Where I've Been and a Little Funny for Friday

Posting has been non-existent in the last week and a half because my summer was drawing to a close and I went back to work.  Naturally, that meant I needed to cram in one extra thing into my schedule (because my personal summer to-do list didn't get completed as well as I wanted) so we had a garage sale last weekend too.  This was our first since before Sam and Anna were born, and wow, garage sales are a lot more work when a.) you have a ton of small clothing to sort, price and set out on top of all the other crap stuff you want to get rid of sell. b.) you have two 2 1/2 year olds that have an innate sense of when you need to maximize the time you have and therefore should monopolize what extra time you think you have, but really don't  (as in, Anna's been on a nap strike lately.  Sam's naps this summer went from sometimes 3 1/2 hours pre-potty trained to just over an hour post potty training because he wakes up when he needs to pee now.  So the only time I've had to get stuff done is pretty much after their 8 pm bedtime) and c.) you have conflicting priorities because you want to make the most fun out of your last days as a SAHM for the summer but yet MUST set up your classroom before you officially need to be back at work since there's an Open House to which all your future students will be coming to meet you and check out your finished and "ready" room.  Being a SAHM plus tacking on the job of a WAHM at the same time is not easy by any means.

A lot of run-on sentences, but right now my life feels like one big run-on sentence:  so much on my brain and so much to cram in.

Welcome back to school and my life 9 month of the year, I guess.

I think by far this has been my most favorite summer with Sam and Anna.  When they were almost 3-6 months old during my first summer home, we were in the trenches with reflux hell, which got better right at the end.  Last summer at 15-18 months old was fun, but Sam and Anna were unsteady new walkers that didn't quite get all of our expectations for them (i.e. rules like staying by me in the yard and not running into the street) and they just didn't have the ability to do things like they do now.  I loved almost every minute of being with them this summer.  More than ever before, I would love to stay at home with them all the time and do fun things with them.  I am loving this age of 2 1/2 right now.  They are so good behavior-wise most of the time, that really, my classroom of 18 kindergartners is going to have more difficult behavior to manage daily than they will.  Plus, the sleeping in and not getting up at 5:00 am part was glorious, as well.

So as Sam and Anna are getting adjusted to their new daycare (which is going swimmingly well except for Anna's continued nap strikes many days), and readjusted to mama back at work we've been doing lots of talking about the changes to help make it go as smoothly as it can.

On to the funny: The other day as I was gone setting up my classroom, Daddy had to remind Sam and Anna that I was at work when they woke up from their nap and asked for me.  Sam, in typical fashion, asked "why?" and Daddy said, "to make money." and continued to explain why we need money and what we use it for.  Fast forward a little bit later, Sam was hammering at his workbench and announced that he was "at work."  Daddy asked what he was making and Sam replied, "I making money."  So now every time Sam goes over to his workbench he hammers away and proceeds to "make money." 

R and S!

Even though we were 2 days into potty training, we still did some alphabet activities last week.  At first I was worried we'd be covered in paint when a bathroom emergency would strike, but it mostly worked out okay without problems.  Sam and Anna didn't have any accidents inside while we did stuff, only when we were outside having fun (twice).  Not too bad. 

For letter r, we read books about rabbits, rockets, and rainbows.

Sam and Anna's rabbit handprints.

They made dot marker R and r.

We painted rocks we collected from the North Shore of Lake Superior.

We also ran around outside.  A lot.  Sam and Anna like to play tag and tickle the person once they've successfully tagged them.

We made rockets- this was a super easy project and super fun to blow the rockets around with the straws.

We also made rainbows with tissue papers after reading several rainbow books.  While I talked about the order of colors with them, I didn't make a point of making them stick to the order.  We also added a sun and clouds after learning that both are needed to make a rainbow.

The top favorite R activity was this chalk racetrack I made in the driveway.  Sam and Anna had tons of fun zipping around my chalk road, and it kept me from stressing about little ones running into the street.  They always kept on the road and never went near the street.  Since then I have recreated my road because they kept asking to do it again once rain washed it away.

 I made rainbow rice for a sensory activity.

After exploring for a while, we scooped, poured and filled with different containers.

