A new truck!

Well, a new truck for Little Guy! His big Christmas gift from Grandma and Granddaddy A was a Cozy Truck. It was a very generous gift that we were excited for Little Guy to have.  However, we did not get it in time for him to have on Christmas morning. We got it on the Friday after Christmas, and it was fun to see Little Guy with it! In fact, I think he may have enjoyed it more because he could focus on the one toy, and not the plethora that he received on Christmas. 

Little Guy checking out his new truck!

  We have already taken several walks around the neighborhood with it. Unfortunately, the high temperatures here have been in the low 30's, so we haven't spent a lot of time outside. However, come spring and summer, I know we will get a lot of use out of the truck. 

Cruising the neighborhood!

Mama and Little Guy out for a walk!

 Did your little one get any fun new toys?

Family pajama pants

Leading up to Christmas, I was working on several projects. I made Little Guy pajamas and ornaments for my nieces and nephews. The last (and most important, in my opinion), was matching pajama pants for the whole family!

Merry Christmas!

Ever since Daddy and I have been married, I have tried to find matching pajama pants for us for Christmas. I have been able to find similar patterns, but never matching. So, this year I decided to make them myself!

Big, medium, and little pajama pants!

I bought a bolt of fabric the day after Thanksgiving so I would have plenty of time and fabric. I made Daddy's first, since they were the biggest. Next came mine, and finally I made Little Guy's. I made my own pattern for Daddy's and my pants, using this tutorial from Sew for Home.  Daddy's and my pants had both elastic and a drawstring in the waist, and Little Guy's just had elastic. I used the same pattern for Little Guy's as I did for his coat pajamas. 

Here are my pajama pants.

Next year, I'll just have to make Little Guy a new pair, as Daddy and I should (hopefully) be the same size.

I think they came out pretty good! Did you start any new traditions for your family this year?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. We enjoyed a relaxing day at home. Grandma and Granddaddy A came to visit us for Christmas, so our house was cozy and full.

Merry Christmas from our family!

Little Guy woke up to find that Santa had left him a slide! He had fun going down the slide numerous time before checking out his stocking. For me, the joy this year was in watching Little Guy's joy and excitement. He had many gifts to open over the course of the morning. He received several Little People sets, wooden blocks, a puzzle, and clothes (of course). He spent the day playing with all these different things.

I received a new set of pots and pans! I was very glad to have received that gift! So, in order to put away my new pans, I emptied the cupboard of my old pans and set them on the floor. Little Guy came in, saw the pans, and started asking for "pata," his newest word which is pasta. I put some dried pasta in a few of the pans and he went to town! He played with those pans and pasta for a long time! I guess I'll be keeping a couple of the old ones for him to play with!

Love the "pata!"

I hope your day was also filled with the joy and wonder of Christmas!

Felt Ornaments

This holiday season I have tried to do several projects.  Fist, I made Little Guy pajamas.  Next on my list was felt ornaments.  I saw this on Pinterest, linked from Red Ted Art.  I thought these were really cute, so I decided to give them a try.

I made Christmas trees, bells, and stars.  This was my first attempt at a blanket stitch, too.  My goal for these was to use them as gift tags.  I have 7 nieces and nephews, so it was a manageable number to make.  Once they were done, I used some silver glitter puff paint to write their name on their ornament, then attached it to their Christmas present.  I hope they like the ornaments!

Sugar cookies

When I was growing up, making sugar cookies was part of our holiday traditions. My mom would make the dough, we would help cut out lots of shapes with all our fancy cookie cutters, then the decorating would begin. We would have sprinkles, icing, and candy and would make lovely cookies.  I look back on this as an importation part of the holidays and a way to stay connected with my family.

This is a tradition I definitely want to keep up with my family.  So I made some dough, and Little Guy and I set to work.  This year, Little Guy and I only made cookies, no decorating.  Next year I hope to give frosting a try!

I am a good dough-roller!

This is so fun!

I can use the cookie cutters, too!

Santa!

We recently went to see Santa! This was Little Guy's first time to see Santa, as we did not take him last year.
A local greenhouse was holding a holiday open house, complete with Santa, so that's where we went. It was based on a recommendation from a friend, who had been several years in a row.  It was a beautiful setting, with lots and lots of poinsettias. 

Mommy, Daddy, and Little Guy in a sea of poinsettias!

Little Guy did really well with Santa. When we went up, I sat on Santa's lap with Little Guy so he could see it was okay. After a moment, I got up and left Little Guy. While he never really smiled, he also did not cry. 

