Rainbow Noodles

March is all about spring, bright colors/rainbows and of course that sneaky little leprachaun who causes chaos for teachers everywhere. I subscribe to a few email lists of other bloggers and thus get some pretty cool crafty ideas in my inbox every week. Rainbow noodles: commence! 

Not one to heed the advice of my husband, I cooked the whole box of noodles. You will see...it made the project a little extreme.

Then we started adding food coloring and mixing. V was curious, of course.

Dinner anyone?

The towel was essential to keep sticky pasta off the floor. V was ready to squish

Cautious at first...

Let's just empty this whole bin

How high can this go?

The one hand method was just too slow and she really did like how it felt I think. Curious, but enjoyable. She barely even looked up as you can see from the pictures.

Hmmm

We had to throw in a grownup size spoon and "fork" too since she is obsessed with using them now.

And a sensory project with the ever curious Miss V would not be complete without a little taste test.

All in all, it was a fun, messy, squishy March project that I enjoyed a lot more than a room full of crazy kiddos post leprechaun visit LOL

Her attempt at cleaning up

Aftermath 

Here is the link to the original idea. Warning: the pasta really started to smell afterwards and we threw it out pretty quickly!

Kitchen Puzzle

I saw an idea on Pinterest to make your own kitchen puzzle with a file folder and regular items around your kitchen. Miss V is always curious about things happening in the kitchen and she loves puzzles or "puffls" as she calls them so I knew it would be a hit. She is working on shapes and knows "circle" so I chose a lot of circular shapes.

Then I just traced them with a sharpie on the file folder and quick made a cover that I will have V decorate/color the next time we use it. 

Miss V got to work matching the objects. She was a little confused at first and was trying to "push" the pieces into place like with a regular puzzle. I was not surprised that she figured out what lids went with which foods. The applesauce pouch lid she calls "pouch" and the baby puffs lid she knew were for the puffs and yelled it excitedly hoping some of the puffs would magically appear on the lid :)

That's a circle mom!

starting to take them all off for round 2

silly mom, this spoon goes over here...let me take care of this

Miss V spent quite a lot of time working on the very smallest circle shape/object; a kidney bean. I have a bin of them for her to play in and scoop with cups and bowls. She loves them but it makes a huge mess! So I just took one out and traced it for the puzzle. She was surprised to see it and probably knew it belonged with the other beans. Since she was barefoot, the bean stuck to her feet and, seeing as it is small, was hard for her to grasp and take off. It was comical to watch.

I put all the pieces in a bin by her play kitchen and we do the puzzle each time she plays in the kitchen. We are starting to learn square for the big lid. I also found an Eric Carle shapes book at Half Price Books that she really likes and has helped her learn how to say triangle! Miss V is a smarty and it has nothing to do with Mom being a teacher ;)

Like Father Like Daughter

Dad organized a HUGE event/fundraiser at Karate America last weekend and Miss V had her first chance to break a board. We had her practice stomping the mats and body shields before so she would get the motion down. She likes the "If you're happy and you know it" song and usually will stomp her feet at that part kind of like marching. During swim lessons they say "kick" your feet so she knows both versions. After this outing, she now says "Bye Dada car karate kick" when he leaves for work. Car, karate and now kick have all been added as she has started talking more.

She decided sitting down would be better than standing and stomping

distractions occurred about every 3 seconds

Why not try an open hand punch?

Dad eventually helped her break it all the way and she moved on to playing with the big squishy pillows AKA body shields.

Too tempting to not touch every one!

Mirrors are there own curiosity

Maybe I'm tall enough?!

V really loves the wide open space on the gyms at KA. Add in a TON of people all breaking boards or bricks and she really loves it. She was dodging in an out and back and forth like she owned the place. She goes, goes, goes and then hits a wall of toddler tiredness. See below :)

Maybe this would be a comfy bed?

This girl has karate in her blood and will start Little Ninjas at age 3 if not before. She is curious about Dad's nunchucks and has gotten ahold of them a few times already. She recognizes the KA logo on his work shirts and uniform. She has seen pictures from his 4th degree test and enthusiastically shouts "Karate!"  I can't wait to see her journey to black belt and beyond!! It wouldn't surprise me at all if she becomes an instructor one day!

