Monday, November 2, 2009

THE BIG EXCITING NEWS!

The reason for my recent blogging absence is that I have constant nausea due to this little darling...


(The big circle is the forehead and the body is facing directly to the front so one arm on the one side one on the other and same with the legs).

I'm 8 weeks and 2 days pregnant! We are very excited and Andy is starting to warm to the idea because at first he insisted that it's him in my tummy cause he's going to grow smaller like a baby and go back into my tummy. We answer all his questions and started involving him in everything from the start. He went with us to the first scan and is already saying he will help me bath the baby and change stinky poo nappies. He officially asked for a brother so we'll just have to wait and see :)

All my energy is going on staying on top of the housework and keeping Andy busy so any blogging will have to be done as energy levels and nausea allows.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Muffin Tin Monday

Muffin Tin Monday at Her Cup Overfloweth

There is no theme for this week's MTM so Andy and I made...


Freshly squeezed orange juice, potato cakes with butter, hard boiled egg and cherry tomatoes.

To see what others have done visit Her Cup Overfloweth.

Tot School - Week 7

Andy is 37 months old

Tot School


I'm a bit late with my Tot School post this week. Andy and I slept over at my parents house this weekend and we had a wonderful time visiting. I did daily blog posts for Tot School most days last week so I'll link to them and mention the highlights so if you read something you're interested in just click on the link to that days blog post.

Monday
- Homemade Montessori Sandpaper Numerals
- Nature Drawstring Bag

Tuesday
- Caterpillar Numbers Project
- Baking Peanut Butter Biscuits and 100's and 1000's biscuits

Wednesday
- At the Park: Picnic and Expedition
- Open Ended Art

Thursday
- Mommy's Little Helper
- stART
- Foam Finger Puppets

To see what others have done for Tot School this week visit 1+1+1=1

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tot School: Thursday

So much for Spring being here (snort)! We woke up to the sound of rain outside and the wind was howling all day. And as for this evening, well, as I sit here I can hear it pouring with rain outside. So much for Spring (snort)!

Anyway we made the most of the weather again and kept busy with lots of housework today. Andy was a great little helper and I was really proud of him. He played a lot with his Tot Trays and other toys when not helping me with housework...


After he played with each thing he packed them all neatly away without me saying a word. I praised him each time though to show him that he's neatness and obedience is not going unnoticed.

He asked to go to the park so with it being so cold and the wind howling outside we bundled up real warm and blew all the way to the park, played with clattering teeth, and blew all the way back.

We read The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle today and Andy made a ladybird out of paper and a cd for his stART project...


And last but not least we made some foam finger puppets from a kit I bought for him...


Andy had fun helping me cook supper this afternoon. He chopped the zucchini's real nice, did his regular supper prep chore - chopping garlic, and ate half a bowl of grated parmesan :)

We went to the library and got some great books so I'm off to take over from Daddy now and do another hour of bedtime reading. Better get a cuppa :)

stART: The Bad-Tempered Ladybird

For stART this week Andy and I read The Bad-Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle. This gorgeous book was part of Andy's birthday present from his Gran.



"The bad-tempered ladybird picks fights with every animal it meets, but soon learns the importance of friends. In this humorous story, Eric Carle explores the concepts of size and time through brightly coloured pictures."

The animals he meets each have their own flap similar to The Very Hungry Caterpillar book also by Eric Carle. Each flap has a clock at the top with the time which he meets the animal which is great for older kids.


So I printed out the templates for this ladybird craft and Andy coloured it in with red and black...


He also glued some eyes onto the face and I covered a cd with red construction paper for the base of the ladybird...


Then Andy glued on the wings, face and black dots...


The finished project...


To see what others have done for stART visit A Mommy's Adventures.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Tot School: Wednesday

Andy started the day off by playing with his water Tot Tray outside and helping Mommy with housework. For his mid-morning snack we made his favourite fruit and yogurt face after all ready eating an apple and 2 oranges (to say he loves fruit is an understatement)...


And then we set off on a long outdoor 'expedition' to the park. We had some juice and toasted cheese sandwiches for a picnic lunch and finished the meal with some of our 100's and 1000's biscuits we baked yesterday...

