Apple pie playdough

We have started our Apple theme week, and I just want to say that if you did not plan to make the Apple pie playdough - you should definitely try it.  It smells soooo yummy!!  My house still smells delicious because of it :)

I took the recipe from here. I didn't have allspice or nutmeg, but it turned out well enough without them. 

Bug loves to smell it and spent almost 20 minutes playing with it today. 

All About me - Sept 10-15

We started in on our All about me theme this week.  We did not get to everything because we both had doctor's appointments on 2 different days, but Bug had a lot of fun doing the things that we got to.  The first line is songs that we enjoy that help her move specific body parts (aside from Friday's "find the K's").  Bug LOVES to dance!

We made a batch of flubber and since I wasn't sure how it would turn out exactly, I first introduced it in the bath tub.  Bug did not want to touch it at first, but was ok with using utensils with it.  She eventually did warm up to it and I decided it was not messy at all, so we started playing with it at the learning tower.  I have been really bad about water bottles lately and was finding caps everywhere, so I gave it some thought and decided it would make perfect face parts for our theme.  She didn't really "get" that these were faces, but she did love it regardless.

This is the name recognition and gluing activity.  She matched up the letters first and then got busy gluing them on.  I was super impressed with how well she did with this.  She loves gluing, so you may be seeing a lot of gluing activities coming up :).

I printed out a black and white photo of Bug and had her color it.  We talked about her hair color, eye color, and lip color.  If I thought about it ahead of time I would have had a mirror there also.  You can see how she was coloring her hair yellow here, and the eyes are already blue.

Our letter this week is K, so here is a bingo dot page we did.

 

Looking back at our plans, there is so much that we did not get to (I don't have a pic of the dancing, letter K search, or the favorite things collage).  I'm ok with that.  As long as Bug is entertained and I don't feel overwhelmed, then I consider it a win.  We can always come back to these activities, plus I am sure I will get better at using these ideas with our daily schedule.  Well, until Bean comes along in October!

Apples

Here are the plans for next week when I will attempt to start up more of a routine with bug and have more activities planned.  It's a pretty basic planning board, sorry for not being fancy.  The plan is to have all of the paper things prepped Sunday so that everything is ready to go for the week.  I don't think we will get super strict about a schedule (it doesn't make sense to with a newborn on the way), but I plan to have this up on the fridge and cross off the activities we have done and jump around if need be.  We will have to go grocery shopping one day at least, and I was hoping we could go apple picking before this lesson, but it may be just as fun to go after.  We are going to a Golden Harvest Festival this weekend, so it will be a fun way to kick off the fall fun!  I am researching ideas for fall decorating too and may include a post with my finished product.  I have 2 shelves in the living room that would make a great way to display things, but I do miss having a great big mantal like in our last house.

There are so many great apple ideas out there on the web!  I can't wait to show pictures from our upcoming week of apples!

Looking to fall

 

 

I am trying to think ahead for Fall.  I feel like I will be so busy with the new baby that I don't want to forget all of the fun things I want to do with bug.  I have a few weeks of activities planned that I will share soon too.  I want to have stuff cut out and ready to use so I can still do these kinds of things with bug, but it will all be set to go without the prep work.  I anticipate there being no down time for such things with a toddler and a newborn.  Have you done a fall bucket list yet?  I got the idea from the pinterest pins that have been floating around lately.

Summer

Boy it is hard to schedule ideas during the summer.  Bug has shown a big interest in The Very Hungry Caterpillar lately, so I thought we would do some activities based around the book. 

Monday - caterpillar coloring pages, fruit bingo dot art

Tuesday - Lapbook from 1+1+1=1

Wednesday - Contact paper butterfly, gluing cut out butterflies

Thursday - Magnet page,  Watching the book video

Friday - Butterfly footprint art

It ended up being that Monday was really the only day we accomplished anything, lol.  Tuesday I had a Dr's appt, and then we swam at my parent's house.  Wednesday we went back again for more swimming and we always have music class and grocery shopping Wednesday mornings.  Thursday we went to the children's museum, and then on Friday I was just too pooped to do anything.  As much as I love to be busy and have a lot of things to do, it does make it hard to get anything accomplished at home.  I think that I will be putting together some weekly ideas already made up so that when I get even more pregnant, or when baby boy makes his appearance we will have things to keep us busy.

I do have a few things that we have been doing that keep bug occupied for some time.  I have 5 busy boxes that I pull out when I have run out of things to do, or if I need her to occupy herself for a few minutes so I can get something done (or just put my feet up for a minute).  I will take pictures soon of what I have in each one, but it's pretty much just random stuff that I have paired together.  Probably like 6ish things in each "box."  The rules of Busy boxes is that she can only have one activity out at a time, so she has to pick up right after she is done before getting out something else.

