Rainbow Chains

We finally got around to making those Rainbow Chains I was talking about in my previous craft post!

It took a sick Jocelyn missing a day of school to do it, but it finally got done! Jocelyn really hates missing school, and the only way I could get the tears over missing her second day of school EVER was promising we would make our rainbow chains. Oh, and she decided to wear an orange undershirt because she was missing orange day at school. She's always thinking! ;-)

First I found a pot of gold printable and had Jocelyn color it. I colored a second one so that we could have a double-sided pot of gold.Then I drew lines on construction paper and Jocelyn cut out three strips of each color.

We stapled the strips together, added the pot of gold, and Wa-la: A Rainbow Pot of Gold decoration for our dining room light!

Writing 'Jocelyn'!

Today Jocelyn wrote her name for the first.time.EVER!

I made her a name"worksheet" like I used with my Preschoolers when I was teaching. On the first line she traced my solid letters, on the second she traced my dotted letters and on the third line she had to try to make the letters all by herself.

I think she did pretty a pretty good job for her first time!!
(Oh, and I almost cried while she was doing it)

A Nightmare

Last night around 1:00am, Jocelyn came into our room saying she had a dream. She said something about an onion and Reagan getting stuck in a hole. I told her it was just a dream and took her back to her room and tucked her in. This morning I got the whole story!

"Me and Reagan were playing outside, coloring with chalk. Then we saw an onion growing in the grass so we went and picked it. Then Reagan wanted to hold the onion and we started to fight and pull the onion in our hands. I got the onion and Reagan fell into the hole. I tried to help her get out but I fell into the hole and a big mouse came and ate her [Reagan] up. He was mad that Reagan dug in his hole. Then you [Mommy] came and tried to save me but you couldn't and you fell into the hole too. Then Daddy came to save us, but the mouse was going to eat us all up!"

Interesting dream, huh? Oh,and she said that in her dream Reagan was a "big girl" not a baby.

I wonder if the mouse looked like this:

Reagan's Obsession

*WEAK STOMACH WARNING* If you find everyday dirt on children disgusting, you may wish to ignore this post!

One day she may be embarrassed that I blogged about this, but I just can't ignore Reagan's latest obsession any more! You may find it offensive (really--it's just baby feet), but I want to remember the cuteness of my baby girl picking her toes for all time. Yes, you read correctly. I think Reagan picking her toes is CUTE!

Somehow Reagan discovered "toe jam". That's what I called it as a kid anyway, and hadn't thought about it again until recently--when Reagan started obsessively looking for toe jam between her toes.

Here's a definition in case you are clueless as to what I am talking about.

I'm not sure exactly how it happend, but Reagan's toe-spreading and "sweeping" has become an everyday (and sometimes multiple times a day) occurrence. She will get the idea to remove her socks and pry each toe apart from the ones beside it to look and see if any sock lint has collected. She is serious about this new job of hers. When she's looking for toe jam she's in the "zone". There's no stopping her. If I'm changing her diaper I must wait until she checks each toe before she will put her leg back down enough that I can strap her diaper on. If she finds any she sweeps it out with a finger and moves on to the next space between her toes. I think it's funny (and cute), but Todd doesn't harbor the same feelings. If he sees it, he tells me to tell her to stop--he doesn't like the site of her toes being pulled so far apart (LOL) and thinks she's going to break them off. Here are some pictures in case you are having a hard time imagining this serious task of toe jam removal.

Hey, it's a great fine-motor skills activity, right?
Isn't she cute?

Our Little Reagan

As I looked back over the past couple of years since I have been blogging I realized that I posted a lot about Jocelyn while she was a baby--what she was up to, her newest developments, milestones she had reached. For my poor little Reagan, there is barely any of that. I hope that one day when the girls are reading through their childhoods (as described by me in this blog), Reagan doesn't feel that I cared any less about her milestones and developments than I did of Jocelyn's. That is simply not the truth. Reagan's milestones have been just as important and maybe even celebrated more since there are 3 of us to cheer her on. I just don't have as much time to sit down and blog about them. It is very sad, and I am going to try to do better from here on out...STARTING TODAY!

