Tot School---Christmas presents

Alligator has been pretty much sick since the beginning of November. Ear infection, after ear infection, after ear infection. We are at the point now where the antibiotics really aren’t doing anything, so we are headed to the ENT within the next couple of weeks. So, his pictures are not as beautiful as normal and their aren’t as many. You may see a runny nose or 2 as we go, and I am sorry for that.

Since he was too sick to go outside, I brought the snow inside for him! He didn’t love it, but Monkey did.

We painted a couple of times.

On Christmas Eve he brought me the football while I was working in the kitchen. Man that boy can throw (excuse my look, I was actually diagnosed with Pneumonia on Christmas eve)..

      

He sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn to attract Santa.

    

This week for Tot-school I will be showing some of Alligator’s Christmas Presents.

A mini grand piano

An amazon bear that he loves to cuddle

A guitar

A table top easel (we have an art table that he loves but an easel is really good for developing arm motor control)

and a Noah’s ark

 

My favorite picture of Alligator was at my parent’s house. We sang “Oh, Christmas tree” to him as he spun in circles.

Click the link at the top of the page to see what others are doing for Tot School.

Toy Organization

I have seen quite a few blog posts lately about toy organization. So, I figured I would write my own…lol! My boys and I are very lucky and have a wonderful playroom. And we have these great storage bins. But as you can see from the picture below. They are very disorganized.

I always had these grand plans of taking pictures of what is in each cubby and then labeling them. But, what I realized is that doing so is a lot of work. So I cheated!

I went to Amazon and used their pictures to create signs for my bins. I mean hey, they paid someone to take pictures of these toys, so why not use them.

I used specific pictures for some bins (like the Handy Manny play set and Noah’s Ark) and other items like our ball bin, or our matchbox car bin are just generic pictures of cars and balls.

Then I printed on cardstock, cut them out, and laminated them.

Next I punched a hole in each label, and secured it to the correct bin. I used ribbon for the tags. We’ll see how well it holds up.

 

And here is the finished effect. The non-labeled box at the top left is full of boxes not in use. (Yes, EMPTY BINS). The 2 empty spaces in the middle is because the Handy Manny Set is currently being played with. The crane to it doesn’t fit in a bin, so it will have it’s own space. Also the blue bin on the right with out a tag has some of Alligator’s items in it, and it is awaiting a tag. YEAH!!! All clean!

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

I have saved the file I used if anyone wants a copy feel free to comment and I’ll happily send you a copy. I just didn't feel right about posting the document since I didn’t create the pictures myself.

The hardest part about this project was organizing the toys into like items (toy food, balls…). I do have one bin that has 3 different games in it, so I just put all three pictures on the label. They aren’t played with that often, so I didn’t want to use 3 whole bins to store them.

New Years Resolutions- 3 in 30!

I have a new theory this year with my resolutions. I am going to make monthly, achievable, and measurable goals.
As far back as I can remember my goal has been to lose weight. And this my resolution is “to lose weight” again. However, I am going to break it down my month.  And no I don’t mean “ I am going to lose 10 pounds this month”. My goal each month will be adding a routine to help me reach my goal of life long weight loss.
But, I am not stopping there. I also want to be keep a tidier house. So I will have a goal each month to help with that.
My final goal will be to continue to blog. I enjoy blogging, I love to look back at the things I have done with my kids.

So to recap, my resolutions for this year are:
1. Lose weight
2. Keep a tidier house
3. Blog
Now for the mini-goals for January:

• My goal in January is to journal my food 6 out of 7 days a week. I don’t care what I eat, I will journal it. My hope is that getting in the habit of journaling it will make me more mindful of what I am eating, and will also help me see where I am, so I can get to where I want to be. No, I will not be posting my food journal on here, I will use my I-pod touch to log in my food and activity. Every week I will blog about how I am doing with this goal! Now, I am not giving myself license to eat what ever I want, but no matter what I want to journal it.
• Mini-goal number 2: I am using flylady’s techniques as my guide. So for the month of January I will set up and complete a morning and evening routine (for more info on flylady visit http://www.flylady.net/)

Here is my morning routine:

1. Get Dressed and pretty (that means do hair and makeup)
2. Unload and reload dishwasher
3. Clear and disinfect counters and black table
4. Sweep
5. Move laundry to dryer
6. Plan dinner

Here is my evening routine:

1. Put load of laundry in washer
2. Load dishwasher and turn it on.
3. Clear and clean counters and table.
4. Pick up Living room.
5. Put out my clothes and get the boys “to go” boxes ready (read more about that here)
6. Do face and teeth

If I can do that every day I will be so much better off!

