Catching Up

Instead of listing the zillion reasons/excuses why I have been post-less for so long, I will just jump right into a catch up post, yay!

Emry, is on the verge of being a one year old. And it truly is shocking to me. I don’t understand how they can grow SO. FAST. Soon, I won’t have babies, just kids. Honestly, 98.3% of the time I think of myself as a kid so I’m not really sure how all of this is possible.

She is the polar opposite of her big sister, and they clash about 102% of the time. Literally, more than always. But the super rare, once in a blue moon moment, that they are kind towards each other (or can even exist in the same room without screaming), melts my heart.

All jokes aside, these two are getting better at living, learning, sharing and playing with each other all the time.

Mya, is almost three. And she amazes me always. I love talking with her, hearing the interesting, intelligent and often odd imaginative things she thinks up. What a wonderful age it is, when you can look past all the typical “terrible twos” things. As Tom Petty would put it ..”Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks” And here, they aren’t rocks, they are freaking mountains. Super big, volcano-style mountains. With mean bears living on them.

But the diamond days are worth living for, and they are beautiful.

Here is a few of the activities we have been enjoying lately.

Journal work:

On sunny days, we take our journals outside. Sometimes we make nature bracelets with contact paper, allowing her to collect things from outside and then putting them into her journal to talk and draw about.

Activity Trays:

Working with numbers

Fishing for letters

Intro to sight words and matching

Puzzle/Shapes Work

Mya enjoys new activity trays I set up for her, but her most favorite way to spend time (aside from being a goofball with her dad), is reading. Our local library has preschool and toddler bins set up with different themes. You can borrow a bin for 2 weeks, and they are a wonderful resource for us. The latest bin we took out was a Children of the World bin, and it was so great.

Here are a few of Mya’s favorite books from the bin…

At nearly three, Mya has started to notice that people are different. Different than her, or me, or anyone she knows. She has no filter when pointing out these differences whether it is a interesting hair-do, or the color of skin. We have started to try to explain these differences, and ensure her that everyone is different from each other, and that it’s great. The best thing I have found, to help her understand her new discovery, is a book. A bright, fun, colorful book. I recommend it to anyone with a preschooler.

I, as a child, had a wild imagination, and I see the same in Mya. I encourage this all I can. I firmly believe imaginative play is the most important thing for a young child. We have a dress-up area for Mya, her favorite thing is to pretend to be a doctor, or a princess having a tea party.

She also often ask to play store, so we set up a market for her to run. Mya and I set this up together, and we took turns sorting our food types into different categories.

I have also recently set up a Heuristic Play area in our home. If you are unfamiliar with this read here.

Emry is so curious, and although she really doesn’t stay in one place very long, there are many intriguing activities you can set up for the very young ones.

Water and Toy Sensory bag

Straws/Blocks on Contact Paper

By the way, this one is almost walking, which is new for us since big sister didn’t walk until close to 15 months.

Uh oh…really close.

Ok thats enough for one post. Hopefully I will post again before September!