Fairy houses and my thoughts on Disney's Tinker Bell

I've noticed an explosion in imaginative play this past year. From gnomes over the summer (thanks to the beautiful book we checked out from the library) to today's obsession with fairies, the world of this preschooler seems filled with magic.

 

Claire spent days working on fairy houses on our front porch. She's used rocks, sticks and leaves and is now begging us for a handful of bricks so the fairy folk will stay warm through the winter.

Garden Gnomes and Garden Toads

Getting dirty is a skill set Claire especially excels at.




The muddy project Claire is working on in the photo above was inspired by a book we checked out from the library about gnomes.  Claire was enthralled by it, and I must admit that I was as well. Growing up, I absolutely

Gnomes by Will Huygen

LOVED the Nickelodeon show "David the Gnome." Turns out the whole show was based on this book by Will Huygen. The illustrations were beautiful and I thought the premise of the story (and the gnome interviews) were endearing. The fact that we found this in the non-fiction section (it was in the oversized book collection) has convinced Claire that gnomes are really, truly, real. 

Forgetting the fairy houses of last week, Claire wanted to build a gnome house complete with a barn for a toad she found, surely the gnomes would enjoy transportation via hopping?

I think her construction technique was spot on. Lots of "logs," mud to glue them all together and a thatched roof made of leaves. The toads in the yard are quickly learning to avoid the grass when Claire is afoot, this little one was forced to "enjoy" the barn she built. He hopped away a while later, but I'm not sure he actually disliked the place.

While Claire played with mud, I worked on getting dirty myself. The side garden is almost finished. Lots of mulching left and a few more plants to go in the shady area and I'm done. I think I've personally planted about 95 shrubs and that's not counting the ones we put in during the fall months (thank you Lowes for the AWESOME clearance steals). Now I'm spraying them all with putrid smelling junk because the deer near my house pay zero attention to tags labelled, "deer resistant."

My freezer better be stocked with venison this year since I'm providing so much food for them.

Playing Show and Tell with a bunch of great blogs!

In Praise of Mud

The day after I blogged about Claire amusing herself swinging from vines and sculpting with mud I read this article:

 

Girls who play in dirt grow up healthier according to researcher

Young girls who play in the mud tend to end up healthier than those who don't, according to a researcher at Oregon State University. (AP Photo)

A dirty tub is the least of my worries at this stage and we've made trips to the park for the sheer purpose of puddle jumping (our local playground gets the best puddle located just near enough the "parent bench" for me to watch but not get spattered).

I year or two ago, I met up with my girlfriend at the park and we were letting the girls enjoy some puddle jumping. Parent after parent came up to us warning us the girls were up to no good. I wonder (as the article above suggests) if there really is such a bias to "dirty" play for girls.

Or perhaps they didn't want to say yes to their own kids. Who knows.

Around 2 years old in the driveway's muddy puddle.

 And here's Claire in August of 2008, I can't believe how LITTLE she is and how much her voice has changed since then!




And here is a picture of my cutie all cleaned up! Just found this on my computer, these digital photos seem to play and hide and seek on my hard dive at times!

The Happy Monkey House

   

Blanket forts, tree houses, tucked away closets...it's obvious that the kiddie crowd loves to have places and spaces to call their own. Claire is no exception. Santa dropped this cardboard house off at Christmas and for the following 4 weeks Claire meticulously colored and embellished it in her own style.

   

Now if you've spent any time at all here at the blog, you know I'm a "color outside the lines" kind of gal so picking up this house was a little out of character for me. But I am so glad I did because Claire loved it (and I was able to bury my nose in a bunch of books for hours at a time - BONUS!)                                                                                                                  I dubbed this "Happy Monkey House" because all over the outside of the house Claire drew happy smiley monkeys. These are quite different than her people drawings, a keen eye will notice the pronounced monkey ears (often colored in). A friendly family of millipedes live over the door (I'm sure this is my fault).

The aforementioned skylights in
their full glory. Future architect?

But by far the most interesting of modifications are Claire's skylights. Yep, it was dark inside the house so Claire punched an assortment of holes in the roof to let more light in. Like I said, I had my nose buried in a book...apparently she did this very quietly.

I can't ignore the genius in the idea, but Dan and I asked her to refrain from poking more holes. Her response? "It's ok, I'm done now with those I can see in my house."

Speaking of things to see, when not coloring the outside scenery, Claire was hard at work decorating the interior of the cottage. You guessed it, more monkeys. There's one frown-faced fellow in there and a picture of Dan and I even made it in (I feel honored).









Happy Monkey House is stowed in the basement right now. After giving up half the living room for nearly a month I've reclaimed the space but I'm sure we'll bring it out again. All of the monkey portraits that hung from the ceiling have a new home too but you'll have to wait to see it!

