Tot School - Letter G g

Turbo is 31 months; Sweet Pea is 6 months

We've had so much fun this past month. I must say that with this time off, I'm a bit out of practice in having my camera near by. So I didn't get as many pictures as I'd like.

G is for Grocery Store - again, sorry about the lack of pictures!
- Cut pictures from the Safeway ad and glued them onto a list
- 'shopped' at our pretend grocery store using our play kitchen food & pennies
- Field trip to Safeway!  His first time loose in the grocery store.  All things considered, he did great!  The most fun was the produce department. He helped me pick the produce, put it in a bag and then weigh each bag before tossing it into the cart. Typically I have Sweet Pea in her car seat in the basket of the cart. Obviously that wouldn't work this trip! So I had her in a front carrier. It limited my mobility a bit in chasing Turbo when needed, but other than a minor apple pile tumble, we didn't cause too much damage.   There were so many learning opportunities at the store - Scales, weight, vegetables, fruits, quantity, etc.  The next time I'll leave Sweet Pea with Rick so Turbo and I can do list shopping and more.

Glitter - Lots of texture here and it was fun to draw letters and shapes in it too.

G g matching - Turbo placed all the G g correctly, but when it was time to glue them, he lost interest in sorting.

Shapes with fingers - Surprising, this was a harder for him than I expected. The easiest is the triangle. We're making circles with our arms as it's challenging for him to make them with his fingers.

Money Play - Turbo loves playing with coins. He typically carries them around, puts them in his 'purse' or plays with them in his Cozy Coupe Car. This day he was dropping them in the bottle - figuring out the quarters didn't fit, so he stacked them on the top. 

Sensory
Foam Peanuts

Flour 

Same / Different Cards

Box Guitar - if you've been around here awhile, you'll know that Turbo loves music! His piano has been his prized toy every day and I thought he'd like a guitar. I saw this on a crafting site that I can't find again. :0(  Get yourself a kleenex box, a paper towel tube and some large rubber bands. I used a felt bar as the bridge, but you can use a dowel, pencil, pen (with the point/ink part removed) or maybe even a straw - it just needs to hold the bands up a bit.  Cut a hole the size of your tube in the side of the box. Paint everything. Assemble and play.  I suggest reinforcing the top of the box on the side where you cut the hole. The rubber bands made it collapse a bit after a few days.

Real Guitar - His new favorite toy.  I will post a video of his first day playing it. This kid's a natural I tell ya.

Here's a picture of him at Toys R Us last november. This is right next to the train table and a bunch of other toys available for the kids to play. This is what he wanted to do.

Rainy Day Fun - we had a lot of storms the past 4 weeks. In fact it hailed so much one day, the ground was white!

Hammer and Ice ~ This kid loves to eat ice.  While potty training we needed to give him A LOT of liquids. This was one of the ways I kept him very well hydrated. He gets to smash the ice into edible pieces. He thinks this is terrific, so we've done it several more times. 

Have I lost you all yet? I didn't realize this was turning into a marathon post! Guess that's what happens when you don't post for a month.  While we did so much more, I just don't have pictures of most it. 

That's Sassy

When I ask Turbo to do something, occasionally all the time lately,  he looks right at me and says "NO". I've been telling him, "That's sassy to say no to Mommy. When I ask you to do something you need to say  "Yes Mommy".

Today he asked me to play starfall.com and I was in the middle of doing something with Sweet Pea and said quickly said "no".  He comes right over to me, looked me in the eye and said "That's sassy to say no Mommy. You need to say "Yes, Turbo" (except he used his real name).  Oh my, I'm still laughing about that!!

Where are we?

Have you been hearing the sounds of crickets on my blog? Our break has been considerably longer than I anticipated! I thought we'd be back to full Tot School and blogging by the 2nd week of January.  Uh, not quite.

