20 Months old!

My O baby is 20 months old! It seems like every month goes by faster than the last. She'll be 2 before I know it :(

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

We have really enjoyed reading Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom this week. Its such a fun book to read. O loves to look at all of the letters on the pages before the story begins. The first time we looked at the letters, she quickly pointed to the Os and said "O." Then she pointed to the lowercase o and said "baby." She then pointed to the capital O and said "mama." The most surprising thing was when she pointed to the D and said "dada." I thought it was just a coincidence, but she points to the D every time we read the book and says "dada."

Dyeing Easter Eggs

We had lots of fun dyeing Easter eggs after supper tonight. O was fascinated, and we made quite a mess. She especially loved stirring up the dye and lifting the eggs out of the mugs.

After we finished dyeing the eggs, we did some fingertip painting with the leftover dye. O dipped her fingers (well, her whole hands really) in the mugs and them made dots on a paper towel and baby wipe. She said "dot, dot, dot" as she made dots (the girl loves dots).

Too Much Water

O had a great time playing with water today. She soaked it up with a sponge and then squeezed it out, and she drank the water from the measuring cup.

Then she decided it would be a good idea to pour the ENTIRE container of water over her head and all over everything. There were about 2 gallons of water in the container and all of it headed towards the lowest part of the room which is behind the refrigerator. I just found out that it even leaked through the ceiling downstairs. Hmmm. Maybe we'll play with water on the deck from now on.

Bowling Fun

I've had the containers for a while intending to use them as terrariums. As you can see that hasn't happened yet, so I thought they'd make for a fun bowling game. O and I are not so good at bowling. We threw beanbags at the bottles and rolled a ball at them. As you can see from the pictures, O's aim is way off when she threw the beanbags. Unfortunately, my aim was not much better when I rolled the ball at the bottles (or maybe I'll blame it on our uneven floor!).

Everything has its Place...

And if its in the wrong place, O will tell you about it. In this picture she is pointing at a chair that had fallen over and was in the wrong place. She's saying "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh," which she continued to say until I stood the chair upright and put it back where it belonged. What a funny girl!

Easter Egg Hunt

O and I had an Easter Egg Hunt this morning since it is such a beautiful day. She didn't understand why I was spreading her eggs all around the yard, and she was a little upset about it. Once we started looking for them and putting them in her basket, she really enjoyed herself.

Open Book

I've been tagged by my blogging Mama friend at Montessori Mama to blog on an "Open Book Meme."
These are the instructions:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it at page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence/ phrase.
4. Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book.
6. Pass it forward to six friends

Here it is:

Sing to the tune of This Old Man as you sprinkle:
Sprinkle time, sprinkle time,
Now its time for sprinkle time.
With a shake, shake, shakey shake...

Can you tell I had a book filled with toddler activities right next to me when I did this? How predictable... I tag:

Shannon's Sharings
Walk Beside Me
Megret
A Gypsy Caravan
Raising Maisy
Let's Explore

At the Children's Museum

I love taking O to children's museums, but we live about an hour and a half from them. We went
to visit some friends who live only 10 minutes from the museum, so we knew we had to visit. We had a great time.

O loved playing with the boats in the water.

She chose only fruits and vegetables for her groceries! Yay, O!

We spent a few minutes painting.

I love this chalkboard wall where the kids can paint with water. I wish I had a place in my house where I could put a large chalk board for water painting.

Driving the shrimp boat with a friend.

Learning to Steer

O is learning to steer our pedal boat, and she is SO proud! Now that the weather is nice, we are looking forward to daily pedal boat rides on the lake.

ABC Puzzle and Book

I bought this ABC puzzle/book about 4 years ago (so about 2 years before she was born!). We had fun matching the letters to the correct places in the book and labeling the pictures. O loved the picture of the baby, and she kept saying "baby" the whole time we were playing. Lots of fun!

A Matching Game

The idea for this matching game from Games to Play with Toddlers by Jackie Silberg. I traced around several of O's toys with a pencil onto a notecard. Then I outlined it using a black Sharpie pen. I put the objects in a drawstring bag (from IKEA) and spread the cards out in front of O. As she reaches into the bag to pull out an object we say "Abracadabra, 1,2,3. Reach in the bag. What do you see?" She pulls out an object and matches it to the correct card. LOTS of fun! It was also quick and simple to put together :) Next time we play, I'll have her close her eyes while she reaches into the bag to make it a little more exciting. Another variation is to give her one card at a time and have her feel around in the bag until she finds the correct object. I may also expand on this game by taking pictures of some of her small toys and printing them out for her to match the object to. A similar game was posted about on Z Recommends. Enjoy!

On and Off

This is another activity from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I had a small basket of about 6 or 7 rubber bands. I showed O how to put one on the door knob, and she was ready to do it herself! O LOVED this activity. It was quick and fun! Once she put all of the bands on the door knob, she took them off and put them back into the basket. This activity develops -skill in following directions -an awareness of stretchable materials -an awareness of "on" and "off" -problem solving -independence -eye-hand coordination

Spools and Straws

For this activity I put a small amount of playdoh in a bowl to hold up the straw. Then I showed O how to put the spools on the straw. She was very anxious to try it herself, and she liked the activity a little bit. It would have worked better if I'd had clay to hold the straw because the playdoh didn't hold it very well. I may also use packing styrofoam (from our recent Montessori purchases) to hold the straw up next time we do this activity. After O realized that the pink stuff in the bowl was playdoh, she was much more interested in playing with it instead of putting the spools on the straw :)

Put the Fish in the Boat

This activity came from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I cut the top off of an envelope to make a boat and cut several fish from construction paper for O to put in the boat. The child is supposed to pick up the fish and put them in the boat which will require the child to separate the envelope to slip the fish in. We talked about the colors of the fish. She called them all boo and ed (blue and red), but she did finally say orange after some prompting. O was a little frustrated by this activity (it was difficult to separate the envelope), and I think we'll wait until she's a little older (or in a better mood!) to try it again.

This activity develops:
- skill in picking up a flat object
- eye-hand coordination
- problem solving
- confidence
- independence
- language interaction