B is for Busy, Booty, and Blocks!

Today was a super day. We stayed really busy! We started off the day with one of AJ's favorite things...puzzles. We have been working on the ABC puzzle and he is doing great at naming many of the items on the puzzle. The only issue I have with the puzzle (for good and bad) is that all the pieces fit together whether they should or not!


After breakfast, we had to run up to the store, so we decided to stop by the Salvation Army while we were out! What a trip! We haven't been in quite a long while, but they had tons of great stuff! Check out my booty...


I got all this awesome stuff for $10. A huge bag of cloth letters, blocks (Jenga), a box of books from Spot, an ALL About Me book, a brand new Baby Einsteins DVD about animals, a CD with kids/toddler songs and a box of sight words (this if for later). I was super excited about my stash and can't wait to go back again! I mean who wouldn't be excited about a bunch of educational stuff for little to nothing!

AJ was asleep by the time we got home, so after a nap and lunch he dug right in to see what we bought. The first thing he found were the blocks. He quickly dumped them on the floor and insisted we build. We started by each building our own structures so that he could knock them down. Then, he decided he wanted to line them all up. I asked him to line up all the yellow blocks. He did that for a bit and then switched to another color. This naturally grew into building a pattern. After all the blocks were lined up, he rolled Thomas over them and screamed out the color.


This kept him entertained for several minutes until he decided he wanted wider tracks. He took a section of the track and moved them so there were two rows. He had a minor meltdown when some of the blocks fell out of position. It is amazing to watch him play. He is so particular about how and where things go. He gets frustrated easily, usually has a mini-meltdown and then fixes them. He is so his father...but unlike his father...AJ LOVES to help clean up!


After clean up, he found one of the Thomas books from the library. This was the first time we rented Thomas books mostly due to my innate fear that he would destroy them. He has been really good with them though. He loves to comb through the books and identify all the trains. It has really helped with his colors as well. He can name most of the trains by name (or at least his attempt by name). AJ can identify the train by its color, but still struggles to say some of the colors...that will come with time.