Floor Time

I realized that all of my posts have been about O lately, and I really should include Ema a little more :) We've started having floor time in her room in the mornings, and we are all enjoying it. O is a little Mother Hen, and she LOVES her baby sister. She loves it if I need the room for a minute, and she always assures me that she will babysit while I'm gone. "Baby Sister" loves O, and she especially loves it when O sings to her. She even cooed at O a few days ago when O was singing to her. It doesn't get any better than that!!!

I will eventually post pics of Ema's semi-Montessori bedroom. You can see the floor mirrors in this picture. It appears that Ema is looking at herself in the mirror, but I don't think she can really see them at all. I need to lower them. She was laughing in this picture. I love that she has started smiling, cooing, and laughing.

Edit to Add: Several people have commented that they are surprised that I use "Ema's" name...don't worry! Her name is NOT Ema :) I didn't want to use 2 initials because I find it annoying when I read something and EVERYONE is called an initial. "Ema" is our baby's blog name...it's a play on her "real" name :)

Halloween Sensory Tub

The idea for a Halloween sensory tub came from No Time For Flashcards. I love this idea, and it was so simple to put together (I love it when I see an idea on a blog, and it is something I can do immediately with little effort!). For our Halloween sensory tub, we used dried black beans, plastic spiders, bats, skeletons, and scorpions (from the dollar store), orange pom-poms, orange beads, googly eyes, orange pipe cleaners, and orange feathers. We added in a scoop, cups, tunnels, and tongs for even more fun!

A Felt Jack O'Lantern Game

I LOVE to make felt scenes and games! This felt jack o'lantern game was inspired by the felt scarecrow game at Let's Explore. You spin the spinner to decorate your pumpkin. There are all kinds of fun and crazy combinations...bunny ears, witches hat, blue hair, green tongue, bear ears, etc. O was THRILLED when she saw the set. We haven't played the game yet, but O has had a great time deorating the "mama and daddy" pumpkins. I guess I need to make 2 small pumpkins, so she can have "O and Ema" pumpkins, too :)

Our Miniature Pumpkin Family

I love this Halloween Countdown activity from The Wonder Years and decided that O and I would give it a try. It quickly turned into a completely different activity :) After we made one mini jack o'lantern, O decided that we needed a baby pumpkin and a cat pumpkin. Then, since we had a mama, baby, and cat, we HAD to have a daddy pumpkin and an O pumpkin. We ended up forgetting about using the toothpicks for a countdown and just had fun making our miniature pumpkin family.

We have LOTS of Halloween centerpieces, and there are more to come! I may have to move a few things to the mantel :)

Halloween Ghost Tree

O and I made a Halloween ghost tree this morning. We put a cotton ball in a tissue, and wrapped orange yarn around the cotton ball. We then drew a face on the tissue, and tied each ghost to a branch. We used to make ghost trees when I was a child, but we put lollipops in the tissues. I'm sure O would have liked that version better :)

Sorting Spiders

O sorted these Halloween spiders by color using chopsticks. The first time she tried it, she said "I don't like this because it's hard for me." (She usually does not like to use tongs or chopsticks). She asked if we could do "hand over hand" to sort the spiders. She did MUCH better with the chopsticks today, and she REALLY enjoyed the activity. I hope that she'll finally start to enjoy using chopsticks and tongs now :)

A Different Spin on Decorating a Pumpkin

O was excited about today's Halloween activity...decorating the back of our carved pumpkin with plastic noses, eyes, mouths, ears, etc. I bought the set of parts after Halloween last year. The pieces are very similar to Mr. Potato Head parts which would work just as well. We're planning on buying several more smaller pumpkins and finding all of our Mr. Potato Head parts to make an interesting family of pumpkins :)

A Gingerbread Haunted House

We had a lot of messy fun decorating this Halloween Gingerbread House. I bought the kit last year after Halloween, and I love that the house was already put together! All we had to do was mix up the icing by adding water and decorate with the candy provided. This was fun and messy!

O had fun decorating the house, but she REALLY had fun mixing the orange and black icing together and smearing it all over her hands :)

Carving a Pumpkin

Monday's Halloween activity was carving a pumpkin. We used a pattern and tools from a set that I bought last year after Halloween (for about 75 cents). O chose a cat pattern, and the pumpkin turned out really nice. Elliott roasted the pumpkin seeds with garlic, and they were delicious!

Proud Daddy

We LOVE the baby wrap!!! It was much easier to figure out than I expected. After a few tries, I realized that it's easy and wonderful! E slept in the wrap for 3 hours while we were at a festival yesterday...O had her 1st dance performance, and she did a wonderful job! Elliott tried the wrap today, and E slept for around 2 hours while I ran errands. Hooray! I have a feeling I may be wearing this wrap (and baby!) nonstop for the next few months :) Miss E does NOT like to be put down. She's definitely an arm baby!

Sticker Story

I've wanted to do a sticker story with O ever since seeing it on Let's Explore. We finally found the time to do it last week! O enjoyed making her sticker picture. Then she "read" the picture to me while I typed the story. I laminated the pages (after I took the picture), and we'll eventually bind all of her stories in a book. She wants to be an illustrator when she grows up (as well as a doctor, nurse, recipe-er, hair fixer, mama, etc...she's going to be busy), so this is a good start for her.

A Halloween Spin on Painting with Marbles

O and I put a Halloween spin on marble painting this afternoon :) I poured a blob of white paint on a sheet of black construction paper that was placed on a cookie sheet. We dropped the marble onto the paint, and O shook the pan to make a painting. It is supposed to look like a spiderweb. Now we need to make a spider to go with the web :)

Apple Sequencing Activity

I saw this apple size sequencing activity here and thought it would make a fun fall activity for O. She enjoyed it, but it was so easy that I don't know if she'll be interested in doing it again. We'll see... I numbered the backs of the apples so that she could check her work.

Witch Puppet Craft Kit

O chose to make a witch puppet for our daily (or every other day) Halloween craft. We had a great time, and O did a great job following directions. I bought these Halloween craft kits for super cheap last year during the week after Halloween.

My Beautiful Dragonfly...Sarah's Silks

O loves to fly around like a dragonfly while she wears her beautiful silk dragonfly wings from the Let's Explore Shop. The wings are made of light, airy silk and are hand dyed. The color combinations are beautiful, and O alternates between being a dragonfly and a butterfly. I love how the ties cris cross over her chest and tie around her waist rather than tying around her neck. She holds the wrist loops in her hands to spread her wings as she flies. Playsilks are the number 1 toy in our household, and these wings are a wonderful addition to O's creative, open ended play. Luckily, for you the wings are ON SALE at the Let's Explore Shop! I've already placed my order, and my sweet girl will be getting a silk cape and a silk fairy skirt for Christmas (I can't resist a great deal!). Thanks, Amy!