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 

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Blog Break!

Well my bloggy buddies, I have been super busy with student teaching in kindergarten, so I am going put this blog on hold. My readership has not been as I hoped and I am trying to use all my free time to keep doing fun activities with my little girl and spend all the time I can with her. I will try to keep out fb page update though, so keep checking that www.facebook.com/justtoddlingalong for pictures and updates! This is not the end of my blog, just a break so I can concentrate on school and Hailey!!!

Thanks!

Update

Busy with my first week of student teaching, I will work on posts this week! We have potato prints, roasting marshmallows, first parade, and silly string! :)

Tot Spot: New Activity # 36 - Painting Houses

Hailey kind of came up with this activity on her own and I helped facilitate it and open it up for more exploration. I walked out back where Hailey and her daddy were playing and Hailey had a paintbrush in her hand. Well, I had a cup of water in my hand, which I intended to drink. Rather, I poured it in a plastic play cup and we proceeded to "paint" Hailey's chalkboard. I showed her how to dip the brush in the cup and paint the board. She did this for a little and really seemed to be enjoying herself. Then she had the brilliant idea to paint her playhouse! She walked over to the patio where he playhouse sits and started painting the outside like she was a housepainter! We never had our house painted, and I don't recall her seeing any neighbors paint their house, so this imaginative play floored me! I was so proud of her imagination!  It was just water, so no damage, but LOTS of fun! After we painted the house, we painted our motorcycle and we painted mommy too! She painted my hair and face and we laughed together the whole time! My little chicky is really the light of my life and she had so much fun with something so simple! What an awesome, impromptu, Hailey-driven activity! 

Flea Market Finds!

Well, I haven't been very bloggy this week because Monday is the start of the new school year and I am student teaching (my last step in getting my certification!) plus Monday is my grandmother's 80th birthday and we are having a surprise party for her on Saturday so it has been helping my coop teachers get their classrooms ready plus getting myself reading along with trying to help my mom with the party on top of all the other things a wife and momma needs to do! It has been kind of hectic!

Although we did not do any new activities, rather we stuck to some of the old favorites like painting, going for walks, and just having some fun...we did find some awesome things at the flea market! My mom got Hailey an easel, something I had on our list of things to buy for $5! It's a red Step Two and folds nicely. Then, we all went up to the flea market and found a Little Tikes Boat for $8 that rocks and Hailey can drive! She wore my dads old navy hat and had a blast on my moms patio all afternoon! It was funny because she would only go in the boat if she had on the hat, she is funny like that! We left it at my moms and were going to bring it home this weekend but we found another on craigslist for $5 and so she will have one here and one at her Mimi and Poppy's house too!

We were originally looking for a cozy coupe car, because she loves the grocery store cart and she has a mini-version for her dolls to go shopping in at home. Our only hesitation is that she won't be able to push it around and move. Maybe in a few more months... But this boat lets her steer, shift, and rock, so it is perfect!

I am very excited to do some easel painting this week! I hope to make it out to our local craft store for some no spill paint cups for the easel. I am just debating if I want to set it up out front or out back!


Anyhoo, I am going to do my best to keep blogging at least a couple times a week, but it won't be every day anymore. With student teaching, I am going to have a lot of work to do. I am going to keep doing my activities with Hailey and will try to post a couple at a time a couple times a week! I am definitely not going to be slacking on being a fun momma, but blogging might have to wait! I hope your enjoying everything I do with Hailey and I hope you are inspired to try new things with your toddlers too! Become a follower, join on facebook and twitter, and share my blog with your friends! The more followers and readers I have, the more the will blog!

Tot Spot: New activity # 35 - Mini Golf

Mini Golfing!!!

