October Activity Roundup for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Last month was amazing and so much fun. We had such beautiful weather and there was so much to see and do with the three little ones. I don't think I've enjoyed my favorite season this much in years.!

We really soaked up the changing leaves and the weather cooling down (although we also enjoyed the 70* weather in the first week of November). Having a big kid here to do all my favorite activities with has added so much to the fun. Between Halloween, pumpkins and leaves we were super busy playing, learning and creating.

Here are some of our favorite things to do in October!

Nature Walks and Collecting Treasures

Nature walks are awesome in any season but the fall in Upstate NY makes it extra special.  We are lucky to live near a park and in a neighborhood that are filled with tons of different trees. I love taking pictures of the colors and talking with the kids about the how and why of the change. This is prime nature collection time too with the branches, leaves, acorns and pine cones falling all over the place.  There's so much to see and do that you don't even need a ball or a playground to have fun outside in the fall.

 

Nature Collection Exploration Box

After we have a decent stockpile of nature items I put them into bins or boxes to explore. We had a look at tons of acorns, pine cones, leaves, sticks, rocks and pumpkins through out the season.

Preschooler: We talk about colors, shapes, sizes and textures. I added tongs and buckets for some transferring practice. Later we added beans and rice for a more sensory-ish bin as well as some foam letters and shapes for R to find and match.

Toddler: We explored the real stuff a few times then I swapped it for some fake leaves and added random objects for them to find including small pumpkins, letter blocks and animals.

 

Leaf Creations

Not only were the colors incredible this year but we had an overabundance of leaves - I think I collected well over 500 over the month!  Aside from using them in our sensory bins and just playing with them we had fun creating with them too:

Rubbings and Prints: 

We made leaf rubbings with crayons and leaf prints by painting the bumpy side of the leaf and pressing it on to paper.


Leaf Changing Book: 

We started this one the first week of Fall back in September. I found a great book that explains why the leaves change and wanted to document the change as best as we could. We started collecting them while they were still green from the backyard and the park. Each week we would try to find leaves of the same shape and size and note if they had changed yet. We displayed them to watch the progression and at the end of week 4 I wrapped them in contact paper and stapled them together to finish our book.

 

Dye Coffee Filters with Fall Colors

Preschool: We used fall colors to dye coffee filters. We started using just red and yellow and watching them mix into orange, then added orange to brighten it up a bit. We experimented with mixing colors and I gave R a dropper to try too. I traced leaves onto a few and cut them out to make a falling leaf decoration.

Toddler: I didn't get pictures of it for some reason but I froze the dyed water into ice cube trays and had the girls slide them around in bins on paper. They were more interested in touching and tasting them but they made some cool designs too! We also took some of the coffee filters and balled them up to toss around. They liked pulling them back apart too.

 

Fall Scented Play Dough

We used The Imagination Tree's awesome play dough recipe because it is easy to make and the play dough is super soft and lasts forever! We added some pumpkin spice and green or orange food coloring. We will use it all season in different ways.

Preschool: I added some of our nature collection items and other odds and ends to explore. We made monsters and cut out leaf prints with dull plastic knives. Closer to Halloween I printed monster play dough mats and added lots of odds and ends to make monsters.

Toddler: The girls wanted little to do with the play dough and were more interested in the leaves and plastic bags. I did get them to roll it a little in their hands before they started eating it!

Painting With Fall Colors

Preschool: We talk about how and why the leaves are changing colors as the season changes and what colors we start to see as the world turns from green to orange, yellow, red and brown. We used a ball of foil for a cool fall tree effect and did a lot of free paint with these colors throughout the month.

Toddler: I gave them a small amount of red, orange, yellow and white paint in a few cups and some brushes with paper. It took them all of 2 seconds to move on to painting the mirror. I let them have at it and it added a whole new fun dimension to their play.

Cutting and Pasting Jack o'Lanterns

Preschooler: We used our coffee filters from before and some orange paper to practice cutting. R (who is a rock star at using scissors) free cut and followed lines I drew while I cut out some shapes with black paper. We talked about the shapes while he glued them on to the coffee filters to make Jack o'Lanterns and whatever else he could come up with!

Toddler: I gathered up the scraps from R's cutting and the extra jack o'lantern shapes and put them in a box for the girls to sift through. I gave them white paper that I had painted glue onto and showed them how to stick the scraps on and they made their own fall color creations. They loved sticking and unsticking them. 

Measuring and Weighing Pumpkins

Preschooler: We've been singing the song Five Little Pumpkins all season so I tied that into this activity. I bought pumpkins here and there over the season and ended up with a bunch of different sizes. I traced them in order by size on a few pieces of paper and taped it to the floor near the pile of pumpkins for R to find.  He came right over and started trying to figure out how to match them up. We sang the song and talked about size and cardinal and ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd). We got out my bathroom and kitchen scales and a tape measure and talked about height and weight before it turned into rolling the pumpkins all around the room!

Toddler: The girls ripped our paper as soon as they woke up so R organized the pumpkins by size for them and we sang Five Little Pumpkins. Then they all started stacking them and R showed them how to roll them around.

