Tot School - 15 Months

It was rainy here most of the week, so it was important for me to find some engaging activities to keep B entertained. Check out what we did!

Sometimes the best ideas just come to you out of the blue! I gave Brennan an empty milk gallon and he LOVED playing with it. He treats everything like it's a drum so he beat on it. He also liked knocking it over (another favorite activity of his). It was great for sliding back and forth between the two of us too!

I cannot wait to try water play with spice containers like they did here, but I don't have any empty spice containers yet. (I have been tempted to empty one into another container, but haven't done that). I decided to just let B play with the spice containers while I watched him like a hawk. I don't think he'd be able to open them, but you never know. He loved shaking them and beating them together!

Isn't that face awesome?!?!

Then, with no prompting from me, he starting stacking them! I was so proud of him. Two weeks ago he showed very little interest in stacking. I was hootin' and hollerin' because I was so excited he was stacking them! So glad I still had the camera close by to capture this series of shots!

I grabbed another spice container and he tried to add it to the top, but with three it was a little too high for him to do it alone while sitting!

I borrowed Carisa's idea and pulled out a cookie sheet this week. I stuck his blue and green Leapfrog Phonics letters to it and had him show me the "B". He can pick out the "B" every time and I love it!

I tried to get him to help me sort the letters by color, but he had no idea. I guess the exposure is still good for him.

I then made a pattern with the letters and again had him find the "B."

Had to capture a picture of B watching The Wiggles. It's his favorite!

Brennan really enjoys playing outside now and doesn't understand why we can't go out when it is pouring down rain. I didn't want to get wet, but didn't mind if he did, so we did some water play again this week. This time I spread towels on the kitchen floor and let him have at it!

While exploring around our guest bedroom, Brennan showed interest in a jar with spools that sits on a shelf and an idea was born! I let him pull them out and stack them. I also would like to try to have him thread them, but I think that will have to wait until he's a little older.

He also played with the little abacus also from the guest room.

And got to fill in for our neighborhood crossing guard! :)

Unfortunately B had a pretty nasty cold during the middle of the week and we spent a lot of time like this:

By Saturday he was feeling much better and we went to Touch-a-Truck with Amanda and Parker! It was a little boy's heaven on earth!

Brennan had is 15-month check-up this past week too. The doctor recommended we start some physical therapy with him to work on his core strength. He isn't walking yet on his own, but also has never crawled, can't get to a seated position from lying down, and has never pulled himself to standing. I take him for his initial PT evaluation on Monday morning. I am actually looking forward to it. Please pray it goes well and is more fun than work for our little guy!

Make sure you head over to Carisa's blog for more great Tot School ideas!

Friday's Fab Five

I am thinking about switching my Friday's Fab Five to Wednesdays and linking up to Jamie's What I'm Loving. What are your thoughts? I don't think I have enough material to be able to do both of them only two days apart. I just thought it might be fun to join a link-up instead of just me doing my Fab Five alone.

1. Even though it has been a very rainy week, I've had fun playing with my little B-Nugget. I've been more inspired to do Tot School this week (probably to keep him busy, so I don't go crazy staying in the house), so be sure to come back on Sunday for a picture-filled post of his activities from the week!

2. We did managed to make it out of the house some. On Wednesday we met some friends at the Children's Museum of Southeastern CT. I had been there once before with my friend Alicia. Since B is only taking one nap per day, it worked out for us to meet our friends there this week. I think he had a good time. Once he is walking on his own he will love it. That will also free Mommy up to have some adult conversation instead of having to help B walk everywhere. The best part is our library has a free pass. I called up the library on Tuesday to reserve the pass, went and picked it up that afternoon, and it was due back on Thursday! Easy pleasy!

3. I had mentioned before that I ordered the book One Thousand Gifts. I was really excited to get it and start reading it. However, I'll have to admit that once I started reading it, I was really surprised by it. It is a difficult read for me. Ann Voskamp writes in a very unique way. It's not a book that just sucks me in. I read the first three chapters relatively quickly, but then the book sat on our end table for weeks without being touched. I am happy that I did open it again this week and enjoyed it more than before. I even went back and wrote down some of the parts I had underlined in the first three chapters. There's some good stuff in there!

"There's a reason I am not writing the story and God is. He knows how it all works out, where it all leads, and what it all means. I don't." (page 21)

"Joy is always possible." (page 33)

"Learn how to be thankful - whether empty or full." (page 47)

"Give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up." (page 57)

"The real problem of life is never a lack of time. The real problem of life - in my life - is lack of thanksgiving." (page 72)

4. Val was kind enough to bring me dinner last night! We didn't have praise team practice, so we decided we would meet for dinner instead. Well B wasn't feeling well, so she offered to pick up take out and just come to the house. It worked out great because B was pretty cranky. He does seem to be feeling much better today, so that's fabulous!

5. B and I had a playdate over at Amanda's this morning. Again it was nice to get out of the house and see some friends. I am super excited because we are going with Amanda and Parker tomorrow to Touch-a-Truck in Niantic. I think the boys will have an awesome time!

I'll leave you with a Tot School preview! This picture cracks me up! He got so excited about shaking those spices!

Reminiscing

While I was looking at my blog tonight, I started clicking on the "You Might Also Like" links at the bottom of each post. That made me want to go through iPhoto and look at all the pics of our little guy. He is such a cutie. I picked out a few funny photos (most of which I have shared on here before) to post just for fun! Enjoy taking a trip down memory lane!

