Traumatizing Moments!

I just had to post this story! 

It was a quiet weekday morning and Hailey and I were playing in her playroom. We were playing with all sorts of things...her kitchen set, reading books, her cozy coupe, and her baby dolls. Well she was feeding her doll that a neighbor got her for Christmas and making the baby burp (and cracking up after it happened!) when the dolls head fell off! Oh My Goodness!!! Her face dropped, her eyes swelled up... she was scared, sad, and devastated all at the same time. It brought back horrible memories of Bert's nose falling off... And yes, I have to tell you that story too! 

We were watching old sesame street clips on YouTube. She was in a Bert and Ernie kind of mood so Danny found her a video with Bert sneezing. Bert sneezed and his nose fell off! Ernie was trying to put it back on but Hailey was TRAUMATIZED! This happened a couple months ago and she still talks about it! Ernie finally got his nose back on and we comforted her and showed her Bert was alright. Then we helped lighten the subject by fake sneezing and saying things like, "Where's my nose? Can you put it back on?"

Watch the Video Here: Bert Sneezes His Nose Off

Well despite Bert's happy ending, Momma could not put the baby's head back on. I told her baby would have to go to the doctor and she would get fixed. Thank goodness for my hubby hero! He fixed baby's head while Hailey sat in my lap and I told her she was visiting Doctor Daddy! 

Hailey is playing with her daddy right now and the baby doll is with them! I'm sure we will be talking about this for a loooong time! 

Snow Dough!

Hailey loves playing with her playdough... and she is a fan of cloud dough too! This is a variation of Cloud Dough I found on The Imagination Tree, one of my favorite blogs and inspirations! She suggests using veggie oil for kids under 3, but I used lavender baby oil because Hailey does not put things in her mouth. It smells good and Hailey is never left alone while playing with it and she doesn't eat it! 

Recipe for Snow Dough:

2 cups corn starch
1/3 to 1/2 of a cup vegetable oil
3-4 tablespoons silver glitter

I omitted the glitter in ours because I did not want glitter on everything in the house at that moment. Glitter tends to stick to everything when we use it and sometimes, as creative as we are, I just don't want to fight that battle! 

The recipe does not yield very much. I ended up doubling it to create a snowscape for Hailey and her Little People animals. -- Side Note: She loves playing with her Little People, especially the animals. I like to come up with new things for her to do with them, so putting them in the snow sounded like fun! They are easy to clean because they are plastic too, which is a huge plus! 

Proud Momma! Making a Snowman!

My little one loves winter and Christmas. She spends the day wearing her Santa Hat (and making Mommy and Daddy wear theirs too!). She sings Christmas carols and talks to the Santa and Frosty blowups my neighbors have in their front yard across the street. 

I was trying to think of a snowman craft for a young toddler. I decided to cut out 3 white circles along with eyes, a carrot nose, 3 buttons, a scarf, and a santa hat. 

I used a glue stick to make the back sticky and I told Hailey what each piece was, "Okay Hailey, this is the snowmans bottom of his body....this is his middle.....this is his head...now lets put on his eyes, one-two eyes..." The reason this is called Proud Momma is because she did a GREAT job placing the pieces with minimal help. She knew wear to place his head (above the body) and wear his eyes, scarf, nose, hat, and buttons went. 


It was a simple activity with minimal prep time and it was quick and easy to make. We hung it on our art wash line (it is actually twine strung across her playroom ceiling from wall to wall) and she looks at it everyday and talks about her snowman! 

Winter Craft: Snowflakes!

Materials:

- Heavy painting paper

- Masking tape or painters tape

- Blue Puffy Paint (see instructions below- Super Simple!!)

- Paint brush

Puffy Paint:

You just need: 

- White Shaving Cream (the cheap dollar store stuff)

- Washable paint color of you choice

Just mix shaving cream with the washable paint of your choice. Do not mix too much or the shaving cream things out too much. The color of the puffy paint depends on the amount of paint you used. I like to keep a little swirl in mine to add the effect of light and dark in my color. 

