Tot School (Mish Mosh)

**J is 27 months old today**

Mish mosh (in the slang dictionary): A disorderly conglomeration. Without a theme or focus.

That's what this week's Tot School was like. No real order or theme; just a bunch of random, different things we did. J was OK with some of the things I planned for us to do, but mostly he would pick out activities on his own which was fine.

J likes all kinds of trucks and equipment so I picked up a DVD called Mighty Machines. We watched this and he really paid attention when the garbage truck segment came on. They describe what the trucks do from the time they pick up the garbage to the time they bring it to the dump. J likes to watch our garbage man when he comes each week. He'll run to the window and sometimes we'll go outside to watch him and the truck which picks up the garbage with a mechanical arm. Now he knows where our garbage goes.

Letters, ABC's
We got a kids "computer" from my sister that J really likes playing with (Fisher Price Fun2Learn...I had no idea it cost this much). There's a setting where he'll press a letter and the capital form of it comes up on the screen and a voice says the letter and then it shows an animal with that letter while saying the name. J liked playing this over and over. He is just learning how to recognize letters and after a time there were about four he could pick out on the keyboard, probably because he likes those animals right now (d=duck, e=elephant, h=hippopotamus, m=mouse).

My sister also gave us this ABC puzzle which J really loves. He doesn't recognize letters very well yet, but he is getting very good at moving the piece around until he finds the right fit. I would read the letter on the puzzle piece and he'd name the object before he put it in. This time around, he didn't get very far from what the last picture shows before he was off to something else.
















Fire Truck Puzzle
He wanted to bring out his fire truck puzzle (Melissa and Doug Giant Fire Truck puzzle ) and needed help with it. We did this in a past Tot School. We worked on it together, first sorting out the pieces and putting "like" pieces together. Then I put a few down and we started to build on it. I'd ask him questions like, "Do you think this piece goes there?" and he'd say NO! if it was way off or Yes! if it looked right. Then I'd move it close to where it fit and let him connect the piece.


Numbers and Shapes
I found a great teaching video on numbers and shapes from the library (Little Steps: Numbers and Shapes). The first part on counting had a few different segments. In one segment, the numbers would drop out of a plane one at a time and we'd say them together. In the next one, numbered blocks would show up on the screen from 1-10, and in the last one fireworks would go off and be in the shape of the numbers going up to 10. This is the first time he actually counted 1 to 10 without skipping any numbers. He used to make it to 4 and then skip around, so he's making progress. I really liked the repetition as the 3 segments were repeated again and again giving him a chance to count several times. He wasn't that interested in the shapes segment and asked to go back to numbers again so we went back to counting.

I found a large 1-20 numbers poster from the Dollar Store. J was interested more in naming the items versus counting. He did do counting with me a little bit but he quickly lost interest in this one.










I used our shape flash cards and came up with an activity to sort the shapes by color in rows. Then the idea was we would go through and name the shapes. J wasn't that keen on playing along. I started out by setting out the flash cards and explaining what he was to do next. He ended up placing down two yellow shape cards in the correct row, but then had more fun knocking the cards out of their row and then picking them up and running around with them wanting me to come chase him. Hmm....maybe another time.








Cars
When J got tired of taking my shape flash cards and running off with them, he wanted to play with cars. He likes to drive them on mommy's leg.







Music Appreciation
J has this fascination with Elvis. This was the first musician he recognized on the radio. We heard an Elvis song once and I told him who it was. Then some other day we heard that song again and J goes, "Elvis mommy!" Now he asks for Elvis in the car and we play a 50's CD. The funny thing is he'll say "I don't like this one" when we play any Elvis song BUT Jailhouse Rock. He has something for Jailhouse Rock. So he was asking to see Elvis on the computer so I showed him the Jailhouse Rock video of Elvis from 1957 on You Tube. Once it was done, he wanted to see it again.

Matching
At the dollar store, I got three sets of cards. A Bible memory match, Bible heroes and Bible Go Fish. I worked on matching a few months ago showing him how to match socks together, but he wasn't catching on at all. I thought I'd try again with something else but I kept the pictures face up to start out. Since this was our first time, I really walked him through it by placing the matching cards near each other and then helping J find the ones that matched. He seemed to get this a little bit, but was more interested in collecting the cards, holding them and also laying them out. This will be a good continuing activity.





