Be Mine

I've worked with children most of my life, so when I began my student teaching years ago, I wasn't at all surprised by their anticipation of various holidays. Halloween, came first and the kids planned their costumes for weeks. And, of course, notes to Santa were written and gift lists were compared and discussed in the weeks leading up to Christmas. But, I was totally unprepared for the excitement that Valentine's Day presented.

Even though there was no character dressed in a costume, the children had so much fun picking out the perfect box of cards from the store to exchange with their friends.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised--I vividly remember how much I loved making my own Valentines out of doilies and red paper and saving the prettiest ones for my best friends. Valentine's Day was indeed a very special time.

Toddler D has no idea what Valentine's Day is about yet, but I thought he might enjoy the process of decorating cards for his friends. I picked up some supplies at our local Dollar Tree--a couple of packs of cards, heart stickers, stampers and his favorite, some transportation stickers--and showed him how how to use all of the supplies.

I loved watching him work, carefully peeling away the backing of the stickers. Little dimpled hands are the best!!

The stampers were his favorite!

Later, he helped me write his name on the inside of each card--he can make a couple of the letters without any help! Then, we bagged them up so he could take them to school last week. I can't wait to see how he reacts to receiving Valentines from his friends!

It Feels Like Winter . . . or Fall?

Yesterday, the boys came over for a little while so that Callie could deal with a pet emergency. Ron had just gotten home from work, much to Toddler D's delight, and was sweeping the driveway.  Every year, the huge oak tree that hangs over our driveway sheds almost every single leaf in late January/early February.  Into our yard.  It feels like Fall again and the mess on the driveway surely looks like it! Papaw was very patient as his little helper declared "I do my work with Papaw!"

I gave him our little rake and he loved using "my scraper" to move a few leaves here and there.  While the pile was growing, he realized it was a bit much for his tiny rake.

Of course, the best part is running to jump in the pile of leaves. Especially if Papaw will join him!

Usually, while he likes the idea of jumping in the leaves, he is not so fond of the feeling once he is actually in them. But, this time was different.  He LOVED it!  He wanted us to make him a bed and for Papaw to have a bed as close to his as possible!

Baby D2 joined him and liked it just as much,

although he also really wanted to taste all those leaves!

The weather was great--just cool enough to be comfortable under the pile of leaves.  I hear it's going to be getting cooler again though!

DIY Toddler Tower

Baby D loves to bake with me---especially muffins, but really anything I mix together.  As soon as I ask, "Do you want to help Lovey cook?".   He rushes to pull the step stool out from beside the refrigerator.  When we made macaroons for the delivery nurses, he became very distressed that I needed to stand on "my 'tool" to reach the food coloring.

I like having him help and love it when Michael and Adellelyn have wanted to help me as well, but have felt very uneasy about him standing on the step-stool at times.  Because it is slanted, he can't get as close to the cabinet as needed and if he should lose his balance or step backwards, he would hit a very hard tile floor.

At one of the schools I worked with, they have Toddler Towers in their toddler classrooms so that the children can reach the cabinets in a safe way.  They are adjustable and awesome, but also big, bulky and expensive.  To the tune of $150-200 expensive.

Enter one of my grand ideas.  I found directions for a DIY Toddler Tower over on Ana White's website.  After showing it to Ron, we decided that we could build one ourselves and even make it so that it would fold up for storage.

I measured and Ron cut.

As I eluded on my Instagram photo of this step, building projects are sometimes a bit stressful for our relationship.  We have very different ways of approaching things like this and we both can become a bit "snippy" about it.  Such was the case this time, as well, but fortunately, those moments don't last long and we are soon working together again.

Then we assembled.
The directions were easy to follow, with the exception of the part about adding hinges.   The directions only said to purchase 8 sets of sturdy hinges, and we soon realized that half of the ones we bought were too large for the boards.  So, back to Lowe's I went to exchange the hinges.  The other part that was tricky was where to put the hinges.  The included drawing shows half of them on the inside and half of them on the outside.  We couldn't figure out any possible way for that to work, so we placed all of our hinges on the inside.

That meant that our front and back boards had to be placed on the outside of legs, which left a space between the front and the platform that I was worried about feet slipping into.

Adding a scrap of wood to both the front and back fixed that problem and the rest went together just fine.

I sanded and painted the tower and had the chance to try it out this afternoon.  (Please ignore the very messy counter top--it's real life).

It worked great!!

Baby D was a little bit hesitant to climb up the rungs by himself, but it is just as easy to lift him up onto the platform while he is this small.

The front fits flat against the cabinets and hits just below the counter top, which is perfect.

I like that it has the curved sides to hold onto--particularly when I need to step away to get an ingredient.

Of course, being at counter level means that he can reach my iPad and swipe away recipes.  And steal blueberries from the pie.  But, it also means we can cook together much more easily and safely.

The cost of all our supplies was about $35.00 (hinges were the most expensive part of the supplies).
Now, excuse me while I add a scoop of ice cream to our bowls of Berry Crisp. (For our very simple, yummy recipe, click here.)

Philadelphia in June

I am spending this week in Philadelphia, helping out with Luke while Callie teaches a couple of classes at her Master's alma mater, Eastern University.  It's only Tuesday, but we've had a great time so far.  We are so fortunate to have friends with young children that just moved here, that are allowing us to stay in their wonderful home while they are on vacation---we house-sit and take care of the cats, and in return, we have a beautiful home with tons of baby toys and equipment already in place.

Sunday morning, we ventured out to Trader Joe's for groceries and to get a feel for the area.  While out, we discovered a nearby pick-your-own orchard, Linvilla Farms, so we stopped by.  It was wonderful!  There were lots of other families there, taking advantage of the perfect weather.

We rode out to the strawberry fields with baskets in hand.

There were tons of strawberries.

While Callie and I picked strawberries, baby D enjoyed picking leaves and trying to feed them to Callie.

We picked until our baskets were full.

We then boarded a hayride back to the main farm area to have our berries weighed.

It was baby D's first hayride, but he didn't seem to mind the prickly stuff at all.  In fact, he was kind of fascinated by it.

Each morning, we drive Callie into town amidst the morning rush hour.

 

Back at the house, babyD and I have taken walks through the VERY hilly neighborhood, and even ventured down the Longpoint Wildlife Sanctuary trail to the river.   The trail had not been cleared this spring and there was a tree blocking our path near the bottom, so we just trudged back to the top.  

The rest of our days have been spent doing stuff like this:

In the evening, we go back into town to have dinner with Callie and wait until she is finished with classes to come home.

It's been great so far and I look forward to more days of relaxing and playing with this little guy!