A Day out with Daddy

Daddy came home early from work on Friday and decided to show AJ how to play croquet. No matter how many times daddy set it up, AJ just ran behind him, picked up the flags and moved them. It was so cute to watch through. AJ also didn't want to use the mallet to hit the ball. He liked the stakes instead!

Here are a few pics of AJ trying to play:


Then, Daddy took out to a late picnic lunch at the park! We had happy meals and icecream! It was such a nice time! I love when daddy comes home to play with us!

Battle Scar...

I recently came across a thread in my mom's group from a mom who was befuddled by her constant battle to get her toddler into his car seat. I could totally identify with this mom's overwhelming feeling of complete frustration at this constant battle. As I read it, I couldn't help but reminisce about my own battle the other day...

As always, we are late getting out of the house. AJ is totally uncooperative. He does not want to get his toys ready to go or put his shoes on in fact and I get my purse together to leave I see him out of the corner of my eye in the process of removing his pants. I peek at the clock...ugg I should have left 10 minutes ago. I take a deep breath because I want to scream...at him, at the situation, at my utter frustration. At the fact, I gave myself extra time to ensure we got out of the house on time and instead my son is half naked...AGAIN! Instead, like a good mom, I close my eyes...count to five...breath deep and accept the situation. He is not even 2 I remind myself. I accept that fact that we will be late AGAIN...whatever. It won't be the first time and I guarantee it won't be the last!

As I near AJ and collect his discarded attire, he sprints off to hide under his train table. Evading capture, he runs to the other side of the island and we play a frustrating game of ring around the Rosie. He is laughing...me...I can feel the anger creeping up! So, I decide to just ignore the pestilence and decide to take him the way he is. So what if it is 50 degrees outside and he is in a shirt and diaper...

I tell him we are leaving. Put his clothes in my ever bulging bag and realized I have traded my school backpack once filled with 50lbs of books for a diaper bag/ purse/ lunch box/ kitchen sink. I grab AJ's Halloween bucket, throw in a few toys and walk out the door. As the door swings shut behind me, I hear AJ banging on the window. Ahh, he is finally ready to leave!

As I open the door, he comes running into my arms. I thankfully swing him onto my hip, so what if I am now loaded with a 50lb bag and a 30lb baby. We are out of the door! Success is so sweet!

I launch my bag into the front seat and open the back door to put AJ in. As I sit down and start to turn AJ to get him into his seat I notice he is starting to try to crawl over my shoulder and over the car seat into the front seat. Oh No, you don't! I twist and turn, push and pull. AJ is screaming...NO! NOOOO! He grabs my hair as he tries some evasive maneuvers to avoid capture. By this time, all limbs are involved even my head is being utilized to try to force this beast into his cage. I just freeze for a moment waiting as see some people walking by give me THE GLANCE. You know the one... not the "I know what you are going through" glance ...not even "the I've been there" glance, but the "Look at this Crazy Lady" glance. You know the one where they glance back a few time to make sure you aren't beating your child kind of glance! Uggh!

But, I can't let up! I seize the moment when AJ pauses from his back arching acrobatic moves for a brief breath. I slip the straps on despite this thrashing and hair pulling manage to get the click. Oh, the click...you know the one! In a full sweat, I slowly remove each body part banging my head on the ceiling as I get out of the back seat.

At this point, I am on the verge of tear. I just want to scream, curse...something. Instead, I just get in the front seat and blast the AC check out my mangled hair. Why did I even bother to do it this morning? I close my eyes for a moment to avoid the flow of tear threatening to break loose. Bruise and beaten, I long for the days of absolute freedom. The days when I would hop in the car, roll the windows down with no where to go and no time to be there and just drive. Imagining where I might go, I contemplate scrapping my plans and just taking AJ to the shop and dropping him off with his father. A few precious moments of freedom. But, just as think my mind is made up, I open my eyes to my smiling little boy calling out "Mama..wuve oo!"

It is all the motivate I need to put the car in reverse and start on our journey out. Only 15 minutes late...I can still make it!

Too Big or Just Right!!!

AJ woke up running this morning, so, I knew I just had to hold on tight today! He immediately went to the school cabinet and wanted his bottles. I thought I would challenge him a bit today as we worked with size. So, I gave him a bottle and a collection of items and encouraged him to try to fit them in the opening. If the item was too big...he would call out...Too Bee! It was adorable!

The first time he came to a big car, he was indignant he would get it to fit!


This picture cracks me up. When he finally realized the big car wouldn't fit. He stopped, put the car down, put his hand on his hips and through a long sting of baby grabble said..."mama... car... too bee." Then, just stood there looking at me like..ok..mama...fix it!


