Should I just wait?

Should I just wait a couple months so it can be an ENTIRE year since I wrote anything here?! Short version: we're back in WY. Must be something about the cold Wyoming wind that drives me to blog. A certain little girl thinks she's being mommy's hilarious helper by sitting on my lap and hitting the keyboard :)

Christmastime With Two

Sometimes I forget that these days won't last forever, and I really won't remember all the little things that just seem so ordinary right now. To be able to look back on these "little years" and have these memories to hold onto is important to me.

This year has been a really special year for the holidays. Parker's 1st Thanksgiving/Christmas was really special - he was just 1 day old & then 1 month old for those and this year, our first year with two feels special in that same way.

Avery is a sweetie pie and just loves being with her family. She's really content with whatever is going on but the way she smiles and Parker and watches him so intently, loves being cuddled by Daddy, and is such a Mommy's girl. And Parker is just a total blast this year! He loves the tree and the ornaments. He thinks the Wiggles are part of the nativity scene and keeps telling Brent that "we can't tell you about your present Daddy."

Life is busy. Some days I feel like we're in a routine & others I still feel like everything is turned upside down. But it's amazing. And exhausting. But mostly amazing.

Toddler Preschool - Books This Week

We frequent the library quite often. Between the books, and dvds, and fun things to play with, Parker loves it. I try to branch out on what kind of books we get and I've really seen it pay off in Parker's growing interest in reading all sorts of books lately!

Here's what we have this week:

"Arthur and the True Francine" by Marc Brown

"Just Like You" by Jan Fearnley

"Bedtime For Bear" by Brett Helquist

"Zoozical" by Judy Sierra

"Frozen Noses" by Jan Carr

Tales of a Haunted Laptop

My laptop has been dying a slow, painful, annoying death for over a year now. It all began when Parker spilled a glass of water on it. It started acting crazy right after that, although it still worked, the keyboard sort of had a mind of it's own. Sometime after, it miraculously healed and operated completely normal.

Well, for a couple months now it's been acting crazy again. I can't type the letter 'Q', a capital 'J' erases everything you'd just typed, the period key brings up an html dialogue box, the space bar inserts a bracket, and the letter 'd' drops down the address bar.....so yeah it's been a PAIN to use.

I blame my lack of blogging on that and now that I've given up hope and have made our home desktop computer my own I hope to be better about it :)

Interview With a Toddler

I saw this little outline for an interview you do with your child. It suggested doing it yearly and then keeping them all together in a notebook - so cute! I bet I could do this everyday and get new answers though. So here it is with his exact quotes in each answer...

1. What is your name?
       "It's me!"

2. How old are you?
        "Good."

3. What is your favorite color?
        "Orange"

4. Who is your best friend?
        "Daddy"

5. What is your favorite animal?
        "Teddy a bear"

6. What do you want to be when you grow up?
        "A bear"

7. What is your favorite movie?
        "Da Wiggles"

8. What is your favorite book?
        "Henry the Octopus and a pirate book."

9. What makes you happy?
        "Bay-Jay and my Papa"

10. What makes you sad?
        "I miss my Nana."

11. What is your favorite food?
        "Pears"

12. What is your favorite song?
        "It's the wiggles...it's the wiggles."

13. What games do you like to play?
         "Mickey Mouse and the hula song."

Parker's Home Preschool - 8/24

Wednesday:

AM: Water Play - Bubble Snakes http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.c … nakes.html
Number Match 11-20 (Making my own game tonight)

PM: Field Trip - Visiting a friend & evening walk

I followed the link above for instructions about how to make the bottles. I used tape instead of a rubberband for the washcloth and the bottle didn't crumple at all. I also used Gain not Dawn for the bubbles and it worked great!
 

 This was so fun and the coolest thing! Parker was not a fan of blowing after he inhaled himself a mouthful of suds. So I got to do that part. He loved it though!

 He had a blast playing with the bubbles and painting/cleaning the sidewalk and himself.

Overall it was a hit, but probably better suited for older kids who would know how to not inhale the bubbles.

We also did some number recognition and counting fun this morning. I made up these little boards on construction paper. This isn't the finished product since I need some contact paper to keep them from getting all crumpled, but I'm sure we'll use them again. First Parker matched the number card to the boards.

Then I helped him count out beans to put in the box above each number.

He was losing track of his counting, so I drew the number of dots in the empty box to help him remember what he was counting to.

 So far, it's been a great first day!

Preschool at Home

DPS started school this week and something in the air must have inspired me to start our own little "school" at home. Or maybe it's the total lack of structure and routine we've had since oh around July 1st. And school might be too strong a word. It's maybe like a very casual preschool plan...just something to expand what Parker does each day and help us both have a little bit of a routine. Something we both seem to do better with.

So here our plan for the week:

Wednesday:
AM: Water Play (Bubble Snakes - http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.c … nakes.html)
         Number Bean Match
PM: Field Trip - visiting a friend

Thursday:
AM: Field Trip - Park/Sandbox
         Farm Bingo or Painting
PM: Make Play Doh (http://www.rookie-cookie.com/2009/01/je … dough.html)

Friday:
AM: Coloring with markers (http://www.supercoloring.com/pages/tag/ … alphabet/,[ http://www.squidoo.com/eric-carle-color … ramebuster)
          Field Trip - Library Story Time
PM: Finger painting & Outside/water play

I'll be incorporating alot more next week after I get some things set up this weekend! :)