Creative Juices Flowing

Lately, Tytus and I have been doing some fun things together in the mornings while Witten naps. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood has become a favorite show (really the only show we watch with him so far). On several of the episodes they are playing with cars/trains/space helmets that are made out of cardboard boxes. So, one day we decided to make our own. We got out a box and some markers and went to town making the coolest police car. Then we put some cloth straps on it and were off to patrol the sidewalk outside. Good thing, too, because there were some toy cars in need of assistance that day.

Watching Daniel Tiger

Ready to go!

Trying to decide where we should patrol first.
Or really, what cars we should take with us outside.

We've also been making some letters using one of his alphabet books. First I'll let him choose a letter. Then we'll cut one out of cardboard and color it and cut another out of some foam squares we have. I think his favorite part is either matching them as we go through the book or drawing the letters in salt. I poured a small amount of salt in an empty wooden box and it acts as an etch-a-sketch. He can draw the letter in the salt and then shake the box to try it again.  He's also taken interest in those little fuzzy balls that usually come in craft kits with pipe cleaners. I had a whole bag of them from one of my education projects I did in college, so I put them into an empty container we had. I told him they would melt if we touched them with our hands and gave him a pair of long tweezers instead. We decided they were going to get on colored ships to go across the "water".

All the colored "ships" are ready to go!

The sparkly ones were going in the yellow dump truck. :)

Cow Appreciation Day!
I got creative and made some outfits so we could go grab some free dinner. I got the guys dressed and we headed to Chick-fil-a for an early dinner, and Tytus got to play in the play area for a while. It was a lot of fun! First time taking them out to eat with no other adult help, and it went great!

Cutest cows I've ever seen!

Tytus is eyeing the play area with all the crazy cows.

New Growth

So, today two things happened that I felt like I should write down. I was playing with Witten in his room. It was just the two of us, right before Tytus woke up from his nap. I feel like the times that it's just him and me, I actually get to talk to him, see what he's learning, and watch his little personality come out. Today I sat him on the edge of the playmat which had a mirror and a few other toys hanging on it. I was sitting kind of diagonal from him, and he would hold the mirror and slowly turn it until he could see me. Then he would let go and look straight at me and laugh. The first two times he was pretty surprised when he found me in the mirror, but then he would do it over and over finding it pretty entertaining. It surprised me that he was able to focus on turning it like that and that he connected that I was still sitting next to him each time. So fun to see him learn!

My sweet guy at the park.

The two buddies after playing, and ready for a
big drink of cold water. It's getting so hot outside!

Tytus also surprised me today by taking initiative in a way he hasn't yet. It was the afternoon and I was trying to get a load of their laundry in before dinner because it had Tytus' sheets in it. I rounded up all the clothes in one hamper, set it in the hallway, then got stuck doing something else. I was either changing Witten's diaper, picking up or putting away something. I don't remember. But by the time I got back to pick up the hamper.....it was gone. I could hear Tytus opening the door to the washer, putting the clothes in, and then stepping up on the handle so he could reach to turn it on. I went in there and he said "I'm washing the clothes, mommy!". Such a sweet sight. :)

This was another one of Tytus' projects. Ian and I were trying to load up the car toleave town, and I had set the bag of empty diapers on the floor to put away later.We noticed that Tytus chose to fill his time by "organizing" the diapers while he waited on us. 

 On another note, Tytus is fully potty trained. We took a break from it when we all got sick after Witten's birth. We had two rounds of viruses and it just wasn't worth the effort with a newborn. I figured I'd just wait until he was interested again seeing how having a stomach sickness can be somewhat traumatizing to a toddler trying to learn to use the potty. Well, sure enough he decided it was time to make the switch and we've been going potty ever since. At home, and places he's familiar with, he'll just go all by himself either on his little potty or the big one. Several times I've been putting Witten down for a nap and Tytus is waiting in the bathroom to say "Mommy, I went poo poo all by myself!" This was one of the first days that happened, so we celebrated with a popsicle on a hot day.