Theme 3: Kittens

This week I was presented with the huge challenge of being super sick with strep while attempting to run Camp Campbell.  I can honestly say, I do not know how full time stay at home moms do it when they're sick.  I have so much respect for them!

Truthfully, I was in survival mode for a lot of this week.  I even threw in the towel one day and took Colt to daycare because I knew I was not going to be any fun.  As far as Cody's concerned, I am very thankful that I've learned how to nurse while lying down because he falls asleep almost every time allowing me to get a lot of rest even while watching him.

Additionally, this sickness reminded me to appreciate all the wonderful people in my life who care about my well being.  My husband really stepped up to the plate on the 4th of July and took excellent care of the boys when I was pretty much useless.  My mother-in-law came over immediately when I put in the call to her on the 5th that I was fading fast.  It seems like this unit might have taught me more about the theme of "it takes a village" than it taught Colt about kittens!

Day 1

Academic Activity: Colt and I looked at pictures of kittens.  I could not get him to say kitten, but he did say cat.  Just like the cow unit, this one will be good for him as far as his speech issues are concerned.  That initial sound is still something he struggles with.  The vocabulary word is paws.  We looked at a picture of cat paws and added them both to our learning board.  Then, we watched this Youtube video of kittens playing with yarn.  Of course, we had to pretend to be kittens and do the same thing.  Unfortunately, I did not have a ball of yarn, but I did have a ball of twine, and the way I see it, it's all the same to the cat!

Adventure Time: Today was Colt's first dentist appointment!  His pediatrician has been on my case to take him since he turned one, but I procrastinated, and we are just now going...Colt's almost three.  I decided to take him to Lewisville Kids Dentistry.  He did so well!  He followed directions.  He let the dentist brush his teeth.  He even got to pick a prize at the end of the appointment because he did such a great job.  Colt settled on a very stylish pair of sunglasses for his reward.  Cody was also very well behaved for the appointment.  Although he has two teeth, I decided Cody wasn't quite ready for his first exam.  After the exam, we went up to the Vista Ridge Mall to play at their indoor playground.  Cody pulled up all by himself for the very first time!  Unfortunately, I was unable to catch it on camera because the moment was fleeting.  The whole mall knew when he fell down!

Getting ready to go to the dentist!

He thought this chair was pretty neat!

You can see he's carrying out the bag the dentist always gives out with his new toothbrush and toothpaste.

Story: Around the time we left the mall, I started hurting terribly.  I could feel myself quickly morphing from Mary Poppins to Cruella Deville.  It was around this time I put in an SOS call to Charlotte.  She said she could get the kids and take them out so I can rest.  While we waited, Colt ate a delicious turkey sandwich and fruit salad.  I decided I need to change my strategy for story time because it seems like Colt fades fast frequently during this time.  Today we read while he ate, and he did much better!  I hate to say it, but Colt is a stereotypical boy; the only time he's still is when he's eating or sleeping!  Today we ready My Dog, My Cat by Ashlee Fletcher.  This was a fun book with tons of opportunities to discuss different vocabulary.  Shortly after lunch, my mother-in-law arrived and the boys went with her while I stayed home and relaxed.

Day 2

Free Play:  This morning our speech therapist, Chelsea, came by around breakfast time.  We talked about Colt's progress.  She seems really confident that he will catch up with his language in the next few months.  As far as his speech is concerned, she always gives us two or three strategies to help him.  Last week, we really focused on the H sound.  Colt is still hit or miss with this sound, but he is now including the initial H sound (hat, hello, hippo) more frequently.  This week we are working on the S sound.  Currently, Colt sounds a lot like Sid the sloth from the Ice Age movies when he attempts this sound.  Here's a clip if you are unfamiliar with this comical way of speaking!  Chelsea said that the issue is caused because Colt pushes the air out of the sides of his mouth rather than the front when making this sound.  She gave us a few tips to practice pushing the air out correctly.

