Arranging Feathers

  
This idea came from My Montessori Journey. It's fun and easy to put together. O really enjoyed herself!



 
It occured to me a couple of weeks ago that paint chips would be PERFECT for cutting work! The paper is stiff which makes it easier to handle and the lines are wide. Can't get any better than that!
 



 
After O cut the chips, we talked about the differences in the colors and put them in order from darkest to lightest. We saved the chips, so she can use them later to make a collage :)

Getting Ready for Summer

 
O practiced skiing in the grass yesterday while Elliott pulled her all around the yard. She said "As soon as the water is warm, O is going to ski! You'll be AMAZED!" Yes, I will be amazed (and terrified) if my 2 year old starts to water ski this summer! I'm not sure if I'm ready for this yet. I thought I had a couple more years. I guess we'll see what happens...

Sneak Peek

Guh-guh just ordered these bunny baby necklaces for M and O for Easter, and I am SO excited! They are adorable. You MUST check out this etsy store. I'm planning on reviewing these necklaces after Guh-guh and Grandpa give them to the girls for Easter, so make sure to check back :)

Matching Upper and Lowercase Letters

O asked to match upper and lowercase letters a couple of weeks ago, and she and Guh-guh have been having fun with it ever since! Guh-guh is good at making everything fun and incorporating singing and dancing into almost everything she does with O! What lucky girls O and M are to have such a devoted Guh-guh!

A Walk in the Woods

We took advantage of the beautiful weather today and took a walk in Grandaddy's woods. It was fun to show O the woods that were my playground when I was growing up. O was VERY excited to ride in the Beco at first, but then she was ready to walk like a "big girl."



My balancing girl was scared to cross the stream on this log at first, but then she said "O's not scared anymore!" and she wanted to go all the way across (which she couldn't do since it was a rotten log, so Elliott couldn't cross with her to hold her hands). Btw, O is VERY proud of her oversized t-shirt that Elliott brought her from his recent ski trip. She ran up to M when she arrived and said "See my new dress!"



O and M had a super time looking for fairy grass and fairy holes throughout our walk. M is showing O tunnels in the rotten log. They might be fairy tunnels!


After our walk, the girls had fun exploring Grandaddy's house site. Grandaddy is building his house by hand with my brother's help. He has cut all of the lumber himself and is sawing it into boards using a saw mill that he built. We hope that he'll be finished before O and M leave for college :)



The girls love to balance on Grandaddy's boards!

More Science Fun

After watching Sid the Science Kid, Guh-guh and O went outside to find and study roly polys. They studied them with a magnifying glass and inspected their tiny legs.





O has one of her tiny baby dolls under her shirt, and she is pretending that she is about to give birth.  She's such a funny girl!

They also enjoyed looking at flowers through the magnifying glass. We are so glad to finally have nice weather again!
Btw...we are still waiting on the carrot baskets to produce leaves. I'll let you know what happens!

Gardening

O has had so many fun learning experiences at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house this week. Guh-guh taught her how to re-pot African Violets.

Then they planted grape tomato plants outside. Yummy!

Thrifty Thursday

I haven't been to the thrift store in more than a month, but after encouragement from Shannon, I decided to stop by after work on Thursday. I haven't really gone anywhere except work on Thursdays and my mom's house for weeks and weeks because I am afraid of suddenly throwing up in a public place. Yuck! So I hesitantly went to the thrift store. They really didn't have much, but I did find 4 children's books that I think O will love. One of the books is Harry the Dirty Dog. I had this book as a child and loved it, and we've checked it out from the library and O loved it. I think she especially liked it since one of her grandaddies is named Harry :)
After I left the thrift store, I headed to Wal-Mart for various craft supplies (walmart is the only place to buy craft supplies around here, unfortunately). I found what I needed, and my good deal of the day is a purple ballerina dress for O. It was marked down from 9 dollars to 5 dollars, and I just couldn't resist buying it for my little ballerina :) I haven't decided if I'll go ahead and give it to her or wait until Easter...
While at Walmart I was drawn to the toy aisle where I played with a Viewmaster with sound. I've always liked viewmasters, and I've been thinking of getting one for O for a while. I never considered getting one with sound, but the information that went along with the pictures was interesting and the sound was so clear. I have to admit that I was impressed. I didn't buy it, but I'm seriously considering it. It may make a good Easter present as well :) They had the viewmaster slides on sale for 3 dollars for sets of 3. I didn't think that was a very good price until I came home and looked on Amazon. Now I'm tempted to go back and buy lots of viewmaster slides before I even decide to buy the viewmaster! If anyone has tried the Viewmaster with sound, I'd love to hear what you think about it. Amazon only had 2 reviews, which were both good, but I'd like to hear from more people as to whether it is worth the money. This toy may be my exception to our no plastic, no batteries rule for Easter! So much for a handmade Easter, although there will be handmade components (felt donuts) :)

Did You Keep a Pregnancy Journal?