Have you gone to see Santa yet?

Mama Made: Coat pajamas!

I finished my first pair of pajamas for Little Guy! I think they turned out nicely! Little Guy helped me pick out the fabric (aren't the penguins cute!) and I picked out the pattern. We used flannel so they would feel cozy. The only problem is that they are too big! I used the toddler size 1 pattern, but these are definitely too big. Ah well, I guess we will put them aside for next year! 

Pajamas!

Don't I look cute!

Felt Christmas Tree

I love Christmas! It is one of my favorite times of year. I am excited to spend Christmas with Little Guy this year. He will turn 18 months on Christmas, so I hope that he can start to enjoy all the fun and festivities this year. To help him get ready, we put up a felt Christmas tree! I got the idea from Pinterest (I love Pinterest!), pinned from this blog, Sol and Rachel do a blog.


I bought felt by the yard to make the tree. Daddy drew the outline of the tree, and I cut it out. Then I cut out packages, ornaments, and lights from the felt. I decorated some with sparkly pom poms. When Little Guy woke up from his nap, he came down to see the tree.  He really seemed to enjoy it!

Little Guy and Mommy getting the ornaments.

The felt did not stick as well as I thought it would, but I'm hoping as he plays with it the fabric will loosen up and will stick better. I should note that this does not bother him at all. He will pat whatever he is putting up a few times, then move onto the next thing. It is very cute!

The presents go down low.

 

This ornament goes up high.

Look at the beautiful tree!

 What are you doing to get your little one ready for the holiday season?

Whole wheat pancakes with sweet potato puree

So I have written previously about how I like to pack Little Guy's food with goodness. I have made Veggie Muffins several times (last time I made a double batch so they would last longer) and Broccoli Bites (I put chicken in some of these to add a little extra protein. I am also going to try making a small batch with cauliflower instead).

I wanted to make pancakes that were really nutritious too. Pancakes are super easy for us in the morning for Little Guy, since we are trying to get out of the house to get to school.  I can make a batch of these over the weekend, then freeze them and thaw enough for breakfast that morning.

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Sweet Potato Puree

 This recipe makes about 36 silver dollar sized pancakes.

 1 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbs brown sugar

 2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup sweet potato puree

1 cup milk

 2 Tbs oil

1. Combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Make a well in the center, set aside. Combine the sweet potato puree, milk, and oil. Add sweet potato mixture to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Add additional milk to thin out batter, making it pancake consistancy, if necessary.

2. Pour desired amount of batter onto hot greased skillet. To make silver dollar sized pancakes, pour about 1/8 cup batter per pancake. Turn over when batter bubbles on top. Cook 1-2 minutes on second side.

Here is the pancake batter.

Look at those yummy pancakes!

Mmmmm, mommy! These are good!

Fall activities

Yesterday we did two fun fall activities. First, we made a fall snack mix. Then we raked and played with leaves.

We made snack mix for Little Guy's teachers at school. I thought it would be a fun treat for them right before Thanksgiving and it was something that Little Guy could easily help with. I got the idea from this website, found on Pinterest.  In our snack mix we included:

• Corn Chex
• Cheese crackers
• Crunch'N'Munch
• Pretzels
• Reece's Pieces
• Candy corn
• Chocolate chips

I would pour an item into a measuring cup, then Little Guy would dump it into the big bowl. After we added all the ingredients, we mixed it all up with our hands. Little Guy really liked helping to scoop the mix into jars! We made enough mix to even give daddy his own jar!

I love scooping! Franklin the Turtle is helping me!

Don't these jars look pretty!

Later in the afternoon, we went into the front yard.  We only have 2 smallish trees in the yard, but they sure put out a bunch of leaves!  So mommy started to rake, and Little Guy roamed the yard.  He played with his little pumpkin from Halloween for a little while, and even helped mommy with the leaves a few times.  He would get big handfuls and try to put them in the bags.

Here are some leaves, Mommy! Where is the bag?

This is a lot of leaves!

Help me out of the leaves!

It was much harder to rake while keeping a 17 month old entertained!  What fall activities are you up to?

Mama made!

I just had to share with you Little Guy's new pants!  I made them out of cute monster printed fleece.  This is the first time I have used a pattern, and the first clothing I have made for Little Guy (excluding a diaper).

Little Guy's new pants!

