Cause and Effect

I didn't think there were enough kids' quotes from June to warrant a post, so I combined them along with July's memorable ones.

6/2/12
While wearing the adorable Dumbo costume I found at a garage sale, Logan said, "Lookit. Me got BIG ears!"

6/6/12
Mia loves to tell me about what it will be like when she grows up. For example, she plans to keep horses. She told me, "Mom I've got the perfect names for my horses for when I grow up: Chocolate Chip, Vanilla Icing, and Strawberry Pie." She then went on to explain that Vanilla Icing is a spotted horse (I had assumed it would be all white.), Chocolate Chip is a gray horse (I would have guessed it would have brown spots.), and Strawberry Pie is all white.

6/12/12
Mia called out in a sing-song voice, "Fly-y-yyyy, come out. We're gonna kill you." Logan added, "Buzz buzz." Unfortunately, flies don't come when called so I had to stalk it all over the place with the flyswatter before finishing it off.

7/9/12
Logan: "Me want to wave bye-bye to Daddy."
Me: "He's still getting ready. Do you hear the shower?"
Logan: "He's getting all wet. With shower water." 

7/9/12
It makes me wonder if the kids have too much screen time when Mia says something like this: "Mom, can you pause the book? I need to go pee-pee!"

7/10/12
Mia said this while trying to carry a bunch of toys up to her room, "Whew! If only I had four hands like Curious George. Then all this stuff would be easier to carry!"

7/19/12 
Logan is taking pride in his accomplishments. A good one: "Me do it myself. Ta-Da!" (after making his own PB&J sandwich) and a not so good one: "Me go pee-pee. Ta-Da!" (too bad it was on the floor)

7/24/12
Mia: "I'm not good at patience."

7/30/12
Logan slept late, but woke up feeling chipper, which is when we had this cute conversation.
Me: "Hi, Handsome!"

Logan: "Hi!"

Me: "How'd you sleep?"
Logan: "20 minutes."

He's All Boy ... and the Mommyisms Keep Coming

Oh the joys of being the mom of a two-year-old boy! He constantly keeps me on my toes, and makes me say the oddest things that I never dreamed of saying. I laugh at times, but still I overreact more often than I should, making me wonder how in the world God expects me to survive raising a two-year-old boy.

Then, I realized that I have less than one month left of being the mom of a two-year-old boy, and it made me sad. Some day, when he's a "big boy," the crazy things Logan does will actually make me crazy, but for now they crack me up (okay, not always at that moment, but looking back...) I want to always remember these little moments when my baby was still a baby.

Also, you have to laugh along at my attempts to reason with this boy. I honestly used the phrase, "For future reference..." not once, but twice this month. Ha! I'll keep you posted on how well that works...

July 12, 2012
"We don't pour water on our bedroom floor. "We've actually had this conversation before, so obviously it doesn't work to tell him this, but it hasn't stopped me. 

July 17, 2012
"Why'd you put a rock in the toilet?" The funny part isn't really that he put a rock in the toilet, but that I asked WHY he did this. Duh, Mom. If he had given me an explanation it likely would have been along the lines of, "I wanted to see what would happen if I put a rock in the toilet. Guess what? Not much. You asked why and then fished it out."

July 18, 2012

"For future reference, we don't ever, ever lick the peanut butter jar or other food containers."

July 26, 2012

"NO! NO! NO! We don't barrel roll off the sofa!"

July 26, 2012

"Not sure why you have a watering can in here, but we're definitely not going to put blueberries in it."

July 26, 2012

"Don't lick pepper off the table." 

We let the kids pour their own pepper at meals (but not salt) since they tend to use quite a bit. Logan made a pile on the table and then you can guess what he did.

July 30, 2012
"For future reference, please don't wipe your boogers on the wall." (I discovered a section of the wall in the living room where he has apparently been depositing them on a few occasions. When I asked who did it, he was very quick to confess. No guilt, just honesty, which you have to love. Then he offered to help me wash the wall.)

July 31, 2012
The first thing I said to him this morning: "Hi, there. Where's your diaper?"

