Tot School Post #14

(Xander is 15 months)

This week we were going to be doing B is for ... but I am going to end up spreading out B over two weeks. It wasn't a good week for us. We started off with B is for belly ache and baby and ended the week with B is for bleeding (hope this isn't TMI). Xander had a upset tummy and I was nauseated at the start of the week which meant we didn't do much Tot School. By the end of the week Xander was feeling better but I had started cramping and was feeling down because I was sure I was going to miscarry again (I miscarried at 6 weeks last December). We ended up spending most of Saturday in the hospital, not because my miscarriage was life threatening, but I needed a Rhogam shot (I'm Rh-) and of course the OB's office is closed on the weekend. For some reason I thought we could just go to the emergency room and get the shot but of course they don't work that way, they want to run all sorts of tests which took hours and that only could tell us that yes, I had miscarried. It was a very long day!

Xander finding fun (and things to get in to) in the hospital.

Anyway, we started off the week with tantrums. We finally got compost for our garden bed, so Ryan mixed it in and started planting seeds. First he had to put up a fence to keep the dogs out of the bed. Why the tantrums? Our garden bed was Xander's digging hole and mud wallow, he was NOT HAPPY when the fence went up!

We got out the Playdoh again, all Xander wanted to do was put it into the tub and take it out again, over and over.

I was inspired by the butterflies I saw on Hart 2 Hart, but instead of making large butterflies I made small ones to use on Thank You cards for the grandparents. Xander scribbled on the paper and then I did the cutting of the ovals and gluing them onto a card. Then I mailed the cards and kicked myself later in the day when I realized I hadn't taken any photos of the finished cards!!! Here is Xander drawing on the paper (it's some Origami paper I had, I thought it made pretty butterfly wings).

We also did a coloring page for Earth Day! This was Xander's first time with a printout like this.

B is for Blue Balloon! I had put a "blue balloon" on the shopping list last week. Xander was so happy to get it. He just loves balloons!

I've been trying to do some color sorting with Xander. He doesn't know his colors at all. Right now I am just focusing on two, red and blue. I'm taking pieces of felt and putting them on the floor and gathering different red and blue toys and putting them on the matching felt piece. I'm trying to get Xander to help me find the correct color toys but for now this is all me, I'm hoping he'll catch on. Here Xander is sitting by his blue toys, he's all in blue too which was NOT planned. I'm pretty sure that was his 4th outfit of the day (I told you he had an upset tummy this week! Ick! Lol, this picture shows that I was trying to bulk up his diapers to catch everything, poor little guy.)

"This toy looks tasty."

"I am so done with this activity!"

Xander got some Earth Day gifts from his paternal Grandparents. He had fun opening the package.

He really liked all his gifts but what he liked most was the piece of yarn. It was so cute. He played with it all afternoon.

My favorite photo of the week. We stopped to grab a bite to eat at McDonald's. Xander has been trying more solid foods so I went ahead and got him a Happy Meal, thinking he might eat the chicken nuggets. Wouldn't even taste them (made the dogs very happy!) but he LOVES the toy he got. It is a little cell phone. We've had lots of phone calls this week. Here he is calling Daddy to tell him that he ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich!

That was our week. We'll Be Back with more B activities next week, thanks for stopping by. Please check out what other tots are doing by visiting Tot School.

Printers, laminators?

So I am thinking about getting a color printer and laminator, anyone have any recomendations or warnings on brands? For the printer I think I'd want one where I can refill the individual color ink cartridges rather than have to change out all the colors at once-- that seems so wasteful.

I've never had or used a laminator, do most of you use pouch or roll laminators? Hot or cold? I had no idea there were so many choices, and yikes, the prices go sky high!

Tot School Post #13

(Xander is 15 months)

We started off our week by playing with Playdoh.

I brought some of his wooden blocks to squish the dough with but what Xander enjoyed doing was sticking his fingers into the dough making little indentations all over.

Then he started tearing the dough into little pieces, it was really cute the concentration this took.

Later we worked on transferring with spoons. I set up a container full of popcorn kernels, a spoon, and an ice cube tray. I actually set up two, I worked alongside him.

