Tot School (More puzzles, Alphabet, Painting)

J is 27 months old

J started out the week being really into his puzzles again. I took a break from working on shape learning since he hadn't been taking a huge interest, but I was surprised that he has retained them fairly well. He did really well putting the shape in the correct spot on the first try and he would say the shape as he put it in its spot. He knew circle, square, triangle (which are the main ones I worked on before) and somehow he even knew diamond.





Here he was working on his new dinosaur puzzle. Daddy helped getting the first half done. I was amazed at how at times when I just let him work on it on his own, he would try-try-again and often find a fit! Then he had fun tearing the puzzle apart when it was only half done.



















Continuing on with the dinosaur theme....J also loved playing with his dinosaur figures. He's starting to have them talk to each other and is making up little stories. If I get to closer to hear what he's saying, he'll sometimes get shy and stop so I keep a little distance to capture these fun moments.




















I'd have to say J had the most fun this week with the new alphabet floor mat we got him off EBay. I looked at so many and paid $22 for this one yet found out Toys-R-Us has an alpha/numeric one for $25 (on sale). I still like this and it covers up our blotchy "no longer white" carpeting! I set it up at night so when we came down for breakfast he was taken aback. Once he realized it was the alphabet he started playing with it right away. He stepped on it and says "I'm walking on it" like he was really excited.


We did a lot of different activities like working on picking out certain letters and naming objects starting with it. He recognized a few like J and Q. I was totally surprised when he said "Q for Queen" and picked out the Q without me asking that one. We picked out J and I said "J for J___(his name)" and he picked up the K and said "K for mommy!" So I showed him the M for that. He also liked trying to find out where the letter fit to put it back. Of course, he also liked just playing with his toys on it. This one will be something we'll play with a lot.

This picture really shows his busy hands! We finally spent some time doing arts/crafts. It seems like a long time since we've done anything beyond coloring. We used shaving cream with food coloring for some finger painting. I got the idea from another Tot School mom (I don't remember where). This was our first time doing this so we played it by ear. I put some shaving cream on the paper and then asked him what color food coloring he wanted. Then I'd put a drop and then he'd smoosh it around. He did about 4 colors and then looking at his hands said, "My hands are dirty" and wanted them washed. So we switched to trying out dot paint!

I was so excited to get our Dot Paints as I've seen several tots using them at Tot School. They are great and so less messy than finger painting! (But the mess is its own type of fun too.) J and I both did a painting and after J was done with his he moved to mine and started tracing it. I didn't realize until later that he had gone over my picture tracing each one of my dots! So cute.







He also made some stuff up on his own and had so much fun lining up the bottles while saying its color, taking the lids off and then putting them back on the matching paint bottle and then he found out he could stack the lids. Loved this!

Just Having Fun

Enjoying some goofing around as we waited for daddy's food at Culver's. I love that J is starting to develop a sense of humor playing around like this.

























It's so hard to get pictures of J smiling. He never hams it up for the camera so I have to get him "live" just purely enjoying himself. (Usually by the time I get my camera ready, his expression has changed.) We were getting out of the car and he decided to crawl around and starting laughing when I was acting goofy as I was coming to get him.





We have a wonderful Farmer's Market and went for our second time this season. We stopped to listen to a couple musicians and just enjoyed a beautiful day (but really felt like fall).


















Daddy, J and I had some fun running around outside. J got this basketball "free" from Culver's (our pretty much favorite dining spot). We saved our coupons to get it. He loves playing basketball and had some special time playing with daddy but then ran over to me and said "mommy catch it". This photo was just before he passed it my way.

Favorites of the Week

For more Tot School ideas, visit 1+1+1=1


And here's another linky I joined

May God's grace be upon us

We had another lazy morning, this time not getting up until almost 8am. After breakfast, I asked if J wanted to play with our art stuff downstairs since it had been a while. He dropped what he was doing to come. We started out with some coloring. I was showing J how to trace his hand and decorate it but he wanted to scribble instead. He also liked playing with some Sesame Street stickers and "pancake playdoh" he calls it. I went in the laundry room for a minute and he came in too. He'd open the washer door, talk a little bit, then close it and walk out. Then he'd come back and do it again. I asked him what he was doing and he said "J's clothes wash". Cute.

In my devotional time, I continued on in Luke 2. It says that Jesus grew; he became strong, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. I wonder what it means to have the grace of God upon you? To take that a little deeper, I started with Google putting in that exact phrase and came up with 131,000 responses! One of the sights I found shared that there are two sides of the coin to grace. On the one side is grace which means unmerited favor, compassion. This is the grace that we are saved by. The other side of grace is the divine power and ability God imparts to us to operate in what the Lord has given us to do. It's the second definition that fits the verse above. How God was equipping Jesus for the work he had for him to do. I've not really thought of grace in that way before, so that helps. Joseph and Mary took Jesus (now 12 years old) to the Festival of the Passover in Jerusalem. When Mary and Joseph left, Jesus stayed behind. It took his parents 3 days, but they finally found him in the temple. Jesus was talking with the elders who were amazed at his understanding. When questioned by his parents, Jesus was taken aback asking why they were searching for him, don't they know he had to be about his Father's house (business)? Here we actually see some of the work that God had equipped him to do, even at the age of 12.

We're starting a new book in my women's study called Is This All There is to Life by Ray Stedman. This study is on the book of Ecclesiastes. I've wanted to study this book of the bible for awhile. It's L's favorite plus it's intriguing because we all search for meaning in our lives. Ray says the book asks the question, "Is there a key to continual delight and joy in our lives?" It'll be neat to find out if the book answers that question!

We had a guest speaker at our church today who spoke on Revelation 2:1-7. He used the church in Ephesus "forsaking their first love" as a way to warn us of the temptation we have as Christ followers to get to a point in our faith where we feel pretty good about ourselves and how much we know. That we can fall into being arrogant, forgetting our first love and begin looking down on others. He spoke about agape love which we find defined in 1 Corinthians 13. This is how God loves us and calls us to love others. This was good to think about.

J did pretty well at dinner tonight. We went out after church with our friends to McD's. I brought food for J from home and stayed away from fries. I realize if I get them, that's the only thing he will eat. We played some puzzles and daddy played his guitar and then it was J's bedtime. Tonight, after bedtime prep, singing over J and saying prayers I just rocked him and held him in my arms with my eyes closed. For those few moments, I just quieted myself and soaked in the love a mother has for her child; experiencing the blessing that this little one is.