End of 2013 Recap

So it appears any attempt to thoroughly recap 2013 is a lost cause. This will be my lame attempt and then it's time to move on to 2014.

Halloween 

In the months leading up to Halloween, I was pretty sure LB was going to be a pilot. I had this super cute costume picked out and thought he would love it. As we got closer and started talking about it, he was not enthused about the pilot idea. I didn't get it. He's Mr. Plane. Right around that time we discovered the TV show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." It's on the Disney Channel, which we don't have, but we found it on Netflix. This was also around the time that LB discovered the movie, Peter Pan, which he fell in love with. I did not remember all the sexist and racist comments in Peter Pan so I cringed through the first viewing and thought maybe LB wouldn't like it. WRONG. He's obsessed. He started to say that he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. It was a tad confusing because his "r" sound still very much sounds likes a "l." So I kept clarifying by asking him, "You want to be a pirate like arrrghhh matey or a pilot that flies planes." He would always answer back "argghhh matey." I found a Jake costume online and showed it to him and we had a winner! As soon as we got it, he had to put it on right away and we also got him a little Jake kit from Tar.get that had a sword, spy glass, gold coins and a map. He was pumped.

Halloween morning they were having a parade at school and the kids were encouraged to wear costumes. I got his out and was super excited. LB decided he wanted nothing to do with it. I was all of a sudden devastated. He flat out refused to wear his Jake costume. My mom had come to town for the week (which was great since D was out of town) and she had brought with her a Pilot shirt from the new movie, Planes. She convinced him to be a pilot for the parade at school. Although he refused to even put the pilot shirt on until we got to school. In hindsight, I think he was overwhelmed by the idea of the parade and kids and teachers wearing costumes. But once he got to school and realized none of the costumes were scary he relaxed and seemed to enjoy it. I would also say that I set my expectations WAY too high for the day and didn't act with a whole lot of compassion towards his refusal to be Jake at school. Expectations always get me in trouble.
Here are a few pics from school:

Yes, his best bud was also Jake and they would have been SO CUTE together but oh well. He's a cute pilot too.

Thankfully, he totally embraced being Jake for trick or treat and he had such a blast that night. My mom is the most amazing grandma and dressed up like the Cat in the Hat. LB has the coolest grandma ever. We have a tradition of trick or treating at our friend's house with another family and they have the perfect street for the kids. Lots of street lights and friendly neighbors. It was such a fun evening! Oh and D made it back in time for trick or treat, which was nice!

November

I tried to do some cute Thanksgiving crafts with LB in the week leading up to the big day and I would say our favorite one was his thankful turkey that we made out of a paper plate. I cut out the feathers and asked him to list 5 things he was thankful for and I wrote them on the feathers. I also cut out the other parts to the turkey and then LB glued everything together. He was really proud of it and we had it displayed in the living room through Christmas.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we met LB's cousins at the zoo for the holiday light show. It was freezing but we endured the cold and had a fun night. The kids also got to see Santa, which ended up being a nice reprieve from the cold, and since not too many people were brave (or stupid) enough to be out in the cold we didn't have to wait in a long line. LB asked Santa for "a plane and a drum." I didn't realize you could ask Santa for two things but I guess LB decided it was okay. He stayed consistent with those requests all through December. (Confession: We ended up seeing Santa 4 times before the big day. LB is a fan.)

Actual Thanksgiving day was a bit of a bust. D's parents were hosting Thanksgiving but not until Friday to accommodate every one's schedules. So our plan was to chill at home on Thursday and put up all our Christmas decorations. It was a good plan but LB woke up in a foul mood and I think I was in a bad mood too. I was missing my family and just felt blah about the whole thing. So the tree got put up and we did some fun Christmas crafts but overall it was just an okay today. Not what I hoped. Thankfully, Friday was fun and we stuffed our faces and LB played with his cousins. Somehow I managed to take zero photos. I must have been too busy eating and drinking.

December

We got a fair amount of snow in early December and LB had more stamina this year in terms of being willing to play in the snow. And he has learned to put his gloves on all by himself which meant I cursed much less this year. Is there anything more annoying than trying to get gloves on a toddler? I think not. 

We had several fun playdates with old friends and new friends. I have loved watching LB develop good friendships at preschool this year and to see him seek out his special friends.

