Bathroom and a Toddler



During our organizing weekend last weekend we also threw out haydees baby tub. My mom convinced me, I'm still not 100% ok with the decision though .. Like if a baby tub is a life changing decision, who am I kidding..lol

I've pretty much always bathed with her. My mom would watch haydee sometimes while I got to shower myself but, it was usually me and her. Sharing a tiny tub with a huge baby tub inside. I wouldn't use the shower head because I didn't want the water splashing on her face and if I was washing my hair I didn't want the shampoo or conditioner to get into her eyes. Soo we took bathes. It was pretty challenging. Washing my hair was always the hardest. I had to stretch my legs over her tub (with her in it of course) or on the sides of it so I would be able to put my head back and wash my hair under the running water. Every time she was near my "chechis" (which would be most of the time..since we are taking a bathe) she would want to drink it.

Other then that it was our little learning spot. I got her those bathtub crayons and I would draw her all the letters and shapes and we would sing the alphabet. She also has this talking, singing, number counting penguin in there. Sometimes when she wasn't in the shower with me id catch myself still singing it.

Having a toddler in the tub with you is not even the whole story. They will be with you outside of the tub also, whether you like it or not. While your peeing or pooping...Ive used the toilet (on both occasions) having to carry her when she was a baby. Id like to say that when she got older it changed, but it didn't. Still, at this age, not even too long ago, I had to nurse her while sitting on the toilet. If she's not actually on or touching me she will be standing or sitting right in front of me trying to have a conversation. And if I close the door on her she will most probably be screaming my name and banging on the door for me to open.

She's a little older and now there's no baby tub. I shower less with her now but there's still times we do it together. Instead of being squished by a tub in the tub, I'm being squished by a little monster trying to sit right next to me while I try to block the tub spout from her. Or she'll want to lay down and "float" so Ill have to plug the tub let it fill a little then unplug it when it starts getting too high. This happens like twice...what a waste of water..probably shouldn't be writing this, my mom will most likely have something to say about it lol

Anyways.... If you have a toddler I'm sure you know that your NEVER alone in the bathroom

Until next time,

Your favorite Mommy! =]

Play Room



For the past year and a half since I came to my moms house me and haydee have been stuck in a tiny room together. A double bed. A changing table turned into a library which is really a clutter collectable. A dresser. A small desk with my computer. A toy chest and a bunch of other toys around the floor.

As much as I clean my room (which would prob only be once a week) it still never seems cleaned...

Right next to my room is the office and since I got here I've been wanting that to be Haydees room. I guess after having a bunch of her stuff around the house they finally realized it was time for her to have a room of her own haha

So this weekend me and my mom did some organizing...or more like throwing away. Threw away a bunch of old towels and linens. Threw away a bunch of old "important files" that aren't so important anymore. Got rid of a filing cabinet and moved the couch downstairs.

With all that extra space in the office now we were able to move a few things into the office from my room. Soo in went the toy chest and in went her library.. All we have left that doesn't belong is the big computer desk and the computer itself.

When we were done we told her that it was her room and she started crying saying no! I said she was going to be a big girl and sleep there soon and again she said noo! That she sleeps with mama in the other room. Haha... We then said that it will just be her play room for now. She lovess playing in her new play room!

I cant wait till I finally am able to decorate the whole room. I have sooo many ideas!

Until next time,

Your favorite Mommy! =]

C is for...

As usuall it's always good to start the week by introducing the letter you will be teaching. This week is letter C. This letter is actually kind of confusing to teach I think. The letter has 2 different sounds. A hard and soft sound. The hard C sounds like the letter K and the soft C sounds like the letter S.

I showed her the capital and lower case which are basically the same. I just told her one was the baby and one is big like mama. She traced the letter a few times and I showed her the sound of the hard C. Gave her examples like cat, car, cookie etc.

Printed out letter C word search from here ..she really loves using those dot markers.

