Tot School

We were able to do a lot for Tot School this week, and I actually took lots of pictures! We had a pretty rainy week, but the weekend was nice, so we took advantage of those days to spend time outside! Zachary loves to draw with his sidewalk chalk!

He also has been making words on the fridge. Here he made the number 10, and he said that the top word was 'Mommy', and he was working on making a 'Daddy' word. :)

He got a coloring book from the phone company when Daddy had to go there on an errand, so we colored in that. He liked that it had trucks in it.

We practiced sweeping this week. I've wanted to try this for a while, but just hadn't gotten it together. I put a square of tape on the floor, and told him to use his little broom to sweep the crumbs into the square. He couldn't do much with it, but he tried, and had fun with it.

Here's all that we swept up, and he always loves to hold the dustpan for me!

We did two crafts this week! First of all, we made a drum from a 'recycled' oatmeal container!

Zachary colored with markers on two pieces of construction paper that I had taped together and trimmed to fit the drum.

Here he is enjoying his drum! While he colored, I used my Sharpie markers to color a 'stained-glass' pattern on the inside of the clear-ish lid. Just for fun. :) It does look kind of cool, though my pattern could have been more imaginative.


We also played with shaving cream this week. Here is how it started out: (peering at it)

spreading it around:
We had fun playing in it and writing letters in it.

We put some in a bag to start out with, since it's supposed to be less messy that way, and wrote letters in that, but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped, it was hard to make the letters and get them to stay written in the bag.

So we got messy. :)

REALLY messy! :)
We also made a snake this week! Here is my snake, drawn on a piece of white cardstock, along with googly eyes, a red piece of paper to make a tongue out of, and some markers.
We started out coloring our snake with markers, and then we used some green paint - all I had in green was puffy fabric paint, but we smeared it around with brushes anyway - it turned out kind of cool - shiny and textured all over our snake!

Then we glued his googly eyes on. :) And waited for him to dry.

Here he is - I just cut around him in a spiral & cut his tail in a point in the middle.

He spirals around like this - Z loves to play with him & leave him on my chair, so then I pretend to scream & be scared- "Oh, no, there's a snake on my chair!" :)


"ssssssss" :)

Z decided to plan and execute his own sensory experience this week by dumping coffee grounds (unused) on the floor and playing in it with a grilling brush and a few other kitchen utensils. I was sitting in the living room doing something, and I thought, "Hmmm..Z is quiet..." and then I realized "It kind of smells like coffee in here..." so, yeah - this is what I found.

And he went #2 in the potty for the first time this week - yay! We read a long book (Danny and the Dinosaur) while he sat there & he was rather surprised when it happened. :) Afterwards, we tried to put his shorts back on, but he kept saying, "They too small, Mama, they too small". When I looked over, I realized we had put both legs in the same hole...too funny. Sorry for the blurry picture, I only had my cell phone on me. :)

My Two Tots

Zachary is soooooo sweet to Natalie - I love to hear him talk to her and comfort her! One morning I had to run over and take a picture because I heard him say, "Oh, Nallie, you lost your sock! Here you go, fweetie..." :) Notice the sock laying on her chest... :) Also, in the car this week, she was crying, and he reached over, took her hand and said, "It's okay, Nallie. I love you."
Then he went on to tell me that "Nallie is my family." :) So cute!!!

My Tiny Tot

...is getting bigger every day! She is eating cereal better this week, and I have found a rattle that she really enjoys holding - she will actually wave it around to hear it rattle. And of course she chews on it, too. :) She can't sit up yet, obviously, but she LOVES to practice, with me holding her hands. I can't believe she'll be 5 months old next week!!!


For more Tot School fun, head over to 1+1+1=1!

Talking with Z

Zachary is 29 months old now, I just realized, and I haven't posted a lot of funny things he's done lately, so today I'll share some of the things he's been up to lately. :)

Z loves the Veggie Tales song, but doesn't know a lot of the words, so he'll sing random things like, "Cauliflower, sweebedour, halfaroub, Beggie Tales." :)

Things that make him laugh hilariously include:
Watching me get tickled by Daddy
The sound the elephant makes on his new alphabet desk toy - it is not really elephant like at ALL, so it made me laugh out loud, and now he thinks it's the funniest thing ever.
anything anyone else laughs at
when I say 'blorp' or other nonsense words unexpectedly
being called anything that he's not (Natalie, corn, a lady, etc.)

