Randomness

So, I've really neglected the blog lately. My apologies. It's a busy life & I am dog tired. Because I've been neglectful, I have a plethora of activities to share. I'll share a few today and a few sometime soon, I promise!


Ollie and I did a Pterosaur measuring activity. We compared his wingspan to the wingspan of a Quetzalcoatlus &  Pteranodon. The Quetzalcoatlus has the largest wingspan of any Pterosaur
(or flying creature ever) measuring at 52 feet! The Pteranodon measures at 20 feet. To measure it we laid out a measuring tape and ollie ran yarn back and forth until we had the measurements. Then we measured his. We talked about wingspan and what that meant. Then we went outside and laid the yarn on the sidewalk. Holy Cats! Those guys were huge!

Dawson also gets activities although I am not as good about it as I was with Ollie when he was Dawson's age. It's tough with two though. Dawson does go to story time and do lots of art and a million unplanned activities so he isn't getting the shaft entirely. Here Dawson is sorting balls. I gave him several balls and containers. He experimented by putting them into the different containers. Eventually, it turned into throwing them at the containers but I say MOTOR SKILLS!

Quite often I modify one activity so both of the boys can do it. For Ollie I drew some big shapes on a piece of construction paper. He had to cut them out. His fine motor skills are really improving. It's exciting to watch! After he cut them, he decided to make a house from them. I had no intention of him doing anything other than cutting but I'm glad his little mind saw something in those shapes. He even took a scrape and made a flag!  For Dawson, I precut shapes. We talked about the shape and it's color as he glued them onto the paper. He loves to glue. Mostly he loves to shove his finger in them and pull out a wad of the stuff. 

I have a few more but I am ready to be off this computer! There is dinner to make and I believe I hear Dawson already!

You must read to the end to get a surprise!

Six weeks and one day ago, I went to an ultrasound appointment where they planned to check my cervix. Little did I know that this appointment would result in a crazy roller coaster. Nothing is wrong with my cervix but instead they said that the nuchal folds (neck) of my baby looked thickened. But unfortunately, they really can't evaluate that for another 6 weeks. Now for those who don't know, nuchal thickening is a sign of a plethora of chromosomal disorders such as Downs Syndrome, Trisomy 17, 18, 21 as well as heart issues. Now I really wasn't worried about Downs Syndrome. I know oodles of wonderful kids with Downs Syndrome. I was concerned about the fatal disorders.   At first, I really just decided they were being overly cautious and I didn't stress but the closer the follow up came, the more worried and stressed I got. I feel like I've been a wreck. We didn't tell many people because we didn't want to sound the alarms until we knew more. I think that made it even harder.

Now, I can say that my quiet times (time with God) have been amazing and got more so each day that the ultrasound came closer. I honestly walked in to my ultrasound appointment and told the Lord that no matter what happened, I trusted him. It was a long ultrasound because they had to do an echo cardiogram on the baby. It was a long hour. The tech couldn't tell us the results we had to wait for the dr. Painstakingly, we waited and waited. Finally, we were told our baby was perfectly healthy! What an amazing answer to prayer!

So,  I was so relieved that I went shopping today and bought a hot pink tutu and a couple headbands. Practical stuff huh? I thought it would liven up my cleaning routine. Just kidding. I bought these things because we caved and found out that we are having a girl! We weren't going to but with all the uncertainty, I thought more about knowing. It was a nice distraction. I feel so blessed. Not only did God answer my prayer with a healthy baby but he gave me the desire of my heart by giving me a daughter. A daughter. Sounds surreal and unbelievable. I can't wait to meet her!

Easter Activities

We started our week by talking about Jesus and his entrance into Jerusalem while people rejoiced. The boys painted white tissue paper palm leaves with water color paint. They turned out pretty neat. I was glad to find that idea online!

We talked about how Judas betrayed Jesus by telling the leaders where Jesus was in exchange for 30 coins. I cut 30 coins for each. We counted them aloud. Ollie punched holes in his and strung them onto a piece of yarn to work on hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. Dawson simply glued them to paper. Neither boy used all thirty.

On Wednesday, we hosted an Easter party. I will so a blog on that separately. To prepare for the paper, Ollie and Dawson helped me to make egg shaped cookies. There is a lot of symbolism behind the egg. We talked mostly about how when the eggs are empty they represent the empty tomb because Jesus is alive!

On Thursday, we did two things. First, the boys, nana and I dyed eggs. What a disaster! I have to say that it was not my proudest mommy moment. I was a lunatic. First, Ollie tried to eat one of the dye tablets because he thought it was candy. Then, Dawson dumped the vinegar out onto the table. Ollie continually picked up the dye cups and sloshed them around. Dawson took a bite out of an egg--shell and all! OH MY WORD! At one point I think I said, "This is supposed to be fun!" haha. Lesson learned. Tell them what will happen before you set dye on the table dumby!

While Dawson napped, Ollie and I created a tomb scene. I found this idea on Confessions of a Homeschooler. For complete instructions, go to the link above. I scaled down the size of ours. I bought a much smaller plastic tray for the bottom. I used half of a plastic egg for the tomb. Ollie was a mad man with the grass seed which he sprinkled on top.

 Today, the boys and I made a blue construction paper Jesus to put inside the tomb. The rock is now in front of the tomb. Guess who won't be inside the tomb on Sunday morning?

18 Months Old!

Yesterday, my little love turned 18 months old. It's funny because it doesn't seem like long at all but at the same time the whole NICU ordeal seemed like ages ago. He has changed so much. He can run, jump, throw a ball and, depending on the ball, he can catch one, too. He is saying so many words. Two of his new favorites are bug and WOW. Here they are digging for worms and bugs. I heard a lot of "bug and wows."

