Shamrock Shakers

In an effort to gear up for St. Patty's Day, Kate's class has been learning about all things related to the holiday!  Shamrocks adorn the walls, rainbows are hung, GREEN is everywhere, and the very idea of Spring being upon us brings a smile to the faces around!

Today, Kate's class made Shamrock Shakers.  They placed several shamrock confetti bits into a mini water bottle and then filled and sealed them with green water!! How cool is that!?

Picking up shamrock confetti!

And placing them into her mini water bottle!

Filled, sealed and shaken!  Success!

When Kate brought this little green guy home, she was more interested in trying to open the top and dump it out.  I think she wanted to put the confetti shamrocks back in again rather than shake them up! She loves putting things into things and dumping them out and doing it again!  It's like a wash, rinse, repeat cycle in this house!  Nevertheless, we showed her all the shaking she could do with her DIY Shamrock Shaker and watched all the little confetti bits fall to the bottom of the bottle.

In addition to making her very own Shamrock Shaker, Kate also got to try on a silly glasses/mustache getup:

Best.Photo.Ever.

I can already guarantee that the photo above will be the HIGHLIGHT of my entire St. Patrick's Day holiday!

SO Big!

Kate has really been perfecting her utensil usage recently.  She is becoming a pro at picking up a spoon or fork and using it properly!  It is so amazing to watch her learn how to get food from her plate, onto a utensil, and into her mouth!  Believe it or not, her teachers have said that she is even teaching her friend Sam (a girl) how to use silverware correctly.  They told us that Sam watches Kate and repeats what she does.  Setting a good example?!  Check!

She is such a big girl and so proper!
I think she got that from me!  ;)

It's a good thing that Sam doesn't dine with us while we are at home though.  Sam would also learn:

1. To throw your utensil when you are done and/or frustrated with it.

2. To drop it on the floor and watch the dog scrounge for any last morsel of food.  Seriously, you'd think we starve him.

3. To fling your vegetables and other unwanted food items and watch them magically disappear (compliments of the starving dog) AND think it's hilarious.

4. And give it up entirely if there is something on your plate that you want more than you have the patience to use a utensil for, like applesauce or cool whip.  (Yes, sometimes we like to eat a little dollop of plain cool whip.  She may or may not have also gotten that from me...)

We are so proud of our darling girl!  And she looks so big in this picture that it makes me feel so proud and excited of what is to come yet kind of a little sad that her baby-ness is slowly fading.  (Ah, so that's why people have more kids.)

Did you notice in the photo above that she pulled her peas out from her lunch?!  The teachers have told us that she does that sometimes and eats them all at the end!  How cute is that?!

Weekend Errands

Is having your 15-month old push the cart while you are grocery shopping considered child labor??

I sure hope not.

Pool Play

We decided to start our March off with a little fun in the indoor pool at OSU.  We headed up as a family and Kate and I jumped in the pool while Brian went to workout.  This was the first time that we have taken Kate to an indoor pool and, once again, she was very observant!

So cute in her terry cloth robe and hot pink crocs!
This girl is stylin'!

Kate is very much a watch to see how it's done and then do it type of person.  We've noticed that she's not one to really jump into things without some prior knowledge and/or experience of them.  I'm sure after a few visits to Sky Zone or the pool they will both become fast favs on Kate's list of places to go!

Are we going in that big bathtub, Mama??

Doing a 360 and taking in ALL of her surroundings!

The water was quite cold.  Then again, I am a real wimp when it comes to cold water.  I guess it would've been fine if you were swimming laps or jumping up and down or playing Marco Polo, but just sitting on the edge hanging out, half submerged, left Kate and me both with goose bumps!

We decided to ease into the pool.

Kate was so intrigued that it took a little convincing to get her in!

We brought some toys to promote some water play!
(They were very quickly snatched up by other pool goers but we
got them all back!)

Testing the water.

I heart this.  So innocent!

Still taking it all in!

In the pool!

Once Kate got in the pool with me, we hung out near this little ledge that allowed her to stand and play with the toys that we brought while simultaneously still observing!  We got a bit braver after a while and actually ventured out into the water!  Kate loved swaying around in the open water!  We even swam all the way over to that blue contraption in the photo below and pulled on the little lever to make water come out of the red faucet!


Our little swimmer!

Such a cutie!

We watched kids play, adults swim, a group play water basketball, and several children go down the little water slide.  I know that Kate will grow to love going to the pool.  What kid doesn't love the pool?!  And I am totally in support of the not jumping in until you've assessed the situation thing.  This is very beneficial when Kate is, say, faced with a flight of stairs and she is at the top looking down.

I'm reveling now in the fact that she wants to stay by side, to be with me, to do what I do because I know there will come a day where she wants to be off on her own.  And I have a sneaking suspicion that that day is going to come sooner than I'd like. 

For now we are enjoying our special moments, experiencing new things, learning about the BIG world around us, and it is all so very exciting!

Rosie the Riveter

Kate's school sent me this photo of her today:


Apparently Kate just had to try on one of her teacher's hair bows, so that is what she did!  After I had shown every one at my office the latest photo of Kate and then made it my phone screen background I got to thinking that it reminded me of something...

