Musical Chairs

On a recent Ikea trip, hubs and I bought a table and chairs for Little Miss.  I wanted her to have something that was her height so we could have snacks and do art.  Ever the little helper, my Tootsie Roll helped her Daddy assemble the chairs.  She even tested them out.

Daddy wasn't thrilled that she chose to stand rather than sit on the chair, but you have to figure out how to get up there and how to sit down somehow.  She's been using the table daily and enjoying it.  The chairs are still high for her, but I don't want to cut the legs down because I want them to stick around for a while.  Like all things we've bought from Ikea, it seems to be pretty sturdy so we hope that we've made a good investment for Little Miss as she grows.  

The Toddler and the Balloon

You may remember a few months ago that Little Miss was quite smitten with a balloon at her friend's house.

She carried it all around the house and tried to make it her own.  We went out to eat and Little Miss was thrilled to receive a balloon of her own as we left.  She took it home and played with it and loved on it for the evening before it ran out of helium.

It didn't run out a moment too soon if you ask Huckleberry!  As much as Little Miss loved it, it freaked him out.  Cheers for free entertainment.

Play Dough

Last week Little Miss and I made play dough.  It was fun.  Little Miss is going to tell you how it was done:

First, she says, you have to gather and pour in all your ingredients:

Once Mommy stirs in all the hot water and it cools down, you can take over.  It's hard work!

Once that is done and the play dough is made, you can pretend to make it all over again!

Seriously, we've had several play dough sessions and I can't really get her interested in it.  I think that she has a real interest in helping in the kitchen so now I'll have to start trying to find ways to safely incorporate her into the cooking.  Perhaps we'll bake a tasty treat for Daddy one of these days...

Babywearing: Out with the Old and in With the New

I've written before about babywearing.  I love it. Not only does it give me two free hands to work with when she's fussy, but it also helps me to hold her longer when we have our dance parties and hold her close to me when I'm shopping.  The extra cuddles are amazing and I want to keep her close to me as much as I can now while she's still young enough to be worn.  I've shown the evolution of carriers that I've used before- soft structured carriers, ring slings and wraps.  It turns out I've become a churner.  I tried the wrap and didn't have much success, so I sold it.  Then I decided that if I started with hip carries, maybe she'd be more open to wrapping and I could eventually move onto back carries.  The wrap that I had was gorgeous, but it snagged easily and the fabric was really long and difficult for a beginner to work with.  I decided to try a shorter wrap in a less intimidating weave.  I scored one and practiced a hip carry with the Glow Worm while Tater Tot was sleeping.

 I had it perfect and was super excited to try it in the morning.  Little Miss was amenable to 'going uppies,' so I pulled out the Youtube video and tried it again.

 Not quite what it was supposed to look like, but at least she had a good seat and wasn't going to fall out.  It's just something to keep practicing.  I'm glad that I'm giving it another go because this has the ability to be more versatile in that I can use the wrap for front, hip and back carries.

Next on the chopping block was my beloved Toddler Kinderpack.  I love Kinderpacks and find them extremely comfortable.  The problem with this one was that it was still too big for her after several months.  She slowed down growing!  This is the picture I used to post it for sale:

Isn't my little one just so cute?  It's so nice now that she's starting to look at the camera.  Kinda.  It sold very quickly.  It's since been replaced with a smaller sized one and one in the toddler size for when she gets a bit bigger.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of those.

This brings us to my latest acquisition- the ring sling.  I bought a new ring sling a few months ago, but I was finding that it didn't give enough support for my back during longer shopping trips.  I decided that I needed something more 'toddler-worthy' and found this one.  It's amazing.  I love the pattern and it's very thick and supportive.  The only complaint I have is that this one doesn't have pockets so I don't have anywhere to easily slip my wallet and keys.  I now have to put them in my reusable shopping bags.  Honestly, at this point, it's a trade off well worth making.

