Winter Wonderland Sensory Box

I introduced the Christmas/winter sensory box to O today, and she was very excited. The box is filled cotton balls and dollhouse Christmas decorations (bought from Hearthsong this summer...deeply discounted). O had a great time decorating the Christmas trees and playing with this box. I'm sure that her peg doll family and other toys will be migrating into the box soon. The idea for a winter wonderland box came from Pink and Green Mama.

Decisions, Decisions

Should I sleep, knit, or make necklaces? Sometimes I really wish that I didn't insist on making most of our Christmas gifts, especially when I'm SO tired. Next year I really will finish making our gifts before Thanksgiving!

Puzzle Fun

O has really been enjoying these jigsaw tray puzzles lately. She especially likes this map puzzle (I bought this puzzle from the dollar section at Target a few months ago), and she almost always does the puzzle at least 3 times in a row. She likes to do it the right way a couple of times and then "mix it up" and do it the "nonsense way" (her words). She pretends to be the teacher and shows her baby dolls how to do things the wrong way, and they have to figure out what to do by asking questions. She likes for me to "talk" the baby dolls and have them ask questions. After she completes the puzzle, we have fun pointing to each continent while we sing the continents song.

I'm Hooked...

E is looking cozy in the Beco while wearing her new mama knitted hat (knitted on a circle loom). I've made 4 infant hats, 2 child sized hats, 1 adult hat, and 1 scarf. I'm hooked! Next on my list is another scarf (I hope my teenaged nieces appreciate the many, many hours of work that are going in to their Christmas gifts!) and probably a few more hats for my girls. I've gotten quite good at nursing while knitting. It's so nice to knit while watching E's beautiful and peaceful face while she drinks her milkies :)

Advent Activities- Day 2

For today's advent activity O made a snowman puppet using a Martha Stewart craft kit (bought last year after Christmas for about a dollar). These craft kits don't leave a lot of room for creativity, but they are great for learning to follow directions, and O REALLY enjoys making the puppets. This puppet kit was a little nicer than the Halloween puppets...the bag is made of cloth and the paper is thick and fuzzy.

For each day of December O opens a "new" Christmas book (they aren't actually new, but we pack up the books on January 1 each year, so they seem new each Christmas). Since we are on vacation, the opening of the books won't really start until Saturday, but I did bring one book with us, Franklin's Christmas Gift.

This is a wonderful book to introduce the concept of donating gifts to needy children. This was a perfect book for us to read this week since O just chose gifts to donate to Toys for Tots. She really enjoyed choosing the gifts, and she understood completely that the toys weren't for her. However, I'm not sure that she completely understood what was going on since she said that she hoped that the little girl who received the gifts she bought would share with her :)

After reading the book, we talked about how O will choose several of her toys and books to donate to needy children. She's not at all excited about giving her own toys away, and she was very excited when she thought of the idea of giving the children money instead of her toys. She said "I have a lot of money in my piggy bank that I can give them!" We're going to talk about this a bit more because I would like for her to choose several of her own toys and books to donate to The Salvation Army.

Just For Fun Gift Packs 50% Off...Today Only!!!

Just for Fun Gift Packs by the National Wildlife Federation are 50% off for today only. Your child will receive 4 gift packs per year, and each gift pack has 44 pages filled with puzzles, games, riddles, and comics. My mom just ordered the Just for Fun gift packs for O and my niece for Christmas. They are going to be so excited to receive these special gifts in the mail throughout the year!

"A Disaster of Beads"

For our 1st advent activity O and I made a winter beaded bracelet (using snowman beads and silver Christmas trees) and beaded necklaces (more on that later). We poured all of the beads onto the floor, and O said "we have a DISASTER of beads!" She had a great time making her bracelet and sorting the beads by color. I'm excited that she is enjoying beading so much, and I know it's something that we'll do more often now that she is older

On Vacation

We've been on vacation since the day after Thanksgiving, and we're having a wonderful time. O has enjoyed flying her kite on the beach, digging in the sand, writing her name in the sand, playing on the treehouse playground, swimming in the heated pools, and hanging out in the apartment.

