More Halloween 2013

Taryne (left) and her friend Linkin (right as SpiderMan) at Linkin's sister's Halloween/Birthday party

Too many marshmallows...

Making spiders at the Bass Pro Shop

Making spiders at the Bass Pro Shop

Gutting the pumpkins

Perry The Platypus and Arial the Mermaid

Endless hours of fun....

Well, maybe not endless. The recipe did say it would last about 3 months. But when it has been raining for several days straight and I needed SOME sort of activity for Taryne, it provided endless hours of fun.

This weekend, Kyle worked both Saturday and Sunday. So that meant Taryne and I were on our own for entertainment most of the weekend. Today she was running around like crazy and was totally not into any of her other toys/activities. And since it was raining, we couldn't go to the park or to feed the ducks. So I decided to find a crafty type thing to do/make and finally settled on homemade play dough.

Every day when I pick Taryne up from school, she is playing with play dough. She is making shapes, using cookie cutters, and all sorts of utensils to play with the play dough.

The play dough was very easy to make....and it makes a TON of play dough. We could have made twice as many colors if we wanted. We divided the dough up into 7 balls and Taryne picked the colors she wanted.

Here is the recipe for the play dough. I found several others and just decided to pick one.

Recipe:

3 cups flour
1.5 cups salt
6 tsp. cream of tarter
3 tbsp. oil
3 cups water

Pour all ingredients into a large pot. Stir constantly over medium heat until a dough ball forms by pulling away from the sides. Knead dough until the texture matches play dough (1-2 minutes). Store in plastic container. Should last for at least 3 months.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Nap time...

...or I guess I should say quiet time. On the weekends we cannot get Taryne to take a nap. We try everything but usually we go to check on her and find something like this....

She is standing on top of her kitchen removing all bows and hairclips from the bow holder....

....and all the clothes from her dresser are on the floor and/or on her....

 This time she also fashioned a "step stool" out of a toy bin and a wipes box to get things off the shelf in her closet....



And all of this while I had napped on the couch. I never heard a peep from her until she had gone potty in her pull up and she was calling me to come let her out to sit on her potty....which is pointless since she already went. To be clear, when I layed down on the couch, she appeared to be sleeping in her bed. She was under the covers, facing the wall and very still. So I thought she had actually went to sleep.....

Conversations with Taryne...

We sort of have a ritual type conversation on the way to school/work each morning. Most mornings I get the same line of questioning and some mornings this requires at least one, if not two phone calls.

Taryne: Where's Daddy?
Me: He went to work, Sweetie.
Taryne: What about Mimi?
Me: She is at home (some mornings I know she is on her way home from work, so I might change it up a bit, but typically I just tell her she is at home)
Taryne: At Papa's house?
Me: Yes.
Taryne: Where's Papa? At his house too?
Me: Yes, he is.
Taryne: I want to talk to them. (Some mornings we call and say a quick hello, other mornings the conversation just continues on...)
Taryne: I want to see Papa's cows. Where is Omie?
Me: We can't see Papa's cows today, but we can see some on our way to school. Omie is at work/home (depending on the time of morning I will use these interchangeably)
Taryne: Oh okay. Mimi and Papa are at Papa's house and Omie is at work/home?
Me: Yes, Taryne.

The above is our typical conversation MOST mornings during the week. This morning, however, there was more.

Taryne: Where's Pader? I want to see Pader. (Pader is Kyle's grandfather, Omie's dad for those that don't know)
Me: He is at home. Maybe we can visit him soon, but it will have to be after Hayden gets here. Mommy can't be in the car that long anymore.
Taryne: I want to get on an airplane and see Theia. Theia is in Maryland and Taryne is going to Tennessee. We go to school together.
Me: Yes, Theia is in Maryland and maybe we can go visit her this summer after we move to Tennessee since we will be much closer.
Taryne: I want to play with Theia. I want to see Theia and Tanya. Taryne happy birthday?
Me: No, it is not Taryne's birthday, you have about 6 months to go.
Taryne: Oh, not Taryne happy birthday? Theia happy birthday?
Me: No, Sweetie, Theia just had her birthday 2 months ago.
Taryne: Oh. Taryne happy birthday in Tennessee?
Me: Yes, you will have your birthday in Tennessee.

