Montessori at Home

Here are a few Montessori activities we have been doing at home lately...when we are actually home!

Transferring money; great for fine motor coordination. We generally do this activity right before learning about names of coins. It is a great way to peak her interest in coins and introduce them to her. I don't expect her to remember the characteristics of them but it is planting a seed in her brain for later.

Lauren's 'cheese face'. Sorting money into jars. Learning about classification, littlest to big, and naming/recognition of money.

Color recognition and naming. Collected paint chips from the hardware store and taped them to notecards. We use these for many different activities!

Sorting colored worms into their respective colored bowls.

Lauren's favorite, she calls it "Brown Bear Match Game". Matching paint chips to the colors of each animal in the book. This is a great one that she can do independently; especially good while I am in the shower!

While Daddy is Gone...

...Mommy will...paint! Kyle left for a week long camping trip for grad school. I was really dreading his trip because normally we watch TV, chat, and eat a massive bowl of ice cream every night before bed. I wasn't sure what I was going to do and knew watching TV, reading books, and cleaning was going to get old fast. Here is everything he took with him on his trip...it all fit in his backpack!

So to keep myself busy...I decided to paint our kitchen cabinets, something we have been talking about for awhile but haven't had the time to do it. My friend's husband is a painter so he came over and gave me some tips. Monday night I removed all the hardware, cabinet doors, and de-glossed (removed the slime, grease, and top coat from the cabinets). Tuesday night I painted the first coat. Wednesday night the second coat got painted on and finally Thursday night the top protective coat got painted on. I think I logged in around 12 hours (all during Lauren's sleeping time). I used Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations in Quilter's White so everything I needed came in one kit. It all worked out according to plan and Kyle was quite surprised when he got home!

Our 70's kitchen before we moved in.

All the cabinet doors off, tape around the wall, and framing painted. It will be awhile before I undertake a project like this again!

This picture will help you understand how tiny our kitchen is. Lauren is sitting at our kitchen table. I can't imagine what it is going to be like with several little ones in this house at our tiny table.

The finished product! You don't even know how much this makes it appear like our tiny little kitchen is bigger. I have a new found love for my house again.

Thursday...

I nursed Lauren for the last time on Thursday night! What a bittersweet feeling!! It is nice to know that I have my body back for a short time before hopefully another baby starts to inhabit it but so sad knowing that my little girl (who will be 2 this weekend) is done nursing and won't be getting those beneficial nutrients anymore. She is not so keen on this new arrangement but seems to be managing great. We were down to before bed and possibly once in the night or early morning depending on how tired I was.

I tucked her in Friday, said our prayers and goodnights, and then told her that she was a big girl now and didn't need her 'na-na's' anymore. I explained that her good friend Gabby (who is 3.5 years old) goes to bed each night all by herself and Lauren is a big girl too so she can go to bed all by herself. I kissed her cheek again, played her music box, and plugged in her castle night light. She wimpered a few times and then went right to sleep! REALLY...it was that easy and has been happening every night since. While we get ready for bed, she will ask to have some na-na's but I explain that they are gone now and empty.

Yesterday, while on the way to the grocery store, I peered back at Lauren in her car seat and said to Kyle, she is getting so big...what happened? Lauren looked at both of us and said, "I a big girl, I go to bed by self like Gabby!"

Sigh...they grow up! Makes me so happy that I didn't try to rush her to sleep by herself or 'cry it out'. It all seems to happen when it is the right time.

Lauren's Recent Sayings/Lingo...

Learned while at Babysitter's House:
-Naughty
-Right Now! (in reference to the little boy pushing Lauren and thus having to go to time out, right now!)
-God Bless
-Not funny!

At Home:
-Good Idea Mom!
-Raindrops and Ploppers (figure that one out on your own!)

Learned about on our commute:
-Stop Signs
-Tree Nurseries
-Greenhouses
-Elvis (their is a statue at a car lot), we sing "I Can't Help Falling in Love with Lauren" when we drive by
-Corn has hair which Lauren refers to as castles (tassels)
-Days of the Week

I will try to remember more and add...I don't want to forget!

Singing in the Rain!

