Startin’ ‘em Young

I love my iPad.  Nat bought it for me at the beginning of the year (along with a Motorola Xoom for himself) with the award money he got for being 7-Eleven’s 2010 National Real Estate Rep of the Year.  I don’t know how I ever lived without it!  Nor can my children.  Adam figured out how to work it immediately because he had been playing with my Dad’s iPhone for so long.

Well just recently, I downloaded some apps that I knew Abby would have fun with and she likes to play them as long as her brother isn’t dominating.  Which isn’t very often. 

The other day I had the iPad up on the back of the couch.  I was in the kitchen but I watched as Abby climbed onto the couch, grabbed the iPad, slid down onto her bum, flipped open the cover and pressed the on button!  The only thing she couldn’t do was slide the unlock icon to bring up the app page.  Give her a couple more days and I think she’ll have it figured out!

She was so cute to watch because after she would touch a hidden animal, she’d stick her finger in her mouth until she found another one and then stick it right back in.  It takes a lot of concentration to find those animals! :)

In this video she is touching the small animals on the bottom bar of the screen to make the big animal jiggle up top so that she can find it (they are hidden behind things).  She must have learned that from Adam!  I also didn’t know she knew how to get back to the app page, slide her finger to make the page move, and then select the next game she wanted to play.  The one she picked is actually one of her favorites so she obviously knew which one she was looking for when she selected it.

p.s.  That annoying ‘clunk, clunk, bang’ noise you hear in the background is Adam throwing cars down the stairs.  Lovely.

Tot School–4th of July Theme

- Adam is 43 months old -
- Abigail is 17 months old -

For the past 2 weeks we had a 4th of July theme for our sporadic Tot School.  The biggest hit was the sensory bin!  After reading a great Montessori Minute post all about sensory activities on 1+1+1=1, I was inspired to create our first sensory bin.  The kids absolutely loved it!

Bin #1
Colored rice, glittery pom-poms, necklaces, star confetti, 2 light-up balls, and 2 pinwheels.
I got these items from the craft store or dollar store and dyed the rice with food coloring and rubbing alcohol.

Adam collected all the star confetti he could find and both kids were yell out “star!” when they found one.  Abby especially loves stars.  It is the first official shape she recognizes.  In fact, we went to TGIFridays a couple weeks ago and she yelled out “stah!” and pointed to them throughout dinner because there were so many star decoration around the restaurant!

When she isn’t making car noises and driving monster trucks around, Abby loves to put on bracelets, shoes, and necklaces.  I knew she’d love these USA necklaces I found.

Another day with this bin.  I brought it out 3 times during the week before the 4th of July.

Bin #2
I pulled every red and blue thing I could find in our toys.  I came up with Magneatos, foam dice, counting bears, counting bugs, wooden nuts and bolts, large plastic buttons, and little measuring cups.  I also added in some glittery garland and a container full of the glittery pom-poms.



Finally, I added in little star beads which they thought were fun.  This is a rare moment of teamwork caught on camera! :)

I’m excited to create for sensory bins for them.  I already have a Pirate theme in mind as well as holiday/season themes for our Preschool year.

I got the following firework activities from the 4th of July pack from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Firework Clip Cards

Which is Different?
Adam struggled with the concept of same vs. different.  We had to talk about each picture and I had to help him a lot.  I have a preschool workbook all about this so he will have lots of practice in the future!  I was encouraged that he was able to circle the items though!

He did a few of these capital letter-to-lowercase letter sheets.  He thought the dry erase markers were awesome!  Again, I was happy to see that he was able to draw the lines.  I haven’t worked much on writing/drawing with him because he simply isn’t interested in drawing or coloring.  I think our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum will be really good for him when we start next month.

Firework Patterns
He looked at the pattern strip and copied it with the cards.

My United States Flag
This was color coded so Adam drew red lines, colored in the blue square, and then glued white stars on.

Finger Paint Flag

This may only be the 2nd or 3rd time Abby has finger painted and after getting over the initial ick factor, she had a great time.  I showed her how to make handprints and from there she just smashed her hands all over her paper.

Adam was itching to be “free” so after I had him finish the painstaking task of making flag lines, he had fun smooshing on another paper.

Play-Doh

Abby’s first time with Play-Doh!  What is wrong with me?  I forgot how much fun little one have putting balls in and taking balls out of cups.  Adam used to love doing this as a toddler.

