Kids say......

I don't know which blog I will link this to, or if anyone will even read this!! I just thought this would be a good place to write some of the cute things my daughter Savannah has been saying (or should I say the way she has been saying them). Perhaps some day when I have time to scrapbook again this will help me remember these joyful days of 2 year old bliss. Enjoy!!


Savannahs version of the Itsy Bitsy Spider

The ipsy bipsy spider went up the water spout. (Cont's normally from there)

Savannahs version of Jingle Bells

Tinker Bell Tinker Bell Tinker all the way. Oh what fun it is to have on horsey sleigh hey!

When she gets hurt she says

Mommy, I need a bamp baid.

Here is an excerpt from when she was being bad.

Me: Savannah, no real water with the kitchen stuff, just pretend.
Savannah: Just a little mom
(I hear her go into the bathroom to get more water)
Me: NO WATER (I get up to stop the impending mess that is about to be made)
Savannah: It is ok mom, it is just a little water.

What do your kids say and do? Leave me a comment so we can all enjoy!!!

This is linked to Lowercase Letters

$1.00 worth of fun

I have been trying to come up with fun and economical ways for my daughter to learn. I find it is important for her to have structured activities to keep her mind and hands busy. It keeps her out of trouble and it helps her develop many valuable skills. One idea I came up with was to buy those little colored things (pom poms?)....see the picture below if you know the correct name for these colored things as I refer to them PLEASE tell me!! I went to the dollar store and sure enough I was able to buy a bag of them for $1.00. I set up a tray for Savannah with 3 cups and the little colored things. I had her sort them, touch them and play with them. When she was "done" sorting them she exclaimed "Look mom, it is beautiful." She will play with these for about 15 minutes which is good for a 2 year old. She gets at least a dollars worth of fun out of them each time!!

You can see how hard she is concentrating.
Also, I set her up in the kitchen so I can
get some work done while she is working.


This is linked to Tip Junkie

Number Shapes and Colors OH MY!

Here are the list of ideas I have come up with so far for my homemade learning toy I made for Savannah.

• Have your child sort them by color into a muffin tin or egg crate
• Have your child sort them by shape.
• Have your child sort them by number (all the one's, two's ect.)
• Have your child stack them in numerical order
• For an older child, have them line up each set in order. If this it to hard, you line up one set and have them "copy" with each additional set.

The thing I noticed my Savannah doing was as she played with them she asked while picking up the shape "Mommy, what number is this?" I would tell her and she would place that shape down and ask me "What number is this?" for the next number. When her daddy played with her, he got tired of answering her and started saying back "You tell me what number that is". She looked at it and got the number right every time. That in itself was worth the 15 minutes it took for me to make this learning toy.

How to make a toddler number leaning toy

I recently had to take my Savannah out of her 2 day a week Mom's Morning out play group. We just couldn't afford it anymore and because I am not working as much, it really wasn't needed. I decided I needed to be a little more proactive with teaching her things (with out her realizing she was learning). I noticed that although she can count to a whooping 13, she didn't recognize her numbers yet. We had lots of learning toys that worked on letter recognition but nothing that worked on number recognition. So I came up with a completly free way to help her with number recognition.

Items needed

4 different colors of card stock
4 different shaped large punches
*if you don't have paper punches you can always draw and cut out the shapes
1 marker

Pick out one color and one punch. Punch out 12 of those shapes from that color. Example. Circle punch....punch out 12 yellow circles. Using the marker write one number on each shape. You should have numbers 1 - 12. Repeat with each remaining color and shape. At the end you should have for example 12 yellow ovals, 12 red circles, 12 pink flowers, 12 green squares. Click here for a list of things your toddler can do with this "toy".

This is linked to Tip Junkie, Living Well, Crystal and Comp, Frugal Friday, Works for me Wednesday, Raising Homemakers

Singing and Dancing Toddler

Parenting is never easy. There are a million books and a million friends willing to give you their opinion on how you should raise your children. My parenting philosophy is moderation and common sense. Since Savannah has turned two, I have needed to use a lot of moderation and common sense. She tries my patiences every day! One idea I have come up with to help us out on a daily basis is letting her dance and sing to positive music! I purchased Cedarmont Kids Praise CD 3 pack on sale for $9.99 at the Family Christian Book store. We listen to at least one CD every day. When she starts to misbehave or starts on one of her melt downs, I turn the music on and she immediately starts singing praises to God and running around the house. She forgets what was making her so frustrated and instead turns her focus on singing and having fun. She doesn't realize that at the same time she is learning valuable life lessons and memorizing Scripture. Even the baby gets involved. I give him a shaker and he laughs and has fun. I have found this idea to be a very valuable tool for my children and it works for me!

