Necklace

Look: Today C, G and I played with linkers.

They are the little things that help you attatch toys to pretty much anything. I thought it would be a good fine motor activity for C and a great teether ring for G. I collected them all and put them in a box. We had fun counting them, sorting them, chewing on them..he he. And then we made a necklace. C felt like Mr. T with her necklace and wore it all day.

Learn: My daughter loves necklaces. I should already know this because the other day she wanted to wear one because she saw I had one on...too bad they just aren't safe enough for tots to wear.

Love: I love that she asked to see the mirror 3 times just to check herself out!

MTM

Look: Rice, Cauliflower, Raisins, Cheerios, Chicken and Veggies.

Those of us who combine food know this as stirfry!

Traveling Zoo

Look: We went to a little traveling zoo and carnival over the weekend. They had llamas, horses, goats, snakes, elephants, camels, birds, and tons of other interesting creatures. They also had little rides. I went on a tiny train and a giant slide with C. G got a ride from Daddy in his backpack.

Learn: C is getting to be the age where little rides are fun. She liked seeing the animals a lot. Her favorite thing was watching the bigger kids feed the goats.

Love: Chris picked this activity for us and I feel so lucky to have such an involved hubby! It was fun!

All the toys are mine

Look: When C takes a nap, its a rare opportunity for G to take over all the toys. He usually spends most of the play time getting toys handed to him and taken away from him. So when nap time hits I put buckets in front of him and let him pick. He gets as many toys as he can fit in his chubby little hands.

Learn: G is starting to understand the idea if he does something there is a reaction. He was shaking a block and it would make a sound, when he'd stop so would the noise. He got the hang of it and smiled a bit like he understood.

Love: Its so nice to sit and play with G. He loves just about everything, so its not hard to find something that will please him. I like our alone time so I can figure out just what things are his favorite. Today it was a teether butterfly...he literally shook when he'd see it!

Muffin Tin Monday

Look: Pumpkin Muffin, Tofutti Pizza, Butter Beans, Tomato w/ tofutti, celery w/ tofutti and raisins
Learn: My daughter does not like vegetables, she licked the tofutti off and out of the veggies. She inhaled the pizza and raisins, played with the muffin and finally ate it and thought the beans were a toy of some sort.
Love: I just love making a variety of food for C when she only eats about a quarter of it...(yes I'm being sarcastic).

Toys R us

Look: Because we got so many new toys for Xmas, we played

toy stroe today. First C put on her hat, got her purse and we pretended to drive using her Elmo steering wheel. When we got to the store (aka our family room) C purused the aisles and was very deliberate about what she put in her cart. Then we pretended to scan everything with a noise maker, I gave her a total on the magna doodle and she paid me in high fives. After bagging the items she put them back in the cart. When G and Daddy came down, C gave her brother a toy without paying for it. But I let her shoplifting slide. We had fun, but C didn't want to put the toys back to start over. She prefered shopping until everything was mostly gone, which meant she had tons of bags. Lets hope she isn't like that as a teenager.

Learn: I learned that my family room can become just about anything and that with prompting C can get very into it. I also saw how much she loves little G man!

Love: Pretend is so fun, the child is really just emulating what they see you do, so its like looking in a mirror a bit.

Popcorn

Look: I got a really neat popcorn popper for Xmas. So this Sunday it was time to try it out. I loaded in the kernels...then C and I waited. After just a few minutes the popping started and beautiful white popcorn started bubbling over into the bowl. I was really excited, but you should have seen C, she screamed and pointed and yelled pop. She loved eating it and asked her Daddy for bowl after bowl full.

Learn: I actually watched the lightbulb go off in my daughters head. I had been talking about the popcorn, she has a song about popcorn, she has seen it in a book...but until it started coming out, she was clueless. Then BLAMMO "popcorn". It was thrilling to watch.

Love: I love my new popcorn machine and that I can make milk free (meaning butter free) popcorn for my kids anytime I want!