Our little Reagan is soon-to-be 20 months old! 20! I just cannot believe that she will be turning two in a little over 4 months. I noticed that Jocelyn changed from baby to little girl sometime between when Reagan was born (2.5 years old) and her third birthday. I just don't think I'm ready to let Reagan become a little girl just yet. Can't I put a brick on her head or something to stop her from growing up??

Reagan is our crazy girl! She is so funny and makes all of us laugh a thousand times a day with her cute little faces. She has so much personality and spunk! The thing that stands out most about her right now is her vocabulary development! She seems to pick up on and say new words every day, which truly amazes me! Right now, she really loves trying to say words that end with the 'k' sound, so her favorites are: cheek, drink, truck, book, back, etc...you get the impression. Oh, and 'chocolate' because that middle 'c' has the 'k' sound too!

I would say that Reagan's favorite activities are reading books (the Dora the Explorer books are her FAVORITE), and being chased around by her sister. She has also picked up a desire to scribble on things. I have already had to wash crayon from the entire tabletop and the walls! I wondered why Jocelyn never did these things and then I quickly realized she did not have crayons as readily accessible to her when she was Reagan's age. Oh the benefits of an older sibling!

Just recently Jocelyn has said to me that she is so happy to have Reagan as her little sister. These statements melt my heart! I am so happy that the girls have each other...they will share a common bond for the rest of their lives and I can only hope that their love for each other grows stronger and stronger. They already seem to love each other so much! Jocelyn will literally freak out if she forgets to give Reagan a goodnight or goodbye hug and kiss, and if you ask Reagan if she loves her big sister she will shake her head 'yes'. When they hug each other it is one of the cutest things I have ever witnessed. It may be a little early to judge whether this will be their life-long feeling toward each other, but a mother can only hope and wish that these early indicators will continue on through the years! Check back in about 10 years and see where this has gone! ;-)

In the mean time, I'm off to find that brick for Reagan's head...

A Family Portrait

Jocelyn drew a picture of our family the other day. The biggest figure is me (Mommy)...I'm trying not to take her interpretation of what my hair looks like too personally. The person to the left of me in the picture is Todd (Daddy); to the right of me is Reagan; the all green one underneath me is Jocelyn; and the two that are completely purple are Steve and Mira (our cats). The one that is both purple and green is an unknown person--do NOT get any ideas from this (ahem, Debbie & Mom). There is no hidden meaning behind the mystery person, I promise!

I just love the beginning drawings that children make, especially when they are the drawings by my own little Jocelyn!

Another St. Patrick's Day Craft

We are on a roll with our crafts in the Aston-Reese household!

Today we made rainbows with Froot Loops (another idea I found online), and we did it at snack time so that we could eat all the broken ones!

First Jocelyn sorted the froot loops by color.

Reagan preferred the eating part of the project...

Then I helped Jocelyn form the top arch of the rainbow with school glue and she began placing the red froot loops on the glue.

After each color, we added more glue and a new color.

Jocelyn also made observations about the froot loops. Some were bigger than others, and she also noticed that there were more green froot loops than any other color.

When she finished all the colors of the rainbow, she added some cotton ball clouds!

Here's the finished project! I think she did an excellent job!

This craft also went well with our recently read story about Noah's Ark!

If I was to do this craft again, I think I would use a heavier paper, or even cardboard--we used card stock. I would also use a craft glue, like tacky glue, rather than a school glue. It took a lot of glue to keep the froot loops down, and I had to squirt glue into each hole in each piece of cereal as well. Now that it is drying, the froot loops are soaking up all that glue and shrinking like they are in a bowl of milk. The craft is still cute, but I think those minor changes would have helped it stay looking it's best through St. Patrick's Day.

Our next craft is one I thought up myself! Our chandelier looks barren without the hearts from Valentine's Day, so I think we will make some rainbow colored paper chains with mini pots of gold to hang there. We will see how this one turns out! In my head it sounds like a good idea. At least I know Jocelyn will have fun cutting again...her favorite!

