Chicago with Friends

Yesterday we went up to Chicago for the day to visit with my college roommate, her husband, and their adorable baby girl, V. We left as soon as Baby O got up and had breakfast. She did pretty well in the car. This is the first long drive she's done in a while. It was certainly different than it used to be. She stayed awake almost the WHOLE way. Good thing I packed her plenty of books! (I also packed some smaller toys, but she had no interest in them--she was all about the books!).

We went to Lincoln Park Zoo first. She really enjoyed the gorillas and chimps. The white-cheeked gibbons were a hit too. The baby gibbon (born in January) kept running up to his mama to nurse. Olivia watched for a while, then turned to me and signed milk. Could be that she was asking me for some, but I got the feeling she knew what was going on in there!

After a little bit at the zoo, we had lunch and headed over to Shedd Aquarium. She really enjoyed looking at the fish in the Amazon exhibit. She kept signing fish to me (she learned that sign about a week or two ago--perfect timing!). She didn't really like the giant fish. She looked at them, but kept a really tight grip on me. I could tell they made her a little nervous.

The penguin exhibit was by far her favorite. It might have been Baby V's favorite as well. Olivia really enjoyed watching them racing around in the water. She had a hard time telling me what they were. She would point to the ones on the rocks and sign bird, but when they were swimming, she would sign fish. I told her they were swimming birds and kept signing birds to her. She looked at me like I was stupid. I can't believe we didn't get any pictures of her in this area!!

Side note: We might have to get some books on penguins. She also stole borrowed our friend Baby G's penguin pool toy last week and has been playing with it constantly when we are outside.

Another favorite exhibit was the play area with touch tanks. We didn't touch any real animals (I thought she would be too rough), but we played with the plastic animals in the smaller touch tanks. She enjoyed splashing in the water, and kept trying to climb up the side. Good thing she hasn't figured this climbing thing out yet!

After the aquarium, we headed back to my roommate's hotel and had some deep dish pizza. YUM!  I had one and a half pieces. So did Olivia! That girl has a serious taste for pizza, and a Buddha belly to show for it.

The drive home was pretty terrible. There were intense storms (including blindingly bright lighting) all the way home. Olivia slept through the whole thing. She was so wiped out, she is still sleeping as I write this at 8:30 in the morning!

It was great to visit with some old friends and see Baby V again. She has gotten so big since the last time we saw her when we went to Florida in December. Both girls were real troopers. They dealt with the heat, the lines, and the elevators (SO MANY FREAKING ELEVATORS) with no problems. Can't wait to do it again!

Playful Learners at the CDM

Last week, Pete and I took baby O to the Children's Discovery Museum for a call called Playful Learners. It's a discovery class for babies from 12-24 months old.

When we got there Olivia was a little shy. It took her quite a bit of time to warm up to the whole idea. One little boy ran up to her to give her a hug, and she wound up sobbing for quite a while.

Eventually she relaxed and was able to enjoy herself. It helped that she knew two of the other kids in the class. Baby B from a mom's group and Baby G from Kindermusik.

When we got there, the teacher had set out a bin of toys to play with. Olivia selected a noisy shaker. When it was time to clean up, Olivia had no problem putting her toys away in the bin all by herself.

After playtime, we read a story and sang a song. Then it was time for crafts (Mommy's favorite part)!! There were four station set up for craft time. We went to the play dough table first. It was green and smelled like lime jello. Olivia enjoyed smashing the play dough and running it over with textured rolling pins.

After a few minutes at the play dough table, we moved on to the stamping table. Olivia enjoyed pressing the stamps onto the paper. She got pretty excited to see what appeared on the paper each time. She even tried pressing the stamp into the ink herself, but that didn't appear to be as interesting.

We went to the puppet-making table next. We used paper bags and pieces of cut-out construction paper with double-sided tape to make a frog puppet. Olivia chose where to put the eyes.

Finally, we made a bug catcher. Olivia used Bingo dotters to stamp polka dots on hers. She selected a foam bumble bee to decorate it. Unfortunately, when we got home Baxter ate it.

After crafts, the teacher had set up an area with different play stations. There were tunnels, a playhouse with play food, and a water bin. Olivia enjoyed the tunnels best. (I think it's time to get out the tunnel I bought her from IKEA).

