Floam is Fun!

My friend, Becca, has been telling me about floam for a while, and we finally tried it! I planned on making homemade floam eventually, but when I saw it in the dollar store, I decided to go ahead and buy it. It's fun and a nice change from playdoh (although we still prefer playdoh). It's a bit more firm than playdoh, and it's somewhat difficult for O to roll flat, but she still has fun with it :)

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

An Upcoming Review

I just received a set of the Terrific Twins Toddler Felt Dolls from Story Time Felts, and I can't wait to write a review on them for all of you. I've been very interested in getting these dolls for O because I love paper dolls, but I'm afraid that she is a little young for them (28 months). Felt paper dolls are the perfect solution! I emailed the owner of the company asking if she would send a set of dolls for me to review. I wasn't really expecting to hear back from her at all, so imagine my surprise when she emailed me back within 10 minutes and said she'd love to send the dolls!!! I was shocked and happy :) The dolls arrived while we were at Disneyworld, but Elliott brought them to us tonight (we are still at O's Guh-guh and Grandpa's house). I was immediately impressed by several things: the dolls and their accessories are packaged in a see through bag (I love it when toys come with storage bags!); I was expecting the dolls to be made of regular felt, but they are actually VERY thick and sturdy; and the clothing and accessories are adorable and very well made (read here to see more about the product and process). I can't wait until tomorrow when I show the dolls to the girls (my niece and O). I hope they love them as much as I do. I'll let you know!

O's Favorites

Lately, I've been working on O's Christmas wish list (that her grandparents requested), and I've been thinking a lot about the toys that she plays with very frequently. I'd thought I'd share these things in case anyone else interested :)

1) playsilks- O was not very interested in her playsilks until I hung them on the wall. Ever since then, she has played with them EVERY day! I love the playsilks because they are so versatile and open ended. She uses them as hats, scarves, dresses, skirts, capes, doll blankets, as wrapping paper, to make forts, etc. The possibilities really are endless :) I ordered the silks from Dharma Trading Company about a year ago, and my mom and I dyed them using kool-aid. This is definitely one of O's most loved handmade gifts!

2) Unit blocks- O's grandparents gave her a set of unit blocks made by Melissa and Doug for her 2nd birthday. She only played with them once or twice a week at first, but then I moved them to a different, more accessible location in the room. Now she plays with them daily. She loves to make doll beds, hospitals, playgrounds, towers, etc.

3) kitchen set and play food- I've noticed lately that O stays away from her play kitchen if it is not neat and clean, so I am trying to get her to clean her kitchen after she plays instead of leaving food in the sink, etc. She usually plays with her kitchen at least once a day. She loves to fix pretend water with mustard and ketchup in it :)

4) books- We have a vast library of children's books! Mainly because I can't resist stopping by the thrift store every Thursday after work, and I usually buy at least 3 or 4 books. I'm trying to be more choosy lately :) We spend hours reading each day, and O loves to pretend to read by herself.

5) playdoh- O plays with her playdoh every day. This is her most popular toy right now! Her ice-cream maker is very cool, but she only uses it about once a day. She usually prefers to make cookies with the playdoh.

6) arts and crafts- Ever since I set up O's art shelf, she's been making "art" several times a day. This is thrilling for me because before I set up the shelf she never asked to color or paint. We only colored or painted if I iniated it. It's very exciting that she can color or paint (with dot painters) whenever she chooses, and she chooses to do so several times each day :) Yay!

7) baby dolls- Right now Baby Emma is O's favorite doll. O is a very nurturing, loving little mama, and she LOVES her babies.

8) bandaids- O LOVES bandaids!!! She usually has at least 3 or 4 bandaids randomly placed on her body. She also loves giving us bandaids. Luckily, my mom buys bandaids at the Dollar Tree, and we always keep several boxes on hand :) I think Santa may fill O's stocking with boxes of bandaids!

