"I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete." John 15:11

Friday, March 28, 2014

Philip Funnies XI

 

After watching a movie with a scary bear scene:
"Bears don't know how to be happy."

His confidence in our home maintenance skills:
A light burned out in our chandelier. "Oh no! Now we will have to call the worker guy to fix it."

While leaning over him to put his seat belt on, my wet hair fell in his face. "I think you have spiders in your hair."

He and Julia ran into each other by accident. Holding his nose. "Oh no! My honking horn!"


After seeing me hold on to the handlebar in the car, he tries to reach his. "Oh! I can't reach! When my hand gets older I will be able to reach it"

Andy: Is Baby like a bird?
Philip: No, Baby has feet.

At dinnertime we were recapping our day for Andy. We had been to the library for a dinosaur story time.
Me: They read it book called DinoTrain.
Philip: I love trains...and pickles!

"You guys don't like to eat butterflies."

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Playschool: Letters H & I

 
Last month we talked about the letters H and I. Here are some of the things we did.
 
 Letter H
 
Mystery Box:
 
 Horse, hat, hand, hammer, helicopter, house, and Henry the train. (He didn't like Henry being in the mystery box and put him back with the other trains right away.)
  
Books we Enjoyed:
A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Harold and the Purple Crayon: Dinosaur Days by Liza Baker
Henry Builds a Cabin by D.B. Johnson
Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! by Dr. Seuss
Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
Hairy McClary from Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Dodd
Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker
We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Skorpen
Curious George Goes to the Hospital by Margret Rey
 
We also read the Little Letter "H" Book during a couple meals.
 
Food we Ate:
 
Ham for lunch and hot dogs for dinner on the weekend.
 
Hot cocoa, of course!
 
Heart-shaped sweet potato crackers
 
Activities:
 
Valentine's Day fell during H week, so we did some heart activities. 
 
 I made him a cutting tray with several different materials he could practice cutting.
 
Printables found here
  
Heart math - he counted the number of images in each square and put the appropriate number on top.
 
He placed the appropriate number of marshmallows (white puff balls) in the mugs.

We built a house out of bricks and mortar. The mortar was shaving cream.

He loved this and we did it a few days in a row.
 
Our letter of the week craft was a hippo.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Letter I

 
Mystery Box: Igloo, ice cube (plastic), an insect,  necklace from India, ice skates
 
Books we Enjoyed:
Inside, Outside, Upside Down by Stan Berenstain
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
Inch by Inch: The Garden Song by David Mallet
If you Give a Dog a Donut/Moose a Muffin/Cat a Cupcake/Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
If you Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff
Imogene's Antlers by David Small
The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani
Building an Igloo by Ulli Steltzer
Look Inside an Igloo by Mari Schuh
Immi's Gift by David Mallet
 
Food we Ate:
Ice cream!
 
 
We made insect snack bags. I was going to surprise Philip with these, but he saw a picture of them on my tablet and wanted to do them right now! It turned out to be a great activity for us to do together. He picked out the colors and I painted the clothespins and glued on the googly eyes while he washed and packaged the fruit. He wanted to make four - one for each member of the family. I put different snacks in these throughout the week - fruit, cereal, Teddy Grahams. I kept the clothespins and antenna and use them for snacks every once in a while. Easy and fun to throw in the diaper bag!
 
Activities:
 
I pulled out our insect sensory bin. I made a bin for him last year and ended up putting it into a shoebox that we take out throughout the year when he asks for it. When Julia got up from her nap, she got to play with this bin for the first time, too. It include Easter grass, an Insect Toob, a magnifying glass, a net for catching the bugs, and a bug container.
 
 
 
 
 
Dotting the letter I. We did this earlier in the year with blueberries instead of marbles and that was a big hit with my berry lover!
 
Ice cube letters
 
 
Ice art! I froze a block of ice and we made colored salt (tempera paint mixed with salt). He then put the salt on the ice to make a pretty pattern. We talked about how the ice melted faster in the areas where the salt was. He could even put his finger into it! He was pretty sad when Daddy got home and he realized his masterpiece had melted.
 
 
 
 
On another day, I froze some artic figurines and he used more colored salt to help get them escape the ice.
 

 
We made ice volcanoes (inspiration here). Ours didn't turn out as well as hoped, but Philip didn't know. Perhaps I didn't add enough baking soda to the water. We just poured lots of baking soda into the middle of the volcanoes and he was happy as a clam. He practiced using a couple different types of medicine droppers - good fine motor skill development.
  
 
 
 
I happened to hear news that the Iditirod was taking place that week, so we went online and looked at a few videos of the Iditirod. The kids both loved seeing the dogs!
  
