Tot School: Week 1

LBB is 16.5 Months.

Theme of the Week: Our Body

This was our first week of Tot School, and we had lots of fun! We are learning what works best for us. So, here's our weekly recap!

Monday

Dear Sweet Hubby was home when we did Tot School today, so LBB and Dear Sweet Hubby worked on putting the eyes, mouth, and nose on the face I cut out of cardstock paper. LBB did ok with this...but had more fun trying to eat the paper eyes. He did have lots of fun pointing out everyone's nose, and could point to his nose when asked. He still has a bit of trouble with his eyes and nose, but every so often he can point to them when asked. We went with my Mom to pick my Dad up, and on the way there, LBB had a blast pointing out the airplane he saw and all the trucks and buses. I am going to make sure we do a week about cars, trucks, planes, and trains. :)

LBB also had a blast dancing to Head Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. All in all, it was a wonderful first day of Tot School! We read "The Nose Book" by Al Perkins and his Sesame Street Babies Eyes & Nose, Mouth & Toes book.

Tuesday

We watched a Baby Einstein DVD called Baby DaVinci:From Head to Toe. We got through the eyes, mouth, and ears segment, and LBB was able to point to his eyes, ears, and nose more consistently, but not as often as just his nose. LBB played with his Sesame Street Your Body flashcards while I pointed to each body part on him, which he got a kick out of. We did pudding body paint in the evening (right before bathtime! HaHa!) and he had a blast painting his tummy and his arms.

But the most exciting thing was when we were reading a book called "Pirates" by Viviana Garofoli, he was able to find the little green bird that was on each page! The first time he did it with me I thought it was a fluke, but when Dear Sweet Hubby came home from work, I read the book to him, and LBB was able to find the little green bird each time as well! So exciting! We also read "The Shape of Me" by Dr. Seuss. (In the picture below.)

Wednesday

LBB was able to point to his knees while we were dancing to Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes today! I was so proud of him. He was also able to show me his foot when I asked him where it was. (He'd do this cute little leg lift thing and smile at me. Adorable.) We used his felt board and person that I made, but he was more interested in pulling the person off the felt board and trying to go for a walk with him than anything else, but that's ok. :) That's the fun of tot school! He also took his Melissa and Doug wooden food playset and fed his Bearemy a stick of butter. I asked him if he could feed Bearemy and put the food in his mouth, and LBB got it right away. :)

Thursday

We discovered that since this is usually storytime day, we are going to skip doing Tot School at home on the days he has storytime at the library. He gets so much stimulation from storytime that by the time we get home, neither of us seem very motivated to do Tot School. :)

At storytime, they learned about Springtime Animals (just in time for Easter). At the beginning of each class, they do a little drum song to introduce themselves, and as usual, LBB was nuts about the drum. He loves playing it and is the most vocal of all the kids in there when he gets the drum. They also played with little bunny and chick finger puppets, and after showing him once that it goes on the finger, he was able to put it on all by himself. He did great sharing with the others, and loved when it was parachute time. :) I love taking him to storytime because he has such fun.

When we got home, we worked on some Easter stuff. We made Jelly Bean Prayer Eggs for his PaPa, GiGi, Auntie, and Daddy, and he had a blast putting each bean in the egg. It's a great way to introduce colors! We also brought out his Easter Sensory Bin. I dyed some rice some nice springy colors, and then made some Egg Shakers out of plastic eggs (making sure to tape them shut so he couldn't get to the beans and such). We put some empty eggs in as well, and his grasshopper shovel and rake, and he went to town. LBB loves his sensory bin, and we are going to start changing it up each month with a new theme. He loves to scoop and dump the rice.

Friday

LBB didn't have any Tot School today, although we did introduce the Letter A to him. I made a Letter Basket (I'll have to take a picture this week) and put things in that start with the letter A. I also printed two A's off the computer and cut them both out. One I put some magnets on the back and put on the dishwasher (his magnet area), and the second I just let him tote around. We are taking an approach of slowly introducing each letter of the alphabet in play so that it doesn't get to structured right now. Once he gets used to Letter A and can point it out when asked, we'll introduce Letter B. :)

We also put LBB in nursery at church for the first time today! We were at the Good Friday service, and he was being very rowdy, so I brought him done there, and he did excellent! I was more nervous than he was! We also brought him on Easter, and he had even more fun, and found another little guy his age to play with. So sweet!

