Dunstan Baby Language

Our little one has arrived!  And with a new baby in the house comes new challenges!  My sister showed me this video, a segment from Oprah that features Priscilla Dunstan who explains the 5 universal sounds babies make to communicate their needs.  It is fascinating!  And honestly I have been able to hear these sounds from my own baby!  (The hunger and "I need to burp" sounds are the ones she makes the most!)

Take a few minutes to watch the segment:

Our Favorite New Baby Books for Siblings

Within the next three weeks we will be welcoming another little girl into our family!  We couldn't be more excited!  We've been doing a lot of talking and reading about new babies.  Here are a few of our favorite picture books on the subject:

The Berenstain Bears' New Baby: I remember reading this one as a little girl before my baby sister was born!

Little Tiger's Big Surprise!: This one makes Isaac giggle every time!

Our New Baby:  I just love the real pictures in this book!

Will There Be a Lap for Me?: More for preschoolers than toddlers.

What's In a House?

We've been stuck inside because of sickness the past week, so what better activity than to design our own dream house!

With the help of the IKEA catalog, the kids each chose furniture for different rooms in the house.  It was fun to see what they thought was important for each room, and a good opportunity to discuss with Amy (2 yrs. old) especially the different functions of different rooms of the house.

I just drew a large house with four boxes for rooms, although you could add more stories/rooms to fit the interest and attention span of your child.

Letting preschoolers do the cutting and pasting is great fine motor practice too!

Family Picture Tree

This is a project I've been wanting to do for a long time!  And once I sat down to start, it really didn't take long at all!

The idea was to make a poster of our family tree, complete with pictures, names, and birth/death dates of my children's ancestors back through their great-grandparents. 

After collecting the information and pictures I painted a large tree on a poster board with watercolor paints.

I then typed up the names and dates of everyone and cut out the pictures.  I glued each person's information on a green leaf under their picture.

My kids are loving this!  We don't live near their grandparents, so they love looking at the pictures.  Several of their great-grandparents passed away before they were born, so showing them the pictures and telling them stories of their ancestors has helped them feel that they know their relatives.

Happy New Year!

Last Minute Christmas Crafts (with things you probably have in your kitchen!)

There's something about doing simple crafts with your kids that helps slow down the chaos of the holidays!  We recently enjoyed making these two crafts.

A paper plate wreath:

Just cut the center from a paper plate, paint green, and decorate as desired when dry.

 Egg carton Christmas tree:

Cut a strip of three egg sections together, a strip of 2, and one alone.  Paint, let dry, then glue onto cardboard.  Decorate with markers or stickers.

Merry Christmas!

Knife Cutting Practice

Isaac is very into cutting things right now.  Mostly paper with scissors, but lately he's been wanting to cut with a knife at dinner.  Our solution to help him learn how to cut with a knife without cutting himself, the table, or meeting frustration has been bananas.

Given half of a banana Isaac will meticulously cut it into at least 20 pieces before eating them.  I must say that in the few weeks that he has been doing this his cutting has gotten better and we're no longer seeing banana pieces fly all over the kitchen! :)