Swimsuit cover up (Child's)

We will be heading to an indoor water park in a few weeks. The last time we went I learned two things. One, pack two swimsuits for everyone. Two, a swimsuit cover up for each child would be handy. I decided to try to make one (using these instructions) rather than purchasing one. Here is how it turned out. If I remember, I'll take a pic of N wearing it and post that in the next few days.

Basically, I purchased a standard sized bathroom towel, used one of N's t-shirts as a guide for the neck whole, cut the hole and used a double sided bias tape to finish the edge of the hole. Wa-la.

Thanks to my mom for the use of her sewing machine and the little Sewing 101 class. :)

Toy du jour

The "toy du jour" right now are the magniformers N got for Christmas. (Thanks again, Gpa!). N has been toting them all over the house creating as many "models" (as he calls them) as he can. He likes the models he creates, but realizes that to create more he has to take apart what he's created. I told him one way can "save" the models he makes is by taking photos of them. Here are just a few. I must admit, I am impressed with what he makes and the names he gives each creation. Yesterday he discovered that his Magniformers will stick to the refrigerator, so he made several boxes, linked them together and filled them with cars. I didn't get a picture of them, though. Little Brother got to that one before I could. That little stinker. :)

Star Jar: Dog

Yesterday morning the first thing N said to me was this.

N: "Mom, I know what I want when I fill the star jar with stars....I want a pet. I need a pet."

Me: "Oh, really? What kind of pet?

N: "A dog with black furry hair."

Me: "A big dog or a little dog?"

N: with his left hand in the air and his thumb and index finger making the shape of a rectangle., "A liiiiitttle tiny dog this big."

Me: "That sounds like a mouse."

N: "No, it'd be a little tiny dog with black furry hair. Not a mouse."

Spelling and Star Jar update

N is getting really good at recognizing letters and the sounds every letter makes. He is starting to read words and write them. Today he and I were talking about words and he would spell them on his little play laptop. Here are some of them.

DOG

FROG

CAT

GOT (Goat)

OSO (character on tv)

CHIP

CHEZIT (Cheez It)

PLAYTIM (Play time)

HELO (Hello)

NONONO (No, no, no)

NECTI (Neck Tie)

TIDLMAX (Title Max, made me laugh)

BIGLOC (Big Lots, also made me laugh)

Update on the Star Jar. Okay, so the Star Jar is going pretty well, however, it is not proving to work as well as I thought it would to motivate N to leave the house. Case in point, leaving for school. N drug his feet to go to school again this morning. I asked him nicely to put on his shoes and coat. I said he would get one star for putting on his shoes and one star for putting on his coat if he put them both on when I asked him to. He ran away and hid in our little cardboard play house. I told him it is not time to play hide and seek, it is time to get to school, please go to the cubbies and get your shoes and coat on. I told him if I had to ask him again he'd lose both stars. He whined that he didn't want to go to school. He lost both stars. No reaction. At this point I wanted to show him that I am not putting up with all this whining anymore, so I told him that the car will be leaving in three minutes. He better have his shoes and coat on in three minutes or we were going to leave without him (I wouldn't actually leave my child at home alone without adult supervision). I put L in the car and got my coat and shoes on and stood in the garage waiting for N to appear. When his three minutes were up he still did not have his shoes and coat on so I told him he was going to be cold on the way to school today because he chose not to wear his shoes and coat. I put his shoes and coat in the car and said I was leaving. To which N finally responded. He ran into the garage and jumped in the car. I strapped on his seatbelt and he said, "Brr it's cold, Mom. I need my shoes and my coat!" I undid he seatbelt and he put his stuff on. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Side note: I have talked to N's school teacher numerous times about how he is doing in school. I've talked to N about the other kids, the activities they do, snack time, etc, etc, etc and I cannot find any reason for him to be upset about school. He goes to a good preschool. His teacher is wonderful and the kids seem to be good kids from what I can tell. I just think N has a hard time leaving the house 'cause he pulled a similar routine later today when we had to leave to run some errands. He cooperated a little better, but he still whined about it. If anyone else has experienced this with their child I'd love to hear what you did to improve the situation!!!

Star Jar

N has always had a hard time with transitioning from one activity to another. The hardest transition for him to make is one that involves leaving the house. Ugh!! Getting him to go potty, put on his shoes and coat to get out the door, for school in particular, is grueling. And we have to do that several days a week. It can really slow us down and it's taxing for me. I am trying a new tactic to make this easier. I found a "marbles in a jar" technique online. You get two jars. One jar represents good behaviour, one jar represents bad behavior. The child does something good, he/she gets to put a marble in the good jar. He/she makes a bad choice, he has to remove a marble from the good jar and put it in the bad jar. When the good jar is full, the child is rewarded in whatever way you see fit (a small toy, computer time, Wii time, tv time, a trip to favorite restaurant, etc). I adapted the system to fit our needs. First of all, I am using a plastic container instead of a glass jar. I figure N will likely handle the jar at some point and I don't want him to drop a glass jar and get hurt. So plastic it is for us. And the marbles? I can invision L getting ahold of one and choking on it. He's mostly out of the phase where he puts things in his mouth, but Id' rather not find out if he'd put a marble in his mouth. So I chose foam stars.