Saturday

LBB colored eggs today, and he had a BLAST! He loved dropping them in the dye and pulling them out (using his hands, of course.)

So, there's our week! We had tons of fun doing all the activities, and I look forward to this week. I noticed a big change in LBB...it really helps having some time each day taken out to focus on doing something with him. We played before, but it is easy to get distracted (Both he and I! HaHa!) so it's nice being focused. We've also had a lot more luck with meals now that I'm planning every single one of them...snacktimes included. I know I was doing a good job as a mom before, but I feel like I'm doing even better now! Yay!

Maybe I Am a Bit Overprotective...

Dear Sweet Hubby and I have been having conversations as of late about LBB and what his limits are. At the park. At home. You get the drift. :)

I tend to be on the extreme side of safety. The typical over-protective Mommy who frets whenever her little one is near anything that is not padded with a soft layer of foam. Dear Sweet Hubby is a little more...relaxed. And I always thought too relaxed, but I've been surfing a bunch of Tot School blogs and I'm noticing one thing.

None of these Mommy's are nearly as fretful as I am. Now, I'm not sure if it's because I'm a first time Mommy. Or if it's because I tend to be worry-wartish by nature...but now I'm wondering:

Where's the boundary between worrying too much and worrying too little? Since I spend all day with LBB, and knowing what I know about his erratic tendencies, does that make me overly cautious with everything he does? Hmmm. I don't know. It's a conundrum. Any advice? What do you think is a healthy dosage of caution for a toddler? I'm starting to think I might be a tad overzealous in this department...but I also don't want to start assuming that everything is alright and have something happen, you know?

And for the record, I'm the Mommy that makes sure LBB only eats at the table. The Mommy that doesn't let LBB stand on the armchair and watch people over the back (although it is a very high back.) I fret when I see him standing on a bin. And I get overly-anxious when he has his sweet little noggin too close to the edge of a table.

Muffin Tin Monday and A Very Clean Kitchen

Well, kind of a Muffin Tin Monday. :) I got inspired by all the awesome Muffin Tin Meals on THIS website, and since LBB is extremely picky, I figure this is a good way to mix things up a bit. :) I still need to go to the dollar store to get a 6-tin muffin pan, but for now, LBB had lots of fun using his fun feet silicone cupcake wrappers. We did an Easter theme this week, so we have a Pancake Cross, a stone covering an empty "tomb", watermelon (I needed something to represent His blood to forgive our sins...and the store was out of strawberries. How is that possible?), and whipped cream to represent heaven. :) LBB loved all of it, except for the watermelon, which really surprised me. Last summer he was all about watermelon...today? Not so much.


OK! And onto my kitchen...I am scared to show you the picture of my kitchen before I cleaned it up last night, lest you think I'm a slob or something. (I will admit that I can get a little messy...but not gross messy. Just cluttery messy.) Granted our kitchen doesn't always look this bad: But it does get pretty cluttery. Yikes! Look at the fridge! I don't know how that happened...but, after a little bit of cleaning, reorganizing, and purging, my kitchen turned out like this:

Much better, huh? Yeah, I thought so too! And check out the fridge!!! No piles of paper falling out of the little basket! And we put LBB's fun magnets on the dishwasher. I've got my eye on THIS so that will be going on the dishwasher for him as well since he is learning his letters. Now I just need to tackle the inside of the cupboards, which is a much more frightening task. As of lately, I've just been finding spots to put things in...and sadly, there are no more empty spots to even fit a can in. Sheesh. Sometimes I can be the most disorganized person ever. :)

And a little sidenote...Tot School went great today! That's all I'm going to say for now. You will have to wait until I do our weekly review to hear all the fun details. :)

My Little Naturalist

I guess you could call this an "Earth Day" post a few days early. :)


I'm sitting here right now watching Dear Sweet Hubby and LBB play outside, and it is the sweetest thing. They have been kicking a soccer ball around a bit. (yes...my 16 month old is kicking a soccer ball a bit. Crazy.) Walking around. That kind of fun stuff. But...


Mostly exploring. :) LBB has been pointing to the birds that fly above him. He picked up a few rocks to inspect them. Looked at the grass. And...as all little naturalists are prone to do, got very perturbed when he found an empty water bottle on the ground. He's kind of crazy about that kind of stuff.


