Colorful Fun

And what is all this colorful fun that we have made?




We made wonderful colorful rice for our sensory tubs.

Right now R. has a tub full of white beans, porcupine balls, heart sequence, scoops, cups, spoons and tongs. She has loved it for the past week. Absolutely loves it. She also has a big tub full of blue playground sand that she has yet to play in as the table for it is not quite finished yet. (Too big of a hunny-do list from mommy for daddy) We will be adding the rice to the little tub though and removing the beans soon. I am hoping she loves this splendiforous colorful creation as much as I do. Actually, I just think it is really pretty! ha

Guess What We Made

Can you guess what we made?

Sledding fun!

Although it was mighty chilly out on Sunday, we bundled little R. up and took her sledding at the sledding hill. It was her first time truely sledding. The last tim we went, Hubby hooked a lead rope to the rope on the sled and pulled her on fairly level ground. We did go up a small steep hill, but he hooked the lead rope onto the back of her sled so he could somewhat control her. Well this time he let her go. Of course we didn't go up to the huge hill to sled down. We just stuck to the small steep hill at the bottom of the big hill. It was sorta like a ramp for the big hill to let the older sledders fly! Hubby pulled her up the hill, turned her around, and let her go. She was a little hesitant at first and by the look on her face, I'm not sure she knew what was happening, but she happily went back up and did it a couple more times (5 more or so). We weren't out there long, because of the frigid cold air, but she sure had fun.

On an unrelated note, I began working on Save the Date postcards and t-shirt designs for the Great Strides Walk for CF this summer. This is the design I am thinking about using for the T-shirts. The colors are what colors I am thinking about using.

Most teams usually use the same design each year and just order new shirts for the new walkers. We decided last year that we would put the date on the shirts and use them only for one year. We change the design, color, and year each walk. We also always order an extra shirt for R. of the size that she is wearing at the time to have all the team members that walk sign. When we have 12 or 16 or 20 shirts, I am going to make her a quilt of all the signed shirts.

I am also sending out a save the date card for the walk. It has all of the info for the walk along with a picture of R. and the Team Roses for Rylee 2010 logo. We are personally hoping that our team can raise $10,000.00 this year. If you want a bracelet, t-shirt or more info on the walk, let me know. I can arrange it!

And finally, R's grandpa (my dad) is coming tonight to visit. He has meetings in town so he will stop up tonight to visit. And as this is nothing I would normally write about, there is something special to this visit. Last night as I was telling R. about her grandpa coming, she turned to me and asked PaPaPa? Now I haven't talked much about R.'s vocabulary, or lack there of. She says mama, daddy, hi, hi tootie (our nickname for her), bye bye, and then says the sounds of the animals cow, turkey, snake and coyote. She also will repeat the sounds of a dog and cat. Yes, I know that she only "KNOWS" the not normal animals, but that would be thanks to her dad. She doesn't say much, but is very much understanding what we say. She gets toys/things on demand, goes to places you ask in the house, lays down, sits down, throws, etc. She very much understands. So PaPaPa is very exciting. We have been working on Grandma for a while. Everytime I talk to my mom, R. also talks and grandma says "R. say hi Grandma". Well she still doesn't say that but she now says PaPaPa. How exciting!

Well I think that's it! Not too much exciting here in the freezing frigid weather so we stay in and play all day!

Tot Time & Daddy's Girl

I will start this out with the fact that I have been trying to upload these same pictures to blogger for almost 3 full days. It was not letting me, there for these are from earlier this week!

R. has been loving the new arrangement of toys/books and the rotating of toys in and out. She will sit and play with her toys for 30 minutes easily and makes many trips back to the toys throughout the day.

I made a small sensory tub for her. She was in love. She poured and scooped and poured and scooped and spilled beans everywhere. She had so much fun. I put white dry beans in a medium sized tub along with scoops, tongs, cups, measuring cup, spiky balls and heart confetti. She has so much fun. She played with this activity 3 times yesterday and would sit easily for 30-45 minutes scooping and pouring. She even got mad when I put it away one time. She was beginning to throw the beans so it was time to be done. She didn't think so.



