Toy Rotation

About two months ago, I decided to start a toy rotation with all the boys' toys.  Our house seemed like it was trashed everyday, parts couldn't be found, items were ending up all over the house and in different rooms.  Cleaning up was so challenging that we were not very good at it.

Paul went out and bought three large plastic containers for us to organize (throw) the toys in. Immediately, the house looked and felt cleaner.  We left out the "big" toys that wouldn't fit into a tub as well as the "baby" toys for G.  I planned on rotating the tubs out every week.  That lasted a whole week.  Now, we try to change them out every two to three weeks.

E doesn't seem to notice that they are missing until he walks into our closet where the tubs are or if he wants something in particular.  Each time we pull out a new tub, he gets such a kick out of what he finds.  I love his reaction!

Easter (delayed post)

It seems as though I never posted any photos of E on his Easter egg hunt in our backyard.  Whoops...

G is 8 months (and more)!

Well, I'm only a week behind, but here it is.

Little G-unit is now eight months old.  What's more terrible that a late post? Finding out on the 20th that I missed poor little G's 8 month birthday because I was so busy.  Then realizing on the 22nd that I hadn't missed it as badly as I thought because it was on the 21st, while the whole time I was thinking it was the 18th.  In fact, E's birthday is the 18th.  Where has my mind gone?

I was able to take his photos after all, but it wasn't easy.  These shoots are getting more challenging.  They wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have a wild 2 year old trying to be in every shot.

G is now working on finger foods and enjoys taking bites out of teething biscuits.
He army crawls all over the place to get to toys and people.
He prefers playing with anything other than his "baby" toys, especially the breast milk storage bottles.
Talking is something he loves to do.
G would rather be on the move than held.
He is still sleeping 11+ hours straight at night!
He sits up without any support and can do so for a long period of time, as long as he's not reaching for a toy!

In addition to G experienced yet another illness.  It started with E, who was coughing one day and later got a fever and was vomiting that evening. After taking E to the doctor and being told it wasn't the flu or strep, we went home to wait it out.  His fever was gone the next day, but then G came down with the same yucky stuff. Both of the boy's had fevers over 103 and that frightens me.  I'm thankful that their fevers only lasted a day, but they were both so miserable, cranky, and needy.  My mom was unable to put G down for any period of time yesterday and she said that he would only sleep on her chest for 10-20 minutes at a time.  She had my dad come and help her with the boys. Yet another reason I'm so thankful my parents are close by.

On the positive side, E had been wanting to be naked a lot lately. Or at least without pants.  We keep trying to encourage him to use the potty and he refuses, while asking for a diaper.  This morning he wanted to help me change out the car seats, but he wasn't wearing anything but a shirt.  I said that if he wanted to come out, he had to put on his Diego underwear.  I slipped them on him and told him that they go on like shorts. He happily put them on so he could go out with me.  He hasn't wanted to take them off since.

While I was getting G down for a nap, Paul and E came in to tell me that he has gone pee in the toilet!  Hooray! Paul said that E told him that he wouldn't need a diaper anymore since he can wear big boy underwear.  Currently, E is napping in only his undies and I'm hoping he doesn't wake from wetting the bed.

Life is moving fast and we are enjoying it every day.  Well, ok...most days.

...is that sometimes I know too much.

Yes, that probably sounds conceited.  But it's not meant to be.

It means that I bring what the knowledge that I have about early childhood home, which is good, I guess.

I have started labeling our home to help create a more print-rich environment for E.  I've begun making letter recognition activities for E to do at home, but mainly focusing on the letters in his first and last name.  I recently read an article about preschool readiness and student's being able to recognize their names.  I think I'm getting carried away. Next, I want to make him an alphabet book with Velcro letters for identification.  


Here's what I have done so far...

Pictures of our family with names

Word/letter match - first and last name

Labels for print-rich environment

I found some cute Highway ABC cards and brought them out for E.  He really enjoyed driving his cars on the "roads" and would follow the correct letter formation path.

One of the issues that we work on with E is his difficulty at bed time. I created a picture schedule a few months ago to help out with the routine leading up to bedtime.  He liked taking off each picture card as we finished each step. I found the clip art images and Thomas pajamas on Google. I apologize for not having proper credits for each of them. Then again, at the time it didn't occur to me that I'd be posting about it.

Paint chip matching

I hosted a Busy Bag Swap this morning.  For this event, I chose to create a paint chip matching bag that I found here.  Of course, I waited to the last minute to make it all.

Anyway...

I stopped by Home Depot to pick up some paint chip samples.  Even though they are free, something about walking away with 40 paint chip samples just doesn't feel right.  That's when I bought some clothespins. Paul had to run out to Wal-mart fo me to purchase some more clothespins because I didn't do my math correctly.


Using a paper cutter, I cut off the part of the paint samples that have words, leaving 3 3/4" of the sample. Then, I cut off 3/4" of the sample so that I could cut apart each shade of color to hot glue onto clothespins.  The remaining three inches were cut in half (2 shades in tact and the other 2 shades in tact).

Here's what my table looked like in the process. I apologize for the bad quality - this was taken at 10:00pm using my camera phone.

The paint samples and matching clothespins where then sorted into bags for distribution!

Busy Bag Swap

I hosted my first Busy Bag Swap this weekend!  (Although the credit really belongs to my friend, Sarah, who had the idea first. I'd also like to credit the sites at the bottom for their ideas.)

We had fun chatting about the joys of parenting and our kids {all of us have boys (and some have girls in the mix) ranging in age from 2 months - 4 years}.  It was also just nice to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while!

Sweet baby, M.

Mr. B and baby G.

Sarah and Jaime, with Julie behind Jaime's head.

Tiffany, Marisol, Ashley, and Sarah.

Ashley explaining her bag.

Each friend brought over a type of bag they selected to make and made enough for each person in attendance. When each person left, they would be able to take home each type of bag that was created for their toddler.

The guidelines were as follows:

- All items for the busy bags must fit into a gallon sized baggie. (Zipper type preferred as they are easier to open and close for little fingers.) 
- All items necessary to do the busy bag must be included. Items should also be reusable.
- Include directions if needed.  
- Have fun making your bags! 
Here's what we received:

 paint chip color matching

clothespin number matching

pipe cleaners and pony beads

animal bead sorting 

(with spoon, chopsticks and containers)

Jaime said her son sat for 18 minutes playing with this the other day.  

If a 3 year old can sit still for that long, that's when you know it works!

sensory balloons

pairs of balloons are filled with different items: sugar, flour, beans, rice, pasta

pool noodle stringing

 puff ball stuffer

 

Thank you to Sarah, Ashley, Tiffany, Marisol, Jaime, and  Julie!

For more ideas, check out these great sites:

http://therigneys.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/toddler-busy-bag-swap/

http://www.mydeliciousambiguity.com/2010/06/toddler-busy-bag-activities.html

http://babblin-brooke.com/2011/11/04/busy-bag-exchange-ideas/

New line of work?

So, I'm trying to think of something that I can start as a job from home.  Here are some ideas - don't take them!

1. Make homemade baby food.
2. Update websites/blogs for teachers.
3. ....


Ok, so I don't have a number three.  That's all I could think of for now. Thoughts?