I really love the way he says wow. It's so cute. He has become fiercely independent. So much so that he would not hold my hand in the parking lot today and I had to pick him up and carry him instead. He loves to do art. He can color, paint,  and use a glue stick. His two favorite toys are balls and cars. He loves to read. Every night I read him books and every night he says, "more, more," when it is time to be done.

He and ollie are becoming such great friends and they love to play together. They run around the house yelling and laughing.

I took some pictures of him. I tried to get some in a diaper and some with clothes but once I got his clothes on him, he would not cooperate. Imagine that.

Can't get enough of DINOSAURS~

Ollie is completely infatuated with dinosaurs. I have been searching and thinking and scraping together dinosaur activities for my little guy. What do you teach a kid who knows everything about dinosaurs? Well luckily I found a few things and I found that you don''t have to teach about dinosaurs to use dinosaurs to learn.

So, we worked on sorting. I gave ollie several dinosaurs and asked him to sort them however he wanted. He sorted by color, species, and what they ate (carnivore, herbivore). He then organized them by size.

After seeing this on Play at Home Mom, I had to put it together for ollie. I put together a sensory activity for him. The bottom of the cake pan is covered in cloud dough. I put a dinosaur in each of the three eggs, added some foliage and a mama dinosaur. He was so excited when he saw it and loved every minute.

Lately Ollie has been asking for a spinosaurus. I hear it all the time. Well, he finally got one. We cut up an empty box of cheese crackers and a paper plate. Ollie glued it together but refused to paint it because it was colorful. He was referring to the box. haha. Anyway, I don't know why I don't make cardboard dinosaurs more often. He ran off to play with it and played independently for quite a while.

Parasaurolophus. That is what our mask is. This was fun to make but I think it was a bit big and awkward. He wore it for about twenty seconds. This activity and the one before came from a couple books I got from the library-  Activities for kids learning about dinosaurs & Crafts for kids who are crazy about dinosaurs.

We also did a little dino printing. I got out the paints and some dinosaurs and let the boys go to town. Ollie used them to stamp on the paper a bit but he also painted the dinosaurs themselves. After he was done, he decided the dinosaurs needed a bath and the boys and dinosaurs hopped in the tub to get cleaned up. 

Being a stay at home mom is such a wonderful blessing. I love being able to take the time to 

do activities with my kids. I was talking to a woman at the mall playland today who commented on how she wished she had more time to play with her kids (she is a working mom). It was just another reminder of how lucky I am!

Bapa comes for a visit

Last weekend, my dad came for a visit. It was so wonderful. The boys haven't seen my parents since Christmas. Bapa drove down on Friday. We had a couple very special activities planned. Both Ollie and my dad love all things prehistoric, especially dinosaurs. Bapa came to take him to an Imax movie called "Sea Rex." Lucky for us, this same weekend, an ice age exhibit opened at the zoo.

My dad arrived Friday late morning. We immediately set off for the Science Center. We checked out the exhibits and had a little lunch while we waited for the movie to start. Bapa and Ollie went to "Sea Rex" while Dawson and I went to the Small Wonders exhibit to play. Dawson had a great time. He especially loves the bubbles and the "imprint wall." We played and played. Apparently, Ollie enjoyed the movie so much that he sat through all of the credits until the screen went completely blank at which point my dad finally got up and Ollie decided he should too.

We then headed home so Dawson could nap. While he did that, Bapa and Ollie headed to the park. It was nice to have a little quiet time while they went to play. Later that evening we headed out again to another park. I was so thankful for such nice weather and time to play outside.

Saturday, we got up and got going early so that we could see the new Ice Age exhibit. Ollie was thrilled. Dawson was scared. My dad commented on how they weren't to scale. Lol. The zoo was really busy so we didn't stay too long. We checked out some of the other animals and hit the road home so we could have lunch and send Bapa on his way.

It really was a great weekend and very special for my little guys.

Dinosaurs!

We just started (a few weeks ago) a unit on dinosaurs. It is a hard one because he already knows so much that it is really hard to know what to do. We started with dinosaurs at preschool co-op. We did some fun stuff, but I, of course, did not take pictures. For one of the activities, I used tape to create a dinosaur sized foot print on the floor. When ollie got up, he thought that was really neat. We measured how many of our feet fit in one and even how many kids!

We followed up the dino print activity by doing another with dinosaur feet. I made 10 dinosaur feet (smaller ones) and set them on the floor. At first, ollie had fun jumping, skipping and running to each. Then, we played a little game. I used the footprints to lead to a dinosaur I had hidden. Ollie loved following them and really enjoyed this game. He even hid it for me a couple times.

We are still working on our fine motor skills. One activity that never gets old is drawing in flour. I filled a cookie sheet with flour. I had ollie practice writing Ds with his finger. I then gave him his dinosaurs to play with in the flour. He had so much fun. He made prints and buried them. We soon adding other spices and he made trees and scenes.

For another activity, I wrote dinosaur on a strip of construction paper. I was surprised that when I showed it to Ollie he knew what it said. He has told pointed to books and said that before but there was always pictures to give a hint. He just knows the word! I handed him the letters to the same word and had him place them over the letters. I did this first with capital letters and then with lowercase. He did a great job.

Ollie's favorite activity was making his own dinosaur egg.I blew up a balloon and we put a baby Brachiosaurus inside. He then did his own paper mache and covered it. When it dried, he got out his hammer and chisel from his dinosaur exhibition game and cracked it open to find the baby. So exciting for a little dino lover!

 Finally, we learned about measurement. I gave ollie a ruler and had him pick 4 dinosaurs to measure. We measured their height and length and wrote them down.