She's Crafty...

Lately, Mairead and I have been doing a project most days during the week. She is actually really good about using glue, etc, so it has been fun.

This week, we did C is for Caterpillar first. She has a stuffed caterpillar that is one of the 25 friends who have to be in her crib to sleep at night, so I brought him down to the kitchen for the project as an example.


I just drew a huge 'C' on paper and put glue inside the C. I gave her the pom-poms and showed her how to stick them into the glue. She had a great time with it while I fed the boys.


After the project was complete, we read a book about caterpillars. I am still a teacher at heart, of course.


This is the finished product- not bad, huh?

Today, I let her use the laptop to play on a site called www.kneebouncers.com. Moms- it is a lot of fun for toddlers and uses shapes, colors, and numbers to play games. All the toddler has to do is press a key and things on the screen change, play music, count, etc. She had a blast-- she didn't want to give the laptop back to me!

Earlier this week, we made snowmen out of cotton balls. She liked this one because she had just made a real snowman with Grampy last weekend.

I hope all of my pre-school/elementary school teacher friends are proud of us!

Finally, we did 'D is for Duck.' Again, I just drew the letter and glued on a beak. Then, I put glue inside the 'D' and let Mairead stick the feathers on. She added the eyes at the end- that was her favorite part.

She really is a lot of fun right now. She is still going to 'school' once a week and is enjoying that. The boys are doing well, except that right now they both have double ear infections-- two babies with two ear infections makes life a little more hectic and includes a lot more whining, but they seem to be feeling better today.

Thanks for checking in!

Spaghetti and a Snowman

This past weekend was definitely a good one. Mairead got to go to see Elmo with Brian and Christin while Dave and I went out to breakfast kid-free (thanks to Nana and Grampy for babysitting). Then, Katie and Steve brought our new cousin, Lily, over for a visit, and Jen and Mike came over, too. We had dinner together and also had visits from Beth, Jimmy, Norman, and My Nana. These are pretty popular kids!

If you ask the twins, though, I think they would say that their favorite part of the weekend was their introduction to spaghetti. They LOVED it!

Jack just couldn't believe he had such a great dinner.


Ben


Mairead is also a huge fan of spaghetti, but she has been eating it for a while. So, only some of hers got on her face. And hands. And hair.


Ben had it everywhere. But it was worth it!

Jack did pretty well with the mess. He is always neater than his baby brother.

Mairead had some special fun with Grampy when he helped her to build her first snowman. Sometimes when it snows, she looks out the window and says, "Hi, Snowman." I guess she thinks they must live out there. She also says, "Brr.... It's cold. I get stuck." Oh, and "snow globe," when it is still snowing out. She really loves the snow.

She was very helpful and very proud of Grampy.

She offered him encouragement along the way saying, "Yay, you did it! Whee-whoo!" And at the end, "There. All finished!" When he was finished, Nana brought us some hot chocolate which prompted, "Thanks, Gree (that's Grampy for now). Thanks, Nana!"

After the snowman was complete, she sat on the ground and talked to him for a while. "Hi Snowman. Hi!" So you're a snowman.... what's that all about?

Thanks, 'Gree,' for building her first snowman!

To parents- Mairead has recently become obsessed with a DVD called Here Come the ABCs, by They Might Be Giants. It teaches the alphabet and includes some cute songs about letters. She dances to it and sings the songs. So much so that last night I went in to check on her and she was singing in her sleep. "Go G, Go G," from the song, "Go for G". If you are looking for something a little different for learning letters, it is cute!

Letters are our big thing lately- she can sing pretty much the entire alphabet song with just a few prompts. We have been doing a few crafts involving letters, too. I will post some of her artwork soon!

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

One way to get there is to have your fun uncle, Brian, and your almost aunt, Christin, take you as a Christmas gift! On Saturday, Brian and Christin did a very brave and generous thing by taking two two-year-olds to see Sesame Street Live at the auditorium in Lowell. They took Mairead and Christin's niece, Ailish, who is just four months younger than Mairead. Ailish is also the daughter of my friend, Josh, and his wife, Becky. Josh and I have been friends forever, and now our little girls are becoming friends, too!

Brian and Christin picked the girls up on Saturday morning. Mairead was very excited already. Disclaimer- the beads were at her insistence- not my idea. She wore them the entire day. Before she left, we told her that she was going to see Elmo with her friend, Ailish. She calls her, 'aishish,' but that's close enough for now.


Brian and Christin did a fantastic job wrangling two toddlers and helping them to enjoy the show.


Sharing some snacks is a good way to start a friendship.


The girls were so good that Brian and Christin took them for lunch after the show.


Mairead and her godfather, having a little quality time.

They loved the show-- Mairead seems to have chosen Big Bird as her favorite.

When she got home, I asked her if she went to a show. She said, "Brian! Christin! Cool! Awesome!" I think that pretty much sums it up!

Thanks so much, Brian and Christin!!!