An Attempt at a Blanket Fort

Miss V loves her stuffed animals and blankets and putting animals to bed as you saw in a previous post. I decided to try a spin on this and build a blanket fort! 

*disclaimer* This was a lot harder than I thought it would be! My dad or babysitters or whoever built me blanket forts as a kid did an awesome job and I took for granted that it can be tricky, especially getting the blankets to stay up. 

*another note* V did not get the concept and kept trying to pull blankets down which added to the difficulty level!  So the pictures I got are comical to say the least. May retry this next winter when we are sick of being inside again. 

Baby squat LOL

Using a short chair and ottoman was clearly a bad idea; so I tried an assortment of taller chairs. 

At least it's as tall as her neck now!

What's under here Mom?

Belly flop!

Fancy meeting you here Mr. Paddington!

She tried so hard to take the hat off Paddington Bear but it is sewn on hehe.
And last but not least we have a perfect example of what a Wisconsin winter does to girls' hair... 

Static City!

Here's to warmer temps and melting snow this week!!!

Shhhh, night-night!

Miss V loves to play pretend with her stuffed animals/dolls. Her two favorite games are to push them in her baby stroller in the loop around our living room/dining room/kitchen or to put them "night-night" on our big living room couch blanket.

One of the very first books that V understood was a baby peekaboo book where a teddy bear flap is covering a sleeping baby. I would always say "Shhhh" when I got to the page and pretty soon I heard her saying it when she was reading on her own. Now anyone/anything that is sleeping is called "shhhhh."  Dad works late so he is usually still sleeping when V and I get up in the mornings. She always asks though, "Dada?" and I say "shhhhh sleeping" and she repeats with her little shy smile/chin tuck that is reserved for when she flirts with him :)

She has recently really started to pretend where she is also in on the game. So she gets her kiddos all set and then joins in on "bedtime."

Ever since she was an infant this "butt up" pose is her preferred sleep position!

V is just so loving and sweet with her dolls and animals. She picks each one up and makes sure to hug them before getting the next one. On this day, she continued the game on our couch pillows that are more often on the floor than the couch.

Each times she plays this game it seems like a new "element" is added. She started going to the bin in her room where her blankets are and bringing them to the living room and carefully spreading on the floor for a new "bed."

I am really starting to see why parents say that toys end up all over the house!

Curious George is still her all time favorite and he is the only one that goes in her crib at night. She wakes up talking about him; usually "George vacuum" because she likes that episode of the show the best. It has greatly improved her fear of the real vacuum! 

A girl and her George take 2

I am a HUGE advocate of play being involved in education. So glad V is already partaking!

Miss V. vs Avocado

Miss V loves to grocery shop and people watch from the cart. She likes to hold on to Mom's list or coupons. Or throw them on the floor or into the cart behind her; getting lost under lots of food. She really likes "holding" food in the seat beside her and says, "Baby some!" if she wants whatever I'm putting in the cart up front with her.  Well, on this particular day, she wanted to hold an avocado. While I moved on to the next item on my list, V decided to sample the avocado. I turned back around and saw a big chunk of skin had been bitten off!!

She actually didn't seem to mind it and since she likes to chipmunk her food, the piece of leathery black skin was still on the inside of her cheek/mouth two hours later. Dad had to pry it out and she was not happy. Yes, we do feed Miss V, although she often acts as if she is starved to death!!

Here are some other fun, random and curious grocery store pics.  I DID NOT take any part in loading my daughter up with squash!!

First time sitting in cart

Mom...I'm going to read this list to you

WHAT?! No dessert on this list??

Why is my father torturing me??

V enjoys the pretend grocery store at Kids N Motion. Maybe she will follow in Mom and Dad's footsteps and be a cashier/bagger in high school :)

I think Grandpa Rob would have loved taking this girl grocery shopping. They would probably hunt for expired food and try to clear out the whole cereal aisle together! 

I have always enjoyed grocery shopping but do even more now that I have weekday time to do it. And Miss V to tag along :)

*(I probably will feel very different when she throws her first tantrum or the first time she does not ride in the cart...ahh!)*