The other day we went somewhere. (Where? I can't remember! That's terrible, isn't it?) I do know it was somewhere outdoors...but that's not saying a whole lot. HaHa. Anyhoo. While we were "there", LBB spent the majority of the time pointing out random pieces of trash to us and yelling. And no, the area we live in isn't normally "trashy" like that, but when you live in the Artic Tundra (that is, of course, an exaggeration. We live just south of there. Ha.), and get about a metric ton of snow on the ground, trash tends to accumulate over the winter. And lo and behold, when the weather gets nice and you fantasize about green grass, pink flowers, and singing blue birds, you are forced to face the reality of the yuckies of Spring. Dirt, rocks, trash, and snow mold. Bleh.


Alrighty. I digressed again, didn't I?


Back to my little naturalist. LBB adores anything outdoors, which I know you all know by now, but it amazes me the degree to which he adores it! It's not your average run of the mill interest...if he could spend all day outside he would. And he'd be even happier if he didn't have his Mommy saying "Don't eat that." "Stay over here." "Don't run over the tree roots."


Today, we went to the park, and LBB wanted to bring home two pieces of bark he found. He originally had a stick, but he disposed of it upon furter inspection (apparently little toddlers have high standards on the sticks they choose to keep). He's got a growing collection of rocks, sticks, and the like. I just know he's going to be the boy bringing tadpoles and frogs and snails and whatnot home for me to keep safe. He's got a big heart like that, especially when it comes to little crawly things. (You should see this boy when he sees a turtle or frog. He goes nuts.)


Anyways...that's my slightly rambly post. :)


I've got a bit of a headache and I just figured out that when I write with a headache, my writing tends to wander...much like my brain on a normal basis. HaHa!


Tomorrow we are starting Tot School...I'm super excited and am looking forward to it! We got the idea from here and I'm psyched to start spending some time each day focusing a little more on things that he is going to be learning. This week's theme is going to be "Let's Learn About Our Body." We're also going to start learning a letter a week, so we'll see how this week goes. (This week's letter is the letter "A" of course.) I've got a bunch of fun activities, and I'll share them when the week is through. I think I'm going to start a weekly post that sums up our week...it might help me stay accountable, because as I shared previously...I lack consistency BIG TIME! And...I'm almost done fine tuning my binder. I'll share it when I'm done. :) It's going to be perfectly customized for our daily lives, and I think it will be a huge help for me as a Mommy.


OK. Now I'm really done with this post. :) I promise I won't start rambling on again as soon as I finish this sentence. :)

Last Night...

...I had all these great ideas for things I wanted to blog about.


Guess what happened to them this morning? I woke up. And they were gone. :) That'll teach me to postpone blogging...or at least it will teach me to jot them down somewhere.


But, I was busy last night working on a quilt while my Dear Sweet Hubby watched a movie and had a little facebook time for himself. And, I can proudly say that my quilt is nearly done! YAY! I only have the handquilting to do...which I'm sure will take a bit, but I am looking forward to relaxing on the couch in the evenings, handquilting the quilt, and spending some very much needed quality time with Dear Sweet Hubby. He's been working like a madman lately, and things are finally starting to go back to normal (phew!), so it will be nice to have him home and more importantly, have him home more relaxed. :)


I can never express how thankful I am that God has blessed me with a husband that works so hard to provide for his family. I can never find the words strong enough to let him know that I am grateful everyday that he works so hard to make it possible for me to be a stay at home mommy. And I don't think I'll ever be able to fully describe how happy it makes me that having me at home and being here to raise our child (and hopefully future ones!) is a top priority for him. Even more amazing is the fact that Dear Sweet Hubby works 55-60 hours a week, and on top of that, drives 10-14 hours back and forth to work, just so we can live close to my parents in a town that we love.


To sum it all up? Dear Sweet Hubby is amazing. :)


This past Thursday marked 9 years of us being together as an official couple. :) We were almost out of high school when we became boyfriend/girlfriend, and it's been 9 years of love, laughter, and the occasional argument. (OK...I'll be honest...we're both very stubborn and butt heads on a lot of silly things. But...never anything big, and we've never gone to bed mad at each other. That's what is important.)


There are all those statistics out there that talk about failed marriages of people who marry young and whatnot, and I love that my hubby and I are one of the marriages that prove those stupid statistics wrong. :) Every hardship we've had, we've gone through together, and every wonderful happiness (and there are have been tons of those!) we've gone through together.