I can't believe we've only been home for 5 week!  We got back from vacation then my Mom came to visit, then we potty trained, then Rick's parents came and this week I'm sick. I've completely lost my voice and my poor husband is again out of town and can't enjoy it. (Just kidding, right honey!) Sweet Pea is 6 months old and the funny thing is this happened to me when Turbo was 6 months old too.   I lost my voice 3 times between him being 6-9months. I wonder if there's any connection between their 6 month mark and a decrease in my immune system. We'll see if it happens again. Not if I can help it! Anyway, then Rick's parents come back next week, then I head out to San Antonio for my brother's Air Force Basic Training graduation.  Then it's March!

While we're still doing Tot School things each week, my creative prep work and blogging has taken a back seat these past 5 weeks.  I have a limited amount of evening time and I've been spending it learning something terrific! I'm learning some serious money saving strategies involving coupons. 

Towards the end of last year, I decided a goal for 2010 would be to get savvy about really saving in my everyday budget.  Things are going great! In January, my average saving for all my purchases (not including eating out) was 73%! Wow!  To do this I shopped sales, used coupons and submitted rebates.  Coupon shopping now certainly isn't what I did 12 years ago!  There's nothing like leaving the grocery store with 8 boxes of triscuits/wheat thins and 4 packages of mission tortillas for ...nothing.  Just a smile and thank you
In the mean time, please stay tuned, I'll be back with our regularly scheduled programming soon!!  Our latest letter is G g, so watch for a post up this weekend for sure!

Potty Training Update - Days 2-5

WOW! I can't believe how fast it's gone.  I'm so far behind in posting, that I'm going to make this a quick recap

Day 2 (Saturday) ~ "Mommy, need a diaper"  This was heard again today during his normal pooping time. When we told him he wore underware and went on the potty, he replied "Need a diaper, so sad about that" with those big eyes filling up with tears. Later in the day, he managed to escape our view for a minute and hide out of site to go poo. Rick caught up with him just 30 seconds after and got Turbo to the potty. He didn't go any more, but it was our first training moment for #2.  As for the pees ~ he stayed dry ALL day again!

Day 3 (Sunday) ~ We decided to brave a family lunch outing since he'd been doing so well.  We went to one of his favorite places, Baja Fresh. This kid loves guacamole and mango salsa!  It's 15 minutes each way, door to door. We had him go potty before we left, then we had a leisurely lunch and came back home.  I was honestly so surprised he didn't have an accident! By the time we got home it had been 1 1/2 hours since his last potty and he'd drank a big milk at lunch!   He went the whole day with no accidents!


Day 4 (Monday) ~ Rick went to work, so the three of us (Turbo, Sweet Pea and I) flew solo for potty training. Guess what, we had a pee accident. He was playing with the games on our iPod Touch and I was making lunch and didn't remember to ask him if he was dry for awhile. When I asked again, we both realized he'd had an accident.  In this moment, I was reminded that this is still new him and that I have to remember to continue asking him and celebrating if he's dry.  As for #2,  he didn't ask for a diaper today! He felt that he had to go and ran into the bathroom. By the time he got there, he had gone in his pants. However, he is making steps in the right direction!


Day 5 (Tuesday) ~ WOOHOO! He made it to the potty for his poop! He actually tried about 5 times to go throughout the day and one time actually went.  By the time he had gotten to the potty he'd gone 1/2 way in his underware, but finished the other half on the potty!!! He was so proud of himself. We celebrated and called Daddy right away.  Another huge milestone today, he went pee in a public potty.  He doesn't like that the flushes are so loud and was very nervous about going. We compromised that he would go, then leave the bathroom and I would flush. It worked for today.  For the next trip, I'll have the portable potty that arrived today. My girlfriend recommended it and it seems to be great. I'll post more about it after Turbo uses it.


Tomorrow is Wednesday. Rick is picking up his parents from the airport for their visit and taking Turbo along. It's 45-60 minutes each way. We thought we'd put a pull-up on him, but Rick doesn't think he needs it. I'm inclined to agree. We'll see how it goes!