O Shirts for Our O

My mom and I have been planning on sewing O shirts for O since she was a newborn. 20 months later, we finally got around to it! My mom did the vast majority of the work, since I was feeling lazy this morning. Thanks, mom! O is VERY proud of her O shirts, and she had to wear both of them at once. I can't wait to make more (and maybe I'll help a little more next time!). Oh, notice Guh-guh's pretty barrette in the top picture. O loves to share her barrettes!

Finally! The Felt Snake.

Montessori Mama posted this great idea about a month ago, and we decided to give it a try last night. My mom brought all of the materials and got things ready while I was at work, and we introduced it to O when I got home. My mom and I were much more excited about it than O was unfortunately. It was a difficult task for her, and she didn't stay with it long. I'm going to try it one more time before I put it away for later.

Sink or Float

O and I played with water on the screened porch today, and we tested different objects to see if they floated or sunk. O understood the concept of floating, but I'm not sure if she knew exactly what sinking meant. I didn't have enough water in the container, so the objects that sunk still broke the surface of the water. Oh, well. We had fun and that was our main objective. Shortly after I took this picture, O decided that she couldn't "each" well enough, so I put the container on the floor. Shortly after that she stripped and was taking an impromptu bath in the container. She had the greatest time and kept herself entertained for about 15 to 20 minutes. I took advantage of this time to read a few magazines :)

Fun with Play Silks

We haven't played with O's playsilks in a while, so I brought them back out today. I put them all in an old baby wipes container. She loved pulling them out one by one. She also had fun wearing the silks as capes and putting them on my head.

I Love Embroidery

She's done! I've been working on this stitchette from Wee Wonderfuls for several days, and I was thrilled to finish her today. I'm making a Christmas stocking for O, and this was the first step. I know its not really the season for Christmas crafts, but I knew that if I waited it was unlikely I would finish it in time. Now the hard part...finding the perfect fabrics to finish the stocking! O really enjoyed watching me embroider. She said "uh-oh" each time I stuck the need through the fabric. This is the 1st time I've embroidered anything in almost 4 years, so I had my Klutz instruction book right beside me. O enjoyed looking at it while she sat beside me on the couch. It was a wonderful way to spend a quiet afternoon with my girl. I promised her that I will teach her to embroider in a few years, and she seemed pleased :) When I was trying to take this picture, O kept turning the fabric over. She was much more interested in the mess of fabric on the back than on the front. She also kept calling the girl "Marg," which was really sweet (Marg is her cousin and best friend).

Learning to Pour

Look at that concentration!



O practiced pouring today using popcorn kernals. She did a great job, and she absolutely loved it! After pouring the kernals into the bowl, she poured them back into the pitcher using a funnel. This was so much fun! She was very focused on this work for quite a while.

Crocodile Rocker

We gave O a Crocodile Rocker game from Hearthsong for Easter. To play the game you roll the dice and then choose a piece that matches the color on the dice. Then you balance the piece on the crocodile. O is a little young to understand exactly how to play the game. We take turns putting the pieces on the crocodile. We talk about the colors and build tall towers with the pieces. O likes to turn the crocodile right side up to make a little "ouse" for the pieces (she into "ouses" these days). She also puts the crocodile on her head and calls him a "at."

Displaying O's Artwork

I am so happy that we FINALLY have some of O's artwork hung up in our den. I've had one painting framed for more than a month, but I couldn't find matching frames. We finally found them, and we now have 6 of O's paintings framed in our den. They look great and O is so proud! She even helped hammer in the nails and hang the paintings. She kept complaining of the hammering being too "oud," so I held her ears for her while she and dada hammered.

O's Cardboard Chair

I got the idea for making a chair out of cardboard boxes from Family Fun magazine. I couldn't find the magazine when I finally had the boxes I needed, so I didn't follow the directions exactly, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hot glued the boxes together (after filling them with leftover packing styrofoam to strengthen them) and decopaged wrapping paper onto them. It was a litte tedious to place all of the strips of wrapping paper on the box. Luckily, my mom helped because I was getting a little bored with it. After it dried, I put a layer of mod podge over the entire chair, let it dry, then did a 2nd layer of mod podge. I thought about involving O in the process, but she showed no interest in it, and I'm pretty sure that she would have just wanted to tear the paper :) For some reason, O thought she should go night-night in the chair. She kept saying night-night while trying to sit sideways. She pushed at the sides and said "move." I think she wanted it to be a couch :)

*After reading this post, my mom said she is pretty sure that O was trying to make the chair recline since it resembles the recliners at her house. Also, O has seen Guh-guh sit sideways on the recliner. O's grandpa had a great idea...I should make an ottoman for O's chair. I'm putting it on my list!

