Farewell, Crib Railing. It's been a nice 20 months!

Despite my best intentions to keep Ian in the crib as long as possible, he clearly had other plans.  About a month ago, he started climbing out of the crib, but the episodes were sporadic and he would go to sleep with one or two returns to bed.  However, he quickly discovered what great fun it was to scale the crib rail and extend his playtime in his room. 

Unlike his big sister, he likes to be extra-stealthy in his nocturnal adventures and not alert anybody to the fact that he's breaking curfew on playtime.  Molly has had her own fair share of bedtime problems, but when Molly's out of her bed, everyone in the house will know about it.  She likes to lay on the floor in front of her door and wail, begging for any number of silly requests: more water, straightened covers, help getting back in bed, removing a toy from her room that "belongs in the lilliloon" (livingroom), fixing the closet door that's ajar, and on and on and on. 

Ian, on the other hand, is the James Bond of bedtime shenanigans.  He manages to get himself in all sorts of trouble without making a single noise.  Just a few recent examples: taking apart his entire humidifier (no water in it, thank goodness), removing all the blankets from his bed and replacing them with every toy from the toyshelf, riding the gliding rocking chair like a Kennywood ride, putting all the pillows from the guest bed into his crib, climbing on top of the bookshelf to sit and play (the bookshelf has since been relocated), removing Eric's 15 lb. chainmail shirt from the table in order to pull down the lamp (which was being held in place by the chainmail shirt).  It amazes me how much of this he accomplishes (#1) without alerting parents to his shenanigans, and (#2) IN THE DARK!

I've started leaving his door ajar during naptime to make sure he doesn't get himself into too much trouble.  Today, I could hear him rustling around in the toyshelf and then heard a desperate cry.  Running in, this is what I found:

 That's one very stuck little boy!  He managed to get his entire torso in the toyshelf and one leg wrapped around the bottom rung.  So what did I do?  What any good mother would: Told him to relax for just a few seconds while I grabbed the camera :-) 

And what was all of this for?  A rubber ducky that had fallen behind the shelf.  I guess he just needed to rescue that poor ducky.  I don't think James Bond finds himself in too many situations like this one, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

When all is said and done, he DOES eventually fall asleep, and when he does he is just irresistibly adorable!  How could anyone be frustrated by this little face?  I can live with shenanigans.

 

What are you thankful for?

I am very excited to be heading into the holiday season this year because it's the first year that I feel Molly really grasps what's going on.  She has become so verbal in the last year and has quickly transitioned from parroting phrases she hears daily to sharing her own original thoughts.  I love to hear what's going on inside her precious little curly head!  Bedtime is my favorite time to just sit and chat because all the distractions of the day are gone and it's just me and her in the soft glow of her nightlight reflecting on the day.

Last night during our bedtime prayers I spent a lot of time thanking our Heavenly Father for the blessings of a Daddy that loves and cares for our family and for two amazing children that bring me joy everyday.  Afterward, I explained to Molly that the next day was Thanksgiving, a day when we take time to thank God for all the ways He has blessed us.  I asked her what she was thankful for and her response was one that brought both laughter and tears:

"I'm thankful for Ian.  I am happy in my heart.

Do you see it's happy in my heart? [pointing to chest]

Ask Dr. Vines! [our doctor]  He can see it's happy in my heart 

with his stethoscope."

[Tears in eyes] "Yes, Molly.  I see that your heart is happy. 

Mommy's heart is happy too.  I'm thankful for Ian too and for you.

I love you!"

Practicing Prepositions

Molly's been very interested in prepositions lately and reporting where things are around the house.  Sometimes I like to play a little game with her where we pick one object and describe it with as many prepositions as we can.  For example, "The rocking chair is beside the crib...in front of the toy shelf...behind the ottoman...on top of the floor...underneath Mommy...next to Ian" and so on.  She has gotten quite good at identifying locations of objects, but for some reason she hasn't quite made the connection that prepositions also apply to her!  After we go through our whole descriptive list, I'll ask her, "Where's Molly?".  Her response will invariably be, "I'm RIGHT HERE!!!" pointing to her feet and with her very best what-kind-of-silly-question-is-that-Mommy tone of voice.  It cracks me up every time!

