Sunday, February 28, 2010

Tot School Post #8

Tot School
(Xander is 13 months)

We had a fun and exciting week. Sunday we had beautiful weather, sunny and warm. We all went out and worked in the garden. This is our first year here (we bought our first home last August) so there is a lot of work to do to get our garden ready. Ryan dug a bed for our garlic in the fall and now we are working on turning the area where the previous owners had a pool into a garden bed. We set up a blanket for Xander to sit on while we worked. Of course he didn't stay on it but crawled around exploring the grass, eating leaves and finding rocks. 

 














Eventually he couldn't resist the lure of dirt anymore and had to crawl over to help Daddy.
















He had fun playing in the dirt, finding rocks (and licking them!). Here he is ring of dirt around his mouth waving (!!!!) for the camera, too cute.

 

On Monday we went to story time at the library. It was Xander's 2nd time going. There were about 7 babies there, Xander was the oldest but not the biggest! He still looked rather nonplussed during the directed part of the program but really enjoyed the free play time. Yet again he was greedy taking a toy away from another but he wasn't pushy and seemed to enjoy being around the other babies.

After story time we went to Lattin's Country Cider Mill and Farm. We bought some bags of grain and walked around feeding the animals. Or rather, Ryan carried Xander around pointing out the animals to him, while I fed them. It was fun and I can't wait to go back.

On Wednesday I got the crayons out again and while I decorated the cardboard box Xander has been playing with he played with the crayons. He still mainly banged them on the box but he did actually make a few scribble marks. 

 

What he really enjoyed was trying to put them back into their box. 

  
Then he discovered that a crayon fits inside the hole on the wooden ball that goes on top of his stacking ring toy.


















Taadaa!

 

And I guess that made the crayons look tasty because then he wanted to eat them which led to me saying, "not for eating" and him dissolving into tears.


After some comforting with his Soggy Guy (also known as gross disgusting little doll he likes to suck on)


he was happy once more. Did you know it is really hard to hold the camera and take a photo of yourself?


On Friday we had a wonderful visit with my sister-in-law, her husband, and their daughter. They are going to be moving west in the next year or so and were looking around Washington and Oregon. We sure hope they settle around here! This was Xander's 2nd time being around his cousin Sophie. She is 1 year and 2 months older than him. Last time they saw each other he wasn't even crawling, just scooting on his back. He just loved following her around our place. Here they are playing with Xander's mixing bowls and wooden spoons.

 
 
We really had a wonderful visit and Sophie completely wore Xander out, he slept in until 8 the next morning!

Yesterday my Mom came over to visit. While she and I played Scrabble, Xander played with Play-Doh. And this time he really did play with it. He mushed it, and tore it into pieces. He really had fun with it and took it pretty well when I told him it "was not for eating".
















All in all we had a fun week. Looking forward to next week and hopefully some more sunshine. Thanks for stopping by, see what other families are doing by checking out Tot School.


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tot School Post #6 and #7

Tot School
(Xander is 13 months)

Wow, has it really been 2 weeks since I posted? It's been 2 weeks of sickness here, first me and then Ryan. Thankfully the most Xander ever got was a little bit stuffy.

Because Xander started climbing over the tubs we were using as a barricade we had to hurry up and make the kitchen safe for him. Ryan used more of our old futon frame (so glad we saved it) to build another wooden gate in our hallway, he rehung all the kitchen cabinet doors (most are still  not painted, only primed), put on cabinet locks, and installed a safety latch on the oven. Now the kitchen is open to Xander. We still need to fix the laundry room door, right now it doesn't close, so we are putting the pack-n-play in front of the doorway.



 

 














Xander loves having all this space to explore and play in. I am finding it difficult to cook while he is underfoot so I've been putting him in the playpen when I'm in the kitchen. I can't wait until he can be "helpful" in there. I read another Tot School post (sorry, don't remember who) that showed a little one helping unload the dishwasher. Right now Xander immediately tries to climb into the dishwasher when I open it and telling him no at this point doesn't lead to any understanding, just tears.