LB had his Christmas program and party at school. I was in love with the shirt I bought him for it. I'm biased but he was so darn cute.

Okay, so I lied. I have rambled enough and I still need to recap our trip to Tulsa for Christmas. That will have to come later. 

Until then..... I hope January is treating you well, friends!

Crafting Lately

LB and I have been having so much fun with crafts lately. The website, No Time for Flashcards, has been my big inspiration. I want to do everything on her site. Seriously. And I love that she has lots of crafts that are really minimal in the mess department. This babysitting gig is definitely a little more exhausting than I predicted so the less the mess the better. Crafts have been a good way to fill the time after LB wakes up from his nap and we're waiting on Baby B to wake up. One thing that NTFF has inspired me to do is to try crafts that tie in to favorite books we've been reading. I think it makes the craft more fun and meaningful and it's always a good thing to help your child make associations. I also let favorite movies be an inspiration for crafts too.

Several weeks ago we went to the conservatory because the butterflies are now in bloom. When we were there they were selling caterpillars that you could take home and watch them form their chrysalis and then turn into a butterfly. LB was beyond stoked about it! At first, he wanted the caterpillar to turn into a butterfly RIGHT NOW. It took explaining several times that we had to wait and we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to help emphasize that it would take some time. He showed my mom the caterpillar one day over Facetime and he said to her in a stern voice, "But we have to wait." Ha! Thankfully, it eventually sunk in. It was cool to watch it crawl around in it's little plastic cup and then slowly make it's chrysalis. There was something about hearing LB say the word "chrysalis" that made me really happy. He just sounded so grown up and studious. And it made me feel like I was actually teaching him something worthwhile.

I wasn't sure if LB would be sad about letting the butterfly go but he was excited and had a good outlook. His friend had a caterpillar too so LB decided that his butterfly was flying off to find his friend's butterfly. I like the way his mind works. He still talks about how his butterfly flew up into the sky. We had also checked out the book, Ten Little Caterpillars, from the library so that was a fun one to read while we had a caterpillar in our house. Of course, NTFF has some great craft ideas for caterpillars and butterflies. We did 2 butterfly crafts and I only took pictures of one of the butterfly crafts we did.  I took pictures of the caterpillar one but since we used LB's actual name for that craft I don't want to show it. But here are the links. They were all fun!

Handprint Butterfly

Coffee Filter Butterfly - *We didn't do this with glitter. I feared the mess. So LB just used pastel markers.

Custom Caterpillar  - *This was great for us because LB is starting to get really good at recognizing his name and knowing the letters in his name. So I loved testing him on this to choose the letters in his name and to put them in the right order. Thankfully, he has a short name.

Here is LB's handprint butterfly. He was proud of it. I wasn't a huge fan of the addition of airplane stickers but whatever it was his vision. I suppose airplanes and butterflies are both up in the sky.

Ever since Christmas, LB has been a big fan of Finding Nemo. He loves the part where Dory and Marlin come across all the jellyfish and Dory calls the jelly fish a "little squishy squishy." He laughs every time. So I found a great jellyfish craft and it was a huge hit! Here is the original link.

Cupcake Jellyfish

First, I had him color the cupcake liners or the jellyfish bodies and then he colored the ocean where they live. As a side note, LB has me a bit confused when it comes to his handedness. He kicks exclusively with his left foot, uses scissors much better with his left hand and swings a bat left handed but when he eats and uses markers he goes back and forth between his hands. Or as you can see he does both at the same time. It's baffling.

He struggled a bit with the tape and getting the stingers on. I didn't have double sided tape so I just had to hold it for him and then it was fine.

As soon as D got home that day this was the first thing LB showed to him. I love it when he gets excited about his creations.

The last one I'll share is LB's spider. Another recent library check out favorite was The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. He was sad to "give another kid a turn" when it was time to take it back. I was looking for paper plate crafts and came across the spider one so I knew we had to do it. This one was also another reminder to me to respect LB's vision when it comes to art. As LB was putting the stickers on the paper plate I kept encouraging him to put them "all over the spider." But he wanted nothing to do with that. So I dropped it. Once he glued on the eyes he said, "It's my happy spider." Oops. He was making a happy face. Silly Mommy.