When we were first dating, we would give each other sweet little notes and cards (which we still have), and in all of them we talked about the same thing. How happy we were that we finally found the loves of our lives. How blessed we were to have each other. And how we looked forward to growing old together.


And you know what? All those things hold true.


Everyday I am over the moon that I have the love of my life by my side. Everyday I thank God for the husband he blessed me with. And everyday, I love knowing that when I'm old and grey, my Dear Sweet Hubby will be by my side. :)

And to think...when I started writing today, I had no idea what I was going to write about. :)

A Rather Late Night...yawn!

What does God share with me on a night when I can't catch a wink? (Silly Pepsi. We have a love/hate relationship.)

He shows me a blog that is just the perfect mix of humor, honesty, and wonderful homeschooling ideas. :) It's been a good night.

And now, I'm off to bed. And no, I'm not so tired that I forgot to share the link. ;) Here it is! Enjoy! "The Family Revised"

Another Fun Day In Toddlerville

You're probably wondering why I have a photo of a plain old piece of paper, aren't you?

Well, this isn't just a plain old piece of paper. Look closer at the side and bottom.

Do you notice something? That's my little guy's cutting handiwork. :)

He is proving to be quite a natural at using a scissors! He is starting to be able to hold the paper on his own and accomplish cutting, but for now, I still hold the paper while he practices.

Open. Close. Open. Close. Open. Close. Don't grab the scissors like that. Open. Close. Open. Close.

We got him THESE scissors and will eventually start using THIS book as he gains a little bit more proficiency in his scissors skills. I have a feeling we will be using the book a bit sooner than we originally thought! LBB seems to really accelarate when he is learning hands on (which makes him a kinesthetic learner according to a few articles I've read and a short little quiz I found on how your toddler learns), and this scissors thing was no exception. Oh...and here is what rocks. I found THIS article on how a kinesthetic learner learns best, and I'm so excited to be able to fine tune LBB's education just for him. And the other cool thing...we've always said that we thought LBB was going to learn best by going on field trips and having hands on learning, and I think at this rate, we are going to be right. That's an awesome feeling!

OK. Anyhoo. I'm done bragging about my little guy...for now. :)

So, I've been having a major mommy issue lately. And it can be summed up in one simple word.

Consistency.

I always have the best of intentions, but when it comes down to it...I tend to start strong, and fizzle out. (Ha. Take this blog for example.) BUT. I think I found a solution. I got an adorable binder at Target (I've found if I don't like how it looks, I don't use it.) Some tabs and some loose leaf paper. A few planning pages to start me out. And I think I'm on my way to consistency!!!! I mapped out a little "schedule" for our days (although they are not set in stone...what fun is that?) and am keeping track of activites we want to do and meals to make for lunch. Because, to be quite honest, I am a dud at figuring out what to make for lunch. :) I started out strong in that area (no surprise there) but as LBB got pickier and pickier and pickier...I flopped a bit.

But no more!!! I'm a newly revived Mommy! I've got big plans and fun days planned.

On a sidenote...being a newly revived Mommy is not as easy as it sounds (which I think is a good sign that I'm doing something right. Haha.) I realized how much of my day I spent not doing fun things with LBB. And not to discount what I was doing before, but I think it's healthy to admit that one can always be doing a bit better, right? And on a second sidenote...I think I can safely say that being a newly revived Mommy is going to be good for me as well. More energy because I'm not giving into the "sleepies". A better outlook on how I am doing as Mommy. And, last but definitely not least, better health. Just today I played with LBB outside, danced around to "Barnyard Dance" by Sandra Boynton at least 6 times, and acted like a goofball while we watched "The Fresh Beat Band."

Simply said, it feels wonderful!

I'm going to keep fine-tuning my daily binder. And once I get it all tweaked, I promise I'll share it with you. :) But for now, I'm going to keep working on that little consistency issue...I figure I've got a few years before we start "officially" homeschooling, so until then, these are the years that LBB and I figure out what things work for us, what we need to work on, and what daily routines are best for us. And as we learn what works best for us, we both have a lot more fun each day!

Alrighty. That was a lot of blabbering and congrats to you, my dear reader, for making it all the way through it! :) You're the best. :)

LBB is 16 months old!

My little LBB is 16 months old! He is getting to be such a big boy!