So that was our 2 weeks worth of laid-back 4th of July fun.  I’m kind of dreading having a structured preschool year next year so I may revamp what I’ve already planned and do less.  Adam will have another full year of preschool or K4 before official Kindergarten so I’m feeling the need to simplify.  It’s a constant battle with me to figure out what, when, and how to structure our days and our learning and playtimes.  These feelings always lead me to the realization that I need to rely on the Lord more.  Note taken. :)

Lagoon Day 2011

Nat took the day off so we could go to Lagoon yesterday.  It was so fun!  We went last year and I thought I’d pull up some pictures to compare.

Abby at 5 months hanging out in the stroller the whole time.

Abby at almost 17 months riding the carousel (and signing ‘horse’)!

Adam at 2 1/2 riding in an airplane

Adam at 3 1/2 riding in an airplane
Yes, ironically, he is wearing the exact same shirt.  In fact, you can’t see it, but he’s wearing the exact same shorts as well….just a size bigger.  I got a good deal at the end of last summer on these clothes so I bought the next size up!)

Bulgy the Whale at 2 1/2

Bulgy the Whale at 3 1/2

Abby’s major meltdown on the train.  They took FOREVER to get it going so I got off with her and walked around until she fell asleep in the stroller.

Checking out the wheels on the side of the boat.  He was very interesting in them!

He loves the rollercoaster!

Along with the carousel and would-be train ride, this was the only other ride Abby could go on.  I can’t tell if she enjoyed it or not!

Seeing the pictures from last year has made me realize just how bad our camera has gotten.  I dropped it….slightly…..a couple of weeks ago and now it won’t auto-focus unless you press a certain button each time you turn it on.  Nat didn’t quite realize this so half of our pictures are blurry.  Time for a new one!  Any suggestions on good point-and-shoots?  I’m not sure I’m ready to dive into hard-core cameras where you have to look through the actual lens and mess with all those dials and settings.  Nor do I want to spend that much.

4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July this year!

Ready for church on Sunday the 3rd
As you can see….Abby doesn’t like being held down by Adam

We went to a local parade.  We were bored stiff but the kids loved it!
I’m a total sap so I got all emotional when I taught Adam to place his hand over his heart as the flag was marched down the parade route.  I also couldn’t make it through The Star Spangled Banner in sacrament meeting.  I love this country!

Abby yelled “boo!” at every balloon she saw, (not to scare it…that’s how she says balloon)!

Adam was thrilled with the vast amounts of candy thrown at us.

After the parade we went to a fair but of course I left the camera in the car….a 10 minute walk away.  We had lunch, tried to make our way through the insane amount of people all walking on the same narrow path, and Adam had fun on some bouncy slides and obstacles.

We had a BBQ at my parents’ house and while Nat and I were inside playing a game with my parents and brother/sister-in-law, my sister Danielle was being an awesome Aunt and showing Adam the joys of smoke bombs and sparklers!  She took all these pictures on her phone and I stole them off of Facebook for myself! :)

Adam and I made this flag cake.  It didn’t come out as nice as my vision, but that’s what you get when you have a 3 year old helping you!

And last, but not least, fireworks!  Abby sat happily on my lap and only flinched a little at the really loud ones.

The very first firework Adam chose to do was a turtle that didn’t do much but shoot itself backwards.  Unfortunately, the boys up the street, including my brother Tommy, let off a really loud one exactly when Adam’s turtle went off and it scared the heck out of him.  After that, he was happy to observe from a safe distance.  Nana taught him the proper way of throwing poppers on the ground and he emptied the box pretty quickly.

God Bless America!!

Swimming Lessons

Adam just finished up 2 weeks of Preschool level swimming lessons.  I was a little worried that he’d freak out but he did great!  The first day he didn’t want to hop in the 2-foot deep pool when the instructors said, so when she pulled him and kind of dragged him across the pool I thought, “Oh no…”, but I guess he decided he was fine and had a blast after that!

This is typical Adam….being silly with the kids around him.  Whenever we go into Primary to help him with a scripture or talk, we watch him talk and laugh with the kids sitting next to him.  Even though his teachers tell me he isn’t too irreverent, I don’t believe them. 
Yay for dunking!
I was shocked, again, that he didn’t freak out after this!  This is the same kid who clung to me for dear life in a hot tub, while wearing water wings 6 weeks ago.  And here he is letting a stranger dunk him under the water.  Go figure.

Of course he was sad when swimming lessons ended.  I’m contemplating doing another session at the end of the summer just for fun.  He needs all the water-exposure he can get!  His Daddy is afraid of water because he didn’t have these opportunities as a kid.  And I love the water because I did.  Adam is naturally timid and weary of things anyway so it definitely couldn’t hurt!  I’d also like to get Abby in Parent-Tot so maybe Nat could watch Adam while I do Abby.  She would LOVE swimming.  She is definitely a water-baby!