Valentine's Day Cards

 

This post is a little late, but better late than never! I wasn't planning on posting it, but I'll want to remember what we did one day, and I like to be able to easily look back at the blog to jog my memory :) I painted O's hands, and we made heart shapes using her handprints for cards for her grandparents. We love to make things with O's handprints, and this was easy to do. The idea came from a book of my sister's, and I also saw it on The Crafty Crow. The sad part is that we never actually finished delivering the cards to her grandparents. I hope they won't mind receiving VERY late Valentine's!

A Simple Science Experiment

O's Grandpa sent her this yellow daffodil, so O and Guh-guh decided to try a simple science experiment. They put red food coloring in the water to see if the flower will turn red as it drinks the water.



It didn't actually turn out that well because the flower only turned slightly red around the edges. However, it was fun, and that's the most important thing!

Leapfrog Letter Factory

 

I REALLY don't like for my kiddo to watch tv, but I'm loosening up a little, and we let her watch carefully selected dvds (and Noggin at Guh-guh & Grandpa's house). Guh-guh let us borrow the Letter Factory, since O is really into reading these days. O LOVES it! She'd watch it over and over if we let her. She's learning a lot, too, which makes me feel less guilty about letting her watch tv.
O recieved The Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics and Treasury of 20 Storybook Classics for Christmas. (I found both sets for 47 dollars and couldn't resist the deal since we were planning on starting a weekly family movie night after Christmas). O and I love the dvds, but Elliott thinks they are a little boring :)
We've also been watching Signing Time videos on youtube, and I am amazed by how much BOTH of us have learned. So, I guess tv isn't all bad afterall :) I never thought I'd say this, but I may put a few dvds on her birthday wish list (Signing Time and The Little Travelers).

Chocolate Playdough

I 1st saw a recipe for chocolate playdough on The Crafty Crow (I think) around Christmastime, and I knew it was something we'd have to try! I was glad for the reminder and the recipe on My Montessori Journey recently. I was also VERY glad that Guh-guh was excited to make the playdough with O. They had a great time, and since chocolate is one of O's (and Guh-guh's!) favorite things, this was the perfect activity for her (them)!

Mixing up the playdough





Spreading out the dough to make chocolate cookies. Yummy! Although O told me later that she tasted the playdough, and it REALLY wasn't yummy :)
 

Here's the recipe:
Chocolate Playdoh Recipe

Mix together:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

Make sure you combine these ingredients until they are thoroughly mixed together. Then add 1 1/2 T. cooking oil and 1 cup boiling water. Mix and knead until you have a nice smooth ball of dough.

My mom really preferred this method of making playdough over the cooking method. She said it's much easier! Thanks, Laura!

A Block House :)

 

O has had lots of fun playing with Guh-guh over these last few weeks! They built this fantastic block house of which O was VERY proud! She even put in a bookshelf and spent lots of time in her house reading to her babies. She's a good little mama :) She's also been spending a lot of time as Angelina Ballerina. My girl LOVES to dance, and she pretends that she takes dancing lessons. She was talking to me yesterday about what her teacher taught her at "dancing class." She has a very vivid imagination, and I would have believed her if I hadn't known that she doesn't take lessons! I can't wait until she can start dancing lessons in the fall. I hope she'll love it as much as we think she will!

My 1st Clue...

that O was up to no good at her art shelf was when I asked what she was doing, and she said "I don't know." Hmmmm. I was suspicious, but felt too sick to go see. I asked a couple more times, and she kept saying "I don't know." She brought me a picture and said something about "just like Olivia the Pig painted on the wall!" I was worried that she'd colored on the wall, so I got up to see. Nope. The walls were clean. Then she went to the art shelf, pointed to the underside of the shelf above the art shelf, and said "I don't want you to see, Mama." I asked what she was talking about and she repeated (while still pointing to the underside of the shelf), "I don't want you to see, Mama." I walked over and looked at the underside of the shelf and saw that she had scribbled on it with her markers. I gave her a cloth and she cleaned it up. She apologized, and said she was "naughty on purpose", but she didn't want me to see. I put her in time out, and she was upset because she wanted a snack. She really needs to work on her deceptive skills (but don't tell her that!) :) I would have never seen the scribbling if she hadn't pointed to it! Silly girl :)

Thanks, Everyone!

Thank you for all of your kind comments and well wishes. I am still feeling very ill, and Zofran is not the miracle drug that I had hoped for. Although, it does help :) I'll try to have some posts up in the next few days. As for now, I'm just trying to make it through one day at a time. O, my mom, and I have just returned from her house, so we're home for a while. Maybe we'll get back into some sort of routine, but I doubt it :) Right now I'm just hoping I can make it through work tomorrow without throwing up on anybody. I have to lead 2 IEP meetings, so hopefully I can at least make it through the meetings :)

*Update
Thanks for all of the comments and ideas for different rememdies. I'm trying lots of them :) I had a really bad morning yesterday, but I made it through my meetings. I'm lucky to work with such wonderful people (and many of them are pregnant!). I've had an exceptionally bad day today. I haven't been able to get out of the bed at all, and I've thrown everything I've eaten (sorry for the tmi). I'm so hungry, but there's no point in even trying to eat :( I have several things to post (that my mom has done with O), but I don't have the energy to download the pics to my computer, upload them to dropshots, and write a post...maybe tomorrow. I'm about to read another book. I've been reading a lot of novels, which is a nice distraction from the nausea. Last night was my last night taking Prometrium, so I'm hoping that I'll wake up tomorrow morning feeling like a new woman! Thanks again for all of the comments :)

I Love Her Imagination!

