O's Montessori Shelf- The Back :)

O's Art Display and Activity Bags, originally uploaded by omamom16.

Here is the back of O's Montessori shelf. This is the side that faces the room for the majority of the time. As you can see, there are 6 clips for displaying artwork. These clips were surprisingly difficult to find, and I was relieved when my mom finally found them for me. Thanks, Mom! O was very excited when she realized that the clips were for hanging her artwork, and she immediately had to make as much art as possible! This was exciting for me since she's not always interested in arts and crafts activities. She REALLY loves coloring with markers, and I think that yesterday was the 1st time that she colored with markers that she didn't also color herself from head to toe (thank goodness, since she is a flower girl in a wedding on Saturday!). On the bottom of the shelf are hooks for hanging activity bags. I have about 6 or 7 bags out, but she usually only chooses the open/close bag and maybe one or two others. I really need to put a few new bags out :)

O's Montessori Shelf

O's Montessori Shelf, originally uploaded by omamom16.

Here is O's Montessori shelf! It was surprisingly easy to build, and Elliott and I are very proud of it :) It's on casters so that we can turn it around when it's not in use. The back is pegboard, and I'll show the other side in another post (I can only post one photo per post when blogging through flickr). On the top shelf we have a number puzzle, shape sorting blocks, and phonics pouches. On the 2nd shelf we have the mystery bag, sound cylinders, toothpick sorting (this is O's current favorite!), and my mini version of the red rods. On the 3rd shelf we have jars & lids, mini animal match, latches board, and water transfer with a sponge. On the bottom shelf we have dry pouring with lentils, 2d/3d farm animal match, cats match, and stringing beads. We have LOTS of activities that are not on the shelves, and I'm not sure how often I should add and take away activities. She's very uninterested in the red rods and dry pouring, so I think I may switch these out fairly soon. Any suggestions from other Montessori mamas or teachers are welcome :)

Matching Farm Animals

Matching Farm Animals, originally uploaded by omamom16.

O chose to do her Matching Farm Animals work today during school. I've been surprised by how few times she has chosen this work, since it's something that she really enjoys. I downloaded the farm animals pics off the internet (I have no idea where I got them from!) months and months ago. I eventually printed, cut, and laminated them. For this work, I have 5 animal cards and 5 miniature plastic animals (I bought them from the dollar section of Target. I love Target!) in a basket. O brings the basket to her rug, lays out the cards while labeling them, and then matches the animals to the cards. When I introduced the work to her, I showed her how to put the animals to the right of the card, but she usually prefers to put the animals on top of the cards. I think I'll add in a few more pics and animals before tomorrow since this work seems to be very easy for her :)

Yummy! Felt Food :)

felt food, originally uploaded by omamom16.

My mom and I recently finished making a bunch of felt food for my niece and godson (and his brother). I cut the felt out months ago, but I'm scared to use the sewing machine without my mom (it breaks every time we use it), so I was waiting for her to come sew them. My mom did all of the machine sewing, and I did the cutting and hand sewing (sewing the chocolate chips onto the cookies). My mom loved sewing the eggs and said she could sew a hundred eggs :) We are thinking of opening an etsy shop, which is something we've been talking about for a year or so. I'm hoping that this nausea will pass soon, so that I can be more productive :)

Pregnancy Brain

My 1st sign that I was pregnant with #2 happened about 2 months ago when I was at work talking to another psychologist. I was trying to ask her about 2 students that I'd known very well for years and years and I suddenly had NO IDEA what their names were. It was almost scary how blank my mind was, and I realized that it was not normal, and I must be pregnant. Sure enough :) My most recent experience with pregnancy brain was a little more amusing...

We've been at O's Guh-guh and Grandpa's house for the past few days, and yesterday I asked my mom if I could use her deodorant because I'd forgotten mine. She said sure, and I put it on. It was almost O's naptime, so I laid down with her to read books on the futon, and my mom sat nearby in a rocking chair. I noticed that my underarms started feeling VERY cool and tingly. I thought it was strange, but maybe my body was reacting differently to the deodorant since I'm pregnant and I've gotten used to using natural deodorant. However, after 5 more minutes of progessively cooler and tinglyer (is that even a word?) underarms, I said to my mom "this deodorant is very strange. It almost feels like I put Vicks Vapor Rub on under my arms." My mom looked up with a shocked and panicked expression, and said "maybe you did!" We ran back to her bedroom and quickly discovered that I had, in fact, put roll-on Menthol on under my arms. (in my defense, it looks A LOT like my mom's roll on deodorant!). I scrubbed it off, but I still felt cool and tingly for at least 2 hours :) We went back to the front room, and O was sitting up on the futon looking tired and confused while asking "what is it? what is it?" So... that's my craziest pregnancy brain story so far (I'm sure there will be LOTS more), care to share one of yours?

Decopaged Animals

Decopaged Animals, originally uploaded by omamom16.

Woo hoo! It worked! I've tried resizing before, and it didn't help with the off center issue. I must not have made the pictures small enough in the past. Thanks, everybody, for your advice!!! Gotta love the blogging community! You guys are great :)

I Love Mod Podge!

IMG_9170 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

I found these unfinished wooden animals at Michael's months ago and thought they'd make great baby gifts. Since then I've been trying to decide how to paint them. I finally decided to decopage them using scrapbook paper, and I'm so happy with how they turned out :) These 2 cuties will be headed to 2 sweet California girls soon!