He loves when we're talking about something and he says a random word like coffeemaker. And then I say, "Coffeemaker? You're a coffeemaker!". "No, I'm not!" he laughs incredulously. Then we call each other coffeemakers back and forth for a while. :)

He is very specific when I ask him what he has or what he's doing - he'll say, "I have this red lid from the milk carton" or "I am playing with my robot toy". If he says, "I'm not getting into nothing" or "I don't got nothing", that's how I know he's into something he shouldn't be.

On the way to town the other day, he shouted, "Wow, look at DAT! It's a CASTLE, Mom! A castle!" It was just a house, but he has quite an imagination, I guess. :)

Z is getting so good at helping me with things - I often ask him to go cheer up his sister if she's fussing while I'm in the middle of something - and she loves to see him, so she perks right up when he comes over by her. :) When we got back from the doctor's office the other day, I had a wet diaper of Natalie's in her diaper bag, which I remembered while I was feeding her. So I asked him to go get it out of the diaper bag and throw it away in the diaper pail. And he did! And tonight he got the vacuum out of the closet for me while I picked up all the toys so I could find the floor to vacuum it- it's pretty neat to see all the things he can do to help me now!

Z loves lip gloss - he will take it and stick his tongue in it and eat it, it's so gross. He has eaten two tubes in the last two months!

Some days it seems like all I do is clean up messes - in the last week, I've cleaned up a pile of salt on the table, a BIG pile of parmesan cheese on the floor, and a large puddle of laundry detergent on the floor and two rugs, among other smaller messes, not to mention how many times I sweep the kitchen floor every day! But then there are shining moments like this morning, when he was reaching for something he shouldn't, and I told him to make a better choice, and he pulled his hand back and went to find something else to play with.

He loves to go outside, but doesn't like to play by himself - I had these visions of sending him to play on the porch while I worked on stuff in the living room & kitchen with the door open so I could see and hear him, but he will not have any of it. He tries to drag his bike or basketball hoop inside or just stands and whines if I don't go outside with him.

His favorite CD lately is the Music Machine, and he can often be heard singing, "Whirr whirr chicka bong bong".

Anytime you ask him what he wants to eat for any meal or snack, he responds with 'chicken noodle soup'. Apparently chicken noodle soup is funny. Yesterday I asked him what he wanted to eat for supper, and he said, "Lunch. I want to eat lunch for supper." and then laughed uproariously at his own joke.

Hubby and I will squeeze Zachary between us for a 'sandwich' hug, or we sometimes call it a 'burrito' hug. The other day, Zachary asked us for a 'lunch' hug. :)

Whenever Z is scared, you can tell because he announces loudly, "I am not scared. I am very brave. This is not scary." I set him on the counter to put his shoes on, and sometimes I forget to set him back down on the floor in the flurry of packing up to get out the door, and then I remember when I hear his little voice saying from the counter, "I not going to fall. I am very brave. I am not scared."

Riding in the cart around Wal-Mart yesterday, Z pumped his fist and chanted, "Wal-MART, Wal-MART, Wal-MART!" He is so funny.

Z always wants to know everyone's name, which can sometimes be rather embarrassing when you're shopping and he is shouting, "What HER name is?" of the store clerk and you shop in the same little local store every week, and you asked her name last week, and you can't remember....

One of his CDs has a song on it with the phrase "Wanna be an imitator of Jesus, I wanna be an imitator of Him" and I sing it all the time, because I like the tune, and I think it's a great reminder to imitate Christ. So earlier this week, Z starts asking to sing the 'Tater' song. I could not figure out what he was talking about, but I started singing the 'imitator' song later, and he said, "Dat's the tater song, Mommy!" All this time I thought I was imparting spiritual truths, and he thought we were singing about potatoes.


Oh, and so many, many more... he is always talking and chattering, I couldn't wait for this stage, so I try really hard not to get weary of hearing his little voice. :) My sweet Zachary is such a blessing!

Tot School

We had a good time with Tot School this week!

We did a lot of drawing with chalk outside, which Z loves - and I used that time to draw some letters and ask him to recognize them. He is pretty good with his uppercase letters, but doesn't have the hang of his lowercase letters yet. We have been using his new alphabet desk to help with identifying the lowercase letters. He gets especially mixed up between lowercase b, d, p, and q, since they look so much alike.

