PLAY DOUGH!

Mommy ordered me this little Melissa & Doug play dough set off of Amazon and we just got it in the mail. I have been having so much fun with it! My favorite things to do with it are squish it between my fingers and cutting out shapes with my "cookie cutters."

NOISE!

Daddy has been working hard putting up this backsplash in our kitchen....


Daddy had to use this funny looking (and loud) vacuum to clean up when he was done. I wasn't so sure of the loud noise it made. I just kinda stood at a distance with a funny look on my face while he was using it.


Later that day, Daddy noticed me eyeing it skeptically. He asked me what it was, thinking I'd say "gakoom" (vacuum). Instead I answered him matter of factly, "NOISE!" Throughout the day I kept going up to it saying, "Noise all done. Put away!" Daddy finally obeyed me and put it away. :)

MORE "TOOLTIMEY"

Who ever thought a pack of Goody hair bands could provide so much fun? Mommy had these from when she taught school....she had used them for a patterning center. I am obviously not into patterning yet, but we still had fun during OUR schooltime using them for a variety of activities....



Color Sorting....

(Hmmm....Is this green or not?)

Mommy told me here to look for black ones. I picked this one up and said, "Here's back." Mommy said, "That's close, but it's blue." Then I said, "Oh. Here's bue." :)

These are also good for sensory and texture...... Here I was noticing how "sof" it was.

Fine Motor Skills....

Position Words.... Here I was taking them off and on while saying "off" and "on."

And of course, they are just fun to play with, too. I was trying to make the tube stand up by itself.

We even used them to count by moving them along the tube as we counted each one....kinda like an abacus. Mommy didn't get a picture of that, though. Oh, the possibilities are endless.....

"TOOLTIME!"

I LOVE "schooltime" with Mommy these days! (I call it "tooltimey.") Mommy tries to tell me that "tooltime" is something DADDY will have to teach me later...... :) Anyway, I get all excited when we get to do "schooltime for me." Before we do a new activity each day we review something we've been working on ..... Today I was reviewing how to spell and say my name. (I call myself "Nonin.") Then, we practiced the last four letters I was learning in the uppercase alphabet. Just in the past couple days I have begun to recognize them over 80% of the time. (I can also recognize them in books and other contexts as well now.) Now I know all the uppercase letters and Mommy says we will start to work on the sounds they make. Yea!

18 MONTH UPDATES

I'm almost 19 months old, and I realized I haven't done an 18 month update yet...oops. Anyway, here goes....

• UPDATE: I just had my 18 month appointment and I am 33 1/2 inches tall (89th percentile) and 23 lbs 7 oz. (32nd percentile).
• Some of my new favorite foods are ham (real spiral sliced ham), soup, biscuits, and corn.


• I now know 22 out of the 26 uppercase/capital letters. I am still working on E, J, U, Y.


• I can count to twelve, and I know how to recognize the numbers 2 and 3.


• I can say all my color words, and I know how to recognize black and green.


• I can identify and say circle, triangle, square, heart, and star.


• I can now sign "yes" and say the word as well. (Mommy is glad that I am using "yes" now instead of "no" all the time.)


• Some new words and phrases: "I need some more," "see ya," make noise," I sorry" (though I don't how to use in the correct context yet.....I just like to say it), "put away," "elephant," "giraffe," "lion," "cookies," mesin" (medicine), and "pishurs" (pictures).


• The other morning when I woke up, Mommy heard me saying, "Hey, Mommy! All done nigh-nigh!" That cracked her up!


• I still LOVE looking at / reading books. I spend the majority of my day reading some kind of book somewhere in the house!

SORTING SHAPES

Today Mommy got out my foam shapes again during schooltime. We worked on sorting again, and this time, I really did a great job sorting the shapes in the egg carton. Mommy has been trying to get me to do this for awhile (sorting things) but I have never actually "got it" or caught on until today. Today it finally clicked and I understood the concept of putting like items in the same spot.

