Last day of Preschool

I can't believe Princess V had her last day of preschool today.  As another blogger put it last week, it was her First Last Day of school.  She has grown so much, and I am so proud of her.  According to her teacher she has really grown socially this last year. She still gets frustrated a little when things don't go her way, but then she works it out, something she didn't use to do. She knows her colors (all but grey, which she called silver), numbers up to 8, and the letters with most of their sounds.  For their last day they put on a little program.  I am so thankful for the sunny skies today (unlike yesterdays snow!!).  Her teacher even rented a Bounce House for the kids to play in!

Princess V and Miss Cheryl

Princess V's class is in the front row, and of course she's not looking at me.

For the program they sang some songs, and then acted out one of my all time favorite books Caps for Sale.

Princess V is right in the middle of all the monkeys folding her arms. 

When it was all over we got to take a portfolio of their work home, the kids got to decorate their caps, and we had some popsicles and cookies.  I'm really going to miss having Miss Cheryl teach Princess V next year. I feel lucky we even got to have her this year. 

Now on to next year.  A lady in my ward asked if I was interested in doing a Joy School, which I am. So we are looking into getting a couple of other moms to join with us for Joy School in the fall.  I think it will be a lot of fun, plus it will be more motivation to keep myself learning new things all the time!

Sisters and Queens

Princess V and Princess R have become really good friends this last week.  Princess V really surprised me when she came out of her room carrying Princess R!  Princess R had the biggest smile and was laughing up a storm!

When Princess V put her down, Princess R wanted to hold her hand to walk around.  It was just so cute!

This last week we worked on the letter Q.  We focused on the words Quiet and Queen.  

For quiet we started inside and learned to whisper, then used inside voices. We then moved outside and used some outside voices.  The Princess' really loved using outside voices.  

Queen was our fun word, but we talked about starting out as a Princess and becoming a Queen.  We watched Princess Diaries 1 and 2.  It was an enjoyable week.

Constipation is no fun!

This is Princess R.  She is a joyful child. She love stuffed animals and dolls, and she loves kisses.

So how does a happy baby, such as the one above, go from that to....

This?

The answer, my dear friends, is constipation.  Princess R has been struggling with this since birth.  I've tried baby prunes, prune juice, suppositories.  Nothing has cured it yet.  We still experience above picture almost weekly.  It is no fun I tell you, no fun at all!!  I do not enjoy seeing my Princess look like this, knowing she hurts, but not being able to cure it.  I've talked to 3 doctors about it now, and they have all told me the same thing -

"Her stomach feels fine, she's just learning to use those muscles, she'll outgrow it"

I have loved all my doctors and trusted their advice, but I'm starting to wonder if there's not more to this picture. 

Our first step on this journey, is checking food allergies.  So tonight King Daddy headed to the store for some Soy Milk.  I hope this does this trick! If not, I will probably be seeking another doctors advice.

Toddler Talk Thursday - Bath Time

It's Toddler Talk Thursday hosted by Family and Life in Las Vegas, Crazy About My Baybah, and My Life As a Sippy Cup Mom

This weeks topic is Bath Routines.

I wish we had a better one! Right now the only day for sure they get a bath is Saturday night.  I want them to be clean for early church on Sunday!  So when bath time rolls around, I usually stick Princess V and Princess C in the bath together.  It saves on water, and they have a lot of fun together.  Princess R really wants to join them, but she's not quite ready for the big tub yet.  Before getting in the tub, I have them both go potty, because I do not (DO NOT!) want to lift a soaking wet child out of the tub to sit on the potty.  It's just not fun.

I let the Princess' play for awhile (I get some reading in), and then I begin the washing. Princess V has gotten old enough I trust her to wash herself, and I am still helping Princess C as she learns to use the soap. 

My biggest challenge is our tub.  It's a very nice, deep tub, with a glass door.  This makes it very difficult for me to help the Princess' during their bath. 