• My final mini goal is to write the following blog posts per week

1. Preschool corner
2. Tot school
3. January resolutions

Each month I will add to these mini-goals. Wish me luck!
After reading this post, a friend of mine pointed out a great blog carnival called 3 in 30. It is the same principle as above! Check it out, here!

Goal for 2011

2011 is really hitting me with a bit of a bang. As I realize this is the year that my darling Monkey will go to Kindergarten! How is that even possible! 

In February my Darling Alligator will begin preschool 2 mornings a week!

Check back, as I will post my new years resolutions tomorrow!

Naming Foods

One of our main causes of tantrums lately is because Alligator can’t tell us what he wants. So, Alligator’s speech therapist recommended making a book of some of his favorite foods. That way we can use it to learn the names, but also to point to a picture when he wants something.

I owned this “look book” from Sassy for awhile now. It had pictures of Alligator’s family in it (meaning us and grandparents). But I decided to switch out the pictures for ones of food.

Here are the pictures I took. I have added a caption so you know what we call each item.

Fruit: (either it is peaches or mandarin oranges, easiest just to say fruit)

Cracker

Goldfish

 

 

Yogurt bites

Sippy

I have also made a cover for the book that says “Alligators favorite foods” and it includes the following picture, cause he is eating!

Stickers and Language Development

First let me say I am not a specialist. I learned this activity from our speech therapist, and wanted to pass it on.

Today Alligator and I were in the doctor’s office waiting. He was in a good mood despite being sick and I needed something to entertain him. I happened to find a sticker that was stuck to the inside of my purse.  First I showed it to him. He thought it was pretty cool and immediatly placed it on his hand. So I said “hand”. He took it off and placed it on his other hand and I said “hand”. THen he gave me the sticker so I placed it on various parts of him, stating the name of the location. He laughed and laughed.

Then I asked him to place it. (a-ha, he had to follow a 1 step instruction) Which he did pretty well. Then he dropped it. So I asked him to “pick it up and put it on the chair” (see…a 2 step direction). And he did it, most of the time.

We had a ball, kept busy, and had a language lesson. All while waiting for the doctor. Which we then discovered Alligator has a double ear infection. OUCH!

 

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Crazy Mornings

Around here our mornings are CRAZY! I am a natural night owl, I don’t fall asleep easily, and end up staying up till at least midnight most nights. Monkey follows in my footsteps and is impossible to get to bed at night, and almost near impossible to wake up in the morning. Alligator is pretty good at going to sleep and is usually awake around 7, assuming he isn’t sick or didn’t have a bad night (meaning he wasn’t up for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night).

So our mornings are hectic. We are all running around crazy, trying to find things; mittens, hats, coats, shoes, socks, sippy-cups….

So I created our Morning Bins. Each child has their own. These are plastic bins that are see-through. Monkey and Alligator each got to decorate their own with stickers. Then every night before bed, I place all the things they will need the next morning in them.

Monkey’s bin contains:

Clothes, underwear, socks, shoes, hat, mittens, coat, and a loaded book bag.

Alligator’s bin contains:

Clothes, diaper, wipes, socks, shoes, hat, mittens, coat and a clean sippy cup.

I can’t tell you what a difference this has made in our mornings. After breakfast, when it is time to get ready for school I grab the bins, and get one child ready at a time. I don’t have to be running around asking where things are…I just get them dressed. In fact, it has even helped Monkey do some of his own preparation in the morning.

I was not born-organized. So I need these little systems to get me going in the morning. I have also added two other bins to our lives the shoe bin, and the hat/mitten bin. When we come in from outside shoes and hats and mittens go in the bins. Then I am not looking for them all over the house.

Don’t you just love ORGANIZATION!