10 Reasons I Am a Great Mom

 

1. Because I care, and listen, and try to understand.
2. Because I managed to stay sane so far with my "I want to be everywhere right now, and I don't want to sleep" kids.
3. Because I think my family is the best of what happened to me, and I love them all.
4. Because I read out loud the same books again and again, every day, many times a day.
5. Because I enjoy the every day discoveries of the world with them.
6. Because I am still breast feeding and co-sleeping: it's very boring and annoying at times.
7. Because I quit a great job to stay at home for my family.
8. Because I try to teach my kids to be great people.
9. Because we are going to the vacation in 2 days. Yay!
10. Because I am going to survive 10+ running and screaming toddlers for our Zoo Party when we'll get back, LOL.

The Perfect Sippy Cup

We didn't find our perfect sippy cup for my breast fed baby just jet. We tried several different types showed on the picture here. They all have their pros and cons. Camilla might take a sip from them, but she doesn't really like any of them.

 



 

This is one of the plastic cups I bought for the family this season. Everybody loves them: they are much prettier in real life then on the picture. The baby loves this one too. Probably because it is see through so she can see and want what's inside. And it still has attention-catching color and texture of the palm trees. If she'd drink from it by herself, the liquid is everywhere, which is fun too - LOL

I am dreaming of the nice peaceful scene of the baby with her bottle of water playing quietly somewhere by herself. Not happening. Here is a picture of my dream: a movie night with the bottles. This one lasted for several minutes.

We need to find a nice bottle ASAP because we will be traveling quite a bit. If anybody have a piece of advice for me, I would appreciate it so much! I am thinking of trying the Joovy Dood sippy cup next.

Update

Found one! It's Munchkin Straw Cup. Fun orange colors for summer fun. Camilla loves it. It was the first time in 18 months that she drank milk from the bottle - Yay! And there are pictures of cows playing soccer. So she walks around drinking milk and saying "Cow! Cow!"

The straw is not plastic - it's very soft and nice. The drawback is to take the bottle apart for washing. They sell the straws separately. I saw 4 straws for $6 at Amazon. It closes for traveling:

Nuk! Camilla loves it. It's pretty orange and red. The spout is soft and shaped in unusual way to fit right into the mouth - LOL. The handles move around, and they are soft, comfy, and shaped to help the little fingers hold it easier. It's easy to wash. So far, works great for us!

Thanks, Brittany and Jessica, for pointing me in a right direction! Gotta love blogging Moms: they know everything!!! <3 I've just started blogging; and I am very impressed with the many of you, Mom Bloggers out there! Millions of  very helpful and exciting ideas, interesting thoughts, opinions... I am so in love with all of you!



Busy Bag Swap 2

This is such a fun! My baby got so many great activities, and she loves all of them! We are preparing for the vacation. I am scared of the 8+ hours in the car with this busy toddler. Busy bags will be a lot of help in the car and everywhere else!
Here are some of the stuff we've got:

Color wheel.

She is to match the colors on the wheel with the colors on the cloths pin. There can be different variations of this. Match shapes, letters, numbers, animals...

"The bird eats worms".

The bird is a cloths pin. The child is to use it  to pick up "worms" hidden in paper grass. Very cute!

"Draw a face and say "Hi" ".

The girl's face is made of hot glue on cardboard. Mommy puts a piece of paper over the face, and Camilla rubs it with the side of a crayon. (we will work on it; there are fine motor skills still involved - still difficult for 19 months old) Then, the face shows off on paper, and we can say "Hi" to a new girl - LOL.

Camilla was so happy to have so many new activities here and there through the day, and I didn't have to spend any time to prepare it. I am in love with busy bags! So looking forward to another busy bag swap! I will make sand art bags. If anybody has any great busy bag ideas, I'd love to hear them!!!!

Busy Bag Swap

Busy bag is a zip-lock bag containing a fun activity for kids. It meant to be small enough that you can stick it in your bag and pull it out to get your kid busy when travelling. Getting ready for a vacation! Yay!!! Everybody was to make the copies of the same bag in the amount of families participating. So that we exchange the bags, and each family would leave with a bunch of different bags filled with fun! It can be very simple, like several macaroni and a rope to put them in to make a jewelry.
So, here is mine:

Does it look like fun already? There are 4 busy bags in this picture. "Learn your colors". The picture is made in the laundry room without the light and flush. OK, sorry, here is a picture with a flush:

I found the locker kits on clearance, $1.50 per kit. There were a dry-erase board, a star dry-erase, a light, a clock, a dry-erase marker, and a mirror. I used the packaging board to make a book. The inside is dry-erase itself.

And I covered outside with primary colors. The attached ziplock contains several pieces of felt of different colors and a light. I hope, our toddlers will have fun with changing the color of the light when it's dark. And when there is light, they could see what causes the light to change its color and be more interested in playing with the felt and naming the colors. The light comes apart easily. So we can close the bag and reinforce it with scotch before giving it to a child to play. The other side is a pick-a-boo mirror. Flip a piece of felt to see yourself!