Because of the tub issue, we've moved on to more showers.  Princess V is getting pretty good at them, but Princess C still has trouble trusting the water spraying at her.

As for Princess R, we bathe her in the sink.  She's getting a bit big, and wants to play more, but I just can't trust myself to have a good hold on her in this tub.  And she is one heck of a climber! It's really funny when Princess C and Princess V get their bath, to watch Princess R trying to climb inside with them.  We have stools in the bathroom to reach the potty and the sink. So Princess R picks one of these up, carries it to the tub and tries climbing in too. The tall sides have come in handy for this at least!

After bath I wrap a hooded towel around them, and send them off to their rooms for jammies.  I usually have to encourage them a few times, since Princess C likes to turn into a turtle under her towel (I did the same thing at that age!!).  That's pretty much the routine.

Besides Saturdays, if they get extra dirty outside, or wake up smelly a little stinky, then we add another bath.

Next week topic suggestion: Food Allergies

Wordless Wednesday - 3 Rapunzels

Hooded Towels - the cheapest way to get long hair like Rapunzel!

I'm linking up at My Wee View

Sewing project

A lady in my ward taught me how to make some hairbows yesterday! It was a lot of fun, and I am thoroughly enjoying making my own bows for the Princess' hair.  She also told me how to make these skirts.  Honestly not sure if I did it the way she did, but I think they turned out cute nonetheless!

Princess V

Princess C

Pirates and Panda Bears

To continue with the letter P, we spent the last two days talking Pirates and Panda Bears.  Tuesday while at Nana and Opah's house, I created a Picture Treasure Hunt for the Pirates...er I mean Princess'.  If I had planned a little further ahead we would've dressed with eye patches, and swords, but I was late planning again.  So off to the computer I took to find some images for the hunt.

Piano, refrigerator, television, and stairs. I also printed the words on so they could associate the picture to the word.

Enjoying their Pirate Treasure...Twinkies provided by Aunt M (thanks!).

On Wednesday, I was really trying to get more housework done (we've still got boxes to unpack!), so we didn't do as much as I would've liked to.  However, when Kind Dad got home he took Princess R out for some daddy daughter time. I was able to try and teach Princess V and Princess C some more. They just had a bad case of the wiggles though.  So while organizing the movies I remembered we had this movie

Hello World : Hua Mei's First Year

It follows the first year of Hua Mei the Panda born in the San Diego Zoo.  I really thought this would keep the Princess' still for a bit, but no such luck.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the baby panda though, oh so cute! (In case you're wondering, Panda Bears are my favorite animal!).  Despite their wiggles, I will continue trying my best to teach them all about this world they live in!

Toddler Talk Thursday - teaching ABC's and 123's

It's Toddler Talk Thursday, hosted by Family and Life in Las Vegas, My life as a Sippy Cup Mom, and Crazy About My Baybah! This week cohosted by Living at the Whiteheads Zoo.

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This weeks topic is How Do You Teach your children the Alphabet and Numbers?

I had to think on this one for a bit.  Princess V and C, I don't remember exactly when I started teaching them their alphabet. I do distinctly remember using it as our potty song.  While potty training we would sing through the alphabet a couple times. It helped them stay on the potty, and stay happy.  I haven't really done that yet with Princess R.  Now  each week we focus on one specific letter.  I plan activities out based on words starting with that letter.  This week we are working on the letter P.  Here are just some of the past letters we've done
A is for Airplane
I is for ice and instruments
K is for Kitchen
 
Teacging numbers is a much harder concept to grasp I've found.  Princess V thinks her name starts with "4".  She's been spelling her name for awhile now, but when numbers got introduced she started to replace the V with a 4.  So we're obviously still working on this concept.  As babies though, I taught them counting using their faces.  "How many eyes do you have?" then we'd count them, and so on with nose, lips, ears, and teeth.  We found this game and it has been good to continue their counting skills.  We also enjoy a good game of Hide and Go Seek, where whoever is "it" has to count to 10. Princess C sometimes makes it, other times she starts seeking after 5.   Oh and they know 1, 2, 3 pretty well...it means they better start listening!