Academic Activity: I decided to focus on one of the activities Chelsea suggested.  To work on the pronunciation of the S sound, we practiced blowing air out of a straw.  I know that sounds silly, but during this activity, I noticed that it was surprisingly difficult for Colt to complete this task.  In other words, there was spit everywhere!  To make the activity a little more fun, we blew a koosh ball around with the straws.  I think we will do this same activity again only using feathers or pieces of paper to keep the game new and interesting.

Story: Cody went down for a nap this morning, so Colt and I had some alone time to read a book.  We decided to read Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone.  Colt loved this book!  He was focused, asked questions, and enjoyed the illustrations.  He liked the book so much he shared it with Cody when he woke up!

Music: We watched a Disney Sing-Along video and danced!  It was a lot of fun, and I must have had luck on my side because there were a ton of cats on this particular video.  Colt and I had fun shouting "cat" every time one appeared.

Adventure Time: I took the boys to the Playstreet Museum in Frisco for today's adventure. Both kids had a ton of fun.  I always love going to this facility because it's so clean and the staff is very sweet and helpful.  They had fun toys for Cody to play with.  He liked to play with the little blocks and watch the big kids run around.  If you live in the area, you should consider checking this place out.  We were there for almost 2.5 hours AKA: forever in toddler time.  In fact, I had to bribe Colt to leave by telling him we would have ice cream when we got home.  When we got home, Colt wanted to watch Curious George and eat his "ice cream".  Last Christmas, my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim got Colt a Yonannas.  This is a fun contraption that makes frozen yogurt out of frozen bananas.  Colt has no idea he is not really eating ice cream, and I feel zero guilt about bribing him with it all the time!  We all took a little time to rest and refuel before our next activity.

This was about 5 minutes after we got in the car to head home.

Academic Activity: I introduced Colt to his new shape, diamond.  I even got him to say it, and it was almost perfect.  I drew a few diamonds on blank paper, and then we reviewed all of our previous themes, letters, numbers, colors, and shapes.  His retention is incredible!  In hindsight, I would have swapped out the diamond with another shape for this unit only because it looks so similar to the square that we learned about in our last unit.

Craft: We made a cat out of a paper bag as suggested by the letter of the day curriculum.  I started by having Colt color the bag while I cut out all the additional parts needed. I normally do this the night before, but remember I was in survival mode this week.  Once I showed him a picture of what we were trying to make, he did a really good job of constructing the cat by himself.  The only part he had issue with were the whiskers.  I had to pull up cartoon cat images on my phone and explain that they are like a mustache for a cat before he would glue them on properly (he wanted to glue them as "hair" which looked like a Wally Moon style unibrow).  Our end product was pretty cute; I bet we'll have fun playing with it tomorrow.

Yes, he decided he needed to wear my teether necklace while working on this project.

Day 3

Academic Activity: This morning after breakfast we reviewed our letters and added C to our repertoire.  This was a difficult letter, but once I explained it's the same as CiCi (Colt's grandma), he started to get it.  Now the only problem is that he always calls the letter CiCi rather than just C, but I figure that will work itself out in time.

Free Play: We spent time listening to Disney music and playing with various toys.  We did end up playing with the paper bag cat we made yesterday.  Unfortunately, the tail did not last long because we (Colt) were a little obnoxious overzealous, but overall we had fun.

Adventure Time: Cody had his six month check up with our favorite pediatrician, Dr. Tran.  He is doing great, hitting all of his milestones, and received raving reviews from the nursing staff who adored his chubby legs!  After the appointment, we went over to my parents house to say hello to my dad, or Peepa as he is known to Colt and Cody.  Peepa and Colt played catch and basketball in the backyard.  Turns out Colt has a really good shot; basketball may be his sport.  Cody was as adorable as ever.  He is always so happy just to hang out with the gang.  By the time we got home from my parents house, it was late and the kids needed to get to bed.  Needless to say, no craft was completed.

He was so thrilled to see his Peepa!

Check out those gorgeous gams!

Watching Colt and Peepa play baseball.

Day 4

Academic Activity: Today we learned about the number three.  This was a little tricky at first because the number itself does look a lot like the letter B.  Once we got that situation cleared up, we found items around the house that were grouped in threes.  Then, just like in previous weeks, we wrote the number in his notebook, added three stickers, and reviewed our previous letters, numbers, and shapes.

