Uncategorized – Page 2 – Days With Grandma

One Fish, Two Fish -Red Fish, Blue Fish, Blue Water,Blue Face!

One fish, two fish.

One red, one blue fish.

But first…

we had to paint

the little fish dish.

We mixed some corn syrup with a drop of blue.

Then the fish dish got painted with this sticky blue goo.

That made is easy to stick the fish to.

But, what do you do when the goo

sticks to you?

You tried to shake the fish off

but it wouldn’t let go.

You pulled, and tugged, and tried to peel it off.

Still it stuck to you so.

With a little help from Grandma,

we got the fish

back into the fish dish.

Now, you had another wish…

Grandma, more fish!

So we filled that fish dish

with more red and blue fish

Until we were done with that

sticky

fish

wish!

Then wouldn’t you know,

you put your sticky fingers

all over your little face…

on your nose…in your hair,

Sticky fingers everywhere!

So…

Grandma did

what Grandma’s do

She let you play in water too!

We got sticky but it was fun, I have to say.

Hmmm, what else can we do to get ready

for Dr. Seuss’ big day?

Another Epic Fail!

We had our first big snow of the winter but you were not feeling very good which meant that going outside to experience it was completely out of the question. Still, I thought that I could bring some of that snow to you so that you could touch it at least. So in the middle of the night, I had this idea that I could just bring in a little snow and let you watch as I built a little snowman. I even tried to think of little things that could serve as eyes, mouth, hat, and buttons. You know, the way a typical snowman should look.

I was excited! Your mom…not so much, but I was undeterred.

First the snow.

I just took a cookie sheet and filled it with the cleanest snow from right outside the door.

Then the ingredients.

Your snack food was perfect. At least, that’s what I thought.

Then I tried to form the snow into a snowman but there was one problem: the snow wouldn’t pack! It was that light kind of snow that just doesn’t work well for snowman building. I hadn’t even considered this issue. I tried and tried to form a ball but just couldn’t get it to hold. You were getting tired of just sitting there watching me so I gave you a little bit of snow to play with – your first science experiment: what happens to snow when you hold it in your hand for a few seconds?

Well, after adding a little water to this snow mess, I was finally able to get it to stand upright…a little.

When your mom saw it, though, she just laughed. Your Auntie E called it a “Pinterest Fail”. One thing we all decided was that it didn’t look anything at all like a snowman.

It looked more like Ursala from Little Mermaid.

I don’t know. You decide!

Hilarious, 3 Minute Art Project

Ok, here it is! A baby safe painting project and a lesson

The Project:

Carrots for the Orange
Spinach for the Green
Beets for the Red
Blueberries for the Blue/Purple
Tumeric for the Yellow

Steam each separately, then blend together 2T of the vegetable, 5 T Almond Milk, 1/3 C. Rice Flour in a blender until smooth. Repeat with each vegetable. Total prep time: Approximately 3 hours (if you consider the trip to the store to buy all the ingredients).

But look at those colors! Don’t they look fantastic? This was sure to be a GREAT project.

Ok, so first I fed you so that you weren’t tempted to eat the paint. Then, I left you in your chair with your bib on so you could be as messy as you wanted to be.

You started out strong. The red beet paint was going on smoothly and you were intrigued with it all; the paint, the brush, and the paper. But, after about 30 seconds with the red, you wanted more.

So, it was time to try finger painting. Just run your fingers through all the colors. Go ahead. It’s fun!

One swish through each of the colors, and…

You were done!

Ok, Grandma. I tried it. Can we be done now?

Onto the floor went the paper. Onto the floor went the brush. I grabbed the cup of paint just in time. One finger into your mouth, just to see if it at least tasted good. The verdict – NO!

That was it.

Get me out of this chair, Grandma. All done!

Well, there was a good deal of clean up that had to happen first. I tried to wash off your hands, one at a time, but you were wanting out. Then I had a great idea.

I gave you a pan of water to play in. Into the water went your hands. Now this was fun. But, I turned my back…just for a second, and you decided to see if you were strong enough to lift the pan, tip the pan, and dump the water.

Now there was just half a pan of water!

And the floor was soaking wet.

But your hands were clean…and you were having more fun with this than the paint.

I mopped up the floor, then used a towel to soak up the water on your tray and you liked this even more:

Sucking the water out of the towel was the best part of the whole project

Total occupied time: 3 minutes

But the end result:

Priceless!

The Lesson:

There are lots of ideas that sound really cute. They take time to prepare but time in preparation does not mean that a baby will be entertained longer. Truthfully, all I really had to do was give you a pan of water and a wet towel. But, how fun would that have been all by itself, in pictures?

Anyone need some paint? I have lots left over!

Come On Baby…Maybe Grandma Needs A Nap

It’s been a full day, little one. We’ve played, read books, went for a walk, spent time at a “dance class”, had breakfast, lunch, and a snack. What we haven’t managed to make happen is a nap! Now Grandma is ready for a rest. I tried putting you to bed and firmly left with a quick “Have a good sleep.” You drank a bottle, played with your nuks, and chattered away for awhile but sleep was not part of this time spent in your bed. So, I got you up and we played some more, read some more books and walked to the grocery store and back. Still, no sleep in those eyes. Maybe if I let you watch me rest, you will get the idea.