Oh and remember my issues with technology?  Now Pinterest is acting up for me.  It won't let me pin anything anymore.  I don't really have an obscene amount pinned or anything, so I am kind of annoyed.  Hopefully I will be able to get back to it and can share some of my future weekly plans with you all!

Just go with it :)

We did an science project the other day that she showed no interest in, so I then offered it into an art project, and she decided to turn into a cooking activity.  Typical, lol :) 

She could have cared less about the effect of the salt.

I offered to bring paints out and she seemed excited, but this was all that she actually painted.

She then requested some spices.  I got out some cinnamon and sprinkles with some cups.  She dumped the rest of the salt into the cups and went to town scooping and pouring - completely ignoring the ice altogether, lol.

I love pinterest.  I get so many ideas from there!  I decided to switch up our sensory play and made some cloud dough.  Instead of mineral oil, we used just regular cooking oil with flour.  It has been a huge hit!

It molds similar to wet sand.  It's a little more crumbly and doesn't come out of the molds easily, but maybe the original recipe works better.  Either way, she doesn't care and has spent hours playing in this.  It's not often that I find something that keeps her attention for very long, so I have been loving it!

Hello blog world!

I thought blogger froze on me with this post too.  I seriously have no patience for it when it's like this.  Does anyone else have this problem?  I NEVER want to blog because of this!!!

Anyways.  We have been MIA for a while, and pulled away from a formal tot school type of learning.  We still do set up activities, but more as I see she is showing an interest.  I don't spend quite as much time on the set up as I used to.  I just don't have the time anymore.  WIth preparing for the next little one, trying to get a photography business up and running, and just everyday tasks, I just can't keep up.  Here's what we have been busy with lately.

K decided that she no longer wanted to use a booster seat.  This was from March, and she reaches a little bit better now, but she insisted on sitting in a "reg-er" chair.  She's so independent :)

We spent the day shopping, getting lunch, ice cream, and then to a farm afterwards with my mom and a family friend.  They had goats, chicks, and rabbits.  The next time we went to get ice cream she kept shouting "GOAT!"  It took us a while to figure it out that she thought that is what happens after we get ice cream, lol.

She wasn't very interested in helping in the garden.  she did like the dirt part of it though.  I gave her some tools, but she just didn't care much for it.  She did like spraying everything with the hose though.

She played in her sandbox for a little while though instead.

Bug loves to smell spices.  It is her most requested activities.  I set up an invitation for her to "cook" with her spices.  She whipped up some fun things with it :)

It has been soo hot here lately!  We have done a lot of water play.  We tried a slip and slide which she hated and didn't even like it when Daddy went down it.  The sprinkler was too cold for her want to go in.  The same thing with her little sprayerpool, splashpad (I have no idea what it is called, but it holds a little water, but sprays water up in areas).  We had a bigger pool that I could join her in, but the water gets yucky and it's really a pain to empty and fill, and then it blew into a tree when it was empty and popped the top part of it.  The baby pool is too small and I can't sit outside for that long with it being so hot.  We do go to my parent's house a lot since they have an inground pool.  She just learned to swim with a puddle jumper on July 4th.  She is a fish now!

Painting outside!  She liked painting the door and door knob more than the paper though, lol.

We were celebrating my Grandmother's 84th birthday (she passed away a short time after that) and bug tripped right into a door frame requiring 6 stitches right in the middle of her forehead. :(

Now we have to be very careful to keep sunblock on it at all times and a hat for good measure.

Feuding

I have tried a number of times to post with pictures, and they keep getting stuck during the upload.  Technology and I are on the outs lately, sigh.  We will see how this goes.  Cross your fingers for me!!!!

We're back!

So sorry for such a blog break!  I have been super exhausted lately and have been napping when bug does.  This means I do not get much done!  The good news is that this is only temporary, because when I get a little further into my second trimester I should get a second wind.  The blog may take a little bit of a turn with a new baby on the way, but I am excited for what's in store! 

Remember the post about turning the spare bedroom into Bug's playroom?  Well, the day after I converted it to a playroom, we found out I was pregnant, lol!  I didn't even get any pictures of it as a true playroom because we switched some things around recently.  Bug is in a big girl bed (it's still on the floor for now), and we moved a dresser into the new baby's room and moved some shelves into her room for her toys.  She has been playing so well on her own lately!  It's been fantastic, especially since I have been soo tired and unmotivated lately.