This was really hard for Xander and very messy (pocorn everywhere!) but he was so proud when he got a spoonfull into the tray!

This is something he really needs to work on so we'll be doing it again and again, but I've learned he has to be the right mood. We tried it again later in the week when he was tired and all he wanted to do was dump the popcorn all over.

I decided it was time to start doing a letter of the week. At first I wasn't really to sure about this, I'm not really sure that he's getting much from it. It's really hard to know what he is understanding and what he isn't since he doesn't talk and only does a few signs. But after we were done I was so glad we'd done it. I don't think he has clue what A is, and he probably doesn't really understand what an apple is-- he's played with ones but he refuses to eat applesauce so I can't really make a connection there. However, he was so PROUD when I hung this on the fridge, he goes over and looks at it. So cute!

So, we started out at the beginning of the alphabet with A is for apple. I wrote an A on a page and then let Xander decorate it. He had fun scribbling and is working on taking caps off the pens.

All done drawing Mommy!

When he was done I cut the letter out, and the apple and leaf, and glued them to a sheet of paper and hung it on the fridge for everyone to see.

Xander had been done drawing but was intrigued by the cutting and glueing. I don't have any kid scissors yet and even if I did I really don't think he'd be able to cut but he could try glueing. Unfortunately all I had was a bottle of glue and he couldn't squeeze it hard enough to get glue out so I put down glue drops on the paper and showed him how to put the paper on top (I had cut up his leftover scribbles).

He kind of freaked when the paper stuck to his hand cause he had glue on it. I wiped down his hands and we continued.

He kept wanting to pull the pieces of paper back up.

But eventually we got all the pieces of paper glued down and we hung Xander's first collage on the fridge. He really does love looking at it. We also bought some glue sticks so next time he can do the glueing part too.

We had several sunny days this week which meant we were out exploring. One day we went to the back of our orchard and I sketched while Xander collected rocks. He just loves ROCKS!

Friday it was warm enough that I thought he'd enjoy playing with water. So I set him up in his dirt area with digging tools and a bowl of water. Hmm, water and dirt becomes what? MUD!!!! First he had a blast splashing the water in the bowl.

Then he dumped the water all over himself and the ground and made mud.

Mud boy!!!

Saturday was a day of confinement for Xander. He was pretty much in my lap, in the highchair, or in his playpen the whole day. Why? Cause Ryan was building a new home for our chicks. They were quickly outgrowing their cardboard box. Ryan would take breaks and let Xander come explore the tools and wood but for most of the afternoon he was just watching. Toward the end of the week he had really gotten interested in watching the little chicks in their box and now he can see them so much better. Plus they have room to really move around now. This is Xander looking at the chicks in half of their new home (we ran out of staples), the other half is finished so now they have a huge amount of space.

That was our week, thank you for stopping by. To see what others did visit Tot School.

Tot School Post #12

(Xander is 15 months)

We spent a lot of time this week playing with his new sorting eggs, he isn't sorting them yet but loves taking the shell off and making them squeak. Xander got a lot of new books for Easter and we've read them all over and over again. He's started to get books and bring them to us to read. He will also go get a book if we ask him to, very cute. 

Several of his new books and books we had checked out from the library have chicks in them, which is perfect timing cause we have chicks!

They are so cute. Cute but messy, and that heat lamp is HOT! I am so glad they are in Ryan's study and not next to my desk.

Of course our dogs are much more interested in them than Xander is. The other day I brought Xander into the room to look at them and pet them after I had cleaned their box and was getting ready to put them back. He did glance at them but didn't want to pet them, nope, unrolling the paper towel roll and ripping it up was so much more interesting!

We've had a weird week weather wise, hail, snowflakes, rain, and some sunshine. During those brief bits of sun we try to get outside. Friday we walked to the back of the property and Xander explored rocks and grass. While digging he decided the dirt looked tasty and put a whole handful in his mouth! He looked so shocked that it didn't taste good. I used his shirt to wipe it off his tongue and felt so bad that I hadn't brought water with us. We came back inside and he got to gnaw on his Easter bunny some more to get rid of that dirt taste.

