{fancy lumpies}

Has your kindergartener discovered Fancy Nancy? If not, especially if you have a dress-up-obsessed-princess-in-training-girl, get thee to a library!!! A couple weeks ago Cassidy got to go to the media center at school for the first time & check out a book. She was beside herself excited about it, grinning from ear to ear as she got off the bus that day. And, the grin continued as she showed me the book she picked. Fancy Nancy.

We read & read & read the book until it had to be returned. And the girls played dress up over & over & over again. Nothing new, really. A day in our household simply isn't complete without a little sparkle, a princess dress & some accessories. If you aren't familiar, Nancy is a very fancy girl. She dresses fancily, has a fancy room, fancy clothes and even a fancy dog. Unfortunately for her, her family is not very fancy, so she has to teach them how to be fancy. And she uses fancy words - it's a great vocabulary booster! In the original book, the one Cassidy checked out, the story ends with the family going out for pizza in fancy garb. So of course we had to do the same thing. Kalea got in on the act helping fancy herself up. The girls chose accessories, sparkly light up shoes & even some sparkle, glitter "eye shadow" to wear out. 

Not to be outdone, Cade tried on a couple hats, but ultimately ended up with just a bracelet. A shiny one. Then the girls fancied up Daddy with a Georgia hat, shirt, tie and his class ring. It was a sight. 

They made sure I had a fancy dress, multiple scarves, "movie star" sunglasses & a necklace. And glitter eye shadow, of course.

We went to our favorite local pizza spot & garnered a lot of attention from the waitstaff who just fawned over the girls - which of course is the point! It was a fun way to spend a Friday night!

{the mitten}

Remember when I said I wasn't making any New Year's Resolutions, kinda? Well, other than this being the year I blog for real, regularly, with words and not just all pictures? So far - 22 days in - I'm having trouble finding topics that make my mind run & my fingers fly. Thus, there's been a lot of pictures. But honestly, most of the people who read this are family & they really just want to hear about the kids, see how they're growing & that's ok. They are growing, learning, playing, fighting, acting silly, dancing & doing all the things you do (& sometimes do not) want a 1, 3 & 5 year old to do. 

Last week a storyteller visited preschool & read The Mitten, by Jan Brett. It's a Ukranian folktale, rotold by the author, about a young boy who drops his snow mitten while playing &, unbeknownst to him, animals seek shelter inside. The end is funny & the story lends itself to a lot of easy little follow up projects. Kalea was sent home with "homework" of making a mitten (from paper!) and putting the animals inside in the proper sequence. Cassidy got in on the project & they had a fun time decorating & ordering the animals as we re-read the book. (It is amazing just how many children's books I just happen to have leftover from teaching. This was one of them!) 

Doing the craft reminded me how fun it is to "lesson plan" around a good children's book, to find a good project to go along with it & to throw in some math or reading objectives too. I'm thinking about trying to find a book every week or every other week to plan around & give the girls something to do in the afternoons once that "witching hour" hits. Anyone have some good, pre-made ideas, blogs or Pinterest boards devoted to this?

{sisters}

reading together.

- Posted from my iPhone

project 365 photo: 09.13.2011 {storytime}

- Posted from my iPhone

project 365 photo: 09.08.2011 {class book}

This weekend Cassidy was entrusted with her teacher's class book. The instructions are to read it together over the weekend & return it on Monday. This particular class book has an "All About Me" page for each child in the class as well as a picture him or her. The kids must have dictated the answers while the teachers filled in the paragraph. Some of the answers are pretty hilarious, some are sweet & some sound exactly like you'd expect a three or four year old to speak.

I think Cassidy did a very good job with her "All About Me" page. I'm just a little concerned though about the number of people in her family...is there something she knows that we don't?!?

project 365 photo: 07.07.2011 {art}

I've been trying to keep up with the ever expanding collection of artwork created by Cassidy by photographing each most pieces & then keeping a couple in a binder for posterity and amusement when she gets older. It's daunting since there seems to be at least one masterpiece created daily & the ones that she really gets attached to tend to be covered in glitter, glue, goopy things or are the size of a small country. 

We've been talking about art & artists lately too - a conversation spurred on by a random video we came across on Netflix. (If I had any recollection of what it was, I'd tell you, but the details are slipping these days.) A book I shared with her on the topic, which happens to be one of my absolute favorite children's books, is Seen Art? by Jon Scieszka.

An online review says, "While trying to find his friend in Manhattan, a boy asks a passerby, "Have you seen Art?" and sets off a chain of events that propels him through the museum on an unexpected journey of artistic discovery. Once inside, every variation of his "where is Art?" request compels helpful museum-goers to respond in a more esoteric fashion as each visitor briefly introduces the works of his or her favorite contemporary artist to the narrator. After a thorough, eye-opening tour, the boy finds himself back where he started. But now when he is asked, "Did you find art?" he resoundingly replies, "YES!" And, on the final page, he does; Art is waiting for him outside the museum doors." 

