Library Adventures

On Tuesday we attended our usual "field trip" to story time at the library. It was mentioned that Cookie Monster and Elmo would be visiting today (Wednesday) and that is all it took to convince me. The littles were SO excited all day Tuesday to go see their favorite Sesame Street characters. So, much of our morning on Wednesday was spent preparing for meeting CM and E. We talked about high-fiving them, sitting in their lap, hugging them, taking pictures with them. None of those actually happened. I watched mothers force screaming (tears and all) children onto the laps of these big furry creatures so when the littles expressed that they prefer looking from a distance I respected it. Sesame Street Live comes to Kansas City every year so I'm not too hurt about not getting any pictures of our littles actually high-fiving, hugging, or sitting in the lap (with the exception of a sleeping Lo) of E or CM. On the plus side a neighbor and friend of ours came along for the special event and he was really excited about meeting the characters, listening to story time, and he got his own library card :) Happy feelings. We were the last kiddos to leave the library and that meant the bean (yeah you, Lo) and sprouts got some extra attention from Mrs.Clare, the librarian. She is awesome and had a fun Sesame Street dance party with our little ones. Happy feelings doubled. 

Friday Activities

We started Friday with a lovely Yoga class. We always focus on breathing, and use it in tense situations that undoubtably rise with a group of beans and sprouts :) Lately, a lot of movements and poses have joined the yoga routine as our attention span for a class has grown. I LOVE YOGA. 

We are very into Pete the Cat, our latest addition to our growing book collection. We first read (or were read to) Pete the Cat at the library, one of our very first storytimes. We go every Tuesday and every time all copies of the book are checked out and the wait list is endless. So, we purchased it, best decision ever. I've already commented on how much we all love the book. We spent the morning coloring a pair of shoes, a printout I quickly pulled from the website mentioned in my previous post. The children had so much fun decorating their shoes! Then we re-re-re-re-re-read the book and while reading played a simplified version of pin the shoe on Pete. I colored a shoe for each color brought up in the storyline, stuck a piece of tape on the back of each shoe, and as we got to each color in the book let a child pin a shoe on Pete. No blindfold, but probably more fun getting to see our finished Pete with different color shoes.

We also "painted". Paint is messy which is most of the time really fun and I don't think twice about the mess. But, when I saw this activity done elsewhere in the blog world I HAD to do it. I've been really thinking about light table actities and this one would be really fun on a light table, but we just used a window. I put globs of different color paint in a gallon size freezer bag and taped it to the window. First the fun was in mixing the paints to discover the final color. We are still a little young to understand the color wheel so right now it is magic! The fun with the paint bage went on for a long time, the kids did handprint designs, drug their fingers in designs- mostly circles, and smushed different item on the paint bag to see what kind of imprint it left.

 While we were at the window for large amounts of time I realized, or remembered, that I am not the only one that absolutely loves the Concourse fountains. Luckily, we are always able to look out a window to see them or take the few steps out of our front door to play in or around them or the park. Fortunate. Anyways, at any given time there was a car(s) stopped outside with a happy driver/passenger photographing the huge frozen domes that have formed. I didn't snap any photos on Friday but here are a few from last week.

This week!

We've been rather low key lately, staying indoors more than out- avoiding the cold high winds for the sake of chapped cheeks. Noses start running the minute we go outside, the kids awkwardly waddle around in the many layers of clothing, and within a few minutes I hear, "I'm cold, can we go in?".

So, we've been busy block building- castle blocks by treehaus are SO fun, shape identifying (now that we can recognize different shapes we are finding them everywhere triangle pizza, circle toilet set...), and reading, reading, reading- our new favorite book is Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, Eric Litwin. The book is a song, and there is a free download if you visit the site (the title of the book is a link). Children's books, while very simple, offer great inspiration to me as an adult! The moral of this story applies to so much in life, read it!

I've implemented a behavior rewards system for the toddlers. Sticker charts! It is working out great, stickers are gold to the littles, and they are SO proud of their earnings!

A little brag on our vegetable consumption lately- the kiddos can't get enough of them! I think that because I every now and again serve "snack packs", baby food pouches of blended veggies and fruits, the kids were getting subtle tastes of the vegetables with their beloved fruit. Now when I serve a bowl of peas they compete to see who will eat more, carrots are fought over, and we've been shredding zucchini to toss in our pasta sauces and breads. Also, rutabaga, a root rarely given the recognition it deserves- kids love you... and so do I :)

I'm not sure if I'm being lazy or I'm really just as tired as I think (winter months make me groggy) but I vow to get better with blog posting. Right now I'm typing this post on my phone, explaining the lack of links and pictures. I need to start dedicating time to sit at the computer and write thorough updates! We've been doing such educational fun activities that I feel guilty not sharing!

Hello again!

It's been too long since my last update. Long enough to say I'm not keeping up with our blog! Rest assured the children have been having fun, crafting, baking, learning and growing, hitting milestones left and right, eating healthy meals, celebrating birthdays, and having fun, having fun, having fun!

We had a Christmas-New Year break from childcare. Lo turned one during our busy holiday season, mastered the art of walking, and reluctantly stopped breast feeding (tmi?). Ez potty trained!

Our chickens are happy healthy and growing rapidly! We are looking forward to getting eggs soon, fingers crossed! And it's greeting close to the time to starting our seedlings for this Spring's gardens.

We've been enjoying story time at the library every Tuesday. Santa came to join story time in late December! All of the childcare families met up during our holiday break to see Suessical!

I'll hopefully be back on track with daily blog updates and menu posting starting Monday. A goal for the new year!

Cheers,
Andrea