I want to brag for a second of Bug's latest accomplishments (I have too many friends with kids similar to Bug's age, so I feel bad bragging a lot on fb).  So far Bug is able to count to 10 (she often forgets 4 and 5), she can name letters: B, D, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, O, P, R, S, T (most of the time), W, and Z.  It all started one day while we were playing with her alphabet puzzle. I named all of the letters for her because she showed an interest in them.  I mainly focused on the letters F, K, R, and I at first because we connected them to names she knows in real life.  A few days later, she went back to the puzzle and when asked, she remembered those letters!  She is like a sponge and it's so much fun to watch!  She has started memorizing some of her books that we read often to her.  She sings a lot of songs now (with plenty of the words missing, lol) too. 

I will try my best to post soon with some of the things I have planned!

Sleep training

So bug is doing much better and we took her to her 18month appointment where we learned she had not gained any weight, but is an inch tall than her 15 month appointment.  This isn't that surprising to us as she was just sick for a week and her weight gain has been slow (high metabolism from both mommy and daddy) since the beginning.  She is very healthy however so I am doing that right at least.  Anyways, we discussed her sleeping habits and we both agreed she should be able to put herself to sleep on her own by now.  I had been avoiding this for a long time.  She goes into her toddler bed just fine, but I have to stay in the room until she is asleep.  She then wakes up twice and comes in our room.  The 4am wake up is usually the one where she just ends up with us.  I know this needs to stop.  I was not really comfortable with just having her cry it out, but there has been a lot of crying going on anyways.  I decided that I would peek in on her and let her now I was still there for her.  We talked about it earlier today and then I gave her plenty of reminders the closer it came to bedtime.  At first she was sad but ok as long as I peeked in every few seconds.  Hmm... that's not too much different so I started spacing the time out.  This is when she started freaking out.  Eventually it lead to me having to walk her back to her bed a number of times.  I don't really know what I am doing with all of this stuff, but I do know that she was going to try every excuse in the book to get out of that bed.  It finally took 45 minutes for her to fall asleep on her own.  I think that's pretty good for our first night, except she woke a half hour later and it took another 45 after that.  This time was much different because she was determined to get up any way it took.  First she needed a hug (broke my heart but I told her she had already gotten one), then she bumped her head, then she had to pee (she actually did go), then she wanted a teddy bear, then the baby she picked to bring to bed wasn't the right one, lol, then she wanted her pajamas off, then all of the ice in her sippy cup had melted, then she stubbed her toe, then she needed to see the cat, then she just came out and looked at me because clearly she had run out of ideas and none of them were working.  After many tears, she is finally sleeping in her bed.  I hope tonight is not as hard as I am anticipating.  I will update in the morning if I'm not too tired to function :)

Sick!

So sorry I haven't updated recently!  Bug has been sick and I haven't bothered to do a formal tot school set up.  We have still been doing art projects and some tot school things, just not planned.  She had a cold last week and then picked up the stomach bug over the weekend and just hasn't been herself since.  She is currently taking a nap that has been 2 hours!!!  This never happens - bug is a 25 minute napper, so I know she is under the weather.  Hopefully we will be back next week for an update!

Valentine's Day!

Had a really good Valentine's Day with my baby girl! 

We woke up and had some heart shaped pancakes.  They were really yummy!

We finally got her sensory table in her playroom (more on that in another post :)).  I filled it with water beads and some red gems.  She loved it!  Walmart didn't have any pink water beads, and I know the red ones stain, so I thought this would work best.

For Valentine's Day Katelyn got a fish!  She was so excited!  She helped me feed it, and then while I was cleaning up an area of her playroom for a sec she started shouting "Fish!" and then a loud crashing noise.  She picked the container up and it dumped all over the floor, fish and all.  After getting the fish back into some water, and sopping up some of the water, the fish was moved to a higher shelf where she isn;t able to reach it, which also means she can't seen it all that well either :(.  We will try it on a low shelf again soon.

We made heart cookies!  This was so much fun, and she remembered from when we made Christmas cookies how we use the cookie cutters and then put it on the tray.  Her favorite part was the sprinkles :)  She got impatient and just started smashing it into the cookies, lol.

We did this the other day, but it was very fitting to this post.

All in all it was a perfect day, with some extra surprises thrown in there too :)

Just had to share :)

She constantly does this!  My husband had a heart attack the first time he saw her do this.  Little did he know she does this daily so she can reach things.

Lunch

I was inspired by this blog to do a valentine's day themed lunch and to try it with a divided plate.

