Alphabet Mat

Last week I found the idea here through a link on Pinterest. And I knew I must create it! Logan is smart little guy and while he knows his ABC's (the song) he doesn't recognize his letters. Since Logan was just starting to crawl he was always doing his physical development much much quicker than verbal/emotional/etc.

I thought this would be perfect for him as it would allow him to run around and be active and make the correlation that A looks like A and B looks like B, etc etc. He walks back and forth with it using his golf club as a pointer and goes through his ABC song while pointing out the letters! WORKS PERFECT!!!!! I'm so happy because he is so happy. I've already seen a big jump in his letter recognition moving beyond the ones in his name.

The supplies included a $5 flat twin size sheet from Walmart and $4 in ribbon and pilfering my quilting friend's fabric scrap box. All the directions are at the link above. I'm quite proud of my little $10 project that is teaching Logan - plus it was only my 4th major sewing project and I only sewed it to itself 3 times. THAT is progress! :)

Abby's Giggles

On Sunday, January 15th at 3 months and 12 days, we heard some of Abby's first giggles!! :) I was making strange sounds in her face while changing her diaper and BAM - GIGGLE GIGGLE! They were the sweetest little sounds. She has done it a couple time since.

Nathan deleted the video from his phone. *tear* Made me very sad to learn that. He had sent it to me via Blackberry Messanger, but you can't save videos that way - only view them. So we now do not have the video of her first laughs. Momma was NOT pleased with that - not in the least. Hoping that we can get it on video again soon.

Abby has also started holding her bottle some during feedings. She has been trying but kept pulling it out of her mouth and getting mad about it! ha! Sweet girl is starting to put two and two together on this so that is good!

Bath Tub Paints!

I have been feeling very motivated lady to be a super mom - a mom that goes out of her way to bring fun activities and "experiments" into the house. The other day we did the baking soda/vinegar volcano and another night was Milk Art!

I found a blog via Pinterest yesterday and from there found this idea and created my own pin yesterday on Pinterest. It seemed simple enough and add in the fact that I already had all the supplies I needed at home and it was a no brainer. (Plus I finally found a use for those stupidly small Tupperware containers that came with my set - because really - what good are they?!) Logan was so excited for the "surprise" I put together for him.

The recipe is pretty simple:

• 1 cup white/clear baby bubble bath/bath wash


• 4 T corn starch


• Food coloring

After mixing the soap and corn starch I separated the mix into separate containers and then added a couple drops of food coloring. I wouldn't add too much for fear for staining our new and pretty white tub.

Logan loved them!!

They didn't really "paint" the tub so much as it put some color on the tub and that was enough to make a three year old happy!


After painting the tub Logan thought it would be a grand idea to paint himself!! :) Since it was body wash it pulled double duty to get him clean as well. ha!

After we were done I put the lids back on and BAM! - ready for the next bath time! Easy Peasy!

The rest of Christmas in ONE!

Alright - FINALLY - Christmas - all of Christmas... Eve... Day... January 7th (Wolfe family Christmas.)

The quick run down - Christmas Eve day we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house for brunch and time with some out of town cousins. Three of my cousins hadn't met Abby so it was a real treat to spend time with them. Christmas Eve after nap time we stopped by to visit Nathan's grandparents who hadn't met Abby yet. It was a nice visit. Then we went to church with Nathan's family. We arrived home just in time to sprinkle reindeer food and head to bed. We actually forgot to put out any food for Santa, but that's okay. Logan cared more about the reindeer food anyway! ha!

Christmas morning we woke up a little before 8 and Logan was thrilled to head downstairs to open presents. Abby slept until around 8:30 and the joined in on the fun. Logan loved his Dinosaur Train toys and also his new camera! It is great! Holds 1000 photos (he is up to 775 or so - I need to dump them on to my computer with the USB cord) and is very rough and tumble Logan safe! It was a very fun morning! After an early nap we headed over to the same aunt and uncle's house for Christmas dinner and then out to my parent's house with my brother's family for Hunt family Christmas. I always love watching my children and my brother's children play. They always have a blast! We spent the night and it was a wonderful time!

On the 7th of January we got together with Nathan's family for some Grandkid pictures and then to the community pool. My in-laws rented it out and we had a wonderful time. Then after nap time for the boys we opened presents and had a nice dinner. Abby was a bit of a mess so we left early, but we had a lovely time spending a belated holiday with everyone!

So there is a very quick rundown of our Christmas happenings... and now... que PHOTO DUMP! ENJOY!!

Do you believe Abby and cousin Calvin are only 15 days apart?!? ha!

Ahhhhhh.... finally caught up. Check that off my list of things to do.

Reindeer Food

We had a fun activity planned early in December for Logan and a couple friends. REINDEER FOOD! I know, right? Not just Santa getting food this year! I first saw this idea on my mom crush blog Enjoying the Small Things. Her party was a much bigger deal, but hey - you have to start somewhere! I bought these little bags from the $1 bin at Target, printed up a little poem that I found with quick google search and placed a bunch of bowls with yummy reindeer food for the kids to spoon into their 4 oz mason jars.

If you want a copy of this reindeer printout leave a comment with your email address.

Our ingredients included:

• Oats


• Red, Green and Silver Glitter


• Cinnamon


• Cocoa


• Crushed Potato Chips


• Bread Crumbs


• Raisins


• Flying Powder (flour)
  

We also decorated cookies - really the kids each did a couple and then promptly ate them. My friend Kari and I quickly did the rest.

It was a great time! Logan was thrilled to sprinkle his reindeer food on the driveway on Christmas Eve and was eager to look out the window Christmas morning to see that it was all gone!! Will for sure be an annual tradition!

Milk Art with Logan

I found this idea on Pinterest and was instantly motivated to do this with Logan. Friday night I busted out the supplies:

• cookie sheet


• some milk that was about to expire (or any milk)


• some liquid food coloring


• toothpicks


• black towel (in case we spilled at least we wouldn't see the stain.)

Poor the milk in the cookie sheet, put a generous amount of the different food coloring colors, hand your child a toothpick and let the swirling begin! :)

Logan thought it was awesome! And so did I for that matter! It really didn't end up being a mess, but note to self - DO NOT do projects like this in the middle of our living room with light brown carpet - kind of dumb. Thankfully there were no messes with this little experiment.

Isn't it pretty?!?

I tried laying a piece of paper on top to capture some of the color, but it didn't really work. It transferred color, but not the swirl patterns if that makes sense....

Highly recommend for a quick and fun activity for kids!

First Quarter Down...

As always... time goes too quickly. Abby is growing so fast. Just this morning I got a phone call from my mom and heard some of Abby's first giggles. Nathan and I were thinking she was close to laughing, but she let it loose while doing a little "Hail to the Victors" with Grandma. (side note: Hail to the Victors is the fight song for the University of Michigan who won the Sugar Bowl last night.) :)

We are happy to say that her eyes are finally better. Both of her eyes had blocked tear ducts and it was awful. Poor girl would wake up with her eyes totally gooped shut. We would have to clean her eyes at least a dozen times every day. It was miserable. Poor thing. SO THANKFUL that she has grown out of this. She is so much more bright eyed and happy.

Here is Abby's progression the past three months... enjoy!