TP Photography

Yesterday, Mae had gotten a hold of a random roll of toilet paper that is our redneck version of Kleenex at the moment.  I was busy doing something and she was unrolling it in chunks and sprinkling those around the living room.  I tweeted that I should do something about it and Courtney from Click it Up a Notch instead suggested I just capture it!   Hmm...
It was an understatement that I was disappointed in my Leap Day pictures.   I have taken far better action shots - and it is silly that I failed to get my setting set before I let Ace begin that activity.  Just plain silly.   Shouldn't be that big of a deal, right?   No clearly I'm not losing sleep, but it was still a disappointment - and when Courtney suggested I capture the TP silliness - I snagged the opportunity and created another "Messy March" activity for our Saturday afternoon.   

I did a little research on the best settings for 'action shots'  not a lot of 'TP Photography' tips out there, but I looked at a few for sports and adjusted my ISO for indoors.  I turned on all the lights on, opened all the blinds (although it was cloudy and late afternoon)  I set my shutter speed to 1/1000, my aperture I set to f/2.8, and ISO I pushed it until the pictures weren't dark.  Unfortunately for the noise factor due to the indoor lighting and time of day conditions required an ISO of 6400 (EEK!)  I might have brought down the shutter speed a little been able to drop the ISO as well - but I'll play with those options on another day.  I didn't want to pause the shoot to adjust settings.   Ace was having too much fun.  

 

I cleaned up the pictures a little in Lightroom and did some noise reduction - I'm still a newb in that area of post processing and I'm self taught in between parenting, cleaning, and sleeping.   Also I have to say that the quality from computer to blog post is severely degraded upon upload.  Tips on fixing this are welcome, otherwise it's only list to 'seek and find out' eventually.  :)

I handed Ace a roll and let him go to town!   He needed no instruction other than the reminder that this was a special thing that he only was allowed to do when I said it was ok.   If he did it on his own ever, there would be consequences.   With the stern warning issues - the fun began post haste!
 

He got some good height with his jumping.   Mae cautiously observed what on earth her brother was doing before I told Ace to take a break and let Mae join in on the fun.   She had a blast trying to be just like brother!  She was rockin' an aqua headband that she herself had added to her styled look for the day - so she had some 80s punk going on.  Her expressions were cracking me up throughout the fun.

I gave Ace a second half-roll of TP and let him continue the tossing fun!   He had such a blast.   And I was having a great time capturing all the action and I snapped my all time favorite action picture... in fact if he was facing me more it might have easily been a contender for my all time favorite picture.    You can just see the joy and excitement on his face, how fitting his shirt says 'Blast Off!'.  

When the rolls were all done the fun was far from over. He began picking up the piles and tossing those about and covering his sister which she was ok with... most of the time.  Although she did come to tell me all about it a time or two.  :)

Eventually we cleaned it all up and now it's a bucket of kleenex.  If we weren't redneck before - we certainly are now - but now have a lot of exciting memories to accompany it.   Want to find other ways to be messy with the kids?  Click here!   This mess was well worth an hour+  of fun and only took about 10 minutes to clean up.    I think when I go to make snow - this will be the activity that I allow to help break up the TP.

And just because I love it so much....

Playdough!

Messy March continues and this time with playdough!   No not Play-Doh - because I'm not positive of what that is made with so I wanted to find a recipe and make my own with ingredients I'd be comfortable with my little girl ingesting if she sampled any.   I found a great recipe once again through Pinterest on How Does She?   Please go there to get the recipe - it's so simple and it's GREAT!  I overcooked it ever so slightly so it did crumble a bit, but it wasn't tacky at all so I'll take a little crumble over stickiness.  The food dye is from the blue Neon 4-pack by McCormick.  I bought some 8oz freezer jam containers and the above recipe will fill up 2 of those containers.  Works great for our needs!

I decided to test out the recipe while Ace was in school to figure out how to get it 'just right' and then in the future I'll allow him to help make more and in various colors.   It took 10 minutes total to make it and it's all 'normal' ingredients so no real extra expense was necessary.   Couldn't ask for better than that.    I thought it would be fun to play just with Mae while Ace was in school just some quiet introduction to playdough.   She would not go near it!   She touched it once and that was all she was going to do. 