 

In this picture O is "fixing the water." She said she was putting in batteries and cleaning out spiderwebs. She was busy "fixing the water" for probably 20 minutes. I'm really enjoying her imagination lately. I love that she'll ask me for something, and I'll pretend to pick it up and hand it to her and she's perfectly fine with that :) This has saved me a lot of trips up and down the stairs!

Simple and Fun!

 

For the past few days, O and Guh-guh have had a GREAT time rolling the chalk down her slide and into bowls :) O calls this "bowling." I'm amazed with how thoroughly entertained she is by this activity! They practice counting by counting the pieces of chalk in the bowls, and she's probably learning a little about physics, too :)

Learning about Car Engines

  

O has been learning all about cars lately, since she's been spending more one-on-one time with Elliott. He's thrilled that she is so interested! He has taught her to check the oil, change the battery, wash the car, etc. He wants her to watch him change the oil, but I have to be out there to supervise that since he'll be under the car (and we don't want her wandering the garage without supervision) :) I guess this qualifies as "unschooling!"

You Guessed It!

Good job, ladies! Yes, O is going to be a big sister. I have been extremely sick, much sicker than I was with O (didn't think that was possible!) or with my last pregnancy. I've barely gotten out of the bed for the last 2 weeks, and I've been losing weight. I didn't know I could feel so miserable and survive :) As much as I've hated to do it, I've started taking medication. I've tried several things...unisom, benadryl, pepcid, and we finally decided on Zofran. It's a class b drug, which is somewhat comforting. It's super expensive, but luckily we have good health insurance. I took the first one today, and I was able to go outside for a little while and upstairs to the den and kitchen. Both of those things are HUGE accomplishments. Usually I throw up if I move just a little bit, and I haven't been upstairs in 4 days. I am so very lucky that my mom has basically stopped everything to help us. We wouldn't have made it through the last 3 weeks without her. O and I stayed at her house for 2 weeks, and she has been here at our house since Tuesday morning. I've felt pretty guilty about not being able to do things for and with O like I usually do, but she doesn't seem to mind since she has her Guh-guh during the week and her daddy on the weekends and after work. She's been hanging out with me in the bed some, and we are enjoying watching Signing Time videos on youtube. We're both learning lots of signs!

O has been taking good care of her mama! Whenever she hears me throwing up, she comes running to me and pats my back. She usually says in an exasperated tone "Ohhhh, she's throwing up again!" (It's hilarious!). She brings me toys, pillows, blankets, pretend water, etc. to make me "feel better" while I hang out by the toilet :) She also likes to put bandaids on my stomach :) She constantly puts babies up her shirt and says she's growing a baby. A few days ago, she put a kitty (stuffed) up her shirt and said she was "growing a pet." She definitely keeps me entertained!

We are cautiously optimistic that this pregnancy will be a viable one, but it is hard to be excited when I know how bad things can get with absolutely no warning. I'm constantly waiting for the worst news, and our visits with our midwife have been quite stressful. We are so lucky to have the most wonderful midwife ever. She's extrememly supportive and caring. We've seen the heartbeat twice on ultrasounds...one official ultrasound and one in which my midwife just took a peak to ease my mind. Yesterday we heard a strong heartbeat using the doppler, which was very comforting. Our last baby never made it this far, so I do have hope... So, for those of you who pray, we ask for prayers that we will have a healthy baby in August.

Sorry for my Slackness...

Sorry for my slackness around here lately. I have a good reason, I promise. Would you like to take a guess?

Pudding in a Bag

O and Guh-guh made pudding in a bag, and it was yummy. The idea for this activity came from Thrifty Craft Mama's blog. O enjoyed pouring in the milk and pudding mix into the bag, and she especially enjoyed squishing the ingredients together! (They poured the box of pudding mix and slightly less than 2 cups of milk into the bag, and then it was time to squish!) O has never had pudding before, and she was not very impressed with it. I, however, thought it was delicious!

Laminated Park Maps

O's grandmother laminated our park maps from our trip to Disneyworld, and the girls love playing with them. Thanks, Grandmother! Because the maps are laminated, the girls can draw on them with dry erase markers. Also, we don't have to worry about them tearing.



O is studying her map.


M was excited to find Soarin' which was her favorite ride. Guh-guh showed her how to find the number and name of the ride on the side of the map and then find the number and picture of the ride on the map.

Nesting Dolls

O and M love to play with Guh-guh's nesting dolls (she has LOTS of them!). M explained to O how she was lining them up according to size. Then Guh-guh read them the story of Matryoshka dolls.

Banana Boats

Guh-guh loves to make fun and healthy snacks for the girls. Today they made banana boats. The girls cut the triangles (with help) and taped them to straws. They then stuck them in the bananas to make banana boats! Fun, easy, and delicious!

Wow!

I rarely check the site counter on this blog (since I rarely actually look at the actual blog...I read my posts immediately after I post them and check the comments when there are questions), so I was shocked when I just looked at the site counter and saw that there have been more than 200,000 hits! That's just crazy! I had no idea that so many people would read this blog when I started it a little more than a year ago. It really is shocking. I guess I tend to think that the people who comment are the only ones reading, so that number just blows my mind :) So...thanks for reading and sorry things have been slow around here lately. I've got tons of things to post about, but a serious lack of motivation :( I'll get back to it soon, I promise :)

My Little Reader

O and I are at G & G's house, so we haven't been doing any Montessori work this week. However, O keeps asking us to teach her to read. She loves to pretend to read, but she really wants to "read the REAL words!" She does a great job dragging her finger across the words from left to right while she "reads" books to us. So, my mom has been teaching her sight words. She caught on very quickly and is quite proud of herself. I'm not sure how far we'll go with this. I guess we'll just follow her lead. She's awfully young to be reading, but I hate to deny her request. Any thoughts?