Next, we moved on to Arts and Crafts. He was mving a mile a minute today, so I thought this project would not only keep him busy, but we could easily extend it as long as his atention permitted.
So, I pulled out some paper and we started with the markers. We went through the colors and then I insisted he name the color before he was allow to use it. Now, this might sound stern, but I did so by asking him what color it was? The answer was...of course...blue. So, I corrected him and then names the train that was the same color. For example, This is green (and we worked with several shades of each color). Percy is a green train. What color is this? Then, AJ would squeel...Ween! I would tickle and had him the marker. He got a real kick out of this!

What's better than markers....WATER!
This took some work for AJ. He had to figure out how to work the bottle. But, after a few spritz attacks around the island, he got the hang of it rather quickly!

Once you spritz, you have to wipe...and, then you dab...
Just when you think you are done...Glue!

Then, just to cement what we learned about the colors (and to make sure AJ is ready for a nap) we did a bit more work. We reviewed the colors we learned and then, I gave him a marker, asked him to name the color. Once he named the color (to the best of his ability) I asked him to go find something that was the same color. We lined each of his findings up with the markers. He loved this game!

How Many Colors do you have?

Today was another colorific day. I am really trying to get AJ to identify colors by name instead of calling everything blue. So, we started the day with painting.

We got these painting sheets for the Salvation Army. I guess if you are patient they work well by basically drowning the paper in water, but AJ is not so much the patient type. So, he added some water and then moved on to water color.


Aj painted severl more of these sheets and we really talked about the color. I would ask him to get a specific color paint and he had no problems finding the correct color. He still struggles to name the colors and persists to call them all blue. We will have to continue to work on that.

When he finished painting, he ran outside to the garage and grabbed the container of broken crayons. I thought it might be fun to let him smash the crayon pieces and make new ones. So, AJ helped me peel all the paper off, which he enjoyed. Then, I gave him a hammer and let him go to town. He was thrilled!



Then, he filled the muffin cups.

Then, we baked at 250 degrees for a few minutes.


AJ was really excited to try them out.


Then, he spent the rest of the day playing with his bottles. First he played with pom poms.
After pom poms, AJ put his puff balls in the bottle and attempted to shake them out.

Much to his dismay, they didn't come out as esily as he has hoped...
So he tried to pull them out.
It turned out to be a fun and productive day. We are going to keep working on the colors and I am not sure if AJ will ever tire with filling the jugs!

It's a Colorific World!

I spent a few hours last week searching for some different homeschooling supplies. While I was out, I decided to collect a bunch of paint samples form the store to work on an upcoming project. I am going to work with AJ on his alphabet now that he is showing an interest and can verbalize more "real" words. I found these cool Aphabet paint sample cards on the Craft Bits blog and thought I would get started right away. It didn't take much time at all, but I need to get my new laminator out of the car before I hand the cards over the AJ.

Anywhooo. I will post that project soon. What I also came across while looking for paint samples were these cute paint sample cards. AJ loves Mickey Mouse, so, he was enthralled as soon as he saw them. A thought popped right into my head...We could play with matching colors!

I put them all out on the coffee table and tried to get AJ to match them up...

AJ had other plans. I am not sure if the concept of only pickup the 2 matching cards one at a time was too advanced or if AJ was just to much of a nut that day to stay focused. We will have to try it again. In the end, I would ask him to hand me a color card and then have him search through the pile to find its match. He was definitely struggling to slow down and focus, but it is something we will absolutely do again.


I also love this because we can use these cards to identify other things in the house that are the same colors and inevitable work on spelling once we get the colors down. There is a lot of potential! Plus, they are super cute! I am going to laminate them with a blank card on the back. I may right the color name on the back, I haven't decided yet!

Meanwhile, AJ decided to drag a chair over and explore our school stuff. (I have not found a great organized way to keep all our new stuff. We have a small house with only 2 bedrooms and it is really open. So, it seems like everything else AJ can get into and having to keep everything in the garage isn't ideal!) I am really rambling today...

AJ came around the corner with a bag of transportation beads I just bought. Mr. Unfocused suddenly slowed down and was completely captivated!






He was so proud of this transportation string on his pipe cleaner, which he strung all by himself. He even left the beads on it the rest of the day. He was so excited to show Daddy when he came home. He went running to the door to show his amazing creation!

After beads, AJ took a late nap. Just in time for Mama to clean up the days mess and get some work in. It was already time to start dinner. I had a baking project ready to go when AJ awoke....PITA Bread. I let AJ mix the ingredients and kned his own little pita. He had a blast and for some reason kept trying to eat the dough. It cannot have tasted good, but he continued to nibble.





