tot school - snow...better late than never!

Noah is 15 months old.

I am SO sorry that this is coming out so late! We've actually been moving (into a much bigger space for MUCH less!) so after this week, you'll be seeing different background scenery. Just in case you notice things like that, you know:) Anyway, I've been tied up with that, plus I started my spring semester back to school today, so I've had a full plate!

We're mostly moved in, and should be finished completely by tomorrow, so we should still be able to get in some good tot school for the rest of this week. Now, on to what we did last week...

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Theme: Snow/Snowmen/Winter
I have had an absolute blast planning this theme! I was hoping we would see some more snow to go along with our activities, but no luck. Noah still managed to do lots of fun activities, with several more we didn't get to (but plan to for the rest of this week).

First, Noah enjoyed playing with white playdough..

I helped him make little balls and build a mini snowman...

This was his version....he stacked them all on his own, then proceeded to smoosh it and try to put his little twig arms in his head:)

We did lots of activities with "snowballs" (aka cotton balls)...here he worked on transferring and pouring. Noah also did some one-to-one with an ice cube tray, but I don't have a picture of that.

Noah LOVED his sensory box for this theme! I filled the box with "snowballs" and other supplies you use to build a snowman (scarf, hat, twigs, "carrot" nose, and "coal")
The twigs are from the yard, I cut the hat and scarf out of felt, I made the carrot out of pipe cleaners, and the coal are several black pompoms.

Noah spent lots of time exploring the different materials, stirring them up, transferring them in and out, and so forth. His favorite piece, though, was definitely the carrot:)

I made a homemade matching board with some pictures from our recent snowfall. Please don't judge the sad quality haha! I just used what I had on hand (some construction paper, glue, and my computer printer).

Here is a close up....I was WAY more excited about this one than Noah unfortunately. Hopefully he'll enjoy it more this week.

I cut out a felt snowman for Noah to work on putting it together correctly. The only parts glued down are the parts of the face..

Noah did okay with this. He definitely understood that certain parts went in certain places, but I made the middle and bottom pieces too close in size for him to really recognize the big-medium-little concept. He still had fun with it though!

I printed out this picture from Making Learning Fun, but used pompoms instead of buttons because that's what I had on hand. It was meant to be a color recognition/fine motor activity (find the yellow pompoms and put them on the circles). Noah was totally uninterested though:(

In other fine motor work, Noah really enjoyed using these penguin stickers! They were fuzzy stickers too, so that was another fun aspect of them.

To tie into the stickers, Noah also played with his "winter" Little People animals. I talked to him about how they live in the snow and cold. I don't know if he understood that, but he had fun playing with the animals anyway!

Noah also had fun reading Biscuit's Snowy Day. Believe it or not, that is the only non-Christmas winter book Noah had! But he loves the Biscuit books, so he didn't mind reading it over and over:)

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Noah will continue with the snow/snowman/winter theme again for the rest of this week with some of the same activities and some new ones. I'll be sure to share the new activities we try...on time of course:)

See what others are up to at Tot School...hosted by Carisa at 1+1+1=1!

a great BIG thank you:)

I'm a little behind in posting about this, so my apologies! I feel quite honored to have been awarded the Lemonade Stand award by Susan of Chasing Marcus and Angela of Confessions of a Non-Domestic Housewife. This award is given for showing "great attitude and gratitude." Thank you both...I appreciate your kindness so very much! And I love your blogs:)

Since it seems like this one has been floating around everywhere lately, I'm not going to pass it to anyone in particular. I always hate having to choose people for things...but for this one, I honestly think every blog I read shows amazing attitude! I think that being a mom and caring for your children, helping them to grow and learn, is one of the hardest (but most rewarding!) jobs women can have. So we all deserve an award like this in my opinion:)

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I was also awarded the Happy 101 award by Cassie of Southern Domestic Goddess. I appreciate your kindness as well, and always love to get ideas from all you do with you little man too:)

For this award, you are to list 10 things that make you happy, then tag another 10 people. So here are 10 things that make me happy:

1. My two boys...the hubby & Noah:)

2. The new year...I love the feeling of anticipation, making changes, and all that:)

3. Noah feeling better!

4. Vacations! Especially our up-coming one to Disney...May 13th is getting closer and closer!!

5. Noah's kisses....nice and sloppy, just how I like them:)

6. Tot school:) I'm particularly excited about this week..all about winter and snowmen!

7. My "quiet" time.

8. Noah going to bed at 8:00 the last two nights in a row! Jimmy and I actually got some time to ourselves.

9. A clean, freshly organized house.

10. Finally going to Ikea for the first time yesterday. I'm not really into the modern style, but I was most impressed. Plus, Noah got a new dresser and some new tot school tools:)

And I'd like to pass this along to:

Chasing Marcus

Confessions of a Non-Domestic Housewife

Rogers' Family Blog

Fifth Street Academy

My Family My Forever

Momma's Playground

April Showers

And Baby Makes Five

Boy Blessings

Wilson Ramblings

tot school - lots of work with green

Noah is 15 months old.

A late happy new year to you! We've had another fun week of Tot School:) Noah got sick again towards the end of the week, though (with croup and ANOTHER ear infection) so most of the activities were done early on. His doctor prescribed steroids for his croup, and they make him irritable and sleepy:( But, he is feeling much better now, and tomorrow is the last day of steroids so I think next week we'll be back to normal!

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Color Theme: Green

Noah had fun with his color box this week. Several new things were added to it after Christmas, so he really enjoyed exploring, spilling, and filling up his box:)

Noah did a semi-open ended art project to go along with the color green. First, he colored a bit. Coloring with crayons isn't his favorite thing to do, so this didn't last long.

Then, he painted using a paper towel roll. I saw this on Chasing Marcus, and thought Noah would love it. And he did:)

Finally, Noah added his beloved pompoms to complete his masterpiece!

I wish I would have done an "open ended" picture for each color we've worked on, but I definitely will continue to do so with future colors!

For other green fun, Noah played with some green playdough. He got a big pack for Christmas, and this was the first time he has ever played with it.

Being that Noah is funny about things on his hands, he wasn't too sure of the smooshy green glob at first. But once he got some other "tools" (aka a spoon and a cookie cutter), he was all about this one!

All in all, green has been one of my favorite colors to work with, and I think Noah has particularly enjoyed it as well:)

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I kept the rest of our activities this week general. Mostly Noah played with his many new tot school toys he got for Christmas...like his M&D Nesting & Stacking Blocks. We're still working on following the correct size sequence to stack and nest, but he sure LOVES crashing the blocks:)

Noah also played a lot with his new M&D Lacing Beads. The shoestrings that come in the set, however, are a bit too flimsy for him right now, so I'm planning on getting some pipe cleaners or something so he can lace more easily.

Noah watched his new Preschool Prep Meet the Colors dvd several times this week, so I tried to test him a little:) I built color-specific towers out of his MegaBloks and them asked him to crash a certain one.

He did green and blue correctly after MUCH coaxing, then toddled off to another room, so I guess he's not ready yet:) I will try this activity again, though, because he did enjoy crashing the blocks!

I tried another color test later in the week with more playdough. Noah did surprisingly well! I asked him to sort the colored playdough balls into their correct container after showing him what I meant. He did this several times correctly with minimal help!

So even though the Meet the Colors dvd can be mind-numbing for a parent, I think it is going to be worth it in the long run if it is helping to reinforce colors.

Noah also enjoyed working with pasta this week. He loves to put spaghetti into small containers.

He also enjoyed using different colored and different shaped pasta to fill up the container too. We had a lesson on size using different pasta pieces and seeing if they fit through the "pour" side of an empty pepper container.

Pasta is such a great tot school tool! I bummed this variety from my mom, but I'm planning on getting a whole box of mixed pasta pieces so we can do even more activities with it. I do have to keep a close eye on Noah, though, because he still likes to pop things into his mouth when I'm not looking!

Lastly, we read TONS and TONS of books this week. After trying to focus on Christmas books for the last week weeks, I think Noah was excited to dig through his book basket and find some new and old favorites:) Some of the ones we wore out this week included:

Bennie's Garden by Genny Haines(sorry for no link...and I am officially going to put this one on hold, too, because between Jimmy and I we read this book at least 20 times a day!)

