Uh, Weird

Have you EVER seen anything like this before?  The ball is less than a month old.  Last night at 8:00 it was fine.  This morning at 8:00, it had a problem.

No way to explain it to the return desk at Target.

At Play . . . with Mellow Men

So, Mom would do this with us when we were little. We would also add decorations with raisins, and whatever else we could stick with a toothpick. I remember having the best time with it and decided it was time for Evy to build his own man. They had a blast!

(We ate the finished men before I could get a picture, but you get the idea.)

At Play . . . Tree Eggs

There is this type of tree that has these HUGE, heavy, green, orange-shaped balls that fall from the limbs. Some of these things are larger than basketballs. We see them all over our area. They get squashed by cars, they look like brains, they float, and they are really-really ugly. Today we found one that was small enough to be investigated.

The insides are very sappy, milky. Evidently the seeds are edible but harder to harvest than seeds in a banana. We did some research and found that they are called hedgeapples. Or as Evy calls them, tree eggs. It was pretty cool.

This is how Merritt helps in our investigation.

At Play . . . with Big Brother Books

Everett has two books that are his favorites and have been for quite awhile now. He chooses these books over all the other ones about cars, animals, trucks, and the other books that light up and have music. It is really sweet to see him read these books with his dad. Everett will also read the books to Merritt as if he is telling Merritt how he is and will be a good big brother to him.

One book is I'm Going to be a Big Brother by Brenda Bercun, and we bought it for him a couple of months before Merritt was born. This is his favorite page. It describes what is dangerous for babies to play with followed by the page about what toys are good for babies. It is like he is constantly studying to be The Protector. We always play a game of finding what toys are bad for Merritt and what toys are good for Merritt after we read the book.

The second book is one that my sister sent. I'm a Big Brother by Ronne Randall. Everett really enjoys it and can basically tell us the story as we turn the pages. (of course we substitute his and Merritt's names for the ones in the book.)

Evy's favorite page.

At Play . . . With Goodbyes

When Daddy travels, things become rough around here. Dada is the early morning playmate, the evening playmate, and the ever present night-time book reader. Everett has a difficult time when Erik goes away . . . far away.

In order to alleviate some of that sadness and "missing" feeling, we have started sending messages with magical balloons. You know the kind, the ones with helium. We write our message on our balloon and send it off. It will go where-ever Dada goes. And I mean, where-ever.

This week, Erik was in RURAL Iowa.

This was the scene at 4:30 in Texas (Evy chose red, Mommy and Merritt chose white):

At 4:45 we were at the requested release site (playground near work---per Everett):

Release at 4:50:

Bye-Bye, Balloons, (jibber-jibber) Dada!

At 5:10, a call from Erik: Hey Guys! Two balloons, a red one and white one, just showed up and gave me a special message. Thank You!

Everett was delighted and talked of the balloons and the special message for the rest of the week instead of his sadness.

At Play . . . On Safari

We've been going on adventures in one of our play tents. Amazingly, you can get a lot of people in this thing. Our favorite thing to do is "spot" animals from the enclosed tent. The bigger the animal the better. Everett has been enjoying it so much that he is sleeping in it full-time now.

Birdies, Pwease!

Everett and I made some pinecone birdfeeders on Monday. Even though we had TEXAS size rain (forgot how big the raindrops are here) they are sticking around and we are getting all kinds of birds coming by for a snack.

There is a cardinal that is quite crafty. He snacks on the birdfeeders constantly but is attuned to ANY movement from the apartment. So, I haven't been able to get a picture of him. But, you'll see his girlfriend below:

Other Birdies That Came By for a Visit

Everett was watching the birds yesterday and yelled,"BUNNY . . . Mom, RABBIT!" I couldn't get there in time, but chances are we have a furry friend making a stop at our casa.

At Play . . . with Owls

Evy and Erik went to a craft session this week held by our association. They had such a great time and made a couple of owls.

I love the pinecone version!

Evy and Friends

Everett has had the opportunity to spend time with his friends these past couple of weeks (mainly because my friends are helping to watch him while I recuperate or go to a doctor's apptment).

Here are some shots of Evy and his friends.

(Thanks, Elise, for sending pictures.)

Everett and Everett (can you tell who is who?)

Everett and Benny (they were in mid-consult about a tricky patient)

I'd like to point out the toy of choice whenever a toddler comes to visit. There hasn't been a toddler that didn't come gravitating back to this one once it was discovered. The balls that come with it require a bit of strength to get through the holes . . . golf balls work perfectly!

At Play with Watercolors & Q-Tips

Toddler attention spans are not long, rather short, one might say minuscule. I've been trying to find what art projects really capture his attention. Stickers do it. Coloring is so-so. Gluing "stuff" is pretty good (I find it boring).

