Peek-A-Boo Baby

An empty kleenex box is great for playing peek-a-boo with babies and small toys. E loves to reach in the box to get her toys. It's a little easier to get the toys out of the kleenex box than the wipes container, and she seems to prefer this box to the container.

O's 4th Birthday Cake

We started the tradition of having O decorate her own birthday cake last year, and she was SO excited to do it again this year! She picked out the decorations, icing, and candles, and she and my mom made her cake and icing on the day before her party. My mom iced the cake with white icing, and then O decorated it with supervision from me. I helped her press on the nozzle for the blue icing (we did hand over hand), but she did everything else on her own. She had a great time and was so proud!

O has had Cinderella on her mind since she had Princess Dance Camp a few weeks ago, so she decided she wanted to have Cinderella on her cake. I felt a little panicky when I overheard her telling her grandmother that she was going to let me help her decorate her cake so that I could draw Cinderella on it. Yikes! I told my mom about this, and she had the great idea to use O's Cinderella figurine. Phew!

O decided to put Miss Lilly on her cake, too, since Miss Lilly is a ballet teacher (and reminds her of her imaginary friend/dance teacher whose name is also Miss Lilly). If you've never let your child decorate a cake on their on, I highly recommend trying it! I love that there is no pressure on me to make a beautiful, creative cake, and I love that O is able to have creative freedom to create her own masterpiece!

Nature and Art

We have been learning more about the plants and animals that live in our yard this week. We've found dead bugs that we've inspected with a magnifying glass, and we've read books about lakes and lake animals (since we live at a lake). On Monday we took our paper and watercolor paints outside and painted landscapes while pushing E in her swing.

O and I took turns painting pictures, and she was a little upset when I painted my sky all the way down to the grass on my picture. She demonstrated and gave me instructions on how the sky should only be a blue strip at the top of the page. I remember drawing the sky this way and then having a sudden realization that the sky does not actually look like this. I asked O if she was sure if the sky should just be a small strip at the top of the page, and she was adamant :) Love it!


After we painted for a while, O decided to paint her foot, too.

I'm looking forward to more outside painting with O soon. I think it would be a lot of fun to go on the dock to paint, but we have to wait until we have someone to watch E since her little fast self would crawl off the dock in a second!

Starting Early...

O was SO excited when E started pushing her vacuum cleaner back and forth. She said "Look mama! She's vacuuming ALL by herself! We'll never have to clean again!" If only that were true :)

I'm very busy cleaning and organizing our house and finishing O's handmade birthday presents...her birthday party is on Saturday, and there is still SO much to do. I apologize for the delay in answering email. I hope to get to them soon.

July 4th Flag Cake

My mom started the tradition of making this delicious flag cake for July 4th last year, and we were glad that she continued it this year. She makes an angel food cake and tops it with cool whip. O enjoys decorating it to look like a flag with strawberries and blueberries, but she REALLY loves sneaking licks of the cool whip...there was a tongue indention and several finger marks in the cake after she finished decorating it!

A New Sensory Experience for Baby...

lying on her back in the grass...she was not impressed! I was surprised by how aversive this experience was for her. She cringed and got up as quickly as she possibly could. She didn't cry, but she acted like this was just a terrible experience. However, she doesn't mind crawling in the grass, and she's always trying to eat it!

The Amazing Action Alphabet

A reader sent us The Amazing Action Alphabet flip chart and cd a few months ago, and these are great products! The Amazing Action Alphabet uses a multisensory approach to teaching letter names and sounds. Children see the letters, hear the sounds in a story, and then do an action. Learning is most effective when material is presented through the use of several senses.

I accepted this product for review because I knew O would love it even though she already knew her letters and letter sounds. I was right...she does love it, and I wish I'd had it sooner. It's fun to play the cd while flipping through the flip chart, and I'm looking forward to introducing letters and sounds to E using this method.

I have only a couple of complaints...I really wish the flipchart had a built in stand instead of lying flat (I guess I'm spoiled by all of the testing manuals that I use because they all have built in stands). Also, a couple of the stories were a little difficult to understand because the voices were a little strange (the main one that I didn't like was A). However, most of the stories (and voices) were great. Overall, this is a great product, and the price is right. I hope you'll check it out and let me know if you like it, too.

A Simple Behavior Intervention

As a School Psychologist a huge part of my job is planning behavior and academic interventions for kids. However, when it comes to my own child, it is a little more difficult. Luckily, I work with some wonderful psychologists who are great at coming up with super simple interventions.