Ghostly Footprints

As much as I love open ended art I also love creating seasonal keepsakes, especially using hand and footprints. This is one of my favorites. Just paint the kids' feet white and press it on to black paper. When it dries glue on some googly eyes and draw on a spooky mouth. So cute!

Painting Pumpkins

 

Preschooler: I wasn't going to attempt to carve a jack o'lantern with three kids running around so I looked up No-Carve pumpkin ideas and we decided to paint them. R and I looked at some pictures online to get ideas and created some beautiful works of art with tempera paint, paintbrushes and glitter. I clearly had fun with the glitter (the middle one is my sparkly rest time creation)!

Toddler: The girls loved this activity. For them I used washable paint in just a couple colors so it wouldn't turn into a brown mess. I used tape to put their letters on them to make a tape resist initial after the paint dried. Most of their paint came from them picking the pumpkins up then rolling them in it or mushing it all over with their hands. 

Making Masks

I love making masks for Halloween. Usually we look at some spooky stuff in books to get an idea of what they want. I offer half a paper plate and whatever color paint they want while I cut out the details. R wanted to be a monster so I cut hair and bolts and hunted down a good piece of string or shoe lace to tie the mask together. I poked a hole on each side and added shoelaces that tied in the back for the perfect fit. I meant to but never got around to making masks for the girls :( Next year!

Ghost Pancakes and other Halloweeny Food:

 

One of my favorite parts of Halloween is themed food. I thought of the pancakes that morning and instead of our usual blueberry pancakes I just put the pancake batter in a squeeze bottle and added blueberries or chocolate chips for eyes and a mouth.

The best part is that it's all about what you call the food so it's easy to turn an ordinary lunch into a spooky one. For lunch we had snake's eyeballs or boogers as R came up with (peas), brains on bread (english muffin pizza) and witch's toenails (quartered grapes)!

 

Going On a Witch Hunt

 

One of my favorite Halloween activities that I do every year! To us adults it sounds a little strange but only because we know about the real witch hunts. To a 3 year old it just sounds like a seasonal version of Going on a Bear Hunt. You use the traditional pattern of Going on a Bear Hunt (whatever you use, I've learned several over the years) and just change it to spooky stuff. Since it's Halloween you have to act it out too - lots of running, jumping and ducking!

We had to climb a tree filled with spiders and their webs, run through a cave filled with bats and a tunnel filled with ghosts before we got to the witch's house. We spied her big black hat, crooked nose and fingers and green, glowing eyes before we turned around and ran home. Every kid I've ever known loves this. You can sub anything you want too - ghost, zombie, vampire, monster hunt, whatever!

It's even better since I've been a Witch every year for Halloween forever. Don't you love my hat?

Our Favorite Songs:

 

Five Little Pumpkins  (Link includes a cute little printable!)

Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate
The first one says "Oh my, it's getting late!"
The second one says, "There are witches in the air!"
The third one says, "But we don't care!"
The fourth one says, "Let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one says, "It's time for some fun!"
Then "Wooooooo" went the wind and OUT! went the light
And they all rolled away on Halloween night

Grey Squirrel

Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, shake your bushy tail
Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, shake your bushy tail
Wrinkle up your little nose, crack a nut between your toes
Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, shake your bushy tail!

I'm a Nut

I'm a little acorn round, lying on the cold cold ground
Everybody steps on me, that is why I'm cracked you see
I'm a nut *click click*
I'm a nut *click click*
I'm a nut *click click*
and you're craaazy.

Our Favorite Books: 

(affiliate links!)

The Hallo-weiner
Llama Llama Trick or Treat
The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree
Cheerio's Halloween Book

We had so much fun this month and I'm happy to start a new series of full of our favorite monthly play, create and learn ideas!

Xo,
Maigen

What We Did Last Week (Week of 8/16/15)

It was a weird week. We started it with a get together with my family at the girls' Great Nana's house. We're cleaning it out getting ready for her to move and it was crazy and sad for me so I sent them home with CJ early but not before getting this great pic of them at her house.


We also said goodbye to a very dear friend of mine. His name was Kuhma and he was a 15 year old husky who was my bff when I worked at the daycare. We had a dinner in his honor at John and Heather's and said our goodbyes to him. I was glad the girls got to meet him last year when I went back for a week. Even though it's been a long time since I was able to see him every day I will still miss him terribly.

On a happier note we also had our first Dentist appointment! They have 10 and 12 teeth now (each have gotten 1 more since the appointment) and their teeth look great!

The one good thing about my Nana moving is that she passed on some really great things to us that I'm excited about. We got our hands on some small wooden bowls and a tray, a ton of old animal toys that I used to play with when I was a kid, scarves and handkerchiefs, Christmas decorations, nesting dolls (although they have Santa on them) some books, puzzles and games. Great Nana also gave the girls some special bunnies and teddy bears that I will make sure they cherish.