I printed out a letter C dot sheet from here and let her mark it with the dot markers...I stilll havnt found toddler tweezers so I gave her my tweezers and told her to grab the pom poms and place them in the circles. This is really good fine motor skills. Sometimes it was a little hard for her but she got the hang of it..or just cheated a little since the tweezers are so pinchy that you didn't even need to squeeze to pick up the poms haha.

Then I found some stickers laying around and had her put a sticker on each circle...it got so frustrating to me sometimes seeing her struggle to put a sticker on the paper with her little chunky fingers. But she did great! Didn't help her once.

For our craft (which we only did one..I got lazy) I decided to do a caterpillar. To match the lovely book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar that we rented from the library. I just got a paper and drew circles in the shape of the letter C. Cut out pieces of construction paper to match the caterpillar and even added some foods. I showed her which ones the caterpillar ate from the book and let her pick which ones she wanted me to do....she glued them with my help and placed them on the circles and put the food right next to his mouth because he was 'very hungry' =]

I picked this game, of many, from the lovely homeschooler I always use..to practice with counting. It goes up to 10 but I only used up to 5. I put down the paper in front of her and showed her the caterpillars. I counted with her out loud then told her she needed to put the right amount of poms on them. Since she's only two (and I usually forget that) she had no idea what I'm talking about and just put a pom on each circle of the caterpillar (which is still good I guess). I showed her that the first caterpillar only had 1 pom because it has the number 1 on it. She immediately got it. Soo smart my little munchkin!

This week was the last week for our great library adventure for a while. We've been going to the coral gables library and they are stopping the toddler class for a baby class until April. Pretty bummed out about it but, hopefully I can find another good one around me. She stood up with the kids and sang "where is thumbkin" (her fav library song!) and also did the "hokey pokey" dance! It was awesome. Bellow is only a picture but a little clip of the video is on my insta here



Also played another caterpillar counting game. I would put the number at the top corner and she would have to put the right amount of caterpillars on the leaf. Trying to get more into counting lately since she basically already knows the whole alphabet. After doing it a couple times I switched it up by me adding the caterpillars on the leaf and letting her choose the right number. She would slowllyy put her finger on the answer she thought it was and would look up at me to see what I would say..shes just tooo cute! Love that little monster!



Until next time,

Your favorite Mommy! =]

V Day Activites

Its Valentines day this week and I came up with a few activities to do with Ms. Haydee.

I started doing my service hours at the school my aunt teaches at and she told me to help her come up with a valentines day craft for her kindergarteners. We decided on having them glue construction paper pieces together that would end up making a heart. Then they would write what they thought a friend was on the inside of the paper. So the day before (since I’m such a procrastinator) I cut a bunch of tiny construction paper pieces in all the colors. I had haydee try it out first. She glued pieces on the heart outlined paper and placed them on the paper. I of course had to help her to stay inside the lines. On the inside I typed up a little note and had her trace it. Since it was small I helped her. 

I saw a valentine pattern using the little candy hearts but, instead I used valentine colored M&Ms since I would be using them to make our cookies (keep reading). I cut up construction paper in pink, red and white circle pieces to match the M&Ms and glued them in a pattern. I told her she needed to guess what color came next and placed a bunch of the different colored M&Ms next to the paper. At first she would put the same color that was next to it. I then started singing her the pattern like: “RED RED pink RED RED pink”…”pink red WHITE pink red”… I’m totally guessing that your able to sing it like me when I write it like that haha… Anyways, when we would say it out loud together she would tell me the right color that belonged next but not always pick the right one. Practiced a few more times then she was able to understand it… I want to do more pattern activities with her. I gatta remember that.

 On valentines morning I made some yummy pancakes. Made a regular box of pancake mix and separated the batter into two. Coloring the smaller half with pink food coloring. She loved how they came out.

