The Last Days of Summer

Zhana greets her cousin Deryk.  She hasn’t seen him in several months.

The sweetest love is that of a grandmother.

Zhana with her Uncle Luke and cousin playing with a remote control car down a road.

Playing badmitton with a cousin.

Wee-one her baby cousin has fun crawling in the grass.

And of course her favorite…swimming!

A Day in the Eyes of a Child

My little one has really started enjoying taking pictures.  I think it is interesting to see what she has chosen to photograph.  Thus, here is a day in the eyes and mind of a three year old…

 

Stepping Stones Toddlers Can Make

I suppose my blog is in synchronicity with the season, in that our learning activities have really decreased since we choose to spend most of our time unscheduled and with outside play.  I’ve went back to work part time and my daughter is going to preschool two days a week during that time.  We are still doing a lot but it tends to be unscheduled and without a camera.  Winter is so very long, so I want to take full advantage of being outside.  So many Summer activities do not seem to welcome the addition of a camera.  Take yesterday, we went swimming at the river, but I worried about the camera getting wet so it was left at home.  However, I actually do have a project to post today! This project was supposed to have been completed for Father’s Day but I was really sick around that time so it was put off for a while.  

At one point I had the directions on my computer, but they seem to have disappeared so I’m going to post this by memory.  The only things you need are some QuickCrete, a bucket, a shovel to stir the concrete, stones to embellish, and some plastic plant saucers. 

1. Going by the directions on the Quickcrete bag, add a little water until the consistency is like brownie batter.  Here is where I made a huge mistake.  Mixing the concrete was a little more difficult than I’d thought it would be, so I added way too much water.  This made it difficult to add the fingerprints. 
2. Once the batter is ready, pour it into the plant saucers.  Let it sit for about 30 minutes before adding stones or handprints.
3. Have your little one set their hands down to make fingerprints.  Immediately wash their hands.  This is also the time to have your little one add marbles, rocks, shells, or however else they want to decorate the stones. 
4. We still have plenty of Quickcrete to make more stones.  Next time, we won’t add so much water and hopefully we can write on the stones.
5. Let them sit for about 2 days.
6. I didn’t coat my saucers with Pam but I’ve heard that if you do that you can reuse the saucers.  I simply tore mine off.

Great project for your little ones to decorate that costs under $10!

Zhana’s 3rd Birthday

Well…my baby is no longer my baby. Until she turned 3, I did still think of her as a baby. Now, she’s a little girl! I can’t believe it has been 3 years.  Here’s a montage of her day…

Dear Zhana,

Tonight I think about the night you were born.  For 9 months, you were a part of me and I knew you before you were born.  I can’t explain it but I knew your personality.  Throughout my pregnancy, I listened to Enya’s Wild Child. Somehow, I knew you were going to be a little firecracker.  I must remember to honor your firecracker spirit and to not get frustrated with you.  I honor these qualities about you because I believe they will lend to you a strong will, persistence, and leadership qualities. 

So, what are you like as a 3 year old? You want to do everything your self and I do mean everything.  If I open a door, you close it so that you can open it yourself.  Your favorite food is still meat products, as it has always been. It is a good thing you weren’t born into a vegetarian family! You also adore your chocolate milk.  Your favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Mommy tried to limit tv to educational shows but one morning you caught it and immediately fell in love.  You also love anything faerie and princess.  In fact, it is because of faerie panties that you were finally potty trained! We started potty training before you were even 2, but you weren’t all that interested.  You fully understood the concept but would actually say that you didn’t want to stop playing, so you’d just use your pull-up.  I bought you some faerie panties and you loved them so much, you stopped wearing a pull up. You love to make people laugh and are a clown most of the time.  You are in a stage right now, where you are Bolt (a dog) about 95% of the time. In fact, you are play barking even as a write this.  You still sleep with us every night.  Your father and I like you there with us, knowing you are safe and being able to cuddle with you.  People tell us we need to move you out or you’ll never leave, but none of us are ready for that.  In some ways, I treat you like you are older than you are and in other ways I very much baby you.  You love to be outside swinging or playing in your sandbox.  You very much enjoy our school time together.  You tell me that I’m your best friend. I hope you always feel that way, my daughter.  Happy Birthday Zhanabear. 

What is Bothering Carl?

Have you guys heard about Story Fort? If you haven’t, you’ve got to go check them out! Story Fort is a website with interactive books for kids.  I have the book, “What is Bothering Carl?” and love it!