Nature and Outside Time

We enjoyed hanging out under the tree at Nana's, went for a few walks and ventured down to the nature trail behind the park to stay in the shade. It was so hot so we brought out the baby pool and tried to stay cool. They are still afraid of it so this week I tried getting in with them and they got right in. We did coloring outside with Auntie Liz and finally got the confidence to venture into the grass on our own. Mommy's in trouble now.

Sensory and Exploration

We tried a few more ideas from CanDo Kiddo including trying flashlight play and playing with cups on the coffee table some more. We did the carrot peel sensory bin again but this time I added apple peel too. This time they discovered it was much more fun to dump the bin and spread the peels all over the kitchen floor. I had to sweep anyway so I let them! We tried the beaded necklace bin again but added tissue paper, baskets and bells this time.

We colored more, this time with paper inside cake pans. They loved banging the crayons on the pan and the sound it made while they were making marks. 

I made them a sensory bottle with an old spice container, some puff balls, a beaded necklace and beads. They were fighting over it all week and I was annoyed I couldn't find any other containers to make another one with!

We also did some ball exploration. I gave them a muffin tin full of different balls and set out our discovery box, the wooden bowls and a basket. They sat for over an hour tossing, rolling, dropping and chasing the balls. Jules even organized a few of them back in the muffin tin!

Music, Movement and Games

I was feeling some type of way this week (a mixture of anxiety, insomnia, sadness over my Nana's house, Kuhma and my babies getting big, etc.) and I was craving country music to sing out my sorrows with. For the first time in a long time I had the radio on most of the time. I don't know if they like it or hate it but we listen to plenty of their music most of the time and mama needed a break from it!

Our cups on the coffee table game was a big hit for movement with all that cruising practice but one of the biggest things this week was they've finally figured out how to push their push walker! We only have one and now they're fighting over it all the time! Luckily they're smart little girls who know how to improvise - they are pushing anything that is not bolted down at this point. Boxes, their stools, lare bowls, books, etc.

 

Our favorite movement activity this week was also our favorite game. Climbing up and getting down! Up and down off the couch, the slide, the chairs, everything. We've been practicing getting safely off the couch and beds forever and just this week they've discovered the confidence to do it all the time. The good thing (for me) and bad thing (for them) is that they can't get back up yet. So they sit on the floor and cry for me to put them up so they can get down. I'm waiting for them to connect the dots and figure out they can do both with the slide - which they figured out how to climb this week too!

Favorite Books

They are obsessed with their One Love book this week. They will flip through the pages and stare at them forever.

Favorite Toys

This week was all about scarves, bottle caps, cups and bowls. They're getting so great at manipulating things and you can really see their sense of accomplishment when they figure something out - like how to flip over a bowl to dump them out, how to reach something they've dropped or how to play peek-a-boo with the scarf.

The push walker was a big hit too, as well as the slide for the climber and they also discovered they can look out the window so they spent a lot of time there this week.

New Foods

Real cheese ravioli (we tried the baby kind on vacation and they hated it) and that's about it. Again, I was in a weird mood and didn't feel like experimenting much.

We have our trial day with our new friend here at home on Wednesday and have made some plans for a fun family day on Monday since Daddy finally has a day off! Have a great week!


Xo,
Maigen

Our Favorite Activities for Easy Baby Play!

*Disclaimer* This post contains affiliate links.

As someone who has spent the bulk of my adult life playing with kids it's hard to admit that it was tough to come up with easy and fun ways to play with the babies, especially when they were brand new. I believe play should unfold naturally with appropriate choices and the ability to explore the world in which children are living. But how exactly do you do this with non-mobile babies or into-everything infants and toddlers?

One of my favorite resources since early on has been Rachel Coley over at CanDo Kiddo. As a pediatric Occupational Therapist, Coley knows first hand how important early experiences are for development. As she says on her blog, "What babies do, shapes how they grow." Even the youngest of babies can benefit from the right kinds of tactile, visual and auditory experiences. And the best part is that you don't have to do much to help your baby play every day! It's all about encouraging babies to use their bodies and senses to learn about the world around them.

Coley has written two wonderful books full of great ideas to get your baby moving, exploring and learning. Begin With A Blanket: Creative Play for Infants, is full of easy and fun ideas for even the tiniest of humans - starting at just 1 week old!  Plus, Coley walks you through each activity and explains how they work and the benefits for baby.

As the girls are getting older and more mobile Coley's book Simple Play: Easy Fun For Babies, has been such a great tool. I refer to it all the time, especially when I need something quick and easy to offer them to explore. It is full of opportunities for play babies from birth to 2 years and is even categorized by ability (sitting, standing, crawling, walking) so you can be sure what you're doing is developmentally appropriate. It also includes ways to facilitate and develop skills without forcing them. I promise after reading these books you will feel like an expert in child's play!

I have loved watching the girls grow and learn through simple, self directed play activities that are so easy to set-up at any time, often requiring nothing more than things I already have! Not to mention many of these ideas helped me stay sane in the last year! Here are some of our favorites!

