December 31 Day Challenge

'm challenging myself (and YOU of course) to join me this December in my challenge

What does this mean? Simple, if you have a toddler you come up with AT LEAST one activity a day in the month of December. No repeating activities during the month (you can use past activities but it's more fun to be creative)

Encourage your toddler to help around the house (it's funny how "chores" are "play" at this age)

Build fine motor skills with stacking activities or small spaces activities.

Build gross motor skills by running and throwing a ball back and forth.

Encourage creativity with music, dance, song, and art!

The list is endless.

If you decide to join me please LINK UP below and grab the button to put on your blog.


<a border="0" href="http://morinhouse.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-31-day-challenge.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd251/KasMorin/Untitled-1.jpg"/></a>;

Toddler Update

Just an update on Franklin's learning progress. At 19.5 months old

Words he says:
- uh oh
- aww man!
- pe-ew (like something stinks)
- duh (dog)
- book
- booger
- mama
- dada
- good bye (when he thinks no one is listening)

He signs:
- more
- eat/want
- milk
- music
- bath
- shoes
- socks
- water
- go (like go out)
- love
- bed (bedtime) We're still working on this one...
- all done
- apple

He can identify (when asked):
- yellow
- head
- ears
- belly
- penis (he kept pointing so we told him what it was called)
- fingers/hand
- toes
- nose (sometimes)
- booty (Daddy taught him this one)

- he can blow a kiss, give a real kiss, and a hug
- he also waves and says "bye bye" sometimes (it comes out "my my" which is adorable)

He also understands "no" and can follow instructions like, "Give your bottle to Daddy" if he asks for milk and Daddy is in the kitchen.


I guess he's on track?

We also did a "small spaces" activity today. I gave him toothpicks and an empty salt shaker. The point was to put the toothpicks in the holes in the top. I thought it might give him at least a bit of difficulty at first. Nope, not this child. He had no problem with it...and I only had to show him ONCE.

I think we're going to learn "up" and "brush teeth" this week. "Up" would cut down on some of the whining!

Gratituesday: Kindness of Strangers

There's a special day at Heavenly Homemakers called Gratituesday. Basically, you take Tuesday to remember for what you're thankful. I'm joining this week!

A little bit of backstory for those joining that don't "know" me. My husband and I are in the red right now financially. We got there because our insurance doesn't pay for a midwife and I desperately want a homebirth. (And I refuse to go on base for medical care unless I absolutely have to) So, we've been paying her out of pocket. Praise God that she gave us a good price! Add in that our insurance also doesn't pay for a chiropractor (I've heard that sometimes you can see one on base...but that might just be for Airmen and not dependents) and we're buying raw dairy and more nutrient dense foods (read: stuff you can't really find at Walmart) and it all adds up.

We pay our bills and then live off of the credit card the rest of the month. This is not a practice I recommend! However, it's what we have to do at the moment. I meal plan, shop sales, and we've cut back on eating out and "fun" eating and whatnot. (It works out because it's healthier...) Every little bit we can save counts a ton.

Which brings me to my thankful post.

Today I'm grateful for the kindness of strangers.

Last night when we went to the grocery store Stefan was still in his uniform. (We left pretty quickly because we had two stops to make) While in line we noticed the manager pull our checker aside for a moment and then stand and watch her ring up our groceries. My first thought was that maybe she's new and being observed (I've been there and that's exactly what it looked like) When the groceries were rung up Stefan went to pay only to have the manager step in and say, "Someone is going to pay for your groceries in honor of your service. So, this is taken care of; you all have a good night." Honestly, it took a second for it to click. A perfect stranger paid for our groceries. That was $70 that we kind of don't have and ended up not having to spend. That was a good chunk of our food for the next two weeks that we got for free.

I have a post that will go up tomorrow about praising God even during the hard times. Check back tomorrow. I can't help but wonder if this was His way of blessing me/us for remembering to praise him...even when we don't want to...


1 John 3:17-18  (NCV) Suppose someone has enough to live and sees a brother or sister in need, but does not help. Then God's love is not living in that person. My children, we should love people not only with words and talk, but by our actions and true caring.



Share your thankful blog!

A Clean Living Room

I get a lot of requests for "how did you do that???" when I post before/after photos. I always say, "I'll show you sometime" and then life happens and "sometime" never comes.

Well, it finally did! After packing this past week my living room looked like a bomb went off. I decided that this time I'll not only give you step-by-step instructions...but PHOTOS as well. (You'll have to excuse the quality. The actual camera is in the car and I had to use my phone!)

Okay, this is where we're starting:

Crazy, right? I have no idea how we even walked in the door last night.

Step One: Pick up all trash and move dishes to the kitchen. (I'd already done this when I took the photos)
Step Two: Pick up all clothing. Put dirty clothes in the laundry room and consolidate clean ones. You don't have to fold anything...just get it all in one place.

That puts us here:

Step Three: Pick up toys/random items. Again, they don't have to have a "home" at the very moment. Just get it all in one place. I take a bin and collect toys and drop the whole thing in Franklin's room. Then I put all the random stuff in another bin to deal with later. It's easier to find things a home when it's clean (something about a clean room makes you more motivated).