And... while AJ played, Mama cooked! Chicken Souvlaki Dinner with homemade Pita and Tzatziki Sauce is served!!!!

(Notice: AJ had to bring his transportation beads to the dinner table. He even put them on his dinner plate...talk about obsessed!)

When you are handed Lemons...

You never realize how dependant you are on technology until it fails. This has been my experience for the last week. I started my week with my work/school website crashing. Actually, it was accidentally deleted by a co-worker trying to learn the program. This lead to a scramble to try to get something back upquickly for my kids. Then, in the process of my frustration, my work computer...my lifeline to the world also decided to crash. Note to self...no matter how upset, do not hit computer...it will not run well after said smash!

So, I spent all weekend on the phone with tech support trying to see if they could fix it remotely...no luck! In the mean time, I have spent every free second rebuilding my website, keeping up with students and trying to do all my work from my hubbies computer. This should have been a relatively easy transfer, but it actually much more complicated because I haven't backed up my computer in ages. This meant I lost MANY of my files, but hopefully tech support can salvage them. Oh, and I hope they don't notice the few missing letters that AJ pulled off during destruction time one day!

So, all this being said...I am backed up on posts. I have lots to share! Today, I will show you how I kept AJ busy during my meltdown. He had a blast! So, when life hands you lemons (and left over oranges from your trees)...

First, put some of the leftover lemons in a basket and drag inside. Encourage your child to pile all those oranges and lemons onto his/her dump truck...because you know he/she loves scooting around on it!

Then, have said child haul butt from one end of the kitchen to the other end pushing his/her dump truck. Careful not to fall!

Unload said lemons and oranges into the bucket...
Haul butt back to the other end of the kitchen to drop off more...

When completely out of energy from running back in forth in the kitchen, sit down and inspect the produce. Then, go take a nap! A nice LONG nap while mommy cries because she has to rebuild her entire website! :)

No lemons were hurt in the course of this activity, so all you produce lovers...HAVE NO FEAR!!!

Last Week in the World of Sickey-ville

Well, last week flew by and I was so busy taking care of AJ who had a double ear infection and a nasty cough. I was also battling a little cold, along with taking care of my hubbie who had broncitis! It made for a fun week. Oh, and it was cold and windy outside so we were cooped up in Sickey-ville!

AJ was too sick to go out and with too much activity would start coughing really hard, but that didn't slow him down! So, here is our week in pictures:

Monday:
Buttons and Beans were the words for today. AJ cannot get anough of the beans, so, I let him play with the beans this morning. He loves to drive his trains through them and hide his car in them. So, after bean time, we moved onto buttons his other new obsession.

He decided at first that he was going to spoon the buttons into the dish. He had a hard time scooping because it was on a flat surface, but was intent on using the spoon.


I bought some pipe cleaners and we started working on trying to lace the buttons onto the pipe cleaner. This was very difficult for AJ and he could not do it on his own, but he was captivated by the concept. We worked together to put the pipe cleaner though the whole and by the end he was able to do it by himself when using the big buttons. I was really proud of him and he had a blast. He wouldn't let me take the buttons off and carried around the pipe cleaner the rest of the day!


Tuesday:
We learned how to use Tongs!



Then we played hide and seek with the cotton balls!



Wednesday:
In preparation for Valentine's Day, we sorted chips.


We scooped a lot of Pasta...We even drew pictures in our pasta!


Thursday:
We spent the morning back at the doctors office. AJ was weezing a lot, so, we headed back to see why he was not getting better. After a change in medicine and what seemed like forever at the pharmacy, AJ took a steam bath in the shower to help clear the mucus build up. The water wasn't too hot, but we have one bath that is small and makes AWESOME STEAM! So, while the shower was running AJ made shaving cream pictures on the shower walls and then made a shaving cream train track on the floor. He was rather upset to get out!

AJ did a bit of coloring, which was a total surprise because he is not a huge fan. I think the markets were an inspiration.


After a 3 hour nap (I told you he was sick!), we played hide and seek with out new balls. AJ had a blast with this and kept peeking around the corner to see what I was doing. We played this 3 or 4 times and then he decided it was time to try his hand at the tongs again. (Excuse the runny nose!)


Friday:
We made yogurt Popsicles.


We painted using different shapes...


Painting with shapes inevitable turned into painting car tracks with his various cars. We, of course, had to wash them when we were done! AJ was so please to wash all his cars!


Saturday...because learning never stops and AJ seems to have an endless supply of energy (even when sick!)

Back to buttons...AJ could play for hours with buttons! Today, he decided he would make music, so he spent time putting the buttons in this empty container and then running around shaking it! Someone forgot to tell him he was still sick!