Egg Carton Fun

Egg cartons are great for sorting. Today O got her egg carton off her shelf and put shells in it. She was very engrossed in this work. I prompted her to take the shells out and put them back in the basket after she was finished. She counted as she put them back...2, 3, 4, 6, 9. For some reason she refuses to say 1 :) See Montessori Mama's blog for more fun things to do with egg cartons.

We Love Fuzzi Bunz!

A friend from a mommy site that I am a member of sold me 15 Fuzzi Bunz diapers and inserts for 36 dollars!!! I am still in shock! They are used, but are in PERFECT condition. She found them at a thrift store for 1 dollar each for the diapers and inserts, and she was kind and generous enough to sell them for what she paid for them (plus shipping). Five are mediums, so we can use those for O now since she still wears a diaper at naptime and nighttime, and the other 10 are smalls that we'll use with our next baby. When O was a newborn, we primarily used prefold diapers since we were new to cloth diapering and didn't know which cloth diapers we'd like best (and we didn't to spend a ton of money, since everyone said I wouldn't stick with it...wrong!) I love cloth diapering, and I honestly can't imagine using anything else (although we did use disposables on occasion...cruise and beach vacations where we did not have access to a washer and dryer). I am so excited that we won't have to use prefolds with our next baby. Although they weren't that difficult to use, fuzzi bunz are much easier, and they are not as bulky. Thanks, Victoria!!! O was a little surprised when I spread the diapers out for a picture, and she insisted on being in the picture!

Jan Brett Matching Cards

Thanks to Mom over at What Do We Do All Day? for this idea! I printed these animal matching cards from Jan Brett's website last night and laminated them this morning for O. She was feeling a little fussy and overtired when I first showed them to her, but she cheered up when she saw the picture of the "orse." She rode a horse at an Easter party last Saturday, so she's into horses these days. We had fun matching the cards, and we are looking forward to matching them again soon. I think O will also like matching 3d animals to the cards. Since she enjoys matching so much I have plans for a few more homemade matching games- mommy/baby matching using pictures of animals and mommies and babies that we know and a family and friends matching game (thanks for the idea Auntie EB). The family and friends matching game will be great because it will help O remember family and friends that we don't see very often. I think that I'll use 2 different pictures of each person instead of an exact match to make it more challenging and fun for her.

Felt Cookies

Since O will be getting a kitchen set for her 2nd birthday in July, I decided to go ahead and start making felt food for her. I had a great time making these cookies (with my mom's help because I CANNOT do a decent blind stitch!), and they were super easy to make (except for the blind stitch). O doesn't get to eat cookies very often. In fact, I think she's only had one chocolate cookie in her life, but I know she'll love pretending to eat them. Next on my list to make are fried eggs, pancakes, bow tie pasta, ravioli, linguine, cheese quesadilla, cupcakes, carrots, carrot slices, banana slices, bread, tomato slices, lettuce, cheese, etc. I think all of those foods will be fairly easy to make and then maybe I'll branch out to the more difficult items. If anyone has any experience making felt food, I need all the suggestions and advice I can get. I found a few pictures and patterns on Crafster that I'll use as inspiration, and I'll also look at pictures of felt food at Etsy for ideas.

We're Home!

O and I are finally home after more than a week away. We had a GREAT time at her Grandmama and Grandpa's house, but we are glad to be back. O was super excited to see her daddy, our cat, and her toys and books. I'm ready to get back into our routine!

Color Matching

My mom has a fun game where you match different colored bears to dots on a card. I thought O would love it since she loves to match, and she loves dots. She matched one or two bears before getting bored and moving onto the next thing. We'll try again tomorrow to see if she is more interested in the task.