Physical Activities
J has not played with this toy in months but it captured his interest on this day. Walking around the house "making popcorn". The cat wasn't too excited about it.







We also played a game of hide-and-seek. So far, J seems to like the same place to hide. He loves going behind the kitchen door and then I'll tiptoe up to him and yell "boo!" once I find him there he'll scream and laugh and then come running out. (This picture is a little blurry.)




When it's my turn to hide, he'll go to the stairs to sit and wait while keeping his eyes covered. (I love this and think it's so cute!) I'll go find a place to hide and say "OK, I'm ready" and he'll come looking for me. I also love it when he's found me I jump out and he squeals and runs away and we start over again.

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

Fun at the Dream Park

(Thursday)
Today ended up being warmer than I thought it would be. We're back to the humidity but just not as hot. We had a play date with friends at the Monona Dream Park. We started out with a picnic together. My friend Tina's daughter eats like a bird like J, picking at food. Although he always does pretty well with PB&J (today's menu). This was a new park for J, so he was a little hesitant and constantly wanted me with him. He did tolerate staying around Tina's kids so I could drop things off at the car. This park is very similar to McKee Farms, the one we go to frequently. There he roams around all over the place but not today. Tina and I were able to squeeze in some talk time, even with the kids coming to interrupt. All too soon, it was time to go and say goodbye to our friends. On the way home, J kept asking for Sim., Tina's oldest son. I think he connected a bit with him.

Once at home, it was time for a nap. He went down pretty willingly and ended up sleeping for 2-1/2 hours which was nice.

In my devotional time, Beth (from To Live is Christ) was in Acts 14. Paul and Barnabas continued on their missionary journey ending up at Iconium. There were Jews and Gentiles there opposing them and wanting to take their lives so they fled to another city and began to preach there. God performed a miracle through Paul (made a crippled man walk) and people thought they were gods and tried to worship them. Just as they were setting the record straight, some of the Jews came and won the crowd over and they turned on Paul and Barnabas. They stoned Paul and left him for dead, but he survived. The Lord delivered them. Beth shares that every time God delivers us from something (hardship, trial, habitual sin) the point is to ultimately draw us closer.

I made a new recipe for dinner; beef fried rice. We liked it, but J wouldn't have any. This is pretty typical. It's hit or miss when feeding him. He did like last night's chicken and broccoli casserole. It's hit or miss. Later, our sitter Dave came over so L & I could go to The Making of the Bible class at Blackhawk. It was a very well presented class, but a little too intellectual for me I think. He's doing a class next month about the character of a Christ follower, what happens once you commit to following him. That sounds a lot more interesting for me. The intellectual classes just don't stick with me, but those that are more relational do. When we got home, J was waiting at the door and was jumping up and down in excitement saying "mommy's home, mommy's home". What a welcome. He had boundless energy which Dave said he must have been storing up as he hadn't been that rambunctious. He ran and got his fire helmets and got daddy to play with him. They looked so cute.

Wordless Wednesday

(OK, so there are a few words)

So today was a day full of errands; depositing checks at the bank, going to the Dollar Tree store for the first time (and spending just $33) and then grocery shopping. There weren't a ton of highlights for the day, so I decided to do Wordless Wednesday and show some pictures instead. These are from a trip to the zoo last Sunday.

This was J's first carousel ride. He loved it!
He was so excited to pick the elephant!

At the fossil area in the zoo park

I love this one, in the kangaroo pouch!

J's second carousel ride...

My first Tiny Talk Tuesday

(J is 26 months old)


I found another mom's blog at Tot School called Caeden's Corner who has a son J's age. She participates in Tiny Talk Tuesday which is from the Not Before 7 blog. I love this idea of sharing what your kids are saying so I'm joining in today with a couple things to share.

