This little elf has been watching O for about a week. My mom bought this elf and 2 others last year after Christmas, and she gave one to O. O was a little nervous about the elf watching her at 1st, and she didn't want to touch him, but now she loves him :) She likes to give him hugs and makes sure that he can see her when she is playing. We told her that he is watching her to make sure she uses her nice manners, and he tells Santa Claus what he sees. The elf moves to a different location each night while O is sleeping, so it's fun to find him each morning. This is a fun tradition that we are excited to start this year :)
Here is the back view of Baby Emma in her ladybug costume for dogs :) I also bought a witch costume for her, but I haven't tried it on her yet.
I found this cute ladybug costume for Baby Emma for only 1.75! It's a dog costume, and it fits Baby Emma perfectly! Now she and O can play dress-up together :)
Since I've been posting about our handmade gifts lately, I thought I'd include this silhouette of O that I made last year. It was very easy, and her grandparents loved them. To make this silhouette I took a profile picture of O, printed it as an 8 x 10, cut out around her profile, and painted it black. Cutting the hair was a little difficult, and I'm still not happy with how it turned out. I think it will be a little easier to do now that her hair is longer :) I think this idea came from here. Enjoy!
All you need for the very best indoor playhouse is a few blankets or a couple of yards of fabric and a couple of chairs! My sister, brother, and I used to build these playhouses all the time, and it was so much fun. My mom and O had a great time building and playing in this fantastic playhouse on Thursday. O also really likes to play with placemats (she likes to spread them out and pretend they are hospitals, etc.), and she insisted on decorating the inside of her playhouse with them. My mom said that O asked to decorate her house with markers, but mom convinced her that colorful beanbags would be much prettier :) O was very excited and proud to show Elliott and I her house when we got home on Thursday.
O has really enjoyed hearing the story of the 3 Little Pigs lately. After she finished putting the popsicle sticks in the cup a few days ago, she asked me to build a house around her with sticks. I then pretended to be the big bad wolf and she was a little pig :) Notice her beautiful ruby, red shoes and her mama drawn tattoos on her arms :)
I quickly realized that the playdough shelf wasn't suiting O's needs, and I needed to revise it. I planned on her playing with her playdough at the shelf since she does her artwork at the shelf (it's the perfect height), but she was not interested in that at all! However, she only likes to play with playdough at the table, and she was carrying everything across the room to her frog table. That really didn't make any sense since there is a shelf right next to the frog table. So...I rearranged things and put the playdough and accessories on the IKEA shelf. This is much better, and she is almost constantly playing with playdough (although she's mainly interested in cutting out cookies with "duhkie cutters" instead of playing with her ice-cream maker).
This felt snowman activity was also inspired by Itty Bitty Love and Starfall. I actually made the snowman before the turkey, and I really love him :) I've really enjoyed making these felt activities because they are so quick and easy. It's great to be able to start and finish something in the same night! I hope that O is going to have fun playing with him!
O enjoyed putting popsicle sticks in to the slot of an insulated mug today. This was another activity that we haven't done in a while, and she was excited to see it again.
O has not been very interested in the activities on her Montessori shelf lately, so I decided to spice things up by adding a couple of new work and bringing out a few that she hasn't seen in a while. We first did the activity about a year ago, and it is a lot of fun! To do this activity you need a container that rolls (a small oatmeal container is perfect). We had several objects- shell, golf ball, marble, block, sponge, and we took turns putting in one object at a time while the other person closed her eyes. Then we rolled the container, and we took turns guessing what was inside. Fun and easy!
I introduced this activity to O this morning, and she was very excited. I let her choose the picture, and I showed her how to make the turkey match the picture. The turkey's body, face, and legs were already put together on the felt board, so the only parts we added/changed were the feathers and hats. She needed help with this, but I think she'll be more independent next time :) Check back tomorrow for another fun felt activity!
Just in case anyone noticed... yes, O does have a green ball down her shirt! Her daddy gave her the ball when we were at his office yesterday, and she does not like to let it out of her sight. So, obviously the best place to keep it is in her shirt! (it won't fit in her pocket) After we finished the activity, she said the nurse had to take the ball out. Then we played nurse/dr for a while. That's always a popular activity lately!
The idea for this activity came from Itty Bitty Love's jack o'lantern activity. I didn't get around to making that one, so I decided to make a turkey. I couldn't really get a good picture of a turkey in my mind until I saw Laura's turkey, so that turkey was the inspiration. I also got ideas for the feathers and hats from Starfall. To make this activity, I just cut the shapes out from felt, took pictures of the different turkey arrangements, printed the pictures (wallet sized), laminated the pictures, and we were ready to go! I spread all of the pieces out on a bigger felt board, so O could see them easily. To make the small felt board, I just glued a piece of felt to a piece of a cardboard box. I think we are going to have LOTS of fun with this one!
I found this tiny little teapot and cup at the thrift store for 50 cents and introduced O to pouring water. She LOVES it! She loves anything tiny, so this was perfect for her. She drank all the water, and I had to keep refilling the teapot :)