We worked together to make this mitten suncatcher one day. I cut out the mitten shape and stuck it to contact paper. I cut tissue paper into large squares and R. stuck them one by one onto the contact paper. She was amazed with what she had made when I held it up and the light went through it.



One of our all time favorite things to do is paint with dotters. I bought empty bingo dotters from discount school supplies and filled them with crayola paint and water. They work amazing. She completely loves to dot with me. The minute I stop though, she is ready to be done.



R. had so much fun building and stacking blocks with daddy this week. She never tried to stack blocks until this week and low and behold she can stack 17 on top of each other. I was amazed this time.

And then they fall down. But it sure is exciting to watch them fall isn't it?

My little girly girl has always let me put bows and clips in her hair while we are out, but at home, not so much. She would just assume let the hair hang in her face. Trust me, I try. Every morning we spray her hair, brush it, and put her bangs off to the side with a clippie. Every day after breakfast, she rips the clippie out and lets her silly curly q's hang in her face. I don't get it. So don't mind the crazy hair in the eyes in all of the pictures. She will leave a pony in but I don't like to put ponies in her hair everyday, so the result is hair in the face. Oh well.

The same goes for hats of any type. She will leave them on while outside, but the minute indoors, the hat gets ripped off. Crazy girl. She has been playing with her daddy's hat alot though lately. She always takes him his stocking hat and he will put it on her. She walks away before taking it of. Lately she has been seen wearing a green cabellas hat. (I wonder who started this one..) Her daddy thinks it's hilarious. She is super cute in a big hat though.

She is a mini-daddy all the way. But a super cute one at that!

Snowy Weekend Fun

This past weekend, after my mommy shopping trip on Saturday, we had some family fun. We took R. out to do some sledding. She has been loving being bundled up and getting some fresh air, so we figured it would be fun. That and Mommy had bought her a new sled on her shopping trip. R. had so much fun. You can't tell by the picture of her sledding, but she really did enjoy it. I just think she wasn't so sure of sledding downt he hill.

She Loves being outside though.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of R. and her dad.

And today, I took R. out in the chilly snow for a quick winter photo shoot. It was a little chillier then I anticipated and after I sunk into the snow up to my knees, I didn't get very many pictures. R. was fairly cooperative, however she has a thing about looking down. She doesn't like to look at me when she knows we are on these photo excursions, so I take a ton of pictures and maybe get one or two. She also had on her tutu over her jeans, but you can't see much of it here. The vest was an after though and doesn't match at all, but it kept her a little warmer.

She deffinately had some fun on Sunday and I only wish it would continue to be warm so we could continue to spend time outside. Too Bad it's suppose to be freezing rain today and tomorrow and then another snow storm this weekend :( Sad.

A Mommy Day Out!

Today, I left bright and early. Well for me, bright and early is equal to about 9:30 or 10:00 am. So I hopped in the car, filled up with gas, got a cappucino and hit the road. On the hour drive to my destination, I heard on the radio that it was Crazy Days at the mall. Are you serious? I really did not plan that. So first stop was the mall. I hit Old Navy, Younkers, Childrens Place, Penney's and Gymboree. I made it out with only buying stuff at Old Navy and Younkers though. Old Navy had 50% off of all clearance prices which makes their stuff dirt cheap. I got R. a skirt for $1.50 and some jammies for $4.00. The best buy at Old Navy was the Melissa and Doug Puzzle. It was one of the chunky farm puzzles and it was $4.75. What a deal. So on to Younkers. I love Younkers crazy day sales. They had all of their Carters feety jammies for $6.00. So I picked up 6 pairs (crazy I know but we go through lots of jammies here). I also picked her up an Adidas outfit, a puma outfit and about 4 Oshkosh long sleeved shirts. All of it for next winter.

I made the trek down last winter for crazy day also and bought R. alot of this winters clothes for close to 75% off the regular price. Younkers has some awesome deals.

I also went to Hobby Lobby to pick up the stuff for the felt quiet time books I'm going to start working on for R for valentines day. I really wanted to get a moses basket for her, but couldn't find one, so we will be making do without. I'm sure someday she'll get the doll pack and play or something that she can use and for now her dolls will continue to use the wicker basket they currently reside in.