Funky Mood

On Sunday, we were at church and I was holding J while we were talking to someone. He was really wiggly and seemed rambunctious. I couldn't exactly pin down his mood so when this person started laughing when J cupped my face with his hands and was patting my face I said, "J is in a funky mood." Yesterday morning, I was getting J dressed while he laid on the floor. He was waving his legs around and was wiggly and giggly. I said something about him being so wiggly and he says to me "I'm in a funky mood mommy". This was so funny! He has never said this. I had no idea he picked that up from me the night before. Then he was almost dressed and says, "I'm all done funky mood." Cute!

Talking to God

Last week, we were on our way home from the YMCA. I was talking to J about what they are teaching him in church, that we can talk to God anytime or anyplace; that we talk to God in our prayers. So J says "Hi God. I want brown muffins God." (Brown muffins are his favorite chocolate chocolate chip mini muffins). Then we were getting out of the car and he says "I want to give my brown muffin to God." Once outside, he walks around and says "Where are you God? Where did God go?" This was just adorable!

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The day's recap....
Today it was so hard to believe - J slept until 10:00am! I was up a little after 8:30, showered, ate breakfast and he still wasn't up. He didn't go to bed unusually late either. Not sure why? He doesn't seem ill or anything. Today my friend asked if I'd watch her son while she went to the laundromat. J has played with him before and they get along pretty well. It was no problem, I felt it would be good for J, more work on his sharing! She thought she'd be gone just a couple hours but she had trouble with needing to re-do a load so the boys played, ate and played some more for about 4 hours. It looked like a mini-tornado hit since they took out toys that J hadn't played with in ages. Of course, anything Jackson took out to play with J had this renewed interest in it and tried to take everything from him. I was the referee getting J to play nice and let go of (or give back) the toy in question. Although Jackson had a really hard time after Eileen left and cried off and on, I also saw some smiles and giggles. He was ecstatic when his mom came back. J went for his nap and the first thing he said when he got up was, "Where's Jackson?" I told him he went home.

J continues to eat like a little bird. We have this great (because it was my mom's recipe) pork chop dinner and he just picks at it and tells me he wants cereal. I nix his cereal idea but he doesn't end up eating much more. Our after dinner time was a stop at the library. It is so nice how J does so well there allowing me to look for books and things. He went over to the puzzles and he found the animal one. This little African American boy would point to where the piece should go, and J would put it in. J was chattering away as he did the puzzle. They repeated this probably 4 or 5 times until it was time to go. While I checked out, he climbed up on a chair across the way and sat waiting. He didn't want to go to bed either since we had new books and videos. I let him watch a bit of Little Einstein which a friend recommended to me and then it was time for his bed routine.

An enjoyable day

What a great day today was. The weather was incredible. Yesterday the incredible heat and humidity finally broke and today it stayed below 80 degrees with a beautiful breeze. J was really into activities and engaging with me today. It started when he got up and wanted to read his two favorite books of the moment. The first is The Farm Book where not only does it tell the story about life for a family on the farm, every picture has things to count! We counted cows, ducks, chickens, cats, horses and pigs. Then we read Ballyhoo Bay. These are both books we got from our library sale for $25 cents each. I love it when we get so much use out of a cheap find. After breakfast, we watched some of a couple videos. The first one was called Mighty Machines. In it are segments on different machines and what they do. We watched the fire house, a street sweeper and garbage trucks. I think he liked the garbage trucks the most. Whenever the garbage man comes to the house, he runs to the window to watch them and sometimes we go outside to get a closer look. He seemed to follow along as they showed the garbage going from the houses all the way to the dump and what happens there and in between. The other video we watched was Miracle of Mozart; Numbers and Shapes. He really loved the numbers but not so interested in the shapes. Then he wanted to put together the fire truck puzzle which we did in a past Tot School. He got out the pieces but then needed me to come and do the puzzle with him since he needs my hints and can't link the pieces together yet.

After lunch, we went outside to enjoy the gorgeous day. Most of the time we just played with bubbles. We ended up going in the garage since it was so windy it was hard for J to catch them and pop them which he likes to do. He brought out his bubble mower and I filled it up and off he went. Then he wanted to ride his little car. He hasn't used these two things in a long time. I would push him up the little hill in our driveway and I taught him to lift his legs up so he could roll down the hill. We went back and forth several times but then it was time for his nap.

