Madeline-10 Weeks

Weight: I got on the scale with you and you weigh a hefty 13 pounds!

Health: Nothing negative to report here!  You've been healthy as a clam with only a few fussy periods to report.  I changed my diet a bit (cut out sugar) and you seemed to be going through with drawl too.  I felt bad that you had to feel that too!

Social: So social! You found your voice and will talk to anyone who will listen.  It's so cute because you just go on and on.  You love to smile and are happy 95% of the time! Today our house keeper really got you laughing and you had the cutest belly laughs!

Diet: All breast milk.  All the time!

Clothes: You are almost completely in 3 month clothing.  Within 2 weeks you were done with your 0-3 and we were packing them away.  In disposables here you are in size 2 (I think disposables here run one size bigger than the US) but we have switched you to cloth so this doesn't matter much now.

Mama's Favorites: Love your little voice and all the "stories" you have to tell!

Crying: You've had a few fussy moments which I think are because of my diet change but other than that you've been great.  You still only cry when you are hungry and overtired.

Sleep: You are still on the same schedule for night.  You go to bed around 9.  I "wake" you for a dream feed anywhere from 11-12 then you wake anywhere from 5-6 for another feeding.  At 9 you're up for the day.

You naps have been hit and miss.  You've started the 45 minute naps which I think has something to do with the sleep cycles and you not being able to put yourself to sleep.  Now instead of three naps a day we have about 5. Going to try to see what this is about and how to get you sleeping through that cycle.

This Week: This was our first week completely on our own.  Grandma and Aunt Mary left and daddy was away in the states.  We kept it low key though and were mainly at home.  The days we were out and about you were a trooper!

Baby Likes: When you have someone to talk to.  You also like the ergo and being outside.  There's tons to look at and you like your perch from the carrier.  You also like sleeping in your own bed.  You're not to keen on falling asleep much anywhere else.

Milestones: We heard your first belly laugh this week.  We also moved you into cloth diapers.

Best of Times: The laughs and nights (love my sleep!)


Worst of Times: The few fussy days we had with the diet shift.

Sister Diaries: Mara has been a tad jealous when you need immediate attention.  I usually try to put her needs first as she doesn't quite understand.  BUT when you have to eat you come first!  Otherwise she is still as in love with you as ever before.  Her new thing is to do an impression of you when you cry.  It's kind of cute!

Tot School-Grocery Store

This week our theme was grocery store!  This was the first week after my mom and aunt left.  Josh was also back in the states so I gave myself a lot of grace and we did as much as we could.

On Monday we focused on fruit.  I gave Mara a do a dot to work on while I made breakfast this morning.  This time I put letters in the circles instead of giving her a marker.  I then peeled matching letter stickers and asked her to match the letters.  She did awesome!  I wasn't able to actually make breakfast while she was doing this as she needed help but it was a win!

During Madeline's morning nap we focused on fine motor skills and more matching.  I had fruit cards set out for her and asked her to clip a clothespin on the cooresponding card.  We then found that piece of fruit in her play fruit pile and put it on it's picture in one of our Usborne books.  Seemed like a long activity but she really enjoyed it.  Later in the evening she pulled out all the pieces of this activity and repeated it on her own :)

I recently got Mara this game called Avalanche.  It's a very simple game yet still a little advanced for her.  We had fun "playing" it and practicing using tweezers to remove the fruit carefully from the stand.

This day we also did some fingerprint art in one of our favorite Usborne books, Fingerprint activities.  I love this book as there is usually one page for every theme we do!

Tuesday we bascially repeated ourselves but with vegetables!!  I gave her another do a dot letter match in the morning and at naptime we tackled the veggies.  She did this one much faster than the fruit and really seemed to get the hang of it.

The rest of our day was spent with pretend play and lots of cooking in her kitchen.

Wednesday we headed to a play group with friends and didn't get to do any totschool.

Thursday we decided to hit up the real thing and make a trip to the grocery store.  I have had so many offers to keep the girls while I shop since Josh is away but I braved it with both so we could turn this into a learning experience.  As we shopped we talked about each section and what kinds of food you would find here.  It was really fun to listen to Mara as we strolled the aisles.