When painting, paint brushes don't keep his attention span and tend to frustrate both of us when he uses them. Today I tried watercolors with q-tips (had cotton balls with me just in case that didn't work). It was the THING! I stopped the painting only because we have chores to do and he wanted to KEEP going. I loved it.

He wanted to mix the colors (easy with watercolors), he wanted to use the q-tips and his fingers (excellent), and he was puzzled by the change in colors when he mixed them (hooray).

The q-tips hold more paint than the paintbrush and apply the paint much more easily which is great because his toddler hands are still developing dexterity.

He was so proud of his painting:

At Play with Acorns

Today we did nothing but play. No chores, no cooking in the kitchen, no trying to push through a contraction to clean a floor, no getting upset that something was upended all over the newly cleaned floors, and no glimpses into the toilet. IT WAS SO FUN!

We went for a walk this afternoon, and I was able to "teach" Everett about acorns and their "hats." Gotta love hats.

After the walk, we took the ones he collected and made a picture (AKA in toddler world that means glued them to paper) and added glitter. "WOW! COOL!" he exclaimed. Gotta love a kid that appreciates glitter.

Oh, and what is that swankily great looking table, you ask? Oh, that! That was the $3.99 buy from my favorite thrift store that I sanded and painted to repurpose into a table for Evy. I think it looks fabulous, too!

Everett: My Morning as a Toddler

6 random times

Camera

Homebound

The Result

Waited for Dad to get out of the shower at 6 something this morning.

Helped to set up the roads and then played on them at 9:33

Tickle Monster at 10:12

Snack at 11:02 (honeycrisp apple and crackers)

I am pretty sure he ate one of the Leaf Window stickers thinking it was red jello.

Hoodie Shot at 11:21

He "clipped" his nails at 11:46

What we didn't take pictures of: puzzle time, running around with crazy stomping, more tickling, throwing balls in the basket, pretending to be airplanes complete with sound effects, chasing the cat, making faces at Mom from the window when Mom went to the mailbox, cooking in the "microwave" during Mom's shower, and using the walls as roads and speedbumps for all his cars.

Pretty soon I won't have the freedom or time to document things like this. I am enjoying it while I can.

At Play . . . with Bubblewrap

In all the textures that Everett and I experience together and play with (including a hot pink feather boa), I totally forgot about bubblewrap.

He sat with that bubblewrap for at least 15 minutes, and I think he only got up because I was going to the mailbox. It was interesting to see him manipulate his fingers and hands to try and "pop" the bubbles--first one at a time and then trying to get as many as possible to pop at once.

At Play with Cars and Trucks

Watching Erik work with painters' tape this weekend created quite a brainstorm in our house. I figured that I could use the tape to build a motorized vehicle play area without committing to any set carpet or other vehicle table to provide Everett more structure for his play (hoping he'll refrain from using the walls as his "train track").

It worked out really well! The painters tape is a dream to come off (I've used it for lots of things other than taping for painting) and we can change it up as often as we want.

Please admire the DC inspired rotary!

At Play with Art

Everett is getting to the age that he can handle and really enjoy art projects. I've been doing some research on links that have some great projects ready for me to use. Key are projects that won't frustrate him and won't frustrate me.

For those of you with toddlers, you might find the following handy:

Arts and Crafts Activities--Toddlers
The Artful Parent
Activities for Toddlers
ToddlerCrafts
ToddlerToddler
TheIdeaBox

OR, if you are trying to save money (who isn't) check out this lady's blog.

At Play with RePurposing

As a former teacher, I still carry the habit of keeping and then repurposing . . . everything. My family knows very well the "icecream tubs" and "tennis balls" I would hunt down/beg for/steal and then repurpose. (Those phrases to this day make Erik grimace.)

For play, I am always reusing containers, boxes, paper, and anything else that can be manipulated. And, what person doesn't get a cheap thrill with the fact that a piece of trash occupied a toddler?

I keep all of the cards we get and use them when we read books. We are able to talk about the picture, why we received the card, and who sent the card to us. I love it when I am able to point to the picture of the person that sent the card to help make more meaning for him. (The homemade cards get thrashed first--so, I pull them out to keep before they are shredded. Most of these cards are from his 1st birthday.)

Everett loves our name badges for work. So, I made a badge of cards for him with old gift cards, hotel keys, and the fake plastic credit cards we get in the mail. He loves it. Recently, we have used the cards to talk about color. I never thought I would get this much mileage out of trash.

We also hang on to pictures and birth announcements. We get to talk about the people in the pictures and, really, what young toddlers aren't fascinated with the baby face.

One thing I have stopped repurposing is a variety of containers for bathtime. He would use them to displace the water from the tub as if he was on a sinking ship and bailing out water to save his life. He does have one old detergent cap that he uses to drink water out of from the tub faucet. Other than that, everything has else has holes.