Tot School

Lucas is 37 months. Gwendolyn is 14 months.

::Sensory activities we had a bowl full of pom poms to pour and scoop into different containers.Gwendolyn LOVED this and asked for it over and over again.
We're still working on keeping little things out of our mouths :)
And we had a bowl full of spooky Halloween things: googly eyes, alien erasers, glow in the dark beads, little aliens, pom poms and craft sticks. I was *so* excited about this one. But neither of the kids liked it. lol::Art time Lucas loved using the foam stickers this week. We have a tin full of them and he sorted them all out into piles before putting them on his paper. He used all of the cars he could find first :)

Gwendolyn is really taking to art! And I am beyond happy about that!! She is using markers all of the time now and she is so happy to see the marks on the paper. Lucas was doing stickers and she asked to do them as well. And she did a fabulous job! I helped her peel the stickers and she was able to stick them herself! Can you tell I'm excited? Art time has always been a favorite for Lucas and I, it's so nice to have Gwendolyn join in on the fun and creativity! ::Beads Lucas made bracelets for Gwendolyn after she went to bed. He left them out on the windowsill for her to find in the morning :)
::Rubik's cubes these have been a favorite around here lately. Both kids love aimlessly spinning them around and seeing the blocks return to a square shape.
::Nesting/stacking/shape sorting cubes
::Skull magnets we practiced counting with these. And put them into an egg carton.
::Pumpkin rolling because what else would you do with a pumpkin...
::Matchbox car fun Gwendolyn enjoyed filling a bubble envelope with them and dumping it back out. Lucas narrated her actions for her 'you are putting that car into the envelope.' 'you have a car in one hand.' 'you have a car in both hands.' He loves teaching her! And she loves his attention :)Lucas did a lot of pretend play. He tells such interesting stories. His black diesel truck was driving on a bridge in this picture.
::Life skills Both kids helped me sweep. They actually do every day :) I encourage them to joyfully help with the housework. And they do! When Gwendolyn spills her water on the floor, she goes over to the counter, pulls down the towel and wipes up the spill. It is so sweet to watch such a tiny person know how to do so many things!
We went to Whole Foods this week and got a handful of things out of the bulk bins. Lucas asked to help scoop the sugar. And to help tong the dried fruits. He did so well! He didn't spill any! It was great practice scooping, pouring and tonging. And it helped to teach him how our food finds its way home with us.

::Recess This has been such a great addition to our days!! Little people just need to be active! The kids love being able to ride their toys around the house and it makes them so much calmer and happier the rest of the time. Which makes a better day for all of us :)

Cushions on the floor just need to be jumped on. And a brother on a cushion on the floor? Definitely needs to be jumped on!

Life

Little people loving their Daddy is always so sweet to see!

And, I may be partial, but she is just too cute! Her hair is getting curlier by the day :)

Happy mail

Halloween fun

Wal-Mart had a Halloween walk for the kids today. It was so much fun! The kids loved it!!! It was great to see Lucas interacting so positively with strangers in such a busy, chaotic setting. (this is far outside his comfort zone. we have been doing a lot of work to overcome his shyness and unwillingness to talk to people.) He happily walked up to the people with the candy bowls and said 'trick or treat', picked out a piece of candy and said 'thank you'. All without prompting. He even smiled and was happy about it!! I was so proud! And Gwendolyn is a tiny people person. She was delighted that she got to talk to so many nice people that gave her treats :)

They got to play a game of tossing an eyeball into a pumpkin bucket.

We stopped to look at Indian corn. Because we do every time we are at the store - Lucas loves it!

They got to make little ghosts out of suckers and decorate them.

Gwendolyn was all about getting candy out of the bowls :) (no, she doesn't actually eat candy. she just thought it was a fun game!)

Lucas colored a pumpkin picture. (he actually wanted to color it ORANGE. what happened to the purple cows and blue trees??)

They had fun wandering through the store.

They got to decorate and eat sugar cookies. This was by far Lucas's favorite part!

It's wonderful how the simple little things in life make them so happy. They're so joyful :)

Less hair

I got a hair cut today. It is a whole lot shorter. I got 11 inches cut off to donate to Locks of Love. I'm happy!

Peekaboo

One of those days

Tot School

Lucas is 37 months. Gwendolyn is 14 months.