Tonight we went on a family date to the local putt putt course! Hailey got to play mini golf for the first time! She had her own special little club and a pink ball and she went around 19 holes with her daddy and I. It was a lot of fun and definitely an experience. She started out really fascinated with the balls. We would hit one and she would squeal with delight and chase it and throw it in the hole or just down the green. Her daddy tried to show her how to hit the ball with the club, but there was more fun to be had that that! The golf course we went to is actually 29 holes, but we only did the half because her attention span was not that long... which we expected. We were lucky that we didn't have to wait behind anyone or hold anyone up. She had fun exploring the course, she loves the hills and the cave. I think we will try it again in a a couple months and she how she does! The best part of the whole experience though was when she was eating dinner in the cafe and I said, "We are going to play putt putt golf" and she replied, "tap tap tap". I think she was watching Happy Gilmore, one of my favorite movies!!! She was going to "Tap it in..." LOL!!! Definitely a fun night and a great way to spend time with my family before all the hectic school stuff really kicks in!

Tot Spot: New activity # 34 - Nature Painting

Nature Painting

Getting ready

Painting

On our last nature walk, we collected different kinds of rocks from the stream. We also had some flowers at home and leaves so we decided to paint them! Hailey donned her new apron her Mimi bought her and we got to work with our new paint brushes! This is the first time we painted outside, well kind of, we painted her salt dough handprints outside. Anyhoo, I used a trash bag to cover my patio coffee table and some tape to secure it. Then I put 3 different color paints (red, yellow, and blue) in cupcake liners and gave Hailey two different kinds of paintbrushes. We use two because sometimes her daddy and I help paint with her. The cupcake liners weren't so successful. She just wanted to crumble them up. I think I am going to pick up the no-spill paint containers at ACMoore for her along with some tempera paints because we are almost out. Last time we used a paper plate as her palate, but she wanted to just paint the plate, lol.

Using flowers as brushes

Finished product! 

Well, to cut to the chase, she enjoyed painting the rocks and she used the flowers as paintbrushes on the rocks and on the bag I had down. We put the rocks in our garden, even though the paint is going to wash off in the rain. I figured we could just repaint them one day if we are looking for something to do. All these activities are a learning experience and I am learning new things to do and new things I need to buy! Toddlers are expensive, lol!

Tot Spot: New activity # 33 - Walking the stream & Skipping stones

Walking the trail

Skipping Stones

 Danny, Hailey, I decided to venture down to a stream where Danny grew up and I spent a couple picnics at durning our childhoods. Danny's family owned a bungelo and before we even knew each other, our families would get together for picnics and such in the summer. My parents were friends with his uncle, so without even knowing it, we were linked together as children! Anyhoo, we took Hailey to the river and stream down there and we went for a nature walk... nothing new there... BUT we walked the stream, gathered some rocks for painting (hopefully tomorrow) and Danny taught Hailey (and me) how to skip stones! AWESOME! Danny is like the stone skipping master! Anyways, Hailey had so much fun looking through the rocks and picking some out to collect and some to throw in the river. She was a little mud ball when we were done, but it was well worth it! She is in the bathtub now, Daddy is washing her up while I blog, so I better finish this up so I can join in the fun! We like to splash and play water games at bath time! I highly recommend you take advantage of the cool nights and muddy places with your little ones! These are the moments to savor!

Hailey skipping stones! 

Picking out our favorites rocks!

Tot Spot: New activity #32 - Washing windows

 This is the way we wash the windows, wash the windows, wash the windows. This is the way we wash the windows, till we get them clean!

Its funny how the other day I blogged about giving toddlers some chores to do and today had her help me wash some windows. Well, I didn't really have to ask... she was up all for volunteering! We have a big glass "screen" door and my dog was looking out the window and she got some of her nose art on it, so I wanted to clean it up. Hailey happily took some paper towels and cleaned the bottom while I cleaned the top on both inside and outside! Then she wanted to help with the windows, so even they got cleaned! What a BIG helper!! I am so proud of my little girl for wanting to help out. I really hope this stays with her as she gets older, I certainly wasn't like that when I was young. Most days I just hope to win the lottery so I can hire a maid! I am lucky though, I have a husband who splits the chores with me! He treats me too good! Anyhoo, this is about Hailey, my helper bean! I think tomorrow we will clean the back door, which is also glass (we would have done it today, but I had an appt I had to go to) and then maybe we will make a mess! I am thinking potato painting! Well, enough with that, good night all you awesome mommas out there! Daddy's too! :)

Can I clean more, momma??