Andy enjoyed playing on the miniature but fun jungle gym... :)


And off he went with his Nature Bag to go collect some 'Treasures'...


He 'fished' in 'The Bubbley Stream' (as he calls it) and proudly brought his 'fish' to Mommy...


And he had stacks of fun with his new magnifying glass which he got in the post from my friend Jerushia and her girls. He found spiders and bugs and ants but unfortunately no matter how much I explained he still thought it was great fun to examine each and then give it a great big squash with the side of the magnifying glass... boys will be boys...


When we got home he put all his 'treasures' onto a tot tray and examined them. He found little flowers (without petals) and the inside looked like white eggs and he was so excited about this phenomenal find...


We also did our Open Ended Art project for this week and the theme was black and orange...


I'm so glad that Spring is finally here.

Open Ended Art - Black and Orange

For this week's Open Ended Art Andy mixed red and yellow powder paints to make orange and painted on black card...


When his painting was dry he stuck some orange themed stickers onto his masterpiece...


The finished project...


Visit Mommies Wise Little Bookworms to see what others did for Open Ended Art.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tot School: Tuesday

Today was a typical beautiful Spring day and due to the weekend and yesterday being so wet I had 5 big loads of washing to do so Andy painted while I sorted out and started...


Andy did a numbers craft this morning by coloring in a caterpillar printout...


And them we went through each number discussing it and feeling each by using our Sandpaper Numerals...


and then Andy pasted it onto a large sheet of black construction paper...


He then pasted some random foam numbers around his caterpillar...


The finished project...


He asked to spoon his beans (one of his favourite tray activities) so he took it out of the Tot Tray Supplies draw and proceeded...


He spent most of the morning outside and Tian his little 2 year old friend popped round for a visit so they had fun outside too.

This afternoon we decided we wanted to bake some cookies and Andy did a great job helping...

Mixing 100's and 1000's biscuit dough...


Mixing Peanut Butter Biscuit dough...


And the end products...


So after an afternoon of baking, many loads of washing and playing outside in fresh air and sunshine, Andy wanted a soft house before bath time so we made one in his bookshelf corner...


And he 'read' books and used his Rooster Torch...


Bath Time! And the end to a lovely day. :)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Tot School: Monday

Today was a very cold, dark and rainy day - not at all the Spring weather we're supposed to be having. So Andy and I made the best of it and kept busy indoors.

I made Andy a set of Montessori Sandpaper Numerals. I asked my Dad last week to cut pieces of hardboard for me with his machine and we went to go fetch it this weekend. I printed out some numbers, onto scrap paper, and had to alter the numbers 4, 6 and 9 slightly to make it like the Montessori Sandpaper Numerals that you buy.

Printed numbers (I used the upside down 6 as the 9), hardboard (cut to 11cm x 9cm), sandpaper...


To trace the numbers I drew the outline of the reversed number with a pencil onto the back of the sandpaper...


I cut out all the numbers and placed them onto their bases to be glued...


I glued them with clear drying glue suitable for wood and put them under a heavy book to be pressed. When they were dry we put them onto our tray to enjoy...


Andy absolutely loves this. We focused on the numbers 0 - 5 today and we traced each one a few times while saying what number it is...


Then I set them out and asked Andy to e.g. "find number four" he then pointed out the number tracing it and repeating the number while tracing...


He asked me if he could paint so he spent some time creating whales and sharks...


Tea time I gave Andy 2 oatmeal biscuits to have with his Rooibos tea and left the packet on the counter so next thing I knew he had served himself the remainder of the packet...


Of coarse I gave him a few and packed the rest away so when I looked again he was 'recklessly' looking for them...


I spent most of the afternoon sewing on Andy's pajamas and his cousins 7th birthday present and I also made this drawstring bag for Andy to collect things from nature in it when we go on walks...


Some close ups of the embroidery I did...




Because it was a very rainy day and we couldn't go for a walk Andy asked if he could put his beans in it...


Admiring Mommy's handiwork... :)