My Work Here is Done

I noted recently that Mia has been entertaining herself more frequently by coming up with her own craft projects, which is pretty cool considering she is only five. This one in particular impressed me, so I thought that I would share her inspiration. She started with a coffee filter and a pair of safety scissors, and she trimmed it so that I first thought she was making a flower of some sort. I was pleasantly surprised to see the results. Both the originality of her idea and her craftsmanship are top-notch as far as I am concerned.

{When she asked for red, orange, and yellow paint I figured it would be a sun instead of a flower. It turned out to be a cute lion, however.}

{Once the paint was dry, she asked me for a permanent marker to draw this face.}

{Hopefully, I didn't mess up her creativity by asking if she wanted to add a nose and ears to her lion's face. Other than that suggestion -- and pouring the acrylic paints for her -- she did this project completely on her own. That's my girl!}

When DIY May Not be a Good Idea: Homemade Cloud Dough

I am sharing this because I want everyone to know that contrary to what people may believe, I am not some kind of Super Mom. Although I often try to come up with fun things to do with my kids, they don't always go well as I hope. I love homemade craft materials, so today we today we made Cloud Dough. (Mia informed me that they made this at preschool and called it "Moon Sand.") This turned out to be a perfect example of something that should be filed under "What Was I Thinking?!"

To be clear, Mia and Logan had a blast with this stuff, so that wasn't the problem. It is neat to play with since it is soft and flows through your fingers, but it can also be molded. Both kids enjoyed making "sand castles" on the dining room table. It was just insanely messy, and caused me more stress than I would have liked. I don't know if I didn't mix it long enough or if I really just should have let them play with it in a larger container. My kids poured it out of the plastic container I used to mix up the Cloud Dough, and it was everywhere by the time they were done. (The good news is that this kept them entertained for at least half an hour, maybe more like an hour.)

Instead of using 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil, I used 4 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of baby oil to make our batch of Cloud Dough. (I only had so much baby oil. It was left over from when I used to make my own baby wipes solution. If you are interested in another craft you can make using baby oil, try this wave bottle.) Let's just say that I am glad I halved the recipe, and it was good that I needed to vacuum, anyway. If after reading this, you still want to make your own cloud dough, (I know it's making the rounds on Pinterest, which is where I first heard of it), consider having it be an outside activity, or at the very least, plan on doing some serious vacuuming and/or sweeping afterward.

{Before}

{After}

{You can use cookie cutters, rolling pins, or any other tools you would normally use with play dough.}

{Of course, you can just use your hands, too.}

{See, it can be molded, which is cool, right?}

{The end result, while less than ideal, does show how much fun these two had!}

Bubbles, Bubbles, Everywhere!

Earlier this month, I decided we should have a bubble day. We tried out three different recipes for homemade bubble solutions and we also experimented with homemade (and other unconventional) bubble wands. Some ideas worked out better than others.

{This first picture is from the "Bouncing Bubble Solution." That is why they are wearing mittens. Unfortunately, this not only did not make "bouncing" bubbles, it didn't even make bubbles. I don't know this is because it was supposed to "set" for 24 hours and our batch "set" for 48, or if our distilled water was too old -- if that is even possible, or if it just doesn't work.}

{I made each of the kids their own plastic bottle bubble blower using Gatorade bottles from the recycling bin. I cut off the bottoms along the indentation (see photo) because the plastic was too tough to simply cut off the bottom portion. Water bottles are made of thinner plastic and would have worked better, I think, but we don't buy those.}

{I poured out some bubble solution on a baking sheet, and it worked well for the kids to dip their new bottle bubble blowers into the solution. I don't know if it shows up in the picture, but these blowers make nice big bubbles and are very simple for the kids to use.}

{This was another easy to make DIY bubble blower. I just twisted some pipe cleaners into big wands. I made circles and hearts, but in the end, bubbles are all the same shape so it doesn't matter what shape you make. They work nicely, which is really what is important to know.}

{We played with other kitchen utensils as bubble blowers. Cookie cutters were not the best we tried, but they do work. I found some of the ideas here.}