9) Rainbow Nesting Tunnel- My dad gave O this rainbow nesting tunnel for Christmas last year, and it is such a beautiful, well made toy. She's been playing with it very frequently for almost a year, and we love to play with it, too :) She uses it as a tunnel, bracelets, anklets, cave, dog house (for miniature dogs), etc.

O's Adirondack Chairs

My sister and niece gave O this set of Adirondack chairs and table for her birthday. They were easy to put together, but it has taken me FOREVER to paint them! I actually planned on white just being the primer color, but I've decided that I am done with them for now. Next spring O can decide what color she wants them, and we'll fancy them up then :)

Toddler Brain Quest

I hesitated to buy this set of cards for O, but I'm a sucker for free shipping at Amazon, and I needed to add something to my order to qualify for it :) Once they arrived, they sat on the shelf for about a month before I opened the package. I don't know why I waited so long. I think I was afraid of being disappointed. I hate buyer's remorse! So...my mom saw the box, opened it, and read the cards to O. O LOVED it! She LOVES Max the monkey, and she thinks its great that he is pointing (she says "Max is mointing!"). The cards basically consist of pictures on each page with questions about what you see. There are also inference questions. There are lots of things that I've never thought to ask (or teach) O, and I am REALLY glad that I bought these cards :)

Buddha Board

O's grandmother gave her a Buddha Board for her birthday, and we LOVE it! Its a lot like an aqua doodle, but MUCH cooler! It looks a little like a laptop, which is fun for O. It comes with a paintbrush, and you simply paint and draw with water. O is learning to use a "light touch" because the lines are much darker and smoother if you use a light touch. She was VERY excited when she discovered that she could dip her fingers in the water and draw with them, too. I also really like drawing on the Buddha Board, and I've actually used it a lot more than O over the past few days. I highly recommend this product! Thanks, Grandmother!

DIY Gigantic Outdoor Chalkboard

One of my goals for O's birthday party was to make a huge outdoor chalkboard. I barely made it...I was still painting it at around 12:00, and the party started at 3pm. It was fairly easy to make.
1st- buy 1 piece of treated plywood and cut it to the desired size
2nd- paint the plywood with primer. You may want to sand it first. I painted ours with 2 coats of primer, and it still had rough spots that I filled in outdoor wood filler. Then I had to wait for the wood filler to dry, sand it, then paint another coat of primer. After 3 coats of primer, I painted the board with chalk paint
3rd- I taped off a border with masking tape, and then painted it with 2 coats of chalkboard paint.
4th- After the chalkboard paint dried, I pulled off the masking tape and painted the border red. I painted 2 or 3 coats on the border.
The kids loved drawing on the chalkboard at O's party, and its also lots of fun erasing the chalk with water using paint brushes.

More on O's Play Kitchen

Several people have asked where we bought O's kitchen, so I thought it would be a good idea to post the answer instead of putting it in the comments section (just in case anyone else is wondering ) :) The kitchen is from Target, and the brand is Play Wonder. It seems to be fairly sturdy, and we hope it will last for several years at least. I don't think its a piece that will last until O has kids. My niece has a very sturdy one that will last for generations (see it here). The main selling point for us is that it is very compact (and our house is VERY small). I planned on building one, but Elliott was not in favor of that idea :) We are all very happy with this one. I've also gotten amazing deals on wooden food sets at Target. I just bought a lunchbox filled with a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, jelly, peanut butter, and milk for 3.74! Last year, at the end of the summer, I bought a smores & kebob set and a hamburger & hotdog set for 3.74 each. I love a good deal! I actually hesitated to buy them since they have lots of meat in them, and we don't eat red meat. However, I decided to call the meat in the kebab set teriyaki chicken since it's so dark. We call the hot dog a tofu dog, and we call the hamburger a mushroom burger. O was especially excited about the mushroom burger because she LOVES mushrooms, especially grilled portobello mushrooms :)