So...at 16 months:

• LBB is still as picky as ever when it comes to food. However, his appetite is slowly expanding to include not just fruit strips and raviolis, but lots of CORN, bread and Ritz crackers as well. :)


• is loving his new room and play area. He's seemed to be having a much better time of getting into a sleep routine now that everything is nice and organized. He has been playing tons and this Mommy doesn't mind one bit...it's easy to get the messes cleaned up now!


• waves Goodbye and Goodnight.


• Loves to look at books and "read" us snippets. He doesn't have much of an attention span when it comes to sitting, so we've found the best times for storytime are at mealtimes and bedtime.


• Gives hugs and kisses all the time. He is a very lovey boy!


• Loves to feed the kitties and PaPa and GiGi's doggie. It's his new little "chore" when he is at their house, and every morning, he is right next to me when it's time for the kitties to eat. He holds the cup, and with just a little bit of guidance feeds them. So cute!


• Loves to color, paint, and is learning how to use scissors.


• Is beginning to be able to do simple puzzles. We're at the beginning process of learning, but he started to figure out that he needed to put the cow where the cow goes and so on.


• His favorite show is "The Fresh Beat Band" on Nick Jr. We allow 2 half hour shows a day, and this is usually one of them. He likes to dance along, but sometimes on his "lazy" days he just likes to watch them and cuddle with Mommy and Daddy.


• Can point to Mommy's nose, and knows where his head is. At storytime, he was able to place the little butterfly on his head, nose, and toes. :) What a smarty-pants.


• Is an amazing sharer. He outshares all the kids in his storytime...it makes this Mommy very proud!


• Still loves to help the children's librarian during storytime. And he also loves using the little parachute...he squeals and laughs and has an absolute blast when they play the parachute game.


• Can run off and on, climbs stairs, and is beginning to be able to step down one or two stairs with our help. He's also a little monkey and climbs on EVERYTHING!!!!


• Can say: MaMa, DaDa, Good, Bob (the name of the squirrel), La (for light), and nods his head yes when he wants to say yes and no when he wants to say no.


• Has been to the zoo, aquarium, airport, and nature center in the past month. He loves to go and see the animals at the zoo and especially loved the Snow Monkeys that day! It was quite a surprise.


• Can drink out of a cup! Most of the time at home now, if he isn't drinking anything that can really stain his clothes or the carpet, LBB drinks exclusively from a regular old cup!

And I kind of think there is more (which I say every month) and I can always update it if I think of more. :) He does so much each day it gets hard to keep track! I definitely need to start writing in this blog more, because not only is it a great way for us to keep friends and family up to date on our life, but it's a really good way for me to remember what I want to put in his memory book and what I want to scrapbook. :)

Funny Tales From ToddlerVille

• We have a regular squirrel visitor. He's quite the annoying little thing, but he's cute, and I love squirrels, so we don't mind him too much. Let me correct that...I don't mind him too much. LBB on the other hand, does. Today when Mr. Squirrel stopped by for a visit, he was greeted by Cat 1 cackling at him and LBB yelling at him. With his Elmo phone in his hand. LBB kept holding out his phone and hollering (with the window open of course) "BOB! BOB!" Apparently Mr. Squirrel's first name is Bob and Elmo was trying to get a hold of him.


• This morning I told LBB it was time to get dressed. As I was going through his clothes looking for a specific outfit, LBB walks up to me, yellow fleece Spongebob PJ's in hand, and gives it to me. Apparently, LBB was ok getting out of his Cars PJ's, as long as it meant putting his yellow Spongebob jammies on instead. Needless to say, LBB is not wearing his Spongebob jammies around today. (Instead he is wearing a shirt that says "Big Trouble. Little Shirt." Yeah, it fits.)


• LBB chased Cat 1 through the whole house today, walking behind her, pointing, and yelling "Meah! Meah!" I don't know if he was trying to make a meow sound or what his goal was, but the poor cat was freaked out like crazy.


• Yesterday for lunch, LBB and I made a pizza. We bought one of those premade pizza crusts, spread some yummy Trader Joe's pizza sauce on top (which he got a kick out of!), and then he sprinkled the mozzarella cheese on top. When it was time to put the pizza in the oven, LBB screamed his head off. Needless to say, LBB didn't eat a bite.


• And last but definitely not least...if you want to see the definition of mess, give a toddler boy an Oreo Cakester and let him have at it. :)

Ah. Toddlerhood. It rocks. :)