Ahhh! I've been really challenged with having a daily quiet time the last week. It has been hit or miss. J's schedule keeps changing around and now there's really not a time I'm totally alone while J naps (since J is going down later and daddy gets home). I was able to spend some time today, but not as much as I wanted. I didn't get a chance to have a good prayer time. I seem to pray in spurts throughout the day. A person will suddenly be in my mind and I'll say a prayer for them or a situation comes up that I'll pray about. I continue to read Beth Moore's book To Live is Christ. Today I was in Acts 13 where Paul goes on his first missionary journey. He goes with Barnabas. Verses 2 and 3: While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." ³So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. Beth says that the first church in Antioch is such a wonderful example for us; the followers there have a willingness to give, to receive the word, to preach and teach. She shares that the leaders of the church in Antioch were constantly ready to hear from God. They fasted and prayed before sending off Paul and Barnabas on their journey. This is the heart that I am after, the constant readiness to hear from the Lord. I find though I need to continue to fight off distractions that get in the way of that and the general busy-ness of our culture. I want to take time to just sit before Him. Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God. Yet I find it hard sometimes to do that, to just sit. So that is something I'm going to pursue. I find it so healthy when I'm able to slow down like that and just rest before the Lord. Beth continues that verse 11 records the first miracle that we see God perform through Peter. It has to do with a sorcerer who opposes them when the proconsul (governor) sent for them so he could hear the word of God. The sorcerer is struck blind by Paul and the proconsul is amazed and believes. Verse 12: When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. Beth shares that the Lord wants to amaze us with the wisdom of his word. He wants to show us how relevant he is and widen our vision. I want a heart that is ready to receive all that He has for me.

After J woke up from his nap, we had a pretty tame evening. We worked out at the Y. J started crying when I dropped him off. He did this at church too so he seems a little more sensitive lately to me leaving him. It's funny the phases they enter and leave and enter again. Then he didn't want to leave when I picked him up! He told me he was having fun playing with a little boy. They were playing with dinosaurs. We then watched daddy playing basketball for a little bit. J wanted to get a couple basketballs and we went to the kids basket. They have a huge mat three feet high and J wanted me to toss him onto it and then he wanted me to jump onto it. We were rolling around on the mat and jumping on and off and laughing like crazy. He didn't want to leave that either. At home, it was time for a bath and then sleep.

Tot School (Shapes, Colors and Misc.)

(J is 26 months old)

This was a pretty low-key week as far as Tot School goes. We spent a lot of time at home in the air conditioning as it was super hot and humid just about all week.

Playing Fireman

Playing fireman never gets boring for J. A couple days this week he came up to me wearing his fire helmet and bringing me his extra one saying "come fight the fire mommy". So I'd put on the fire helmet and join him. Then we'd get out the fire trucks and line them up. I have a fire hydrant sprinkler I keep inside so I found a tape measure that I used as a hose and showed J how to hook it up to the fire hydrant. He had fun doing this.

Shape Sorter

J's getting a lot better at figuring out how to put the different shapes in the correct hole. So most times he knows where the shape goes, but now he has to figure out how to turn the shape so it fits into the shape hole correctly. Sometimes this gets frustrating for him and he'll throw it aside and start with another.

Books

We've read Shape Capers a lot but it's been a week or so since we last read it. Right now I'm focusing on circles, triangles and squares. He learns these and then forgets them. They don't seem to stick yet. He seems to like calling everything a triangle so I think that's his favorite shape. This book is also good for naming colors and he loves doing that. He knows the majority of colors but every once in a while calls blue "red". He did grow tired of trying to name the shapes on every page, although he focused well in the beginning. We read What is Square which has pictures of all different kinds of items that come in the shape of a square. He liked naming the object but this one didn't hold his interest as much. In general, he doesn't seem as interested in shapes right now as he is with ABC's and counting.

Dominoes

#1 Lining up in a row
#2 Stacking

We both enjoyed doing this one. We did this a few times during the week. We have a box of colored dominoes and we liked lining them up in a row. I liked trying to match the colors as I made my row of dominoes. J would come over and identify the colors on my dominoes and we'd also count the dots. He knows 1-4 then starts skipping to 10. J liked to call out the color of his domino as he'd add it to his row. He also liked stacking them up on top of each other. I'd lead in counting and he'd join me so we'd see how many he could get in a stack. Six was the most before they fell.