What is Bothering Carl? is the tale of a young cyclops named Carl whose laid back attitude is disrupted by a single nuisance. Readers will discover Carl’s dilemma and follow along as he tries to solve his problem in this colorful interactive adventure. I think the characters are so cute! You can easily adore this digital book and can’t imagine any child not enjoying this story. 

  If you click on the objects in the book they come to life with sounds, animations, and more.  The book comes with a fun memory game too.  My favorite part are the songs.  I actually enjoy the music. Click below for an example of a song. 

So to summarize…

The book includes:

• 19 illustrated scenes that come to life with the simple click of a mouse

• Full (optional)
  audio narration by the author

• Highlighted phrases to help your child read along

• Illustrated keywords to build vocabulary

• Two original songs with animated music videos

• Bonus memory game with 3 difficulty levels

Right now, because of the situation of the economy, they have the books on sale for $9.99. 

The owner of this company used to be a leading designer for Melissa and Doug and we all know how great that company is!

So go on over to StoryFort today by clicking here. You can download the book and have it immediately. 

The Good Times Are Back

Things are busy, busy, busy here. I realize I haven't given you all an update about how things are going. I want to thank all of you for your prayers. Lately, I've really started to understand the power of prayers and can finally accept the advise of my mother that "everything happens for a reason". Aren't we all blessed to have a God who hears our prayers? As most of you know, my husband had been laid off from his job. We went through a few very hard weeks but you know what I'm proud of how we handled that time. It was a pure illustration of how our marriage has grown and matured. During that time we didn't fight, blame, or draw away from one another like I believe we probably would have during the early years of our relationship. What we did instead was hold each other, talk, and become closer than we ever had. God became a more prominent part of our household and our lives. Anyway, for those of you that read this and are currently suffering, just remember that eventually you will be able to pull yourself out of the bottom of the dark hole and into the light. The world is always balancing itself and sometimes to really appreciate happiness and the good things...you have to also go through the bad. Readers, I'll be back shortly.

Nature Center: Part 2

Now for the real fun-the actual trails! Grab a glass of sweet tea and enjoy the woods with myself, Zhana, and Teddy.  We had a blast today and hope you will to.  We hadn’t even planned on doing anything today. I had an appointment cancelled and we made an impromptu visit to the nature center. Don’t you find that the unplanned trips are usually the most fun?

Zhana absolutely loved observing all of the squirrels in nature. Because of her Central Park game she has a real affection for these little guys.   Here is one little Mr. Bushytail we watched for quite a while.  

We watched this dragonfly as well…

Like most kids, she is particularly drawn to moss. 

We walked, walked, and walked some more.

This was a great opportunity to discuss the difference between light and dark.

We didn’t build any fairy houses today but we still imagined places they would probably like to live.  We decided that they would adore living beneath this tree.  Zhana also liked this tree and decided she was going to climb it.  As you can tell by her face, she wasn’t too happy when she discovered it might be a bit too difficult for her to climb. 

Do you see her? Are you looking closely? There is a deer in the picture but it might take you a while to find her. It was Zhana who discovered her to my shock and delight. I was messing with something when Zhana ever so calmly said, “Look mama at the deer.”  Sure enough, she was probably about 8 feet away from us.  Before I could take a clear picture she had already went back into the woods, but she spent a long time watching us. 

We came across more deer during our walk but unfortunately my camera battery went dead.  I did have my cell phone with me to take some pics but the quality isn’t very good. The deer were very close to us at one point and didn’t seem to mind us at all.  We also saw 3 turkeys.

Do you see the 3 turkeys?

     

Ah…definitely her mother’s daughter.  We both can’t resist getting off the trail a little bit.

Here comes the boardwalk.  The boardwalk takes you through a prairie like area, marsh, and finally to a little creek.  I like the exposure to the different environments all within a few minutes of each other.

Zhana loved, loved, loved looking at flowers. I would not be surprised if she grew up to be a florist as much joy as she gets from flowers, lol.  I was also happy to see the daisies as they are one of my favorite flowers. 

The Nature Center has several fun bridges to cross that ignites the imagination in children…

Yes, Zhana and teddy had quite the adventure today!

Here are a few more pictures of the beauty we were able to experience today…

 

 

 

A few more pics thrown in for grandma.

Thanks for enjoying our day with us. We hope you’ll come back for another visit soon. For now…it’s the end of the road for us-