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.  

Golf Ball Painting

The world is our paintbrush, and today we used a golf ball. 

Aurora dropped the golf ball in a cup of paint, carefully fished it out with a spoon, and rolled it round and round in a box. 

Aurora added the sound effects –“wee,” “round and round,” and so forth. 

The red worked the best, blue came in a close second.  But the most fun was had when Aurora changed the rules of the game and declared we were instead going to use our plastic spoons as paintbrushes.  Aurora is such a pleasure to play with; she always figures out how to make games even more fun.    

M&M Chart

Aurora is so clever.  Everyday I am amazed at how quickly she learns and how much she already knows.  Such was the case when she and I worked on her math skills by creating her first chart using an excel spreadsheet and a bag of M&Ms.

The first surprise came when I asked her not to eat the M&Ms and she said “okay.”  I am pleased she has more restraint then me!  I quickly explained the object of our exercise, and she took to it immediately.  Brown to brown.  Red to red.  Green to green. 

Sometimes she worked through color by color.  Sometimes she grabbed a random handful and worked through them piece by piece.  It was brilliant to watch; she need little help from me as she made quick, methodical work of the pile. 

When she finished the sort, we briefly discussed which colors had the most, the least, the same number of M&Ms. But once she realized the chart was complete, she began eating the columns – top to bottom, right to left. 

 I was a little nervous I had spoiled her appetite, but she happily ate her snack thereafter.  

Toast Paint

Twenty-six years ago, my Sunday school had us paint toast.  I have no idea what it had to do with anything biblical, but it is one of my finest Church memories.  White bread was a treat had only at Grandma’s house.  And simply eating butter on bread, well, it blew my little mind.  I thought bread was for peanut butter and jelly.  I remember eagerly trying to tell my mom about this wonderful experience painting bread with colored butter and how tasty it was, but somehow she did not understand my excited preschool gibberish.  We never recreated the activity.

So, when my pregnant body dictated that the only thing I could eat for three straight days was American cheese on white bread toast, I was very conscience to save the last three slices for Aurora to experience the joys of toast paint.

To make toast paint, melt butter and add food coloring.  Ta da – toast paint! 

Aurora took to it with the same enthusiasm I remember.  I did not even have to explain anything.  She saw a brush, a white surface, some paints and she went to town. 

 Several colors in she paused and tasted the toast.  She made her “mmm, mmm, mmm” noise that I love so much.   

Two minutes later she requested a second piece, painted it quickly and devoured it just as fast.  Then I gave her my last piece and wished I had saved more.  Aurora clearly appreciated the fun and tasty delight that is painted toast. 

Cloud Dough

 Many days of warm (high 30s) have melted away our snow, so to fulfill Aurora’s request to build a snowman we turned to cloud dough. 

To make cloud dough combine

8 c flour

1 ¼ c oil.

Ta da – cloud dough!

Aurora made snowman after snowman.  She pilled cloud dough on top of her plastic letter molds, borrowed from her play dough set, then excavated them back out again.  She learned the word “excavate.”

She put cloud dough in cups, molded it in her hands, and shoveled it with spoons.  An hour went by and then some.  We played so long; we had to break for a snack.

Then it was back to snowmen, letter excavations, and various other games of Aurora’s inventions.  The dough felt soft as silk, and the oil made our hands smooth and gentle. 

Aurora has already requested to play with the dough again tomorrow.  I will happily oblige.  

Groundhog Day

We had a terrific Groundhog Day yesterday.  So many activities in such a short day!  We began by making groundhogs in dirt pudding for breakfast (chocolate pudding, smashed chocolate cookies, and a face painted on a vanilla cookie).

Aurora thought this was terrific fun but got a little upset when I was photographing the puddings instead of serving them! 

We colored groundhog pictures, a construction paper groundhog shadow, and our fingers. 

We played with our new finger puppet.

The highlight was our new groundhog puppet I ordered special for the holiday.  Our personal prognosticator did not see his shadow on our mild overcast day, thus calling for an early spring. 

Aurora climbed in our own groundhog hole with her new toy and pretended to pop out to see her shadow.  Then she recreationally rolled out of her box over and over again laughing harder with each fall.