Don't you love how he's smiling at his happy spider? The photos are crummy but you get the idea. The only thing I had to do on this one was punch the holes in the plate and then he did the rest. I like to think getting the pipe cleaners through the holes was good find motor practice. He enjoyed doing that part too. He did it "all by myself!"

Although, I look at his baby pictures and get sad sometimes this preschool stuff is so much more fun. Sure babies are cute and sweet and don't talk back and you don't have to play chase with them but there is nothing like hearing him say, "My going to tell my daddy about this." That's validation at its best.

Hearts Matching Game

LB loves matching games. He's been obsessed with having two of things for a long time so it makes sense that he likes to find things that match. I got the idea to use conversation hearts to create a matching game from another website and now can't seem to find the original post. But it was a great success at our house! I told LB there was a holiday coming up called Valentine's Day and it's about celebrating the people we love. He didn't care and just wanted to play the matching game so I didn't worry about the significance of the hearts and just let the whole Valentine's theme go. Fine by me. Here is what you need:

Conversation Hearts
Markers to match the colors of the hearts
Piece of paper

This is what it looked like before I showed it to LB.

I tried to put a lot of a two of the colors and then just a few of the colors so that later on in the game we could count them and some would be easier than others. 

I demonstrated with two of the hearts and then he was ready. As per usual, he was very organized about the whole thing. He started with the pink hearts and did all of those first. He kept telling me that orange was his favorite color and the pink ones were "kind of like orange." I think that is why he was obsessed with those because he decided they were orange since I failed and didn't provide orange hearts. While he was doing the orange-pink ones he instructed me to do the yellow ones because "yellow is Mommy's favorite color." It isn't. But I played along, of course. He wanted Meemaw to do the green ones because "green is her favorite color" but, sadly, she wasn't there to play. It's interesting that he accurately knows Meemaw's favorite color but not Mommy's. Sigh.

Have I mentioned how much I love his 'hard at work' face? I have a million times? Well, I love it. 

He was plugging along and then exclaimed, "Mommy! My need my black magnify!" I have no idea what made him think of his magnifying glass but I wasn't going to argue. He started examining each color under the magnifying glass. I thought it was pretty brillant.

He's so serious. He looks like a legit scientist. I guess he is. 

After we matched them all up, I had him count the number of each color. He only made it through two colors and then decided he wanted to match again. So we did. Then the next morning during breakfast he asked to "play hearts" again. So we did. That time it expanded into making letters and shapes with the hearts. It was mostly him instructing me on what to make but that's fun too.

This game was a winner. If you have a toddler, then I highly recommend it.

Art with LB

I thought I would continue with the theme of art. I've never been a crafty person. I don't paint. I can't sew. I am not a photographer. However, I was raised by two people who taught me to appreciate art and that includes not just paintings but sculpture, pottery, photography, etc. This is something I hope to pass on to LB. My mom minored in art history in college and is currently a docent at one of the museums in my hometown. My dad knows a lot about art as does my sister. As a kid I was never quite up to their level of knowledge or appreciation. I remember that my parents would take us to special exhibits at our local museums and a visit to a museum was often on the itinerary when we are on family vacation. When your parents are educators then it's a given that there is always an opportunity to learn something new no matter where you are. I have memories of sitting on those benches in the middle of the room at a museum and feeling impatient (and often cold) while the rest of my family really looked over each piece. It wasn't that I didn't appreciate it but I just didn't have the interest to spend a lot of time studying each painting. I was ready to move on. I'm proud to say that as I aged and matured I spent less time sitting on the benches and learned to enjoy the peacefulness and pleasure that comes from strolling through a museum or gallery.

I don't remember how old I was but I have a very clear memory of going to a Thomas Moran exhibit with my family that contained mostly his paintings of the West. We opted not to get those headphones that tell you about each piece because my dad was able to tell us a lot about the exhibit (and maybe my parents were saving a few bucks to pay for my ice skating lessons). I was standing next to my dad and I think we were looking at a painting of the Grand Canyon and my dad asked, "Do you see that horse there in the distance?" I didn't at first but then was able to see it when my dad pointed it out. He told me that Moran often would paint animals or people into his work and they would be small and hard to see as a way to convey how big our world is and how small we are in relation to nature. I'm pretty sure that was the first time something clicked inside of me and turned art into more than just paintings on the wall. I saw what the artist was trying to convey and I understood it. I finally gained some confidence in the world of the arts.