Again...I am very frustrated by the off center picture. If you'd like to see the whole picture just click on it. Sorry!

Freezer Paper Stenciled Onesies

IMG_9164 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

I've been wanting to try freezer paper stenciling for months, but it was nearly impossible to find freezer paper! I finally found it (after about 2 months of looking), and I was pleased with how easy this project was. I stenciled these onesies for one of my best friends who is having her 1st baby girl in a couple of months. For a great tutorial on freezer paper stenciling go to My Montessori Journey.

These off center pictures are driving me crazy! I've tried resizing my pictures, but it doesn't help, so I apologize for the pictures :(

Learning to Sew

IMG_9150 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

My mom stayed with us for a few days last week, and we were able to get some sewing and crafting done on Friday and Saturday. O was very excited when she saw Guh-guh set up the sewing machine, and she was eager to help. She also ran to get her sewing block so that she could sew along with us.

Comparing and Contrasting her Duckies

A couple of times a week, O takes a shower with me. I shower while she sits on the floor of the tub and plays with her toys. Then I wash her. Quick and easy. A couple of nights ago, she was talking nonstop while she was playing, and I wasn't really listening. Suddenly, I started to listen and was amazed by what she was saying... She was holding two duckies, and this is what she was saying:
"This ducky have tail. This ducky have a tail."
"This ducky have on a hat. This ducky have on a hat. Both have hat. This ducky hat backerds (backwards). This ducky hat NOT backerds."
"This ducky have sunglasses. This ducky have sunglasses. This ducky sunglasses boo (blue)..."
My 1st thought was "where did she learn this?" Then I realized that she was comparing and contrasting her duckies in the exact same way that we compare and contrast the pictures on the same/different pages in her Highlights High 5 magazine. I thought that this concept was above her level of comprehension because she always says "mama do it" and won't say a word while I talk about the pictures. Evidently, she really WAS listening!
I'm so thankful for my blogs so that I have a place to record moments like this :) I've really got to start working on turning my blogs into books!!!

You May Have Noticed...

that things on this blog have slowed down a bit lately. However, I do have a really good reason, I promise! O is going to be a big sister!!! She is SUPER excited, and she has already decided that I am having 2 babies, and their names are Mimi and Buddy. She is planning on nursing the babies (although I REALLY think it's just 1!). She loves to hug, kiss, and pat my belly. She has a great stethoscope, and she loves to listen to my tummy. She tells me that she hears the baby laughing and crying, and she says that HER belly says "All aboard the choo-choo train." Silly girl :) I've been extremely exhausted for about the past 5 weeks and very sick for the past 3. Hence, the slow down! O has done a great job taking care of me. She loves to do little things to "make mama feel bettah."

Helping Daddy

IMG_9159 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

O had the greatest time helping her daddy put together a fishing rod stand yesterday. She insisted on only using the "niney" screwdriver :)

Sorting Toothpicks

IMG_9169 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

The idea for this activity has been on my mind for a while, so I was glad to finally pull it together this weekend. To complete the activity, O turns the dial on the side of the toothpick dispenser. Either a red or blue toothpick comes out, and she puts it in the appropriate toothpick holder. She LOVED this activity, and she did it at least 3 times in a row. I planned on also having yellow toothpicks, but I used tempera paint to paint the top of the yellow toothpick holder, and it immediately peeled right off. Another annoying thing is that the toothpicks are not uniform in size. Some go in easily, you have to put forth a little effort to get some of them in the holes, and others won't fit at all. I guess I should have tried each toothpick before introducing the work to O :( This will replace the plastic ice cube color sorting work on O's Montessori shelf. That work was too easy for her, and she was totally uninterested in it.

"School" with her Grandmama aka Duh-guh

My mom keeps O on Thursdays while I work, and they had their 1st school session together this past week. At first, I didn't plan on having my mom do "school" with O, but then I realized that my mom REALLY wanted to do it (she's a teacher who has had some Montessori training), and I was curious to see how O would do with her. I was happy, but not surprised, to hear that O did a fantastic job! She worked for about an hour, and her behavior was perfect. My mom was very impressed by how carefully O carried her work to her rug, and then cleaned it up when she was done and returned it to the shelf. O chose several activities that she's never chosen with me, which I thought was interesting. She chose: phonics pouches, water transfer with a sponge, shape sorter, animal/picture match, nesting dolls, jars and lids, and the mystery bag. After school they made homemade whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Yummy!

Thrifty Thursday

I haven't done a thrifty Thursday post in a while, so I thought today would be a good day to start back. Last week I was too sick to stop at the thrift store after work (and you know I must have felt bad to not stop by at least for a minute!), and the week before that I took a trunkload full of donations and did not buy a thing! That felt good! Today I bought 4 children's books. At least one will definitely be for cutting up and using in projects, and I know that won't be a problem for me (I HATE to cut books) since it is scribbled in and a few pages are torn. I made sure it was in bad enough shape that I wouldn't mind cutting it up :) I also bought a baby doll car seat for O. She's REALLY into baby doll care lately, and she's going to love it. I can't decide if I should go ahead and give it to her or wait for Christmas. My last purchase was a potty seat with steps, so she can get up on the potty independently. I think she's going to love this, too!