Xander worked on his ring stacking skills.
 
And he has played for hours in that cardboard box. He has used it as a place to sit in, transferred his wooden blocks to it, thrown balls into it. Lots of fun!

I got out his block puzzle for him to work with (it's cardboard with glued on paper pictures, he'd eat it if left unattended!). He had fun playing with the blocks but wasn't the least bit interested in trying to match the pictures. Every time I tried to do it he took the blocks away from me!

"My block's Mommy!"

A big breakthrough during the last two weeks is that he is eating more than just purees!!! We discovered that he likes toast. 


This is a big deal, usually he gags on anything solid but he has done really well with the toast. Wouldn't even try the scrambled eggs. Not even a taste. He likes my homemade wheat bread but didn't like the sourdough bread I make. He also grabbed one of the single serving toddler meals by Gerber that you take the lid off and nuke it. It was pretty much a spaghetti-o's meal. I was sure he wouldn't eat it, much too solid for him but he grabbed it off the shelf and held onto it the whole shopping trip so we bought it and tried it and he ate nearly the whole thing! Really hope this continues, I am so sick of pureeing everything!

Last week on Ryan's day off the sun was actually shining so we walked to our little neighborhood park. Xander got to go in the swing for the first time. He was not impressed. Nor did he care for the merry-go-round or slide. He did find a rock in the grass and that made him happy, he carried it home, chattering away to it in the stroller.

"I don't like this Daddy!"


"Look, I found a rock! Can we go home now?"

 

That's what we've been up to for the last two weeks (along with a lot of sniffling and sneezing!). Find out what other families are doing by visiting Tot School. Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Felt Toy Giveaway

Quirky Momma is having a giveaway of felt toys from the Etsy shop Evgie. Evgie has cute felted letter and number kits made from eco friendly felt made from 100% post consumer plastic! Go visit Quirky Momma's Giveaway and sign up for the giveaway.

Tot School Post #5

Tot School
(Xander is 12 months)

We started off the week by going to story time at a local library. This was Xander's first story time. It was a Book Babies Infant Lapsit and is aimed for ages birth to 12 months. Technically Xander was too old for it but I am glad we chose this one. He hasn't been around many other kids and the infant lapsit tends to have about 8 to 12 kids each week (this was the first of the season and there were only 3 kids), the next age range up has over 20 kids in it! I want Xander to feel a little more comfortable with the whole story time set up and being around other kids before we go into a large group of toddlers.

He was really cute and just looked totally clueless as the librarian sang songs and we clapped and sang along. But when she brought out toys he got really interested. First she brought out some "shaker" instruments for us to shake to a song. We have some at home and he really loves them so he got into that. After the story time they just leave out toys and the kids can play. It was only one other mom and her 10 month old there playing and it was so cute watching them play-- not exactly together but in the same spot. Xander was a wee bit greedy and kept taking the other boy's toys, a case of the grass is greener. It was quite funny to watch. They were very careful not to actually interact, it was like they were trying to ignore each other and yet play with the exact same toy.

On Tuesday we actually had sunshine! It was so lovely out, really felt like springtime. I moved our pack-n-play out onto the porch so Xander could enjoy the weather while I got some work done in the yard. 
He really enjoyed watching me work and kept pointing at things and making little happy screeches.















Wednesday we again played with crayons. I was so clever, I taped the paper down so he couldn't throw it on the floor or eat it. I gave him pink and red crayons, hoping for some scribbles I could make into a Valentines card. Yeah, so clever, he peeled off the tape and tried eating that instead. Sigh. Even though he still doesn't actually do any scribbling at all he really does enjoy playing with the crayons, and then throwing them down at the dogs.















After crayon fun we played with Play-Doh. I made the dough into a long snake and he tore it into pieces and tried to put it back into the tub. He really likes putting things into containers so this occupied him for awhile.















After he got bored with putting the dough back into the tub, he then tried getting the lid back on the tub. 















