I Just Can't Believe It...

The UPS man just dropped off ANOTHER Kitchen Helper!!! I called last week to let Guidecraft know that a piece was missing off the 2nd KH that they sent, and they sent another KH. All I needed was a small metal piece, and they sent the whole thing. That company really cares about customer satisfaction. I will definitely buy Guidecraft products in the future!

Washing Windows

O loves to wash the windows with the window washing set that her Grandmother gave her for Christmas. Her technique isn't perfect, and she need assistance with the spray bottle, but she sure does have a lot of fun!!!

Shape Puzzle

O enjoyed her shape puzzle on Monday. She can put the circles in quickly and easily, but the other shapes take a little more concentration and effort. We had a very busy Monday. We took a brief walk (it was cold and windy, so we came home quickly), played outside on O's slide, collected acorns, rocks, and twigs for the "I Spy" bottle I'm making, played with playdoh, colored, walked the line (well... I walked the line and O just kept falling in the wa-wa! She clearly doesn't get that the purpose is to NOT fall in the water! What a silly monkey.), transferred water with the sponge, did the straw activity, O helped wash dishes and cook breakfast and supper while in the Kitchen Helper, and we read at least 30 books. Phew!!! I was tired by the time dh got home!

Matching Animal Pictures

O and I had a great time matching animal pictures today. I was surprised that she caught on so quickly to the activity, and she REALLY enjoyed it. I made these cards using small calendars that I got for 50 cents after Christmas. I'm hoping to find a few more calenders to make some more matching cards since O had such a good time with the activity.

Swiffering the Floor

O loves to swiffer the floor, but it was difficult for her since the swiffer is so long. I was excited when I realized that if I took out the middle 2 sections that its the perfect length for her. Now she can swiffer as much as she likes!

Another Homemade Book

This is my favorite page.

I started working on this book for O about 3 months ago, but I got sidetracked by Christmas and just finished it. Its her favorite homemade book by far. I gave it to her yesterday afternoon, and we've already read it at least 15 times! Its based on a book by the same name that we checked out from the library that O absolutely loved. That book is based on the song by the same name. This is another book that we sing rather than read!

ABC Puzzle

I spent countless hours working on this puzzle for O for Christmas, but it was lots of fun. She wasn't too impressed when I gave it to her, but we had fun with it last night. I hope she'll enjoy it more as she gets older. Right now she just really wants to pull the toothbrush off! I still have to get a picture for Y. I've been looking for a good yo-yo picture, but now I think I'm going to try to get a picture of O yawning.

Yay!!!

O's screened porch playroom is suitable for playing again!!! We haven't played out there in a couple of months because the rice got wet and mildewed (and we were not here much in December). I finally found time to thoroughly wash the rice pit and the floor mats, and we rearranged everything and filled the rice pit. O was SO excited! She has had a great time playing out there today.

Friday's Activity

This was a very engrossing activity. O loved putting the golf tees into the playdoh, and she kept asking for more tees. I watched her very closely because I was afraid she would put the tees in her mouth. This is definitely not an activity that I will let her do independently.

O's Favorite Books

O loves this book! (We read it over and over and over again each day). Anyone who wears or nurses their baby or toddler should buy this book! It tells the stories of families across the world who wear their babies. O loves to look at the pictures and identify the parents as mama or daddy. She especially loves the pictures of the babies in slings who are nursing. She says "milk" while signing "milk" and looks lovingly at the picture. She calls the book "mama." I realize that she's not calling me when she keeps saying "mama" while searching for the book on the shelf. Sometimes she calls it, "Mama Back." This is a book that we are going to be reading for a long time. Thanks, Grandmother for this wonderful book!
Another favorite of O's is Puff the Magic Dragon. This is another book that we read (actually we don't read this book, we sing it!) over and over again. She calls this book "Buff." The illustrations are beautiful, and it comes with a cd with 4 songs. Thanks, Aunt Bobby for this beautiful book!

