The Tranmer Family Scrapbook » snapshots of our daily life, in words and photos

01-31-2012

Tot School – Magic Pom Pom Board

This is a few ideas I’ve seen all put together. I’d seen pom poms glued to magnets before. You can make all kinds of cute animals, etc using pom poms. And I saw somebody on Pinterest using a oil drip pan as a magnet board. Genius! I had  been looking and looking for a big metal pan for you to play with magnets on. Cookie sheets are too small, and I couldn’t think of what else would work (and not be unsafely sharp on the edges). I’d even looked in thrift stores to see what kind of random solution I could find. Well, thank you Walmart. $9.95 for the pan site-to-store. Just had to go to our local Walmart to pick it up! Of course, there are all kinds of magnet games I want to get now.

But this was the one I was most interested in implementing first. You loved the magnets. You stacked them and were fascinated by the fact that they stick together and pull apart over and over again. We hot glued pom poms of various colors and shapes to little magnets (found them at Michael’s). The magnets were a little pricey (about $7  per 25) so we started out with 50. First we stuck the magnets on a smaller broiling rack I had (my no-bake cookie sheets aren’t magnetic) to make it easier to keep track of the magnets and keep them from sticking to each other. Then I let you help me stick the pom poms on the (low heat) glue. Of course you liked throwing the pom poms on the ground too. We had a bit of a (10 minute) battle getting you to agree to help me pick them up when we were done – before you were allowed to move on to other mess making. You are getting more and more stubborn. But we usually can outlast you…. for now. 🙂

This easily ties the pipe cleaner/strainer activity we did in terms of entertainment factor for you. You LOVE it, and have played with it every day since we put it together. The idea is that you can make pictures using the various color pom poms. Of course you’re a little young for that yet, although Mima showed you how to make a smile and I made you pretty flower. You found that slightly interesting. Really you’re quite content just sticking the pom poms up there – at first randomly, now your favorite thing to do is to make snakes, long wiggly lines. I think you might think you’re making monsters. You growl and rawr a lot when you’re doing it. 🙂

Of course this is also a great way to keep working on your colors. I think you know most of them now. The thing is you only cooperate when you feel like it. If you don’t feel like grouping the colors together, you won’t. But you’re getting pretty good a it when you want to. Yesterday we grouped colors together for a while until you took over. Then I just sat and watched. You’d take one color and add it to a “snake” of like colors one at a time. But you usually would put the pom pom on the wrong color snake first and then say “noooo” and shake your head, and then slide it over to the right snake. Super cute. 🙂

The next thing after we master colors (and hopefully you won’t lose interest in this before we get there) is patterns. Red, white, red, white, etc.

Oh, one other thing… Mima tried to show you how to throw the pom pom magnets at the board from a distance. Kind of like pom pom darts. That could be fun when you’re a little older. Maybe I’ll make a bulls-eye with some painter’s tape. hmmm…. I like that idea.

Loves, baby girl. Muah.

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01-24-2012

Tot School – Bathtub Painting!

I made you some bathtub paint this morning – shaving cream (Daddy’s sensitive skin variety) mixed with food coloring. You were pretty excited by the whole proposition, when I told you what the paint was for. You kept saying “Yeah!” over and over again in your happy, excited voice. You helped me stir the paint into the shaving cream and could not wait to get those cute buns in the water. Once you were in, no explanation was required. You picked up the paint brushes and went to town… my little Picasso. Dipping and painting and mixing all the colors together as quickly as possible. Who needs four different colors, right?

I asked you to keep it on the 3 walls of tile and you were extremely compliant. At one point you dripped some accidentally on the side of the tub and were very concerned saying “Uh-oh” and looking worried. You are, in general, very good at listening to instruction. You’re very good at saying “No!” and screaming at us too. I guess it just depends on what strikes your fancy at the moment. 🙂

You’re just getting so big, little girl. Growing up too, too fast.

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Kelly Hoover - This is so adorable Amanda! What a clever idea shaving cream & food coloring, did she try to taste it??

admin - No, she didn’t! I told her right away that it wasn’t for eating. I guess she believed me. 🙂

01-20-2012

Tot School – In & Out Oatmeal Roller

It’s been a busy couple of months. But we’re getting back into the swing of Tot School. I have a whole bunch of new ideas for the next month or 2. This is one that’s been on my list for a long time. I finally remembered to save an empty oatmeal container to make it happen. Simple enough, we just cleaned it out, cut a door in the side and slit a hole in the top. You put things in, you take things out. Put the lid on, took the lid off. And we rolled all your little plastic friends down the stairs over and over again, each time waiting to see who, if anyone, would fall out on their ride down the stairs. Overall, you thought this was a pretty good time. So did I. You thought it was funny, although you were mostly concerned about making sure everyone got into the container at the same time. The more full the container was, the more difficult it was to get it to actually roll down the stairs. It got snagged a lot near the top of the stairs, but you just scooted down along with it, giving it a kick or push every now and then. Cheap, fun game. We’ll definitely play it again. I just hope I’m not teaching you to roll other more breakable things down the stairs, hehe.

