Wordless Wednesday (almost)

Nathan’s interpretation of African Dance… He’s preparing his skills for “So You Think You Can Dance”!!!

Baseball... by Nathan (and Uncle Matt)

The other night, Uncle Matt pitched Nathan his first ball. Amazingly, he knocked it halfway across our backyard. It happened many times, and we were all stunned. I don't think I could connect that many pitches! :) The first video is one of those pitched balls. He can hit equally well both left handed and right handed. Interesting!

The second video is just Nathan being Nathan, hitting the ball off the tee, spinning around, crashing, talking, and just being Nathan! We love you little man!

Tot School

This week we've taken a break from formal tot school and have enjoyed some summer fun! Tons of trips to the pool, a visit with Yaya and Papa at the lake, and playing with friends! Nathan also started back to preschool this week and is going 3 days. He really likes it and we are so thankful! We hope to be back to tot school next week!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Father's Day sweetheart!

These pictures I'll treasure forever. There is such a strong bond between Nathan and Chad and their love for one another runs deep. Chad is an AMAZING father and I'm so incredibly thankful the Lord blessed me with this one of a kind man to marry. Baby, we love you! Happy Father's Day!

Tot School (30 months)

We had another fabulous week!  Here’s our week in pictures and a few words!
Building/racing fun:
Nathan has finally learned not to crash his train tracks and this has enabled us to build multi-level tracks and for him to help with much more of the building!  He loves all things with wheels, so naturally building, racing, and the other things that go along with those are included in our tot school time.

I can’t remember who posted about the highway letter idea (so sorry!), but it comes from this website (http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/RacecarABCcards.htm).  I chose to draw my own letters and then color them (N with crayon, and A with marker) and quickly figured out why people print them!  Nathan did enjoy lining up his cars on the letters though!
 
Science fun:
We’ve been reading tons of books about all kinds of things but a few of the books have been about bugs… so of course all of our plastic animals were dumped on the floor and we went through them talking about if they were a bug or animal and what the name was (if N didn’t already know).

Patterning/Gluing:
Okay, so I’ve just recently given in to handing over control of the glue stick to my toddler.  I don’t like sticky messes, but I’m learning that I’m the mother of a boy and I have to get over that!  So this past week, after showing Nathan the point of the activity (ABAB patterning) and how to make glue dots… I handed over the glue bottle.  The patterning went well, he successfully and independently patterned 8 different cards.  The glue, while independent and not so messy, was hysterical.  The dots turned into highways, but honestly, who cares?  Well, I did for a sec, but then realized the point is not to make perfect glue dots, it’s to allow Nathan to explore patterning and glue!

Games, Music, and Dressing:
Of course they don’t go into the same category… but since I only have a few pics, I’m consolidating screen space. :)  I know, what’s gotten into me?  We played a great game called color match.  While the color matching was simple for Nathan… the turn taking, and learning he could only draw a card once per turn and if he had room great, if not he couldn’t turn over another card till his turn… well, that was the learning part. :)
As usual, we played instruments all through the week. 
Nathan is soooooo independent in so many areas and then doesn’t really care to be independent in others.  Recently he’s started to enjoy picking out his clothes (something he didn’t care to do before).  The blue “ROCK” polo and red knit shorts were one of his creations.  These outfits are often accompanied out of the house by a different shoe on each foot.  :)

Word Family Fun:
I used some old scrapbook letters and some stickers/horrible drawing to make these word family worksheets.  Nathan loved them and amazed me with his ability to spell out the words and independently place the letters (on his independent glue stick blobs).  We did this several different days.
 
Letters/Spelling/Phonics
Matching words to pictures: I saw this idea on The Adventures of Bear, and then modified it to fit the supplies we already had.  Nathan did a great job matching the words to the pictures.  I had to remind him to slow down and think before choosing, but once he did, he surprised me with this!
 
I gave Nathan the letters of his name and asked him to glue them in order.  Then between the lines at the bottom, I asked him to write his name.  He’s learning about spacing the letters that he writes and writing left to right.

I lined up ABC cards A-M (which in hindsight I should have asked N to do) and handed him a basket of animals whose names started with letters A-M.  Other than confusing C and K on Cow, and mistaking the iguana for a lizard, he did this quickly, correctly, and without help. I love the way he purposefully stood all the animals on their legs and carefully placed each one down as to not disturb the standing ones. :)
 
Puzzle Fun:

Button Drop:
I found this idea from Children’s Learning Activities and Nathan had a blast with it.  I gave him a butter container with a small slit cut in the top and a container (which usually holds our cough drops-can you tell) of all sizes of buttons.  He did this several times in a row, but the most fun was the last time when he forced all the buttons except for one in the small hole, thus widening the hole each time.  This is why CLA suggests using a baby food jar with a non-pliable lid.  :)  The funniest part to me was when Nathan couldn’t force the last button through the ever widening hole in the top.  He just had to have that button in with the others so he took the lid off completely and said, “there mommy, it will fit in that BIIIIIG hole”.  Then, he replaced the lid and requested a new activity.  HeeHee!
 
Number Fun:
Nathan is drawing lines from the amount of items to the correct number.  He also traced the numbers.  This printable came from The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM. 

A similar idea came from Carissa at 1+1+1=1.  Since our printer is out of ink, I made Nathan these “how many” sheets using construction paper and stickers we have at home.  He had to count the objects, choose the correct number off the table, take the sticker backing off of the number and then place it over the correct # in the number choices on the page.  This was a huge hit!  Thanks for the idea Carissa!!!