 

Story: After Cody went down for his morning nap, Colt and I decided to read a book while eating a delicious yogurt parfait.  I really could not find very many of the recommended books from the curriculum when I went to the library earlier this week, so for our fourth book I decided to borrow a Curious George ABC book.  We had a fun time looking at all the pictures and remembering the three letters we've learned so far.  When Cody woke up, he joined in on the fun.

We're a real attractive bunch...my chins are rivaling Cody's in this picture!

Adventure Time: I wanted to go somewhere new today, and I remembered going to Irving Bible Church's play area called "The Tubes" last summer.  I remembered liking the place because it was very clean and not too crowded.  Unfortunately, when we went last summer, Colt was too little to really play in the tubes.  This time around, he was able to maneuver his way around the tubes like a seasoned pro.  Cody had a great time sitting in the baby area.  All of the kids were very sweet and considerate of him.  In the morning, I noticed that Colt's right ear was constantly ringing because of feedback, and it was driving me insane.  I checked it multiple times, but the hearing aid was in correctly.  Finally, I wound up taking it out while we were at the church because it was driving me nuts!  I'm guessing he's recently had a growth spurt and we need to get new molds made.  Thankfully we have an appointment to see his audiologist on Thursday, so we can get this taken care of ASAP.

Academic Activity/Craft: When we got home, Cody was passed out asleep.  We made it home just in time to watch Curious George on PBS and eat some lunch.  I'm doing a 15 day get fit challenge, so Colt is eating what I'm eating.  That means today he had salmon with cauliflower rice.  He liked it so much, he gave me a thumbs up!  Once we finished eating, we did a combined academic activity and craft.  I did a slightly lazier version of this pin the tail on the cat activity.  I cut the pipe cleaners short. Colt matched them to the correct cat and glued on the tail.  We had fun with this one.  I'm just so happy that Colt no longer calls tails poo poo!  I think that may be a better vocabulary word for this unit than paw.  He knows all of his colors, and his fine motor skills putting the glue onto the pipe cleaner are truly amazing.

It's always fun to make pipe cleaner jewlery.

Free Play: We had a lot of fun playing with Colt's kitchen.  He made a lot of delicious food for Cody and me.  He even decided his shirt was too wrinkled for the occasion, so he took it off and ironed it right there on the floor!

Cody

Cody is doing so well!  He's had a few milestones throughout this theme.  He pulled up on his own for the first time.  He is sitting up unassisted.  We've added pears, peas, and avocado to his diet.

Cody went to daycare for the first time.  He went to the church nursery for an hour while Clif and I attended service.  We got a great report back.  I also had him go to school with Colt one day this week so I can figure out exactly what I need to bring up there for him once I return back to work.  His teachers said he had a great time, he napped well, and they can tell he really likes to eat!  Even though it is a bummer that Camp Campbell doesn't last all year, I am really thankful that I found a daycare that takes good care of both of my children.  They are stern yet loving and academic yet fun.

Cody also had his six month check up this week!  His stats are as follows: height-27 inches (71%), weight-20.7 lbs (90%), head circumference- 46.5 inches (98%).  It looks like the poor kid has my Elmer Fudd head!  His doctor says Cody is doing really well and progressing just fine developmentally.  He encouraged us to keep trying different baby foods (I don't think Cody will have a problem with that).  He also said it was time to start sleep training.  We use the Ferber method for sleep training.  I know some people have very strong opinions about this approach, but we used it with Colt and were very happy with the results.  I don't think it did any harm, and I know he feels very loved by both myself and Clif.  This is the method our pediatrician suggests, so we use it and it works.  We've been at it for about four nights.  Cody's gone from waking every 2-3 hours to only once around 4 in the morning.  I do feed him during this time since he hasn't eaten since around 7 pm the night before.  After the feeding, he goes right back to bed until around 7 in the morning.  He wakes up happy and seems well rested.

I think he might be getting too big for this swing