Later on that day we made some yummy Vday cookies! I put all the ingredients on separate little bowls on our table and had her sit on top as well. She put in the butter pieces, poured all the dry ingredients and added the M&Ms and chocolate chips. Eating a few for herself. I made a little 15s video that I put up on Insta that I will add here also. She really enjoyed cooking and helping me and seeing how they came out at the end.



Until next time,

Your favorite Mommy! =]

B is for...

Late as usual...

After we finished the letter A we went to the letter B for a week.

I started with introducing the letter by saying the name and showing her the upper case and lower case letters. Sounding it out and naming a few words she knows that starts with the letter B.

( she wanted to use the chalk board instead of the white board. This Melissa & Doug easel is awesome, I'm just not a huge fan of the chalk part. I don't like how it feels. )

Haydee coincidentally found some foam building block shapes in the bottom of a box in the tv room that week. It went perfect for the letter B week because she learned about building (a letter B word).

( here she told me she built a train and a house) 

I printed out the letter B and drew circles inside the letter. She would grab the pom poms and place them inside the circles. This is good for fine motor skills. She really gets excited when we use the pom poms and she counts each one as she places it. Then I let her color the letter and she decided to color each circle a different color.

I saw a worksheet  online that looked like a word search but instead of words it was to find the letter Bb. So since I've been wasting soo much ink (and ink is supper expensive) I decided to just do something similar on the white board. I helped her by writing the letter Bb at the top so she knew what she was looking for. She did awesome.

I actually ended up printing a letter B search later on that week (lol).. she used her handy dandy dot markers and dotted away at the lower and uppper case b's..she dotted a 'd' and a 'q' and I tried to explain to her that those were different. This is were I got the worksheet from.

I told her to try lacing the letter with the pack I got her at the teacher store but shes still not really into it. She'll do one or two holes, pull the string then want to take it all out. She gets more excited on taking out the shoe lace then actually sticking it around all the holes.

Our capital B craft was a bumble bee. I cut out the letter B, stripes, and wings from construction paper. I placed it all together without gluing it and showed her what we were making. I took it all apart and let her glue and place each piece together again. As you can see the stripes aren't perfect haha. After it was done we ran around the room buzzing like bumble bees.

I got our lower case b craft from some website that I cant remember.. They incorporated some coffee filter craft that I've seen a lot online and I've been wanting to try it out. Your supposed to color the filter and then spray with water and all the colors merge to one ending with a really pretty result. It didnt work at alll how I expected it to. Not sure if it was the markers we used or if she didnt color it enough but, spraying the water hardly did anything. I helped her color most of the filter and the letter because she would only color small bits. I found an empty spray bottle but it was too hard for her to press. So, basically this craft was a total bust...but atleast the end result came out somewhat cute.

Sometimes I forget that Haydee is onlyy 2 years old. Shes soo smart that I get carried away and expect so much from her. I really just need to remember that whats important right now is to make learning fun!!..and not stressful, especially for her.

Library this week was pretty interesting. My mom played hooky at work that day and came with us. Haydee is improving, shes getting a little farther away from me and closer to the teacher and kids. There was a time me and my mom felt soo bad for her (it was actually a little funny). The teacher was reading a poem while holding a stuffed animal. All the kids were running up to touch it and she looked at me to see if I approved, which of course, I did. She slowllllyyy went up (but I mean, realllyy slow, taking teeny weeny steps). Walking towards the front of the room she came to a stop and looked at me (with a face that I cant even describe). There was a little girl laying across the floor blocking her way. She was able to overcome the obstacle and walked around the little girl again in teeny tiny steps finally reaching the teacher. The other kids were all being aggressive to be able to reach the toy...and then there was haydee, on the side, looking at me us and the teacher waiting patiently to be able to touch it. I kept telling her to go and touch it. That it was okay. to just raise her hand and get in there!...She finally did! Me and my mom got soo happy.

It might seem silly to think that I was so happy for something so little but, I feel like that was a big step for her. She is a shy girl with people she doesn't know and doing something our of your comfort zone is always a good thing!

