gifts.  Will the miracles never cease?

Overall, I spent less than $50 on these activities, but this first one is my favorite type: FREE.

I started with this old calendar we had in our school room from 2013.  I loved the images and didn't want to get rid of them, but clearly, they were not useful as a calendar anymore!  So I chopped off the calendar part and voila! Matching cards for the babies.  Leif found matches from our stash of Schleich animals (and a few Safari Toob animals, as well as one random octopus I've had since childhood) and we were set.

New. Free. Activity.

The best part is Leif can use the set for homeschool (biology and geography) as well, but more on that later.

They're pretty good matches, too.  We only currently have 9/12 of the matches, but that is fine for now.  And I've yet to go through the large number of Safari Toobs we bought on clearance (yay!) right before Christmas.

As for our calendar, we were sad to see the old animal calendar go, but I thought it would be boring to do the same thing again this year.  So we downloaded a freebie from the internet, and I love it, too.  :)

Happy New Year!

Autumn

Before Halloween, Jason and Leif carve a pumpkin in front of the fireplace.

Enjoying a cozy evening in our new little home, watching a good blaze and snuggling. :)

Leif in his new schoolroom. Odd picture, I know, but Lawdy, he's getting old! :(

Summer Days

Jason and Leif fly their newly made box kite.

This past weekend was a lovely lazy summer weekend - the kind where you have nothing else to do but have fun as a family. So, that's exactly what we did.

On Sunday, Jason and Leif worked (while I catnapped) on building a box kite, something they'd been wanting to do for a long time.

I came in at the tail end (haha!) and helped with the final steps.

Then, they took their kite to the back field and tried to fly it, but alas, the wind was not cooperating (no wind!) so the kite only went upupup a few times right before dinner.

I took the camera to take pictures, but the weather here has been soooo hot and humid that the camera lens fogged right up and wouldn't unfog for 20 minutes or so.  I still took a few hundred photos - I like the foggy look in my pictures! :)

So, it's box kite love for those two - they study at night how to make new and improved kites and I think they must dream of them, too.  They wake up in the morning talking about kites.

Leif has finally learned to like ice cream.  He eats an ice cream cone after dinner.  This one he loved a little too much! :) I can't seem to get anything but a frown or cheeseball smile outta this guy lately, though.  Sigh.

I'm currently making up a list of projects to do before baby comes (and before we move).  Because moving during the third trimester isn't enough chaos for me.  I need more.  Leif is going to help me make some homemade mobiles, armoire organizers, and a few other things.

Baby is doing well, by the by.  All kicky and rolly.  I have only gained 4 pounds and I'm in my 6th month, but no worries on that score yet! :)  I still don't have any baby bump pictures (bummer being the photographer of the family, eh?) but I'm working on that, too.

Leify whispers secrets into Maddy's ear while they gallop into the sunset on Rocky, the rocking horse.

We've put an offer in on a house (not sure if I blogged that before or not - it has been a while) but the house is a short sale, so we're waiting on the bank to approve the offer.  That could take a month.  I hope they approve quickly, though, because I want to get moving!  I don't care if we move in the August heat - I just want to get moved in and settled before BabyMania begins (with 2p's baby in early Sept., then mine in Early Nov.)  To that end, I am sorting out things that have become combined (Leif's books and Grandmom's kids' books, etc.) so that it will be easy and quick packing when that time comes.  Why is it that when I have next to nothing to pack (95% of our stuff is in storage) I have 6 weeks notice to move?  But when I have a whole house to pack up and move, I have two weeks or less?  But I digress. ;)

Anyway, say some prayers for us that everything works out!

Leif stands next to the pattypan squash in the garden.  I wanted a picture of him next to the squash to show how big they were, and I chose the day he pulled his socks up like that.  He woke up in the morning, heard Grandmom mowing the lawn, rushed into me (groggy in bed) and asked where his work clothes were, rushed back to his room, put on his workclothes (old ratty clothes that we don't care what happens to them!) and ran outside to help.  HeeHee.  He's such a little helper!

Radishii

A freshly plucked Radish from the Garden.