O has not been listening quickly for the last couple of months, and I've found myself repeating myself more often than I would like and counting to 3 to get her to listen. I really don't like counting to 3...it just gives her a reason to wait to listen instead of listening quickly. So, I asked my friend Jan for ideas...

To do this intervention, I gave O a piece of blue cardstock (blue is her favorite color). I explained to her that when she listened the FIRST time I asked her to do something, she would get a star on her paper. That's it. Simple and VERY effective.

O was very excited about her sheet. At first I gave her stars very frequently, but I didn't give them everytime she listened the first time because random reinforcement seems to work better than continuous. Also, I didn't want her to expect to get a star for listening...I worry about eroding the intrinsic motivation that comes from behaving nicely. However, I did want her to be excited about earning the stars in order to help her get back into the habit of listening quickly. So far this is really working. Here are a few important points of this intervention:

-She is not allowed to ask for a star (this was never an issue, but if it had been I planned to tell her that she would not get a star if she asked).

-I did not ask her to do something by saying "If you do ..., you'll get a star." The stars were like a fun surprise after she listened the first time...there was no convincing her to listen by promising a star.

-I did not take away stars when she didn't listen. I didn't mention the stars at all when she didn't listen.

-She doesn't earn anything once she fills the sheet up with stars other than the satisfaction of knowing that she did a great job and earned a sheet full of stars. (Elliott's first question was "what does she get for filling the sheet?") I didn't want this intervention to be about what she would get because I don't want to instill in her that she should "get" something for behaving appropriately. I just want to help her get back into the habit of quick listening.

So far this is working for us, and we're having fun (which is the most important thing). This turned out to be a pretty wordy post (for me!) for a simple intervention. Enjoy!

Drop It In...Where Is It???

E and I have fun dropping small toys (but not so small as to be chokable) into this wipes container. I put the toys halfway in the slot, and she tries to grab them out to put them in her mouth. Occasionally, she'll push them the rest of the way in, and she reaches in to try to get them out. She'll also hold the container up to her eyes to look in it and shakes it...so cute. We have lots of fun with this simple activity. We use a Huggies wipes container since it has a rubbery material surrounding the opening which makes it easy for baby hands to reach in without getting scratched.

Fun with Unit Blocks

Unit blocks (and playsilks) are my most favorite toys for my kids, and we have really enjoyed them lately. O and I have fun building towers, and E loves to knock them down.

I need to find a new storage solution for the blocks...when they are put away in their bin on the IKEA storage unit, we almost never play with them. We left them out for a few days and played with them everyday. It's interesting how the placement of a toy is so key in the amount of playtime it sees...

1000!

I just noticed that I have 1000 followers on blogger. Thanks!

Baby in the Mirror

I've planned to write a post about E's Montessori bedroom, but I never have...mainly because we spend so little time in there. We sleep on the floor bed, but that is about it.

Lately, I've been trying to spend more time playing in front of these mirrors on her floor. She really enjoys them, so I'm trying to set aside some time each day to play in this space with her. I'm thinking of putting a baby gate in her doorway so I can leave her in her room to play by herself while I wash clothes. I have a feeling that she may climb the gate, but I may try it anyway...

Painting a Birdhouse

O painted a lighthouse birdhouse for her daddy for Father's Day, and she REALLY got into it! She started painting with brushes, but she quickly decided that she'd rather paint with her hands. She mixed the paint together and smeared it all over her hands and painted the house. Before I knew it, she'd smeared the paint all the way up her arms to her shoulders. Wow! Then she asked for a wet towel to wipe it off...Um, no. I took her out to the deck and sprayed her off with the waterhose. What a fun and messy day!

Tunnel Time

O and I have been setting up obstacle courses in our den for E to crawl through and this tunnel was a popular addition! We set up the tunnel for E to crawl through, couch cushions for her to crawl over, chairs to crawl under, etc. I was really surprised by how quickly she crawled through the tunnel and then continued to crawl through it over and over again. It's amazing how different she is from O...O didn't even start crawling until she was 10 months old. E is only 9 months old, and she is crawling, climbing, standing, etc and I'm very afraid that she may be walking soon. Slow down baby girl!

"Not a Paper Towel Roll"

O was having a GREAT time playing with a paper towel roll a few days ago, and it reminded me of the book Not a Stick. I started asking her "Whatcha doing with that paper towel roll?" and she'd say "It's not paper towel roll. It's a ..."

We had fun reinacting the book (with a twist)...O LOVES to reinact books, movies, recitals, etc. The "not a paper towel roll" was a telescope, microphone, megaphone, microscope, magnifiying glass, vase, cast, drumstick, sword, horse, train, etc. Who needs toys when you have trash?