Fall Sesnory Play for 17 Month Old

FALL IS HERE!

My little guy is 17 months old now and is such an explorer.  He picks up on things pretty quickly now too, so it's time to start some fun learning type activities that are age appropriate for him.

Day #1:
Fall Sensory Play

I got this idea from THIS PIN ON PINTEREST

 

I found things from around the house that I already had: fall leaves, pine cones, acorns, burlap, a sunflower

and bought styrofoam pumpkins from the dollar tree.  Four in a bag for $1

The pumpkins were by far his favorite.  I think because they are most like balls.  He threw them, kicked them, scattered them.  We used them to count.

Fun play for a beautiful fall day outside.

Mother/Son Outing to The Magic House

We took advantage of a Magic House Groupon that happen to pop up in our area.  HALF PRICE!  We had a membership with our daughter when she was younger and it was great!

We've already been 4 times in a month with friends, our family, and me and my little guy have gone once on our own.  Here's video of our day together...

A Week in the Life with my Two Kiddos - August 2014

Because my little girl is back in school now, there is a lot more time with just me and my little man now.  We have had some fun and not so fun times trying to figure out our new routine without big sister.  Here's some of the time's I caught on tape.

Alyssa's 8th Birthday Video

May 24, 2014
I can't believe my baby girl is EIGHT years old!

She is in 3rd grade this year.  She's grown so fast it seems.

This year she wanted to have a bedroom makeover instead of a birthday party.  Which, of course, she chose a Disney Frozen theme.  Boy am I glad she still has some little girl princess in her :)

We weren't going to let her birthday go uncelebrated even though she decided that she didn't want to have a party with friends.  We took her to Sweet & Sassy, a salon/girly store dedicated to this age range.  She was pampered with a manicure, pedicure, hairstyle with hair "scent," a glitter tattoo.  We also let her make some facial scrub.  Afterwards we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with family.

She had a pretty fun day.  We ended the day back at home for cake, ice cream, and presents.  What a lucky mom I am to have this little girl as my daughter.  Love her so much!

Here's the video of her special day:

Carter's 16 Month Update

This about sums up our Carter Lee...

However, I can elaborate on all that too.

This little guy is no longer my baby boy, but my little boy now.

He is an outside boy through and through.  He gets crabby, we grab his shoes and out the door we go.  He's been great about staying close to me and not running off.  He has his moments, but then comes right back around.  He loves to slide and swing.  He loves to dig in the sandbox, help me garden, blow bubbles, and draw on the sidewalk with chalk.  He loves to swim, play with balls and trucks out in the grass.  We have been outside A LOT this summer.

Caught him mid "hey!"

Biggest thing since he turned 1 year old is the talking.  He always gibber gabbers and sometimes he really is trying to get a point across but we have no idea what he's saying.  What we DO understand now are the following words:

Hi

Bye Bye

down

done

kitty

bubble

"what's this?"

"there it is" - more like "there is"

the end

sis and sissy

UH OH!

shoes

cheese

Hey!
YAY!

fish

He also signs the following words:
done

milk

eat

more

and we are working on "potty"

He blows kisses, plays patty cake (love the roll it up part), favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus"

We are actually in the VERY early potty training stages.  He has used it nearly everyday give or take a few, for the last 3 weeks at least once a day.  One day we got twice in a single day.  I just put him on the potty before and after bath time and usually that works.  He says "yay!" claps, gets tissue, and helps flush.  We added in M&M rewards this week which he seems to like.  Just trying to get him to wrap him head around the concept of what the potty is and what you do with it.  No way is he ready for full on potty training, and he may not be for quite awhile, but this is a good start for him.

We are still cloth diapering - you can read more about that HERE

He is a BIG eater right now.  There isn't really anything we do not give him that we aren't eating at meal time.  He went through a phase for about a week or two where he didn't want to hardly eat anything, but that quickly turned around. He did go through a period where he protested eating veggies, but we found he liked to dip them in salad dressing that got us through that phase.  Now he seems to eat most everything on his plate with or without something for dipping.  He LOVES fruit.  Always eats that first.

He is still nursing 1-2 times a day.  Only during nap and bedtime just to get him to go to sleep.  He usually does just fine with a bottle if he's with my parents or his daddy at bedtime (yes, I'm ok that he takes a bottle for bedtime still right now, it's the closest to the breast if I'm not there).  I did pump while we were away for two nights on a trip, but otherwise he no longer has a freezer supply of milk and has whole milk if I'm not there (which isn't that often).  He gets whole milk at breakfast and other then that he gets water the rest of the day.

Sleeping Angel

SLEEPING!  That's been a new and wonderful change.  We struggled with nap times, and bed times, getting him to go down.  Naps weren't as bad as bedtime.  He loved his naps and was napping twice a day, but then way up till 10-11pm.  Not only that he wasn't sleeping well at night and was up constantly.  To the point where I was over the sleep deprivation.  So I decided to take out one of his daytime naps and he in response he started going to bed earlier and then also SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT.  He was about 14.5 months old when he finally started to sleep good and for a good 10-12 hours a night. (I say this as he was up at 1:30am last night, which must have been a fluke b/c he hasn't done that in weeks).  So HALLELUIAH for SLEEP!!!

