Maybe It Should Be A Girl

Mekonen is still battling whatever bug this is, but is doing much better. He is pretty much back to his fun loving self, although still pooping everywhere and not eating much! (I know, too much info! So sorry!)

So today, I tried to regain some of the normalcy of our day with playtime, books, and crafts, instead of kid tv shows.

In doing that, I'm thinking maybe Baby Oren should be a girl! Why you say? Well, I thought it would be great fun to make a Valentine's craft with Mekonen with red, pink, and white paper. He kept saying, "No! Airplane! Airplane Mommy!" So I had to redeem my son's boyness by making him an airplane to color. (Although he did like tearing the paper for the heart and loves putting glue on anything).

So instead of trying to make Mekonen have a love of crafts (which honestly, he does love to do. He just wants them to include cars, airplanes, and trains, not girly Valentine's day things), maybe we need a girl to do those! Haha.

Enjoying Some Winter Fun!

This winter, Mekonen has been loving the snow! Last year, the two times I put him in the snow, he cried. Not a fan! This year? A totally different story! When he sees the white fluffy stuff falling from the sky, he yells out the window "No!!!! No!!!" (his word for snow). So we tromp around outside as much as we can to let him play and explore. Here are a few picks from the snow the last several weeks.

Mekonen loves chasing the snowflakes!

 Trying to catch them with his tongue.

 Pure bliss!

 Mmmm...tastes good!

 Such happiness.

 Playing at the park across the street from our house. Mekonen was not a fan of the snow all over the slide. 

 Snowball fight with Daddy. Daddy got him right in the chest. Meko thought it was awesome. 

 Today, we have been getting lots of snow here in Indy, but I am not feeling well at all. Mekonen has a bad cold and I have a sinus infection and a chest cold. So I decided to stay in today and enjoy some "winter fun" inside. We did some snow crafts and read a book on winter. It was really fun. Mekonen was extremely excited and kept running around yelling, "Rafs!!! Rafs!!!" (His word for crafts).

Here he is....cheesin' away with craft number 1. (Notice, I felt too bad to even do his hair. And I was in my pj's all morning!) This craft was fun. A handprint snow tree. The white strip on the bottom is construction paper, and the snow "blobs" are granulated sugar. He giggled and giggled when I painted his hands brown. 

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 Next craft...a snowman (which Meko calls "No-men"). He absolutely LOVED the little jar of buttons I got out for him to "pick" 4 buttons from. Well, I ended up picking them out, otherwise, we'd still be sitting there, at his little table, while he touched and attempted to eat, every single button in the jar. Haha. 

 Hard at work! 

Mekonen's FAVORITE part of craft time was punching out the white snowflakes with my snowflake stamper. 

 Ta-da!!!! Mekonen proudly displaying his morning of snow rafs with his Mom! 

Christmas Cookie Fun

We've had some Christmas cookie fun here the last couple weeks. It takes three times as long to make cookies with an almost two year old "helping" but it's way more fun! We made gingerbread cookies and sugar cookies!

Gingerbread Cookies

I don't know exactly why I made these. I have never eaten gingerbread cookies that I like. But oh well. It was fun to make and Jon ate them at least. :) 

Macy was very interested. I also caught Mekonen with his face on the table biting the dough several times. Good thing it was just us eating them! 

Mmmm... licking the spoon. 

Anxiously awaiting the "cookies!!!!" as he kept yelling. 

And now for a taste!!! He loved them. 

Sugar Cookies!

These are my mom's famous sugar cookies. I know you are probably thinking a sugar cookie is a sugar cookie right? But no. I have never had another sugar cookie from anyone or anywhere that I have liked more than my mom's. There's no secret ingredient or anything, they just always come out tasting much better. And you can't beat homemade frosting on top either. We made these every single Christmas as kids, with the same cookie cutters, and the same red, green, and blue frosting. We never strayed from that. We would rather our traditional cookies than even decorating them with candies and all sorts of colored things. 

This picture kills me. 

Meko trying to figure out the rolling the pin. (Which by the way I bought that morning. After 5 years of marriage I finally just went and got one. Every time I have needed one I didn't have time to go get one and ended up rolling things out with cans of soup! The rolling pin my friends, is much easier!) 

Getting ready to decorate. I will admit, this part was done during naptime. There's no way I was letting Meko get his hands on this stuff. I can just see it now.... mounds of sprinkles all over the floor, and frosting who knows where! Next year buddy. 

But he sure did love waking up to this! And then he yelled more of, "Cookies!!!!"

Cookie Tip: Did you know that putting a piece of bread in the container you store cookies in keeps them soft? Try it! It works great!

Turkey Craft!

Today was such a fun, relaxing day with my boy. We got up, did our "chores" (Mekonen is learning how to "make" his bed), had breakfast, took or usual walk (it was quite cold), and then settled into some crafts! It was kind of dreary, cold, and rainy so it was fun to be inside, listening to music and creating! Check out his masterpieces.