Next week we will be talking all about Occupations!  We'll be mainly looking at community workers such as policemen, firefighters, and mailmen but we'll also throw in doctors and farmers!  I'm excited to put some of her toys into play here!

Tot School-Dinosaurs

So my initial plan was to do dinosaurs the first week my mom and aunt were up.  A few days into their visit I quickly realized that it was better to just forgo tot school and let Mara enjoy playing with them.  On that note we did fit in a few dinosaur related activities and I wanted to give them their own blog post so I can look back on the week and remember.

The first day we did some letter recognition with name dinosaurs.  I cut out crude dinosaurs out of foam and wrote Mara's first and last names on each.  I then put the corresponding letters on clothespins and let her clip the letter where they needed to go.  She did great withe the letter matching but struggled with the actual clipping of the pins.  This was good to identify this fine motor skill we need to work on.

We then created a dinosaur head by painting her feet and stamping them on a piece of construction paper.  Once the paint had dried we glued eyes and gave the dinosaur teeth.  I let Mara "color" her dinosaur too and she seemed pretty proud of her creation!

I broke out the playdough this week in a fossil dinosaur invititation to play.  I gave her some dough, dinosaurs and other fun "fossil" materials.  We talked about how you can find dinosaur bones in the rocks and read from one of our fun Usborne books!

The last activity I did with Mara this week was dinosaur eggs.  I froze the same plastic dinosaurs used with the playdough in an ice cube tray.  To make it fun I added food coloring and baking soda to each cube.  My intention was to give her a squeeze bottle with vinegar and water and let her watch the reaction as the eggs melted away.

Well we didn't have too much vinegar on hand so there wasn't much reaction.  She didn't seem to mind and enjoyed just melting the eggs with warm water.  We continued this in her bath later that night!

I had a lot of fun activities planned for dinosaur week and they just didn't happen.  At the time I was a little bummed and hard on myself for not being on top of the game.  BUT looking back on it now I'm glad we did what we did and I'm not super woman.  Tot school is always a success whether we do one activity or ten!

Next week we're on to the grocery store!  I didn't find a lot of things with this theme to do so we'll be doing a lot of pretend play and field trips to the store of course!

Life Lately

Gosh life has been busy....For the last two weeks my mom and aunt have been visiting.  We've been soaking in every minute with them.  We've gone to the park, play place, the malls, Old Town, etc.  Since they were here for only a short while we wanted to fit in as much fun as we could!

Mara isn't going to know what to do without them here as one has been her constant play mate for the past two weeks.  I'm also going to miss the extra hands as Josh is currently out of country and I have the girls on my own for the next few weeks.

I've also been super busy with all things Usborne.  I'm trying to promote to Team Leader so I have really put my nose down.  Despite the hard work, it has been so rewarding.  My party schedule has been completely full which only means that I get to share these books with that many more people! :)  I have a few more milestones to hit on my way to Team Leader but I'm praying that they fall into place either by the end of this month or next.

We've taken a bit of a hiatus from tot school.  I had high hopes of continuing it while Mom and Mary were here but it just didn't happen.  We were out of the house too often during the week.  I think I'll just wrap up our dinosaur theme from two weeks ago and start a fresh on Monday with grocery store.  This will push us through the end of June but that's ok.  That gives me a few months to figure out what if anything I'm going to do with Mara "next year".

I'm currently leaning away from full time preschool here mainly because of the cost.  For the most part I am confident that I can provide the same for Mara here at home.  The only thing I feel like she is missing out on is the socialization aspect of it.  We'll just have to do a better job of getting out and scheduling more play dates!

On that note I will need to figure out some sort of curriculum for next year's preschool!  I'm brand new to this thing.  I don't think we need an official program just an idea.  This year we had a weekly theme and I really liked it.  I think we'll continue along these lines but try to incorporate more advanced ideas maybe even have a focus book of the week.

Now that I've rambled my way through this post, I'm going to get back on the blog train!

Madeline-2 Months

Weight: I'm not exactly sure where you are on this as I haven't weighed you lately.  You are definitely going through your clothes so I'm sure you've gained.