The only other stop was Target for diapers (yes, even though we are potty training, we still use the diapers at night and when out, or when we've had accident after accident after accident and Mommy can't handle wiping up pee out of the ball pit one more time. 220 balls to clorox are a bit much). Miralax and the Leap frog Letter Factory video were on the list also. I can't get over how much Miralax costs. R. only uses 1 tsp a day but it seems to go fast. The big bottle which is suppose to get 30 regular doses costs $19.99. That's crazy! We will be trying to find a cheaper way to buy this next time.

Well off to give the girly a bath, nebs and bed. I had a very long day shopping :) Good but long!

Tot Time and Snow Fun!

This week we have been busy busy busy. I am getting over my "LAZY" self and doing a little more around the house. I just don't know what got into me. Besides puzzles, tools, stacking blocks, tea parties, mega blocks, and a crawl and cruise jungle, we also spent time doing special tot-time activities.

Dot Painting

Supplies:

• Paper of choice - we used a sheet of 12x12 dark blue cardstock
• Dot Painter - I made ours using crayola kids paint mixed with a little water and a bingo dabber from Discount School Supplies

R. really does well dot painting.....well except when she gets going on her clothes and hands and the table....but she understands the concept of where the paint comes from and how to get it out. We made another "SNOWSTORM" out of ours. We are planning to add a snowman out of foam to it, but that will happen later this week if we do it.

Indoor Snow Play
Supplies:

• Large Shallow Tote - ours is from WalMart
• Sand Toys or other scooping and shovel toys - we also put some cookie cutters in there
• SNOW - from our back yard

R. wasn't so sure about this one. She loved to take the spoons and forks out and play with them but wasn't real sure about the snow. At first I put mittens on her, and she touched the snow once and freaked out because there was snow on her mitten. Once we took the mittens off she did a little better, but was still not a fan of touching it.

And yes, she is not wearing any pants. I know, I know, playing in the snow without any pants on. We are slowly working on potty training, and so she has undies on.

Finally, Yesterday it was warm enough that we went outside to play after her nap. She was in heaven. She walked up and down the street and around the culdesac. She loved it. I think the fresh air did her some good, however you would think it would have tired her out...Oh no, she was up until 12:00 am last night. Little stinker.

R. smiing for the camera. Can you tell she was loving the snow?

Missing Cupcakes for the Tea Party

For R's bday she got a tea party set from fisher price. It's pink and purple and the tea pot sings and the cupcakes are in the shapes of a circle, triangle and square. One cupcake is brown. This cupcake seems to go missing everytime we get the tea set out. Last time it was under the tv stand and it sorta blends in with the brown color of the wood furniture in our house.

R. also has the fisher price crawl and cruise jungle. Santa brought this to her for her first christmas. She really didn't play with it until we re-organized her toys, but now she plays with it all the time. It has various colored balls that can go in the tree, elephant or hippo. It sings lots of songs and it just overall a pretty neat toy.

So you may wonder what these two toys have in common or yet why I am telling you about them. Well I orignally went to write about our missing cupcake and when I sat down to type, I looked up and saw her jungle. In the one outlet of the tree where the balls usually sit, i can just barely see the frosting of the missing square cupcake. I have turned the house upside down looking for this cupcake, because I have a thing for missing parts to toys. It doesn't go over well with me.

And now, as my dear daughter put her ball thrugh the jungle, I see that it wasn't the cupcake at all but a nail for her tool set. GRRR...Still on the search for a missing cupcake. If you have seen it, let me know!

Lazy Days

We have had a very lazy, relaxing last couple of days. The weekend was filled with "NOTHING". We did not do hardly a thing.

I spent my weekend mostly making felt board pieces for her felt board after my friend mentioned making one for her daughter. R. has had a felt board (left over from teaching preschool) I made her a color train, the itsy bitsy spider, a tree with leaves/apples and some other ones. When I got my preschool stash out for her (Old McDonalds Farm, Farmer in the Dell, and a color mitten song) she had so much fun sticking the pieces on the board.