Mirror Play

Who knew a $5 mirror from Wal-Mart would be one of the best purchases I ever made in terms of baby play! Everyone knows tummy time is great for the development of those little muscles and helping to prevent problems like plagiocephaly (flattening of the head). Using a mirror adds a whole new dimension (literally!) and keeps it more interesting. We had a mirror set up from day one and my girls loved to stare at themselves and the world around them. As they got older I watched them reach out for their reflections, notice each other and start to roll towards the mirror. And it's not just great for tummy time, we still use it every day!

Bonus Tummy Time tip for twin moms: put babies on pillows facing each other! So much fun!

Hanging Toys

 

We did a lot of tummy time but I always followed their lead and they spent plenty of time on their backs as well. I tried to encourage them to look around and reach for things from a young age by introducing a new object or two at a time for them to check out. One of the biggest hits was around 3 months when I hung a few jingle bells and beaded necklaces over or near their heads. They also liked looking at hanging mirrors, ribbon, streamers and glow-in-the-dark bracelets. Soon enough they were swatting, grasping and pulling.

Naked Tummy Time

When they were about 2 months old I saw an excerpt from an old baby book from the 1940s that someone posted on Facebook. The mom wrote that she "permitted baby to lay in the nude" every morning on her bed (presumably while she got ready?). We hadn't let them go naked yet (they peed every single time we took the diaper off - we were scared!) but we started a new routine that included naked tummy time in their cribs during diaper changes. I still always put a few prefold cloth diapers under them because they would still always pee! But they loved it! I sang to them and put a stuffed animal or toy for them to look at and reach for.

Tissue Paper Kicking and Tissue Paper Wiggle

 

I saw this on CanDo Kiddo's Facebook page and had to try it right away. Just tape some tissue paper under the couch cushion and lay baby in front of it. It was perfect because we had so much tissue paper in the house during Christmas and I knew there was some way to use it! They loved the sound and feeling of it on their feet. I would also ball it up and let them pull it apart, lay it down and put them on their tummies to look at and touch it and I now use it in their discovery boxes until they start to eat it.

Side to Side Rolling

We did this every day as part of our "exercises" (we also did gentle pulling up, limb stretches and tummy time). They loved it and I even got one of their first giggles when rolling them like this. I even sang a song I made up while we did it (to the tune of Frere Jacques):

"Roly poly, roly poly (slowly roll side to side)
{Jules} can roll, {Viv} can roll,
Rolling to the left (roll all the way to the left side)
Rolling to the right (roll all the way to the right side)
all the way over (gently roll on to belly)
all the way over (gently roll on to back)"
 

While play time gets crazier and more active as they're getting older, it doesn't have to be harder to set up or enjoy! Now I'm able to set up invitations to explore and play for them to revisit throughout the day. Here are some of our favorites:

Ball Play

We have a variety of balls - small plastic ones, bouncy ones, textured ones and soft ones too. One of our favorite exploration bins is just filling them up with a bunch of different ones and some nesting cups and rings and they go to town! Now that they're older we roll them down the slide, roll them to each other and they're really getting into tossing them all over the place! I leave a few out all day every day and have a big basket of them ready to go on a shelf in the playroom.

Water Play

I love love love water tables and have one waiting to be opened that we're not quite ready for. But just because they can't stand and play at one yet doesn't mean they have to miss out on the fun. We use our sensory bins or baby pool, fill them up halfway with sink water and head out to the backyard for some splash time! I give them cups, spoons, straws, different objects that will sink or float and whatever else I can find to throw in. They love it all!

Tunnel Play

So much fun and so easy to do. Now that they crawl through it I can just open it up and let have at it!  We have the Giga Hide and Seek Tunnel.  Simple Play has so many fantastic ideas to get you outside the box of just going through the tunnel too! We love using it as a ramp to drop things down and playing peek-a-boo with it!

Pillow Crawl

Can't get much easier than this - just take some pillows and toss them on the floor! The girls will not only crawl over them but sit on them and practice getting "down", pick them up and hold them, touch and lay on them and just last week they started stacking them on top of each other. I got even more creative and used my Snoogle pillow and nursing pillow to both climb over and crawl under like a bridge! We also love to combine pillow crawling with the tunnel and create an awesome obstacle course!

Anything Sensory

Coley talks about a few different sensory activities in her books. We call them exploration bins here and I love just filling a box with random items and letting them have at it. We are just starting out but we have loved using balls, fake flowers, letter blocks, bowls, glow in the dark stars, carrot peels and beaded necklaces. As they get older I can't wait to create real sensory bins with rice, beans, pasta, snow and more. I also created a discovery box with a hole in the top for them to reach in, touch and pull things out of. Super easy and super fun!

Loose Parts

One of the keys to good, engaging and yet simple baby play is having the right tools. This is where my love for loose parts and inability to throw anything away comes in! It's definitely paid off! The theory of loose parts is the idea that you use simple objects that can be moved, manipulated, carried and combined with no set way to play. Anything can be a loose part. Unlike a baby toy that has buttons to push or makes noise, loose parts allow the child to use their imagination, to create whatever experience they want.

