Winter time 2yr old activities

So today made me realize how much supervision my little munchkin needs. Every time I turned my back it was something new. Some days she is really good at entertaining herself. Today was not one of those days...lol. Lets see what did she do this morning, destroying a Valentines present for Jason- I was doing a countdown to Valentines with love quotes decorated a little (that I thought was hidden pretty well- I am sure Jason still doesn't know where it is) (luckily she came to show me her handiwork before destroying all of them). I have been letting her go upstairs to get stuffed animals out of her room, to help lessen tantrums when she realizes she didn't get a particular new favorite friend. I thought it was fine cuz I have our room and the other extra room doors locked. Well she found the kleenex in the closet and was emptying out two boxes and starting to destroy them.... lovely- it drives me nuts when she does things that waste money! Then after cleaning that up, I went to bathroom and locked myself in to calm down and was cleaning the bathroom a little. When I came out, she had a chair pushed up the fridge and was filling a cup up with water and dumping it on the ground (there was a nice little pond surrounding the fridge when I came out of the bathroom). Some other things, include squeezing a stick of butter that was softening on the counter and pushing her chair up to the sink grabbing a dirty cup to fill with water out of dish that was soaking and drinking a huge gulp (before mom saw)... gross. Oh did I mention using chalk to decorate the tv- which is not horrible- just annoying since it is becoming a regular thing. I hope some of these things give you a good laugh... then it will have helped someone in some small way! I think this post from my old RS president, really helped me to 'be victorious', and control myself and keep the yelling to a minimum. Something I will probably always be working on!!! I just have to keep telling myself that even if she doesn't listen to me (and I repeat myself over and over) and she has to do lots of timeouts at least she is not sassy to me (yet...)

So today's post is about ways that I should have used to entertain her, so this day didn't happen!

Online Storytime | Book Videos, Interviews & Podcasts from B&N Studio - its great cuz the player will play one book and then go on the next one - perfect for my little non mouse user.- I use this to get in some good scripture study time- or nap if I didn't sleep well- or both!

Sea World Webcams

Youtube  playlist of kids songs

starfall.com- when they are a little older to use the mouse

Looking at the Visualizer on iTunes while her fav kids songs play. Used while I get some cleaning done

Playing with play-do and knife and fork and different cookie cutters each day- she request this once a day.

Baking together- makes me feel good for making something yummy- Some fav recipes we have tried recently:
Wheat Crackers - I just used all whole wheat flour, but I have a stone wheat grinder which makes my wheat as fine a the white stuff (I am going to add try it with adding some yummy seasonings, besides just salt... though it was good when I didn't add salt on top :))
Chewy Granola Bars- I have tried other granola bars but they dry out too quickly after making them- this recipe stays chewy and yummy without adding too much sugar! (ohh yeah, I only use 1/2 C of brown sugar and its plenty sweet)
Excited to try this one- Play dough cookies and make them look like this for a fun Valentines day treat
And whole wheat graham crackers are on the docket for tomorrow (recipe from wheat grinder recipe book)

Fun kid crafts- We have made a few already and hope to try others soon-
Kazoo- the rubber band with wax paper lasted 2 seconds, but we decorated our with markers which was fun- and it still is a good noise maker without the wax paper
Snowman - I didn't glue the beads down and just let her keep trying new decorations- until she decided to shove a bunch of beads in her mouth- luckily there was no choking!
Penguin- so excited to try this soon... I was going to get kid scissors and let her try to cut out shapes I draw... but not sure how that will work...

What do you do to keep kids entertained during winter?

Side note: Its funny, even though this morning was not fun, she has been an angel this afternoon- thus a post from me :)

nye- best day!

We had a girls day on New Year's Eve to celebrate Laura's birthday. It was great! We went shopping from 9:30am to 5pm and Claire was an angel! Every time she would ask 'down' meaning out of the cart. I would say, lets go find great grandma or grandma, and we would get moving and she wouldn't continue asking to be down. One thing that entertained her in almost all the stores was play dough I bought at the Dollar Store! So even with no nap or quiet time there was no tantrums! And it was the first time she sat still in at a restaurant and waited for food. It was amazing! I will not forget this day!

Then to end our great girls day out, she snoozed a little. So cute!

big girl bed

Since Claire has an interest in potty training, I thought I better get her in a big girl bed, before I attempt to really train her. And thanks to the hard work & generosity of grandma & granpa vdH, we have a great new bed for Claire. This transition is taking a while... but we have successfully gotten her to stay in her bed (thanks to Supernanny's method- also found in 123 Magic), when we first put her down. Now I hope things go a little smoother with her staying in the bed all through the night- before the next one comes! Its a little cramped with the crib, buts its nice to still give her the option of the big girl bed or the crib. She's gotta have some control!

Christmas Eve & Day

We had a little nativity after dinner. Here is angel Claire! I made her dress out of an old, never used t-shirt and some elastic thread.

Didn't even plan for it to be so colorful! Wow- so cute!




Then we opened some presents from J's fam. Thanks Aunt Jen & Uncle Scott... its one of the few Sandra Boyton books we don't have! Claire is in open present mode in the pic. But she loves it!

new sit & spin- Claire loved spinning next to cousin Matthew, when he would pick it up and move an inch, so would she. It's pretty cute to watch her lug the thing around.

Opening presents at home Christmas morning. Can you tell she loves hats :)

(left) the middle stocking is the one my grandma made for me and I loved it so much that I made Jason and Claire one. Last year, I made the one on the left for Claire and then this year I decided its now Jason's (so they can all match) and made a new one for Claire.

Family pic and some pics of Claire's Christmas dress

I'm glad we managed some cute pics, amongst the sugar highs of the holidays

homemade gifts

(left) I saw this idea in a catalog and had to make it since we choose J's parents for our Christmas gift exchange. Jason's dad loves black licorice and a good laugh :) (right) Claire's new hat, mittens & scarf- thanks to J's mom for the cute fleece

(left)ABC Sunday book, I used this simplified version here. But there are other cool versions: here & here. It did take some time to convert from pdf to(4 by 6) jpg (since I don't have photoshop). Email me if you want a zipped file of all of them. (right) I got these key chains from a highschool dance, and thought I would update them. One for mom and dad!

Stocking stuffers!
Felt rose tutorial here
Got the idea for the felt flowers here, if you want a cute icon to use as a template go here
Satin flowers tutorial here, actually here has better instructions on how to actually singe it

other cute ideas I love: http://www.creationsbykara.com/2011/01/felt-flower-tutorial-for-valentines-day.html

http://icandyhandmade.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-box-fold-felt-flower-tutorial.html

more Christmas fun

(left) Here Claire is watching the ultrasound DVD of baby Trevor! She is going to be a great big sister! (don't worry this pic, has motivated me to clean up my desk... for some reason I think having lots of projects out will help motivate me to finish them...) (right) love the fro

Sugar cookies! Eating her cookies with no hands- she doesn't like getting her hands dirty :)

We had the best wet snow, perfect for making a snowman. It was Claire & Jason's first snowman. Claire absolutely loved being in the snow and helping dad!

We were watching our cute neighbor girls that night. Claire loved holding Emmy's hand and leading her to the snowman, aka ' nomen'. Claire loves snowmen. She doesn't say I love you to many things, but has said, "I lubbu nomen'

I took the neighbor girls inside, because they were cold. But Claire and daddy kept on working! The next morning there was a foot of snow!

Claire giving pink bear a ride on the horse, with her in the car :)

Merry Christmas