Thoughts on toddler education

I have recently become very interested in early childhood education, mostly, and obviously, because of the age of my child. Emmett is coming up on his second birthday and that means a year from now he will (most likely) be in a preschool of some sort! That thought is crazy, but also super exciting! His superabsorbent mind will have an even more complex environment! (I feel like being home with me all the time may not be the most interesting thing ever.)

On this topic, I have been reading about the Montessori way of things and its history. Besides being very intriguing, I feel that I personally agree with lots of concepts introduced by the practice. So basically, I have been subtely introducing some of the Montessori concepts into our home to see how Emmett responds to them. It turns out, I had already been kind of Montessori-esque with the ways I did some things. Like having "works" for your child in the kitchen, and having a special spot for the child in every room of the house. So I think that transitioning into these methods more systematically and consistently wouldn't be that big a leap for me.

I am currently changing up my toddler's room into a more on-topic setting, and will post photos of the redo! (I'm spending very little, if any, on the redo. It's really not that big of a thing!)

Talk soon!!!

A mini spiritual tidbit of my life

So, I have this problem sometimes. This problem that exists constantly but I only recognize it in my quiet moments every now and then when God's trying to get my attention. He wants me to recognize that He is there for me always. Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a given to a lot of people. But I mean He's reeeeally there for me. Like when everything is awful, and when everything is amazing. He's still there.

I forget to seek Him out when I feel like I'm so anxious I'm just gonna fall apart. I forget to thank Him when I'm so happy I must be about to burst at the seams. I don't forget about Him, I forget that he is right there with me. Going through my junk with me, or celebrating right alongside me.

When something AMAZING happens, I tend to feel that I somehow made that thing come about all on my own, and that I don't have anyone to thank but myself. And every now and then, I catch myself. Why do I tend to only remember to thank God for Who He is when everything is just normal, blah-blah?? Why shouldn't I recognize that every blessing along the way is sent from Him, even if that blessing was something I worked for?? Or that even when things are falling apart, or seem to be, He's still there with me offering whatever comfort I'll accept from Him?

It's sooooo easy to remember that He's there and with me when everything is normal and I'm not worried, or anxious, or overly excited. The times when I can send up a quick, "Hey there, things are pretty good down here." Then suddenly...poof! REAL LIFE happens and all I can think about are my overpowering emotions of joy or sadness. I want, more than anything, to get to a point in which I recognize Him! Always, in every situation, I desire my first thought conscious though to be of Him. He is so much more worthy than anything else I could devote my mind to. Or my time, or my life.

That is what I want. To think of Him always. I'm trying to get there.
Let's see where this goes:)

What we're reading...

                                                

A smile-inducing quickie:)

Moments like these in my baby's life I never want to forget.

The Liberry!

 So we've been having so much fun this summer! Emmett is at this adorable stage in development during which ANYTHING can be an amazing opportunity to play and/or learn. One thing we've been doing regularly is attending our library's toddler story time. This is one of the highlights of our week always. They do an amazing job reading five or six books, breaking each up with a song and dance combo. The kids love it! The part that just puts it over the edge of awesomeness is that, unlike most other educational/learning settings, the kids have free range of the room! This means that we're not having to force the kids to sit and listen, they listen when they decide to. This may make it sound like it's chaotic constantly, but it's so not! The kids become interested on their own;)

Anywhoooo, last week was the summer reading book club PARTAAAYY! We didn't actually read any of the books for the club, but we crashed the party anyways. Whoops. But it was sooooo worth it!

There was a performer there. You know those guys who randomly just love performing for kids so they sing and sometimes do magic or make balloon animals? The kind of jobs where you're like, "who actually wants to be this when they grow up?" kind of thing. Either way, they had one of those guys. And he was super funny! He sang this hilarious song using drums and a ukulele and a few other instruments (that he would play and record live so he could play them all back together). It was a teach-me-how-to-hula kind of song and one of the dads in the audience volunteered to stand up and do it in front of everyone. We were doing all the motions and loving every minute. Can't wait to go back next week for playtime and more BOOOOOKS!

Initial Operation Birthday Purchasing Sneak Peaks!

So anyone who knows our toddler is not surprised that ELMO is of course his birthday theme. And he is ecstatic! Over the baby monitor every morning since we began the planning of his party, we hear "Elmo bertday" repeated over and over. All day long he talks about "baby bertday," "elmo bertday party," and of course "Elmo bertday take." I made the mistake of buying the cake mix early and when he spots it in the kitchen, Emmett has a mini meltdown about having his Elmo "bertday" now, to which I reply, "Baby, we have to wait." He hates waiting.

AAAANYWHO!!! I have created an initial budget for our party, which is not much, but enough to make a great party for ours and Emmett's friends while still leaving enough for a few adorable gifts:).

My initial purchases include:

• Streamers
• Sesame Street B-day banner
• "Crayon" candles, no.2 candle
• Invites 
• Mason jars for kids' drinks
• Felt, ribbon and bracelets for Tyler's and my character outfits
• Etsy- surprise (adorable) favors!
• Red posterboard for Elmo sign

There will definitely be photos of the end result, but I couldn't wait to post a lil' somthin' somthin' about Emmett's b-day adventure!!!!

Toddler Mumbo-Jumbo Cuteness!

So I haven't been on here in forever, but so many things are different that I feel the need to record a few new things in our lives.
Firstly, some baby adorableness. Spoilers: bubble toes, "bippers" and lots of "whop!"!!!
 Yay!

So here's the bubba stuff. It's the cutest. It's all I really want to talk about anyway;) So my little baby is so independent and free-thinking these days. He morphed from a slightly-confused-about-the-world one-year-old into a 22 month old who talks about everything in two- to three-word sentences.  Whew! that's a lot of hyphens. Aaaaanyways, little Bubba repeats everything and absolutely loves learning new words. The latest adorable vocab adventures have been the most fun. For instance, one night while Daddy was bathing the little man, Hubby told the baby that he needed to wash his toes and get all the bubbles off, spurring a bought of "bubble toes!!!" that lasted several rounds.

Additionally, the other morning while changing Bubba's overnight diaper he grabbed my slipper and I decided to teach him a more specific term for the so-called "shoe." This inspired the cutest little "Momma's bipper" that you ever did hear. I just had to record this because I NEVER want to forget how my baby sounds right now! Never!!!
Other insanely cute pronunciations include: "ic-ky bapper," "bup," and "Momma's bootee" (<<anyone care to guess that one???).

Lastly, there's "whop." Whop has become ubiquitous in our household now; wherein Tyler and I use the term to mean "whoops" or "uh-oh" though that's not it's original definition. That is how our toddler pronounces, "ribbit!" This leads into one of the cutest stories of all time. I wasn't there to witness it but the retelling of the story by Tyler makes me laugh incredibly hard anyway. One morning when Daddy was changing the baby's diaper, while the baby was in his docile, quiet state, and all of a sudden he straightens his legs out and "boings" them out like a frog (who is lying on its back on a changing table). When Daddy asks, "Baby, what was that?," the baby replies with a simple, "Whop" (in his sleepy, deep voice no less). My baby's morning brain is hilarious. 

Here are a few cute photos from a few months back, I'm going to try to update more often. I love that this is like a digital diary of my baby/toddler cuteness!:)

April--- Cute bedtime pitifulness 

April----playing violin with Papa!