Her other favorite preposition game, and one that I'm not so fond of, but cracks me up just the same, is describing exactly where she is when she passes gas.  I'm not sure how it started, but anytime she toots, she announces "I gas on highchair" or "I gas in lil-li-loon (livingroom)" or "I gas next to coffee table."  We're still working on the "Excuse me" skills, but, hey, we're nailing those prepositions.  I guess in her case, instead of remembering the rule 'anywhere a mouse can go', we'll just stick with 'anywhere a gas can go.'  :-)

Time for an Update

The new school year has just begun, which means craziness has started to return to the Frueh family lifestyle.  I thought I'd better record an update on my two little blessings before my brain turns into teacher-mush for the year.

Molly -

Our little MoJo is now 3 years old, a fact she really enjoys sharing with nearly everyone she meets.  She'll hold up her 3 pudgy little fingers and say, 'I'm FREEEE!  I'm Molly and I'm FREEE!'  At her 3-year check-up, she was 34.5 inches tall and weighed 27 lbs., just hanging out in the 10th percentile, her favorite place to be for most of the last 3 years.
Favorite Foods: Any kind of cereal, yogurt and granola (goda bar), cottage cheese (cotty cheese), grapes, graham crackers, chicken, raisins
Favorite Books:  The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie, All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, Time for Tom (A Veggie Tales book)
Favorite Songs: Skinna-marinky-dinky-dink, This Old Man, This Little Light of Mine, Amazing Grace, You Are My Sunshine
Favorite Activities: Reading and going to the library to pick new books, Playing Little People with her castle or house, Hosting tea parties for Ian and her dolls (3 of them...all named "Molly" of course), Working on her puzzles, Walking in the woods, Finding mushrooms in the yard

She set the table herself.  Can you tell?  Everything so perfect and symmetrical!

Sometimes Ian can disturb the whole decorum of a proper tea party with his antics, but Molly is slowly slowly learning to have patience.

New Things She's Learning: Connecting sounds to letter names, Writing letters, Describing objects by shape, color & position, Spelling and writing names (her own and Ian's), Counting objects in numbers greater than 10, A new memory verse each month (This month it is I John 2:6 "Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did." - Their theme in Sunday School this month is Walk Like Jesus).

She also enjoys learning to type her name in different fonts by finding the letters on Mommy's laptop.

When she gets tired of typing her name, she likes to type Ian's name.  (In this pic, she's showing off another new habit...checking to see if her smile is there everytime she gets her picture taken).

It is so fascinating to me to watch a child develop from birth through childhood.  I love to watch the world through her eyes and smile at the things that catch her fancy.  She loves water and gets excited everytime she sees it, even in picture books.  She'll always point to it and say, "I want to get in there.  I want to go swimmin'."  If it's a picture in a book, she'll actually put her feet in the water on the book and wiggle her toes.  She's very imaginative when it comes to reading.  If there's a house or store or restaurant in a book, she'll pretend to open the door and go in.  She likes to imagine what's inside, even if it's not pictured in the book.  I LOVE that about her and I know it will give her a love for reading that will grow with her.  It amazes me what she can memorize while we read.  Sometimes I'll catch her talking to herself or to her dolls and realize that she's actually reciting lines from her favorite books, word for word, using the same voice inflections I use when reading them.  She usually remembers them even better than I do!

As is typical with most first-borns, Molly has taken on a motherly role with her little brother.  The only problem is that she has a difficult time discerning the fine line between being helpful and being bossy.  She enjoys making decisions for Ian, such as what color diaper he should wear, what he should have to drink with his dinner, and what toys he should play with.  If she wants to play with a certain toy, then inevitably Ian is "too little" to play with that toy.  It's amusing to watch their different personalities play out in their relationship, as Ian is very much the opposite of Molly in many ways.  He's easy-going, silly, light-hearted, and easy-to-please.  If Molly decides what toys he should or shouldn't play with and he's not completely satisfied with the arrangement, he'll usually just walk away and find something else to do...no muss, no fuss.  But it drives her crazy!!!  She is definitely a first-born, top-to-bottom, inside and out.

Ian:

Ian is now 18 months old.  At his 18-month check-up he was 31.5 inches tall and weighed 23 lbs., right in the 25th percentile.
Favorite Foods: Cheerios, Bananas (nonnys), PB&J sandwiches (which he unfolds and eats from the inside out), Cheese (cheee), Broccoli (a new obsession)...Truthfully, pretty much any food in arm's reach.  He is not picky and loves to eat.
Favorite Books:  First 100 Words, Mother May I?, Hop on Pop, Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton, Cars-Trucks-Boats-and-Planes by Richard Scarry
Favorite Songs: If You're Happy and You Know It, I'm a Little Teapot, Jesus Loves Me
Favorite Activities: Reading (by himself or with anyone else in the world), "Mowing" our front patch of woods with his lawnmower, Going for stroller walks, Riding in the wagon, Dumping out any box of toys or blocks, Playing cars, Getting dirty (very very very dirty)
New Things He's Learning:

• That those squiggly black lines on a page stand for words.  He has learned to point to them when we read and realizes that when the squiggly symbols run out, it's time to turn the page.
• Recognizing that letters are letters and that they have names.  He isn't yet able to match any letters to their appropriate names, but he gets very excited whenever he sees letters (on his alphabet placemat, on his sheets and blankets, in alphabet books, on TV, on the refrigerator magnets).  Whenever he sees letters, he excitedly points to them and starts shouting, "D! O! I! A! B! G!"  I'm surprised at how many names he knows, even if he can't match them to any symbols.  His favorite by far is D.  As soon as he gets in the tub, he'll grab every foam letter sponge one by one and shout, "D! D! D! D!" until he eventually finds the right one and I confirm that his guessing has led to success at last.
• How to follow multi-step directions (ie: "Go in your room and bring back your blue shoes." or "Pick up these dirty clothes and put them in the hamper.")  He enjoys taking care of his responsibilities each day (putting his own dirty diaper in the pail, clothes in hamper, picking up his toys, wiping his tray, etc.).
• How to feed himself with a fork and spoon.  He prefers adult-size utensils and refuses to accept help, even with challenging items like Cheerios or spaghetti.  It has led to some interesting solutions on his part and some messy post-meal clean-ups, but most of the food is making it to his mouth, thankfully.

As he has been since the day he was born, Ian is a joy to be around and brings so many smiles to our family.  He is goofy and joyful and full of laughter.  He gets a huge kick out of the littlest things and loves to giggle.  One of his favorite things to do is scream with delight because it's just so darn fun.  However, it's not always so fun for the people sitting right next to him, so we're working on this little habit.  He also has some quirky little habits that make me smile.  One of them is that he always always always eats with his feet pushed right up against the bottom of his highchair tray.  I just love sitting next to him at meals and petting those precious, perfect little feet!

Ian is also very good at getting into, well, pretty much anything.  He can scale any chair, shelf, or table.  He is capable of reaching nearly every elevated surface in our home, given enough time without supervision.  We've had to be ultra-vigilant with child-proofing this time around because he is so agile.  Now that all his favorite cupboards and drawers are off-limits, he's been enjoying his one drawer full of safe kitchen gadgets that he is allowed to get into.

Yes, he pushed the highchair over and climbed up into it himself.  And, yes, he IS pants-less.  He has also become somewhat of a diaper-houdini.

Hoping the next time I update, it's not with a report of how Ian has figured out how to disassemble child-proof locks ;-).

I love you, Pinterest!

As a summertime stay-at-home-mom living in a state where it's almost unbearable to be outside between the hours of 11am and 4pm (unless of course you want to melt into a puddle in the yard), I'm always on the lookout for fun, time-filling activities.  In our household, where Daddy works from home, quiet activities are almost a must.  Educational is an added bonus.  A tall order, for sure, but that job has become a MILLION times easier since I discovered Pinterest.

Here's a sampling of a few of the Pinterest projects we've done lately, along with links to the original sources (just click the headings).

Fun With Pipe Cleaners

Molly picked the colors.  I bent them or cut them to appropriate lengths and shapes.  Molly constructed the letters.

We made it all the way up to L before she started to lose interest.

She found colander weaving a lot more interesting and worked with such intense focus.

Jello Play Dough

The recipe was very easy.  We used lime and strawberry jello to make green and pink, which were both lovely and smelled great!

I was afraid that such yummy smelling play-doh would invite taste-testing, especially when the only play-doh toys we had were kitchen utensils, but the kids were so interested in playing with it that no one thought to eat it.  Yay!

Older cousin, Isaiah, enjoyed the strawberry variety and the egg-separator made a great tool.

Cousin Corbin turned his strawberry snake into a strawberry beard.

Molly's favorite tools were the baby link rings, which make great impressions when pressed into the dough.  Our dough kept well for the last month.  We simply kneaded in more flour when it started to get sticky.  The recipe made a TON of dough, enough to send home half with the cousins.  So we'll probably halve the recipe next time.

 Fingerpaint Name Art

Supplies: Extra-large art paper, painter's tape, tempera paint, plastic cups, kitchen sponges (cut in half), old t-shirt smocks, table cover

Molly and I worked together during Ian's nap to pre-make the names.  She loves making letters and spelling her own name, along with Ian's name now too.