As we were leaving the county fair, I knew a storm was coming. Since it was just raining hard, (no thunder or lightening) I bundled Lauren up in her rain jacket, grabbed my umbrella, and headed outside.

"Hubba, you walk with me!"

She probably stayed outside for 45 minutes.

Splish Splash!

Lauren made me walk through the puddles with her. This girl is fearless outside.

I snapped this photo as we were leaving the fair.

County Fair

Lauren's trip to the fair last year (2010). She was deathly afraid of the cow in the background. She gripped the ring on the Maya wrap so hard. Scroll all the way to the bottom picture to see the same cow, different year. I really want to grow my hair out long but I do miss this short hair cut.

ian Ice...yummo! Although not the healthiest thing, they were better than the mass amount of fried foods. No funnel cake for Kyle ever again...you can ask him about his experience with that from Lauren's birthday last year when we ended up in the emergency room!

She got strawberries 'face-painted' on her arms. Kyle was being funny and pretended to eat them off her arms. When she woke up in the morning they were gone and she told me that Hubba ate them all gone. Still to this day if you ask her about the strawberries on her arm, she will tell you that, "Hubba ate 'em!"

Not so sure of the chicken but she eventually did pet it. Now if only I can persuade Kyle about backyard chickens...sigh!

She thought this was Poss's sister.

Much more calm around the cows this year! Don't mind my sweaty self!

Bears Training Camp

A few weekends back, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Amanda came to visit us for a few days! We had a blast hanging out and making an afternoon trip into the city. We met Ryan's sister at the Bears Training Camp and enjoyed our afternoon watching the players go through their drills and looking at Bears memorabilia. Because we were VIP, we even got to sit in a special section which was nice when it started to rain! After the training camp we met up with Brian Urlacher at his favorite Mexican restaurant for supper. Now I am a big eater but I was surprised when Brian ordered the same thing I did and I finished my plate but he didn't. Halfway through the meal I whispered to Kyle if it was bad if I packed down more food than a professional football player, especially one that just burned tons of calories in a 3 hour workout while I sat and watched. ??

Cutler and below that Lauren's new friend Rocky who was a relative of Bears player.

Urlacher

Lauren, Uncle Ryan, and Kyle keeping a close eye on the action. A funny side...Kyle has this thing I like to call the 'cocky lip'. When he gets really excited talking about sports his top lip starts to go up a little; this picture shows it pretty good!

Ref and Coach

Watching the scrimmage

Lauren's favorite snack: dried mango. This girls is in love!

Mini-Stop to Duhn's!

We broke up the drive to Grandpa's Birthday party by stopping at our friend's house for a little slumber party. It had been far too long since we played with the Duhn Family and it was much appreciated! Stacy and I stayed up WAY TOO LATE chatting and trying to catch up for the past 7 or so months that we hadn't seen each other. The kids played together just as nice as three little ones do :) I was so impressed with Lauren who wore underwear on our trip back to Iowa. She did a great job; potty training is going wonderfully!

This is the two of them the last time we hung out!

I think they were catching up too!

Silly Alaina and Lauren

Alaina, Landon, and Lauren. They grow way too fast!

Grandpa's 50th Birthday

Grandpa Larry (my dad) turned the big 5-0 this past weekend. Kyle had to work and I kept going back and forth on whether or not I could tackle the long drive just Lauren and I...so I decided to keep it quiet that I was coming in case it didn't happen. Grandpa and Grandma were quite surprised to hear the doorbell and find Lauren at their doorstep! So not only did I conquer the drive by myself but we also kept a good secret!

Grandma Baker (mom's mom) and Lauren.

Grandma Norma (dad's mom) and Lauren. Lauren just adores her grandparents and sat by Grandma Norma a few times throughout the day.

Don't pass out trying to blow out all the candles!

Lauren's entertainment of the day. Grandpa's old man cane and Curious George slippers!

She sure did stick in her finger in the cake before the party!

Babywearing...

...Gone Bad. Sorry Little Kia that you had to be subjected to riding around in my (clean) underwear!

Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Alleluia...

Lauren's Response, "Crazy the Lord!"