Some other fun outside activities included basketball -we worked on dribbling and passing (and, of course, shooting baskets). See above pictures - blogger is being a jerk and would not let me put those pictures anywhere else except RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING. :(

And Daddy taught Zachary a game called Delivery Boy - he rides his bike around with his bowling pins in the basket, then knocks on the door (where I am inside, doing dishes or something equally fun and productive), and when I come to the door, he says, "Dewivery!" and hands me a pin. Then, at Daddy's prompting, he says, "Have a nice day!" and rides away on his bike to deliver another pin somewhere else on the porch. :) Cuteness!!! He is getting better at pedaling his bike, but he can't pedal and turn at the same time. :)

We used our shape sorter this week, and talked about the shapes as he put them in the correct holes. We also played with our new caterpillar ABC puzzle - it seemed to be too hard for Z to focus on finding the next letter in order, but when I would say, "Now find Q", he did, and was able to slide the pieces together, so he had a good time with it. We also played with our muffin tin letter matching game - I used magnetic letters this time, thinking they would stick to the muffin tin through the paper. They did a little (not very well), so we played the matching game for a few minutes, and then put away the muffin papers and just stuck the magnetic letters in the muffin tin holes, which we both enjoyed. :)

We painted and stamped some Mother's Day cards this week - here is a picture of Zachary swirling the purple and pink tempera paint, then we used a foam painting stamp to stamp a flower onto our cards. Somehow I managed to forget to get a picture of the finished product, and didn't realize it until they were already mailed, so I apologize!

We played with pom-poms this week - we've used them before with this veggie tray for color sorting, so this time I just handed him a bowl of pom-poms, two spoons, and the veggie tray and let him go at it with no instructions from me. First, he started sorting them by color, saying, 'Da blue ones go here..." Then Chuck the Talking Truck got involved, and starting hauling the pom-poms around, delivering them to tractors, wagons, and even a barn. :) I think our experience ended with Zachary throwing the pom-poms all over the living room. So then we picked up. :)

He played with his new word-making toy, he is starting to get the hang of finding the right letters & matching them up to make words, so that was fun. At one point, he used his LeapFrog Fridge Phonics letters to make a 'word' on the fridge this week. I think the word was spelled AIGTNH, but he said, "It says 'Set, GO'!" So the phonics concept may not be sinking in yet, but he is realizing that letters make words, at least! For our craft this week, we made a dragonfly out of a paper towel tube! This was a spur-of-the-moment craft I made up, but it was fun & turned out well - I would do it again!

First, gather your supplies - yelling into the paper towel tube is optional. :)

Next, color with your markers on your paper towel tube. Cut some tissue paper into the shape you want for your wings (Z said, 'That looks like an H' when I cut the wings like this), and then color them with markers. I cut a wide slit in each side of the tube (about big enough for a quarter to go through comfortably), and stuffed the wings through - they ripped a little, though, so you might want your slits a little bigger. :( Then we added twisty-tie antennas, marker eyes, and a smile, and voila - a dragonfly! Zachary used the time while I was stuffing the wings into the dragonfly to color ALL over himself - notice the purple eyebrow and blue lips, which stayed around all the next day... :) He had marker all over his hands and shoulders and face...and while 'washable' must refer to clothes, it does NOT mean that the marker wipes right off of your child's skin, unfortunately! My Two Tots

Zachary always enjoys playing with Natalie, and entertaining her with toys. I love this picture for so many reasons - Z jumping & playing the maraca for Natalie, so cute. Natalie looking up at Z, watching adoringly. The blue bunny laying next to Natalie, meaning Z shared his toy with her. The 2 teethers that Z placed RIGHT up on her chest so she could chew on them if she wanted to...awwww... :) I ran over to take this picture when I heard Z say, "I will play my 'raca for you, Nallie". :) Watching my two babies together gives me such joy. :)

My Tiny Tot

And here's Natalie's picture of the week - she sat in the highchair this week, and rolled over all the way for the first time, and used her Johnny Jump-up for the first time (she seemed to really like it!), so it was a busy week for her! She had her 4-month appointment, and weighed 15 lbs, 14 oz. and was 25 1/2 inches long! At this rate, she'll be taller than me (I'm 5'0") at age 7 or so. :) So here she is in the cutest headband ever, sent to us by my sweet SIL after I mentioned I wanted one when we were shopping together a couple of weeks ago! :) Thanks, Emily!!!

Well, this is a pretty long post for me, I guess - I actually had a few minutes to sit down and get my thoughts together this week - normally I just go with the pictures I've taken and end up forgetting everything else we did! :)

To see what others are doing for Tot School this week, head on over to 1+1+1=1!