While I was looking on etsy for fun ideas for felt boards, I cam across a very fun ABC quiet book. I have been wanting to make one for R, and maybe one for a bday present. Not sure yet, depends on how hard it ends up being, but I copied a bunch of ideas from the one on etsy and made some of my own, and it's going to get started after I make the trip to Hobby Lobby for the supplies.

I also came across some fun playscapes on a blog (not sure who's), but was thinking that maybe I would start making some of them for R. She is still a little young for them but by the time I would get them done to my liking, she will probably be 10, so I better start now!

And Finally, I am hoping to get some shopping done for the valentine gifts. We don't give out many, but I am hoping I can find maybe a small moses basket for R. for her dolls and then fill it with fun valentine stuff. I don't know though, this idea may change when I get to looking at stuff.

Well no pictures, no tot time fun to post. We have had tot-time but I think I am gonna do one post a week for tot-time as an overview from the week. We have played with snow in the warmth of our house, had tea parties, played music, and played in our dora house.....Oh yea, and we successfully pee'd in our ball pit - lets just say mommy was less then impressed as I wiped each and every 220 balls with clorox wipes. :(

Well that's all, Have a great day!

Tot Time and More!

Spagettio's - They are a favorite with the little miss in the house! She absolutely loves them! She loves to eat them, to paint with them, to take a bath in them basically. We always make sure to take off her clothes before she starts to eat these. Spagettio's are about the only food we actually do that for. She is normally a fairly clean eater. With that, she has yet to learn how to use a spoon. She can do it, just has no desire to actually use it.



And in this orange slimy splendor, not only do we put spagettio's on our face, but also on our arms, hair and belly!



And "ALL DONE" We are done making a mess!



Now onto Tot Time! We played with playdoh - not ordinary playdoh, but playdoh with lots of silver and pink sparkles. We thought it needed to glisten like to snow outside. We have been focusing on the color "White" and the topic of "Snow". What better time then the week that we get another snowstorm and lots of White Fluffy Stuff. Too bad it's -30 degree windchill out and we can't play in it.

This is only the second time we have played with playdoh and she still isn't too sure about it. She at first tried to sample a piece, but stopped before it got to her mouth after her mommy saying yucky over and over again.



She also worked on transferring pom poms into little cupcake tins. I had gotten these sparkly blue and white pom poms at Hobby Lobby 3 or 4 years ago for almost nothing after Christmas. They were honestly like 25 cents for the package. The cupcake tins are the ones that come in the brownie mini boxes. They are one-time use for baking, but many time use for transferring and crafting, and playing.

She does a very good job of this, however she gets bored fairly easy and starts to throw the pompoms. I guess it's to be expected of a 16 month old.

This last picture is the beginning of the end with the transferring. Next the pom poms were everywhere. Oh Well!

We have also been playing with puzzles, mega blocks, stacking bowls, and shape sorters this week. Mostly they end up all over the floor but it's ok. She's learning to pick them up when asked and that's a good start.

R. Is having fun with her tot time, and It gives her a little time to focus and follow directions. She is a very independent little girl and so she tends to do what she pleases. She listens fairly well when we tell her to do something, however focusing on tasks are a little more difficult. Hopefully this structured time helps in that area.

Well off to have some more fun!

Tot Time!

So today was the official start to our "Tot Time". We had a visitor tonight so our time to "work" came later while we were waiting for supper to get done in the oven.

The first project we did was a "Snowman Collage"

Supplies for Snowman Collage:

• Piece of colored paper (We used purple construction paper)
• Pictures of Snowmen (We used some scraps of wrapping paper from christmas. It had snowmen and snowflakes on them. Snowmen stickers would also work) - If using wrapping paper or other pictures, have the pictures precut before beginning the project with the tot.
• Glue
• Paint Brush
• Glitter (Optional)

I first spread the glue on to the colored paper for R. I then gave her one snowmen/snowflake at a time and she stuck them onto the paper. She is very particular about the way the snowmen should be. They all had to be picture up which in my opinion is pretty good for a 16 month old. After R. tired of placing the snowmen on the paper, I sprinkled a little glitter on the remaining glue to add some shimmer! I always write R's name and the date on the projects.

