Smile!

I've always known I take a lot of pictures of Brennan. There is absolutely no doubt about it now. Check out this new cheesy face he makes when I pull out the camera. These were all taken this morning when I was trying to take pictures of his Tot School activities.

He's such a weirdo! I wonder where he gets his weirdness from?!?!

But speaking of smiling...

I was reading my devotional book, Spilt Milk, today and read this:

God is the ultimate mercy granter. I am a sinner who constantly makes mistakes; I am a repeat offender who deserves to suffer the consequences. I fail God numerous times, wreaking havoc on my life as well as on the lives of others. I violate. I discriminate. I isolate myself from God. I ignore God's calling and seek my own way of doing things. I deserve punishment, but God gives me mercy. How great is our God!

Can't help but smile after reading that!

Tot School - 13 . 5 Months

I did a horrible job taking pictures this week! I'll share the fews pics I did take, but also share some new techy tools we discovered this week!

Here is B doing his push and scoot move across the tile.

Kyle says I am giving B a complex by always having him practice putting things into something. He always wants to put EVERYTHING in something now! Hopefully no permanent damage is being done, because it sure is helping his fine motor skills! This week he was able to put ziti into a soda bottle. Then had fun shaking it!

This week And Twins Make Five shared Great iPhone Apps for Toddlers and Preschoolers. I checked some of them out and added a few of the free ones to my phone. I don't let Brennan play with my brand new iPhone, but I did let him sit in my lap and tap the screen to work the apps. He wasn't too impressed with them, but I thought they were cute. I added the following apps to my phone:

• Fisher-Price: Where's Puppy's Nose?
• Neil Daniels: Bubble Snap
• Fisher-Price: Let's Count Animals

Brennan is still loving watching the numbers and counting PowerPoint presentation I made for him. We watch it several times each day. I am happy to make things like that for him, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel. If things are already available for our use, why take my time making the same thing? This week I have been doing a lot of searching on youtube.  Sure, there's a lot of junk there, but there is plenty of good stuff too. 

This is Brennan's current favorite. He LOVES it! As soon as it ends, he signs "more". 

If you go to youtube and search for "counting" or "letters" you can find some pretty cute stuff! You can also search Kidstv123 on youtube. They made the numbers video above and have several other cute ones too. They also have a website, but I haven't checked it out yet, so I don't know how good the quality is.

I did visit the website, Super Simple Songs and found lots of good stuff there! You can also go to Super Simple ABCs and find some cute phonics games! You can also search Super Simple Songs on youtube. Gotta love good, free stuff!

So, we didn't get tons of pictures, but hopefully you found some of our new Tot School finds helpful!

Ultimate Blog Party!

Welcome! I am taking a break from my regular Friday's Fab Five posts to link up with the UBP. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek into Calton Corner!

Here's my fam:

I am an elementary school teacher, turned stay-at-home-momma of a handsome 13 month old boy! I loved teaching my little rugrats at school, but I am loving teaching my own son even more! My husband, Kyle, is in the Navy. We are both originally from Louisville, KY but have been stationed in Groton, CT for the past almost five years. We own a house in Mystic, CT which is famous for the movie Mystic Pizza!

Even though we are far away from our home-home, CT certainly feels like home to us now. We have great friends and a great church. We are even lucky enough to have some family nearby; my aunt, uncles, and cousins live in Connecticut too!

This blog mainly just serves as a way to document things going on in our lives. Since Brennan was born, it now focuses mainly on him. I just started linking up and doing a Tot School post on Sundays, which has been a lot of fun! I am always on the look out for more fun things to do with Brennan!

Thanks again for visiting! Hope you'll come back again!

Quarterly Top 5 Photos

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd be linking up at the end of the month with my Top 5 Photos of Brennan for Jan-March. I have also mentioned before that I am far from a professional photographer. I only shoot on auto and just like to capture pictures of my son. I don't edit the photos at all either. You just get what you get. :)

You've seen these photos on the blog before, but I did go ahead and pic my top five.

I feel like since B turned one, I have been taking more candid shots of him playing, so I don't have as many shots of him with a super cute smile. Without further adieu, here are my top 5 (in no particular order)!

B's classic smile. I can't get enough of it!

I titled this pic "Eskimo Kiss" when I posted it before. 

Another one with the dog. B loves Ringo!

By far my favorite shot from his bday party!

Check out that hair. So happy B still loves bath time!

Now it's your turn. Head over to Amber's blog to link up and have a chance at winning some great prizes!

Cute Tot

Check it out! Brennan was selected as a Cute Tot on Totally Tots!

I have to say that I agree!

Tot School - 13 Months

We were back in the normal swing of things with Tot School this week after our trip the week before to VA. Check out some of the fun we had!

It is still too cold to play outside, so I decided to let Brennan play with water inside. I let him play with it in his highchair because we have to two cats and one dog who would like to play too. I am posting several pictures of him playing with the bubbles and water because I just love his expressions. It was such a classic example of cause and effect as he would drop items in and then look in the tub to find them.

He enjoyed playing with the water so much that I let him do it again the next day. I didn't sit right with him the second day, however, and he ended up dumping all the water out. I had towels on the floor, so it didn't make a huge mess, but did require him to change out of his pjs and get a new diaper. I can't wait for warmer weather so he can just make a huge mess with water outside!

Brennan received the Fisher Price Go Baby Go Sit to Stand Giraffe from his Auntie Lala. He loved the toy from the very beginning. At first he couldn't get the balls to go all the way into the giraffe's mouth by himself; it requires quite a bit of force. It didn't take him long to catch on though. I hadn't shared pictures of him playing with it yet, so I wanted to make sure to capture some this week.

Parker came over to play too. Brennan was actually really good about sharing his toy, but his face in this picture looks like he is protecting it and thinking, "Mine, all mine!"

Brennan's two favorite puzzles right now are both Melissa and Doug puzzles. He loves this shape puzzle and this pet sounds puzzle. He can put some of the pieces of both puzzles back in their correct spots now!

I saw this idea on another blog (sorry, I can't remember which one). Brennan loves his Leapfrog Fridge Phonics and this is a great way to make them portable. (Even though we were sitting right by the fridge, you get the idea!) I just used a round cake pan.

About two weeks ago, I bought some clothespins at the dollar store. I didn't have an exact use in mind for them, but knew I they could be used in lots of ways. Here are a few of the things we used them for this week.

He is checking out the clothespins and muffin tin.

He helped me put them in the holes.

He liked taking them out after I filled up each hole.

As usual, Ringo was close by to "help".

I also gave him an empty Puffs container. It was difficult putting

the clothespins in, but he was able to figure it out.

Studying the clothespin; it would only go in if it was vertical. 

Again, he liked taking them out.

I went ahead and gave him a 20oz. soda bottle. It was MUCH

too difficult for him to put them in himself, but he had fun.

I think he was hoping there was a little Coke left.

We have also been watching a PowerPoint presentation I created about numbers and counting. He LOVES it!

In fact, look how much he loves counting; when he pulls out his Mega Blocks now, he points to the pegs to "count" them! He is such a smart boy!

Hope you had fun with your tot this week too!