Health: Still healthy as can be!  Everyone but you had a bought with an eye infection but thankfully you didn't get it.  You've had a little dry skin here and there but nothing to write home about.  You also seem to be doing awesome with dairy.  I have still cut out milk completely but you handle cheese and other dairy products fine!

You also got your first round of shots this month.  You got DTaP, Hib and Rotavirus.  You handled all like a champ.  We'll be doing the delayed schedule with you again like your sister.

Social: You are such a social baby all of a sudden.  You are constantly checking out your surroundings, kicking and waving your arms as you go.  My ultimate favorite time of the day with you is the morning.  You break into the largest grin when we go in to get you.  Then you are the chattiest little girl full of big grins for the next 30 minutes.  One morning your daddy and I got to just lay in bed with you and talk.

Diet: All breast milk.  All the time!

Clothes: You are in 0-3 month old clothing although these seem to be kind of short on you.  I think you may have a long torso like your mama as you only came in at 50% for height at your last appointment.

Mama's Favorites: I'm loving all the smiles you give.  You wake up in such a happy mood unlike your sister.  It's a joy and I love soaking these moments in with you.

Crying: You're still awesome in this department.  You only really cry when you're hungry and tired.


Sleep: You are still great in this department.  You now go to bed around the same time your sister does.  You sleep till I wake you up to nurse around 11-12 (when I get to bed).  This ties you over till about 6 when you feed one last time and wake up for the day around 9!  Can you say Hallelujah?!

I am still swaddling you when you go down and using your white noise sheep for the first 45 minutes (it cuts off at this point).

We are also coming to a schedule with naps.  You are awake for almost 1.5 hours on the dot then start to exhibit signs of tiredness.  I then take you upstairs and swaddle you, keeping the noise machine on while I do so.  Then I lay you down.  You usually sleep for at least 1.5 hours.  Your morning naps are shorter while your after lunch nap is almost 3 hours.

You take 3 naps a day on average!

This Week: You met your grandma and Great Aunt Mary this week.  We did a lot of playing and touring the city.  We also took you to get your first round of shots.

Baby Likes: You still like to be propped up and looking around.  You are now starting to like the activity gym for short periods of time.  Instead of just laying there you are getting interested in the toys hanging down.

You love it when people talk to you including your older sister!

Milestones: You are getting more and more into a routine.  I can almost set my watch by it.  It's so nice to be able to rely on that where as your sister was always unpredictable.

You are showing the makings of starting to roll.  You try to go to both sides but don't know what to do after that.

Best of Times: The smiles :)

Worst of Times: Maybe getting your shots?  You were unhappy and your older sis was unhappy watching you get them.

Sister Diaries: She is still in love with you.  She was super upset when you got your shots and whenever you're upset.  She loves to hold your hand.

Tot School-Hygiene

This week we'll be focusing on hygiene.  We're going to be talking about brushing our teeth, covering our mouth, taking baths and germs.  This theme is coming at a great time as Mara has been fighting us on just about all of those.

Monday we started with teeth.  I cut out a mouth for her and gave her 16 teeth to put in it as well as a tongue.  As we glued them in we talked about how she has upper teeth and lower teeth and how it is important that she brushes all of them (she only does her bottom at night).  After it dried we pretended to munch on her play food.

Then we talked about flossing.  We don't floss Mara's teeth but probably should.  For this I took one of her lego duplo blocks and put some play dough between the pegs.  I told her that the play dough was food that we get stuck in our teeth.  I gave her some yarn and showed her how to use it to get rid of the food.  She had a lot of trouble working the yarn but did a decent job after a few tries.  What I was really impressed with was that she kept at it.  With her attitude lately she hasn't been to keen on continuing to try.

On Tuesday we focused on covering her nose when she sneezes or coughs.  I talked with her about how when we do those two things germs go everywhere.  Then I took a windex bottle with a picture on it and demonstrated the concept.  She didn't want to spray the bottle herself but stayed with me in understanding the topic.

We then created an art project to demonstrate this too.  The night before I had cut out a silhouette of her head and glued it to another sheet of paper.  I first traced her hands and then let her color this face while I cut them out.  We then glued a tissue with her hands holding it up to the face's nose.  She really focused throughout this whole activity and showed me all the ways to cover her face: hands, elbow and tissue.  I was really impressed!

