Monday, June 4, 2012

Catching Up

Instead of listing the zillion reasons/excuses why I have been post-less for so long, I will just jump right into a catch up post, yay!

Emry, is on the verge of being a one year old. And it truly is shocking to me. I don't understand how they can grow SO. FAST. Soon, I won't have babies, just kids. Honestly, 98.3% of the time I think of myself as a kid so I'm not really sure how all of this is possible.



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She is the polar opposite of her big sister, and they clash about 102% of the time. Literally, more than always. But the super rare, once in a blue moon moment, that they are kind towards each other (or can even exist in the same room without screaming), melts my heart.


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All jokes aside, these two are getting better at living, learning, sharing and playing with each other all the time.

Mya, is almost three. And she amazes me always. I love talking with her, hearing the interesting, intelligent and often odd imaginative things she thinks up. What a wonderful age it is, when you can look past all the typical "terrible twos" things. As Tom Petty would put it .."Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks" And here, they aren't rocks, they are freaking mountains. Super big, volcano-style mountains. With mean bears living on them.

But the diamond days are worth living for, and they are beautiful.


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Here is a few of the activities we have been enjoying lately.

Journal work:



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On sunny days, we take our journals outside. Sometimes we make nature bracelets with contact paper, allowing her to collect things from outside and then putting them into her journal to talk and draw about.




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Activity Trays:

Working with numbers


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Fishing for letters


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Intro to sight words and matching


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Puzzle/Shapes Work


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Mya enjoys new activity trays I set up for her, but her most favorite way to spend time (aside from being a goofball with her dad), is reading. Our local library has preschool and toddler bins set up with different themes. You can borrow a bin for 2 weeks, and they are a wonderful resource for us. The latest bin we took out was a Children of the World bin, and it was so great.

Here are a few of Mya's favorite books from the bin...


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At nearly three, Mya has started to notice that people are different. Different than her, or me, or anyone she knows. She has no filter when pointing out these differences whether it is a interesting hair-do, or the color of skin. We have started to try to explain these differences, and ensure her that everyone is different from each other, and that it's great. The best thing I have found, to help her understand her new discovery, is a book. A bright, fun, colorful book. I recommend it to anyone with a preschooler.



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I, as a child, had a wild imagination, and I see the same in Mya. I encourage this all I can. I firmly believe imaginative play is the most important thing for a young child. We have a dress-up area for Mya, her favorite thing is to pretend to be a doctor, or a princess having a tea party.



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She also often ask to play store, so we set up a market for her to run. Mya and I set this up together, and we took turns sorting our food types into different categories.



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I have also recently set up a Heuristic Play area in our home. If you are unfamiliar with this read here.



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Emry is so curious, and although she really doesn't stay in one place very long, there are many intriguing activities you can set up for the very young ones.

Water and Toy Sensory bag


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Straws/Blocks on Contact Paper


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By the way, this one is almost walking, which is new for us since big sister didn't walk until close to 15 months.



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Uh oh...really close.


Ok thats enough for one post. Hopefully I will post again before September!



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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Our days...March

I try so hard to keep up with blogging. I for some reason really struggle with finding the time (and energy?) to update this as often as I would like. I just don't get how some moms do it. How can you possibly write a post EVERY day? Or even every week for that matter...What is the secret? How do you muster up the energy to write an intelligent and interesting post after a day of children and errands and cleaning and laundry and cooking and more cleaning?? Even right now I can think of at least 10 others things I should/could be doing. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy writing posts, I just sometimes struggle in justifying its importance over other things that need to get done. But I guess it is important because I enjoy it, and because I get so much out of other "mom blogs" that I feel obligated to give back and share as well....so I will continue to post, whenever I have time.

So, here we are in March....Our weather for the most part is unpredictable and often unpleasant (just yesterday we had 97 km winds making it actually unsafe to go outdoors). We do attempt to go outside at least once a day despite the crazy wind/snow/hail/rain that tries to keep us inside.


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Our walk to the local coffee shop this past weekend


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I love how much the girls love to be outside. There is just something calming about a walk in the sunshine or even in the rain.



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Inside, we have lots of new things going on. Mya is still all about writing and learning letters. I keep out an alphabet tracing white board to encourage her and she always has access to her art shelf so she spends a lot of her time drawing and writing.


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Here is an update on some of our current activity trays..


Sorting by color (dark and light)


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Counting


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Making Shapes


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Polishing Pennies


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Stickers (working on patterns, shapes and letters) - Note: I bought inexpensive canvas from the dollar store. The stickers come off very easily allowing Mya to re-do this activity over and over without going through a lot of paper.


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Light Box play - Sifting


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Current theme on our felt board for stories is Dinosaurs


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Sensory Bin - Cloud dough ( 4 cups flour to 1/2 cup baby oil)


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For Emry, who still isn't crawling (but is close!!), I have added some mirrors to her play corner. Right now she loves anything that makes sounds. For example, she loves to bang things together or smash things on the floor and is thrilled by the different noises she creates. I put together some "mini shakers" which are small containers (lids are securely glued on) filled with different things such as rice, beans, noodles, lentils etc. I wanted them to make different sounds and are a variety of size and color. Also, the containers stack on top of each other as Mya often proudly shows Emry (and then of course they are promptly knocked over at which time a fight ensues).


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The girls are getting along better and better, they bath together and have stories read to them together. Nothing makes my day more than seeing my two girls interacting with each other and playing side by side. It truly is a special bond they are forming and it melts my heart.


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Some photos from the past few weeks...


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