I have a variety of baby friendly loose parts that get the most use in our house:

clean containers and their lids - yogurt and cottage cheese cups, wipes boxes, water bottles, egg cartons, puffs containers, cardboard boxes, plastic coffee containers, etc.
cups or bowls - especially if they're "nesting"
spoons - wooden, metal, measuring, etc.
large bottle caps and tops
family pictures in albums, on the walls, behind puzzle openings
large refrigerator magnets
blankets, towels, washcloths, bibs
baskets, buckets and small bins
scarves, hats, purses, handkerchiefs, gloves, etc.

I also have a huge stash of things they're not ready for yet including almost every paper towel roll we've used in the last year, cookie cutters, pipe cleaners, straws, yarn, small bells, stones, marbles, beads and more. The best part about this theory is that everything can be a toy! And it's so much fun too! I love browsing everywhere for new baby "toys"! The only issue I've run into is where to store them in between uses! More on my love for loose parts coming soon!

It's amazing how even the littlest of ones can learn so much about themselves and the world around them when you offer just a few easy to put together options for play and exploration. While we do have plenty of "baby toys" we do our best to create opportunities that are open-ended and child directed. Our mantra here is: Keep it simple and fun and watch the magic happen!

Make sure you check out CanDo Kiddo and pick up her books Begin With a Blanket and Simple Play on Amazon for more fantastic ideas. You can get both right now for just $35.95!


What are your favorite things to do with your little ones?

Xo,
Maigen

What We Did Last Week (Week of 8/2/15)

These little chicas are into everything these days! We have babyproofed a bit but mostly just created a huge baby safe space full of exploration baskets (in cabinets), drawers . With getting our dining room cleared out we opened it up and moved all their toys in there then converted their old play space into a reading/learning area. They love having the freedom to move and explore.

We had our 1 year developmental pediatrics appointment and I'm so happy to say the girls exceeded expectations in almost every area! I was so worried about Viv's lack of babbling but she showed off and started doing it after coloring on paper for the first time! Jules was a pro with the mini blocks - not only did she stack three of them but she then picked them up one in each hand and dropped them all back in the cup. They were delightful most of the time and even showed off their BLW skills by eating blueberries and peas while we waited for the doctor.

Nature and Outside Play

The construction down the road is wrapping up soon so we walked over and watched them bringing in a bunch of things on huge forklifts and saw a cement truck pouring the parking lot too. I don't like taking pictures down there, I think the guys would think it was weird but the girls just stare at it all. They're fascinated by the big trucks and machines!

We finally explored the grass more! They're crawling on it, but not too much yet, and they stick close to the blanket just in case! We also did more water play!

We celebrated Aunt Kate's 30th Birthday at Nova's and they loved playing outside and looking at all the people. They're getting to be so social and will sit with most people now and just enjoy taking it all in! 

Sensory and Exploration

Now that they're mobile we're exploring new places a ton. This week it was Doctor's office waiting and exam rooms. Who knew that paper they put on exam tables could keep two 1 year olds entertained during the 45 minute wait for the doctor!? We crinkled it like crazy, played peek-a-boo, then tore it up and turned it into balls to toss and catch. And they even played like big kids at the developmental office - climbing right up to the train table and giving one little boy a run for his money! What happened to my babies?!

I'm working on a post about one of my favorite bloggers, CanDo Kiddo, and all of her fantastic ideas. You can find them in her wonderful e-books Simple Play for Babies and Begin With a Blanket! (affiliate links) We got the chance to check them out and tried so many great new activities! This week we tried the carrot peel sensory activity, made a magnet board and tried out the cups on the coffee table activity. That one we even turned into a different game (see below).



The carrot peel sensory activity was a huge hit - Viv played with them for almost an hour, Jules moved on to books after about 20 minutes but kept coming back to check in. The magnet board was fun for a few minutes until they realized they could take them all off and chew on them instead of unsticking and resticking. We'll keep trying though! Next week I'm hoping to try out some baby friendly play dough and once our new puzzles arrive that we ordered with their birthday money I'll be adding photos to those for them to discover. Make sure you check out Rachel over at CanDo Kiddo and get your hands on her ebooks on Amazon!

Music, Movement and Games

We listened to Disney songs this week and they are dancing along to so many of my favorites! They love The Lion King music, especially "I Just Can't Wait to Be King"! It's hilarious to see them shaking and bouncing up and down while trying to do something like stand or catch a ball.

I also found a great Yoga playlist for when we're doing quieter or sensory activities. They focus more when there is less distracting sound.

We're working on standing independently still and although neither has mastered it they're getting quite confident and trying it more and more. Sometimes they catch themselves off guard when they're leaning on something and use two hands to grab an object. It's funny to see how their bodies shift and balance out and they're not even aware of it.

Their favorite game is chase and hide and seek with Daddy in the tent. Every night now when he comes home they both race to the tent and hide and giggle until he finds them. And back and forth they go forever! It is so cute!

After trying out the Cups on the Coffee Table activity I discovered I could hold their attention a little longer if I switched the cups from over/on the coffee table to under the coffee table. They will stand and kneel down to look below and work on balance while they reach them with one hand. Then they practice dropping down and crawling under to grab them and tossing them back onto the table for me to do it all again. We tried it with balls, rags and bottle tops too. It was a great game!

