Songs and chants

Little Guy loves when we sing with him. One of his favorite songs is "The Wheels on the Bus." He will even start to do the hand motions when he wants is to sing it!
He has learned the hand motions to many of the verses, and so he will show us what verse to sing next.  He'll rub his eyes to sing "The babies on the bus," he'll go "Shhhhh" with a finger on his lips and say mama for "The mamas on the bus," and he'll wave both hands to do "The wipers on the bus."  It is very cute!

The wheels on the bus go round and round!

"The Itsy Bitsy Spider" is the first song that I saw him do hand motions to on his own.  As an infant, I would help him make the motions.

Do you see the spider?

Another favorite of his is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." He learned the hand motions to this song at school. It is also the song we sing when we brush his teeth.

This is "How I wonder what you are."

Old MacDonald is our go to song in the car. If Little Guy is upset, that is what we start to sing. It is amazing how many verses you can make in that song!

A chant that we do is "Ten Little Fingers." He really likes to put his fingers behind his back at the end, although he is now catching onto the difference between shaking them fast and shaking them slow!

What songs and chants do you do with your toddler?

Block Table

My goal with our water table has been to switch up the items that are in it, in order to give Little Guy a variety of experiences and sensory play time.  Although it was purchased as a water table, once autumn hit, the table was moved inside and turned into a corn table.  Next, I put his Duplo legos in it, as a way to keep them ready for play and contained.

Our next play table had wooden blocks.  We have 3 sets of small wooden building blocks.  I combined all 3 sets and they filled the table quite nicely.

Our block table.

The table was sitting next to our fireplace.  This gave Little Guy a nice place to build.  He could use either the fireplace hearth or the area in the center of the table.

Stacking his blocks.

Look at that cheesy grin!

We left this play table up for about a month.  There are many things that can be done with the blocks, and I love that open-ended play for him.  It was also very easy to clean up on a daily basis.

What is in your play table?

Shredded Paper Sensory Table

So we needed something new to put in our water table.  The wooden blocks had been in there for about a month, and had lost their appeal.  Since it was a Saturday morning, I could be a little more adventurous with what went in the table.  So I decided to try out shredded paper.

Here is our table with the shredded paper.  Doesn't monkey look cute with it?

Little Guy first started sticking his monkey into the paper.  He saw that the paper would stick to the monkey, so he would pull all the paper off, then stick him back in.

Hmmm, this paper doesn't belong on monkey.  I better pick it off.

At first, Little Guy did not like the paper that fell on the floor.  He would pick up all the pieces on the floor.  He soon got over that!

Picking up the paper.

To make the paper a little more fun, I started hiding his Little People zoo animals in the paper for him to find.  He enjoyed this for a few minutes.

Ahh! A flamingo!

What's over here?

Overall, the paper in the table was fun.  It ended up only staying in there for 1 to 2 hours before Little Guy was done with it (and I was done with the mess).  However, it was a great (free) way to change up the table.  It was fun while it lasted.  Now onto the next sensory table idea...

Tote bag

I have recently began sewing again (meaning, the sewing machine has been living on the dining room table again!).  I made an apron for Little Guy, then I made some burp cloths for a friend who just had a baby, so I was on to a new project.

My latest sewing project was a tote bag for me.  I saw this pin on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago, and just loved the bag, so I had to make one for myself.  The pattern for the bag is from The Long Thread.  I was pleased with how the bag came together!

Cute fabric!

Lined interior.

What is your latest sewing project?

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year, Little Guy is celebrating Valentine's Day at school.  So we needed to make Valentines for him to give out!  We started with him stamping hearts onto white paper.  We used toilet paper rolls shaped into hearts and dipped into red paint.  (I got the idea from this website, Rust and Sunshine, from a pin on Pinterest.)

Mommy and Little Guy stamping hearts!

Here is a finished paper!

Then I cut the papers up into smaller squares, displaying some cute hearts, wrote  "Valentine, you make me loopy" on them, and added the loopy straw.  Cute, right!

Little Guy's Valentines!

I also had to make Valentines for my students at school.  I don't like to give them candy, so I usually do a writing theme.  This year I got each student two little notepads, a pencil, eraser, and pencil sharpener. 

I stamped some hearts, too!

Aren't these great gifts from a teacher?

While we were painting, I also painted the bottoms of Little Guy's feet.  I stamped them to make a "V."  I then cut out the footprints to make cards for Little Guy's grandparents.

Happy "Love" Day!

Last night we did a theme bath.  We had a red bath!  I had only red toys and I put red food coloring into the water.  (I had to leave the blue mat in so Little Guy didn't slide around.)

Red, red, red.

Look at my fun bath!

I'm not sure how much Little Guy gets into the themed baths yet, but we will continue them!

This morning I got up and made Valentine's Day pancakes!  Yup, they're pink and heart shaped!

Mmmm, pink pancakes!

What are you doing to celebrate Valentine's Day?

Apron!

Well, by now you know that I love to cook and bake with Little Guy. So I decided I needed to make an apron for him. I bought the pattern and fabric a while ago, but I finally sat down and made it this week.

Here is Little Guy's apron.

I bought this cute fabric specifically got the apron. I thought Little Guy would like the bears and cars.
Any way, here is the apron! It has a little pocket at the top, and then a long pocket with 3 sections. It is a little big right now (even after I modified the pattern), but it should fit Little Guy for a while! 

Look at my new apron!

Does your little one wear an apron when you cook together?

Things I love about having a Toddler

Things I love about having a toddler: 

He goes ahhhhhh when he runs (running is fun, didn't you know:-)

Laundry baskets are fun, especially for climbing in and out, not to mention pulling all the clean laundry out is a fun game... mommy just keeps putting it back in!

Snuggles with mommy and daddy are nice!

The way he runs to the chair when I ask him if he wants to cook with me.

I've got the chair! Here I come!

He pretends the remote is a phone, holds it up to his ear and says hi, then hands it to me and wants me to talk into it, too.

Hello?

He thinks "The Wheels on The Bus" is the greatest song.

Finding things in random places.

Duplo man needed a chair.

He always looks cute dancing.

The way he imitates things that we do.

I can vacuum, too!

Wet, sloppy kisses!

His cute,  round little belly!

What are some fun things about your toddler?

Baby sign language

When Little Guy was much littler, we started to do some signs for him. I don't know how many hundreds of times I signed "milk" while feeding him! It wasn't until he was about a year old before he started signing back to us.

He now has several signs in his repertoire. "Milk" still seems to be his favorite, followed closely by "more" ("more" is his go-to sign. If he wants something, he'll start signing "more").

More

He also does "water" and "eat."

Eat.

Another frequent sign is "all done."   We really watch for this one when he is eating, because very shortly after he signs it, he pushes his plate to the floor!  He picked up "washing hands" and will do this one anytime we go upstairs (he really does like to wash his hands, although I think its more that he is fascinated by the running eater).

We are working on manners with "please" and "Thank you."

Please!

His newest signs are "help" and "change."

Change

 I love how we can communicate is some small ways with him!