For more Tot School ideas, see 1+1=1.

A week's worth of blogging

Wow, getting each day's blogging done has really eluded me this week. I have the highlights of Tues-Fri that I'll combine here.

(Tuesday)
Today was the last day of L's vacation week so we decided to spend it at Devil's Lake. We brought J's favorites to keep him occupied like his now-favorite books, his dinosaurs and a box of dominoes. The dominoes are a new thing. I brought them to our mom's night out Monday and thought he may like playing with them. Boy does he ever! So this was a winner. He started out calling them "dominicks" but I think he's got the name now. Once we were hot (which wasn't hard since it was 85+ and super humid) we went swimming. I wanted to do some more work with J so we stayed in shallows. He gets pretty upset if I don't carry him in the water and doesn't like to stand or walk around the shallow water. I tried walking on my knees and holding his hands but he didn't like it and was crying. Then I walked away a little bit and held my arms out to him and once or twice he did walk to me. Then daddy played with him to help him gain more confidence and I went to swim a bit. When I came back he didn't want me to leave him again and kept asking for uppy. We all had lunch and then after a bit we swam again. This time I brought J's toys (it's funny that it took me so long to have this idea). We had his dinosaurs, a fire boat and a few cars that I put at the edge of the water and just sat there playing with him. We found a log and he loved trying to balance the dinosaurs on that calling it a boat. He seemed to enjoy this until I would move away, then he'd get upset. He didn't like to walk to me either, he'd stand there crying not wanting to move. He really doesn't like this part of being in the water. He just wanted to be carried and wouldn't stop saying "uppy mommy". Plus it was getting close to nap time so he was really upset and wouldn't stop crying. Finally, he took several steps to me and when he was a foot away he actually ran the last few steps and into my arms. I'm serious though, he is that scared of walking in the water. He was fine at the Edgewood wading pool when we walked in, but maybe it's the unsteady sand that really freaks him out. We'll keep working on it whenever we can.

When we got home I had just enough time to prepare a little dinner, get J up from his nap and then my friend Cecile came over. She's the one I'm meeting with for spiritual accountability. It is very, very good to get together and share. We shared about our weeks, talked about my vacation and things God was showing me. She shared challenges she is having with her kids and it was funny how I could see J in some of the situations she was describing. L and J came back from the Y. It was nice that he took J there so we could have the time alone. Unfortunately, we hadn't gotten a chance to pray. L said he was crying off and on and kept asking for mommy. L tried to get J upstairs to go and read some books but he said NO and put a book in my lap saying "mommy read it". So I let him stay while L went upstairs and we prayed. He bowed his head with us it was so cute.
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(Wednesday)
Before breakfast, we played with dominoes. That's the first thing he went to. I left them out after bringing them to my mom's night out thinking he might like them. He loves to put them all in a row so I built alongside his and we made a parking garage and a tunnel. We had the cars going in and out. I stopped for a bit to read some of the paper and J let me know he didn't like that. He said "all done paper mommy" and tries to take it away. I finished my article and went back to playing with him. He took my hand.

We had a play date set up with my friend Eileen but she called early to let me know it wasn't going to work out. While cleaning, she had discovered a mildew problem and she needed to deal with that. That left the morning open for doing the overdue grocery shopping. It seemed today I had a hard time with deciding so it took me longer than normal. J lost patience and kept saying "go check out mommy?" or "I wanna go home mommy" then "uppy mommy". That one he kept saying over and over starting to cry so finally I took him out setting him free. He liked pushing the cart but I had to keep him away from the low things on the shelves. At checkout when I put him back in the cart he had another outburst and was not happy. We stopped at Walgreen's too and I found some really good sales including 75cents for huge jugs of bubbles. Once we got home, we played with bubbles for a while and J ran around trying to pop them.

I let him watch a little of the videos I picked up from the library. The one about dinosaurs he didn't really like, maybe they weren't enough cartoon-like. He wanted to watch Stellaluna. This was a story he looked at on the library computers and would talk about for days after. We finally got the video. Then he did some more playing and it was nap time.