...Of another photo...

...I distinctly remember attempting to describe said photo to my coworker and failing miserably.  I think I said something along the lines of, "You know that war ad photo?  The one of the woman representing woman's rights?  Where she is showing her arm in a strong man's pose like this?"  [Cue Erin entering into a pose where she is attempting to flex her measly bicep muscle...at work.]

I didn't specify what war.  I didn't know her name.  I didn't even know her story, but I quickly found them all out.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Rosie:

Rosie the Riveter.

(Apparently I didn't fail miserably when describing Rosie because my coworker looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the planet and said, "You mean, Rosie the Riveter??"  Ugh, yes, thanks.  I didn't realize she went by that name.)

Rosie the Riveter.  Yes.  That's who I meant.  Kate's photo reminded me of Rosie's:

Did you know her name was Rosie?

From the blue shirt to the red/pink hair bow to the yellow background.  The similarities are uncanny, though I have to admit that Kate is much cuter and less frightening.  (Which I am extremely grateful for.)

Rosie's poster was created in 1942 as part of a series representing women who worked in factories during World War II.  Women took over a lot of the jobs that men would normally do while a lot of the men were off fighting the war.  Since production of war supplies was at its greatest demand and supply of men factory workers was at an extreme low, women took their place.

It's not just "it" that we can do, Rosie.  We can do anything!  (That will be my one and only feminist plug...for this post.  I think.)

Anyway, you can read more about Rosie here if you are interested.  There's a whole ton about her and the era in which she was created.  Perhaps this is a sign of the strong, independent woman Kate is destined to become.  Perhaps this is just another coincidence like the heart-shaped cheerio.

One thing is for sure, Little Miss Kate is one extremely lucky lady to be growing up in an age where women are distinguished closer to equals as men.  Where women have just as many opportunities and sometimes more than men.  Where it is common to hear of a stay-at-home Dad because the woman of the household is working.  It is because of many, countless strong women before her that have paved this mighty path of opportunity in front of her.

Who knows where women will be by the time Kate is old enough to read this post and understand some of the struggles in the past.  I certainly don't think Rosie sat long and hard and thought to herself about how this poster would be [apparently] common [name] knowledge in households seventy-two years later!  That, my friends, is history.

♥

PS: Did you know her name was Rosie the Riveter???

Heart Healthy

Since Cherrios are the quintessential kid food AND they promote their heart healthy benefits, we typically have a classic yellow box in our cabinet for Kate (and us) to munch on!  Nothing says childhood quite like that yellow box of Cherrios!

Anyway, the other day when Kate and I were having second breakfast we noticed that instead of the typical 'O' center that Cheeri-OHs are known for, this one Cherrio had a heart shaped center:

Cheeri-heart!

We looked through the other pile of Cheerios that we were snacking on and didn't see any more that resembled such a distinct heart shape.  So we're wondering, is this a simple coincidence - a heart healthy snack in the shape of a heart?  Or is this a purposeful creative marketing ploy to get people like me to buy another box to see if there are more Cheeri-hearts?!

You be the judge!

Dancing Queen

If you're an avid blog reader or know Kate at all, you know that she loves her some music!  It's only fitting that she also loves her some dancing too!  Tonight Kate was busting out all of her dance moves and even showing us ones that we had never seen before!  She just recently started incorporating twirling in her dance routine and it has become a fast fav!  Kate doesn't dance without a twirl or two these days!

I was so happy to be able to catch this on camera!  A few things to note before I bid you adieu:

1. Kate's dance moves include the twirl, the dizzy twirl, the Hawaiian car girl hula, the dwarf bounce, the high knee twirl, the spit-n-twirl, and the chicken wing flap.  See if you can spot them all before she spots the mark on the hutch that I need to clean off!  Thanks, Kate, for pointing that out.

2. Please ignore the dog that pops in at one point.  Even Jack doesn't mess with dancing Kate.

3. Please also ignore the semi-singing voice you hear for a moment.  Even though I had a camera in my hand I forgot I was filming.

4. I think we can add "dancing" to Kate's repertoire of words!

5. If you want another laugh, check out this music video.  It's a classic!

6. Enjoy!

The Bagging of Beans

Ever since we started on the transformation of the office into a little play room we have gone back and forth on what sort of seating we will have in there.  We debated on putting some sort of chaise lounge type of chair against the wall but the space is a little tight and we don't want to take up a ton of space with a chair that may or may not really be used.  (This is a child's play area.  Children sit and play on the floor in most cases and if that's where Kate is, that is where we are, so a chair could very well turn into decoration.)

We also wanted something cost effective (read: cheap) because it is going in a play room and the potential of juice, marker, paint, mud, chocolate, pb & j, [fill in the blank here] stains are endless.  (We don't promote eating outside of the kitchen or running rampant with dirty hands or feet, but we're just thinking realistically here.)

