Nothing Better

How to Hold a Crayon

2012-02-08T17:13:00.001-05:00

Today we worked on color recognition. These Sesame Street books are so great!
I was told at our last Help Me Grow meeting to go ahead and work on how to hold the crayon. I tried a few times, but Eli wasn't interested in coloring if I was going to "help" him hold his crayon so I backed off.

Well today he was into it! We worked on pinching the crayon and coloring using the thumb and pointer finger instead of the whole hand. He did great! We will continue to work on it as it will start to feel natural to him. Really at this point I'm accepting anything that isn't whole hand grasping. He picked up on it faster than I thought he would, though.
His color matching also made me laugh because he would color with the right color, and then would do 3 or 4 colors on top.
I love his creativity!

Just a Little Something I Made

2012-01-25T11:08:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite quotes:)

Liv is Walking!

2012-01-23T16:36:00.000-05:00

My Messy Kitchen

2012-01-19T12:49:00.001-05:00

I have decided to embrace something this week: My family uses the kitchen.

We do not eat out very much. My husband hates going out to eat, we don't think it's the healthiest option for our family, and it is ridiculously expensive. I love the experience of going to a restaurant, having endless options about what to eat, and making on the fly decisions about drinks, dinners and, most of all, desserts! I love coming home, stuffed to the brim, and sitting on the couch not thinking about what a mess I made in the other room.
Since I married Keith, I have learned to embrace eating in the home. In fact, I love it! Researching a good recipe, or experimenting on your own, it's all fun and scrumptious. We do breakfast for dinner on days that we are lazy, and stir fry, a lot! Don't know what to make? Meat and vegetables with a garlic bread on the side make fabulous impromptu dinners. Planning, shopping, preparing, and certainly not eating, are not the part of eating at home that makes it hard for me to keep up with. What I hate most about eating at home, is cleaning the kitchen. I have a small kitchen, with about two feet of counter space, but it's always dirty. Two feet of dishes, food, coffee pods, and crusted scrambled egg on endless pans.
I have tried my best to clean it and keep it clean. But, my husband can smell a clean kitchen, and inevitably comes up with a most delicious meal to cook. I love Keith, but he tends to be a bit of a mess in the kitchen {that's an extreme understatement}. So I would get frustrated. I would pout, and I would just simply refuse to clean it. It got gross, and impossible to cook in. It wasn't inspiring, and making a meal seemed daunting. And that's how it stayed for a long time, until this week.
This week, something clicked. My family uses the kitchen. It's not supposed to be perfect, it's used all the time. We eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack, snack, snack. Oh, and dessert, and snacks. Somehow, when I realized that my family is supposed to make the kitchen dirty, it seemed more ok to have it not look perfectly clean all of the time. I'm not sure why, but cleaning it little by little seemed less overwhelming, and once keeping it clean became less of a need, it became a reality. I cleaned the kitchen three times yesterday, and twice already today.
There will be days that I am too busy to clean multiple times a day, or even once a day, but I'm ok with that. I'm thankful that me and my family eat home made food. I think a messy kitchen is worth it. Don't you?

More random play time.

2012-01-13T15:35:00.000-05:00

Making Play out of Anything

2012-01-12T17:25:00.003-05:00

As I organize the basement into a sewing room and play space, I am finding things I forgot I had.. Like this fabric! It's vintage from my sister in law's grandma.
When I first pulled it out, and Eli saw it, he wanted to play peekaboo.. Or maybe it was a hat, I'm not sure. Then I decided to hang it up. We found colors, trees, the mushrooms, houses, and animals. We found apples, and cherries, clouds, and flowers! Eli found a basketball and we threw the ball and named what it hit. I just love finding new ways to play without having to think about it! Don't you!?

Sorry about the JUST awesful camera phone pictures. Obviously, there is something wrong with it.

