Tag Archives: toddler

Spaghetti Spaceship

Posted in Kid's Corner by


Another fantastic fine motor activity! Henry and Reagan enjoyed this activity and spent about twenty minutes breaking their pasta noodles, sticking them into the play dough and then placing the Cheerios onto the noodles. Henry’s verbal skills are much more advanced than Reagan’s and his imagination is fantastic!. He talked about how the play dough was a spaceship, the noodles were seats and the Cheerios were the space men.

Materials for Two:
Spaghetti Noodles- We used 5 noodles
Play Dough- Enough to make two balls
Cheerios- A small bowl for each child

Form play dough into a ball and then flatten on the bottom.

Break noodles in half or whatever size you want.

Insert noodles into play dough.

Place Cheerios onto noodles.

The Itch

Posted in Home Life by


I’m a stay at home mom and love my job! However, there are those days that I feel the need for adult interaction – sans kiddos. That my education and all my hard work throughout my school years are going to waste. That if I had time to get a hair cut (haven’t had one since I was 8 months preggers- Reagan’s 16 months), my nails done (haven’t had a mani or a pedi since I was 2 months preggers), and get a much needed massage (not since before I was pregnant) all in the same day, the same week or even the same month…I would feel like a new woman.

It’s not a feeling that I have on a daily basis, it sneaks up on me every once in awhile. When I do actually act on the urge to get out and do something for myself- it just seems like it’s more work than it’s worth and I always want to hurry home or whenever I have left Reagan.

I will always have my fabulous friends to spend time with sans kiddos, my education can never be taken away from me; I can put it to good use whenever I see fit and beauty salons aren’t going anywhere. My daughter is numero uno and won’t be a toddler forever. I’m so fortunate to be able to spend so much time with her as she grows up…even if I do look a hot mess while doing it.

m

Grilled Cheese Roll Ups

Posted in What's Cookin' by


I struggle to find things that Reagan will eat. We offer her everything that we eat and she just isn’t interested in anything a majority of the time. Her diet consists of breast milk, pasta, fruit, wheat bread, peas, yogurt, cheese and snacks (such things as Auntie Anne’s crackers, goldfish crackers, and raisins). Reagan’s pediatrician said that as long as she continues to gain weight and is still breast-feeding, she’s fine and is getting what she needs. Finding different ways to present food to Reagan, that she actually likes, has been a process. I’m trying to make eating fun, I want her to enjoy it…but not too much.

After seeing these Grilled Cheese Rolls (http://www.recipebyphoto.com/grilled-cheese-rolls/) I just had to try them for my little dipper! They would be the perfect size for her little fingers to pick up and dip, dip.

Ingredients
(FOR 2 SANDWICHES)

2 pieces of bread
2 slices of cheese
butter

Cut crusts off of bread.

Flatten bread by pressing firmly down with hand.

Top bread with one slice of cheese. I have found that if you add too much cheese it’s very hard to roll the bread and the cheese hangs out the sides and burns to the pan when cooking. I actually tore off edges of the cheese slices that were hanging out of the bread roll.

Roll the bread topped with cheese up and pinch the seam to secure the closing.

Melt a small amount of butter in a frying pan over medium heat and once melted place the sandwich roll seam side down to begin cooking. Press sandwich roll to secure seam.

Turn sandwich roll to cook all sides. Pressing down with a spatial.

Serve with ketchup for dipping!

Score! She loved the roll!




Pint-Sized Picasso

Posted in Kid's Corner by


This was such an easy activity from start to finish!

Materials

Washable Paint
Construction Paper
Corks
Styrofoam Plate
Something to cover table

This activity took no time at all to put together and allowed for me to utilize things that I already had in the house. I found an old set of washable paints and was excited for Reagan to stray from her normal blue and pink paint (I have yet to remember to purchase more colors). But, low and behold the paints were dry;( I even tried adding a little water to the bottle and shaking it, but it just wasn’t the right consistency anymore. So back to the trusty old standby colors.


I placed a cardboard mat underneath where Reagan would be working, even though it’s washable paint, it doesn’t always wash out 100%. I gave her a piece of construction paper, four wine and champagne corks, paint on a styrofoam plate, told her that they corks were stamps and let her go to town!

IMG_2103

She LOVED every second of the paint stamping. I mean, why wouldn’t she…she LOVES to dip, dip! Here she is, using sign language, to ask for more.