Favorite Toys

Balls - This week they were really into their plastic balls. Jules loves throwing them, Viv loves mouthing them and banging them together and she's trying so hard to toss them.  We roll them down the tunnel, into baskets and pop them up in the air!

Anything new to explore -  They are loving anything new and unusual. Sensory activities are working really well but anything novel catches their attention. The car seats before I got them back out to the car, a big box that got delivered (it made an awesome step for climbing while it was out here), the stroller, my water bottle pop top (which they now know how to open, awesome!), and as always the scrapbooks and picture books we have.

Favorite Books

I picked up some more dollar spot books at target last week and they're loving the pop up books although the stories themselves leave a bit to be desired - they're weird. They will open and close them over and over to see them pop out. They're getting better at looking at paper books and not trying to tear the pages out the whole time too!

New Foods 

I made a few new recipes this week and I'm working on a post to share them all. We tried homemade chicken fingers, baked eggplant, cottage cheese pancakes and turkey meatballs.
 

We hope you have a great week!

Xo,
Maigen

What We Did In July!

Well it's been quite some time since I've written one of our weekly recaps. What can I say, July was a very busy month with road trips, vacation, family get togethers, birthday party planning and their first birthday. That said we still made time for lots of fun and exploration!

Nature and Outside Time

We've been spending a lot of time just hanging out in the backyard in the morning before it gets too hot outside. With temps in the high 80s and high humidity none of us really enjoy it after a few minutes but I try to get out for at least a walk or bring a blanket to the park for a picnic and get under a nice shady tree at least once a day.  We blew bubbles, did water play, laid on the blanket and looked at the clouds, spotted quite a few butterflies and moths, watched a worm crawling on the ground and we're practicing touching (and not eating) the grass more - they hate the feeling of it and won't even try to crawl off the blanket. I'm not complaining, it sure makes my life easier, but I don't want them to be afraid of it forever!

Sensory and Exploration

Most of our sensory and exploration play these past few weeks has developed out of a need to redirect behavior. They have a huuuge yes space but they're still into everything and just figuring it all out. Most of my day is spent explaining, "I won't let you do this, you may do this instead..." For example: Playing in the cat's water dish >> outside water play. Climbing on mommy >> climbing on their little chairs. Pulling clean laundry out of the basket while mom folds >> pulling rags and towels out of their own basket. Smacking and banging on each other >> smacking and banging on the table, drums and the floor. Trying to crawl under the gate and over the cats >> obstacle course with pillows, tunnel and tent. Trying to eat grass >> having green beans for lunch.

They are spending a lot of time pulling things out and down, like a few weeks ago with the laundry basket. Nothing is safe anymore so our house is pretty much a kid's space with bins and bowls set up all over the place with things for them to pull out and dump. We've also emptied the coffee table drawers and filled them with cloth and teethers. I know people will think we're enabling them and I should just tell them to stop but I want them to feel like they are welcome to explore and with such a tiny space it's impossible to avoid. We're getting lots of practice with cleaning up too!

One of our favorite activities these past few weeks has been water play. It's been so hot and they're still leery of the pool so this works just fine. Although I think they drink more water than they play with, they are getting the hang of pouring and love splashing! They last about 45 minutes before they lose interest and dump the buckets all over themselves.

 We've discovered that our girl cat Willow is extremely patient and will let the girls pet her, pull her hair and lay on her with no issue. She's a petting fiend so we're happy to let them take over this duty of ours! We've spent a lot of time practicing gentle touches and modeling how to pet her without hurting her. The next obstacle is to help them differentiate between Willow and our bristly old boy cat Boots who is absolutely not as accommodating. We love him but he's a grumpus and I'm terrified he'll get them one of these days.

Music, Movement and Games

In honor of them nearly becoming toddlers we listened to Spotify's Ultimate Toddler Playlist a lot. I also played our birthday playlist which is full of my parenting love songs and a few of our other favorites.

We did a bunch of obstacle courses, dancing and practicing standing unassisted. This consists of me letting them pull up on me while they let go for a few seconds over and over and over.  Once we set them out it only took them about 2 days to master climbing in and out of their new rocking chairs so we do a lot of that these days too!

Jules is really into throwing things lately so she and Dad have been playing catch a lot with everything she can toss. Viv is into playing hide and seek and will wedge herself behind the gate, get into the tent and duck under the table and wait for you to find her then giggle like mad when you do.

They're starting to get the hang of "If You're Happy and You Know It" and now clap when I start to sing it!

Favorite Toys

Their Boppy Chairs - They will spend forever just climbing in and out of them, sitting and playing with the buckles, pushing them across the floor and flipping them over to beat on them. It's so funny when you peak over and they're just chillin' in them chatting to each other.

Blocks - They got a huge batch of wood blocks for their birthday and they love dumping out the bucket, banging on them, mouthing every single one and knocking over every tower we make!