Just a little something I'm working on

2012-01-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

This is a print for my sister I designed to go up in her house. It's based off of the house sigils from the book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Each sigil has {usually} two colors for their family, something to represent the family {like an animal, or in this case, a dancing skeleton}, and word or phrase as well.

Finger Painting

2012-01-05T13:29:00.001-05:00

Food Magnets

2012-01-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my mother in law who got me this gem for Christmas:

I made food magnets! Eli uses them to tell us, without getting frustrated, what he wants to eat. He points, and then we ask him to say the word as well! It works beautifully! It also helps with word recognition, and letters as well.

We keep foods that we have in stock on his level and foods we don't have in the house at the top of the fridge. The cards are actually from a food pyramid set that we only purchased the cards from a local teacher resource store, but I found them online as well.

As far as speech goes with Eli, we are still making huge strides. The frustration levels are so far down from where they were and we finally feel that we are making progress in being able to understand what his words actually mean. Keith and I both agree that when Eli gained interest in the alphabet, it was a game changer. Once he started to say each letter, he really started to understand that he could communicate with us, and started making the effort to learn how to do so. We couldn't be happier with his progress! I knew he would eventually talk, and we love being able to talk with our little man!

Handmade Gifts {For a 1st Birthday}

2011-12-01T12:22:00.001-05:00

Baking Cookies!

2011-11-18T13:00:00.001-05:00

Everyday sensory!

Beans for Babies

2011-11-18T12:57:00.001-05:00

Obviously under supervision.

Mommy was surprised he wasn't mad that Livi was in "his" beans!

Stomp and Count

2011-11-12T16:26:00.000-05:00

Eli was jumping all over these before nap time, so I added numbers and turned it into an activity.

It was a huge hit!

Livi Needs Some Attention

2011-11-11T16:20:00.000-05:00

Currently, she has two teeth on the bottom. And at least 2 {maybe more} coming in on top.

She grabs the camera a lot. Which is why her pictures are limited these days:)

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

2011-11-10T20:08:00.001-05:00

Melissa & Doug toys are my favorite! They are simple, educational, fun for all ages, and each one can be used in so many ways! They encourage imagination and last forever. I haven't found a toy from Melissa & Doug that I don't love for my kids. I am SO excited to participate in this!

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

Playing with the Projector

2011-11-10T16:14:00.001-05:00

I just happen to have a document projector, which comes in handy for a fun way to play and learn. We started with puff balls and blocks.

It took him a while to figure out where to put the object for it to show up, but he did figure it out, which meant he knew where to put his BUGS!

Definitely took a while to set up, but this is going to be a great resource for older play.

Toot My Own Horn

2011-11-04T12:54:00.000-04:00

Today, I promote to director!

This has been such a blessing for me and my family in so many ways! When I first signed up, I thought it would just be fun to have some adult interaction, and a little extra cash wouldn't hurt the matter either. I had no idea what was to come. I have gotten to know some fantastic ladies, earned way more money than I ever dreamed this business would earn me and had success where I didn't think I would find it!

When it looked like I was going to promote to director, I wasn't sure if that was something I wanted to pursue, so I put it in God's hands and this is where he took me. I am so thankful.

My little business just to have some mommy time, has taken me to a whole new level and I am so excited! It just goes to show that anyone can do this! Just put your faith in God, He will take you there.

Slime!

2011-11-02T13:15:00.002-04:00

Goodbye October!

In preparation for Halloween, we made slime! Recipe here!

I used acrylic paint to color it since I didn't have food coloring. It worked great, but it took a while to incorporate and "dry". I made it by myself when Eli was sleeping. He's a bit too energetic right now to stir things and keep it in the bowl. When he is older, I will make it WITH him.

When he first woke up, I presented it to him, and squished his hand in it. I played with it and showed him some things. He was NOT interested. He hated the feel of it.
Later in the day, Eli asked to play with the slime, and he asked to add the bugs. I was incredibly impressed that he discovered a fun way to play on his own. He just liked to press the bugs into the slime.