I tell you what, little one. I’ll just sit here and have you sit in your Pack and Play. I’ll even give you another bottle and your nuk. There you go. Just relax. It’s good for you. Little boys need down time. It helps those dendrites, you know. So just lay back for awhile. Drink in the good life.

Oh-oh. Whoops! Don’t stand up. You can’t sleep standing up.

This definitely doesn’t look like you are resting.

Needless to say. There was no sleeping. It’s a good thing you’re so cute! Maybe sleep in overrated. Love you, little man. I can rest tomorrow.

Opinionated, Stubborn and So Darn Cute!

It’s time to eat. You say you’re ready. Bring it on, Grandma. I’m hungry.

So into the chair you go. You are busy learning the skill of feeding yourself so, trust me, the bib is necessary! It has this cool pocket at the bottom that catches all kinds of treasures for you to find later and it also works as a great…

eye shield for playing “Peek-a-Boo!

Playing games while eating is part of it all, isn’t it? In the beginning of eating (solid foods), you ate anything brought your way. As time has passed, though, you have opinions about this stuff called “food”.

For instance, you love blueberries. One after another, after another. Keep ’em coming Grandma. Blueberries make me very happy. But then there’s…

that other stuff that you try to sneak into my mouth. What is that stuff anyway? Are you kidding me? People eat that stuff?

Well, sometimes you like it. Really you do! It just depends on the day…or the moment, actually. 🙂 But, you get so dramatic!

And then, you do that thing that you know Grandma hates. You discreetly, or not so discreetly…

drop it on the floor. Oh-oh.

Then, you give it that look like: Hmmm, I don’t know how that happened.

And then you do this…

I try to stay firm telling you that dropping food on the floor is wrong. You know the sign language for “All Done” but it seems much more entertaining to bat your eyelashes at me and that look simply makes my heart melt.

Game over. You won.

Time For A Fieldtrip

What are we going to do today, Grandma? I’m kind of tired of just hanging around.

I’ve played and played with my toys. Aren’t you bored? I’m bored. Let’s get out of here!

Ok, so I understand that you’re bored but you have had a cold. Where could we go where you would be warm? Where could we go where you wouldn’t be able to spread your germs to others? Your mom had a great suggestion: “Why don’t you go to the Domes. What a great idea! So off to the Mitchell Domes we went.

On with your winter coat and hat, packed up the extras that we might need, just in case. And away we wentw. The drive…11 minutes 🙂

There are three separate domes that are supposed to showcase different environments, however, we were told right away that one of them was closed for replanting. So, our choices were the Tropical Dome and the Desert Dome. Both were warm. Perfect.

We hit the Tropical Dome first and you loved the waterfall and the fish.

After studying both for awhile, I figured it was time to wander over to the Desert Dome. You weren’t all that impressed with that one. In fact you thought things looked a little dead. 🙂

So back to the fish, we went.

The best part, for me, was watching your hair get wavy in that humidity. We were there for only an hour and a half but we managed to get you some fresh air and change up the environment a little.

Oh, and this is sign language for “Flower”.

Either that or your nose was running.

Time to head back home. Another great day with the little man.

Baby It’s Cold Outside!

The weather report is for dangerous wind chill temperatures. Grandma has no interest in being outside, nor do I want to go through all the work necessary to not only wrestle you into your clothes but than continue on with a winter coat and all other things winter. So, what are we going to do to entertain ourselves all day? Hmmmm. Well, here were your suggestions:

First of all, you WALKED away from me! And that, all by itself, has changed our time together.

The good news is that I’m not having much trouble getting in my 10,000 recommended steps a day. The not so good news is, you already move really fast and you don’t really care what you have to step over to get where you want to go.

Luckily, I can keep up with you and, so far, there have been no bumps or bruises. So, up I get, and follow whereever you go. First stop – rhythm instruments: a little jammin’ with the baby.

First you turn on a little music. You love pushing buttons right now. Green means go. What’s the song choice?

Mary Had A Little Lamb,
I’m a Little Teapot,
Yankee Doodle,
London Bridge,
Old MacDonald Had a Farm

I’ve got the advantage. I know the words to all these songs. I sing. You bang on the tambourine. I’m singing away, “Mary had a little lamb, little”…oops, you changed the song. Ok, I’m good. “I’m a little teapot, short and”…whoops, another change. “London Bridge is…Old MacDonald…Yankee Doodle went to…I’m a little…Mary.” And then you’re done with music time, or whatever that was.

And you’re off…

TO THE STAIRWAY?

I can do this Grandma.

Don’t worry.

I can climb these steps. I’ve been doing these steps for months now.

Come on, Grandma. Climb with me.

So up and down the stairway we go.

This is fun, don’t you think?

Ok, I’m done with that.

Whoa, Grandma, What’s this stuff?

It’s called snow and it’s cold, really cold. Can you hear the wind blow?

Well, it’s interesting, but…

I’m done with that. Come on, Grandma. Read me a story.

And so we read; book after book after book.