Pictures - Maybe they caught on to my nostalgic mood this week with them turning one but lately they have just loved sitting and flipping through their photo album, our family scrap book and photo books and their baby books. They recognize many people now and Jules will flip to a picture of someone if I ask her to. I love that they love this!

Pillows - Every morning I toss our couch pillows on the floor and leave them there. They love going over and crawling over them, laying on them and rolling them up to roll off of. Simple play, it really is the best thing ever!

Favorite Books

We got lots of great new books for our birthday. One of our favorites is Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney, part of one of my all time faves, the Llama Llama series.  It's become our new favorite bedtime story!

We also love the Big Book of Happy by Natalie Marshall and the fantastic Baby Touch and Feel box set.

New Foods

We've tried a ton of new foods lately: kiwi, apricots, grapes, honeydew melon, zucchini, red and yellow peppers, quesadillas, ice cream cake, romaine lettuce, tomatoes and summer squash.

I am still in the process of writing our 12 Month/1 Year update. It's taking me a while because I've been busy wrangling my crazy 1 year olds, updating their baby books and working on our yearbook photo book. I still can't believe it's been a year!

Hopefully I'll get back into my weekly updates soon!

Xo,
Maigen

What We Did Last Week (Week of 7/13/15)

We were a bit busy this week what with recovering from our vacation and unpacking and then of course party planning on top of it. We spent all day Thursday out shopping and on Friday and Saturday we helped my aunt with her garage sale - I swear some people bought things just to ogle the identical twins. But we still fit some fun in of course!

Nature and Outside Time

We took a few walks, had a picnic outside Thursday night with cousin Jillian, Aunt Kate and Abbie.

Sensory and Exploration

I've been moving things around and trying to keep them from getting bored with the same old stuff. Our play area is a MESS after last week with me not really caring about keeping it organized with all the chaos of getting ready to go. I finally got around to organizing it this weekend but I kept them out of it a lot last week. I moved their magnet letters to the front door and to a floor lamp where they could bang them and make different sounds.


We tried rolling balls down tubes but didn't have any that fit well so we settled for the car tunnel we were gifted. It worked but they couldn't figure out what happened to the ball after we dropped it in as it had too many drops and turns and they lost interest. I'm trying to get my hands on a bigger tube for more success soon. Instead we ended up just rolling the balls in the tunnel and then watching Willow swat them under the couch!

Music, Movement and Games

We listened to some stories this week on Spotify including Animal Stories playlist and the Once Upon a Time list too.  I also played the playlist my sister and I made for our road trips that's full of Glee, Rent and acoustic covers and mash-ups. I'm determined to make them like showtunes I guess.

We did tunnel time this week again and it's taken on a whole new element with both of them having mastered crawling! They now crawl in and out over and over, bumping into and crawling over each other, play peek-a-boo on either end and love it when I make it shake or lift it up over their heads. This is by far the most fun age yet!

We have a new favorite game in the house! It is called "Remove Every Item from Everywhere and Leave a Huge Mess." It's one of my favorite games... said no mother ever. Yeah, it's a pain, but they have a blast so I just let them do it and then have them "help" me clean it up. So far we've mastered emptying every toy bin I have stashed around the house, the lower cabinets in the kitchen and the drawers in all our rooms, our book basket and, most fun of all, the clean laundry basket.

Favorite Toys

Anything they can pull out of a basket, drawer or cabinet
Plastic Balls - banging, rolling and dropping them
Light switches - We never really got to explore these when they were littler but now I can hold one at a door and not worry about the other one crying and they've mastered the flip!

Favorite Books

We are loving the new Touch and Feel Wild Animals and Touch and Feel Jungle Animals books we got from the animal park while on vacation!

Viv stole my pizza, figured it was time they try their own!

New Foods

Pizza crust, tomatoes, cottage cheese


We're looking forward to their party this weekend and I'm sure this week will be another busy one planning and preparing for that but hopefully we'll have some fun too!

Xo,
Maigen

What We Did Last Week (Week of 7/6/15)

I spent a lot of this week getting ready for our trip and luckily Daddy was home Wednesday to keep the girls occupied! We still had a great week though!

Nature and Outside Time

So a few weeks ago we had a little incident while we were trying to figure out our bathtime situation (we don't have a tub) and we discovered they hate the shower. I was surprised to see this carried fear on into pool time - they flipped out when they saw the pool even though they've been in it like 6 times!  Luckily by just letting them explore and touch the water they slowly decided on their own to get in and had a blast both times we did it! Great way to beat the heat too!
 

Sensory and Exploration

They had about 40 minutes straight of fun this week with my scarves! They played peek-a-boo about a thousand times, traded, laid on them, pulled them and balled them up and more. I hung them from the bed and had them pull them down little by little then hid them under the bed and had them pull them out.



 They had their first spaghetti this week! They've had tons of pasta but we usually don't have spaghetti (we're partial to gemelli and rotini here) so this was a treat and they had a blast playing with it and of course eating it too!

I put out a bin of their animal toys this week for them to explore and have fun with. They seemed to enjoy taking them all out and chewing on them!