Polar Bear Polar Bear by Eric Carle

The Day the Rain Came by Allia Zobel-Nelson

BIscuit Visits the Petting Zoo by Alyssa Capucilli

Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton

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All right...that's all we've got for this week! See what others are up to at Tot School...hosted by Carisa at 1+1+1=1!

christmas recap 09

It certainly has taken me long enough to get this written! We had a wonderful but very busy Christmas this year, and though all of the decorations are back in storage, new gifts put away, I'm still a little worn out from everything!

We started things off Christmas Eve with Jimmy's mom and her boyfriend as is tradition, but we hosted them this year. After stuffing ourselves, Noah tore into the gifts:)

He loved it all, but the Little People train was his favorite...go figure with a train being his favorite:)

We ended the evening playing Wii....and I'll keep those pictures to save embarrassment! ha! I'll just say that Jimmy's mom and myself are NOT skilled gamers!

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On to Christmas morning...Noah was not happy about a 7:30 wake up call! Remember...Noah usually sleeps to at least 9:00 most days. And please excuse the kitchen mess...Jimmy's mom stayed late.

After some milk, he was a much happier, albeit sleepy boy:)

He took some persuading to get into the living room, and then it still took him a bit to take it all in..

But when he saw his new Elmo's Restaurant, he instantly perked up!

His new tricycle was also a big hit...until he slid off sideways! He still has lots of time to learn:)

After a bit of play time with the kitchen and trike, Noah was ready to rip some paper:)

Of course, after each gift was opened he wanted to play with it for 15 minutes...

The Band in a Box set was probably the favorite toy he actually unwrapped...he has already played with it for hours!

A quick recap of his gifts from us (just for my own record): Elmo's Restaurant, tricycle, playdough, books (new copy of Brown Bear Brown Bear, and Polar Bear Polar Bear), movies (Up, Preschool Prep Meet the Colors, Preschool Prep Meet the Shapes), Melissa & Doug lacing beads, M&D Band in a Box, M&D nesting & stacking blocks, 2 M&D chunky puzzles, MegaBloks fire truck, Thomas trains (Culdee & the Apple Orchard cars, 5 piece set with Toby), new sweatshirt

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After finishing things up, we headed to my mom's house for our traditional Christmas morning activities - gifts and breakfast in our jammies:) Noah has lots more things to unwrap!

Probably his favorite thing from this stop was his Christmas Mickey from my brother Shannan. They weren't able to come down from Michigan for Christmas this year:( He is a very high-up business man in the automotive industry and had important business that week to tend to; also my sister-in-law's father isn't doing well, so they opted to stay home. We mailed our gifts to one another though, and Noah LOVED his:)

I won't even try to remember all he got at my mom's...we'll just say that Noah is a little spoiled:)

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After breakfast, we headed to Jimmy's step-mom's for another breakfast. We usually do an early Christmas Eve with them, but Jimmy had to work on Christmas Eve. I didn't take many pictures there because 1)we didn't stay long (we were still in our jammies!) and 2)Noah was ready for a nap.

But Noah did enjoy snuggling with his cousin Caleb:)

After a little more food and some more gifts, we finally headed home for showers and a little break!

While Jimmy and I got ready, Noah enjoyed one Daddy's gifts (a new video game rocker) while watching a video:)

From here, Jimmy had to head to the store to check on it (the joys of management!). Luckily, Noah fell asleep on the drive and took a much needed 3 1/2 hour nap! I took a short snooze too while Jimmy played a video game.

We opted out of my Dad's family's celebration this year. We aren't close with them at all, plus there was no way I was interrupting that gloriously long nap Noah enjoyed:)

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Once Noah woke up, we headed back to my mom's for her family's big celebration. With a house full, Noah was in all out ham-it-up mode! A new gift from Mimi didn't hurt either:)

He danced and danced and danced with these new Elmo tickle gloves (funny how he's never even seen Sesame Street!).

We stayed late at my mom's so I could help her clean up everything, but amazingly Noah didn't go to sleep that night until late. Must have been the nap!

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All in all, Noah's second Christmas was filled with fun, laughter, memories, FOOD, and LOTS of wrapping paper:) I'm already excited for next year!