I've kept a journal since I was around 11 years old, so I was excited to keep a pregnancy journal when I was pregnant with O. This is the journal I chose after much shopping around on Amazon. I really liked the writing prompts, but I wasn't crazy about the graphics. I loved going back and reading the journal after O was born, and I'm looking forward to giving it to her if and when she has her own baby. My only regret is that I didn't start it earlier in my pregnacy (I was at about 16 weeks when I started it).
When I found out I was pregnant in September, one of the first things on my list was to buy a pregnancy journal. This time I chose this one. I liked this journal, but I was very annoyed that it started at week 1. That's really just ridiculous. I kept detailed notes until I lost the baby at 11 weeks.
For my current pregnancy, I wouldn't even think of buying a pregnancy journal for weeks and weeks. I just felt like if I made the assumption that this is a viable pregnancy then it would be doomed for sure. (I'm terribly superstitious, especially lately) For the past week or so, I've felt guilty that I don't have a pregnancy journal for this baby. There are so many things that I don't have for this baby...stories of excitedly telling everyone we were expecting (that never happened), joy at the positive pregnancy test (only fear and grief, although I absolutely don't mean to imply that this isn't a deeply loved and wanted baby...I'm just scared). So, I thought that since I only used the last journal until 11 weeks, and I'm at almost 15 weeks with my current pregnancy that I would just use the journal from the last pregnancy. I found a pen and opened the book, and it just felt so very wrong. I couldn't bring myself to do it. My last baby never had a name, and we never held him or her, but at least he/she has her own book even though it is very brief and filled with pain (but also great joy). So...I decided to just buy a blank journal. I'll write detailed descriptions of my visits with my midwife, etc, and I'll borrow writing prompts from the other journals and write them at the tops of pages. I think I'm happy with this decision, although I've yet to start the journal (I really should be doing that now instead of blogging).
So, I'm wondering...did you/are you keeping a pregnancy journal? Which one did you choose and why? What is your favorite thing about your pregnancy journal? Thanks in advance for any responses! I know this is a long and rambling post without any fun pictures :)

Update: After writing this post, I decided that I'm going to make a pregnancy journal jar for myself. I've made journal jars for gifts, and I've always wanted one for myself, so this seems like the perfect opportunity :) I think I'll put about 20 writing prompts in the jar, and I'll choose one a week to write about. Hopefully, this will motivate me to keep up with this journal. In addition to the writing prompts, I'll write about my visits with my midwife, add ultrasound pics and belly pics, and just write random thoughts and feelings. I'll especially have to include stories of the things that O says about the baby! I'm getting excited about this :) If anyone has any other ideas for the journal, I'd love to hear them. I'm also looking for writing prompts, so if you have any ideas, please share!

Cotton Ball Collage

The idea for this activity came from Young at Art by Susan Striker. I gave the girls a bowl of cotton balls (I cut the cotton from medicine bottles to make the cotton balls since Guh-guh didn't have any) and a bowl of diluted glue. They dipped the cotton into the glue and made cloud collages on their construction paper.

This was a quick and fun art activity. We talked about the contrasting colors of black and white. Although O has known her colors for quite a while, she still sometimes confuses black and white, which I think is somewhat strange :) We also talked about the different textures of the cotton verses the paper. I'm looking forward to doing a texture collage with O soon!

I Spy!

After several false starts, I finally made an I Spy game board for O! Thanks to Cara for this fun idea! It was easy to make...just cut pictures from magazines and glue them to a piece of construction paper. I wanted O to help me cut out the pictures, and she did the first time (last week). Then I left the pictures at home when we went out of town. So I tried to get O and M to help cut out pictures a second time. O lost interest quickly. Finally, I decided to just do the whole thing without stopping while I watched tv at G & G's house (they have cable, so after O goes to sleep I watch TOO much tv!). O and M had fun playing I Spy on Wednesday afternoon, but O was a little sleepy, and I think she would enjoy it more on a day that she's had a nap :) M had lots of fun, and I think this will be an activity we will do again soon. Maybe next time the girls will help make the game board!

Cheerios & Pipe Cleaner Bird Feeders

O, M, Guh-guh, and I made cheerios and pipe cleaner bird feeders this morning. To make the bird feeders you need pipe cleaners and cheerios :) Thread the cheerios onto the pipe cleaners and you're done! Simple and fun! It's also a great activity for strengthening fine motor control. O and I made these feeders last year, too, but she was much more involved this year. She was excited to make her feeder in the shape of an O (of course!).


Guh-guh climbed up in the tree to hang our creations with the other bird feeders.

My 1st Felt Donut

I've wanted to make felt donuts for months, and I decided to make several for O and M for Easter. I'm finally emerging from the fog of constant nausea and got started. I used the pattern and directions from this book. It's a wonderful book, and I am excited to make many more of the sweets!



The donut is smaller than I had hoped. It's a sewn by hand, so it took quite a while. I think I'll use the pattern and tutorial from Skip to My Lou for the rest of the donuts!

Another Science Experiment

Guh-guh and the girls watched Sid the Science Kid this morning (O and I are at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house for the week while Elliott is out of town). After the show, they decided to do a science experiment.
They used carrots in their experiment, and M had the fun idea to make letters using the carrots. The girls took turns making letters while the other one identified the letters. Both girls are really into identifying letters, sounds, and reading words lately.



For their experiment, they discussed the sizes of the carrots and chose the 3 fattest carrots. Guh-guh cut the ends off of the carrots, and showed the girls how to hollow out the carrots to make miniature carrot baskets. Somehow Guh-guh threaded dental floss through the carrots (O insisted on flossing her teeth. She loves dental floss!). They hung the carrots in the window and filled the carrot baskets with water. Leaves should begin to sprout and curl up around the basket (hopefully within a week).




Update: The carrot experiment was a flop :( Guh-guh thinks that our carrots weren't fresh enough, and she's determined to try this experiment again. I'll let you know how it goes!