Steps:

- Use the masking tape or painters tape to make snowflakes of different sizes on the paper. It is going to have to peel off, so scotch tape won't work. It sticks to well.

- Mix your puffy paint and have Toddler paint the entire paper (and themselves if they are like my Hailey!)

- Once it is mostly dry (I don't let it dry all the way... but I don't want it to wet either) I peel the tape off very carefully. 

- Then hang and enjoy the beautiful snowflakes your child has created! 

Flashback! Halloween Spiders

Making up for some lost time... I thought I would post some crafts that we made for holidays past. 

Spiders!

Materials:
- Styrofoam bowls (1 per spider)
- Paint (We use Crayola washable paint) or Finger paint (We also use Crayola finger paints)
- Paint brush/sponge/fingers... 
- Pom Poms (eyes.. on some we used 2, others 8...)
- Pipe Cleaners (legs... we used 8)
- String to hang it

Hailey painted the bowls with the color of her choice. We made several spiders so she had some blue, some purple, some mixed. Then, when the paint was dry, she glued on the Pom Pom eyes. She does not understand the concept of a spider having more than 2 eyes, so when we told her they were going to be the eyes, she naturally put on 2. On the one that Danny made with her, he showed her to glue on about 8. Then we stuck pipe cleaners through the bowl (this is why styrofoam is the best) for legs. Then I poked a small hole and put a string through it to hang it from the ceiling! We had creepy crawly spiders hanging above her play room! 

Happy New Year 2013

This year we decided to take Hailey out to celebrate the New Year! We didn't want to go someone where big kids would rule and Hailey wouldn't have fun and we knew we couldn't stay out late so we went to a place we knew Hailey would have fun and where we going be on our way home for bedtime

Sesame Place seemed like the best choice. Honestly, we wanted to do Adventure Aquarium's New Years Eve Splash, but tickets were sold out when I went to buy them. We went to Sesame Place for their Very Furry Christmas and it was buy one day get a second day free. December 31st was the last day to use them, so we decided to brave the cold and head out there! BEST IDEA EVER! 

Hailey had a blast! She met some of her favorite characters and had a great day out just having fun. The first time we went, we tried to go on the rides and waited forever in line. This time, we focused on getting pictures with the characters. At 6:00 we watched the parade down Sesame Street and then the fireworks went off! 

We are definitely very family-oriented in everything we do. It isn't very often that we do something without Hailey. Well, we did go to a movie on Sunday, which was nice! We went to see the Hobbit, so it was a loooong movie too! She had a Mimi play date though, and it was something she was looking forward to as well! 

I think this is starting a tradition of doing something every year on NYE together as a family. Sometimes I feel a little adult-time deprived, but Hailey will only be this age once and I want to make sure we make the most of every day with her, especially a holiday or special occasion! 

Guess Who Is Back?!?!?

Well, student teaching is over and the craziness of the holidays have calmed down! I think I am ready to take a crack at this blogging thing again! I am playing the role of stay at home mom while substitute teaching, so I won't be posting everyday... but we are still doing as many awesome activities as we can, so I will keep it updated as much as possible! 

Hailey's birthday is coming up soon, January 17th, and she will be 2 years old! Officially a toddler! The older she gets, the more fun she is becoming! We are engaging in more pretend play with dolls and her kitchen set. She is also still into dress up! 

She still does gymnastics once a week (every Wednesday with her Mimi!) and I recently joined a mommy and me group in my area and next week we are going on our first meet up! I am pretty excited for Hailey to make some friends her age and for me to meet some moms with toddlers. My hope it to start my own play group in the near future, but I think I will wait till the weather warms up for more outdoor activities! 

Well, this is my welcome back blog and I will be catching up with some more things we did and keep doing new things and keeping you informed! I am glad to be back -- Share with your friends that I am back in the world of blogging! Keep me posted on things you are doing with your kiddos (successes and failures) too!

Love, 

Nicci & Hailey