{Slotted spoons and slotted spatulas make good bubble wands. Wire whisks do not, unfortunately. It seemed like it would, but I was wrong.}

The other two recipes for bubble solution came from here. The one called "Fancy Homemade Bubbles" I won't share because I don't think it is worth sharing. I am not sure what makes them fancy other than the sugar, perhaps? And more importantly, it wasn't the best solution, so we won't be making it again. I was very tempted to make colored bubbles, but I really felt that it would turn out badly, and I didn't want to stain clothing or anything else. Ultimately, I think this is the best recipe (or at least the best we have tried). The name says it all I think. We made it with glycerin which I got in the Wilton section of Jo-Ann, which I am sure is not the cheapest way to buy it, but it came in a small bottle and I knew we would only need a small amount. Since I had a half-off coupon, it only cost me $1.50, which is about what I was willing to spend on what might have only been one day's worth of fun. I do have about 1/3 of the glycerin left, so we will get to make more bubbles later in the summer. I will have to try it with Karo syrup sometime, too.

Best Homemade Bubble Solution

1 cup water
2 tablespoons light Karo syrup or 2 tablespoons glycerin
4 tablespoons dishwashing liquid (We used blue Dawn.)
Mix together and have fun!

Beaded "Sun Catchers"

Here is a project Mia and I recently did on a rainy day. The goal was to create "sun catchers," but since our beads were more opaque than translucent, we just ended up with decorative ornaments. I found this idea here. The original directions said to bake for 20 minutes, but I found that ours took a bit longer, more like 30 minutes. I suppose this depends on the size of the beads you use.

{Make a single layer of cheap plastic beads inside an oven-safe dish. I think ours were from Walmart. We used ceramic ramekins, but muffins tins, cake pans, mugs, or glass dishes would all likely work. Note: I first lined ours with parchment paper to protect the ceramic in case this didn't work; I didn't want plastic melted to something I use for food.}

{Once the dishes are filled, bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, checking every so often. Note: This may be slightly smelly while the plastic melts, so I turned on the fan.

{Remove from the oven and allow to cool. This does not take very long. Once the plastic is cool, overturn the dish and the sun catcher should pop right out. Peel off and discard the parchment paper if you used it to line your dish.}

{Thread fishing line through the finished project to display. For the top one, I found a pin hole already there, but the bottom one required that I use a cordless drill and make one.}

Play with Your Food

I have been out of sorts today. I returned from a trip to the hospital feeling a bit grumpy because the tests should have given me answers, but instead I only have more questions. The one good bit of news that I have to keep reminding myself is that if they couldn't find a solid mass, then it probably can't be the really scary c-word. Unfortunately, it wasn't a cyst either, so who knows what the painful lump is? I have to follow up with my doctor tomorrow and go from there... Anyway, I was grouchy with the kids (which was pretty unfair to them) and so I tried to make up for it by serving a fun lunch. They're very forgiving, so I think we're good now.

{Make a watermelon sandwich: 1) Cut a piece of bread into a wedge. 2) Spread on strawberry jelly. 3) Add raisins for "seeds." 4) Cut green grapes in half and arrange to make the "rind." 5) Serve to a couple of cute kids. (Don't be surprised if they pick off the raisins and say, "eww." It doesn't stop me from trying to serve raisins every now and then.) Thank you, FamilyFun magazine for a yummy idea!}

{And now, have an "octapple".}

{Isn't it cute? I made one for each kid. 1) Cut a granny smith apple in half. I cut out the seeds and inside stuff as best as I could. 2) Arrange more halved green grapes to me the tentacles. 3) I used two dollops of Cool Whip for the eyes (since I didn't have a mini marshmallow on hand). Then I topped the Cool Whip with two mini chocolate chip eye balls. 4) Spread 6 mini chocolate chips with peanut butter to adhere the mouth. 5) Serve to a couple of cute kids. (Don't be surprised if they won't eat the green apple. It is tart, after all.) Thanks again, FamilyFun magazine.}