Turkey Handprint! 

Mekonen was very confused as I was painting his hand. Haha. I can't believe the paint actually landed on the paper, and the paper only! 

Coloring!

Mekonen holds crayons in the funniest way... all the way at the end between his pointer and thumb. I keep having to show him how to hold it so he can actually get a grip on it to color with. Hehe. 

Can you guess which bird Meko colored and which bird Mommy colored? You guessed it? My kid is a fine motor skills expert! Of course he colored the one on the right! :) 

More Fall Fun!

Mekonen and I are here at my parents in PA while Jon is in Africa. We are having a great time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and cousins!!! This week we collected some really cool fall leaves on a walk in Grandma's neighborhood. Then we preserved them by ironing with wax paper and decorated Grandma's cabinet with them. Meko loved it!

So are we excited for our craft or what? 

 All set up- the leaves between the wax paper. (Excuse the huge amounts of drool on Meko's shirt).

 He was mesmerized by the ironing part. (Yes, I am crazy for letting him do this. Don't worry, he was well supervised!)

 The finished product! Aren't they cool?

 Ta-Da! Mekonen with his finished leaves!

Some Fall Fun!

We are loving this fall weather! We go for a walk and play outside everyday. The crisp air feels so good! Here are some things we've done to enjoy the season so far.

Some of the fall books we have been reading from the library. 

Going on a nature walk to collect things for our craft.

Mekonen LOVES to collect things in his bucket. He calls it a "buttet."

Making a collage of all the things we found!

Mekonen is so proud of his creation. 

His collage on display for all to see. 

Coloring his apple craft

 Ta-da! Such cute scribbles!

Celebrating Fall!!!

Ahh...my favorite season of the year!!! When the air gets crisp, the leaves turn colors, and you can smell cinnamon and apples at every turn! I am excited that this fall season Mekonen is a bit older and can do some crafts and things with me (sort of).  A fond memory of my childhood is the time my mom spent doing seasonal crafts and projects with us. I want my children to have wonderful memories like the ones I have where we enjoyed the season and did lots of fun stuff to celebrate it. 

We are ALMOST all settled into our new house. We just need to hang pictures and decorations. It won't feel complete and like "home" without that done. So hopefully soon! I feel like we've been running around like crazy and I'm anxious for it to slow down a bit in the next couple weeks so Mekonen and I can enjoy the season! 

The shorts, swimsuit, and flip flops will soon find their way to storage in the closet. Out come the pants, long sleeves, shoes, and jackets. Ahhh, the signs of fall! 

Mekonen looking so big now in long pants and big boy sneakers! 

To celebrate fall I want to do some mini theme things with apples and pumpkins, etc. Here's what we'll do if you're interested in some ideas!

• Go to our incredible library nearby and get lots of books on apples to read.
• Do an internet search for apple coloring pages, apple crafts, etc. 
• Pick out a few recipes that have apples in them that we can make.
• Take pictures of our time together and the little projects we've made. 

Here's a specific craft that comes to mind when I think of fall. It's easy for toddlers to "help" with. 

Autumn Leaf Window Decorations

• Give your child a bucket and let them go outside and collect brightly colored leaves that have fallen from the trees. 
• Arrange on wax paper (waxy side up) and place another piece of wax paper on top (waxy side down).
• Put a dry towel on top and iron on medium (no steam needed). 
• Cut around edges and hang in windows.
• The color keeps for quite awhile and leaves can later be mailed to grandparents and friends with a note or an Autumn poem to celebrate Thanksgiving.

4. Have fun enjoying the season with your children and creating new memories that will last a lifetime! 

And just for fun, an action shot of Mekonen "jumping." It's hilarious. He only jumps one foot off the ground, but with his take-off you think he was going to jump 3 feet high!

I Need Your Input Please!!

Ok Moms (and anyone else!) I need your input!! Mekonen has entered into that in-between stage in his toddlerhood. The one where he has pretty much "outgrown" all of his current toys but yet is still not ready for preschool stuff. We are leaving our very nice previous stage of activities that were fun and stimulating for us to do together, and also the ones that kept Mekonen engaged on his own. We need some new ideas!

We don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on new toys (so that will have to wait for Christmas), and we don't want our kids to be entirely dependent on commercialized toys with lights, sounds, and batteries either. We want them to learn to use their imagination in play and be creative.

Mekonen is still a little young for the arts and crafts stuff. Last week when we attempted to color he ate the entire green crayon and bit large chunks out of a piece of chalk. We are also not really doing TV for our kids either.

So I need your advice! We need your ideas on some new activities.
1. Activities that Mekonen and I can do together.
2. Activities that Mekonen can do on his own.

Can't wait to hear some things that you like!