Morning play time

His routine right now with sissy back in school for the year:

7-7:30am: Wakes Up

Breakfast and play time till about 10:30 when I start thinking about lunch

11am - lunch

11:30 - nap time

1:30-2:00 he gets up from his nap

Get sissy from school at 3pm

Homework with sissy then time to start cooking dinner at 4:30pm

Dinners usually ready by 5:30-6pm

We hang out as a family till 7:30 then it's bath and shower time

Bedtime is at 8:30pm for both kiddos

We are usually up till 11pm working or cleaning up or trying to relax

It's a busy kind of day but it is working for us right now.

Carter had a 15 month check up but he was closer to 16 months when we got in there.  He was:

21 lbs

31" long

Pretty much average for his age

He also got two vaccinations last week and has to go back in November for more :(

Aside from all that he's pretty much a wonderful little boy!  He has his times where he doesn't like the car and shopping is one of his least favorite things to do.  But he's pretty normal.  He makes us laugh every single day.  He makes me smile ear to ear with pride.  I wasn't sure what to expect with having a little boy after I knew how much I loved having my little girl, but it is just simply amazing having a son.  It truly is different but wonderfully different.  He is mine and I am his.

Summer 2014

 This summer was CRAZZZY!!!!

With a capital Z

I am not sure why I felt the need to make sure we "did it all," but that we did.  Here's a few of the things we did that I have photos from. 

Alyssa's 8th Birthday

Branson Vacation: inside the zoo's bird cage.  Carter thought it was pretty neat

Branson Landing

Shopping in Branson - huge rocking chair

Circus

Trip to the farm to pick strawberries, but it raining.  Still had a lot of fun with all the attractions

Alyssa visiting her cousin and God Mother at EKU

Kids at the splash pad.  We went here a few times this summer.  Both kids love it there.

 

 

First time eating at the big table instead of the highchair

Visit from Carter's Great Uncle who was in from Florida

Grandma C's 50th birthday party

Lowe's build and grow clinic.  We also did several of these this summer.  I've gotten kits for Carter and take them home for him to do when he gets older; however, Alyssa builds hers at the store.  She really enjoys it.

Kids super tired after the day at a water park.  No pictures from the park b/c of the fear of water ruining a camera.  But we needed to run into Home Depot on our way home and you can tell they are wiped out.

Nintendo event at the mall.  Carter got to meet lots of the gaming characters.

First painting experience at the Magic House.  He could have painted all day, he really really liked the paint. 

Silly boy, gets himself stuck under chairs and stools and cries for dear life for someone to rescue him. 

Mommy watched Carter's buddies one day and they all had a fun time hanging out and playing

backyard splashing in his new shark swim trunk set

Trying on sissy's make up (shhhh... don't tell her)

4th of July before the fireworks

Popsicle and the 4th of July parade

Alyssa ready to ride on the firetruck for a parade with her daddy

A day at the farm.  Playing with kitties, chickens, and horses

ANOTHER hair cut.  We are up to 6 now

Summer reading program at the library

Alyssa's first time lighting candles at church

Dropping sissy off at her BIG week long girl scout camp

Alyssa's first official friends slumber party

Playing at the YMCA kids room while mommy worked out

Rock climbing

Mother/Daughter Day!  Roller skating!

Alyssa with her favorite horse Gabby

 

 

Sissy's 1st day of 3rd grade!

We really enjoyed this summer.  Carter was finally big enough to come run around and have fun with us although he still needs a lot of close attention.  I think after last summer we just stayed in so often (hottest summer in decades last year), that we needed to make up for it this year.  Alyssa went on 3 vacations, had girl scout camp, and 4 vacation bible schools.  She also did swim lessons, the reading program at the library, and an online math course.  Besides that we celebrated 4th of July, a couple birthdays, went to parades, the circus, the Magic House, the park and spash pad, had playdates at home and away from home.  I started 5K training 3 days a week till 5 weeks in I broke my toe.  We had church every Sunday, went to the county fair a few times.  Steve has Fire Drill every Monday.  I made it out of the house a few times ALONE to hang out with "the girls."  I also had quite a few visits to the dentist to have some work done.

And now that summer is "over" (school is back in session), I hope that we can slow down :)  HA!  Guess that's probably not the case with Girl Scouts starting this week and more dentist appointments for me and Alyssa both.  We are all ready for fall, the fall weather, the rich colors, the comfort foods, the fun of Halloween and so on.

What a blessing this summer was.

16 Month Photo Shoot

He's reached that "little boy" stage.  No longer a little baby.  It's hard to admit; however, he is also such a joy right now that it's hard to be sad too.  I will do a formal 16 month update soon.  Until then, here is my littlest pride and joy...

All photos were taken by me.  I am no professional by any means, but I like to think I do a decent job.  As long as I have captured this little guy and his features as well as some of his personality at this stage, then I'm happy to have saved these memories.