Tot School - 15 Months

Where did this past week go? Now that Brennan has dropped his morning nap, I am making an effort to get out of the house each morning. I haven't exactly figured out how to incorporate Tot School into our new schedule on a daily basis, so we just did a few activities here and there. 

I have been wanting to buy some Do-a-Dot markers for a while now and actually went out last weekend and did it! I was hoping B would like using them more than crayons since they are so much bigger. They were a hit! He had a good ole time putting dots all over the paper.

I love this series of shots of him figuring out what to do.  We did the first fews dots already on the paper together.

Then he used the orange. I love the motion in the first shot. That dot marker was flying!

He also loves just playing with the markers. He takes them out of the box and puts them back in over and over and over again. 

We did a transferring activity this week. I got the idea here. I gave B some uncooked mezze penne and let him put it in an empty wipe container. It was super easy for him.

He was able to do it in the pictures above, but then I realized I put the wipe container on his left. I moved it to his right so he could use his right hand.

Once all the pasta was in the container, I thought he would like shaking it. He normally loves shaking things and making noises, but he was not having it as you can see from the pics below!

I also mixed flour, water, and blue food coloring in a baggie for him to squish around. Again I thought he would love this activity, but he had very little interest. Oh well.

Like I said, we've been getting out of the house a lot more now, so here are a few pics of other things we were up to this week!

We spent time outside in the yard.

We went swinging at the playground.

We played at the mall.

We shared ice cream!

We went back to the playground again!

We even got to go to the beach!

You can check out more great pictures of B and our time spent outside here!

Be sure to head over to Carisa's blog to see more Tot School fun!

It's a Beautiful Day for a Photo Shoot

It is a beautiful, sunny day here today and even though my allergies are doing their best to keep me down, we had to get out and enjoy the weather. I took Brennan to the playground this morning. He had a GREAT time! He made a new friend named Zoe. She kept following B around and then they sat together in the grass and threw a ball back and forth. It was adorable. Today was the most active I've seen him at the playground, so I can't wait to take him there when he is walking. He will tear that place up!

After the playground, we came home for a quick lunch and then went back outside so I could snap some pictures of my growing boy! I always have my iPhone on me, so I seem to take a lot more pictures with that now instead of our good camera. Today was the perfect day to get some better quality shots! Check out some of my faves!

Dear Brennan,

You are 15 months old. An immobile, great sleeping, 15-month-old! It doesn't get much better than that! Here is what past month has looked like:

You still wear 12-18 month clothes. I am ready for warmer weather, so you can wear some new clothes. Most days you despise getting dressed or having your diaper changed. You are still wearing size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 at night. You still sometimes pee out of your overnight diapers at night.

Mommy still tries to do Tot School with you, but hasn't been as inspired to do it as much. I did just buy you some Do-a-Dot markers and you have been having fun with those. You'll use them to make dots on paper some, but you really just like playing with them with the caps still on. You'll take them out of the box and then put them back in. We've been working more on pointing to your facial features. You prefer to point to them on someone else, but most of the time can show me your eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, hair, tummy, feet, and penis. Haha! You will also point to your heart when I ask you, "Where does Jesus live?"

You absolutely love The Wiggles. Most people find them annoying, but I enjoy watching it because it brings you so much enjoyment. You have had a love for music since you were very young and it continues today. You also have a new love for Elmo. We will watch Elmo videos on the computer during breakfast.

Still no crawling. I guess by now it's pretty official that you skipped that stage. You also still haven't pulled yourself to standing. I am shocked that I have never found you sitting or standing in your crib! We are making some progress with walking. Just after you turned 14 months, you started wanting to walk everywhere. You do a pretty good job when Mommy or Daddy hold onto both your hands. You're still too unsteady to do it if we only hold one hand. You have also started walking with push toys.

I don't think you have said any new words. You make tons of sounds. You sign "please" all the time, but sometimes I don't know why you're saying it. You also seem to think signing "please" means you should be able to get anything. Boy oh boy if you don't get what you want, you can throw a good ole fit now! Arms and legs flailing and hands hitting your head! Thankfully those fits don't last long. I usually just ignore them and you stop. You did throw a super long fit this past Sunday when I dropped you off in the church nursery. You cried for 40 minutes straight! You are a Momma's boy for sure!

You still have only eight teeth. You continue to be a really good eater. It's so nice because you can pretty much eat the same thing we eat now. The next step is to try to get you to feed yourself with a spoon! I forgot to mention in your last update that will hold your own sippy cup now. I love when you drink your milk after you wake up for the day and nap because you snuggle in my lap while you drink it. Once you start walking, I'm not sure that will last, so I am cherishing those moments!

I mentioned in an earlier post that you are now down to only one nap each day! Sometimes you get a little fussy in the morning, but most days you are handling it well. Yesterday you slept for 3.5 hours! Today only 1 hour, so that was pretty stinky! Going down for a nap at noon is working well because it allows us to get out of the house in the morning. We go to the aquarium a lot because Mommy bought a membership there. We also frequent the library, mall, and Target.  You are still a good sleeper at night too. You still go to bed early, usually between 6:30-7:00 and will get up between 7:00-7:30.

You are such a sweet boy! I hope you know how loved you are!

Love,
Mommy

Brennan back at 14 months!

Brennan today at 15 months!

Yum Yum

Brennan LOVES spaghetti!