Now we're here:

Step Four: Surfaces. Clear and wipe 'em!
Step Five: Floor. Vacuum/sweep/mop.
Step Six: Fine Tune. Make those little pretty changes.

Ahhh, Finished.

It's FAR from "perfect" but so much better.


Show me how you clean!

A fun weekend

We went to visit friends this weekend! It was a LONG drive (5 hours with the sun in Franklin's eyes through the back window) but well worth it. Here are photos from our last night there!

Okay, I don't advocate using toys the way it specifically says not to...but he LOVED being pushed around in the doll stroller and the girls loved it too.

Wondering why we aren't playing with him.

He also liked pushing the stroller. Check out the big mama belly in the upper corner.

Just a fun shot.

This same friend has a jewelry business. Once she gets her website totally up and running I'll be promoting it! So, keep checking!

Taking it easy

Last night Frankie felt warm. That's not *too* unusual for him because he runs hot like his Daddy...but it was a bit more than usual. This morning it was the same so I took his temp. It came back normal. This can only mean one thing: TEETHING!

I risked losing a fingertip and felt his gums. One of his molars only had one point on Monday and it now has three. Yep, teeth. I didn't hesitate to start today with Advil.

We did a few floor activities (I didn't even attempt anything that required focus).

We walked on cushions:

I didn't realize how much dexterity that took until I saw him stumble a few times. After he figured out exactly what to do I started counting "One, Two, Three" for each cushion. I put them in different shapes and spaced them out differently. That was a good 10 minutes of activity.

Mostly, though, we've been doing this:

He helped me unload the dishwasher (He LOVES to help with this chore)

I tried to get him to help make chili...but it was so new to be up on the chair that he didn't care about what Mommy wanted. I think he's going to have to be up at my level more often so the newness wears off.
He also helped wipe a table.

That's it for today. We've been sitting around. Frankie doesn't feel good and the weather is dreary and Mommy is afraid she'll throw her back out again...

Oh, this is from last night...he's learning how to jump! It's super cute.

We'll probably be really laid back the rest of the week. Frankie gets horrible teething pain (they come in fast, though) so I'm following his lead even more than usual.

Cutting it Short

We're having a rough day around here. I think those two top molars are giving Frankie trouble. Tantrums = many this morning. We tried, though!

The cotton ball activity he loved yesterday? Yeah...

So we moved on to playing with cereal. It was WAY more fun to eat it!

I scored some awesome silk leaves from the Target Dollar Bins yesterday. So, I thought we'd try to sort two colors...

Another activity that didn't work out. By this time I was starting to see a pattern and sense it was going to be one of THOSE DAYS.

I did find at least one activity he liked.

Of course it was the destructive one!!!

A couple of days ago I cut a hole in a coffee can big enough to fit poker chips. A couple of days ago he really liked it...

After those photos he tried to throw it everywhere.

Next, acorns. These were a huge hit yesterday.

That was the only photo I got before he tried to eat them...numerous times. I had to take them away after that...and another tantrum ensued.

This is probably how we'll spend most of today...poor kid.

When you have a clean house...

You do Tot School!

 Frankie is 18 months

(that button takes you to the site that will tell you ALL about Tot School!)

So, I've been a lazy parent lately. Being 7 months pregnant means I ache A LOT and often. In fact, I spent the weekend in horrible pain because I did something to my sciatic nerve on my left side. Everything hurt except sitting. It was bad. Last night, though the combination of stretching and chiropractic help worked and the pain stopped. Now I just have normal back pain! I can deal with that.

Okay, what did we do for Tot School our first day?

First we had breakfast (leftover chicken pesto!)

Our first activity was to put cotton balls in a toilet paper tube. I figured it would help with spacial reasoning and some finer motor skills. He just thought it was fun!

Next we tried coloring. We have Color Wonder paper and markers. 

He mostly just wanted to eat the marker...

He did like putting the lid on and off!

Next we did his favorite thing: Pouring water! 

The shot glass ended up being too heavy (it's a heavy duty one) so I discarded that. 

We got down on the floor next. Mommy vacuumed so we could have a big, clean space to play. We tried blocks. But Frankie just wanted to walk on them.

So we tossed them around instead.

(Ignore the camera tilt. I tried to see if I could get a better picture with the camera in portrait instead of landscape...the answer was no)

Mommy thought stacking cups would be fun...

Frankie thought otherwise...

Mommy also thought that sweeping up cotton balls would be good practice and a lot of fun... It's WAY more fun to toss them!

Then he wandered off to play by himself. Mommy took this opportunity to get a snack.

After a little while we went outside. Mommy wanted to collect acorns for later play.

He tried to eat an acorn...

It was wet and kind of muddy so we didn't stay out long.

We came inside to "wash" the acorns.

He tried to open one...and was unsuccessful.

 He liked shaking the water off before putting it in the other container. 

The Verdict?

 I loved that we got to play together. We've had very few tantrums so far (that's a big deal in this house) I'm excited to play some more tomorrow!!!