Backyard Gardening

A million years ago back when it was April, Aurora and Dad planted seeds in our back yard.  So carefully did she place each one into the dirt as her farther showed her.   Between every two or three seeds she wiped her “sticky hands” on a towel; she was going through a clean stage.  As the last seed was planted she declared “all done” and coerced Dad into a couple rounds of Ring Around the Gnome.

 How excited she was when after months of being told she could only pet the plants and could not pull them up Dad finally gave her to go ahead to yoink up the fluffy green tops to reveal – a carrot! 

How excited I was when she then began voluntarily eating said carrots which you and I know to be a vegetable, a food group much scorned by my itty bitty. 

She also fed the carrots to her various toys

and used the tops to play with the cat.  

Balloon Bath

Bath time had deteriorated into nightly tears, thus we decided to take back the tub and launched a bath time reclamation project.  Sometimes the simplest things are remarkably effective.  We removed our routine bath time toys; instead Aurora filled the bath with balloons.  Poodles played in the water, bees splashed at the surface, and round party balloons bounced along the walls.  Good times were had by all.  Baths have returned to the realm of fun.    

Camping

Aurora’s first camping trip was a HUGE SUCCESS!  I was a bit apprehensive.   Cheerfully playing in the REI’s demo tents is one thing, tenting overnight in the dark, wild woods is quite another.  Aurora was a pro.

She ran round and round the campsite singing songs and pointing out various insects.   She was absolutely giddy when we put up the tent and barely ate any of her supper (breadsticks & pizza) favoring instead to play inside.  She was not amused when I took her out to go a nature walk, but quickly warmed to the idea when we begin spotting shapes along the trail.  Many squares, circles, rhombuses, rectangles, and octagons (plus a couple of flowers, squirrels, and spiders) later, we ran out the rest of her our my energy on the playground. 

Aurora crawled happily into the tent, on to her Kermit pillow, and under the “covers.”  (By “covers” I mean a bed sheet, a flannel shirt, and our backpacking tent.  Our camping trip has been postponed so many times already that this time, even though I was not prepared, I threw everything into the car anyway and we whisked ourselves away.  I knew I would forget something important.  Indeed, that important thing was a blanket!) 

Aurora stayed up a bit later than normal shining her flashlight at every little thing.  Then Daddy read her a bedtime story (three times), we said our prayers, and she was out within moments.  Sleeping outside must suit her well, because she slept and slept and slept in the morning, then contentedly emerged as if tenting was perfectly routine for us. 

Alas, the ending of the grand adventure was a bit tragic when Hank pulled the poles from the tent in order to pack up.  Aurora threw tearful self upon the deflating fabric and pleaded for us not to go. 

Ring Around the Gnome

Ring around the gnome

So many miles from home

Who knows how far he’ll roam

So we ring around the gnome

Sassy Cow

When you live in Wisconsin, there are lots of fun opportunities to see cows.  We recently enjoyed such a privilege when Aurora and I spent a Saturday at Sassy Cow Creamery, our local organic dairy. 

Aurora pet a day-old calf and submitted the name “Three” in the name bucket.  We “moo”ed at it a little while and moved on to other fun things.  We played with sidewalk chalk, we used great deliberation coloring a farm scene, and we ran back and forth tossing beanbags in the cheese-shaped cornholes. 

Oh, and of course, we ate ice-cream.  Who needs a spoon anyway?

As the day continued we watched a milking, enjoyed a hayride, and saw a newborn calf stand for its’ for time.  Mostly we played in the barn.  Hours and hours running up and down the grazing line of cows.  We identified those we like best.  We stomped in the puddles created by their watering hoses. 

I thought we were driving out for a bit of ice-cream, but it turned into an entire day of fun at the farm.

Bubble Wrap Circle

Aurora’s godfather sent her an amazing painting of a narwhal.  Her wall is enriched, she now knows and loves Monodon monoceros, and we gained a ton of packaging wrap for play!  So we called over a friend and went to town.

The game I envisioned had the girls coloring in numbers 2-10.  We placed the numbers under pieces of bubble wrap. 