J got all ready to eat spaghetti, was in his chair, had his fork and then just refused to eat. I hadn't given him the normal half hour or so to wake up and the melt down came with me needing to put him in his crib for a bit. Then we went to the Y and when I dropped him off he got the SADDEST little face. He was asking for uppy but instead I put him inside the child watch area and he looked lost. He started walking a little bit then turned around & saw daddy and I and his face just fell looking like he was going to cry any minute so (although torn) we left quickly. When we picked him up, the lady was commenting on his vocabulary. She had been a teacher at a private school and was saying he is really advanced for his age. We don't have anything to compare him to, but I'm starting to hear that more. On the way home I was talking to J about what they are teaching him in church, that we can talk to God anytime or anyplace. We talk to God in our prayers. So J says "Hi God. I want brown muffins God." Then we were getting out of the car and he says "I want to give my brown muffin to God." Once outside, he walks around and says "Where are you God? Where did God go?" This was just adorable! It was a little past bed time yet he seemed wide awake, wanting to watch videos. Went up and read a couple books then colored a little then prayers and sleep.

(Thursday)
J woke me up today after 8am. I had a huge headache so we went in "the big bed" (mommy & daddy's bed) and lay down for a while. It wasn't very restful though with J crawling all over me, pinching my nose, throwing blankets over my face, things like that. I decided not to go to the Titus group park date since I wasn't feeling so hot, plus the weather was super hot and humid.
We played some dominoes again. This time we were focusing on colors and patterns in lining them up together. We also watched video called The Big Race which teaches good lessons like sharing and helping. There are fire trucks in this video so he had to wear his fire hat. He came running to me with his extra helmet saying "come fight the fire mommy!"

For lunch since he is picky, I thought I had a great idea with a lean cuisine of spanish rice (which he loves) and enchilada. He wanted pickles and wouldn't eat anything else. Back to the drawing board. Off and on today he was asking me where daddy was or saying he wants daddy. Every time he brings up daddy I use that as a reminder to pray for him. I'll tell J he's at work but then say we can pray for him and I'll pray for his day.

After lunch, my headache came back. I mentioned going outside and J then said he wanted to stay inside (which he never does) but finally I coaxed him to go play outside with me for a bit. We did some bubbles since they are so fun yet it was SUPER hot & humid! After nap and dinner, our friend Dave came over to watch him while we went to a class at Blackhawk called The Bible in the Making.Our instructor said we are officially Bible geeks to give up a week night to come study how the bible came together. It was really interesting to learn about. J really didn't want to go to sleep. He wanted to keep playing. Daddy read him a couple books but still he didn't want to sleep. Then we did our prayer time and he let me tuck him in without complaining.

(Friday)
I can't believe how late we slept this morning! I woke up and it was 9am and J was still not awake. My headache had returned so I lay back down and by 9:30 I got up and J was still sleeping! It looked like it would be a rainy day and it did turn out that way. After breakfast and some play time we went to the Y. Again, J seemed sad when I dropped him off with the sad droopy lip but was really happy when I got back. I was in the driveway when J and I started to talk about McDonald's and he was so excited. He says "mommy's turning around" so I thought why not, and we went. I was not paying attention but I went to sit and all of a sudden hear someone happily calling our names and there is my friend Carolina with Nikki from Titus. This week J had been asking for Carolina and her son Steffano. This was great. We ate and hung out for at least an hour in the play area. J went back and forth and was saying "there are too many kids mommy" so he hung out with us at the table a lot of the time.

Once we got home, J went right down for his nap. It kept raining and we ended up with a big pond in our yard from too much rain too fast. After dinner, we had some friends over; Curtis and a couple Sherry and Ron. They have all been to India for mission work too and we've known them for many years. J was acting like a goof ball but staying pretty close to me. We got to hear about Curtis' trip to Europe after India and shared what's been going on in our lives. He brought his guitar and played a couple worship songs he learned in India in the Telagu language. It was late when they left and L was doing the night routine with J but I could hear him crying and saying "I want my mommy". I had to go up there and right away his arms were out to me so I stayed and read him a few books, prayed, sang and then he was ready to be tucked in.