Simple and Fun!

 

For the past few days, O and Guh-guh have had a GREAT time rolling the chalk down her slide and into bowls :) O calls this "bowling." I'm amazed with how thoroughly entertained she is by this activity! They practice counting by counting the pieces of chalk in the bowls, and she's probably learning a little about physics, too :)

Learning about Car Engines

  

O has been learning all about cars lately, since she's been spending more one-on-one time with Elliott. He's thrilled that she is so interested! He has taught her to check the oil, change the battery, wash the car, etc. He wants her to watch him change the oil, but I have to be out there to supervise that since he'll be under the car (and we don't want her wandering the garage without supervision) :) I guess this qualifies as "unschooling!"

You Guessed It!

Good job, ladies! Yes, O is going to be a big sister. I have been extremely sick, much sicker than I was with O (didn't think that was possible!) or with my last pregnancy. I've barely gotten out of the bed for the last 2 weeks, and I've been losing weight. I didn't know I could feel so miserable and survive :) As much as I've hated to do it, I've started taking medication. I've tried several things...unisom, benadryl, pepcid, and we finally decided on Zofran. It's a class b drug, which is somewhat comforting. It's super expensive, but luckily we have good health insurance. I took the first one today, and I was able to go outside for a little while and upstairs to the den and kitchen. Both of those things are HUGE accomplishments. Usually I throw up if I move just a little bit, and I haven't been upstairs in 4 days. I am so very lucky that my mom has basically stopped everything to help us. We wouldn't have made it through the last 3 weeks without her. O and I stayed at her house for 2 weeks, and she has been here at our house since Tuesday morning. I've felt pretty guilty about not being able to do things for and with O like I usually do, but she doesn't seem to mind since she has her Guh-guh during the week and her daddy on the weekends and after work. She's been hanging out with me in the bed some, and we are enjoying watching Signing Time videos on youtube. We're both learning lots of signs!

O has been taking good care of her mama! Whenever she hears me throwing up, she comes running to me and pats my back. She usually says in an exasperated tone "Ohhhh, she's throwing up again!" (It's hilarious!). She brings me toys, pillows, blankets, pretend water, etc. to make me "feel better" while I hang out by the toilet :) She also likes to put bandaids on my stomach :) She constantly puts babies up her shirt and says she's growing a baby. A few days ago, she put a kitty (stuffed) up her shirt and said she was "growing a pet." She definitely keeps me entertained!

We are cautiously optimistic that this pregnancy will be a viable one, but it is hard to be excited when I know how bad things can get with absolutely no warning. I'm constantly waiting for the worst news, and our visits with our midwife have been quite stressful. We are so lucky to have the most wonderful midwife ever. She's extrememly supportive and caring. We've seen the heartbeat twice on ultrasounds...one official ultrasound and one in which my midwife just took a peak to ease my mind. Yesterday we heard a strong heartbeat using the doppler, which was very comforting. Our last baby never made it this far, so I do have hope... So, for those of you who pray, we ask for prayers that we will have a healthy baby in August.

Sorry for my Slackness...

Sorry for my slackness around here lately. I have a good reason, I promise. Would you like to take a guess?

Pudding in a Bag

O and Guh-guh made pudding in a bag, and it was yummy. The idea for this activity came from Thrifty Craft Mama's blog. O enjoyed pouring in the milk and pudding mix into the bag, and she especially enjoyed squishing the ingredients together! (They poured the box of pudding mix and slightly less than 2 cups of milk into the bag, and then it was time to squish!) O has never had pudding before, and she was not very impressed with it. I, however, thought it was delicious!

Laminated Park Maps

O's grandmother laminated our park maps from our trip to Disneyworld, and the girls love playing with them. Thanks, Grandmother! Because the maps are laminated, the girls can draw on them with dry erase markers. Also, we don't have to worry about them tearing.



O is studying her map.


M was excited to find Soarin' which was her favorite ride. Guh-guh showed her how to find the number and name of the ride on the side of the map and then find the number and picture of the ride on the map.

Nesting Dolls

O and M love to play with Guh-guh's nesting dolls (she has LOTS of them!). M explained to O how she was lining them up according to size. Then Guh-guh read them the story of Matryoshka dolls.

Banana Boats

Guh-guh loves to make fun and healthy snacks for the girls. Today they made banana boats. The girls cut the triangles (with help) and taped them to straws. They then stuck them in the bananas to make banana boats! Fun, easy, and delicious!

Wow!

I rarely check the site counter on this blog (since I rarely actually look at the actual blog...I read my posts immediately after I post them and check the comments when there are questions), so I was shocked when I just looked at the site counter and saw that there have been more than 200,000 hits! That's just crazy! I had no idea that so many people would read this blog when I started it a little more than a year ago. It really is shocking. I guess I tend to think that the people who comment are the only ones reading, so that number just blows my mind :) So...thanks for reading and sorry things have been slow around here lately. I've got tons of things to post about, but a serious lack of motivation :( I'll get back to it soon, I promise :)

My Little Reader

O and I are at G & G's house, so we haven't been doing any Montessori work this week. However, O keeps asking us to teach her to read. She loves to pretend to read, but she really wants to "read the REAL words!" She does a great job dragging her finger across the words from left to right while she "reads" books to us. So, my mom has been teaching her sight words. She caught on very quickly and is quite proud of herself. I'm not sure how far we'll go with this. I guess we'll just follow her lead. She's awfully young to be reading, but I hate to deny her request. Any thoughts?

I Spy Doll Quilt

The doll quilt my mom and I made to match O's I Spy quilt is perfect for playing on the go games of I Spy! We've rarely played I Spy with the quilt on her bed...probably because it's so big and it's in her room (obviously), and we do most of our playing upstairs in the den. The doll quilt is a different story :) She takes it everywhere, and she was excited when I showed her how we could play I Spy with it. Hmmm, maybe this will be another game for game night :)

What We've Been Working on Lately...

Pouring rice



Folding napkins
 
Stringing beads

Completing puzzles

Doorbell Dollhouse

I bought this Melissa and Doug Doorbell Dollhouse for O before she was born. I thought it was really neat, so when it was on clearance I decided to go ahead and get it. It turns out it was a good decision :) The dollhouse has 4 doors with doorbells, and each door has a specific key. The keys are attached to the house on a ribbon. Behind each door is a little dollhouse person. O has gotten pretty good at selecting the correct key, but she still has some difficulty fitting the keys in the locks. She REALLY likes ringing the doorbells!

Matching Colors using Clothes Pins

The idea for this activity came from Teaching Tiny Tots. This is a fun and easy activity to put together. Get 2 each of several different sheets of paint chips from your local paint store. Cut the paint chips on one sheet and glue one each to a clothes pin. You're done! O enjoyed matching the colors, and she really had to pay attention since the colors are so similar. I also like that this is a fine motor exercise. O had a little difficulty managing the clothes pins, so I held the cards up for her while she clipped the paint chips to them. I think this will be another popular work on O's shelf!

Renewed Interest in the Lentil Tray

O has shown a renewed interest in the lentil tray over the past few days. This morning she said she was chopping walnuts to bake a birthday cake for me. She brought me a jar full of lentils and asked me to blow out the candles. I think we'll be playing pretend birthday for the next few weeks :)