P.S. Don't overlook Jocelyn's choice of clothing as of lately--lots of layers with her favorite polka dotted short-sleeved shirt on top. ;-)

Shamrock Craft with Jocelyn

So, Valentine's Day was over and Jocelyn was super upset to have to take all her heart decorations down, so I had to find another idea to keep our house from becoming too boring between holidays. St. Patrick's Day is the next holiday in line, so I found a cool shamrock craft here and decided to "give it a go" with Jocelyn. She did a great job!

First we got an old magazine and looked for pictures of things that were green.

She was excited when she found anything green!

Then she cut it out. Anything that requires cutting is popular with Jocelyn.

After she found plenty of green things and cut them into pieces, she used a glue stick to glue them onto a piece of cardstock.

I pre-printed a shamrock pattern to the back of the paper so that when she was done gluing, we could simply cut the shamrock shape out and have our finished product. She was sick of cutting by this point and wanted me to cut the shamrock out.

Here's how it looked!

She was pretty proud of her first Shamrock craft!

More Valentine's Day Fun

Jocelyn is really big on making crafts lately, so I have been searching the internet and Pinterest for ideas of things to do with her. I found this idea on pinterest and we decorated more than one room of our house with Valentine's Day heart garland.

I lined the back of some scrapbook paper in Valentine's Day patterns and colors and Jocelyn and MeMe cut on the lines to make strips of paper. Then, then each strip was folded in half and stapled into heart shapes. After I punched holes into each heart, Jocelyn strung each onto a piece of pink yarn and we hung them from our dining room light, Jocelyn's ceiling fan in her room, and also in our living room. We even made one for MeMe to take home! It was a pretty fun activity and Jocelyn really enjoyed practicing her cutting skills!

For Jocelyn's Valentine's Day party at school we made some gluten free rice krispie treats, covered them in melted pink candy wafers (also gluten free), and sprinkled them with Valentine's Day sprinkles. We cut them into heart shapes, added a stick--because everything is more fun to eat on a stick--and then put them into little bags tied with heart ribbons. Jocelyn told me they were a big hit!

I love Valentine's Day. I find that I enjoy the "smaller" holidays more than the "big" ones. I think it's because we can do a few simple crafts and decorations, make a couple of treats, and it's perfect. There's not too much planning or preparation, which leads to less stress and a more enjoyable holiday! Todd would just look at me and say, "Bah humbug", but I just can't help the way I feel! I guess I should try harder to make the bigger holidays come with less stress--All I can do is promise to try!

Jocelyn's 1st School Valentines

I saw this idea in Family Fun Magazine .
I thought it was a really cute idea, and really wanted to try to do it for Jocelyn's Preschool valentines.She's getting so big, yet she is still smaller than a Tootsie Pop! ;-)

Reagan's 1st Haircut!

Today I gave Reagan her first haircut! It's awkward to keep letting the back of her hair grow since the front is so far from catching up. So, today I trimmed those crazy stray hairs that were making her little baby mullet look a little wild.

Those little pieces of hair in my hand are the first hair Reagan grew, and now they will live in a little envelope in her baby book.

Now she has a more put-together looking baby mullet! ;-)

Congratulations Reagan, on your very first haircut! You did an amazing job keeping your head still for mommy!

Messy Fun!

Jocelyn BEGGED and BEGGED to paint the cardboard playhouse that Santa brought for Christmas. After days of me trying to get her to settle for markers and crayons, I finally gave in. We moved the house to the basement (a much more paint-friendly environment than the carpeted living room)and I got out the paint.

They both enjoyed the experience immensely!

Reagan made a much bigger mess than Jocelyn did--especially on herself!
The really fun part for mommy came when it was time to clean up and I had to get the two paint-covered monkeys UPSTAIRS to the bathtub. We made it without covering the rest of the house (minus the bathtub) with paint. The girls were intrigued with the color the bath water turned and I was intrigued with how the "washable" paint stained their skin! After soaking and scrubbing, Reagan looked like she was covered head to toe in bluish bruises! Oh well, nothing a couple more baths won't take care of! The girls had fun painting their playhouse and that's all that matters!