Felt Food and O's Play Kitchen

We gave O a kitchen for her birthday last night, and she LOVES it. Elliott and I bought the kitchen in February, and its been in a box in our garage ever since. We were very tempted to give it to her when we bought it, but luckily we resisted the temptation :) My mom and I have been making felt food off and on for the past few months to go with the kitchen set.
bell pepper slices, sweet potato chips, and carrot slices
a tomato slice, red sauce (under the tomato), and lettuce

fried eggs (I think this is my favorite piece!)
O cooked fried eggs for me this morning, and I asked her to make me a sandwich. This is what she brought me- an egg and goldfish sandwich :)
whole wheat bow tie pasta
whole wheat ravioli
pea pods- I made the stuffing into tight little balls so it feels like peas inside the pea pods

sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. Every time O opens the oven she says "stay back, mama! hot!"
This is another favorite of mine. Tiny goldfish to go with a tiny goldfish cracker box. I'm also working on different colored goldfish to go with a goldfish colors box.

I made a tiny cupcake with a #2 on the top, but its disappeared. I'll post a picture of it when I find it. Also, check out this fabulous felt food!

O's Dollhouse

O is finally showing an interest in this dollhouse! I bought the dollhouse, lots of furniture, the dollhouse family, and a wooden doll car all for 30 dollars from a 2nd hand store before Christmas. I was super excited and decided to give it to O and her cousin to share at G & G's house. Marg has loved it for a while, but O is just starting to show an interest in playing with it. She was excited that Niney fit in the bunk bed!

Green

Here's a picture from O's green photo shoot. We were surprised by how many green things we found once we started looking. O was especially excited about taking her "big eaf" outside. I want to finish our color photo shoots next week since we'll start our marathon of vacations the week after that. Hopefully, we'll do blue, black, brown, purple, and white next week. Then who knows when I'll actually get the book made :( My goal is to finish it before O's birthday. We'll see!

Orange

O and I had fun gathering orange items from around the house for her orange picture (for her colors book). However, she was done with the orange photo shoot before I was :)

Peek-A-Boo Book

To make a peek-a-boo book you need a small notebook, old magazines with interesting pictures, glue, and scissors. I bought this felt covered notebook from the dollar shelf at Jo Ann's several months ago with the intention of making this book. I cut out pictures that I knew that O would find interesting- babies, animals, trees, food, etc, and my mom glued the pictures on every other page one night while she was here. I put the book away for the night and forgot about it for about 2 months. Last night I "found" it and cut the pages between the pictures into strips of 2 or 3. I showed O how to slowly and carefully turn just one strip at a time while trying to guess what the picture was. I was afraid that she would not be interested at all, but she really enjoyed guessing what the pictures were. I wish that the pages were cardstock instead of notebook paper because I'm sure that the pages are going to tear very easily. She also had trouble turning the pages on her own since they are so thin.

Don't Buy This Sand Box!

O was given a Play Wonder sandbox from Target for her 1st birthday, and we have been very happy with it for the past 10 months. 2 days ago we decided to move it to a different place in the yard. When we picked it up we saw that it had been infested with hungry termites. They did a terrible amount of damage, and if we had not picked up the sand box and seen the damage, they probably would have destroyed it beyond repair within the next few months or so. Luckily, we discovered the damage, and hopefully we've put a stop to it. We'll see!

No Spill Bubbles

I gave O some no spill bubbles for a late Easter present. She's had fun being able to be more independent with blowing bubbles. (I usually don't let her hold the bottle because I don't want her to spill it and waste it). Now she can carry the bottle around and blow bubbles independently, and she's practicing her fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination while she has fun!

A Monkey on her Back

We used the Monkey on your Back toddler harness while at Disneyland and the zoo. It worked great, and it allowed O to have the freedom to explore independently that we otherwise would not have allowed her in these settings. We only used it when we were in crowded situations where she could potentially get away from us quickly. She loved it! Since she loves riding on my back in the Beco, she thought it was especially cool to have a monkey riding on her back.