Saturday we had hazy sunshine, so out we went. Earlier in the week I'd let Xander play with a bowl of water and little cups inside and he loved it so I thought I'd let him do that outside too. I set him up in a dirt patch with a bowl full of water, some containers, and a spoon, while I mowed the lawn nearby (a push mower so no danger to him). He had a blast! First he made stone soup, then he dumped the muddy water all over himself, he sorted his rocks, moving them from the bowl to a smaller container, and when he'd get bored with the rocks he'd take a walk on the grass. Just lots of messy fun.

Looking for rocks.

Adding dandelions and grass to his bowl of rocks.

Then he climbed up onto my chair. First time he's ever been able to do that. He was so proud of himself. He'd get down and climb back up over and over. So happy that he'd learned a new skill (while giving Mommy a heart attack as I stood there trying to prevent him from falling or toppling the chair over!).

That was our week, thanks for stopping by. To see what other tot's are up to visit Tot School.

Tot School Post #11

(Xander is 14 months)

Sorry about getting this posted so late. We had a fun Easter week. We started off the week with story time at the library. Each time Xander seems to get more comfortable with it. His favorite part is always the free play afterwards. He and another boy, Liam, are always "fighting" over the same two car toys (where you push down on the driver and the car zooms across the floor). It's really cute watching them interact.

I bought Xander some markers to draw with, they were much easier for him than the crayons. Xander seems to enjoy this but only for a short time. I was able to get him to make enough scribbles that I could cut up into eggs and make Easter cards for all his grandparents and great grand parents.

Wednesday we took a short walk outside. The ground was wet but Xander had fun splashing in puddles and was fascinated by a pinwheel in one of our planters. It was so cute watching him turn it round and round. I spied a garter snake in the grass and showed it to him. Unfortunately instead of a science lesson we got a life and death lesson, Poppy Seed saw me pointing and dashed over and killed the poor snake.

When we came back in I decided to let Xander play with Snag, a giant teddy bear that was first my sister's and then mine (she gave him to me nearly 30 years ago). I wanted to send a photo of them together to my sister to cheer her up as she undergoes chemo. Xander thought that the bear bigger than he is, was neat.

We worked with our bean bin again. This time I buried some of the rocks Xander has collected along with a few toys in the beans. He had fun getting those out and then covering them again. He also scooped the beans into a smaller container this time.

I started seperating the spilled beans into two piles, grouping them by color. Xander watched for awhile and then seemed to get upset that I was messing with his beans and came over and destroyed my neat piles.

On Saturday we went to the cider mill for their Easter egg hunt. We walked around and saw all the animals first. This time Xander actually walked, didn't care that there were hordes of people there who could step on him or spill their hot drinks on him. He wanted to walk, everywhere! This time he was really interested in all of the animals, and enjoyed petting a baby bunny and getting licked by a goat. I wasn't sure if Xander would understand what to do at the egg hunt but he caught on right away and had fun finding the eggs and putting them in the basket.

I had planned on dyeing our eggs when we got home from the egg hunt but we were all so tired that we put it off until Easter morning and did our Easter late Sunday afternoon. Let me just say that dyeing eggs with a 14 month old is insane but he had a lot of fun. Here he is waiting for me to get the eggs and dye set up (he stole my headband and insisted on wearing it), very excited.

He only used those spoons to splash the dye around, preferring to use his hands to put the eggs in and out of the dye.

Miraculously the eggs survived the dyeing, but some got cracked during the egg hunt because Xander tended to bang them while picking them up. We quickly learned to grab them from him as soon as he found them. He had fun finding the eggs and his Easter baskets, or at least most of them. About 3/4 of the way through he found the new ball his grandparents sent him and then it was all over. All he wanted to do was play with the ball. It was really cute. After a while we were able to lure him away to the last basket but we gathered the last few eggs for him. He did like all his presents, not just the ball. In fact the sorting eggs I got him have been a big hit. He's not really sorting them yet but loves playing with them.

And then came the wonder of gnawing on his first chocolate bunny and the huge tantrum when Mommy decided he'd had enough and took it away.

So that was our Easter week. We had fun and hope everyone else did too. To see what other families are doing in Tot School go here.