I hid the bugs inside the slime and showed him how to find them! He was impressed to see them appear, but didn't have an interest in doing it on his own.

Masking Tape Road and Play Dough

2011-10-28T14:37:00.001-04:00

Masking Tape Roads

The roads weren't a huge hit. He still preferred to drive his cars on his own imaginary roads, which I'm completely happy with:)

Play Dough

Olive decided to eat the play dough, so she just played with Popsicle sticks instead! It felt great on her teething gums.

My new 'Go To' activity:)

Poof Push

2011-10-25T17:21:00.003-04:00

Got this great idea from Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers! {I have a new love for that blog because she categorizes her activities by age! Great ideas!}

Eli liked this activity a lot! I knew he would. He has been all about the poofs since I brought them home. I cut different sized holes to challenge him. He worked on some problem solving and sorting.

Scoops Letter Matching

2011-10-24T20:56:00.000-04:00

I found a cute idea on Little Page Turners to match up upper and lower case letters using ice cream cones and the scoops to go on top. I love it! So that's our activity today. Eli mainly knows uppercase letters, so this will be interesting to see how much of the lowercase he does know.
I also love the idea of encouraging him to connect the visual of scoop on top of cone. I kept it simple and stuck with what he knows best: A through F. I plan to make the rest of the alphabet {and numbers as well} eventually!

Pumpkin Potato Head Face

2011-10-22T09:05:00.000-04:00

I found some awesome printables on a blog called the teacher wife. Mr. Potato Head face cutouts. I decided to go with this and keep it fall themed. So we are putting these on my felt pumpkin cutout.
With two invitations in a row that Eli wasn't interested in, I wanted to do something today that used words that he is close to knowing. He knows eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. He still has a hard time saying them, but it's something he likes to point out. This was perfect!

Can you tell we are in desperate need of a kid table? lol

Eli had a blast naming everything. He gave the pumpkin lots and lots of eyes. He wasn't as interested in the ears or mouth as much as the eyes and nose. He was naming them on his own face more than a

Squishy Bag

2011-10-20T15:17:00.000-04:00

Not interested at all. I do think if it had been on a light table, it would have been more of a hit. I tried to show him how it would squish, or how you could write on it. He wanted to color instead. So we did! Sometimes, you just gotta roll with it. In the end we had a blast coloring. We'll try the squishy bags later, with real gel... and a light table:)

Counting Animals

2011-10-19T14:41:00.000-04:00

This was a simple invitation for counting play. The animals on the right are fridge magnets. The numbers puzzle was a gift from G. Nana and G. Papa. Eli was playing with the puzzle earlier so I decided to roll with it today. He had a BLAST for about 2 minutes. We counted, named animals, stomped on them, and stacked them. Then he moved on. Sometimes he's into it, sometimes he isn't. We moved on. :)

Our First Sensory Bin

2011-10-18T16:26:00.000-04:00

What was inside?
- beans
- sticks
- dandelions
- clover flowers
- leaves (green and soft to brown and crunchy)
- fake leaves
- grass seeds (we called these caterpillars when I was young)
- resin dipped orchid
- book for me to read during play (outdoors themed)
- shovel for scooping

Overall, this was a huge success, and I see a lot of sensory bins in the near future. I did run into the problem of having a lack of cool items to put in, that's why we went with the outdoors theme. I plan on hitting the dollar store soon and start to stock up on things like pipe cleaners, pom poms, water beads, etc.

I am so excited about this and so were the kids! I can see how it would be easier to control in a sensory table, but for now this bin in the floor worked. Both of them did try to dump it, and Olive almost fell in at one point. A table would have minimized those complications.

Eli said "beans!" a lot while playing. He moved the beans to his hands using the shovel, and then to the bin (or floor) using his hands, and then would say "hands!" I think these bins are going to be great for language development.