I am linking this up to Works for Me Wednesdays, ABC Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Homemaking Link Up, Mommy Club, Fridays Favorite Things, Frugal Fridays. Spiritual Sundays, The Diaper Diaries

Give Back Thursday #5 - Grace

Grace. Grace can mean so many things. Grace is what God shows us each and every day. Grace is also the name of a very dear friend of mine. She babysat Savannah for me when Savannah was a baby. Savannah dearly loves Grace and Grace dearly loves Savannah. When Grace went back to the "real" working world, I was afraid we would see her again. Fortunately for us that was NOT true. Grace has continued to be a wonderful friend and visits us quiet often! Savannah is always so happy to see her and her wonderful dog Pip. This weekend Grace stopped by for a visit right before I was going to head out to the store. She volunteered to stay with the kids so I could go shopping.........ALONE. It didn't matter that I was shopping for things such as fruits, vegetables and a bag of sugar, it was the fact that I was ALONE. I was only gone for a little over an hour but Grace showed me some grace by giving to me her time so she could make my little girl happy and letting me get out by myself. Something I very seldom get to do!!! How did you give back this week? Did anyone do something particularly nice for you too? Please share with us so we can inspire others to Give Back!!

This post is linked to Give Back Thursdays, Thankful Thursdays

I found this amazing honey while buying chicken feed at the feed store this weekend. I try my best to buy local but that is sometimes hard being that I live in a very metropolitan area. I ecspecially like to buy local honey because of all of the health benefits but find it to often time be very expensive. Well this honey was VERY local (right down the street from the feed store) and not to expensive!! You can't get much better than that! You can check out their website here.

This post is linked to Healthy Wednesdays, Things I love Thursdays

Cheerful Cherry Lovin' Girl!

This is the first year my Savannah has ever had cherries. I try to only buy fruit when in season and tis the season for cherries!! I told her they were cherries and said said "strawberries?" I said "no cherries". She replied "sherries....yum I LOVE sherries!". You can tell by her face that she enjoyed them with every bit of her being. I even put some cherries in the little netting thing for the baby to chew on and he seemed to like them as well.

What's your favorite way to eat cherries?

What is your favorite variety of cherries?






This post is linked to: Tiny Talks Tuesday, Ruby Tuesday, ABC Wednesday, Two Questions Thursday

Bedtime

I am writing this post while struggling with our bedtime issues. Every night it is a struggle for my two-year-old Savannah to go to sleep. She cries, she bargains, she tries to be cute but she WON'T STAY IN BED. I tell her quiet sternly that if she doesn't stay in bed I will close the door. She tests me, and I of course close the door. Then ensues the screaming and crying at the door begging for it to be opened just for her to test me again by getting up. This continues for a good hour before she FINALLY falls asleep. So in my "Tiny Talk Tuesday" I will share some of the stuff she says when trying to get out of going to sleep. (Some are pretty funny, but I have to keep a straight face:0)

"Mommy, kitty poopy on floor, I am scared"
"Savannah, the kitty is with mommy, go to bed"

"Mommy, I need my baby stroller where is my baby doll"
"Savannah go to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Mommy, hold you, hold you hold you"
"Savannah, it is time for bed"

"Mommy daddy throw up? Daddy throw up?"
"No, Daddy is fine go to bed"

"Daddy, I need more kisses"
(This one is pretty sweet...but after the 4th time of more kisses you start catching on)

"Baby Brother crying mommy, baby brother crying"
"Yes, I know...thank you now GO TO BED"

Perhaps I will end this here with a sweet picture of my sweet girl because right this second...she isn't being so sweet :0)

Savannah helping in the kitchen, being a good girl.

What did you do at school today?