I took an art history class in college and I don't think I skipped a single class. Not that I skipped a lot but the point is that I enjoyed it. There was something relaxing about having the lights go dim and listening to the click of the slide projector as the professor went through each piece. In 2000, I went to Europe with a friend and we spent a lot of time wandering through various museums and it was fun. I don't think I sat on a single bench. I remember that I bought a print from the gift shop at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and I was excited to hang it in my future apartment. I still have that print and it's one of my favorites.

Even though I specialize in stick figures when it comes to creating art, I've tried to find a way to include include art projects in to my regular repertoire of activities with LB. I have found some great websites that suggest all sorts of fun art projects for toddlers and I just copy their ideas. Two of my favorites are No Time for Flash Cards and Play Create Explore. D's parents got LB a bunch of craft supplies for Christmas and we've been having a lot of fun with them.

I have to work hard at not trying to direct LB too much but to simply present him with the materials and let his own imagination take over. Some days he'll get into whatever it is we are doing and other days he makes a few marks on the paper with a colored pencil and then decides to be "all done coloring." I try to roll with it. A few weeks ago, I set up his easel in the unfinished part of our basement and let him do some watercolors. He did it for a while but he spent half the time putting the brush in the water and then getting some paint on the brush and then putting it back in the water to watch it change color. He kept asking for "more new water." My initial reaction was to be annoyed he was just messing with the water but I reminded myself he was exploring and discovering and that there was value to it.

When my mom was here last week she taught him how to make a collage. He loved ripping the paper and then using his glue to put it on paper. We've done this several times since and he hasn't tired of it.

This winter I got a membership to our city's conservatory. You wouldn't think it would be a place that could entertain a three year old but LB loves it. He can walk around freely and there is all sorts of stuff to look at and explore. In the spring they have a butterfly exhibit. In the room with the butterflies they have a Chihuly sculpture on permanent display. Even though LB has seen it several times, whenever we turn the corner and can see it he always says, "Wow!" I love it. There is such a sense of wonder in his voice.

Fingers crossed that he never loses the "wow" and stays off the cold benches.

Christmas Tree Craft

In case you aren't friends with me on Facebook or Instagram, then I thought I would share this totally awesome Christmas craft that LB and I did yesterday. I got the idea from one of my favorite websites, Play at Home Mom. Yesterday was rainy and dreary and the playdate we had scheduled fell through due to sickness so I decided it was the perfect day for this activity. I turned on some Christmas music and asked LB if he wanted to make a Christmas tree. He started jumping up and down and saying, "Yay." He was ready before he even knew what we were going to do. I love that he enjoys art. Finding creative things for us to try doesn't always come naturally to me but I had a feeling this one would be a hit. Here is what you need:

1. Toothpicks
2. Gum drops
3. Foam Cone (I got one from a craft store and it was only $2.)

That's it. Perfect for me. If you are more ambitious than me then you can let your kid paint the foam cone green. LB still can't totally be trusted with paint. They do paint at school and I let him do finger paints outside but he tends to get carried away. So I let him use a crayon. It didn't work that great but it gave the cone a green sparkle. Then I pulled out the gum drops and toothpicks and showed him how to poke the gum drop and then push it into the tree. That was all he needed and he was off and running.

I love watching his little hands work. He gets pretty serious about it. What made this so great was that he could do it without any help and was so proud of what he was creating. He would tell me what color he was going to do next and as it got more full he had to brainstorm about where to put his hand so he could push the toothpick into the foam. I also think the addition of Christmas music really helped set the mood. He even said, "My love Christmas." And at times he would pretend to sing along to the music. He's such a little performer.

Once he had the one foam cone pretty full he asked to make another one. Sadly, I only bought one but promised him we would do it again. In an effort to keep things real around here, I should disclose that we had a little toothpick incident when we were done. I turned my back to throw a few things away and before I could stop him LB had dumped all the remaining toothpicks on the floor. There were some still on the table and he decided those needed to be on the floor too. Awesome. Thankfully, he was quick to agree to help me clean them all up. Sometimes I think he makes a mess just for the enjoyment of cleaning it up. Sigh. But it was totally worth it. The second D walked in the door, LB ran to him and exclaimed, "My make a Christmas tree! Look Daddy!" He was so proud. The tree is our new centerpiece. Let me know if you try it. So fun!