Mess Making

Here's to learning through messy play!  Ingrid used to love painting, playing with rice and beans, washing dishes, and other messy activities.  Somehow I forgot about that and we hadn't done it in a long time.  But this week we have done plenty. 

I got the bowl of rice and beans out, to see how Otis would do.  He is in the shove-everything-into-your-mouth phase so I thought maybe he'd try to eat it, but surprisingly after I told him no a couple times he stopped trying to eat anything.  He loved to throw the rice and play with the guys.

Ingrid sat by and licked the beater from the cookies we were making at the time.

Yesterday Ingrid asked to do shaving cream painting so we did.  It was way messier than the first time, because I used too much food dye.  The blue was staining my hands so I had to mix more shaving cream in.  Luckily it did not stain them.  Otis was having a LOT of fun!

And then today after playing at a friend's house, we stopped by the thrift store and scored this fun toy.  Ingrid said she had it at school, and I can totally see this being in a Montessori class.  There are cards with pictures on it and rainbow foam pieces in different shapes.  You have to match the shapes up to make the pictures, it's pretty neat actually.  Ingrid loved it!  And it was only 90cents, yay!

He's Walking!

It started out with tentative steps and has turned into full blown, across the house walking!  I forgot how much I just love watching new walkers--they have such precarious balance, their arms stuck straight out, a few drunken sailor steps here and there.  But they are so proud of themselves!  Such a  new thing to learn, how exciting.

This video is sure to be one Otis hates me for later on.  He has a vintage Hawaiian shirt (the first ever vintage kid thing I bought when I was 19) socks and shoes.  And no pants.  He was wearing pants 90% of the day and I just happened to choose the five minutes he wasn't to take this video.  My poor children, I find pants optional apparently...

Yesterday we also tried giving Otis a spoon and some yogurt.  He loves yogurt and applesauce but hates to be fed, so I gave him a bowl and a spoon and let him at it.  He threw the spoon aside and used his hand to slurp the yogurt off of.  It was pretty messy, we had bathtime in the middle of the day.  I used to let Ingrid make messes all the time and she just loved it, I need to remember this with Otis!

Troublemaker.

Otis has begun getting into things in a major way.  Every time I'm not looking he gets into something.  First it was the catbox.  Now it's climbing on things.  My sewing nook is not safe...

He has started walking, too, which means even more trouble!!  I forgot how fun it is to watch a baby learn how to walk.  He's so proud of himself!

Another fun thing is to see Otis doing things Ingrid used to do.  We made black bean soup and he went to town on it, much like Ingrid did at that age.

Mmmmmmmm.

Dishes and Diapers

Since we have a dishwasher I never have to wash dishes in the sink.  That being so, I forgot how much Ingrid loves to splash around in dishwater.  The other day I had a bunch of bottles and pumping stuff to wash, and Ingrid came in all smiles "can I wash dishes, too??"  So we put a towel on the floor and she went to town splashing around.  She told me she was making me a water cake.

Today after our doctor's appointment--where we found out Otis is 6lbs 6oz!!!!--we headed over to the cloth diaper store to see what they had in the used section.  We have a bunch of prefolds but the newborn size Prowraps are a bit big on our little man, so they leak a bit.  I was so pleased to find a huge stash of Bum Genius AIOs in the extra small size.  They are truly newborn sized diapers and fit our chicken legged guy really well.  We bought all six that they had!

While looking through this little colorful stash it hit me that we have only bought one diaper brand new!  I found an extra small FuzziBunz on Amazon for super cheap in only one color (bright green which I would've bought anyway!)  Other than that we have always gotten used diapers.  I am such a cheapskate :) 

In other news, Ingrid is learning new things in leaps and bounds!!  Brendan has been drawing letters with her and she is getting really good at making Ws and Hs.  Tonight she drew one and said "this isn't good enough for me, I'm going to erase it."  Ha!  Little perfectionist.  She's also recognizing that words on the pages of books actually tell the story.  This will be a problem someday, as I usually skim over parts of books if they are too long for her attention span.  But now she's asking me what each word is.  I have a feeling she won't let me get away with the skimming over thing for much longer!!

Numbers and Colors

It's snowing like crazy here today. Brendan wanted me to drive him to work so he wouldn't have to but I declined like the selfish wife I am! I don't want to get in the car with Ingrid today at all. Especially after I heard from my friend who was stuck on the highway for two hours trying to get to my house for a playdate. Apparently there was a bad accident and the highway was closed...People drive like maniacs around here and then can't handle it when they have to go slow for bad weather. Thus, they don't go slow and there are lots of accidents. And I don't drive on bad weather days. Instead we were supposed to have a playdate, but one friend was sick and the other, as mentioned, never made it here. So we baked banana bread, played with blocks, the train set, and crayons. Then I got the paint out. Ingrid was in heaven--she painted lots of pictures and got herself covered in paint. Green in her hair, yellow on her forehead, blue in her ear. It was messy. But fun.


And this sweet video is from yesterday. Yes, Ingrid is wearing a skirt, and no, we did not go out in the snow in a skirt! She changes bottoms about three times a day and this is what she found in her closet. She is constantly amazing Brendan and I by picking up things like numbers. She can count to ten, and the other day I was doing eleven twelve and thirteen. When I said thirteen she said "fourteen?" How on earth did she know that came next??


And that's about it. Brendan's sent out some resumes so hopefully we'll know more about our future soon. Until then, it's the same old same old. Which isn't bad.