Month: May 2019

Play with a Pile of Pennies

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If you’re traveling with a preschooler, look no further than the pennies in your wallet for heaps of entertainment. Travis and I had fun with a few variations on penny games over a recent weekend away!

For the first, place a plastic bowl on the floor. Challenge your child to see if they can get all the pennies in the bowl dropping them from a height.

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We liked seeing how high we could go – from all the way over our head?

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Travis decided it worked best from forehead height!

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Next we placed a penny under a piece of paper, and traced over it to reveal Abraham Lincoln.

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Get silly and add a little hat and body!

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Finally, we played a guessing game: If we tossed our whole handful of pennies, would there be more heads or tails?

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This was Travis’s favorite of the games. We played a few rounds and counted them up each time. If you want to be more statistcal about it, make a chart and see how many times you’re right out of 10 tosses (or more!)

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How else could you play with pennies on a trip? Please share in the comments!

Instant Replay

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I try not to bring smart phones into my kids’ worlds too often, but sometimes modern technology presents neat opportunities for fun and games with babies.

Today while she played, I recorded a few clips of Veronika. This was a great way to capture her sounds, actions, babbling, and more.

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More than just providing you with a keepsake, playing back the recording can become a game. Veronika was fascinated with the video.

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She loved when I pressed play and she got to watch the little baby on the phone babble and play with toys. She probably still doesn’t recognize herself, but she did love the sound and motion (and of course the screen itself!).

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Mind Your Manners

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It’s never too early to start modeling good behavior and manners for your baby; after all, you are their first and best role model!

Today, I made a point of exaggerating manners for Veronika. For example, at meal time and play time I pointedly used the words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. “Please may I have the spoon back, Veronika?”

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Or: “Thank you for sharing your toy, Veronika!”

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These are two words that are great for baby sign language, too. ‘Thank you’ is a simple motion of your fingertips forward from your chin. ‘Please’ is an open hand rubbing on your chest. Encourage big siblings to sign these words when they interact with your baby – Travis loves showing off his skills!

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Make sure, too, to highlight ‘thank you’ after your child receives a gift. Good manners go a long way!

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And of course, I make a point of pleases and thank yous when I take Veronika out on errands.  It’s a helpful reminder for me as a grown-up, and she gets a good lesson!

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Start a News Book

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Often, one parent is home with a child while the other is at work, or perhaps you and your spouse take turns and you both feel like you occasionally miss out on baby’s “news.” Either way, babies change so quickly that it can feel like you miss a lot, even in 24 hours. Enter this idea of a “news book” about your baby’s day. Although it would be tough to keep up this activity on a regular basis, it’s great for a day when your know another family member might feel left out.

You can take pictures on your phone and just forward them along, but there’s something about the instant camera that’s so much more fun. At various points throughout Veronika’s day today, I snapped a quick pic.

Starting with early playtime!

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I arranged the photos into a simple lined notebook, nothing fancy. If you want, though, decorate with photo corners, illustrations, or scrapbook stickers! I labeled each photo, and added the approximate time. Nap time, Daddy!

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And here she is at play in a fun local museum.

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Older siblings may enjoy taking pictures, too, which is a nice way to get them involved in a younger sibling’s day.

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You can also note any milestones that happen, perhaps if baby rolls for the first time. We made a note of Veronika’s first tooth poking through the gums!

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At the end of the day, we left a sweet note for Daddy to find so he could share in our day, even if he was home after the rest of us were asleep!

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Rubber Band Launchers, Two Ways

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Ok, we’ve launched marshmallows from cups and rockets from straws, so now it was time for Travis to play around with how he could launch things with rubber bands!

First up, thanks to a renewed fascination with bugs, was a Spider Launcher. This project was a little tricky; we had to redo it twice before we got the elastics right!

First, cover a sturdy cardboard tube (such as an empty roll of packing tape) with construction paper.

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We chose orange because, well, spiders and Halloween and all that, but any color would work. Glue or tape the paper on.

Glue 4 lollipop sticks around the tube so that they form a square.

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Leave these to dry for at least 2 hours, so your structure is sturdy. Full disclosure: we did have one pop off, and I duct-taped it back on.

To make your “web,” slip an elastic over all 4 posts. Loop it around each post, then push down to the bottom of the sticks.

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Slip a second elastic over the post. Completely lift the first one up and over the second elastic (so only your second elastic is now looped on the lollipop sticks, if that makes sense).

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Repeat with a third elastic, slipping it around the post, and then lifting the second elastic completely up and over it.

Repeat with a fourth elastic, slipping the third elastic completely up and over it. Confused yet? I hope the visual helps!

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Now place a toy spider in the middle. Pull back on the tautest, center of your web. Snap the elastic back, and spider flies!

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This was tricky for my four year old, but he could do it with help for bigger launches, and by himself for shorter launches.

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Even better, his bug toys now had a web to call home, so overall it was a success!

Since this turned out to be so complicated, I also asked him if he wanted to make a much simpler rubber band launcher, using just with a couple of elastics and a cup. Here, then, is the Rubber Band-Powered Cup Launcher.

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Put two rubber bands on a sturdy paper cup so they form a cross.

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(Note: It may help to stretch your rubber bands out a few times to loosen them, or your paper cups will crumple).

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Place a third rubber band around the cup to hold the other two in place.

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Press this cup down over a second paper cup. The elastics will go taut, and when you release… Boing!

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This one is simple enough to do with a crowd of kids, and would be a fun one outdoors, perhaps for any upcoming Memorial Day barbecues!