I find it very amusing to ask my two year old what she did at school. She has just recently been able to talk well enough to carry on a two-way conversation (that I understand) like this. (Savannah attends a small Christian play-group 3-hours 2 days a week.)

Mommy: So did you have fun at school today? What did you do?
Savannah: Poor Ava, poor ava hurt her eye. Poor ava went WAH WAH
Mommy: How did Ava hurt her eye?
Savannah: Daylin went like this (Savannah flaps her hands in the air) poor Ava hurt her eye.

So the next day that Savannah went to school I asked her teacher what happend to Ava's eye? It took her teacher a minute to think about it and then it came to her. Daylin accidently hit Ava in the face with his hand. The teacher said it wasn't even a big deal and Ava didn't even cry. The funny this is though that Savannah talked about this for days.


Have a nice story to share about giving back? Check out our new meme Give Back Thursdays starting July 7th! See you there!

Water and Sky

My mom comes to visit us about 3 times a year. Her "vacation" isn't always a vacation. She babysits, cleans, cooks and organizes. She always has to stay busy and get something done. I always feel bad that she works so hard trying to help me out while she is on "vacation". I try to make sure we get out and do something that is fun and relaxing to help balance her time. These wonderful photos were taken at Pass a Grille beach in Florida. Enjoy!!

Click Here

Say what???

My two year old has a pretty extensive vocabulary. She talks pretty well. I am her offical translator though. When she meets someone new (or even for her dad sometimes) I have to repeat what she said in English. I am going to try to convey to you what she says....than my translation. Enjoy!

Savannah: Mommy hom find me in hovers daddy too
Translation : Mommy come find me under the covers, find daddy too

While driving in the car
Savannah: Mommy I want my chicken purse
Me: You want what?
Savannah: I WANT MY CHICKEN PURSE and then fryfry
Translation (this one took some real thinking on my part)
I want to eat my chicken first and the my french fries

How Savannah sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Deter deter little sar (unintelligable) are apple bov the world so high ike a amond in the sky deter deter little sar

Underware goes where??

We are "working" on potty training. I bought Savannah some big girl underware hoping it would motivate her. I showed them to her and she grabbed them and immedietly put them on her head! Gotta love my little girl :0)

Wordless Wednesday

The letter M - Memorial Day!

I was trying to find some photos to use for the letter "m" and came across our Memorial Day photos!! We try to visit our Grandfather's grave, as he served his country proudly for 30 years in the United States Army. Very fitting to visit him on Memorial Day. Here are some photos!!!

Grandma, Daddy and Savannah

"Oh mommy! That Florida sun is bright"

Savannah....I love her face!!!!

This photo is for the Love Your Shot! Link-up on I Heart Faces! This picture was taken on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. She had a so much fun, and loved the wind blowing in her lovely face :0) There is nothing special about the camera I used (as I am sure you can tell by the quality) just my trusty old Sony Snapshot!!

Kisses, Kitty and Kids

So this has to be the most generic post ever!! But as tired as I am tonight, this is all your gonna get! I would like to give my friend over at Living So Abundantly for kindly taking this photo of my husband and I. I am sure he greatly appreciates it being posted on my blog :0)

Kisses

My kid, my kitty and my husband!

Dolphins!

While in Key West, we went on this amazing boat trip! We were in Key West with another couple and rented a private charter boat. The tour was suppose to include dolphin sitings, snorkeling and a trip to a sand bar to go shelling. Well, the dolphin siting was amazing! I have actually done dolphin cruises a couple times, and never saw anything like this. Even the captain of the boat was amazed! We counted at least 27 dolphins all swimming along with the boat, it was absolutely amazing! Savannah was so excited and kept pointed say "I see it, I see it!".  Here are the photos :0)





Jolly good time!

 Savannah having a jolly good time, with a sleepy cat at the Hemingway House in Key West, FL. The Hemingway house was full of cats, all with their signature 6 toed paws. My Savannah didn't care about how historical the place was, she just wanted to find all the cats! They were hiding under things, in things and on top of things!! She had a great time...and so did we :0)

Goofy Baby

Here is my goofy baby!!! Enjoy!!

Please note that she put the basket on her own head, and then posed for the picture! She is so silly!!!

Playtime Fun

We are very lucky and have a nice playground right outside
our library!! It is always fun to run off some energy either
before or after reading books!!!