I can't wait to see the other bags we are getting. I'll post an update after the swap. Please, leave a comment! I'll be very interested in your busy bag ideas because we are having another swap in a couple of months.

Science Project for a Baby

1. Learn about handling water and small objects in/out of water with a hand or a spoon.
2. Fine motor skills
3. Language development
4. Attention
5. Happy baby!

Learn about handling water and small objects in/ out of water with a hand or a spoon. I found the biggest buttons I had, and placed them in a bowl filled with warm water in half. The idea is to move buttons from water to another empty bowl with a spoon. Then I changed her empty bowl to a bottle, then to 4 small jars. I covered one of the jars half full with water and bottons with a lead: it was an unusual shaker (still made some noise, and splash). Camilla was very interested to shake it and watch what happens.

Fine motor skills. Camilla is 17 months old now. It's not an easy task to fish out a button from water with the spoon. She tried that, then put it aside, then tried again: so cool!

Language development. This activity requires constant supervision for safety. She was so busy that she didn't even try to put anything in her mouth, but still... So I was sitting there, watching her and taking pictures, and talking - having fun. Because it is a repetition of the same things, it's a great opportunity to use the same words again and again to promote learning new words and understanding. Water, bowl, bottle, spoon, jar, button. Using small tricky words: out, into, splash! Or big (bowl) - small (button, or jar). Wet - dry. Encouraging talking: ba-ba-ba-bottle-bowl. Lots of free time to talk, LOL

Attention. She is NOT a quiet baby. I am very happy that she got so envolved with this activity that she had been sitting and playing for a long time: 30 minutes maybe? And when she finally was done, she looked very proud of herself and happy. So great! We'll do it again!

 

Apples and Color Red

Who would argue that apples are healthy and delicious? Too bad, this baby is only learning to eat apples. And she doesn't like apple juice. So, I decided to make an apple party for her. It was actually Johnny Appleseed party. The great kind man from Ohio: why not celebrate him twice a year :)

We had lots of fun. I decorated the wall with an apple tree. The red apples are hanging on magnets, they can be removed and put back on.

We made our own movie based on the book "Ten red apples" by Pat Hutchens. This is a great book for staging. Everybody had to be an animal (with whatever animal toys we had at the house). People took turns to come up to the tree, "eat" an apple, and make an animal sounds. The older boy was a main character - a farmer. The farmer kept saying "Oh, no, no! Leave some for me!" At the end he had to "eat" the last apple. We also was singing and dancing together. It is a fun movie!

I made apple cupcakes. Red are red velvet with butter cream, and green are vanilla with cream cheese. Here they are:

We had red balloons dropped from the second floor and played with the balloons for a while. Camilla had to play with them for a while before and after: she loved her balloons. And yes, we still have a couple of them laying around (out of 24 - LOL). She also loves when her big brother plays balloons with her.

The apple hunt was a real quick one: the final practice before the egg hunt. The weather was bad outside, and we had it inside. Everybody took their baskets and collected the paper apples from the floor and furniture. Camilla loves her basket full of apples and plays with it every day.

And of course, the very delicious: apple trees made of a giant marshmallow, Reeses pieces, half apple, and peanut butter.

Camilla eats her apples after the party: Yaayyy! Still doesn't like apple juice :)

Imaginative Builders

We just started a new series of play dates called Imaginative Builders. It's once a month attempt to creat an environment that enhances the development of creativity and imagination... in kids... and in adults... at least, I need it to remember how to do it :)

"Creativity is the production of novel thoughts and solutions based on experience." The main idea is to use an item in a new and creative way. This time, we built a farm. The ducks in the pond are made from paper plates and colored with the finger paint by Camilla. And we made apple trees from apple, pretzels, peanut butter, marshmallow, and candies: Yummy Trees! 

Here are some ideas.

Household items.  A variety of textures, colors, and scents.   A plastic container that held cinnamon or vanilla will hold those scents for a long time. Shakers are always fun!  A clear plastic bottle with some oil, water, glitter, and coloring (with the lid securely glued on). Pine cones and leaves.  

Starting at about 18 months, toddlers have better hand-eye coordination. This is a good time to introduce finger paints (or pudding), crayons and chalk.  They can develop their creativity by using paste (water and flour), tearing, cutting, and manipulating play dough or shaving cream. 

Mix familiarity with novelty to keep these materials interesting.  Add toy cars or toy people to the shaving cream.  Small rolling pins, plastic cutlery and cookie cutters along with the play dough. Boxes and tubes of all shapes and sizes.  Figure out what can be done with the new additions. Include as many real things as safely possible. But be careful not to take over or over-direct their play. However, you can ask questions, label objects and be there to smile, admire and encourage the child’s play.
 

Fantasy play begins somewhere between 18 & 21 months of age.  Linked to creativity and problem-solving, larger vocabularies, and ability to be more flexible and adaptable. Avoid questions like, “What is it?” or “What color is that?” as these are questions with a specific answer and do not enhance creative thought.  Open-ended questions encourage children to think.  Open-ended questions rarely have one right answer.  Ask questions such as, “Why did you put that there?” or “What do you think will happen if…?”