What a cute model

Going to the Zoo

I love to go to the zoo with Little Guy. Lately, it has been even more fun. Little Guy now is able to look for and spot the animals, at times getting excited when he sees them. He likes to walk around, not always ride in the stroller.
Now that it is fall and a little cooler, there are much fewer people there. Our most recent visit to the zoo was on Halloween. I think we saw between 10 and 15 other people there.
Anyway, the two tigers were very active, pacing around their enclosure and occasionally playing with each other. Little Guy was just tall enough to see over the window ledge. He watched them walk around, pointing occasionally. We must have stood there for 10 minutes watching them.

Little Guy likes to sit on the baby tiger seat.

Then we walked to the small animal kingdom. In this area of the zoo, there are things for kids to climb on and play in. Little Guy loves to check these things out now! There is a life size komodo dragon. 

Hmmm...I wonder what this is?

Of course, we must visit it before moving on!

I have conquered the dragon!

There is a tortoise shell that you can climb in.  Little Guy wanted to see what was inside, but never crawled all the way in.

What's in here?

One of the last things are some huge shells.  Glad I didn't have a baby big enough to fit in it!

My new seat!

We love going to the zoo!  What are your favorite parts of the zoo?

Corn box

At the beginning of October, Little Guy, Daddy, Grandma and Granddaddy A, and I went to a farm and pumpkin patch.  (Read about our visit here.)  One of the things that we did on that trip was play in the corn box.  Little Guy (okay, all of us) had a great time playing in the corn box.

Since that was so fun, I wanted to create a sensory tub for Little Guy using that same type of corn.  Well, this week I finally did it!

Little Guy's very own corn box!

For the container, I ended up using Little Guy's water table.  Since it is too cool outside to put water in it, it had just been sitting on our patio.  I cleaned it off, took off the blue tower in the middle, and Viola!  the perfect container for Little Guy's very own corn box.  We visited a feed store to get the corn, purchasing whole kernel feed corn.  We bought a 50 pound bag, and used probably about half of it.

Little Guy enjoyed scooping the corn.

 

Measuring cups are great for helping him to scoop with success.

 Little Guy was quite excited to see the corn box!  I added simple materials from the kitchen for him to use in the corn box.  I added plastic spoons, measuring cups, and washed cream cheese and sour cream containers.

I was a little worried about the corn box being open and available to him all the time, but I actually think this is one of the best parts!  Little Guy will go over, play in it for a little while, then go away and play with something else, and then come back to the corn box.  He seems to be enjoying the flexibility of playing in it when he wants.

I did cut a cardboard circle to act as a cover.  Little Guy also enjoyed taking it off and on!

I can put the cover on!

What ideas do you have for sensory boxes?

Halloween!

I know this is a couple of days late, but I still wanted to share pictures from our Halloween.  Last year, Little Guy was only 4 months old, so we only Trick-or-Treated at a couple of friends houses.  He was a bumble bee!

Our little bumble bee!

Our first Halloween as a 3-person family!

This year, Daddy really wanted Little Guy to be an Ewok, from Star Wars.  I think Daddy decided this last year, and was looking forward to dressing Little Guy like this all year long.  So here is our little Ewok!
 

Our cute Little Ewok!

Daddy and Little Guy!

We bought a bear costume for him, then I made the hood, satchel, and walking stick to complete his Ewok ensemble!  I think it came out pretty good!

Giggles

Earlier this week, Little Guy and I took an afternoon to play at the park.  Where we live, the leaves have mostly all changed colors and are starting to fall.  Although Little Guy was around last year at this time, he was only four months old and didn't get to experience the fall leaves.  So I wanted to make sure we had some time to play in the leaves.

We went to a new (to us) park, one that has a swimming pool open in the summer, and still has big trees and a play structure open all year. Our first stop within the park was to play in the leaves.  I would throw the leaves up, and Little Guy just giggled and loved to see the leaves falling down.  We kicked the leaves, and tried to run through them.  We had fun.

I love being outside!

Look at all those leaves!

Wait, did I tell you about the weather   I think the high that afternoon was in the mid forties.  It was pretty cold!  We were bundled up.  Little Guy had on a puffy coat, a hat, and those cute little toddler mittens with no thumbs.  I just had on my coat; I forgot my hat and gloves at home.
Anyway, after the leaves we went to the play structure.  Little Guy really enjoys the slide and swing. We stopped at the swing first.  He looked so happy to be on the swing.  This is the sound that melts my heart...giggles!

 He loved going down the slide, and has figured out how to scootch his bottom so he will start to slide down.

At the top of the slide!

Down I go!

After a few times on the slide, we had to leave.  It was starting to rain fairly hard, and since I had forgotten my hat, I was getting very wet.  But we had a great afternoon at the park!