Make a Father’s or Mother’s Day Gift

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With Mother’s and Father’s Day just around the corner, here’s the perfect idea for your spouse: Put together a gift featuring photos or sounds of your little ones. The following gifts will actually be mine to my husband in June, but adapt them for a special mom this coming Sunday, if you’d like!

There are so many websites on which you can make photo projects. I used simple software at Zazzle for two versions.

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The first was a tote bag, featuring one big photo of the kids.

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The second was a mug, which was able to feature three pics, plus a sweet inscription.

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As a final photo touch, I added a picture of Veronika to the front of a card.

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The final piece of the gift was auditory: a recording of Veronika’s babbles to be a ringtone!

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These personalized gifts are sure to make a mom or dad feel special, whether it’s the first Mother’s/Father’s Day, the tenth, or beyond!

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More Piggy Toes

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How is Vernoika six months old, and yet I’ve barely played “This Little Piggy” with her? After all, doesn’t every baby get tickles after that little piggy runs wee wee wee all the way home? It was time to remedy the situation!

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No doubt you’re familiar with the rhyme, but I have two silly vegan variations that I always use. For the first:

This little piggy went to market.

This little piggy stayed home.

This little piggy had roast beef,

But this little piggy was vegan!

And this little piggy went wee wee wee wee wee all the way home.

The second version goes:

This little piggy went to market.

This little piggy stayed home.

This little piggy had tofu,

And this little piggy had none!

And this little piggy went wee wee wee wee wee all the way home.

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Wiggle one toe for each line, working your way from the big toe to the smallest, then run that little last toe up for tickles. Veronika’s sweet spot is her armpit!

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To add to the day’s play, I pulled out a few plastic pig toys.

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She of course didn’t make the connection, but loved playing with them and their barn!

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Balancing on a Ball

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The last time I put Veronika on a beach ball, she was only about three months old, and the goal was to strengthen her core muscles.

Today’s time on the ball was for a slightly different purpose, more about learning where her body is in space.

Say what? This is a funny concept for grown-ups; of course you know where your hands and feet and limbs are! But it’s all new to babies, and at six months old, they still have to look at their hands to know where those hands are and where to put them. Moving around on a ball will help strengthen spacial awareness. And of course the sooner baby knows where his or her hands are, the sooner he or she can reach out to grab things like toys or oh, all those yummy bites of food they’re old enough for now!

Today’s activity was simple then. I put Veronika on a ball, holding her firmly around the middle, and rocked her back and forth.

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And side to side.

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She seemed a little surprised at times, but soon warmed up with big smiles.

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If you don’t have a beach ball, try a yoga stability ball, or even a big sibling’s toy ball hopper.

Set the Alarm

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When your baby is a newborn (i.e. the fourth trimester), naps are all over the place. But now at six months old, those naps should hopefully be a bit more predictable. Even Veronika, who naps when and where she can on big brother’s schedule, has settled into a routine of 3 naps a day – a quick morning one, a longer one late morning, and a third one mid-afternoon to get her through to the evening.

One secret about naps is that they are reliably 45 minutes long, unless a baby is startled awake. Why? Because that’s the length of a sleep cycle. When a baby matures enough to fall back asleep, that 45 minutes turns into a full 90 minute nap. That gives you lots of time, if you use it wisely!

And I hear you busy parents; naps are crucial for getting things done! But they’re also crucial for self-care. I’m as guilty as the rest, so here’s a new trick I’m implementing: Set an alarm for 30 minutes, then take time to relax.

She’s out! Time to set the timer.

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For those 30 minutes, I power through whatever needs to get done: bills, writing, cleaning, organizing, you name it. But when the 30 minutes are up, it’s time to relax.

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That might mean having a cup of tea, or reading a book. For me, it’s usually a pot of coffee and a magazine. And then if I’m lucky and she stirs at the 45 minute mark, I can take her in my arms and she might – just might! – settle back in for a second 45 minutes on me. Which is the best.

Travis vs. Veronika

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If you have more than one child, six months old is a great age to take stock of a few things. I thought it would be fun to look through the monthly photos I’d taken of each kid and do a side-by-side comparison. Looking through the pix will be fun for the whole family, too.

I printed wallet-sized sets of the pictures so I could put them in a book for both kids to enjoy. Let’s take a peak!

Here they are at birth, each one only hours old.

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Little 1 month olds!

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2 months old – I feel like their little personalities are starting to show up in their expressions.

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It looks like I have a thing for pastel pants at 3 months old!

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But I definitely didn’t plan it that way!

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And for navy blue at 4 months old.

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By 5 months, I can really see the boy Travis will become.

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Will the same hold true for Veronika?

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And finally, my 6 month old kiddos:

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It was also interesting to go back and make a few notes on when they each reached milestones. For instance, I found in my baby journal that Travis first rolled at only 2 months – but he only rolled sporadically thereafter. Veronika, on the other hand, waited until she was 4 months old – but then she never stopped, and spent all her time on her tummy!

Veronika was the first one to sit, just before her 6 month birthday. It took Travis longer, until nearly 8 months before he was truly stable on his own. Some other differences? Travis’s first food was pea puree; Veronika’s was banana mash. Travis was 6 lb 3 ounces at birth; Veronika was 6 pounds 11 oz.

It was adorable to go through the pictures with the kids during snuggle time.

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We’ll see how they compare with crawling and walking and other milestones, as time goes on!