The first round of radishes are coming to an end (I just planted a second crop, but a bit late, so we'll run out of radishes, or radishii as I call them, before the new ones come in).  I thought I might finally take a picture or two of them, since we've been enjoying them for over a month now.

The squash are going crazy up here.  We have two plants, and they are double the size of the same plants I grew down South.  They are way more prolific, these two plants producing in two weeks what four plants produced in two seasons down there.  Ca-razy. 

For some reason, the tomatoes took a long time to start growing after being transplanted.  Like, 6 weeks.  It was weird.  So, they're a bit behind, but I've also heard that others around here had the same issue with tomatoes not growing once transplanted.  The first little green orbs have just started to show on the bushes.  So, hopefully, we can keep the watering even and the blossom end rot away and have a bumper crop of tomatoes in August and September.

We also had a "mystery" plant growing in the garden.  It kinda looked like a pepper leaf, and it kinda looked like a tomato leaf.  I finally figured it out yesterday...they were the Tomatillos I planted!  I'd never actually grown them before, so I'd never seen the plant.  But it too has little green husked orbs growing on it.  Bring on the Salsa Verde...in September. ;)

These radishes are destined to become roasted radishes and greens - a recipe I found but have never made that uses both the radish root and the green - both roasted in the oven with salt and olive oil.  Mm...sounds good!

It's funny how much easier gardening is here - things grow!  Whereas they hated that southern humidity, they love the sun here (with only the occasional humidity).  I must say, plants aren't the only ones that like the weather better! ;)

I could never grow radishes down south...I tried, but they hated the heat.  Ditto lettuce, cauliflower, etc. etc. etc.  Tomatoes did well, though. 

Anyway, I'm getting all excited to start my Fall garden...if only we could get a house and soon!

Happy Days.

Aren't they pretty?

Visits and Picnics

Grandma Mil and Leify at the Church Picnic.  Leif is holding (and pointing) to his balloon which flew out of the picture.  This is my new favorite picture!

Whew!  These are busy days!  What happend to the lazy hazy days of Summer?

My parents were in town this week, so Leif and I spent the whole time cavorting with them.  And by cavorting, I mean getting lost because between my GPS Helga (that's her name) which has 6 or 7 year old maps on it (so they're all wrong), and the iPhone which doesn't give vocal directions or update when you make the wrong turn, we spent hours driving around in the hot hot weather.  To make matters worse, the AC in ye olde Sweet Ride only works at high speeds - when you're stopped at a traffic light (or say, in heinous rush hour traffic for 3 hours), it doesn't work.  So, yeah, the very next day we took Leify's car into the shop for repair.  Of course, they wanted our first and second-born to fix the AC, so we're taking it to another place this week.  So next time my Momma is driving around with me all week, I'll be sure to have a working GPS and a working AC!  My poor Momma.  And she hardly even whined.  ;)

We went to a colonial farm nearby (we tried to get to a park, but ended up lost and at this colonial farm) which was fun.  Then we made it back in time to Papa and picked him up from his meeting.  From there, we went to lunch (@ Mixt Greens, which is a really yummy place if you've never been there, but be warned, it's like Chipotle in that is is loud, crowded, and not a good place to talk, but the food is awesome!)

We still had time to go to a little island to take a hike, so we did.   

Leif at part of the (under construction) monument on the island hike.  His pose makes me laugh - what if we all posed like that for pictures?

All too soon, it was time to take Nana and Papa to the airport.  We had time enough to get a drink, sit and chat in the airport before they had to go.  Leif was so sad when he saw them walking away, he kept wanting to run after them ("I didn't get enough hugs and kisses!") and later when we were in the car, he started to cry and said, "It sure is a shame to say Bye-bye to Nana and Papa!"  Yes, yes it is, my Leify.

The trail was full of logs with hollow middles like this one, which all needed exploring, of course.

