One More Random!

Hi,
I gave up, I'll never write on regular basis so, bear with me, please!

These are some random pictures from our past few days. There was no purpose in my mind in doing/introducing them whatsoever except seeing my kids play and laugh and they laughed a lot and it made me happy. There has been a lot of changes here lately, Farida is growing up fast and now, she can protest throwing lovely forgotten tantrums. Sarah and I fight no more, lol, we discuss and talk and nowadays, I tend to put myself in her shoes! What does it feel like to be small, helpless and with no choice? Not good at all so yes, it made a difference. "Mommy, I don't want to sleep. I want to play a little more." In the past, I would have responded saying that it is bedtime and put her in bed but come on, do we sleep on demand like this? NO! Then, why would I expect her to do so? 

Anyway, Here was the first invitation:

play-dough, googly eyes, shells, stones, pom poms, cutters and colorful sticks. Needless to say that this play-dough was once a cake with candles to blow off, then a monster and then pizza to serve and eat! 

On another day, we played with water beads AGAIN! The second and third pictures are exactly what we saw when we stuck our faces in the beads to take a closer look. Playing with the light can be so much fun :)

A day on the beach, as you can see, Sarah was testing the surroundings and checking whether she can do it or not :) Cautious as usual! A great sensory activity for both kids, playing with and throwing sand!

So again, I admit, I am selfish and I let my kids play to see them laugh because it makes me happy :p This was today and it was hilarious, every time, Sarah sets up something, Farida comes and knocks it downs laughing hysterically which in turn makes Sarah laugh as well. We broke 10 of these plastic glasses :)

I love kids' imagination, it is hilarious! Today we were telling Sarah "Snow White"  bedtime story with some modifications and all she was concerned about was where Snow White's mother was so we had to tell her she was preparing food. After some events, she said, "I bet her mother is doing the dishes right now!", LOL!

Thank you and please come and visit soon,

Love,

The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Hi,

As you knew from the previous post, we'll be one day late in our posts so for instance, Mad Science Sunday will be written on Monday morning. 

So what happened yesterday? A lot of fun and giggles :)

I had this idea in my mind for some time now and finally got to implement it. I asked Sarah to bring her book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and brought our sensory caterpillar (brought from the dollar store) and began. I got some sources from Here and Here.

Mommy began telling the story, Sarah shared the caterpillar with Farida. As they were touching it, I pointed to the different textures.

An egg on a leaf.

I then asked Sarah to bring the fruits that were mentioned in the story if she had any in her toys :)

Searching for them.

Matching the items with the cards.

Mommy was still narrating the story and Sarah pointing to what mommy says in her card.

And then, she told me to wait, went to her hair accessories and brought her butterfly :)

We made the cards into a chain for later use ;)

And then, I gave Sarah coloring pages and asked her to hole punch each according to the number she finds on it which the caterpillar has eaten. She did pretty well. 

p.s. Sarah couldn't use the hole punch in the beginning so we practiced some before even reading the story until she got the hang of it.

Now, it was coloring time of course. I was very determined this time to make Sarah try to color in between the lines and she did. Here's a tip. Before, when Sarah did anything she considered wrong and panicked, I used to tell her that there was no problem. Sarah started saying "No problem" for every and anything so we switched these words and they had a magic effect. Instead of saying "No problem", we say now "we'll be more careful next time:)" It really helped make a huge difference.

Very focused.

She was tired by the fifth coloring page, lol.

But mommy wasn't tired and knew how to get the spirit back ;) I don't like relying on theoretical studies only. We had to put them into action so we headed to the supermarket looking for all the things that the caterpillar ate with the cards chain in our hands (I told you, we'll use it later). We touched and smelled every one and to make it more fun, we said we'll run and see who spots it first. Of course, I knew where everything was but I pretended I did not and let her see it first. Here you can ask many questions about the colors and the numbers that the caterpillar ate (for memory purposes).

The only thing that we didn't find was "plums" and it was my opportunity to ask her to see if she noticed. She did notice but couldn't remember the exact word but now she does :)

To have some more fun (which turned out to be torture for mommy, thanks to you Liz, lol), we decided to make some cupcakes using marshmallow fondant. Well, I didn't imagine that it has so much sugar (I told you I sucked in the kitchen), I'm sure this is why I hate cakes. Second, after finishing, I came to huge appreciation for you guys who can do it (including you Liz) and for the bakers, I'll pay for the next cake with no regrets :)

of course, there had to be lots of tasting :)

Forgot to mention, in the kneading process, we both hated it. Sarah was about to cry from the very sticky texture. I knew I must have done something wrong but didn't care anymore because I wanted to be done :( 

Finally back to some fun :)

Our sick Caterpillar, lol.

She liked it, mommy almost puked from this much sugar.

Note that Sarah doesn't eat that much sugar ever (except with grandma and aunts ;) but I don't mind giving it to her from time to time so it was her treat for the hardworking day.

Thank you for being with us and again, I hope you enjoyed.

Love,