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 :)