I sat down and started to manipulate it and play with it and got out a few of her toys to push in it and make impressions with it.  Hoping that having some example of what to do would help.  Even tried having her sit in my lap to let her play with it.   She touched it for this picture below and that was it.    So I tucked it away and hoped the desire to be like her big brother would pique her interests a little more later that day.

Ace came home from school and was so excited.  I broke out some tools to play with and manipulate the playdough with and he got started.   Mae was excited to play with (plastic) knives and spatulas, but still no desire to touch the playdough.    She did have an internal struggle once when I created a ball.  She really wanted it - even grasped her whole hand around it before she frantically released her hold and shook her hand wildly.  Amusing.

Ace had a good time building and destroying and it was a lot of fun to help :)   We built a snowmen and then Ace had a nice running leap to jump up and smash it!  Then after that he just had a good ol' time smashing with his feet the playdough.  Jumping from high up and going to town dropping it.  All the while Mae walked around observing all this frivolity with wonder.  

More colors to be made soon and hopefully Mae will warm up to the fun play that comes with playing with playdough!  Until then she can observe her brother's delighted excitement in playing with it.



She made me wipe off her hand. She was convinced there was something terrible on it.

Seuss-y Fun!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!   There will be much silliness to be had in our house today, some thematic, some just plain silly.   Perhaps even a Seuss-y movie - or checking in for the PBS Dr. Seuss marathon and most certainly there will be lots of reading!

The other day I put together a craft project for a playdate that we had.   I wanted to make something simple that they could sit and focus on and then go run and play.   That's when I decided that we'd make The Cat in the Hat's hat.  :)   I went to work constructing a hat - just free styled it and then cut it.  Once I was happy I used that and traced it.  For this project I used card stock instead of construction paper.   Cut out two strips of white paper for the stripes on the hat and then each unit got a sheet of fun Dr. Seuss stickers that they could put on their hats... or themselves. :)

The example went in the middle, instructions were explained, and glue sticks were handed out.   Mae did not participate - although she really wanted to! 

This project took no time at all to prepare and the kids had a great time with the simplicity of it and being able to use the glue sticks and stickers! 

Happy Seuss-y fun!   If you need more ideas - check out Seuss-y School.

Mae's First Dentist Visit

Yes, our little girl has had another first:  her first trip to the dentist!   I was planning on waiting until Ace's next appointment in May - but as that second top tooth descended upon us it became more troubling to this mama that something just wasn't quite right.   It was chipped? Cracked? Malformed? Unsure - but I thought it best to get her in before 8 more weeks went by and so after dropping Ace off at preschool mommy and Mae headed to her very first dental appointment.  

Our big girl strutted into the office as if she owned the place - receiving oohs and ahhs from all around.   She was quite happy to be there.  She walked back to the dentist chair and since she's small we did a repeat similar to how we did Ace's first visit.   We brought along M's lovie for comfort and she received a new toothbrush which she happily took and began chewing on all the while sitting in mommy's lap, while cautiously observing the room.  

The dentist came over and checked out her mouth.  Mae fussed as she was leaned back and had her exam but recovered quickly when it was all said and done.   She received a fluoride paint on her teeth and was given a thumbs up for her dental health.  Now about that pesky tooth.   It's not a chip and it's not a crack.  It is possibly two fused and malformed baby teeth.   We really won't know until she can have x-rays to determine.  

+Typically the first x-rays are done when they're around 5.   My kids however receive theirs early since they've already got 'teeth issues' and Ace received his first set at 3.  Mae will have the same done.  So until she's three we won't really know the true issue with her teeth but there isn't any reason to be concerned except to be extra cautious with brushing the area where there is the fuse/fold line.  This is a 'rare' thing that she has (of course) and this could mean she has an extra adult tooth,  fused adult teeth, or even a missing one.  We won't know until the x-rays.  Nothing to be done, so nothing to worry about for now.