Today’s favorites are books with sound buttons and you don’t always want to hear the whole story read. Instead, we go through looking for things you know. So, I just say, “Find the star. Find the crab. Find the football.”

Ok, so that sounds really random but you like it.

And you like books that have doors that open and close, fuzzy, furry, touchy parts, and cats…and dogs.

Books save the day.

Now, just repeat all activities three or four times throughout the day, add a nap…or two if lucky, lunch, and afternoon snack, and we successfully make it though our snow day. No problem.

Here Comes Santa…Who?

You are thirteen months old now and you were only one month old that first Christmas. So this was officially your second Christmas. And, bless your heart, you put up with the insanity of it all both times…while periodically taking naps. We could all learn a thing or two from watching you.

So, year one…

It was all about the lights. There is something mesmerizing about those little twinkling things.

And you let us dress you in silly (cute though) Christmas duds. Truly, as long as you could eat and sleep, you didn’t care. So, the adults relaxed along with you. We each took turns admiring the lights with you and you set the tempo of the day for us. We took heed and just went with the flow.

You were, very clearly, the best present for all of us grownups.

And now it’s been a year and you may still be teaching the grownups the importance of Christmas.

This year, you got to stay in your jammies because they won’t fit in another month or so and the theme was right. Still some would say that you kind of blended in with the wrapping paper. Whatever, you didn’t care.

And the hat? Well, that was a silly grownup thing but you think all hats are a little unnecessary. This one was no exception. It was discarded in seconds.

So the presents were piled high, under and around the tree. Now this was cool. You thought they were put there as an obstacle course for you and you were ready for the challenge.

But, drat! Mom, stopped you just as you prepared to master that final assent.

And look at you. You do blend in with the wrapping paper. 🙂

So we give you boxes that you can “unwrap” and you’re confused. “See, you can rip the paper. Go ahead, rip it off.”

Well, there you were pointing to the pretty pictures on the paper and there we were ripping it and I imagine that you were thinking about all other paper that you tried to rip this past year only to be told “No, don’t rip”.

Now, there we were saying, “go ahead, rip.”

Adults are so confusing. I know.

Then the pretty paper was gone. The box was gone. And all you were left with was the “educational” toy. You put one or two in your mouth to see if they at least tasted good and they didn’t, so you crawled away.

After, what must have seemed like hours, this thing we call gift giving had finally come to an end. The last of the pretty paper had been ripped clean away. The cool big boxes had been crushed and hauled away and your new toys were…somewhere.

You didn’t really care. You were exhausted. Mommy layed down on the floor. She must have been exhausted too.

You decided that she needed a love.

and then, whoops, in comes daddy, ready to play, and you think, “Here comes Santa…who?”

Thank you, once again, little man, for teaching us the real meaning of Christmas.

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo. How about You, You, You?

This excursion dates back a ways but still it’s worth archiving. You and I had a “family pass” to the zoo so we could have gone time and time again this summer. Still, we only got there two times total. Maybe your mom and dad will give us another chance next summer.

Here’s what we learned this year:

1. Go early to get a great parking spot but don’t forget to dress for chilly temperatures.

Ok, so I forgot to bring your hat. I thought it was going to be so much warmer. So then, I had to buy a hat there and guess what? They didn’t have kids hats 😦 . So there you are wearing who knows what but at least your ears were warm.

Then, I felt bad and had to buy you a giraffe! What can I say? Grandmas can do that sort of thing. I chose the giraffe because it was actually an animal that you could see from the stroller.

We walked and walked but found very few animals that you could actually see. Still, you remained calm and just enjoyed watching people for awhile.

But at a certain point, you just looked up at me with those questioning eyes as if to say “Grandma, why are we here?”

2. Know ahead of time if there are actually things that a baby can see from a stroller.

And then we found something that you could actually see…the fish tank!

You LOVED the fish tank. I think it reminded you of your crib toy: so much so that watching these fish almost put you to sleep.

We found some other animals that you could see but we learned that zoos don’t really cater to stroller height. So, you can just imagine that I was a little dubious about taking you to yet another zoo, this time in Mexico. But this time, we found the secret.

3. Find a Petting Zoo

We found animals that you could reach out and touch! Ok, well it freaked Grandma out but, lucky for you, your mom was along and she held the bird up close to you and you got to touch an alligator and a snake! You loved it all!

Now we can’t go to Mexico every time we want to touch animals so we are going to have to find a petting zoo close to home.

4. Not to worry, baby boy. Next time we go to the zoo, Grandma will be more prepared.

Loving A Walk In The Woods – For Different Reasons

It was a beautiful fall day. I decided it would be great to take you to my favorite place these days, the woods behind my apartment. This photo looks like I sent you sailing down the hill on your own. Not to worry, you were braked.

As we walked along, I tried to point out the things that I loved. You were not necessarily impressed. So, I decided to get you out of the stroller so you could actually FEEL the textures.

You were interested, a little. You humored me anyway. But then, a stranger wandered by and you waved to him. I caught that in a photo and when I looked back at it, you looked more like you were begging for someone to rescue you from this pile of dried stuff. So, needless to say, we moved on.