Then, Mommy let me just play with the shapes. I had fun dumping them out of the egg carton....

....Uh Oh! They ended up on the floor! :)

JUST ANOTHER PICTURE

HEARTS!

We didn't get to do our craft time on Saturday, so we did it yesterday. In honor of Valentine's Day, we glued foam hearts all over a capital "H." Ironically, H is the only letter that I know the sound of, but not how to say the actual letter, if that makes sense. Whenever Mommy asks me what the letter H is, instead of saying the letter name, I make the sound instead. This was actually my favorite craft so far, and I had a BLAST doing it!


My first job was to sort a big bag of foam pieces that Mommy had and separate out all the hearts. I did pretty well..... with guidance of course. But I had lots of fun putting all the pieces in different bowls. **Side note, Mommy found out that I know what a circle, square, and triangle are..... I picked up a square and put it in the bowl and said, "care". That surprised Mommy, so she held up a triangle, and I said "rangle." And then, I did the same for a "gircle." Mommy showed me all different sizes, and I still knew what shapes they were. Mommy was shocked!

After I sorted all the hearts out, Mommy cut out a big letter "H" and she had me practice saying the letter name. Then, I got to "color the glue" onto the big H. That was fun, too!

Once the H was glued onto my paper, Mommy made glue dots on my H. She thought she'd have to guide me still where to put the hearts, but I caught on quickly, and pretty soon, she didn't have to help me at all!

The finished product! I was a bit upset when Mommy wouldn't let me play with it when I was done. She said the glue had to dry. :( But now I look at it on my refrigerator and get all excited to see my "hawts."

*Once again, Mommy got this idea from www.notimeforflashcards.com

"SNOW" MUCH FUN!

We got a decent amount of snow again over the last few days, and boy have I been talking about it! I often will go to the window or point out the window and say, "See da snow!" So, yesterday before the winds picked up, Mommy took me out in the snow for a wee bit. I basically just stood there and walked around a bit and watched the neighbor boys slide down their driveway on snowboards. Mommy wasn't sure I was having much fun until she tried to take me inside......then I cried and kept saying, "More snow!"




I was actually surprised that the snow was so cold. I kept putting it up to my face and lightly touching my nose with the cold stuff and saying, "brr."


Mommy was disappointed that the snow was so light and fluffy and not good packing snow. She wanted to help me build a little snowman for real this time! But we had to settle on a mound of snow on the side of the driveway that we scooped out a little seat for me to sit in and watch the neighbors. I thought that was cool enough.

And finally, before we went inside, Mommy helped me make a snow angel. It's hard to see it in the picture, but it really did look like an angel when I got up.

Mommy hopes this will be the end of the snow for this winter season, but I am secretly hoping for lots more snow to play in!

MORE PICTURES....

Mommy is having fun with all these cute pictures Aunt Cali took. How will she ever decide which ones to order?

MORE MOLLY

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

MOMMY AND ME

COLORING

While I was at Aunt Cali and Cousin Molly's house today, Aunt Cali took these great pictures of me! Thanks, Aunt Cali! (Mommy asked her to shoot some pics of me in hopes of using them as my 18 month pictures. There are lots more to show you later!)

READING TO MOLLY

I got to go play with my cousin Molly today! I love her so much! Here I am "reading" her one of my favorite books, which happens to be a favorite of hers as well. ("Toes, Ears, and Nose" by Karen Katz).

COLOR SORTING

Mommy is starting to work on color recognition with me. During our "schooltime" yesterday, we worked on yellow and red. I can say all the colors, but I don't always match them up right. I had many different items in my bowl, and I was supposed to put the yellow ones in the yellow cup and the red ones in the red cup. I was just having more fun throwing them, no matter what color, into the cups. So Mommy revised it a little. She gave me all the red ones at once and I put them all in the red cup, then we did the yellow ones. After each set, I got to "stuff" the items into the empty baby wipes container.