The girls stood on “x”s in the center of a floor, drew a numbered playing card, found their number in the circle, and jumped on the bubble wrap while the music played.  Yeah, so that was my game.  Way, way too structured for two year olds.  They were good sports anyway! 

The game morphed into a much more age appropriate run around and jump on bubble wrap when music played and freeze when it stopped.  Occasionally, they would yell out what number they were on, but mostly they just bounced, popped, and giggled.   Terrific use of an afternoon and a box of bubble wrap.  

Shooting Stars

As she always does, Aurora humored me for a little bit and played with her new shooting stars in the way I had envisioned.  

We stood at the sidewalk and shot them into the hula-hoop.  She smiled gently as we played.  Then, at her request, I returned my camera to the apartment, and we continued we played with the stars in a manner that she deemed more fun – we took the stars for a walk, put them in and out of clover patches, and carried them close to our chest. 

Felt Board: Color Birds

Blue bird, blue bird, come to my window

Blue bird, blue bird, come to my window

Blue bird, blue bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Yellow bird, yellow bird, come to my window

Yellow bird, yellow bird, come to my window

Yellow bird, yellow bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Orange bird, orange bird, come to my window

Orange bird, orange bird, come to my window

Orange bird, orange bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Red bird, red bird, come to my window

Red bird, red bird, come to my window

Red bird, red bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

White bird, white bird, come to my window

White bird, white bird, come to my window

White bird, white bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Sung over and over again by Mom for thirty minutes or more at a time.  It is repetitive and happy half hour.  

Beaded Bracelets

Take pony beads and thread them on pipe cleaners and ta da – kitty toys bracelets! 

Normally Aurora would giggle and giggle at the cats as they batted pipe cleaners and pulled beads out of bowls, but she was too focused on her craft.

 So diligently she threaded bead after bead on her carefully selected pipe cleaner.  At her requested, I sorted the beads by color so she could focus on just the purple, then the grey, and then green. 

When her dad came home from work, she skipped her usual grand greeting and only turned her head with a quick “hello” before she resumed beading.

Pie Day

Happy Pie Day (yesterday 3.14)!  Aurora was a big fan.  Had I been on my A-game then we would have made all our goodies, but some weeks just aren’t those weeks.  So, we used the help of the greater Madison community.

At the children’s museum Aurora made here own tiny apple pie.  We brought it home so that Dad could help us cook it. 

Then we got a pizza pie.  Apparently, calling it a “pie” was distressing to Aurora who insisted through tears that it was simply “pizza.” 

And of course we topped the day off with cherry pie and ice-cream.

 In the spirit of mathematics, we added some counting books to our usual nighttime fare.  Her favorite, You Can Count on Monsters (Richard Evan Schwartz, 2010), extended her bedtime by a good little bit because we read/counted all the way to 64!  

Felt Board: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Aurora is on the mend!  The fever broke late last night, this morning she ate half a squeezey fruit, and the doctor said we had turned the corner.  Already she is showing an interest in gentle play – a perfect opportunity for our new series of games of turning our favorite books into felt boards.  Today we played with lower case letters and a palm tree inspired by Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert, 1989). 

This is how she played with her new felt board yesterday.

This is how she played today.

I am so encouraged by her play, so relieved at her improvement, and so impressed that my two and a half year old knows all her lower case letters.  Aurora is so great. 

Sick Days

After four days of high fevers and twenty-something episodes of Sesame Street into Aurora’s illness, today’s doctor’s visit and chest x-ray gave our adversary a name – central pneumonia.  Poor little dear.  At least now we have antibiotics in our arsenal.  

Laughing in her Sleep

For a little less than two years now we have been practicing family bed.  It started as a scheme to get more sleep for Aurora and for us, but has developed into one of my favorite times of day with my child.  Her little sleepy sounds are sweeter than the best lullaby.  Her calls for “cuddle mommy, please” are heart melting.  But the best part is that on occasion, she laughs in her sleep.

Such was the case this morning, when she woke us up at 4:30 am in full on chuckle.  It is fun to imagine what she must be dreaming of when she laughs and laughs and laughs.  Three minutes of laughing, as if we were tickling her!  Her eyes were closed.  Her mouth was wide with a grin.  The happy sound still echoes in my mind.