Our letter of the week craft was an Iguana.
 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

February Rundown

It was a typical February around here - cold and snowy.


When I looked over our pictures from the month I thought, we didn't get out much!  We did take Andy out duckpin bowling with us one weekend, have a co-worker over for dinner and friends over for lunch/playtime, and go to our usual kids activities, including a Valentine's party.


Babies in bowling shoes are seriously one of the cutest things ever!

Andy was off on Valentine's Day because of snow. It was so nice to spend the day together.  I had lots of activities planned for the kids and the house was a complete wreck by the end of the day, but a happy wreck! The following weekend Andy and I got out for a Valentines' date night. Philip absolutely loves his babysitter and was so excited for her to come all day, helped me clean up the house for her, and then for several days afterwards kept asking me to go out with Andy in the evening so that his babysitter could come back to play. Andy and I went out to a nice restaurant in our area that we have never been to in our many years of living here. We then went to see Pepe Romero, a classical guitarist, perform. It was a great night out!

I was particularly pleased with myself for coming up with
two items on this plate on my own (not through Pinterest!)

The kids got a special treat in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa

We had one really warm Saturday and took the opportunity to wash all the salt off of our cars. This was one of the cutest afternoons ever as Philip continually filled up beach pails for he and Julia. Julia would immediately dump hers out and ask for more while Philip would bring his over to the car and dump it on the same spot over and over while proclaiming that "Baby doesn't know how to wash cars." When I told him that I was going to have to take her in for a nap, he kept telling me, "I'm afraid that baby can't take a nap right now." And he would tell Andy, "I"m afraid we can't turn off the water yet."




Philip is so much fun! He is a total boy in his interests and his energy. We have seen such changes in his confidence level ever since he turned three.  We had a major breakthrough this month. He has been going to Atrium once a week since the end of September and this month he finally spoke to his teacher for the first time! His teacher was so excited when I came to pick him up that day. Next step, actually talking during circle time. We'll see if we get there by the end of the program! We bought Philip a balance bike at Christmas a year ago. He wasn't too interested in it for most of the year, but just before Christmas this year he started riding it around the house. Now he loves to zoom up and down the block with it. He mainly keeps his feet on the ground, but he is experimenting with picking up his feet here and there, and he is fast! The things he kept saying to us this month were, "Look at my eyes" (when he wants to make sure we are paying attention to him). This was usually followed by, "Watch this!" as he did some new trick. He also loves to throw out plans and ask, "Hey, would that be a good idea?" We started having a once a week movie night where we have a picnic dinner in the living room and watch a movie. When he has "ideas," 9 times out of 10 it is for us to have a picnic dinner and a movie. He also loves to ask us, "Do you know (insert made up name)?" He says this with a sly smile on his face. Once in a while he talks about his imaginary friend, Seda, but this month he has added someone named "Peto Onero." He likes to ask if we know Peto Onero and often prays for him at night. Andy and I figured there might be a Peter Onero out there somewhere who needs some prayers, so we let him go with it. Lastly, he is continually packing a bag of toys for he and Julia to take to "racing day." In his mind, Andy and I are going out and Philip and Julia are going to racing day.



Julia turned 18 months and had her regular check up. The doctor confirmed what we already knew - she is a petite, healthy girl who is smart as a whip. She used her first 4-word sentence! She was just repeating what I said, but I was still surprised to hear her say, "That's nice of Daddy." She learned to say Octonauts and countless other words as well. She is having fun learning the names of body parts and especially loves to pat everyone on their heads while saying, "head, head." I already mentioned that she calls most holy images (and some regular old images), "Jesus!" She now calls all men Daddy and all fruit strawberries, "stawbears." She is our cheerleader, calling out "Yeah!" as soon as I park the car anywhere. Sometimes when she wakes in the middle of the night she cries out, "Yeah!"when I come into the room. It is funny to hear her go from crying and distressed to happy in such a short time. She wants to know where "Pup Pup" is every morning when she gets up and usually asks where Herbie is a couple times before falling asleep at night. In potty news, which I'm sure you are anxious to hear about, she started saying, "I pooped, I pooped" (false alarm) at each dinner and other random times. It took awhile, but we figured out that she is letting us know anytime she wets her diapers. She will also pull out her changing pad, bring it over to us, lay on it, and say, "Change me." Do I have it in me to potty train an 18 month old? We'll see. After going through a month or two-long water phobia, she is now back to loving water and begs to wash her hands all day long. I'm not sure which I preferred, the days when she would scream through her baths or handwashings, or now, when she is constantly asking me to turn on water for her and screams each time we have to stop.

 
That about covers it for February. Have a great March! Spring is coming soon!