Have Toddler, Will Travel

We have taken Little Roo on two vacations in the last six months..one when she was 13 months on an all-expense paid trip (by my husband’s company) to Vegas

Here she is dancing to the fountains at the Bellagio

and the other, from which we just returned, a trip to FL to visit my husband’s family.  A lot has changed in the past six months—Roo was still nursing on that trip to Vegas, she was crawling at the time (actually took her first steps in the airport on the way home!), she took two naps a day, and was very content sitting in her mama’s lap.  Fast forward to our trip to FL—no longer an option to nurse during take-off, she is running around, napping once a day, wanting to stay busy with activities, asserting her independence,  and is very interested in communicating wants and needs. In typical fashion, I worried and over prepared for certain parts of the trip, but had not anticipated the few hiccups we encountered.  I was super excited to collect and make little travel activities for her, which she did enjoy the ones that I could actually manage to wrangle out of the bottom of the backpack ;)  We thought that a layover would be a good chance for us all to stretch our legs and have a meal…Little Roo did not understand that she needed to hold a hand in the busy Atlanta airport, so walking around became impossible, and the timing was off for meals (we had brought breakfast and eaten on the first flight) so we weren’t even hungry.  When our flight was delayed another 30 minutes, we all started to lose a little patience.   Luckily it wasn’t long before we were boarding again and Roo was happy to sit and play with the window shade next to our seat for awhile.

Here are the items I packed, their inspirations, and how well they worked! Addison's Travel Activities

Finger Puppets: I have had these for years (in my classroom), she loves them at home, didn’t make it out on the trip.

Color Wheel Matching: Home-made, modeled after Engaging Toddler Activities, she wasn't interested in the color matching or the clothespins.

Crayons and Coloring Book: We love Crayola Twistables because I don’t worry as much about her putting them in her mouth or breaking them, I printed the Brown Bear coloring pages from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/index.html, coloring is an activity she enjoys both home and away…for a few minutes at a time!

Mini-Backpack: Borrowed from a friend, I thought Roo would like to pull the zippers and find the toys (she loves opening the different pockets in our diaper bag/backpack!)…she wasn’t very interested in the backpack itself.  She adores pressing the buttons on my old cell phone; the Koosh ball, which was always a hit with my students, did not go over well..I think it was a sensory thing!  We soon forgot about the little backpack and lint roller (another idea from a friend).

Family Pictures: I used Photoshop to put the names of the family members we would be visiting. On the way there she wanted to find herself in the pictures, but on the way back and since we have been home, she has enjoyed looking at the other family members, pointing to them and hearing their names.  I need to make these pictures of everyone in our family!

Paint With Water Book and Q-tips: Came across this when I was looking for an airplane board book and thought we’d give it a try…it didn’t make it out on the plane and she really didn’t get into it once we were home.

Stickers: Any scrap booking stickers that I am not going to use, go to Roo..we didn’t play with them on the plane.  She is still trying to grasp the concept of sticking them on paper and then they won't come off...maybe she needs a sticker book!

Stacking Cups: These were a gift that she received for her first Christmas and they are always a popular toy!   We usually keep them in the diaper bag and pull them out at restaurants or waiting rooms.  We pulled down the tray table and she nested them for awhile, until she started thinking it was funny to throw them off!

Matching Game: I printed this Brown, Bear Brown Bear “heads and tails” game from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/index.html.  I made two copies, laminated them, and added Velcro so she could make matches (I think finding the heads and tails without matching would be a little too tricky for her).  I wasn’t sure if she would be able to complete the puzzles herself, but figured she would at least enjoy pulling off the Velcro pieces.  She probably spent more time playing with this than any other thing we packed!  She was able to complete the puzzles…and liked pulling the pieces off!!

Gel Clings: A friend suggested this, but we still haven’t opened them!

Pop-Poms and Cup: I had my husband drill holes in the lid to a small plastic container.  (I have seen this on many blogs).  Roo really enjoyed pushing the pom-poms through the holes. I wish I had brought another container to store the pom-poms in.

Golf Whiffle Balls: I bought these because she loves the ones that they have at our local Childnren’s Museum (plus they are light!)  at the last minute I stuck an empty toilet paper roll in the bag…she liked pushing the balls through the tunnel….and only one rolled away!

Brown Bear Book and Felt Pieces: I ordered the felt pieces from a teacher friend…Little Roo likes the story and the animals, and it coordinated with some of the other activities.  The felt pieces were a little tricky to manage on the plane.

Pipe Cleaners and Beads: We had this set of chunky beads in the basement and I knew the only way she would be able to manage them would be on pipe cleaners…she did like this activity, but still needs a little help.

Other activities that she enjoyed: watching the workers load/unload the luggage, pulling the window screen up and down, browsing the magazines & safety info, looking at pictures of dogs in SkyMall, playing peek-a-boo with the people sitting behind us, sharing snacks (She tried Goldfish crackers for the first time!), and singing songs with motions.  We found that the ERGO carrier was a must have for walking around the airports.

Roo is an easy-going little girl, who makes a great traveler….my husband is already looking at booking a cruise in the next couple months!!

Enjoying some swinging time in the Florida sunshine!

Read Across America Day

Simple, toddler friendly Read Across America Day Celebration!!

We read MANY books everyday, but I wanted to pay tribute to the great Dr. Seuss.