Next weeks topic: Do you dress up your toddler everyday, or just for special occasions?

Wordless Wednesday - My Brothers Art

Princess C in charcoal

The Letter P

I introduced the Letter P to the Princess' yesterday during Princess R's naptime.  We were eating Pasta for lunch, and I asked them what other words they could think of that started with the letter P.  The Princess' don't know how to spell yet, so we work a lot on sounds.  So they start saying "P-P-P-P Pasta!"  I was really proud of Princess C as she came up with "Popcorn Popping" all on her own.  Turns out there are a lot of words the Princess' know that we use almost daily that start with the letter P. 
Here's the list we came up with

• Popcorn
• Prayer
• Picnic
• Pasta
• Pig
• Pirate
• Pumpkins
• Popping
• Princess
• Penguin
• Panda Bear
• Please

We decided to focus on Princess' the rest of the day.  We pulled out our crowns, put on some dresses, and watched Cinderella (is there any better classic Princess movie? Plus it has a Pumpkin in it).  We have the Special Edition DVD, so at the end we went into the special features and learned about how a Princess dresses, acts, and where she lives.  As we've mentioned before we call our home a castle, and this just cemented it more into the Princess' heads that they live in a castle.  I was crowned Queen (often as my crown continued to fall off), and Daddy became King (even though he wasn't home to share in the dressing up).

And since it was Monday, it also meant Family Home Evening night.  I had come across this idea awhile ago, and thankfully remembered it for FHE!  Tangled FHE idea.

I'll just let you follow the link for the full lesson, but it takes the idea of Rapunzel being the daughter of a King, like we are children of our Heavenly Father.  We live in a world where we have two choices, right or wrong. Rapunzel has to choose between listening to the lies of her mother, or going out into the world to learn the truth.  There's a great activity that goes with it as well.  Lots of fun, and my Princess' really enjoyed it!

O is for Outside

This week we focused on the letter O.  We spent Monday and Tuesday writing big and little letter O's.  Princess C had a lot of fun with this exercise because the o is pretty simple for her.  I worked with Princess V on writing O's on lined paper, and she seemed to grasp it pretty well.  The rest of the week we spent outside!  It's been so nice this whole week that we had to take advantage of it.  We started by reading some poems from The Classic Treasury of Childhood Wonders in the Outside section.

Then we walked, hopped, skipped, and spun our way to the nearest park.

 

Then we spent some time working in our garden, and planting a cherry tree.

We ended the week today with more outdoor activities

-Princess R helped King Daddy mow the lawn, and fell asleep while riding the lawn mower (sorry no picture)

- Daddy helped Princess V and Princess C make and paint birdhouses

- We went to another park and had lots of fun, followed with ice cream

Toddler Talk Thursday - Toddler Day Bags

Welcome to Week 38 of Toddler Talk Thursday! Where Family and Life in Las Vegas, Crazy about my Baybah, and My Life as a Sippy Cup Mom talk all things TODDLER!!

** If you want to follow this on twitter – or plan on tweeting your post – please use hashtag: #letstalktoddler **

This weeks question is

What do you pack for a day out with your toddler?

I try to keep it really simple...and I mean REALLY simple.  With 3 kids age 4 and under, I just can't carry a whole lot out.  So the only things I make sure I have are diapers and wipes.  After that, it's hit and miss.  If I know we're going to be out during snack or lunch, I try and remember to pack some food.  Usually a bag of goldfish does the trick, and some water bottles.  Princess V and C will usually grab some toys to play with in the car, and that helps keep them entertained.  Oh and I usually bring a blanket for Princess R in case she needs to eat (still nursing her), or if we go to a park she can play on it.  Reading someone else's list this morning made me realize I should probably keep a bottle of sunscreen in the bag too.  With Princess C's fine hair she burns easily.  Even with this crazy weather we've had, she's gotten pretty pink on her scalp because I forgot the sunscreen. 