It's such a fun way to introduce "art" to little ones. I'm really looking forward to taking Cassidy to the High in Atlanta sometime next year to see some in person!

project 365 photo: 07.01.2011 {BFFs}

 

 

 

 

 

 

We'll miss our good friends when we move...good thing we could fit in some sprinkler action before we left! And, not to leave Kalea out - who was napping during all the fun -a video of her "reading" me a story!

project 365 photo: 06.19.2011 {I read, Mama?}

project 365 photo: 03.17.2011

The child of the leprechaun that used to visit my parent's house when I was growing up must have paid us a visit this week...if you can't tell, our milk turned green! Cassidy was completely amazed!

Besides that, we celebrated our decidedly faux-Irish heritage by wearing a bit o'green, reading a St. Patrick's Day book left over from my first grade teaching days plus a Dr. Seuss favorite "Green Eggs & Ham" & having the same for breakfast (minus the ham!) and then having a treat of leprechaun cereal (aka Lucky Charms) for snack. For dinner we had alterna-Irish potato & olive stew. It was delicious. Only thing missing was green beer! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

project 365 photo: 03.09.2011 {in the jungle}

 

We love storytime at the library. This week's theme was The Jungle!  The kids got to hear a bunch of stories, poems & songs about jungle animals. Cassidy was hysterical - & loud! - when one of the stories required the kids to make each animal sound as it came along. Kalea wasn't sure what to make of it, but loved the closing activity: playing percussion instruments & dancing to "jungle music."

project 365 photo: 01.17.2011

We read "Martin's BIG Words" (among other books) today to celebrate the King Holiday. How did you honor Dr. King?

project 365 photo: 01.16.2011

read anything good lately?

extreme lump makeover: home edition

Even though you've gotten your fill of the lumpsonablog lately with the fun 365 photo project I admit that I haven't given much thought or time to posts with more than few words. It's been a busy few weeks after getting back from PA. My Christmas gift this year was to replace shelving in the living room & playroom/office that was bursting at the seams.

playroom: before

living room: before

I'd been eying some cute shelves at Ikea since our last visit & so we took another field trip to pick them up. We spent the next weekend putting them together (ummm, well, kudos to Michael actually!) & the weekend after that starting to organize. It set off a New Year's cleaning spree & purge. It's a work in progress, but the house feels more put together & a bit more organized. 

playroom: after

living room: after

I'm still trying to figure out how else to decorate in the playroom. I'm considering chalkboard paint for that small wall on the left side of the playroom photo. Cassidy's been able to help clean up a little more effectively with the addition of label on the bins. If you notice little tags on the top of the pink bins. I took a picture of what is supposed to go inside, printed it & attached the label. Now the girls can find their toys without dumping everything & know where it gets put away. We'll see how long the novelty lasts! Have any other decorating or organization tips?

the labels for the toy bins

And, how do you get...& stay organized?

library time.

We love our public library. Every Wednesday we attend toddler story time where the librarians share books, songs, dances & projects around a different theme each week. It takes me back to my first grade teaching years to see all the fun little activities. After story time we explore new books, the play area, fun places to read & visit with friends. We're thankful for such a toddler friendly, beautiful, free place to go each week!

- Posted from my iPhone

flash cards.

Recently Cassidy has been really interested in letters, "writing" her name & playing "homework" with some baby sign language flash cards we have. I thought it might be fun to make a flash card book with her with letters so that she can start to learn what they look like & the sounds each letter makes. (Believe me, I'm not pushing her to be reading yet, but since she's interested I thought we should capitalize on that!)

I let her choose an image for each letter of the alphabet from Google Images. Then while she was otherwise occupied I printed & cut them out. Afterward she chose a picture to glue while I wrote the word on one side of the card & the letter on the other where she helped stick down the picture. As we put each card together she told me the name of the letter & what the picture was. To keep them all together I hole punched each card's corner, put on one of those hole-saver-sticker-thingys & used a ring to keep them together. Cassidy is so excited about her new book...she even wanted to sleep with it! I liked that she was able to help make the book & can understand better what it is. My guess is that we'll be doing more fun flashcard books in the future for numbers, site words & all types of things!

working mom wednesday

Well, I'm pretty terrible about keeping up with memes & generally don't participate, but one of my favorite bloggers has an interesting prompt today. Julia at Work, Wife, Mom...Life! asks us today: 

 

 #1. Maternity Leave - How long did you take? Were you ready to come back? How did you survive/manage? Tips for new moms returning to work?

#2. Biggest blog crush (a.k.a. FAVE blogger that you would just can't miss a beat on)

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#1. Maternity Leave

 

When Cassidy was born I took off 6 weeks from work. I work for a pretty small NPO & we don't have paid leave. I worked on a Friday & she was born over the weekend. I'd like to think that I planned it pretty well! During the 6 weeks I was off we had a big grant due, so I ended up putting in a few days worth of work in between diapers, naps & nursing. It worked out well because I then a few extra days to take off around the holidays. When I did start back to work it was a good transition. (Well, except for the fact that it had the bad timing of being the same.exact.day my sister & then future brother-in-law back to the East coast after having lived with us for a semester. I cried.) I worked from home Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Monday & Wednesday Cassidy went to a friend's home for childcare & I worked from the office or the road. Working from home - with a child - is a big balancing act, but it made continuing to breastfeed until she was 15 months & keeping up with cloth diapers a lot easier.