She received a bath toy and we scheduled her next appointment for 8 months out (so that her and her brother's would match back up properly.)    After the appointment she was super snuggly and nearly fell asleep on my shoulder.  Although when we got in the car she perked up and played (and chewed) on her new toy. It was a good trip and she did great! 

Messy March!

I have decided that the month of March is going to be MESSY!   Yes, Mae is old enough now to get dirty right along with her brother and she's doing better to not automatically put everything in her mouth, so we're entering a time where we can expand our messy activities.  Throughout the month I'll be posting some of our fun activities that involve a MESS!    Things that you should equip yourself with for messy play:  a splat mat (or a shower curtain works too!), a dustbuster (I love ours, does have some drawbacks, but for our purposes its great!) and a lot of patience!!!!  Ready, set, go!

In preparation for the kick off messy month, on Monday afternoon I broke out the mat and gathered some supplies and let the kids go wild with dry oatmeal.  Let me just say I was shocked at the staying power of oatmeal.   My thirteen month old baby girl not only stayed on the 48"x48" island I had provided her but she stayed fully engaged and playing for a solid 20 minutes.  It was amazing. 

Mae had a such fun picking it up, making it fall, pushing it around, and after observing her brother she even had fun filling bowls.   Ace was very kind in allowing her to repeatedly steal a bowl or cup that he had just filled so that she could dump it all over herself.  :)

 Ace played for over an hour!  Making muffins, pizzas, and various other things.  Sifting, measuring, funneling.  Lots of fun imaginative dusty play.  I finally said it was time to clean up so that I could start dinner.  There was a saddened protest, but an excited anticipation for a future opportunity.

It was a lot of fun to play with them and also to sit back and observe their own fun.  To see them play together and how to share (or not)  and to just be kids that made a mess!

Leapin' Lily Pads!

Today we started off our morning with some unscheduled  snow fall.  This allowed the kids some fun snowball throwing, snowflake licking fun in first part of our morning, but aside from that I had other kind of fun planned for our day.   You see today is of course Leap Day!   While us adults understand it (the best we can) to be some extra day to make up for extra daylight the space time continuum (that's not it?... well sounds good to me.)   For kids it is a fun opportunity to learn more things about the calendar and frogs.   Yes frogs!

I found a fun idea while trolling Pinterest!   To make lily pads and have the kids jump around.   The idea of hopping around on lily pads comes from Toddler Approved (she has a template for the lily pads too.)  I went a little more freestyle with mine and made some 'smooth' and some 'wavy' lily pads to throw in some additional instruction options.   I numbered them and we began our fun!

Before we began jumping we looked at a calendar from last year and one from this year.   Showing him the extra day and then talked about how that happens every 4 years.  In fact the year he was born and now once again! (I can't believe he's FOUR this year!)   After that I asked him what animals jump and he excitedly said FROGS!    So from there we did some Bing image searches and looked at frogs and then moved into the lily pad elements.   Marry the two lessons together by talking about synonyms.  Yes, yes I did in fact broach the subject of synonyms with my son (and yes in fact spell check had to correct every attempt at my spelling of synonym.)  I told him that synonyms means that two words have the same meaning and it's an alternate word that can be used.  (Yes, I use words like 'alternate' also with my children.)   He said 'oh ok' and then I prompted him to see if he knew a synonym for jump... and he thought for a moment and said "leap?"  BE. STILL. MY. HEART.  YES!!!!   Hooray!  So we lept around the room some for the connection there!  

Next up was the activity!  Ace started the activity jumping in a row from 1 to 5.   He had a lot of fun (but mommy forgot to get her settings right for 'action' before we began, so alas the quality is less than stellar... but you can get the idea!)

After some in a line jumping I moved the lily pads to a more open space and moved them around and out of numerical order.   I had him jump from 1-5 again.  Then I had him jump on the lighter colored ones and then darker.   Then jump on the 'smooth' ones.   There was many different combinations that we tried out and he had a blast throughout.  