Heart cucumbers with dip (with food coloring)

Bananas cut into heart shapes

Cream cheese with jam sandwiches

She ate all of the dip and a bite of cucumber, she ate the other part of the banana that I had out while making this, lol, and she couldn't get enough of the sandwich.  She ate all the scraps while I was making it and was shouting "MORE!" as I was strapping her in her seat.

Tot School - Jan 30- Feb 3 - Valentine's Day

 

 

We are still working on hearts and the color red.  I just love red and pink :)  Bug was not really into tot-school this week.  We had one good day, then she requested "ta-coo" but really just meant she wanted the gems that I let her play with last week.  I plan on bringing those back out again this week since she is showing a big interest in them.

Tot Trays

Heart stick puzzles.  She mainly carried the sticks around.  I taped two sticks together so she would only have to put together three parts to make up the puzzle.  I showed her how, she put them all in her hand, then back on the tray, and didn't touch them at all for the rest of the week.

Size difference.  I bought 3 different sized heart shaped cookie cutters that were also on this tray.  We talked about big and small.  She prefers the word tiny, so we used that instead.  It wasn't really clear whether she "got it" but she didn't spend much time with this.

We talked a lot about this tray.  She did a really good job when I would hand her one at a time and then ask her to put it on the matching heart.  She made a few mistakes, but it's hard to tell if she did it on purpose because she thinks it's funny or not.  She did repeat every color after I said it though.

Art projects

Heart Dot art.  I made up a quick heart page to use for dot art.  She loved this and I had to print off a number of them for her.  She did a really great job putting them in the circles (she was way to excited to just do inside the circles though.

We got a water color set while at the dollar store recently.  She liked dipping her fingers in it the best.

Kool-aid playdough.  I made this with fruit punch kool-aid and am not in love with the way it smells.  I also had to add some food coloring to get it to look like this.  She always loves playdough and this is available on a tray for her to choose whenever.

She watched me coloring these and couldn't wait to get her hands on them.  She didn't really play with it as much as I thought.  I tried out some different manipulatives in it too, and her attention with it was always very short.  The sensory table should be coming this week, so maybe making it look better will help with her interest.

 We went to a museum over the weekend and Bug had a great time (we did too). 

This actually really frustrated her and she wasn't happy until she could hold the ball herself.  It was kind of busy so she couldn't hog this for long and that was hard for her to handle.  Poor girl :( I guess I will have to break out the beach stuff early.

She played at this water table for almost an hour and then came back to it later on.  She couldn't get enough of it.  She has a few duckies at home that she loves to play with also.  It was a cool table that had a fountain part and a slide for the ducks to go down.

Jumping on the bouncy bridge!

This was an art project area.  She was so excited to be up on this stool.  If I had this stuff out at home she wouldn't even touch it, but she spent a good amount of time here with it.

Her hair almost always this rooster tail when we go out because she rubs her head back and forth in her car seat, lol.  I eventually wet it down for her, but she was just too excited that I wanted to let her play first.

Her new way of eating raisons.  She's been doing this for a little while, but I can never get my camera out in time to catch it.  She is so funny!  I forget to mention how much I adore this little girl. :)

Books

(I have to laugh that when I did a search on amazon for this title, the second choice was a book about IBS.  What about this title has anything to do with that?)

Giveaway!

The Eco-Friendly Family Blog is giving away a Beco Butterfly 2 Carrier!  Check it out here.

Tot School - January 23-27

1+1+1=1

I am now linked up to the Tot School blog!  Check it out!

I took a little blogging break and a tot school theme break (we still did some tot school, they were just really random and last minute).  We were back at it this week though and Bug had a lot of fun with her "Tah-coo."

Tot Trays

Counting conversation hearts.


Checking things out.

I know this is way beyond her, but I just wanted her to see the idea played out.  She watched me count them out, then she put a couple in each circle, then she did not get near it again for the rest of the week.

Transferring crystals into ice cube tray.

She really liked this one, but couldn't figure out the tongs.  I know they are a little out of her reach right now, but I like to challenge her, and she did try to use them.

Putting heart erasers into container.

Sorry this is so dark, she was faster than my flash, lol.  Each time we tried this she would only put one in, but then try and shove more in, get frustrated and then move on to something else.  Patience is not something she has much of...

Beading a necklace.

This was her favorite part and once I let her do it once, she was not about to use that string again.

Valentine's day stickers.

Gross Motor

Pulling a string for the cat (this will keep her busy for a while)

Lots of dancing!

Hide and seek

Art Projects

Puffy paint on a heart cutout

 Heart stencil painting

Red toy bath time 

Red bath painting

Sensory Bin

Fun with red

Books