As you can see in the photo he couldn't get his fingers out of the way to put the lid on so this was very frustrating to him and finally led to a meltdown. After that we played with the cute knitted finger puppets you see in the basket (and for some reason I took NO photos of this!). He isn't interested in actually putting them on his fingers but he loved transferring them from one basket to another. Until the basket looked tasty and so he started chewing on it and they got taken away. Which of course meant another meltdown. I am really looking forward to him getting past this. Not that he tantrums for long, in fact he gets over things really fast. But he literally throws himself to the floor, kicking and pounding the ground, screaming and crying when told "No". He's one year old, what are the terrible two's going to be like?

On Thursday my Mom came over for lunch and we had lots of fun just playing. On Friday I started feeling symptoms of the icky head cold that I am still suffering from. Thankfully Xander and Ryan haven't caught it, but I really didn't do much the rest of the week.

Big accomplishments this week were:

a.) Learning to WAVE! We have seen babies that start doing this when they're really little but not Xander. Well, this week something just clicked and he's started waving hello and bye. To us, to my Mom, to the dogs, to the tv (sigh, yes my baby watches the tv). It is so cute!

b.) Changing direction while walking. He has gotten really good at walking in the last week or so. Last week he could take about 6 steps before sitting down, now he's way past that. But what was really impressive was one evening this week he started off walking one direction and turned, without falling down or grabbing onto a piece of furniture, and walked another way! He still can't stand up without holding onto something, so once he's down he crawls to something to stand next to before standing up and walking again.

c.) Pulling himself onto the top of the storage tubs that we were using to blockade the entrance to the kitchen. First he was pushing them out of the way, so we loaded them with heavier things. That really frustrated him for a little bit until he decided what he couldn't move out of his way he would climb over. And the little munchkin did just that! 

Which of course made our barricade worthless and meant Ryan spent all day Sunday hanging cupboard doors, building another gate in our hallway, and adding baby locks to the cabinets and stove. Which expanded Xander's territory even more but that is really for next weeks post. 

Thanks for dropping by. Check out what other families are doing in Tot School.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Tot School Post #4

Tot School
(Xander is 12 months)

We started off the week watching Daddy build a baby gate. It goes along the side of one of the tables I use as my desk and then has an actual "gate" where it attaches to the wall. It keeps my computer, our woodstove, Poppy Seed and McCoy (our dogs) on one side and Xander on the other.
 
It expanded his "baby proof" domain (aka the living room), opening up a 3 feet by 2 feet area of hard flooring for Xander to play on. He has enjoyed playing on this new surface, testing to make sure the gate really was Xander proof, and of course throwing toys through it (over and over and over again!). He has also learned that he can bang on the front door and set the dogs off. Even though they can see that it is him banging and NOT someone at the door they still go crazy (not the brightest canines!). He finds this hilarious, I find it a little less hilarious after the millionth time of listening to the dogs freak out. 

McCoy has adjusted to his new anti-child area just fine. Poppy Seed is a little less thrilled. She's fine as long as I'm in here at my computer but when I go into the living room she whines, a lot! Of course she doesn't like being in the living room because Xander chases her. I think she'd prefer that we lock him up and let her have the living room and us all to herself. Poor spoiled dog, life will be better once he's old enough to know how to treat you properly. Poppy Seed says "Xander is pretty neat, when he's sleeping!"

We had a pretty busy week and I never got around to any specific "tot" activities. Mainly we played, read books, repeat over and over. One night as he was fussing at me while I was making dinner I handed him the just emptied bread crumb container and went and got his Play-Doh tubs so he could move them from container to container. He really enjoyed this. It's funny how a little cardboard tube can make him so happy.


This kept him happy until I had finished cooking dinner. (We still have a plastic tub barricade on the kitchen side of the living room. Hopefully the cabinet doors will get painted and reinstalled soon and then his territory will expand even more.)

Check out what other families are doing, please visit Tot School.