::Dominoes Lucas loved lining up the dominoes the 'right' way and stacking them up into little towers. Gwendolyn mostly sat on the table and knocked over Lucas's stacks when he told her the stack was ready for her :) She tried stacking them up on her own, but kept knocking the stack over on accident and decided it was more fun to wait for Lucas.
We've been playing lots of games around here lately. Both kids LOVE Hungry, Hungry Hippos - but there aren't any pictures because Gwendolyn tends to think she is a hippo and eats the marbles. We also play Yahtzee quite a bit. Lucas has no real idea what he's supposed to do. But he likes shaking the cup of dice and drawing on his score card. And Tim and I love playing board games :)


::Music time Tim has been teaching Lucas how to read music. Lucas saw there were letters on each of the xylophone keys and asked why they were there, so Tim took the opportunity to start teaching Lucas that those letters correspond to notes on sheet music. Lucas is so entertained! And actually seems to get it.
Gwendolyn loves playing her recorder and often walks around with it in her mouth.
We have been listening to the Classics for Kids weekly composer. This week was The Peer Gynt Suite. We all loved this song and have listened to it MANY times. Gwendolyn often walks over to the computer and pokes it until I turn the classical music on :)

Both kids still love playing with this bongo. It lights up and plays music when you tap the top of it. Gwendolyn was actually awake and playing, she just doesn't like the flash of the camera :)
::Games they play so often the kids make up their own games to play together. Lucas hid their two favorite trucks under a piece of cardboard and jumped on it. And Gwendolyn tried to grab the trucks out and then hop on top. They kept at this game for a LONG time! It's so enjoyable to watch them play so nicely together and to hear their sweet little laughs :)
::Art time

This is Gwendolyn's picture! She is really getting the hang of coloring paper (rather than her tongue) and is loving our regular drawing times!
::Play-doh we have been using Halloween themed sugar cookie stamps with our play-doh. Gwendolyn LOVES poking the stamped images!

::Potato head our Halloween Mr. Potato Head has been a big hit.
::Beads I set out a cup of orange beads with a few pipe cleaners for the kids to work on stringing.
This is what it turned into. A scooping/pouring activity :) Lucas did make one orange bracelet for Gwendolyn, tho!
::Orange bag I saw the idea for a color theme over at little moments and loved it! We have been working on colors with Gwendolyn for a little while now and I thought she would really enjoy this. I filled up their little white sack with a bunch of orange toys. We practice taking turns and each one gets to take one thing out at a time and I ask what color each item is. Lucas has so much fun and thinks it's hysterically funny to keep telling me that everything is orange. And Gwendolyn is happy pulling things out of a bag :) This has been one of our most played with toys!
::Stacking/nest/shape sorting wooden cubes I do love multi-purpose toys.. Gwendolyn is getting so good at finding the right hole for the shapes and putting them in. And Lucas loves setting the cubes up in a tower for her :)
::Reading we have been reading lots of fall and Halloween books lately.

And field guides. The kids love looking at pictures of the birds and trees. Lucas loves finding the birds that come to our house in the books.
::Pop beads they are such a great manipulative for learning colors, counting, patterning and strengthening little hands. We use these a lot!::Wooden train this is how I often find Lucas these days. He LOVES his wooden train! We have been talking more and more about the magnets that hold the cars together.
::Life skills Lucas has been able to unload the dishwasher on his own for quite some time. He has recently taken an interest in loading the dishwasher himself. He put all of the dishes in without help :) He was so proud of himself! Gwendolyn has started helping unload the dishwasher, too. She can put all of the plates/bowls/cups away in the right place. (we keep the dishes in the bottom cabinets so that the kids can reach them - it's always colorful explaining to company just where the dishes are)::Recess I saw the idea for indoor recess at 1+1+1=1 and loved it! Lucas is such an active kid and needs a lot of physical activity to be happy. No problem at all in the warm weather when we're outside in the yard for hours a day and visiting the parks every day. It gets to be a challenge in the winter. This week I brought one of their smaller ride on toys inside. Lucas was beyond happy to have his little fire truck in the house! And it definitely helped to keep him calmer when we didn't get outside due to the rain.
The kids chased each other around the table in circles. They do this regularly without prompting. We also have a stack of cushions that often get rearranged for jumping on/climbing on.