By this time we are close to school and she starts rambling on about cars, motorcycles and other things we pass on the way to school.

Most mornings it is pretty entertaining.

Until next time...Gig'em!

The States...

Taryne absolutely LOVES puzzles. So while creating a list of things we thought she would like for Christmas, I added several puzzles. She received some of them for Christmas and we do many of her puzzles several times a week. One of her favorite puzzles is the States puzzle. I was a little hesitant on adding this one at first due to the "suggested age", but she ALWAYS wants to do this puzzle.

At first, we really took our time with the puzzle and I went over the name of each state and we talked about where it was in relation to other states. We frequently talk about other states in our house anyway...usually in some sort of sporting reference, so she knew the names of many of the states already.

She started surprising me with her knowledge of the state and where it went. For example, she grabbed Tennessee and Kentucky, told me what their names where (correctly) and placed them in the correct place on the puzzle board. She then grabbed West Virginia, asked me what it was called and after I told her West Virginia, she informed me that it goes right next to Kentucky. I was a little thrown off because I didn't realize she knew that yet.

She now can put the entire thing together on her own. Taryne also knows the names of all of them, but does ask about a few occasionally. I think the biggest surprise to me is that she knows the difference between states that have similar shapes. For example, she knows the difference between Wyoming and Colorado, Alabama and Mississippi, North and South Dakota, and Indiana and Illinois. She also knows that her cousin, Theia, lives in Maryland and her Aunt Joy lives in Alabama.

She also likes to tell me which state she wants to do next, find it in the pile and then place it where it goes. She quizzes me on the states. Which is too funny! I tell her I don't know and she gives me this look and then tells me the state's name.

I love how she also tells us the places she plans to live. She lives in Texas, but is going to live in Tennessee and then Washington. I am sure none of that has been influenced by her parents.... :)

Until next time...Gig'em!

Smurf...

Earlier this week, I picked up a Smurf instead of my child from day care. There is a new teacher for her classroom and when I walked in to get her, she was covered in blue paint. Based on the color and look of it, I first thought she just had chalk everywhere. I said something about her being covered in chalk and the teacher said, no it is paint. I was a little frustrated considering it was not only on her hands, face and in her hair but on her clothes too!!

So when we got home, I had to take a few pictures, because despite it being all over her, it was pretty funny too. And we waited for Kyle to get home before we changed/cleaned up.

Luckily the paint came off SUPER easy. I was going to be upset if her outfit was ruined.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Little Artist...

Taryne got an easel for Christmas. One side is a dry erase board and the other is a chalkboard. She also received a package of markers to go with it and some water color paints. The markers have since been put away due to her drawing on other things including herself. Thank goodness they are washable, but she still got in trouble for drawing on other things.

One weekend when Mimi was in town, she got Taryne a box of dry erase crayons. These things are amazing! They are like a very waxy crayon and wipe off. They wipe off better from the dry erase side, but look better on the chalkboard side. She LOVES to draw and be creative, so these are the compromise. She has not tried to draw on anything but the easel (even though she draws on other parts of the easel).

Her latest thing is to get one of her chairs so she can utilize the entire surface of the easel instead of just the bottom half.

Most times I need to help her erase her creations, but she is getting better at it.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Creativity

I think Taryne inherited my creativity bug. She is ALWAYS wanting to draw, paint, color, arrange things, dress things, etc and she continually amazes me with her thoughts and actions.

She asks to paint quite often. We typically clear off the breakfast table and cover it with paper and let her have at it. This particular time, we let her paint with her little table so she had access to move around, but she really wanted to sit while she painted....

I don't know if she gets bored painting the paper or what, but every time she paints, there comes a point that she must paint herself. This time she also started eating the paint. Thank goodness they make this stuff non-toxic.

Until next time...Gig'em!