I worked up until almost 5:00 pm on the day Kalea was born...at 8:28 pm. I had stuff to do! I took off a full 8 weeks & then went back to the same NPO but in a part-time capacity. I think I was less emotionally ready to go back. (Weirdly enough I went back this time right after my entire family left after having come out to Utah for an extended Thanksgiving break. I also cried that day.)  I don't know if it was having the extra two weeks, not having worked at all during those 8 weeks - unlike the first maternity leave, knowing that I was going back to do something completely different & that the position was still a little hazy or just hormones. I do know that I'm really lucky to have been able to negotiate to work part-time. Michael watches the girls on Monday (he works T-F, 10 hours/day) & they go the same friend's house on Tuesday.

Working is good for me. Although there are days where I'd much rather be snuggling my beautiful girls, it's good for me to be around grown ups & keep my head in the game. And of course, those first few days back I kept my online photo album open & called a few times each day to check in. With Kalea, since Michael watched the girls on Monday, he'd bring her to the office at least once a day to snuggle & nurse - which was helpful b/c she was not a fan of the bottle at first. And, I'd prefer to nurse my child any day over pumping!

As far as advice for moms going back to work...put up a few photos in your workspace or keep a few on your phone for those longing moments, call your childcare provider if you feel like it or need to "check in" - they understand that you miss your child, if you're a pumping/nursing mom be sure to pump on a regular basis - it's easy to get busy & ignore it (well, after those first few oh-my-gosh-I'm-about-to-burst months) but if you do so, it annoyingly effects your supply & lastly, know you're doing the best thing for yourself & your child, no matter if you work full-time, part-time, intermittently or stay-at-home. Don't let anyone guilt or question you.

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#2. Biggest blog crush

 

Most recently Ericka at alabastercow has hooked me. I even have her link on my iPhone so I can sneak read her blog while I'm nursing Kalea to sleep in the evenings. And she recently wrote a novel. I've only read a page or so of it - also on my iPhone while nursing, see a trend? - but it's worth a perusal.

happy st. patty's day...spring is almost here!

It's beginning to feel like spring here in Utah.  Although we did wake up to snow just this past Saturday, today the sun is shining, birds are singing & it's about 60 degrees out.  (I'm blogging from the backyard in a tee shirt & flip flops!)  While 60 degress may not seem warm to some people, I'm just loving this teaser of a spring day.

This morning we went to story-time at the Main Library in downtown Salt Lake City where we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar by listening to a number of Eric Carle stories & making a hungry caterpillar of our very own.  It's neat that Cassidy is finally to the age where she can attend things like this & actually participate, learn & have fun.  (Admittedly, I also enjoy the chance to get out of the house & have conversations with people that are more than two feet tall as well.)

After story-time, we stopped at home to pick up Aunt Jenny & headed to the dentist.  Our dentist doesn't see children for real appointments until they are 3 years old, but offered to have Cassidy come along for one of our appointments just to check it out before the real deal.  I wondered just how I would manage to sit in the chair for a cleaning (or worse!) & keep her occupied & happy.  Fortunately Jenny was kind enough to let us invade her appointment.  We got to watch as the dentist "got the sugar monsters out" of her mouth & then Cassidy had a chance to hop in the chair to get her teeth counted by the hygienist. She did a great job - no crying or being scared.  Perhaps the glove balloon & promise of a new toothbrush helped!

Leaving the dentist we did have a two year old meltdown. Yes, she is an angel & a beauty & wonderful & sweet most of the time, but I'm here to affirm that she does have a bit of a stubborn streak in her. To put it mildly.  (Did I mention I'm reading a book called Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent & Energetic?) Genius Mommy managed to snap her, mostly, out of it with the tantalizing promise of a picnic in the back yard.  We got home & whipped up a leftover surprise muffin tin meal & headed out to the back yard. Cassidy had a great time eating & playing, watering the flowers (or, rather the empty garden boxes!) & chasing the cats. Kalea giggled at her sister & got to roll around on the play mat for a little while before heading in for a nap. I wish the weather would stay like this forever!

pigtails!

We've been all about hair this week! After attempting a ponytail last weekend, I came to the conclusion that pigtails had to be easier. And they were! Cassidy's been puttering around the house with cute new hairdo all week. I love that her hair is all out of her face & eyes; she apparently loves looking at her new hairdo in the mirror - over & over again! In addition to the pigtails craze, we have been reading her new book from Daddy a whole lot this week. It's called Gallop: A Scanimation Picture Book. The animal pictures 'move' on the pages & she goes nuts!