activities with a toddler, and other things

it is so good to be home. the adjustment is taking much longer than i expected it too, but it gets a little better each day. yesterday i stocked up on some essential grocery items and right now i have a chicken cooking in the crock pot. after we eat some of it for supper tonight, i will shred and freeze the leftovers for use in future dinners and i will make chicken stock with the bones. that makes it feel a bit more normal around here. yesterday we drove out to the farm to get our raw milk and eggs - oh how we missed them this summer!

i have had a crazy urge to organize everything in our house, so i have been doing quite a bit of that. it seems a bit silly because {confession} i still haven't even unpacked all of our clothes from our summer. but...it makes me feel good about being home and it makes our house more organized, so it's actually a good thing.

my hubby had a couple of pre-semester classes this week, and he officially starts his new semester next week. i am going to be taking a class at the seminary as well! it is a class about photography and spirituality...definitely sounds like something i will enjoy. i'm also going to be taking another class specifically for spouses of seminary students, as well as taking a music class with our little one. so...with all of that going on, next week we will really start to settle into a routine.

i am loving this age with our little girl and am so excited that she is so interactive and communicative these days. since we've been home, i started doing a "special activity" with her each day. at the beginning of the week, i plan out an activity for each day and write it in my planner. if i need any supplies for the project, i will write that in there as well, but my goal is to keep the activities simple and to use things we have in the house as much as possible instead of buying supplies. we usually do our activity after breakfast and reading time, but i find that i wake up looking forward to it. when i say that it is "special activity time", our girl gets a huge smile on her face - i know i'm doing something right! i will share about some of these special activities on my blog from time to time (maybe weekly?)...hopefully they will be an inspiration for someone else. some of the ideas for activities come from my head, but many of them come from the toddler's busy book by meadowbrook press. we received this book as a gift (thanks brent and jenny!), and i find that it is a great resource for simple activities to do with a toddler.

wednesday's activity was "sticky feet" - i taped a piece of contact paper on the floor sticky side up, and we walked around on the sticky floor. it was quite fun!

on thursday, i used masking tape to make a road on the floor. this activity was a hit. i was surprised when she drove her car down the road without any prompting! we also walked on the road and she walked her wooden duck push toy down the road. she tried so hard to stay within the lines, it was cute.

i love seeing her learn through these activities, and it is also fun to have something specific to do with her, as well as having some more structure to our days.

it is so hot and humid here today. baby has been running around in just her diaper. we spent a short amount of time outside this morning. we don't have air conditioning, so it is just as hot inside our house as outside. despite the heat, i was working in the kitchen for a little while this morning, so to keep the little one occupied, i filled up a couple of plastic bins with water, gave her some towels, kitchen utensils, and her toy animals and let her at it! she had a good time.

and her curls. oh the curls!