Pint Sized Consumers
Kids are consumers, too. You've got to love this!!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N4t3-__3MA0]
via DaddyTypes
Little Seeds
Freida came home from Gan Chai this morning all aglow from Birthday cheer. The trees birthday, that is. She marched proudly into the house sporting a birthday crown and showing off a petite potted gift.
The excited was so uncontained that I decided to harness it and we head out back to fill up some uprooted areas in the backyard with soil and seeds.
While we'd love to start up a real live garden - dreaming of the Berkowitz's - we're starting off slowly, and began by hoeing and filling up the empty areas with fresh soil, and heaps of little Forget Me Not seeds to grow alongside the outer brush against the fence.
Freida enjoyed the sensory experience of working the earth, not to mention the thrill of getting muddy and grimy without a nay say from her mama. :)
Dirt pellets are a fantastic way to show kids how the earth "drinks" the water. Tightly packed dried out soil turns to volumes of moist soil instantly once watered, and the look of discovery on little faces watching is sheer deliciousness! (The Target $1 aisle has heaps of these little potted pellets for Valentines Day right now!)
P.S. Kids can play with mud forever!! Best way to keep 'em entertained in a jiffy! :)
Book of the Week: The Giving Tree
I've been a long-time fan of Shel Silverstein, but this book is one of his classics, and I'm glad my daughter loved it as much as I did. The Giving Tree is the age old story of what man takes from nature, and what nature happily gives to man. Of course you can take some serious "going green" junk away from it's storyline, but it is in fact a sweet story with the most charming of illustrations. I thought Tu B'Shvat was the perfect time to introduce her to Shel and his magical drawings...
Weekend Round-up!
Happiest weekend wishes!! We're going for the homestretch here - each time I open my planner, my heart skips a beat seeing how close my due date is (12 days!) - so right now I'm all about last-minute pre-baby tasks. And there are heaps of them! My lists don't stop, but thankfully I've been crossing plenty off recently, and I'm starting to feel settled enough to go at any moment (besides for the unpacked hospital bag!). It was so much fun opening up boxes of stored baby gear - some things made me feel like it's been ages since my last newborn, and other things had me reeling at how recently I stored them away! Yesterday, Freida and I went through a huge box of baby things (plush rattles, swaddle blankets, newborn rompers etc.) - it was so special to be doing that with her; feeling like I've got this beautiful big girl on my hands, helping out with the newborn chores... :) So while I go through and fold this basket of freshly-laundered baby items, here are a few things I've been meaning to share over the course of this week:
- These popcorn bird-feeder garlands are such a charming fine-motor skill activity for Shabbos Shira! (Plastic needles will do the trick!)
- A whimsical read + a wonderful recipe for french toast.
- A $200 bubble blower. Baby keepsake, anyone? :)
- This insanely-awesome playhouse has left me dreamy....
- This bathroom-themed survey made me laugh out loud.
- This hot-pink number got me thinking about my right to bare arms.
- I loved this honest + beautiful piece on parenhood.
- Ever wonder how much you'd earn if all your housework was done as a paying job?
- Hilarious (and ridiculous!) Super Bowl cupcakes!
Have a wonderful February weekend!!! I'll be back to share some of my hospital-bag-packing necessities next week!
Light Reading
I've been doing heaps of nighttime reading lately (mostly self-help baby books), and found myself wishing I had some sort of old-school reading light (remember those geekly little gadgets that would clip onto your book pages, hold your spot, and light up when you opened to that page??). Each night, after brushing my teeth, I head to bed with the intention of finishing another chapter in book #1 so that I can move onto book #2... but you know how it is - you say you'll be in bed reading by 10:30, but 11:15 rolls around and you're still in the living room? Anyways, I'm now at the point where I think I'm in the middle of about 5 different books! And since all are read primarily as I'm turning in for the night, I couldn't help but covet this insanely awesome bed lamp!! Not only can it shelve all 5 of my current reads, but it can hold the place in the one I fall asleep holding (my husband is rather good at removing forlorn books from sleeping clutches), and let there be (reading) light! Genius!!
This light would actually make for a creative and effective bed hack - imagine mounting these lamps to something as simple as the Ikea Malm headboards... Immediate custom made design-y beds! Pretty sweet for readers.
P.S. About those 5 books :)
A Labor of Love (I wrote about it once here.) The most perfect birthing book.
HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method (Thanks Rachey!!) Very helpful birthing techniques.
Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems (Which is what has me coveting a bedside reading lamp to begin with - Freida has been inhabiting our bedroom at night, and I need to nip this in the bud before baby!)
The Sleep Easy Solution Reading up a bit on sleep scheduling for newborns... after the first two weeks I hope to establish a bit of a eating/sleeping schedule. This book makes it easy as pie!
Eat, Sleep, Poop A common sense guide to your baby's first year - well-written facts of little lives.