The activity lasted about 15 minutes before Reagan began to stamp her hands, her face, the chair and was even successful at getting the dog once or twice.

When the fingers went in the mouth, I called it quits on the activity. I could have easily given her a binkie and she would have continues to paint. However, I’m trying to confine the binkie to the crib and the car, so the binkie was not coming to the kitchen table to paint.

We had a blast and ended the activity with her favorite thing…a tubbie! Sometimes I think that Reagan loves to get messy because she knows that she will end up in the tubbie.

Everything cleaned up really easily. I threw away the styrofoam plate and corks- no paint brush washing today! And returned the left over paper, the paint bottles and the cardboard mat to the craft section in the basement.

A Little Love

Posted in Kid's Corner by


My sister, Erin, found this adorable craft on The Party Event (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/) and made the best Valentine’s day gift for someone very special that lives far away. I thought that it was the sweetest idea and that it would be fabulous for my husband who works long hours and often comes home after Reagan is already in bed. This Valentine is perfect for when he misses her and needs a hug.

Erin and I both strayed from the way that the hug was created on The Party Event (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/) and I LOVE the final products!

I decided that Reagan and I were going to make three HUG Valentine’s, one for Reagan’s dada, one for my mother-in-law, a.k.a Grammy and one for my father-in-law, a.k.a PaPa.

Below are materials and instructions for how to make Reagan’s HUG.

Materials

Mod Podge
Paint brush
index cards
4 different colors of paint ( we used pink, red, white and purple)
4 large sheets of card stock light colored card stock- I used a very faded light blue
2 sheets of red construction paper
1 (8×10) piece of card stock
1 piece of paper (large enough to trace hand on)
scissors
string
sharp knife
Printed saying (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/)

Step 1:

Paint both sides of the four sheets of large card stock paper- one sheet for each color (let one side dry before painting the other, this should be obvious…)

Step 2:

Trace hands onto piece of paper and cut along traced lines.

Step 3:

Trace cut out hand onto red construction paper. Using both pieces of red construction paper, one on top of the other, cut out traced hands. We needed six hands for our three valentines.

Step 4:

Measure the length of your child’s arm span. Ask them to put out their arms as if they were giving you a big hug. Henry’s HUG was perfect! It measured his exact arm length! I struggled a bit to get Reagan to stretch out her arms so I could measure her arm span.

Step 5:

Take two cut out red hands and mod podge one side of one hand. Place one end of the arm span measured ribbon onto the mod podge and then the other hand on top (You are sandwiching the string in-between the two hand cut-outs). Press down firmly. I would recommend putting something heavy, like a book, on top of your hands until they dry. Repeat this step three times. You are only gluing one side of the string in between two hand cut-outs at this point.

Step 6:

Cut three different sized hearts out of index cards. You will be tracing these hearts. I only ended up using one of the three sizes that I cut out.

Step 7:

Trace the cut out index card hearts onto the 4 large painted card stock pieces of paper. Cut out the hearts. This is where it became a bit tedious…there were a lot of hearts that needed to be cut out, that I didn’t even use! These will be going into the Valentine’s box, so at least I saved myself some trouble for next year!


Step 8:

Using a sharp knife, cut two small slits (as wide as your ribbon) at the top of your heart.

Step 9:

Thread your ribbon through your slits and place a small dab of mod podge behind the ribbon to secure. Repeat this adding however many hearts that you want to add. We only ended up using four hearts for Reagan’s Valentine, her arm span is super short. I utilized the free printable (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/valentines-crafts-for-kids-a-long-distance-hug-a-beautiful-present-for-someone-special-diy/), printed it on card stock, cut it into an oval and attached it to the string in the same fashion as I did with the hearts.



Step 10:

Take two cut out red hands and mod podge one side. Place the other end of the arm span measured ribbon onto the mod podge and then the other hand on top (You are sandwiching the string in between the two hand cut-outs). Press down firmly. I would recommend putting something heavy, like a book, on top of your hands until they dry. Repeat this step three times.

Reagan’s finished HUG

Erin and I did our own version of the same Valentine’s HUG and they both turned out fabulously! This just goes to show that you can take someone else’s adorable project and make it your own!

This isn’t just a HUG for a Valentine, it’s a precious gift that can be sent at anytime of the year!