I was bummed when first I missed the Target storytime for Read Across America Day, then found out that our local library wasn’t even reading Dr. Seuss books for storytime this week.  What is a former teacher to do??...  plan our own little celebration, of course!!  Luckily, I was babysitting, so I had more than one little one to share the fun with!  First, I dug out all the Dr. Seuss books I own, and borrowed a few of the simpler texts Hop on Pop and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? Roo owns a very cute organic cotton Cat in the Hat stuffed animal that had been given to us by her great Aunt…I pulled that out as well.  I had seen a lot of craft and snack ideas to celebrate the life of Dr. Seuss, but none seemed quite right for these young toddlers….they would not understand the ideas behind them quite yet.  They actually both enjoy spinach and eggs..(green eggs?!?) but, I didn’t even think of that at the time.  I decided to do a simple take on the famous hat.  I cut strips of red and white paper and taped contact paper, sticky side up to the table.  Then, I let them explore both the “sticky paper” and the stripes.  It is funny how each of the toddlers' personalities came through in their artwork!  My little Roo tapped her fingers on the sticky paper and placed one stripe at a time, not overlapping much, at first.  Addie had more fun exploring the stripes, dropping them on the floor and sticking handfuls onto the sticky paper.  They even listened to some of Dr. Seuss’ stories and did not destroy the paper books that they are not quite used to (we prefer the indestructible board books around here!)  The best part was that I had all the supplies on hand!! 

What did you do to celebrate the works of Dr. Seuss??  

The Tale of Two Addisons

It has been just about a year since we first met Nicole and Addison Derr.  We all went to try out the Peace Baby Yoga class at Child Light Yoga. Not only did we choose the same name for our sweet daughters, but Nicole quickly recognized the GroVia peeking out of my little Addison’s bloomers….she had also purchased a stash of the same cloth diapers for her Addison, but she didn’t quite fit into them yet.  At that point I knew we were destined to be friends!!  It was a little more than just purchasing the same outfit, and choosing the same name…. I knew that our philosophies would be similar. Nicole found me on Facebook (seriously, thank goodness for Facebook!!!).  Since our initial meeting, the moms have realized we share more than just our taste in baby names.  We love IKEA, running, fashion, coffee (a little too much), and aspire to live a green and simple life!  The “Addisons,” who are three months apart in age, don’t really share anything….just kidding.  We are lucky enough that we see Addison Derr (to be called "Addie" from here on out!) quite often, even without her mama once a week.  It has been amazing to watch both Addisons grow and develop over the last several months.  Their personalities are refreshingly different, despite their mamas similarities!  Since the other Addison is a little bit smaller than mine, we are always swapping clothes….she lets us borrow consignment store finds that are a little too big and we are happy to let her get use out of our hand-me-downs.

 Here they are last June!!!

Swinging away....they like to check each other out!

Last summer--I bought the wagon with them in mind!












 Earlier this week, checking out the fishes
 and lobster at the Seacoast Science Center!

We have been able to experience many milestones in that year!  My Addison was just beginning to “tri-pod” sit on that first meeting…now both girls are walking, talking, and giggling…A LOT.  I will share a few videos to demonstrate my point; I hope others enjoy these little ones laughing together as much as I do.   I have NO IDEA where my Addison gets her laughter ;)

I look forward to many more adventures with these awesome girls--despite the confusion their identical names sometimes brings!

A Green Valentine's Day

Because we are trying to conserve money so that we can add a three-season porch to our house we decided not to spend any money on Valentine’s gifts.  That doesn’t mean that we didn’t make it special.  We (or should I say “I”) got creative.   I actually enjoyed the challenge of using what I had, plus there was not pressure to buy for the sake of buying!!

We up-cycled old crayons for Roo to give to her friends. Printable courtesy of The Long Thread.  Another one of her friends also made a very similar up-cycled heart crayon Valentine after both moms saw the idea on Pinterest, but didn’t re-pin (to keep the Valentine a surprise!) 

This was Roo's first actual cooking project.  She loved it!!!!  We made real chocolate chip cookies as requested by the hubs, who doesn’t always appreciate our healthier eating J  After "helping" I gave her the spatula and a bowl of flour....I used to use flour as a sensory experience when I was a teacher.  Roo stuck the spatula in the flour and licked it off...ha!!

I made pink play-dough for Roo.  Next time I will use natural dyes as suggested by Sun Hats and Wellies.  She is still getting used to the idea of play-dough...her favorite thing to do with it is have someone roll it into balls, which she dumps and fills into the plastic storage container

Cooked Playdough Recipe

3 cups flour

1.5 cups salt

6 tsp cream of tartar

3 tbls oil

3 cups water

Dissove the salt in the water

Pour all ingredients into a large pot

Stil constantly over medium heat until dough just begins to form and pull away from the sides (don’t over cook!)

Remove the dough onto a flour surface and let cool

Knead cooled dough until dough is desired texture (add more flour if it is too sticky)

Store in plastic container, up to three months.

I made Curried Couscous and homemade Focaccia for dinner.

 I was able to type in the lyrics from “All I Ask of You” from the Phantom of the Opera at this website  Festisite and turn them into a heart shape, which is on the card that I made out of scrap booking supplies!  It was a special day for my husband and I as it marked nine years since our first "not a date!"....lunch at the Collins Dining Hall.

Roo and I had a busy day, grabbing coffee in the morning with a friend, prepping dinner and cleaning the house, then a play date with lots of little ones in the afternoon.  The ending to our lovely day was having dinner with daddy!

The hubs contribution to saving money…buying me Dove chocolates when they were half-off the day after, his defense, “I didn’t spend money on Valentine’s Day!”  If you know him, you know I am not joking!!!

I hope everyone had a day filled with love and laughter!