Tot School - 18 . 5 Months - Alphabet Box Letter D

Thanks for stopping by to check out our week. Last week I hardly had anything to share, but this week I have tons of pictures! 

I continued using the alphabet box. This week's letter was 'D'. Brennan really liked the box this week!

• Leapfrog 'D' magnet
• Baby Einstein 'Dd' book
• 'D' coloring page
• dogs
• drum
• dice
• duck
• dinosaur puzzle
• Duck Stories
• A Dozen Dizzy Dogs
• Danny and the Dinosaur
• How do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms?

Brennan dove right into the box this week. I think he was especially excited to see his dice in there. I had put them away for about a week and he LOVES those things! The large stuffed dog is from Build-a-Bear and sings "Who Let the Dogs Out", so he really liked that too. Oh and he hadn't seen the little duck in a long time either, so he was all about that.

The dinosaur puzzle pieces are fun to stack!

The drum is always fun to play with!

We watched a few 'D' videos this week. I also remembered Starfall. I can't believe I had forgotten about it. Brennan liked watching the alphabet videos on there!




Since this is our fourth alphabet box, I decided it was time to do a review. I didn't expect Brennan to be able to recognize all four letters, but check out this video. I swear this was the first time we tried! I was amazed. I've done it several times since and sometimes he will mix up C and D, but I think he really is starting to recognize them. In the video I think it sounds like he is trying to say some of the sounds. Such a smart boy!


This week I made my first batch of homemade play dough! I LOVE it! I followed the recipe I found on here on Pinterest. I cut the large batch recipe in half and just made the whole batch blue. It's nice that it is technically edible, but go figure, Brennan hasn't once tried to put it in his mouth. Better safe than sorry though. He wasn't too sure what to think of it the first day, but seems to like it now. I included pictures of him playing with it throughout the week.

Just like the play dough, Brennan wasn't too fond of "painting" with shaving cream in the bathtub when we did it for the first time a few weeks ago, but now he loves that too and wants to do it almost every night.

I had seen Carisa do a stacking activity with Do-a-Dot marker lids before and had been wanting to try it. B was great at it.

We also got some hand-me-down cards; a Sesame Street set and a Go Fish set with numbers. I just let B explore them this week.

Of course we got in plenty of reading this week! After he drinks his milk in the morning, the first thing he wants to do is read books!

We have this really cool little outdoor shopping area one exit up from our house and there's a little pond with tons of ducks! Makes for a quick little field trip when we need to get out of the house.

Not really part of Tot School, but B learned a new trick this week!


We always have fun when Daddy gets to play with us too!


So, we had a pretty good week around here, but I'll leave you with a few outtakes.

Hey, we can't be happy all the time!

Make sure you head over to Carisa's blog to see tons of great Tot School ideas!

Puppy Love

Snapped this sweet picture of Brennan with Ringo. They love each other!

I'm So Excited!

Family vacation is coming up soon! As long as we don't get blown away by hurricane this weekend!

Splish Splash!

Too fun not to post! This kid LOVES bathtime! Please excuse the cloudy water. He had been "painting" with shaving cream.

And one more. Sorry Brennan, but this is going in your wedding slideshow!

Tot School - 18 Months - Alphabet Box Letter C

Here's a little peek at our week.

Brennan explored his 'C' alphabet box.

• Leapfrog 'C' magnet
• Baby Einstein 'Cc' book
• 'C' coloring page
• cars (3 different ones)
• crayons
• camera
• cat
• Cat in the Hat
• Chataboonga's Chilling Choice
• Cat and Mouse on the Farm
• Cars and Trucks

I included more books in this box because I wanted him to be exposed to more 'Cs' in print. I knew he was already familiar with what 'A' and 'B' looked like in his previous alphabet boxes, but didn't think he knew 'C' yet. He really liked playing with the real camera. It had several old videos on it and he loved watching himself.

This past week we also explored the different sounds objects make when you bang them on the air vent. Loud, yes, but he had a lot of fun! I watched him carefully with the popsicle stick to make sure he didn't stick it in the vent.

That's about all I've got this week. We've been working hard on his gross motor skills, so Tot School has taken a back seat this week. I will be on the lookout for some good Tot School ideas to try next week!

Make sure you check out Carisa's blog for lots of fun ideas!

Love That Laugh

Sorry about the lack of blogging around here lately. I just haven't been motivated to do it. I know you all miss pictures and videos of B when I don't blog frequently, so I'll share two videos with you today.

This first one was taken a few days ago when I was tickling him. I love the end of it!



Also, I want to make sure I document some of the new words B has been saying lately. He isn't super consistent with them yet, but in the past week he has said: ball, car, Emma, Anna, Elmo, and book. As I mentioned in his 18-month update, he says "boom" all the time. That's his current favorite. I'm glad he's starting to use more words. I think the more words he can use, the less frustrated we will both get during the day. And trust me, he can be pretty frustrating nowadays. I see full out, thrashing on the floor temper tantrums in our future. Hopefully I am wrong!

As for his walking, that is coming along too. The other day at the playground, he took around 50 independent steps in a row. He could've done more, but I waking backwards backing further and further away from him and then ran really hard into part of the playground. I have two good bruises on my legs now. But it didn't matter. I was just happy he was walking. I have even gotten him to walk with a push toy a few times here recently. He normally doesn't like it, but when we were at Emma's house, he was happy to push it.



I'll try to be better about updating the blog! I know you all love looking at B-Nugget!

Tot School - 18 months - Alphabet Box Letter B

Last week I introduced Brennan to his weekly alphabet box. I am simply using them as a way to expose him to letters and introduce some new words to him. Here is his B box:

• Leapfrog 'B' magnet
• Baby Einstein's 'Bb' book
• 'B' coloring page
• Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?
• bear puppet
• bubbles
• bowl
• balls
• blocks
• brush
• bunny 
• bird (puzzle piece)

I don't think any of those words were new to him, but he really enjoyed exploring in his box several times this week. He liked the balls and bubbles, but his favorite was the bear puppet I checked out from the library. We also watched some 'B' themed videos on YouTube. He especially liked the second one.





Here are some pictures of Brennan enjoying his alphabet box this week!

Here are some of the other activities we did this week.

Again borrowing an idea from Amber over at Amber's Articles, we did a puzzle search. I grabbed three of Brennan's favorite puzzles and took a few pieces from each one and placed them in an empty cereal box. The goal was for Brennan to be able to place the piece in the correct (general) location after he drew a piece from the box.

The activity went well. The cereal box wasn't really big enough so we ended up just dumping the pieces on the floor. Brennan had no problem at all putting the pieces in the correct spot. He could put the shape pieces in their exact spot and the others in the general location. If you have a walker, I would put the puzzles across the room so they have to walk to them.

B also really liked putting the pieces into the cereal box.

We also found what looks like a new favorite activity; putting pom-poms into a soda bottle. He LOVED this. I think he got all 80 pom-poms in there. It really required fine motor skills because he had to poke each one down through the neck of the bottle to get it in. Beware though, you'll need tweezers to get them back out again!

Brennan loves balloons and has really enjoyed playing with them in the basement this week.

We did a super short color sorting activity with pieces of colored foam. He did it without any problem except for mixing up red and orange.

And like always we spent a lot of time reading. This kid loves books!

What did you did for Tot School this week? Head over to Carisa's blog to see tons of amazing ideas!