Drawing/Writing Fun:
Here’s my literal child for you… in his box of paper he found this X.  He asked me what color he should color it (and since he loves to draw with black, brown, and purple most all the time), I suggested a “rainbow X” meaning all kinds of colors.  Well Nathan, being so literal, drew a rainbow overtop of the X.  :)

My favorite of the week had to be this impromptu coloring time with daddy.  They were drawing cars and Daddy drew an awesome blue one.  It’s “The King” from Cars.  Well, for those of you who’ve seen the movie… you know that The King gets flat tires.  Nathan had to depict this on daddy’s drawing.  See?

I hope that you enjoy these ideas and the fun pics from our great week!  To find out what others are doing in their tot schools, go to Carissa’s blog and check out the tot school posts!  www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com

Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip…Slip and Slide!

How many of you moms and dads from the 80s remember playing with the good ole slip and slides? You know the giant sheet of yellow plastic that killed a strip of your parents’ lawn every summer? I can still sing the commercial in my head! Well, I had no idea they were still around! I know, I should have known. Well, my one of my friends lent her elephant slip and slide to Bethany, who lent it to us and OH MY GOODNESS is it fun! The new ones now have a crash landing mat full of air! NO more belly flops into hard Carolina clay! You can land on a raft and go squealing down the plastic and land in a pool at the bottom… one with bumpers! My slip and slide had none of that and when you ran off the end at the bottom, you had grass stains up your leg to your eye! Nathan has perfected the slip and slide run and approach, as well as the belly flop slide! He loves it as do we! Talk about a tired toddler! I told him he’d slide faster if he ran from the other side of our yard (a good 150 feet). So each time, he runs from the other side. Here’s his first adventure with the slip and slide.

After doing this every afternoon (and a few mornings) for a week, we got smart and invited one of our neighbors and her boys down to play. Our neighborhood is FULL of children… tons and tons of boys all ages! Within 10 houses from us there are 9 boys under the age of 4! Not to mention all the other girls, and girls and boys over 4! Needless to say, Melissa and her 3 kiddos came to play and they had an amazing time. She and I and baby C sat at the table under the shade munching on caramel corn, pretzels, and blueberries, while the 3 boys played and took turns, and shared and laughed as if they all did it perfectly every day. 3 hours of peaceful, fun, energetic play. Oh my goodness we’ll be doing this again!!!

Melissa and crew, please come back and play again soon!!!!! Wham-o, thanks for making such a great product! Friends, thanks for letting us borrow it!!!

Poopin’ Pro

We finally made the plunge and are going diaperless at nap time!  We also started a new reward system for Nathan when he poops in the potty (which he does religiously first thing after he wakes up in am and after nap – often before he’s fully awake).  I made a chart for him to put stickers on and when he got 10 stickers, he got to have the Cars Piston Cup race set.  Well low and behold, that was surely motivational and in 6 days, the Piston Cup was his.  Doesn’t he look super proud and so delighted?

 

Only problem with this lovely prize is that it’s horribly made, only accepts a few “Cars” cars, is loud, requires no interaction, and sucked Nathan’s fingers in several times.  Within 30 minutes, I’d decided it had to go back to the store… but what to replace it with?  After polling some of the boys in our neighborhood, they suggested HotWheels trick track and old style race track.  That’s exactly what we got and it’s so much better!  It works with all of his cars and the motorized speed booster doesn’t hurt if you touch it!  YAY!  Now the reward for pooping in the potty is a new track configuration and it’s pretty motivating!

Good job little man!  We are super proud of you!

Thank you Papa!!!

Papa,

Thank you so much for making this awesome marker caddy for me!  I appreciate you drilling the holes the perfect size and sanding and staining the wood!  Now, I don’t lose my marker tops!  THANK YOU PAPA!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Sleeping Boy

Now that Nathan is napping sans diaper and usually sans clothing, he's wanting to be a nakee baby at night too. Not a good idea yet, considering he's still wearing a diaper at night and needs it! :) So most nights we compromise and this is how he goes to sleep... isn't he cute!

I love you little man!!!

Taylor Grace!

Well, we found out at 13 weeks, that our baby on the way was most likely a girl… again at 15 weeks, my doc said she looked like a girl.  Last Thursday, our 19 week ultrasound confirmed that indeed there is a sweet baby girl in my belly!  She’s developing well, is a few days ahead of schedule, has long feet and legs, wide hands, and a gorgeous spine.  She is VERY active and although that I knew, I didn’t know she also opens her mouth a whole lot too… hmmm I wonder if that has any bearing on how much she’ll talk or eat? :)

She kept her hand (and sometimes both feet) in front of her face for most of the ultrasound so the 4D pics of her face were hard to get.  Of course at this stage these always look amazing and really weird all at the same time!  Here’s a glimpse of our little Taylor Grace…

And this post? That’s my “project”.  It’s her room… aka our old office/storage facility/landing group for what doesn’t belong anywhere else/hiding space so the rest of the house looks more organized.  I have a huge endeavor in front of me!  Many of the boxes in the back have been there since we moved in, almost 2 years ago!  A lot of it is scrapbook supplies which I need to get rid of… let me know if you’d like any and if you’ll cover shipping, I’ll send it your way! :) 

We have also decided to cloth diaper little Taylor from the get go.  We started with Nathan around 15 months, so we have little clue as to how it works with newborns, but I’ve been adding to our cloth stash little by little.  It’s so fun to order girlie diapers!!!!!

We’ve also hit a few yard sales in the past two weeks and have made some HUGE scores.  I tell you what, I have a lot of clothes for her already that look brand new, 6 pair of shoes in various sizes, some blankets, swaddle wraps, socks, and all kinds of goodies!  I love yard sales!

Nathan is thrilled to be having a baby sister and will tell anyone that her name is Taylor Grace and she’s in mommy’s belly, right there!  :)  So sweet!   Since you all know I love to reminisce, here are a few of Nathan’s 20 week ultrasound pics.