Fruit Leather

Did you know you can make fruit roll-ups at home? With no added sugar, no preservatives, and for a fraction of the cost! Actually, I don't know about that, but the first two sold me. :)

I got this recipe from the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. She says you can puree any type of fruit and then dry it to make fruit leather - she lists several delicious combinations like strawberry/banana, or peach/mango...mmmm. :) Then she gives the easy (well, even easier!) recipes. And this is where I come in! :)

The first batch of fruit leather I made was strawberry - I thawed out a bag of frozen strawberries (sun-sweetened, no sugar added), pureed them in the blender, and poured them onto a cookie sheet. I tried to make sure the puree was evenly spread on the cookie sheet, but it was hard. Then I cooked the puree at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, and then turned the oven off and let the puree dry. It took about 8-10 hours for the edges to dry, and the middle never did - I ended up throwing it away a couple of days later. So either I did something wrong...I don't know. But the parts that did dry are delicious! And so natural!

Then I made apple fruit leather, using a half a jar of applesauce - I just poured it onto a cookie sheet and dried it just like the pureed strawberries. It dried about as well as the strawberry, actually the edges got a little burnt. :( And then I left the middle in to see if it would dry, but the next day I turned the oven on, forgetting it was in there, until I smelled burnt applesauce. So I don't know if it dried overnight or not. :)

There are other methods of drying in your oven, but they require you to leave the oven door open while it's hot, which I can't really do with Zachary around.So if anybody has any tips on drying, or any experience with fruit leather, I'd really appreciate any help! :) Even with the drying issues, however, this fruit leather is a delicious snack. I will definitely make it again! :)

Tot School - Sort Of :)

Well, we've been on vacation from Tot School for a couple weeks, because we were gone visiting family in Iowa! Not on a vacation from learning, though - Z was introduced to many family members and friends in Iowa, and remembers and still talks about them now! It seems like kids pick up and learn so much when you travel with them!

Anyway, on Monday, we traveled back from Iowa with Hubby's parents, and Z & I read books together, played with some of our great garage sale finds, and then amused ourselves by taking pictures of silly faces and looking at them in the camera. Here was Zachary's favorite: (his fish face)

He laughed in hilarity at that picture every time. :) Here was the view from my seat next to Z in the backseat:

Z helped Grandma sort some colored candy melts this week to make some molded chocolates for his Aunt Emily, who graduated from college today!

At one point this week, he was quiet while I was working, and I found him sweetly playing with his Potato Heads.

We planted some strawberries in a little pot. First we had to mix up the soil (it came all in a little soil pellet that you mixed with water). This little kit was from the Dollar Spot at Target.

Here are our planted strawberries: (Z got into them this morning, and spilled some of the soil, on the top, where the seeds were, so who knows if they'll grow or not, but I hope so!)

Here's a cute picture of Natalie smiling her sweetest smile at Z:

And here he is trying to teach her how to use her new toy ("hit it like dis, Nallie!"):

And look, here's Natalie rolling over!!! So close! :)

And here she is chewing on a doll!

And for her final trick, she will wear shoes and smile adorably!

Was anyone distracted enough by these pictures to notice that I did nothing planned for Tot School this week? No? Well, I sat down and did some planning for next week, so there's that. :)

To see what everyone else is doing for Tot School, head over to 1+1+1=1!

How are you?

Oh, hi. You're still here? Thanks for still reading my blog. :) Sorry I've been so MIA lately...we had company, then went on vacation, then hubby came home and I stayed in IA, then drove out with his parents and they were here for a few days, and now they've gone, but the house is a disaster and I'm not quite done unpacking yet... so, whew! :) Plus the weather is gorgeous, so my boy and I have been spending every spare moment outside...so I'm sorry.

I had a great time on vacation, though - seeing our families, and watching them interact with the kids, was amazing. Our kids got to see all 4 of their grandparents, 4 of their great-grandparents, and almost 20 other assorted aunts/uncles/cousins/2nd cousins/etc while we were away! I wish our family could live closer together, but as my wise SIL says, 'this isn't Heaven yet!' I wish I could put up more pictures, but due to some internet issues with my computer, I have to use our desktop computer, and all the pics are on my laptop...

Anyway, please accept this lame post, and the following adorable picture as a token of my blogging, and a promise that I will blog again someday, after I find my floors... :)