Toddler Time Tuesday

I am always on the look out for things to do with Joshua when the babies take their morning nap. Though we both love to be outside, it is hard to venture too far from the door with the babies sleeping so going to the park or pool is out of the question. Plus living in an apartment it isn't always the best environment for 'parental play' unless you want every single unsupervised child wanting you to play with them too-and trust me, there are a TON around here. So the search for indoor quiet time activities began about a month ago, when Joshua dropped down to 1 nap.

A friend of mine, she blogs here, did a post a while back about Do-A-Dot paints.

I loved her post and I have been on the search for them-if I remembered while I was out. Well this past week I found them at Micheal's! We are in LOVE! Joshua loves to do art, as long as he doesn't get too messy, and he is learning the concept of objects and staying in the line. I can tell Joshua to paint the cloud, and away he goes dotting up the cloud. "

Joshua can you paint the tires orange?" and he stares at the colors for a moment and correctly picks the orange do-a-dot bottle and dots in the tires...we are in love! Later covering over the orange with green :)

I highly recommend the Do-A-Dot paints and coloring book for all my toddler and preschool mom's!!

What do you do for quiet time activities in your house?

Chef Joshua

Joshua and I needed something to do today. It's too humid to go outside, humidity allows mosquitoes to eat you alive in MN, so today we decided to bake cookies.

I told Joshua to go get his chef hat and apron and he hopped to it. He was so proud of himself in his outfit and thought that he was born to make cookies today.

I allowed him to do as much as possible, for a 2year old, and he was on Cloud 9! He added the sugar and brown sugar...

He added the butter and eggs...

and then we mixed it all together :)

Then we added baking powder, baking soda, and salt

whole wheat flour and oatmeal.

Then we added the good stuff-butterscotch chips!!

Gotta make sure they are all out of there...look at that focus!

Then Joshua got to mix it all together. He was lovin' it!

Then it was time to scoop out the dough into perfectly shaped cookies...again I let Joshua do it and he was so proud of himself!

The finished product:

10 on Tuesday

Has it really been almost 2 weeks since I last updated this thing?? I'm sorry to all my followers...life has been overwhelming here as we prepare for our move-though it isn't until the end of August.

Shall we begin this 10 on Tuesday?

1.) I have lost my cell phone and I feel as though I have lost my right arm. I had it last night, and now it is gone. It rings so it is not dead...yet...and I pray that it holds up until it is found! If not, I am going to cry.

2.) Madelynn is 8months old now. She's the happiest thing I have ever seen! She just started babbling and makes the 'bababa', 'mamama' and 'dadada' sounds. It is so cute!!

3.) Joshua played with shaving cream on my kitchen table for the first time this week. It took FOREVER to convince him it was ok to touch and that it was ok for him to get it on his hands. After probably 30 or so mins, he was in love :)

4.) I love having a little girl! Madelynn's hair is 'barely' long enough to be able to put it into a pony tail, but I managed to do it last Wednesday for the first time! And yesterday was the first time I attempted pigtails! She looks SO cute!! Madelynn is a champ, no tears no fuss to put them in and she just sits in her highchair munching on peas all happy! Joshua calls them her 'pitties' and tells her that she's cute!

5.) Joshua is getting SO good at talking with words and ASL! He will babble in toddler language throwing in some English along the way but will sign every word in his story that he knows. It is the cutest thing and it makes my heart melt!

6.) We recently had a 'scare' with Madelynn and we are still awaiting some direction from the dr. They believe that Madelynn may have a peanut allergy, but this is not known for sure. After direct contact, and eating, with a wheat teething biscuit. She eats pastas and breads so we doubt it is the wheat, but it is processed in a plant that also uses peanuts so the dr thinks it could be a possibility. We are waiting direction from the dr to see what our next step should be, in the meantime we are trying our best to protect Moo's exposure to peanut products. It is amazing how hard it is when you think about all the places that we go into each week that could have peanuts. Luckily her issues have been when she eats or holds something, not really noticing change when she is in the same room as a peanut product (before this we had taken her into DQ for example) so we are hoping this is not the case. We would appreciate prayers for the doctors and for Moo.

7.) 4th of July we took a trip to great-grandma's house and spent the weekend at the lake. Joshua wanted nothing to do with the water, didn't care to play in the sand and get dirty. The only thing he wanted to do was run in the sprinkler! Now Miss Maddie Moo on the other hand didn't want to get out of the water...she is my little fish! We swam in the lake forever and she was in heaven...how crazy is that??

8.) Summer here is the season of parades! Madelynn was very concerned at her first parade but now enjoys them! Joshua dances to the music, claps and cheers for the bands and our last parade that we went to, he even removed his hat-without being asked-when the flags walked by! I was such a proud mama! My kids bring me such joy!! I love every min of it!!

9.) Did I mention we are moving? I think I did briefly at the start of this. We will be moving the end of August/1st of September and I am super excited! We will be moving into a bigger place and it has an elevator!!! Joshua is going to be in heaven! My house is in a complete disaray as the packing, sorting and throwing of things has begun, but this is how I like it!

10.) Craigslist is my new friend! In 2 days I made nearly $100 in things that I sold and I have more to sell! I love being able to get rid of the old so I can bring some new in! The kids have enjoyed the change in toys and I love that I am clearing out the things they don't play with!