M is 42 months old.
Wellllll…… M had pneumonia this week. So, we did not do much of anything except read books and watch tv. My poor, poor baby. We went to the doctor on Monday and he immediately started getting better after starting the antibiotics, but he’s still not back to normal. (We’d appreciate prayers, if you are willing!)
The following is a smattering of this and that from past weeks that haven’t yet made it into a post, in no particular order as I’m not up to organizing anything right now…
We visited my parents who live on our family farm in Missouri. It is more of a hobby farm now than anything (in its glory days it was a magnificent dairy farm, with horses and sheep to boot). M loved feeding the chickens, and hearing the rooster crow!
While we were there we made a trip to Bass Pro (a major outdoor sports / hunting mall. They had a lot of wonderful displays, including these sweet turtles: 
And this grizzly bear, whom he agreed to stand next to if Auntie M would hold him:
I found a small foam ABC puzzle mat - the squares come apart and the letters all come out – for $1.00 at Walmart. Here M is lining them up like a train. After he finished placing the letters in he “drove” it (pulled it) all around the house.
I took all the soft stuff out of our previous sensory bin and left the hard glass pebbles and marbles in. I found a gumball machine at Dollar Tree and added it in. Here’s M figuring out how it works (it was perfect for the marbles!): 
(And, um, WHY does my baby look so long in this picture?)
This past week we did do one school-ish activity (later in the week, when he started improving and actually got dressed)… our egg game, which you can read about here. We played it and a couple of other games quite a bit, and although I hate for M to be so sick, I have to say I enjoyed the slower pace of our days this week. Anyway, here we are playing the game:
And after we finished, we quickly graphed our chicks and other animals to see who had more before we actually counted them:
Beginning next week (or the next school post I get around to writing), I’ll be linking these posts up to the Preschool Corner instead of Tot School. I’ve been in denial that my baby is growing up, but have decided that our posts are probably more preschool-oriented now, although I do intend to keep school activities play-based and fun… no formal curriculum of any kind yet. I hope all of you who read our Tot School posts will continue following M’s progress and our weekly activities!
Have a beautiful week, everyone! :)
M just loves cutting pages, so I created some quick shape ones for him. He cuts out the shapes then finds the same sized “blank” spot on the second page. To add a bit of excitement this time I had him use tape instead of a glue stick. He LOVED it! He definitely needs more practice with the tape, so we’ll be doing more of these!
A backpack of lacing buttons, animal shapes, spools, and little discs, from our toy lending library (still loving that we have one of these!).
Playing in the jump-o-lene with cousin S. Do you like his cheesy smile?
A great find at Dollar Tree – a target game with sticky balls so we can work on our aim.
A huge foam USA map mat (the kind that has foam squares that lock together). He stands on Minnesota and jumps to Florida a lot because that’s where Grandma and Grandpa currently are. :)
I set up M’s ABC train cards in the pocket chart, leaving a few out. We went through the ABCs until we came to a blank spot. Then he decided which letter was missing and found it in the pile on the floor. He did great with this, and it was fun to switch the game up a little bit from what we normally do!
The sensory bin has been full of very hard and very soft things. You can mainly see the soft things in the picture – cotton balls and pom poms. There are also small and large glass pebbles, glass marbles, and some plastic crystals, along with a scoop and a couple of small containers. 
This was a quick, simple activity to put together – I just punched some holes around a heart cut from fun foam and set it out with a lace from some lacing beads.
For this activity I set out a jar (filled with glass pebbles to keep it from falling over while M worked with it) and some elastic ponytail holders. He stretched each one out with his hands, then manipulated it over the top of the jar and slid it down. He really, really, really enjoyed this and it was definitely a challenge for him. I got this idea 
M made these sweet little beaded hearts for the grandmas. Each one was made with a 3” length of pipecleaner and pony beads. Once the beads were strung on we formed them into tiny hearts. 
This was a great idea found 
M enjoyed doing his 
I turned these little valentines from our most recent High-Five issue into pom pom counting cards. M used the tweezers to put the correct number of pom poms on each card.
We played a memory game with our 
We bought some tiny seed starter kits at Target and planted some forget-me-nots and a shamrock plant. :) M has been checking them every day to see if anything is growing yet.
We made a batch of valentine playdough – pretty red with glitter in it and a dash of cinnamon too – yum! M wanted to make a snowman like we did with our white playdough in December… so that’s what we did! I called them *Valentine Guys*. M just called them red snowmen, heh. 
We actually used our old baby bathtub for this because our regular bin was being used for something else. We had fun tearing it up, feeling it, and hearing how crinkly it is. Then we tossed the pieces in the air and watched them float down. M thought they float “probably because they aren’t very heavy”. :) 
Then we had the best time blowing them up into the air and across the room. Finally we just took handfuls and threw them at each other. We both had a LOT of fun with this! Thank you so much to April, who gave us this idea with her 
Our lovely friend 
The boring ice cube tray was exchanged for a cute heart tray soon after this, but no pics.
These were pretty scrapbooking papers I picked up at Target. I folded a piece in half and drew half a heart on it and M was so surprised and excited when he cut it and opened it up to see a heart! He loved this and did more of them the next day, and even showed Daddy his “trick” later. :) I saw this on 
This was a phenomenal dud with M. He lasted 5 minutes looking at the items. However, I’m sharing it because he loved the “snow” I filled it up with. This is fiberfill stuffing, and it is called Cluster Stuff. I get it at Walmart and since discovering it, I do not use anything for stuffing (when I’m sewing or whatever) except this. It never gets matted down. It’s washable and, in fact, gets softer and fluffier when it is washed. Oh, I could sing it’s praises for a long time. However, what you really want to know is that M thought it was wonderful and played with it by itself for quite a while.
It’s soft, warm, and cozy as you just dig your hands in. Mm. Don’t you want to go buy some now? :)
He hasn’t actually done this yet, but I wanted to include it in a post before Valentine’s Day is actually here.
This is him telling me he doesn’t want me to take a picture just as the camera is flashing. Sigh. I thought this was a super idea, and then I saw that Katie at 
(he just loves that purple glue stick).
As you can see, he’s been opting out of some of the photos lately. It’s his choice and one I’m really trying to respect although I would prefer to see more of that cute face. :)