We happened upon the idea of putting bean bag chairs in the play room and we both really liked the idea, so we began searching for them.  We found expensive ones and not so expensive ones; boring ones and crazy ones.  We found every color, shape, and size imaginable, but it wasn't until we weren't looking for bean bag chairs that we happened upon two perfect ones: a purple polka dot one and a green polka dot one that match our purple and green colors in the room perfectly!

How cute are those chair covers?!  And they match perfectly!

They are DIY bean bag chairs so we had to buy the beans to go with them too.  Fortunately, both were right next to each other and all we had to do was pour the beans into the bean bag chairs and we had two perfect chairs.



Seems simple enough, right?!

Uh, wrong.

The beans in the bean bags were super static-y and they clung to anything and everything.  The mere act of rubbing them off seemed to create more static electricity which caused more beans to attach to whatever and wherever!  They did not let go at all unless they were rubbed with dryer sheets, which we SO ended up doing, so by the end of the bagging of these beans we were all rubbing static please un-cling these beans dryer sheets all over us to release the escaped beans.  (That genius idea was compliments of yours truly!)

We managed to unload all of our beans and fill our two perfectly matched polka dot bags to our desired beanocity.  (Bean + Density = Beanosity.)  Of course we took lots of photos and a little video along the way!

Playing with the bags-o-beans before we fill our bean bags.

Still playing...

...still playing...

...and still playing!

Uh oh.  Farm Boy is about to get rolled over by a bag of beans.

"Here, Mama.  You can hold Farm Boy while we play."

Static beans!

Bless her little heart.  Kate knew exactly where the escaped beans
should go.

And she loved being able to help manage the beans!

Jumping beans.

This blurry photo is Kate trying to rid herself of the bean attachments.

It didn't last long.

 

 Here is video evidence of the static cling these beans produced!

 



Kate thought taking her socks off would help,
but I think it may have made the cling worse!

Beans were literally EVERYWHERE!

Beaned Cleaned up and taking the bean bag chairs for a test run!

To me, Kate looks so big but so little in this picture!

And, last but not least, our iPhone favorite.

Did I mention that we beaned these bags at Mary and Tom's house?!  That may or may not have been Brian's idea!  We cleaned up very well, however, and the only beans left in the house were/are the ones we don't yet know about!  :)  Thanks for the hospitality for this project, Mimi & Papaw!

Finger Painting

Kate's Grandma and Grandpa sent over some finger paint and finger paint paper to her for Valentine's Day this year and we were all a little eager to try them out!

After lunch this past weekend we decided that it was a good time to whip those new paints out and give 'em a whirl!

Starting with our color palette.

Brian and I showed Kate how to "paint" and she was all for it!

She literally made a perfect rainbow on her first try!

Look at those hands!

She loved it!

And when she completed her rainbow, we pulled
another piece of paper out to work on a second
masterpiece!

This girl has got a creative craft gene like her Mama AND her Daddy.  (You all have seen all of the crafts that I have put Brian through and he has always been up for the challenge!  I think he secretly likes it!)

Then again, who doesn't like to make a big mess that they don't have to clean up!?

Proudly displaying the masterpiece on the fridge!

Snowy Valentine

One of the many things that I love about Columbus, Ohio is the downtown skyline.  When you are not from the area, you don't see the day to day details that downtown Columbus really embodies.  LeVeque Tower and the Nationwide buildings are notorious for changing their lights according to the season.  Around Christmas they are red and green and One Nationwide Plaza actually spells out 'HAPPY HOLIDAYS'.  In October, they are pink for breast cancer awareness month and in September, the Nationwide building says 'LIVE UNITED' for 9/11.  This is the same for many of the other buildings that help create the Columbus skyline.

Valentine's day is no different.  The buildings all have red or pink lights and there is just a little bit of love in the air that surrounds the city.  This year One Nationwide Plaza created a heart on their building and it was the coolest sign of love ever!

Love is literally in the air!

Speaking of Valentine's, we kept ours very low this year with a night in.  Kate decorated a heart shaped cut out cookie at her school so she got to indulge in a bit of that after dinner which was an extra special treat!  (And Brian surprised her with a stuffed Valentine's puppy and a card.  What a wonderful Daddy!)

Kate's cut out cookie!

Assessing the situation and determining where to take the first bite.

Yummy!

One bite and she's hooked!

Cutie patootie!

Valentine's cookie bliss!

Licking the frosting off the left thumb...

...and then the right one!

My Valentine!

We got another 3" of snow last night too adding to a very snowy winter season which I have actually really enjoyed this year!

And speaking of snow and valentine's, we also read this book called Snowy Valentine on Valentine's day.  It was the first full book that Kate sat through.  She likes quicker reads, mainly board books or flap-books, a lot more than real stories right now.  This was such a sweet story about true love and the illustrations are so cute.  It was a perfect way to cap off our snowy Valentine's Day.

We hope you and yours had a lovely one too!

UPDATE:

We've typically gotten art and holiday photos from Kate's class a little after the actual holiday, making them hard to include with "on time" posts and easy with the delayed posts you've been experiencing recently.  (We're working on that...)  This is one that we just received and we couldn't resist including it.  It was Kate participating in the Heart Toss game that her class made!

And we heart this!