The great thing about baby carriers is that there's quite a market for them and it's pretty easy to sell them without losing tons of money, as long as you're buying quality stuff.  I'm pretty happy with the choices I've made and have plenty to keep me busy for a while.

Goo!

As we continue our sensory journey, I decided to get a bit braver and try goo.  Essentially it's just corn starch and water, but I was a bit concerned about the mess.  First I poured the corn starch in the bowl and let Little Miss play with that for a while.  Once she was happy with that I added the water.  She really enjoyed playing with it.  The highlight of the session came when she took the box and started pouring her own corn starch in.  We were at the end of the box so I let her go for it.

That of course, required more water and we had a little cycle going for a while until she decided that the goo wasn't interesting at all, but the physical box was.  That got dipped in the mixture and explored quite thoroughly.

 The thinking tongue came out as she explored the mixture further, and she even reached for my phone, presumably, to also dunk.  No cigar there.  It was an easy thing to do and I'm glad that she liked it.

Happy Birthday, Great-Grandma!

Last month my grandma turned 90.  Can you believe it- isn't she beautiful?  Her mother lived to be 104 so long life spans are in my gene pool :)  To celebrate, the entire family came together to visit and throw a big party.  Since we knew everyone would be arriving Friday and we didn't want to miss anything, we left Thursday after work and drove as far as we could.  It turns out we got pretty far and arrived at my grandma's nursing home before lunch.  It was wonderful to have that alone time with her and be able to kick of the weekend right.  We went for a walk of the grounds to stretch our legs and show Hubs and Little Miss around.  There's a garden there that the Master Gardener's Association maintains.  Little Miss enjoyed walking around there.

She also enjoyed a little shenanigans with Daddy.  It looks like a vampire scene, but there was no biting involved and she loved it.

After we walked around for a bit we decided it was time for lunch.  We drove to the town square and had a delicious farm-to-table meal.  As we walked out we casually walked towards the square, when we suddenly noticed a splash pad right in the center.  We didn't even discuss it- we all naturally gravitated towards it and let Little Miss have some fun.

She got totally soaked, but luckily the car was still packed and we were able to get a spare outfit from our luggage.  She loved it.  Since it was the middle of a school day, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  It was ideal.  After playing for a bit it was time for nap so we had to drop off great-grandma and head over to the hotel.  When we woke up, there was tons of family around.  She got to meet her cousin who is just a month younger.  They enjoyed 'playing' together- and by playing I mean following each other around and taking each other's stuff.

It was a huge weekend.  Not only did my whole family come in, but Mamaw, Papaw, Aunty Judy and Uncle Mike also made the trip up.  Once again, I was busy having fun with them and didn't snap pictures.  I have not one of the party (although my uncle is a photographer and captured it beautifully, I'm sure), but I did catch Little Miss completely passed out as we were walking back into the hotel afterwards.  Seriously, this kid never transfers, but she was out and sleeping hard.  There was a lot of stimulation.  This picture isn't flattering of Daddy because he was trying to lock the car through his pocket, but I wanted to capture a successful transfer for posterity.

It was an awesome weekend full of family, and stories and fun.  I'm so glad that we were able to make it up.  The good news is that Little Miss, Grandma and I will be visiting Great-Grandma in November just because.  I'm so lucky I get to spend so much time with her.  For now, Popcorn will wave and say, 'See you next time.'

Bubble Wrap

We recently received a package that had the much-coveted large bubble wrap.  Hubs thought that it would be fun for Little Miss to play with.  We showed her what to do, laid it out on the floor and let her go to town.

She enjoyed popping it with her hands, stepping on it and squeezing it.  You know who did not enjoy it?  Huckleberry.  Poor puppy flinched every time a bubble popped and tried running to me for protection.  He shook when several bubbles popped at once.  I think that bubble wrap ranks right up there with loud storms for his most feared things.  Even though it was a pretty large piece, it was all popped rather quickly.  Not sure when we'll get another package, but it'll be fun to see if she recognizes it and knows what to do next time.