  

Why I should buy stock in scotch (tape that is)

There's a great article on Wired.com by GeekDad Jonathan Liu about the 5 Best Toys of All Time.

While I wholeheartedly agree about the joy of sticks, boxes, twine and above all dirt -- there is a glaring omission from his most excellent article:

Tape. And lots of it. Case in point:

Claire's version of London Bridge. Constructed completely on her own in a quiet hour which I used to whip up a 30 minute Rachael Ray dish (really, don't these always take like 20 minutes longer than they should?).

The bridge hung on until this morning when her bouncing turtle finally shook it from the couch.

 

So I say hand over a roll of tape to your little one, see where it takes them! It's cheap, easy to clean up and there's probably a half dozen rolls stashed in your junk drawer as you're reading this. 

Messy bedhead hair is of course optional, but I feel it adds to the experience.

Loving Our Buddha Board!

I love when other parents share what their children enjoying playing with – it always helps me figure out what to introduce into our own toy rotation. One of Claire’s favorite art tools since Christmas has been the Buddha Board. Everyone loves it! I’ve caught Dan doodling away many times and it was a big hit at Christmas dinner.

Keeping A Toddler Happy Indoors

There are days when we're stuck inside all day - due to weather, illness or just my general lack of enthusiasm about completing laundry. On those days, I find it pays to have a special "something" up your sleeve. My newest device? The sensory bin.

Potato Head Snowmen

Got snow? 

Got a toddler?

Got a potato head toy?

Then you too can have an awesome squadron of wee snowfolk in your yard.

On Going Outside

Originally published Jan 2010 - the large swarth of the US covered in snow got me thinking about this post. We're enjoying our own snow with mini-snowmen and copious amounts of cocoa.

Want to know my thoughts on outdoor play? I consider it an absolute necessity for all children (and adults!) I read a great article recently about “Nature Deficit Disorder” and couldn’t agree more with the author Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) that kids today are disconnected from nature and spending way too much time in front of the boob tube and computer screen. It’s an interesting conundrum for me, as a school’s technology coordinator - I’m always encouraging teacher’s to find ways to integrate technology into their curriculum, but is that sometimes at the expense of the child? The former park ranger in me wants to boot those kids out of their desks and send them into the field to collect data and THEN use the computer to interpret the results. But, I digress…


Back to my current life as chief teacher of a 2 year old…

Outdoors everyday. Even in the cold.

Future Photographer?

Aunt Nikki and Uncle Matt gifted Claire a digital camera for her birthday and she couldn't love it more! We've been teaching her some photography techniques, first - get low and try to shoot at your subject's eye level. The tummy wriggle is especially effective when trying to creep next to the grandparent's elusive kitties.

Gotcha!

Not the most glamorous of snowballs, but it's one Claire can call her own. You've been hit!

Merry Christmas!

I sure hope your family had a wonderful Christmas, we celebrated with a big family gathering, lots of delicious food and much laughter. Watching Claire just enthralled by all the magic of Christmas was the best gift of all.

And snow?! Well we certainly got that. Our first storm of the season, and what a storm it was. Our family left late on Christmas day rather then risk getting caught in the blizzard. We were sorry to see everyone head out early but I won't lie and say that spending boxing day in PJs sipping eggnog and eating random leftovers wasn't fun.

I'll be so sad to take down our tree and decorations this year. Claire was so excited to help out. If there was a surface that could be covered in ornaments or greenery she was all over it! We spent evenings leading up to Christmas cutting snowflakes out of coffee filters, making evergreen wreaths and garlands and generating huge messes of glue and glitter for our paper punch ornaments. By the way - shatterproof ornaments are a fantastic invention, Claire helped me string them up everywhere! I'll have to post a tour of all our decorations but if you look carefully in the background of these photos you'll catch a glimpse of our handiwork.

I have a feeling that tossing the tree this year might be a bit of problem considering Claire is STILL decorating it. To make letting go easier, I'm thinking of having her string it with some popcorn and cranberries for our bird friends. We can watch them feast and enjoy the tree just a little longer without having pine needles underfoot in our living room for another month. Let's hope this works, otherwise there are going to be lots of tears or a tree up in February over here! I'm not sure which is worse!

If I'm not blogging before the New Year, let me take the time to wish you and yours a healthy and happy one!

Yee-Haw! Biker Claire!

Claire got an early birthday gift from Mommy and Daddy! Check out her new ride - a two wheeled speed machine. Claire loves gliding down hills at the park (both paved and unpaved) and is remarkably fast on her new balance bike.

Claire’s feet are up so much now, she’s really getting the hang of balancing and we’ll skip training wheels altogether when she outgrows this bike.