Ian's painting quickly digressed into paint-eating.  Thank goodness it's all non-toxic.

So proud of the final result!  The painter's tape didn't peel off as cleanly as I would have hoped.  If we do it again, I may try masking tape.  I'm sure either tape would work fine if you used canvases as the original post mentioned, but I went with the art paper we had on hand at home.

Ian's didn't end up as originally intended because he was eating way more paint than he was putting on the page, but the blue painter's tape looks ok anyway.

Not too shabby for a thrown-together afternoon project with on-hand materials.  Almost daily Molly will point to the paintings and say, "Ian! I-A-N.  Molly! M-O-L-L-Y."  I think we may try it again when Ian's a little older and use real canvases.

Mess-Free Fingerpaint

Supplies: gallon ziploc bags, tempera paint, white paper (for the background), tape

This kept me a little saner than our first fingerpainting project because it was completely mess-free.  Molly enjoyed practicing letters.  Ian enjoyed mixing colors.  To be honest, the attention-span for this project was MUCH shorter.  Without the mess, their interest was lost quickly.  But the nice thing is, I could put the bags back in our art box and take them out another day to try again.

Time-Out Bottle

Supplies: Glitter glue, glitter, clear tacky glue, re-purposed water bottle, super-glue or duct tape for the top

Purpose: To give our strong-willed toddler a visual timer for time-out that can also be used to calm her down in the midst of a meltdown.  We use it both for disciplinary time-out as well as for chill-out time during a tantrum.  When I hand her the "sparkle bottle", I shake it up and say, "I know your feelings are all mixed up right now, but you need to sit here and watch the sparkles settle.  Let your anger settle with the sparkles.  You can come back and play when all the sparkles are settled and your feelings are calmed down."

This is the fully settled bottle.  It took a while to get the correct ratio of water to clear glue.  My first attempt had a 20-minute settle time, which might as well be 20 hours to a toddler.  After dumping and adding water several times, I got the settle time down to 4 minutes, which seems to be just about perfect.  It's nice to know that I'm almost guaranteed that any tantrum will be over in less than 4 minutes.  Molly loves her sparkle bottle too.  I think she likes having a tool to help her deal with feelings that seem out-of-control to her.  We've since added duct tape to the lid to prevent any unfortunate accidents.  I considered super glue, but I'd like to be able to add time in the future.

Sandwich Sushi

 This is not my photo.  It's from the Martha Stewart website.  When completing a task like this with toddlers, taking pictures is definitely an after-thought.  Since my sandwich sushi was for the under-3 crowd, I julienned my vegetables much more finely.  Ian's molars aren't fully in, but he had no trouble when they were very thinly sliced.  I used carrots, cucumbers, and celery.  I also mixed up the spreads a bit.  I did some with garlic hummus, some with sour cream, and some with mayo + S&P.  Neither of my kids are usually fans of raw veggies, but these were a hit!

Countdown Chain

This last project I totally made up myself (although I'm sure a million moms have done it before me).  I didn't find it on Pinterest, but perhaps I'll make it my first original pin.  I call it "Countdown to Gramma & Poppy".  Last week, for the first time EVER since moving to N.C., we made the 12 hour drive to N.Y. to visit my family.  The last time we were there was when Molly was 10 months old for my little sister's wedding, but we were flying.  It also happened to be the week we found out we were expecting Baby #2.  So, technically, Ian has been to Gramma & Poppy's house when he was only a little poppy seed, but now we've made it official with a week-long visit.  Every day leading up to our trip Molly would say, "Time to get in the car?  Go to Gramma and Poppy's house?" and I sadly had to say, "No, we're going in a month....3 weeks....2 weeks..."  Like most 2-year-olds, she doesn't quite get the whole time thing.  Tomorrow and yesterday mean the same thing.  "Next week" might as well be a year from now, and "next month", well forget about it.  I needed a way to visually show her what I meant, so I came up with this countdown chain.

Please excuse the crooked cuts, lined paper, and sloppy numbers.  The idea came to me in a flash and I acted immediately, grabbing supplies that were in arm's reach. Next time I will probably use scrapbook paper and bigger numbers.

Molly had so much fun tearing off the bottom ring each night and counting the remaining days until we left for Gramma & Poppy's house.  Not only did it give her a better sense of time, but it's also a fun counting game and exposes her to numbers greater than ten with a visual connection.  As the chain got shorter, I moved it to a lower hook, but when it was long, we had to keep it out of the reach of Ian The Destructor.

Thank you, Pinterest, for filling my summer with good times!