Mae even joined in on the jumping which was adorable... and her outfit is living proof that I don't stage all my photos.  Isn't  her outfit just smashing?   Yes, that's post snow-wear while her matching pants dry.  She had a good time cheering on her brother and jumping, stomping on the lily pads herself.  It was cute and adorable and an excellent energy burning indoor activity!  

Happy Leap Day from our lily pond to yours!

Unique Reads

I have a deep seeded love for books.  All kinds of them.   I still have all my law books - they look pretty sexy after all - and after the half-inch compression to my spine from hauling them around for three years they are badges books of honor and simply can't be parted with.   I have books from when I taught Communication, some books remain from my college course work as well.   Never mind the shelves and shelves full of my favorite fiction.   However, my speed to read through more has now moved mostly to crawl and my attention has been directed other places and as the trend would continue it's toward my kids and children's literature.  

Thankfully, my children have a born desire to read - from the womb they've heard stories repeated over and over again.  Every night at bedtime there is at least one book read.  Throughout the day my children can be caught with a book.  My son has been able to memorize whole books just from the repetition.  My daughter who for the first year of life found books to be more of an appetizer than entertainment, has finally begun to enjoy the joy of reading (listening) to a story.   I love that they love to read and with that I am constantly on the hunt for new books, adventures through pages, and colorful imagery to share with them.   

With that I thought I'd start a series and share with you some of our favorites and what we as a household of ages 3 and 1 are reading these days.   I'll start with a medley of our past and current favorites.

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Cuddle by Beth Shoshan:  Cuddle is about a boy who stretches his imagination about cuddling various animals. "I'd cuddle a whale but I might be too small" The artwork is adorable with all the various imagery of the results of the boy cuddling a shark, skunk, and crocodiles! The words and plot are very simple, but always gives my son a chuckle.  Ace loved this book so much that  it was a staple every night for nearly a year during his second year of life.  It now has moved into the 'occasional' rotation.  Another bonus of  Cuddle from the mom perspective: it isn't so long that I cringe when asked to read it! Which is a huge plus for nightly-repeat books. 

I like fruit by Lorena Siminovich:  I bought this book for Mae's stocking and I couldn't be happier with the simple texture and color based book.   It has a unique collage style artwork that teaches not only colors, but also fruit and various fun textures.    It's a nice change from more traditional learning colors books.   Mae is a fan and so is her big brother even though he already knows his colors and fruit.

Romeo & Juliet by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver: This is a great little counting board book.  Don't expect this book to truly tell a story of Romeo and Juliet though.    It takes some of the staples from Romeo & Juliet and counts them: 1 balcony, 2 loves, 3 people meet, 4 roses, 5 friends, 6 musicians, 7 masks, 8 love letters, 9 streets and bridges, and 10 kisses. Toss in a few of the memorable quotes, character names, and darling artwork and you have a sweet little book.  Far from a retelling, but for true Shakespeare fans it creates an opportunity to introduce the story at your own pace to your kids. There are others as well in the BabyLit series, but at $10 a pop I think we'll be slow to add them to our collection.

In the Garden with Van Gogh by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober:  Far from your traditional board book - this book is a great introduction into some of Van Gogh's classic art pieces.   The pictures are large (for a board book) and the lyrical writing is thematic to the painting. My favorite of Van Gogh's paintings - Starry Night is in this book (a little cliche, I know, but I love the textures and the blues!)  In the back of the book there is a list of the paintings and the museums in which they appear, which is a nice reference for the parents. There are many different artists featured in these Mini Master classics, so your favorite is likely to be found!  Even better is there is a Mini Masters Box Set that contain even more great historical artists for a great price, which is what we own. 

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There you have it some great books, many of them board books for your tough on paper kiddos!   I love that my kids love to read, look at pictures, and explore books all on their own.   I am in the process now of creating a reading nook in my son's closet.  Still waffling on how elaborate and permanent I want to make the nook - but for now he's enjoying a pile of pillows/blankets in his closet with his bookshelf moved in there.  :) A post on that is surely on its way!    Happy reading and memory making with your kids!