I'm getting some great workouts keeping up with her and while I wished we lived somewhere with sidewalks, I’m content with throwing the bike in the car for a quick ride in the park. Huggy Bear is a favorite passenger, his magnetic hands clip on and he stays put for all but the bumpiest rides.

Here are a few videos of Claire on her favorite new plaything:

Cowabunga!

Just had to share this cool picture of Claire leaping off the table. I took it last week when we were visiting Grandma Caca. Shhh! Don't tell her ;-)

E-I-E-I-O

Our family is participating in a great community supported garden program up at Sunset View Farms in Lafayette. My focus is on the 20x30 plot we’re tending, while Claire is enjoying her time chasing around the chicken and sneaking worms into her pockets. Here’s the cast of characters so far:

The goat. Claire’s favorite mammal on the farm and her curiosity (and love of grass and clover) gives us lots of face time with this critter.

The hen. I’ll have to snap another photo of her as this chick spends little time in her enclosure. I have never met a more patient bird, of course Claire is collecting all kinds of bugs for her so that’s probably why she tolerates Claire’s “love.”

The sheep. Shy and skittish they don’t much care for Claire yet. We’re working on bribing them. Baaaaaa!

This is a teaching farm and there is a fantastic nature playground where Claire explored her balancing skills and did lots of jumping.

The chicks. Our source of eggs this summer. They make the cutest cheeping noise and are so soft! I can’t wait to see the blue eggs from one of the breeds in there. Look at that little one jumping in the right corner!

“I want that one, Mommy!”

And lastly, some shots of the play area -

Snow-MAN

There was too much snow to build a snowman in the backyard during our last storm. I had to carry the poor kid out to her playhouse because the snow was well past Claire’s waist and she couldn’t walk in it. This photo was taken about 3 days after the big storm, nearly 6 inches had already melted, it was insane!

So we moved our snowman building efforts into the plowed driveway. Claire grabbed her little shovel and wound up with a nice toddler sized snowman. She wanted stick arms and a carrot nose (just like the Kipper book we’re reading). I just had to share this picture of Claire’s errrr… “anatomically correct” snowman.

Heehee.

Puddles!

I love to muddle in puddles

Cause I splish and I splash

And when I take my shoes off

I mish and I mash

I hop from one puddle to another and back

My feet go in the water smickity smack

I turn and spin

I kneel and I sit

I slap my hands down

They go clickity click

There's just something about them

I cannot resist

When I see a puddle

I feel blissfully bliss

(not my poem, author unknown)

Afternoon

The “January Thaw” appears to be upon us and we’ve been spending a lot of time at local parks with friends. The temperature rose to 40 degrees today and it was wonderful to meet up with friends at the park for some time in the sun. Isabella asked her Mom if she could push her baby in her pram this morning and all the girls (and their parents) agreed that it would be a great idea. Baby John (Isabella’s new baby brother) slept most of the playdate - apparently the sheer number of girls around him was too much to handle. His billy-goat bleets for milk amazed Claire and every noise he made called for her investigation.

Claire couldn’t decide if John, or the girl’s pretend babies were more interesting. She was especially taken with the realistic ‘piggy toes’ on Katie’s doll.Of course there were a few examples of some negligent doll parenting:

Exhibit A: Enthusiastic toddler dumps out “Huggy-Baby” in a rush to join the stroller parade.

Exhibit B: Isabella demonstrates some, errr, ‘interesting’ doll sitting techniques.

The three girls had a blast playing on the playground and walking a slow quarter mile pushing their babies. There was lots of stopping for a stroller version of bumper cars and much mud puddle squashing led by Claire. We enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch as a group and once it was Baby John’s naptime Claire and I strode off into the woods to check out the local wildlife scene.

Claire was just awestruck with this one tree’s yawning trunk. Look at the size of that hole! I’ll be she was planning a way to hole up in there for the winter much like the main character in “My Side of the Mountain.”

Claire found lots of soft moss to pet and some very cool lichen and mushrooms growing on the side of some dead trunks. The going was a bit muddy so I abandoned the stroller and let Claire walk a bit (Huggy-baby riding tandem with Claire in her own stroller at this point). I can say that having Claire traipse through the woods for a few hours is a great way to tire her out, what a sound nap Claire is having at the moment!

Fresh air and friends, a good afternoon indeed. The full album is below, lots of great picture of fellow friends Isabella and Katie so Mommies be sure to check them out and let me know if you want a full resolution version.

Above: The neat fungus we discovered (I am dubbing it tree-oyster until I identify, heehee) Below: The “still water” as Claire describes the icing river. We watched a group of ducks sliding their way across the ice…maybe they were avoiding the cold water! Brrr!!! Claire cracked up at their tail shaking, “rook Mommy, dey shake-a their butt!”

Click HERE for a link to the full album or the collage below to view the slideshow.