Wednesday was the beginning of the end of the week for us.  All we got done was a germ sensory bin.  I put cotton balls in a bin along with some spiky balls.  I told her the cotton balls were the white blood cells attacking the germs.  She took this literally and threw all the "germs" out of the box and at Buddy, our cat.

Thursday and Friday were kind of washed with any activities.  We kept busy with puzzles and our books for the weeks but I just didn't get my act together to prep anything.  I've found that if I don't prep the night before it doesn't happen.

Next week we're set to start dinosaurs.  I'm curious how much we'll get done as my mom and aunt are visiting.  I hope we can fit it all in along with some fun with them!

Tot School-Art

Last week we worked on Art.  At first the topic was a bit broad for me but once we got into it, I started to appreciate it and I think Mara got a lot out of it.

Books for the week

On Monday we did two craft projects.  The first was a marble painting.  I put a sheet of plain white paper in a tote and put small amounts of paint randomly along it.  I then added a bunch of spiky balls.  Once the lid was on I gave it to Mara to shake.  Of course at first she wasn't interested but after a few shakes of my own she took over.  In the end we let it dry and now she calls it her "boom" painting (aka boom=fireworks).

I then tried a technique I saw on Pinterest to "tie-dye" baby wipes.  We have a ton around here so I grabbed two and rubber banded them.  I let her color one with markers and I did another.  We let them dry overnight and checked them out the next day.  Honestly this didn't really work.  I don't know if we didn't color them enough or what.  I don't think we could of as they started to kind of ruin the markers we used.  So I just chalked this up to a fail.

Our last project was to do some water painting.  Usborne has this amazing water painting book so I just tore out a sheet and gave her some water.  She loved revealing the colors.

Tuesday we did some more art work with paint.  I spread out a large sheet of brown paper (thank you Usborne shipments!) and threw some watered down paint on it.  I gave Mara a blow dryer and let her go to work.   Again it took a while to convince her to try it.  My girl is not a risk taker.  She finally was into it but of course it didn't really work as imagined.  Not sure if it was the paper being crinkly or the paint not runny enough.  In the end we just lifted the paper and watched the paint run around it.

Our second activity was some splat fireworks.  Here I took paint and cotton balls, hid the colors under the cotton and gave her a hammer to reveal it.  She was so into this until her play hammer got paint on it.  Then it was game over.  We had to wash it over and over...

On Wednesday we did some more motion painting.  This time we put the paper in a mason jar with the same spiky balls.  She got to shake it up a ton and we laid it out to dry afterwards.

In the afternoon she was a bit of a terror so we resorted to coloring pages.  This actually really turned out well.  She hasn't strictly colored in awhile so she was ready.  I also let her pick the topic and involved her printing them.

Thursday we did some rainbow paper.  This was achieved by dipping black paper in water with a few drops of clear nail polish in it.  When you remove it the film looks like a rainbow in the sunlight.  This was a fun activity but I think I ruined one of my mixing bowls.  I wish I would have done it in a paper bowl.

The rest of the day we laid low.  We did do a few pages in our Usborne Art Sticker book which was fun.  I love how interested she is in stickers and how she is really getting into the books.  She likes to place them just right and wants to do all the work herself.

I gave her a sheet of paper and her stamps.  I let her go to town with a little free art.  She had a blast creating the shapes and putting the cat stamps inside of them.  I was interested in the fact that she really loved to do the stamps on top of each other.

On Friday we talked a lot about colors and read one of our favorite Usborne books "Big Book of Colors".  I also printed off an activity page for her to do along with the book that talked about primary and secondary colors.  I think the topic may be a bit over her head but it was good to introduce her to it again.  I think if I would have done this page with paint she may have been more engaged.  We could have mixed the primary colors to reveal the secondary ones.  We used crayons and it didn't have the same effect.

Next week we're talking about hygiene and I think it is really coming at a good time.  She hates brushing her teeth all of a sudden and we've been really harping on her to cover her mouth when she sneezes.  Let's hope these are two topics we can make progress on!