We've taken her on 2 Mama, Daddy, & O dates, and she's thoroughly enjoyed herself. She tried lots of new foods at the Japanese Buffet (sushi rolls, crawfish, blue crab, seaweed, etc.). She said she didn't like the texture of the seaweed :) She enjoyed the Christmas Show and didn't hesitate to go on stage when they called for the children to join them for a song.
Tonight we took her to see The Polar Express at the IMAX3d...bad idea! It was extremely loud, intense, and scary. She hid her head and even cried a little. Luckily, we were on either side of her, and she took turns cuddling in our arms during the scary parts. After it was over she said it was "great," but then she said she didn't have a favorite part because it was too scary :(
We started our advent activities today, and I'll be posting about our daily advent activities as well as our daily work on handmade gifts soon.

Sweet Feet

I have a weakness for baby shoes, and I was excited to find these sweet shoes at the 2nd hand shop for about a dollar. O was even more excited since they look a little like ballet shoes, and O LOVES to dance (which means that "baby sister" loves to dance, too, of course!).

Another Handmade Gift For Grandparents

We try to make all of the gifts for O and E's grandparents since handmade gifts are the best, especially for grandparents :) Canvases painted by O are much loved gifts that are easy to make, and O is always so proud to give the gift of her artwork.

O used washable tempera paint (the paint she uses at her easel) and painted on a 5 X 7 canvas.

A List Poem Gift

O's Grandaddy Harry had a birthday recently, and O wrote a list poem for him. She adores her Grandaddy Harry, and she was excited to write a poem for him. I typed as she dictated the poem to me. She was ready to stop after the first 6 lines, so I asked her a couple of leading questions to help her think of a few more lines. She chose the color for the words, and I printed the poem for her to illustrate. We framed the poem, and she was SO proud to give it to her Grandaddy.

The idea for writing list poems came from Amy at Let's Explore. We've enjoyed writing several list poems over the last month, and I'm looking forward to hearing more of O's poems in the future. (The clothes pin in the picture is covering O's name).

Montessori Baby Toys

If you're looking for the perfect gift for your Montessori baby, this is it!
These sweetly simple Montessori baby toys are sold in a set by Pinkhouse Handworks, and we were so pleased when Janice agreed to send us a set to review. The toys are from or inspired by the Assistant to Infancy Montessori training for ages 0 to 3.


The 5 toys included in this set are a crocheted rattle, interlocking discs, wooden grasping beads, egg and cup, and peg and cup. The toys are intended for babies ages 3 months and up, and an information card is included that gives the approximate age at which to offer each toy and the purpose of each.



I love the simplicity and beauty of these toys. The rattle fits perfectly in E's hand, and she immediately and happily put it in her mouth :) I'm looking forward to introducing the other toys to her as she gets older. Make sure to check the Pinkhouse Handworks Shop for more simple and sweet Montessori baby toys.

Edit to Add: Pinkhouse Handworks is offering FREE SHIPPING on the set of Five Montessori Baby Toys.

Another Blast From the Past

This woodsey playset is one of my all time favorite toys from my childhood. I remember asking my mom to read the book that went along with it over and over again. I'm SO glad that my mom saved this playset and now my girls get to enjoy it (it makes a nice fairy house!). For those of you whose moms didn't save all of your childhood toys, you can find this playset on ebay :)

Ohhhhhhhhh, I had this glowworm, too (the purple one) and this doll. I need to go up in the attic to find the rest of my toys!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I found our felt turkey activity just in time for the girls (O & my niece) to play with while it we prepared Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice Thanksgiving with lots of delicious food, and I hope you did, too!

Fall Greeting Card Puzzles

I made a couple more puzzles using greeting cards for O. She really enjoys these puzzles, and they are so cheap and easy to make. I need to go to the dollar store soon to find Christmas cards to make a few Christmas puzzles and lacing cards!