I also want to add...nothing to do with the letter of the week but..Haydee drew her first smiley face! I made a circle with dotted lines and she traced it. Then she told me she wanted to draw a smiley face so I just told her all the parts and she did it. All by herself without me telling her where they go and how to do it. My little smarty pants!

( idk if its just me because I'm her mama but, they really do look like smiley faces to me. They have eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears, and one has "crazy hair" haha

 Until next time,

Your favorite Mommy! =]

A is for...

I decided I wanted to do some type of “home school” with Haydee. She’s a pretty smart cookie but I wanted to get into things a little more. Her letters and numbers would be the main target. I also wanted to add some fine motor skills since hers aren’t the best.

I went on to look for ideas on pinterest. I even made 2 different boards for them, “Alphabets” and “my little genius”. Anyone who has a pinterst knows that it can be suppper overwhelming. There’s so many great ideas on there but sometimes its just too much. I end up pinning everything and doing nothing. I was determined, so I got a few things I liked and went to work.

I wasn’t sure with what letter to start her with since she knows a lot of them but I decided I would just start from the beginning and go in order doing 1 letter a week and see how it goes from there.

I introduced her to the letter Aa (both upper and lower case). I wrote it down on our white board so she can see it next to our index card that I put up. I grabbed her hand and traced the letter Aa with my hand then let her do it by herself. I think she did pretty good for not tracing anything before.

I printed out the letter A and had her put little pom poms in the circles I made inside the letter (not sure if you can see my penciled in circles?). Ive seen kids use some tiny tweezers to do this for better fine motor skills but I haven’t found some yet. I then just let her color it in whatever color she wanted.

I found this worksheet - here - your supposed to find the specific letter. Its like a word search for toddlers (only its not words..) She actually did a lot better than I thought. I bought those dot markers just for this activity! I’ve seen them around for a while and have been waiting for an excuse to buy them haha..

I also bought this little container that has all the letters and numbers with holes in them so you can lace through a shoelace (I bought quite a few things for this “home school” project actually..not sure if it was a good idea but now that just means I havee to keep up with it! lol)

This website actually has a bunchhh of neat stuff for her to learn through play. One of them was matching the amount of apple seeds to the actual number. I first tried this with haydee and since she doesn’t really know her numbers she didn’t understand it. I kept trying to play with her during the week and she didn’t want anything to do with it. (she doesn’t like to be wrong). I changed it up a bit and printed an extra set of just the pictures of the apples with the seeds. I then told her to match them together and count how many seeds were in each. She did great!

 

From some teacher website - here - I found a game with the matching apple theme. You have to match the upper and lower case Aa letters to the correct buckets. This was too easy for her I think. She did it in seconds!

We also did letter crafts. A for alligator. a for apple.

For the alligator, I cut up green construction paper squares and glued the backs. I had her put them on the letter. At first she didn’t get that she was supposed to go inside the lines, but I helped. Same with the teeth, but by the time she did one row she started getting bored and I had to finish. I let her color the eyes and glue them on to the letter.

For the lower case a I wanted her to paint with a real apple (Ive seen it done a few times), but it was too big for her to grab so I gave up on it. What a waste of an apple.. We then went on to using the paintbrush, which that didn’t last too long either. She colored the letter a, stem, leaf, and seeds. I glued them together.

We also went to the library! Haydee lovess to be read too. I was actually really happy because in circle time while the lady was reading to the kids Haydee wanted to leave from sitting next to me to go sit on the floor with the other kids. If you know my daughter she isn’t one to go and do stuff by herself. She’s alwaysss with me (or someone she knows). So I think that’s a pretty major step from being a bit more independent. Haydee got her very first library card, which is totally awesome and princess themed. Who knew that having a library card can be soo cool!? We also got some books for next week…

We had soo much fun keeping busy and not being lazy this week, I hope I can stick to it!

Until next time,
Your favorite Mommy! =]