After playtime, we played with bubbles, read one last story, sang one last song, and then class was over.

The CDM offers these baby classes once each month. I hope we are able to go again in July. It might conflict with our vacation plans. We'll definitely go to the one in August.

Garage Sale Finds

I found this farm/train water table on the side of the road. Free for me! The previous owners had closed up their garage sale and dragged it to the curb. It was filthy! But nothing a good spray with the hose couldn't fix. I need to work on the train wheels to get them turning more easily, but otherwise, it's great!

Olivia doesn't seem to mind that the wheels are less than perfect.

I also found this awesome slide with a basketball hoop attached at a garage sale. They had it marked $40 (WHAT???) and I talked them down to $12.50.

Olivia is learning how to climb up the ladder side instead of trying to climb the slide. She's getting there.

Some other great deals this weekend included:

• foam floor puzzle pieces (2 sets)
• Little People house (with all the pieces)
• Little People castle (with all the pieces)
• 3 Melissa & Doug wooden puzzles with small knobs
• glow in the dark pink skeleton PJs (size 18-24 months) perfect for Halloween!
• Size 5 tennis shoes (never been worn) and size 5 dress up shoes (hardly worn)
• More PJs for fall
• Huge tub of Megablocks (Build & Play Kitchenette)

And other than the yard toys, everything else is getting saved for Christmas. Christmas shopping at garage sales saves SO MUCH MONEY!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Hiking on Mother's Day

Finger Paint

Today I decided to try a new art project: Finger Painting. I scoured some of my favorite blogs and found a recipe for an edible (though not too tasty) finger paint recipe on Pounds 4 Pennies. The best part was that I had all the ingredients on hand. I bet if you look, you do too!

Here's what you need:
1/2 cup corn starch
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water
a few drops of food coloring

I added all the ingredients (except for the food coloring) to a small pot and cooked it on medium heat for about 10 minutes. I stirred it occasionally with a wire whisk.

 After 10 minutes, it still seemed really soupy. So I bumped the heat up, and it came together REALLY quickly after that--maybe took about 30 seconds more. Then it was a thick, goopy glop.

I pulled it off the heat, and separated it into three small plastic containers to cool. 

Once they were cool, I added a few drops of color to each container. I decided that to start we would only use three colors: red, blue, and yellow. I'd let her explore the paint and mix her own secondary colors. I know she's a little young to get the idea of color mixing, but three colors seemed like a good amount for our first try.

I decided to taste test this finger paint since most likely Little O will put some in her mouth. It's nontoxic, since it's made with baking ingredients, but it doesn't taste very good. It's a little sweet, but I don't think she'll be tempted to eat it (just explore the texture a bit).

I can't wait to give it a try when she wake up from her nap this afternoon.

Some extensions on this could include (I can't wait to try these this week with our new finger paints!):

Color Mixing

Print Making

No Mess Plastic Bag Painting

Outside Full Body Painting

Found Object Painting

Linked to:

Ginger Snap Crafts

Delightful Order

Shaken Together

Positively Splendid

Open Gym

Today I took Olivia with a group of other moms to a local gymnastics center for toddler Open Gym. She was tentative at first, but after I showed her around, she started to warm up to the idea. She really loved the tumbling track. She spent a lot of time running up and down it chasing balls and bouncing.

She also really enjoyed climbing over and on the low beam. She straddled it like a horse, and scooted forward on her bottom. Cuteness!

I think I might sign her up for a Mommy & Me gymnastics class this fall. If only to burn off all her toddler energy!

Unfortunately, after her nap that afternoon, she woke up with a fever. An impromptu Friday afternoon visit to the doctor, and Olivia has an ear infection... Again.

Last Day of MOMS

Today was the last day of the Morning Out for Moms program that Olivia was in this year. Each week, she spent Thursday mornings with two wonderful teachers and a few other babies younger than two. The MOMS program follows the school schedule pretty closely, starting a little later and ending a little earlier.

Olivia sure is going to miss her teachers. And I am going to miss having Thursday mornings for crafting/errand running/napping/coffee with the girls/etc.

First Day of School
Sept. 2011

Last Day of School
May 2012

Olivia with her teachers and a classmate.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts I Made
See how I made these here.