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01-03-2012

A Typical Day at 25 Months

It’s back to normal in the Tranmer household after a festive and fun holiday and you are now officially 25 months old, as of today. Here’s the cute stuff I want to remember about just-barely-2-year-old Adela Lane.

New, Interesting and just plain Cute stuff this month…

*Granny and Auntie taught you something new and cute while they were here a couple a couple weeks ago. When you take a drink of water you wipe your mouth on the back of your hand and give a satisfied smack and sigh.

*You learned early this month to “shhhhh…” when you want things quiet. You do it reeeeally softly and it’s actually a “sssssss” but you put your droopy pointy finger up by your mouth, put your head down and concentrate when you do it so there’s no question what you mean. You also pretend sleep and “snore.”

*Your horse obsession continues. Probably because we encourage it, we think it’s so cute. You have a horse necklace you want to wear all the time. You rock on your rocking horse, you gallop on your stick pony, you cuddle with all your stuffed equine friends.

*You started SINGING!! 🙂 It’s still in the very beginning stages of actually singing, but there’s no mistaking it. Your best number yet was one that Auntie Steph taught you when she was here. It’s some version of “Get Down Tonight.” Because “get down” is one of the phrases you actually say, I can tell that you’re actually using words when you carry your voice and make it go up and down.

*You officially throw tantrums. But they are really mild, kind of funny, usually. And they come at the most random times. Sometimes we have no idea what you’re actually upset about. And sometimes they’re silent. But you’ll throw yourself on the floor face down and basically pout. You give up quickly though because they never get you anywhere.

*You love trucks. You got a couple for Christmas and you love to open and shut the doors and hood and drive them around making car noises. And you love jewelry. You love makeup. You love having your nails painted. You wear as many accessories as you can at any one time. You carry around a purse at every opportunity. You’re 100% girl, but you’re not afraid of a good-looking vehicle either. It’s cool. I can see you working on cars with Daddy some day, decked out in your makeup and curls. Gotta love a girl who knows how to fix things and look good doing it.

*You love brushing your teeth! You can hardly walk by the bathroom without begging for a sink session with brush in hand. You climb on the step stool Grandpa made you and you do a pretty darn good job all by yourself, dipping the brush in the dripping water every 2 seconds or so.

*It’s safe to say you understand the concept of bargaining. I kind of said at some point I wouldn’t bargain with you I think. Yeah, I do. Not too often, but you will eat 1 or 2 more bits of something if you really want what I’m offering in return. There are other applications as well, but I find the method coming into play most often during mealtimes. You don’t eat everything as easily as you used to, although when you’re hungry you will eat just about anything. Also, you’re going through a weird phase this week where all of a sudden you want us to put the food on the fork/spoon for you and then you have to put it in your own mouth. I understand needing our help with the trickier spoonfuls, but mostly I think it’s just some form of control or laziness. So, we’ve started waiting you out. Sometimes you’ll go 10 minutes without eating anything whining the whole time. But eventually you give in and feed yourself. It’s not that you can’t do it, sometimes you feel like being waited on I guess.

*Something cute you’ve done for a few months now that I can’t remember if I recorded before is your “come on” motion. It’s like a dog paddle with one arm and you kind of squat down and wait expectantly when you do it. Done when you want somebody to follow you.

*You say “hi” all the time now. When you walk into the room and see me, you say “hi”. Love it. Another new word this month “cracker” (ka-kuh). You’re 2 year physical is coming up so let’s count your words really quick while I’m thinking about it. Momma, Dada, Hi, Cracker, All Done, Get Down, Fall Down, No, UhOh, Fan, Brrr (if that counts). And I’ve had to come back and add a few after the fact because I didn’t get them all. You also say Num (for yum), Yeah, Wawa (water) and Yay. So there’s a few more. That’s pretty much it for the words you use on your own at appropriate times. A few less than twenty, more than I thought. And you can get everything you need with those. And you added a snake “ssssss” to the other half dozen or so animal sounds you use on a daily basis.

*When you’re cold, you say “brrr” and clench your fists and teeth and do your best to shiver.

*Oh yeah, no more Binky!! Daddy took it away without telling me right after your birthday. You woke up without it one day and Daddy said he just never gave it to you when he put you to bed the night before. You fussed a little at naptime for about 3 days. We told you that all the binkies went bye-bye, you thought about it seriously and sadly for a few minutes, seemed to accept it, and that was that. I am so proud.

*Your favorite book this month is “Ain’t Gonna Paint No More.” I found it during my library days and I love it too.

*You play with dolls on a regular basis now. You talk to them, carry them around, treat them like your “babies.” It’s still the beginning of that kind of role-playing pretend. But you definitely do it. You had Snow White (who you will not allow to wear her dress) looking out the car window and waving the other day.

That’s what I got for now. Now back to Tot School after this Christmas Break. Time to look for more ideas to keep you entertained, little munchkin. Muah!

 

 

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