The Kitchen Helper

O's Guh-guh and Grandpa gave her a Kitchen Helper for Christmas, and I think its going to be another item that we use every day for years and years. We had a great time today using it while we baked cookies. O was at the counter with us participating every step of the way!

We've had a few problems with the kitchen helper so far. When I first put it together I realized that it was missing 4 screws. I called the company, and they told it would be a few weeks before they could send me the screws because the kitchen helper was out of stock. That was last week. Yesterday UPS dropped off a brand new Kitchen Helper. I was shocked! I expected them to mail me 4 screws not a new KH! While putting this one together I realized that it was also missing a piece, so I called to company today to let them know that this KH was not complete either. Their customer service department is great, but obviously they do not check these things too well before they ship them out. Dh was able to take a part off of the 1st KH to make the 2nd one complete, so we were able to use it today. Another issue with the KH is that the openings on the side make it very tempting for a toddler to climb up the side. O put her feet in the holes and was ready to climb, but we quickly stopped her and she hasn't done it again. I hope this won't be a problem. Even with these problems, I think the KH is a great addition to our household, and I am looking forward to using it every day. It will enable us to include O safely in so many more activities. I am looking forward to having her help me bake bread and cook supper on a regular basis. She'll also be able to have lots of fun having water play in the kitchen sink, and she'll be able to easily and safely help us unload the top rack of the dishwasher (she always wants to do this, but it was a little scary to put her in a chair so she could reach). Thanks Guh-guh and Grandpa for this great present!

Bilibos are Fun!

O loves her Bilibo that her Grandaddy gave her for Christmas. It is the greatest open ended toy. So far it has been a rocking chair, baby doll cradle, slide, hat, turtle shell, spinner, and a bowl. She plays with it every day, and I'm sure that we will have fun with it for years and years (I love toys that kids don't grow out of quickly!).

Homemade Puzzles

I made these photo puzzles for O using pics that were leftover from a book that I made her and parts of cardboard boxes. I decopauged the pics to the cardboard after cutting out the shapes. She had lots of fun with these puzzles, and I was glad to finally make them since I've been planning it for months!
I used the packing styrofoam from O's kitchen helper to make these shape puzzles. They were fun to do, but pretty messy and easy to break (she accidentally broke the triangle puzzle right after I took this picture). I think we'll play with these puzzles on the screened porch since we don't mind having tiny bits of styrofoam out there. After we are done with these puzzles, I plan to break them up and put them in the bottoms of my pots for my container garden in the spring.

Walking the Line

This activity came from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. We had lots of fun balancing on this line as we walked acros with our arms outstretched. We pretended that the line was a bridge and the rug was water. O thought it was hilarious when dh, guh-guh,and I lost our balance and fell into the water, and she was anxious for her turn. She did a good job although she had difficulty staying on the line. Her favorite part was falling in the water. She called out "wa-wa" as she fell and then she laughed and laughed. I plan on showing her how to walk backwards on the line once she is good at walking forwards on it.

Tree Blocks

I'm FINALLY posting about the finished tree blocks! I didn't want to post without a picture, and I didn't have the blocks since I'd left them at my mom's house after Christmas. She brought them back today (along with TONS of other stuff), and we've had lots of fun with them. I think my mom and I may like them more than O does! They were simple to make, but took more time than I expected (that seems to be the way almost all homemade things go!). It didn't take too long to cut them, but sanding was a different story. I sanded them using an electric sander, and I sanded the ends and the edges. Then I vacuumed each of them to try to get as much dust and dirt off as possible. The last step was oiling the blocks with organic flax oil. This also took a while, but my mom pitched in to help me finish in time for Christmas. I made 4 sets which was a little much to make at one time, and none of the sets are very big. I need to add some longer pieces, but I ran out of wood. I'm sending the word out to my family that next time anyone cuts any trees or limbs to save them for me!