In baby news, I have gotten a clean bill of health from the endocrinologist (thyroid), the cardiologist (I had heart palpitations, but she gave me magnesium supplements, saying that palpitations can be caused by electrolyte imbalances, and as soon as I started the magnesium supplements, the palpitations stopped), and the midwife (so far, baby is doing well, Momma is doing well, and Momma has yet to gain any weight, over halfway through - yay!  Baby is getting chubby at 13 oz, though!) ;)

I must say, I feel like my care is sooo much better this time.  I love the midwives, I love the cardiologist, and I'm so thankful that I found good helpful people to help me through this and any future problems I may have (or anyone else in the family - everyone has a heart!)  It is really such a relief to talk to a Dr. that doesn't throw random pharmaceuticals at you at your first complaint of something {possibly} amiss.  The cardiologist (a very sweet lady) told me she doesn't prescribe drugs until it is absolutely necessary - changes in diet and lifestyle come first unless drugs are needed to save a life.  Hallelujah, Doc!  Of course, the midwives only prescribe vitamins. :)

Oh!  Silly me - the top picture of Mildred and Leify is at a church picnic where Mildred was married...a long time ago (forget the exact year - '44, maybe?)  Jason had the nice idea (he's always good for a fun adventure!) of taking her to church there since she doesn't go there that often.  So, up we went, and the priest was great - normally homilies can make you snore, but this one was very engaging :)  He also announced that there was a picnic in the afternoon and we were all invited.  Then he mentioned that there would be homemade Korean BBQ.  And it was FREE.  I'm sorry - did someone say free homemade Korean BBQ? We are SO THERE!

The picnic didn't start until 1, and church let out at noon, so we had an hour to use before the picnic started.  Preggo me wasn't much interested in standing around in a hot parking lot for an hour, so we loaded up in the car to go look at a house that I'd wanted to see.  We only meant to drive by it, but when we got there, a sign said there would be an open house at 1 that day!  Sweet!  We did our standard walk around the vacant house (and even found a door open into the house, but we didn't go in) and shortly, a realtor arrived and we got to go into the house (legally!)

The house was beautiful - and the laundry room was the thing fantasies are made of...well, mine at least.  I won't go into what most people fantasize about because this is a family blog, but this laundry room was beyond beautiful - space to fold, iron, clean, store - all while watching the kids in play in the back yard - swoon!  Fantasies of an modern housewife - Am I weird or what?!  Anyway, that house and another house we're interested in go up for auction this week, so we'll be attending those.  If we get either house, great, if not...onto the next!  Say some prayers for us, please!

After that house, we went back to the church picnic and snarfled down piles of Korean BBQ.   Leif ate a cupcake.  The food was really really good - a little unusual for church picnics, IMHO.  It was bliss - and after we ate - the picture of a happy Mil and Leify! :)

Nana, Papa and Leify on a bridge on our little island hike!  Go me for not putting the pictures in any kind of order on this post!

That is all for now - I've got loads of paperwork to do for the house hunt!

Happy Days!

Nana & Papa!

Nana, Papa and Leify had a grand old time at dinner. Yes, it may looks like he was being a bit manhandled, but he wasn't - and he was enjoying every second of it, screeching with laughter like a mini-hyena.  The picture is all blurry (this is the best of 3) because they were all tickly squiggleworms and wouldn't stay still ;)

 

 

Nana and Papa are in town this week for Papa's meetings.  Leify and I had the chance to play with Nana during the day, then all of us (Nana, Papa, Jason, Leif, Me, Baby-in-the-Belly) went out for dinner in Georgetown.

Leif was so excited to see them.  

He picked flowers for Nana the night before in the garden and saved them overnight so that he could give them to her when we saw her (which he did, along with lots of hugs and kisses).

He couldn't wait to show Papa his newly acquired skill - winking - which Papa had been teaching him since he was a little baby!  As soon as Papa got into the car, Leif started up with, "Papa!  Papa!  Look!" and wouldn't relent the rest of the night.  It made his day to wink back and forth (after so many years of training!) with Papa!

Hand in hand after dinner.

I couldn't get Leif to hold my hand the whole day - when we were with Nanny, he'd only hold hands with her.  Then, when we met up with Papa, he would only hold his hand.  I tried to get a better picture, but it's hard to get a good shot with an iphone while walking across a busy street.  {waahwaahwaah}

Anyway, it's bliss to get to see your Momma and Dadda after so long! (Or, your Nana and Papa depending on who you be!)

Happy Days!