Traveling with a Toddler

We are having a great time in California this week. O did a great job while traveling 2400 miles across the country. After we got off the plane, a man stopped my mom and told her that O was an "incredibly well-behaved baby." I was proud when she told me. I think we were just lucky (and I hope we'll be just as lucky on the way home :) ! I planned lots of activities to keep O entertained during our loooooooong day of traveling. O loved playing with playdoh, playing with her busy book, playing with stickers, looking at her "I Spy"bottle, making monk-monk dance, reading books, eating snacks, etc.
One of O's favorite in-flight activity was pretending to brush her teeth with her fabric busy book. The book also has buttons to button, a belt to fasten, and a fork, spoon, and knife to put at a place setting. O just loves to brush her teeth!
O enjoyed looking at her "I Spy" bottle.
Making Monk-monk dance
O was very excited to see that we had playdoh. She and her daddy made bracelets, necklaces, balls, and cubes.

Painting with Marbles

The idea for this painting activity came from Wondertime magazine. We put a piece of paper in the bottom of a shoe box, put a few drops of paint into small containers, dropped marbles into the containers, rolled the marbles around to cover them with paint, dropped the marbles into the shoe box, and shook the box around to make art! It was super easy, not very messy, and tons of fun!
O is dropping the marble into the shoe box.
Shaking the box.
The finished products- we were quite proud!

Next time I'll use a smaller shoebox that doesn't have an attached lid, so it will be easier for O to manage. This was another activity in which O was very closely supervised, so that the paint covered marble did not end up in her mouth.

Matching Shapes

Once again, O loves to match. After making 6 shape cards, I remembered that I had this set in my closet. The cards are a little wordy (they have the color and shape names in English and Spanish), but it wasn't a problem. O matched them all correctly the 1st time. Fun, fun, fun!

Filling the Bird Feeder

Grandpa gave us some bird food this weekend, so we filled our bird feeder today. It was a beautiful day, but it was very windy. O insisted on wearing a "at," and she was excited to be wearing her cousin, Marg's, hand-me-down dress and shoes.

Dots n Dashes Sponge Tip Painters

Yay! We can paint outside of the bathtub after all! I told my mom that I wanted to get O a set of these paints since she loves dots so much, and my mom said that she already had some in her closet, and she would find them for us. Yay! (I'm not the only one who stores random kid stuff in my closet!) The painters make painting mess-free (except for our hands which were quite colorful after we finished our paintings). We had a great time, and O got to make lots of dots!

Open/Close

We've been working on the concepts of open and closed lately, so this activity from Montessori Mama fit in perfectly with that. I found the bag clips from Family Dollar, but I was disappointed that they only had red and blue. O was excited when I showed them to her, and she immediately grabbed a blue one and said "boo." She open and closed them for a bit, but she had the most fun putting them in and out of a tall white container (I'm not sure where this container came from. It just appeared on the shelf. Grandmas- did one of you bring it over?). O was holding the container somewhat upside down while she was putting the clips in it, so they kept falling out. She was a little perplexed as you can see by the picture.

Playdoh and Baby Dolls

O loves all of the baby dolls at G & G's house, and she LOVES playdoh You can see that she's trying to decide if its worth putting the dolls down in order to play with the playdoh. Its a tough decision!

Learning to Climb a Ladder

Auntie Melanie, Uncle Jonathan, and Marg brought a slide over to G & G's house, and O learned to climb a ladder and slide down the slide by herself! O was a little unsure of where to put her feet, but Auntie Melanie (the Pediatric Physical Therapist) helped her out. She loved being able to play independently on the slide, and we stayed close by in case she lost her balance while standing at the top.

Smelling the Flowers

O loves to pick and smell flowers. What fun!

Pumping up the Wheelbarrow Tire

O was happy to help her daddy and I pump up the tire for the wheelbarrow. She's a great helper!

Nesting Dolls

O always loves playing with the nesting dolls that I got from trips to Ukraine and Poland years ago. She is fascinated with these beautiful dolls, but we have to watch her closely because she sometimes plays too rough with them.

Beads, Bells, and Pipe Cleaner Necklace

O and I had fun making a necklace today out of beads, bells, and pipe cleaners. O was thrilled and very proud of the finished product!

I should have said earlier that O was very closely supervised while making and playing with this necklace. At 19 months old, she still occasionally puts random things in her mouth. A child her age should never have access to beads, bells, etc without an adult right beside them.

I Love Thrift Stores

I LOVE thrift store shopping. I have a serious addiction to children's books, and I have gotten into the habit of stopping by the thrift store by my office every Thursday after work. Today I got 14 books for 49 cents each. I was super excited because I got some really good stuff, and it always makes me happy to get a good deal. Yay!

Matching Art Cards

More matching! O really does love to match, and she loves these beautiful cards. She calls the Matisse "daddy" and the Manet "mama." I downloaded the pics from Jojoebi's site, printed them, and laminated them. I am looking forward to making more soon.

You may have noticed...

that O has only one sock and shoe on in all of the pictures lately. I'm not really sure why, but she keeps taking her right shoe and sock off. Hmmmm, interesting.