Next weeks topic suggestion - how do you decorate your home, with toddlers in mind?

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Princess R's Birthday

Happy Happy Birthday to Princess R!

She turned 1 year old on April 23rd.  

I know I know, that was a couple weeks ago.  But I have a good excuse, I was waiting until I could post some pictures.  Her birthday landed the saturday before Easter this year, along with my mom's birthday as well.  I love that my little baby gets to share a special day with another special lady in my life.  I of course had to throw her an easter themed party.  We had some good friends come over, and my family came.  

We ate some yummy spice cake with "easter egg" cake bites

And we had an easter egg hunt where Princess R got to use her new fabric basket I made her.  

I apologize, we had camera troubles, so the rest of the pictures are on my dad's phone. I'll try and get them tomorrow when I visit them.

For Princess R I made a separate Egg Cake.  She enjoyed it, although she didn't seem to know she could eat it.

Dear Princess R, 

I am so glad you are a part of our family.  Your smile lights up the days.  You are such a bright little girl! You're just barely 1, but already you can run, walking backwards is easy, and the stairs are your favorite toy as you take them one at a time in these giant steps with your little legs.  You absolutely adore your sisters and get frustrated when you can't join in their fun.  You've even jumped right into a rough and tumble with them laughing the whole time.  I love that you love me so much, even though it makes cleaning house hard when you want to be held all day.  I wish you could stay my little baby forever, but you're already growing so fast!  You've got 2 bottom teeth in, and 2 top teeth working their way in.  I can't wait to see what adventures are in store for us this next year of your life!

Love always, 

Mom

letter N

Finally! I'm getting back on track with our letters.  We left off with M and Moving.  We're not completely settled into our new castle yet, but we're getting there.  The Princess' love having their own rooms, and their own toys in them.  It has amazingly made bed time so much easier!! They also don't get bored as easily, because they'll just move from one bedroom to the other one. 

So back to our letters.  This week I'm trying to focus on the letter N.  We received The Night Night Book by Marianne Richmond, for review, and well obviously it fits right in with the letter N.

(You can read our review of the book and enter to win it HERE)

Princess R has especially enjoyed the book, and is so close to actually saying "Night Night"

It's also been great for Princess V and Princess C to see the letter N continously on each page. 

Well we're off to use our Noses to smell things!

Toddler Talk Thursday - What to Expect Giveaway!!

Welcome to Week 38 of Toddler Talk Thursday! Where Family and Life in Las Vegas, Crazy about my Baybah, and My Life as a Sippy Cup Mom talk all things TODDLER!!

** If you want to follow this on twitter – or plan on tweeting your post – please use hashtag: #letstalktoddler **

This week they are giving away a copy of What to Expect the Toddler Years.

This weeks Topic is

If you could ask the author of What to Expect the Toddler Years, Heidi Murkoff, a question about toddlers, what would it be?

I would really like to know how to get my 1year old to stop pulling hair.  She has a fascination with hair and just loves pulling her sisters. It's become an especially difficult time for my 3year old who has alopecia areata. Her hair comes out really easy so when her sister grabs it, she'll get chunks of it out.  Telling her no doesn't seem to work, and I have to pry her fingers out of whoever's hair all the time.

(can I ask two questions?) How do I teach my 3year old the right finger to point with? I know I shouldn't make a big deal out of it, but she hardly ever uses the correct finger to point with, and well, I guess it just bothers me. 



Link Up Suggestions:
1. We ask that you follow all three hosts. That way you can keep up to date on future Toddler Talks.
2. Please grab the Toddler Talk Button and display it in your post or on your blog.
3. Stop in to other blogs that are linking up. Leave a meaningful comment if you visit, and follow if you would like.
4. If you want to post the link up on your blog – please do! Maybe we can draw in more people to participate and share tips!!

This link up is for families that have toddlers. Raising a toddler can be fun, crazy, exciting, and exhausting. Sharing what works for you could give other families another way to do things.