This afternoon N and I sat down with our "Star jar" supplies. I explained the system to him. I wanted to get him involved in creating the system, so I had him create a happy face to place on the good jar and a sad face to stick on the bad jar. We talked about specific examples of good behavior and good choices (helping L get his sippy out of the fridge, putting his shoes on when it's time to leave the house without whining, etc). We talked about specific bad choices (taking a toy out of L's hands, pushing L, whining and crying when it's time to leave the house, etc). We also made a list of things N would like to have or do when he fills the jar and earns his rewards. We put the jars on top of the fridge (out of reach of both boys) and we'll see how this goes.

Chicken Pot Pie (CPP)

I got The Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas this year. I have tried making two recipes and both were yummy. I took the chicken pot pie recipe PW has printed in her cookbook and combined it with the one posted on her blog "Tasty Kitchen" to come up with the recipe below. I'm putting changes in parenthesis. I post recipes on my blog to share with you, but I also do it for myself so I can remember how I made the recipe. Here it goes.

4 TBSP butter

1 cube chicken bouillon (dissolved in about 1/8 cup water)

1 teaspoon ground thyme (I used 3/4 teaspoon)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup flour

Dash garlic salt

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream (I used fat free half and half)

3 cups frozen mixed veggies (PW uses fresh veggies)

1/2 cup frozen cubed potatoes (I added this)

2 cups cooked chicken

Store bought pie crust

I wasn't sure how well the frozen veggies would do in the CPP. I was afraid if I cooked them in the pie from frozen they either wouldn't cook all the way or they'd thaw in the pie and create too much extra water, so I cooked and drained them separately before adding them to the CPP.

Cook butter, thyme, flour, salt, garlic on low heat until bubbly. Add broth and cream. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly till thick. Fold together sauce with chicken and vegetables. Pour into greased casserole dish. I made this a little healthier by omitting the bottom pie crust. Lay pie crust on top of chicken and veggie mixture. Vent like you would an apple pie. Bake in preheated oven @425 for 30 minutes.

Beans, beans, beans, beans

Now that winter is in full swing, the boys and I find ourselves indoors a lot! We really miss being able to step outside and play with our neighbors in the warm sunny air already. I find myself trying new indoor activities to keep us occupied. If the activity has some educational value that's always a bonus. A friend of mine made this suggestion to me (Thanks, K.). It's easy and inexpensive. You get a big, shallow plastic tub and fill it with dry beans. Set some tractors and digging tools in it and let the kids play. My friend made a great suggestion of choosing the darkest bean available so they are easy to see when it's time to clean them up. The darkest beans I found at our store were pinto beans. They looked pretty dark in the store, but when I got them home I realized they matched my carpet perfectly.This makes any scattered beans difficult to find the carpet. Oops. A simple solution? Lay out a very light colored vinyl tablecloth (or flat sheet, towel, blanket) under the plastic box to make for more contrast in color. When the boys are done playing in the bean box, I can gather up the tablecloth, dump the beans back into the box, put on the lid and stash it away for another rainy/wintry day.

Happy Birthday, Honey.

Happy Birthday, D!

Back to school

No, no. I'm not talking about back to school as in the big back to school rush that happens in late August, early September...I'm talking about returning to school after Christmas break. N returned to school today. I suspected he may not be too thrilled to get back into our routine, so I started talking to him about school Sunday night. It sounded something like this:

"You'll get to tell your teacher Happy New Year (or Happy Noon Year as N says)"

"You'll have to ask your friends what they got for Christmas."

"Maybe you'll get to sit by the M's at snack time again." The M's are his snack buddies. Two girls, same name. (You know who you are. Wink, wink.)

"Hey, you know what? If you're a good boy about putting on your shoes and coat and leaving when it's time to go to school, we'll go to McD's for lunch." His ears perked up on this one.

School morning rolls around...

Me: "So, are you ready for school? Ready to tell Ms. A and your friends Happy New Year?"

N: "No. I don't want to go to school."

Me. "Oh, why not? It'll be fun. You'll get to ride the bikes again."

N: "I don't want to go to school. They make me concentrate there and I don't want to concentrate."

Me: Speechless. My preschooler knows the word "concentrate?" Cool!