Music, Movement and Games 

Jules is dancing all over the place so I'm trying to pay attention to what she prefers to move to and so far she is not a fan of country (super sad face) but loves Hanson and Frozen so major mom win there. She also seems to have a thing for the random adult contemporary station we play in our kitchen for the cats. Sometimes I leave it on when we're in there and she's always bopping along in her high chair to Fleetwood Mac or Sheryl Crow. We also listened to our Parenting Love Songs playlist a bunch.

Movement this week was all about cruising around the tables and chairs so I've started placing objects that slide easily but they can also grab like cups, lids and books. They weren't so into it this week and preferred to just cruise and crawl so we'll try again next week.

Chase is quickly becoming a popular game in the house as well as escape - from everywhere! They're climbing up on their stools and pushing over gates, figuring out how to open and close doors and I feel like soon enough they're going to be using each other to get out of the cribs!

Favorite Toys 

Their picture book - They LOVE this thing. It was so easy to put together and they get so much fun out of it, just flipping through and chewing on it of course.
Stacking cups - ever the winner in our house! They still play with these things all the time.
Cabinet doors - open, close, open, close, open, empty, close, open, close, open, close and so on.
Anything that makes a sound when they shake it - rattles, shakers, peek a boo blocks, stuffed animals, bags, box of crayons, cards and game pieces etc.

Favorite books 

It's been all Peek-a-Boo all the time lately (it's seriously the only book they will sit for) with kisses galore for all those beautiful babies pictured. Don't ask me why the first people who get kisses from my kids are pictures of random stranger's babies but I like to think they're just really loving girls...

New Foods

Spaghetti, plums, cannelloni beans, watermelon, donuts (this past weekend on vacation and just a plain one! I'm not ready for the sugar high of a frosted or glazed donut yet)

I wrote most of this before I left for vacation and just wanted to update quick but I'm so beat. So I'll be back later this week with all the details of our fabulous weekend!

Xo,
Maigen

What We Did Last Week (Week of 6/29/15)

More celebrations and family parties and our first First Birthday celebration!

What a week! Mom's exhausted. We had our anniversary lunch at Slidin' Dirty (they're amazing and they catered our wedding!) then Papa T's birthday party on Thursday and the 4th of July at Grandma's on Saturday!

Outside and Nature

It was a really rainy, yucky week so we didn't get outside much. Thankfully the weekend made up for it. We spent all day Friday and Saturday outside and the girls visited their first lake! We saw a heron and a duck and they thought the water was awesome.We had a great time celebrating the 4th and their birthday with family including GG and cousin Rick!

Sensory/Exploration

Right now they are loving dropping things inside one of the many containers we have and pulling it right back out so they played a lot with the buckets, yogurt containers, a big coffee container, even our heavy duty glass cups. I gave them letters, tops and links to drop in and pull out. Jules also learned that her voice sounds different when she talks into a cup and is doing it to everything!

They also had fun with exploring texture. This took no planning at all but they did it forever - I laid three blankets made of different materials out and put some small toys in the middle. They went right for the toys but then discovered the blankets and started touching them, balling them up and playing peek-a-boo with them. They even switched blankets so I think they recognized that they felt different. I came out of the kitchen at one point and they were just laying on them next to each other! So funny!

Music, Movement and Games

This week we listened to some Classic Disney, Mom's Glee mix and Pentatonix. I was feeling a lot of feelings this week so I needed to sing a lot. They don't seem to mind yet.

The only thing I have to do to facilitate movement these days is open the gate. They're off like race horses. I let them explore a ton now since the house is fully baby proofed except for one room we don't spend time in. We also do obstacle courses often now that they're interested in going over and under things. It's a blast as they love it but especially since when they're done and I'm exhausted they will go happily back into the play area and they sleep so great!

They are loving Pat-A-Cake and just started really looking when I point so we're doing lots of "What's That?" We're still not saying or signing real words but they understand cat, ball, Dad, Mom, book, milk, eat, more, peek-a-boo and bottle. Jules will sign more and milk when she feels like it, which is never in front of other people lol.



They're starting to interact so much more with each other and even developing their
 twin language! It's crazy sounding but it's clicks! They sit there in their cribs in the morning or while playing alone and we hear them clicking back and forth with their tongues or blowing raspberries.  Once we talk or they see us they stop! I tried to get it on video but they always know! They've also started hugging and kissing each other.

Favorite Toys: 

Containers and every thing you can drop in and take out of them!

The furniture - They're exploring every bit of furniture we have in every way - trying to lick and chew it, cruising on it over and over and trying to go over, under or around it. Nothing is safe anymore and the kitchen looks like poltergeist after they've been in there "helping" me cook.

Books - They love to go over to their book shelf, pull up and find their photo album, Peek-a-Boo or Farm Animal books (their faves!) Sometimes I'll just catch them flipping through the pages over and over and Jules is now giving kisses to all the babies in the peek-a-boo book!

Favorite Books:

 

See above!


Next week we hope to get in some pool time with the heat coming!

Xo,
Maigen