Tot Spot: New activity # 31 - Baseball Game!

Arriving at the stadium

Hanging out with Quacks, one of the mascots

Learning about Maris, one of our favorite players of all time

Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the park.... Hailey, her daddy, and I all hit the local ballpark for some good ole family fun! Our local team had fireworks last night and we had some tickets for a home game, so we decided to venture out to the ball park! We had a blast! Hailey had some chicken fingers and french fries (we shared a platter, since she ate her dinner at home before we went) and her favorite part of that was the "dippy fries" which is what we call something that can be dipped in ketchup or in this case, honey mustard! She kept the same fry for a long time, just redipping it, lol. It kinda grossed me out because I am a double dipping no-no person, but she is just a little girl, the love of my life, so I dealt with it! Anyhoo... she did really good considering the game took FOOOOOREVER!!! Our home team was losing, but they made a brilliant come back. Normally, it is the kind of game that baseball fanatic Danny and I would love to watch BUT with a toddler, it was kind of hard! We sat in the same seats for awhile, probably till about the 5th inning then we walked around the stadium, got a snow cone, and relaxed in the food court area before going back and finishing off the game (which when we came back, we had better seats!) Before Danny and I had Hailey, we always talked about how great it would be to take our kid to sports (especially baseball games) so this activity was something we have been waiting to do for a very long time! To us, this is what summer is about! A good game, a beer, and a hotdog (although this time it was water andchicken fingers!!!) Hoping to make one more game this summer before the season ends, then its hockey time at our local arena! I don't know if Hailey will be able to sit through that, but heres hoping!

Getting a lift from daddy while walking to the car

Giving Rollins a high five! 

Toddler Tornado! The Great Chore Debate

I get a lot of weekly/monthly development emails for Hailey. When I was preggers, I signed up for everything. I wanted to me the most informed mom and learn everything I could, because hey, I never did this before. I didn't want to rely on friends and relatives opinions. I wanted to raise my child my own way and take some tips from the "experts". Well, the tip I have been getting a lot lately is what I call the Great Chore Debate. At what age should we start having our children clean up and do things? Some experts say now, they should learn responsibility as soon as possible while other experts, mostly moms I have noticed, seem to say "What, are you crazy? My little tornado clean up? Wishful thinking!"

Well here is my take on it. Ever since Hailey could walk, she learned to throw her own diapers away after we changed them. It's called "doing her job".  She learned that after she was done eating, to hand us her plate and cup and wait to be wiped. I have recently started asking her to help clean up her toys as well. It works really well in the bath tub. She puts all her bath toys in her basket and we have finally learned to pour the water out in the tub before putting them the basket and getting the floor wet.

As far as her room or play room, I guess there are just too many distractions. We keep working on it though. We sing the clean up song and put things away but it is kind of hard because I want certain things in certain places. If we have her box of blocks out, we can clean just them up, but when we have EVERYTHING out, it becomes more of a mommy job. Sometimes she sees me cleaning up and she comes over and just randomly dumps out a box of toys like her little people and walks away. I don't know what the experts would say about that, but I just deal with it and continue to clean up. We address the action, but she doesn't get reprimanded. I just tell her that wasn't nice and now mommy has to clean that up. She usually comes over and starts playing to act like she had a purpose, but I know she didn't. She is just being my little toddler tornado!

I saw this great quote a long time ago and I never understood it until I had a child of my own. "Cleaning up after your children is like trying to shovel while it's still snowing" We will keep working on her helping out and we will eventually get a chore chart so she can contribute, but for now, she is just a toddler tornado having fun and if you come over to my house, watch you don't trip over toys!