R. placing snowmen on the paper

The finished "Snowmen Collage"

The next project we did was a "Snowstorm"

Supplies needed for the Snowstorm project:

• A piece of black paper (We used a 12x12 piece of black cardstock from my scrapbooking stash)
• White paint (Of couse we use crayola washable paint - It's the best)
• Paint brush & Paint Cup (ours are from discount school supplies and work great, however any type of cup would work and any paintbrush however one with a bigger "brush" part is great for this age)
• Glitter (optional)

R. paints with white paint on a black paper creating a snow storm

R worked on dipping her brush into the paint cup. The cup has a small hole to place the brush through and R really had to concentrate to get the brush to reach the paint.

Again, concentrating really hard on her painting.

The finished "Snowstorm"

R. also had fun playing with her mega blocks, puzzle and ball pit. Another thing she is working on is climbing onto her chair and off of her chair. She is getting the hang of it and only fell off once today. We can't wait for tomorrow for some more "tot time" fun.

Welcome to the New Year! 2010 What do you hold for us?

When I was thinking about the New Year, I was thinking about my daughter and then realized that although she is only 16 months old, she has officially been here in 3 seperate years! She was born in 2008, turned 1 in 2009 and now it's 2010! It's funny to think about but it's real. She has really been alive in 3 years at the age of 16 months. CRAZY....

Well, With the new year, brings alot of new things. I am officially self-employed. I did the paper work to start my business, Sweet Shots By Nicole. I am hoping this will become a great opportunity for this stay at home mom. I will soon be working on a website, new prices, and getting the lens that I have been saving for. Hopefully with this, comes new customers/clients. That would be wonderful.

We are officially starting to potty train seriously. We are going to the potty every 30 minutes and R. is wearing cutey patooty little leg warmers and undies. I would love to go bare bottom, but can't bring myself to let her run around for the fear of her liking it too much (I babysat for some kiddo's who stripped their clothes off before making it into the house.). So we will work with these undies and see what happens.

I am also organizing the toys and making a better environment for playing/learning for R. My wonderful hubby put in shelves in the toy room for organization and I am moving all of the toys in there. We will pull out 1 or 2 totes of toys in the a.m and 1 or 2 totes of toys in the p.m. Hopefully switching and rotating the toys will keep her interested in them and actually let her explore them more then when we have all of the toys available to her. We will however leave out her larger toys like her crawl and cruise jungle, parents learning cube, jump and spin pony and leapfrog table and ball pit. Occasionally we will pull out the dora tent and tunnel and other bigger toys/yet small enough to store away in the toy room. Books will also remain out at all times.

And to finish the topic of R. I am really going to focus on taking at least 30 minutes of focused play time for "US" Many refer to it as tot school, however it will just being doing an art project, playing, or dancing with just me and her. Each afternoon after nap and snack we will play, craft, and spend time together. Yes, I know, we spend all day together, however, miss R. is very independent. Given the choice she would choose to play on her own. I think this will be a great opportunity for this winter especially and as summer approaches we will focus on a little learning time more then just play time as we will be outside and at the park and pool during the majority of the day.

And finally, back to ME. I am hoping to start eating better and to become better about working out. I am wanting to lose quite a bit of weight that I gained after the pregnancy and before we even discuss more kids I would like to have lost it. Also, after dealing with R's CF and all the medical stuff that goes along with it, It has really put into perspective the risk factors that we choose to do to ourselves. I worry about high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, etc. All of the things that can shorten a life. And I think to myself, we choose to do this to ourselves (as in me and my hubby). We choose to eat more then we should and not exercise near enough. We CHOOSE being the main word. R. doesn't get to choose. She has to deal with what she has. She doesn't get a choice. So with that, the choice I am making is to choose to be better.

So that is what our 2010 is holding for us! Hopefully it will hold it all year long! Here's to a great 2010! Good luck to everyone on there New Years Resolutions. You can Do It!