Then I put 7 letters in the rice and matching letters in an ice cube tray.  Sam and Anna had to  uncover the letter in the rice and then find the matching letter.

But we weren't done with our rice yet!  Finally, we put glue on paper and sprinkled the rice on top for quick art.

(Rainbow rice was well over an hour of fun and we only stopped for lunch.  I highly recommend!)

For letter Ss, we read books about spiders, sleep, shapes, and sheep.

Sam and Anna made spider handprints.

They also did their dot marker S and s.

We colored in new Sesame Street coloring books.

I also took out our Velcro sticks that we haven't used in a while and we made shapes.

Anna wanted to make a pattern, so we did that too.

We also sponge painted shapes.

Sam and Anna explored with paint mixing in shaving cream (Sam still isn't a fan.)

But Anna still loves it and I had to tear her away when the shaving cream started drying up.  She's pretending to "get me" with her messy purple hands.

Big project fail for the week:  spray painting with stencils outside.  It's all fun and games until your brother almost spray paints you in the eye. 

I drew shapes in the driveway and we played "Stomp the Shape" when I called out a shape name.

We also ate rainbow spaghetti.  Yum!

We explored shells and talked about their colors, textures, size and how some were the same and different.

We ended our week playing in the sand on a beach we hadn't been to before.  It was too cold to swim, but we will definitely go back again to do that the next time!

Mama Loves Splat Mats

Our dining room is carpeted (yuck, I know).  We've been planning on replacing the flooring in there since we bought our house... 6 years ago.  But well, when we first bought it, we had just started TTC, and you know the story: 4 years and over $20,000 later we accomplished that.  Meaning no spare moola for home upgrading.  Now with two small children, we've put off installing new flooring because I want to get all the spilled food and potty accidents pretty much behind us before we get new stuff.  That doesn't mean I don't want to keep what we've got as nice as possible though.

When Sam and Anna first started eating solid food, I got two Splat Mats to put under their Space Saver Highchairs.  I had first planned on just using plastic hand cut to fit under them or one of those office mats for under chairs, but these were round and I liked the brown one I saw a picture of online.  While I know there is a huge variety in the kind of mat you can use under highchairs (or boosters), we have the BogginHead Brown Flourish Splat Mat. It blends in a little bit better in our dining room, and I like that it isn't a hugely obnoxious kid print.

These mats have saved us many times from scrubbing some pretty amazing messes out of our carpet and rug that is placed on top.  I know I've mentioned how much Sam and Anna love pasta with red sauce.  I do not love it on my cream colored rug or carpet very much.  Now that we're done using sippy cups and Sam and Anna use regular cups at meals, the Splat Mat also keeps milk from sinking into the carpet when it gets knocked over.  It is definitely large enough to catch most food, except maybe if your kid launches it on purpose with a good throw of course.  I don't think there's a product out there that will help with that!  It wipes down well and nothing stains it, including the red sauce.  Ours do have some small tears, so the material could be tougher, but that's my only complaint.  If you have an entire plateful of food dropped, I bet you could pour the mess into the garbage by folding it- but I've never had a chance to try that because we have a dog that helps out in that department.

This week I took a mat out from under a chair and used it to contain rice spilled from a sensory bin we were playing with.  Once we were done I just lifted it up and poured the rice right back in the bin. Very handy! When we graduate from needing a Spat Mat under chairs during meals, I'm sure it will find a new home under our art easel for messy art projects.

So even if you aren't lucky enough to have a carpeted dining room like I do, I bet a Spat Mat would be one of those things you didn't know you could use until you had one!

P and Q!

 

For letter P, we read lots of books about penguins and pigs.  We read a few princess books (like The Paper Bag Princess, an excellent one with a less stereotypical image of a princess) and some books about puppies.

 

Here are Sam and Anna's penguin handprints.

 

We played with pinwheels.

 

We made dot marker P and p.

 

 

We explored a new playground.

 

 

I brought out some new puzzles with 12 pieces this week.  We needed a new challenge because all the single piece picture puzzles are way too easy for them now.  While Sam and Anna need lots of assistance with the 12 piece puzzles right now, they really enjoy them.  They are learning how to put like colors together and see a piece as part of the whole picture.  LOVE these wooden Melissa and Doug ones because 4 came in a wooden box, and each one has a small shape on the back to help keep them form getting mixed up.  I know we'll be getting more soon.

