Counting lapbook!

Here is our second lapbook, with a focus on counting to five. For the record, I know a lot of people are against doing anything "school like" with toddlers, but I think as long as he's enjoying it, why not? I'm not forcing him to sit down and listen to a lesson, we're just having fun!

I designed this one myself, using templates from this website.

Here it is with the cover closed:

And here are all of the minibooks:

The petal book opens to show dice inspired dots, one through five. The pocket holds 4x6 cards with pictures of objects, again one through five:

The acordian book has hearts, one through five, plus the number written above. The matchbook cover holds a counting game, with pictures in random order to count:

There was an extra page in the matchbook, so I thought "Good Job" was a nice touch:

And here he is enjoying it! Every time he opened a new book, he said "Oooh, what's that?"

Connors first lap book!

I absolutely love the idea of lapbooks, especially to tie up a section in a homeschooling situation. In fact, my class at work is making a spider lapbook right now, and we're going to start bats for the second half of the month!

When I found this I was THRILLED! We used her Cars themed tot book, and Connor has been having a blast with it! We made a numbers one as well, but I'll cover that in a later post.

Here is the cover, which I designed using pictures I found through google.

This is the inside of the book, with everything closed.

Here are the color and shape books:

Here is the name book, and the counting cards:

And of course, here he is enjoying it!

Connors first black eye

Poor little guy. Daddy was chasing him around the house, and he tripped and landed right into a stool. And yes, that's mustard on his nose. :)

Connor is talking up a storm lately. He says so many words I can't even list them any more. No sentences yet, but he's getting close. Well, unless adding "please" onto the end of a word counts as a sentence. I don't think that counts though. Right now he wants me to open the front door, so every time I'm not looking, he knocks on the wall so I'll think that someone is there. He's a genius, I'm telling you!

Connors new bed

Thanks to Grandpa Bill and Grandma Lori (LorLor), Connor got the racecar bed that I've been longing for ever since before he was born! It's called a Step2 Stock Car bed, and it converts from a toddler to a twin mattress. We couldn't have dreamed of an easier conversion to a big boy bed. He absolutely adores it, and everyone who comes over is instantly dragged into his bedroom to adore it, even if they've already seen it. He spends almost half of his time playing and climbing on it, and has slept through the night with no issues at all.

Catching up

Ok, so it's been, what, 8 months since I last posted? I really thought I would be awesome at this mommy blogging thing, especially with my love of sharing pictures, but I'm really lousy at it, aren't I?So what's been going on? My baby turned into a toddler, that's what! He's in to everything we don't want him in to, and he gets out of everything we want to keep him in!

The easiest (and funnest) way to catch up is with pictures! I'll start digging back in July, when the last post was, and work my way up to now!

At 13 months, Connor started walking. The cats were most unhappy with this, but he sure was pleased!At 14 months he got a new tricycle. He still loves this thing! It's convertible, so at first you can put the big handle underneath it to make it a rocking ride-on toy. We're about ready to take off the big handle all-together to make it a traditional trike.
At 15 months, we took a trip to San Diego to visit with some of my Cloth Diapering friends from the internet. It was a lot of fun to meet other crunchy mamas like myself, and Connor had a blast and made lots of new friends.16 months saw Halloween! Connor was the cutest clown in town, in my humble opinion, of course!
17 months saw our first snowstorm of the year, and Connor played in it all day!


18 months saw Christmas! Yay! Santa was NOT a hit this year....
The new car from Grandpa Bill was a BIG hit though!
The Wiggles have taken over our lives ever since....
And dinner with Grandma Joyce was delicious, of course!At 19 months, he learned how to eat with a fork!
It doesn't always work as planned...
But he has fun anyway!


19 months also saw a new haircut!

20 months didn't see a lot of action, but he sure is handsome!
And 21 months brought my favorite time of year, SPRING!

February? Man, I'm bad at this blog thing anymore.

February? I haven't posted since FEBRUARY? Oh my, I'm not very good at this, am I?

Well, today is Sara's 16th birthday. It's not as scary as it sounds. Sara is a good girl. The filter between her brain and her mouth is a bit too thin sometimes, but she has one of the kindest hearts I've ever had the honor of meeting.

Happy Birthday Sara!

Here she is circa 2003, and about a month ago. Yes, that is Connors beanie on her head.

As for Connor, he is growing in leaps and bounds. He is 21.5 lbs (63rd percentile) and 29.75 inches long (86th percentile). He is army crawling all over the house, and just started pulling up a few days ago. He's not too good at the whole getting down part yet, but he's getting really tired of falling, so I'm sure he'll figure it out soon enough.

He has also officially gone on a baby food strike. He will only eat finger foods for a bit over a month now. It's fun, but frustrating also. It was so much easier to get a balanced diet inside of him when I could feed him with a spoon now and then. I'm having to get much more creative now. Mealtime is also MUCH messier now, as you'll see in the pictures I'm about to upload!

Oh, and of course I have more pictures of my fancy cloth diapers and his very first head bonk, as well as a few shots of those first teeth!

Bathtime!

Mmmm... Carrots!

We love Mr. Bubbles!

Big toothy grin!

Eli Monster All In One Punk Rock diaper

Yay for kitties!

Oh yeah, I'm that cool.

I love to brush my teeth! I even give Mommy a turn once in a while.

Pat-a-cake is my favorite game.

I feed myself... sort of.

Hanging out with Daddy

The first bonk.

Watch out world, I'm crawling!

Mommy wanted a photo shoot for Earth Day, but I didn't think that was a good idea.

Where's Connor?

Peek-a-Boo!

Almost there...

And I'm standing!!!