 

 

We poked pencils in playdoh.

 

And we experimented with making prints of different things in playdoh too.

 

My favorite P activity was mixing paint in plastic bags.  I used primary colors and Sam and Anna got a little intro into color mixing.   They loved discovering the new colors we created when they got mixed together.  It was mess free and I thought it was great that you could still see on the edges the two colors we used to make a new color even with lots of smushing.  Fun, easy, and fast clean-up!

 

 

We traced Pps.

 

We ordered puppy pictures from largest to smallest.

 

We did some fine motor practice with pom poms and tongs.  Sam had trouble using the tongs (and I only have one) so I brought out spoons to use too.  Anna really surprised me with how adept she was at using the tongs to pick up a pom pom and transfer it into the dish, sorting by color, using one hand (although I know this picture shows her using two hands).

 

We also sorted paperclips, as well as counted them and made patterns.

 

Sam wanted me to take a picture of the pattern we made together.

 

This was our special P lunch:  pepperoni pizza, peas, pickles, pineapple and plums!  We also ate pasta at many meals, peaches, pears and pancakes.

 

I gave Anna and I pink and purple pedicures this week too. :)

 

Not to mention the advent of potty training in our house!

For letter Q, we read books about quilts, queens, quiet, quick, and ducks books (quack).

Here are Sam and Anna's quail handprints.

 

We made dot marker Q and q.

 

 

We also used dot markers to make "quilts."

 

 

We traced Qqs.

 

Sam and Anna painted using Q-tips.  As usual, Anna was really into the free-exploration art.  Sam was done fast, Anna had to be torn away 45 minutes later. 

 

 

We sorted pictures by loud and quiet sounds.

 

And then we practiced being loud and quiet ourselves.  They loved doing the opposites right after each other.  It was a huge giggle inducer!

 

We played a quarter game where they had to try to toss quarters into the Q... I let them get as close as they wanted.

 

Then we sorted money by quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

 

Of course, we had to go feed the ducks too... we heard a plethora of "Quack, quack!" while they scrambled for the bread!

I asked Sam and Anna 21 questions at different times without prompting any sort of answer- and got fun responses, even if they aren't completely accurate!  What they said at 2 and a half years old:

1. What is your name?  Sam [last name], Big Girl Anna [last name].
2. How old are you?  Sam- two, Anna- I two.
3. What is your favorite color? Sam- red Anna-red (keep in mind I did not ask both of them at the same time)
4. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Sam- bacon, Anna-fruit
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Sam- bacon, Anna- mac and cheese
6. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Sam- bacon (notice a trend?), Anna- no response
7. What is your favorite snack to eat?  Sam- apricot (fruit strips from Target), Anna- apricot (same thing)
8. What is your favorite fruit? Sam- watermelon, Anna- apricot
9. What is your favorite vegetable?  Sam- corn, Anna- french toast (?)
10. What is your favorite thing to drink?  Sam- water, Anna- water
11. What is your favorite animal?  Sam- elephant, Anna- lion
12. What is your favorite toy to play with?  Sam- elephant, Anna- mama (she likes to pretend everything is a mama, including pinecones, pieces of food, etc.)
13. What is your favorite book to read?  Sam- duck book (Little Quack), Anna- Monkeys Jumping Bed
14. Where do you like to go?  Sam- Grandma's, Anna- Grandma's
15. What is your favorite song?  Sam- Grandma (?  Maybe he meant singer?), Anna- Jesus Loves Me
16. Who is your best friend?  Sam- Anna,  Anna- Sam (everyone awww all together now)
17. What is your favorite thing to watch on tv?  Sam- watch Thomas on tv, Anna- Thomas
18. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Sam- in the dirt, Anna- no response
19. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Sam- play basketball (we don't have a basketball or a hoop), Anna- play in the sandbox
20. What is your favorite thing to wear?  Sam- diaper (on the second day of potty training, hahaha!), Anna- shirt
21. Who is your favorite person?  Sam- me, Anna- ... (then Sam interrupts:  "Sam is!")