National Popcorn Day

So, the actual day is up to debate. I've seen that it was January 19th. I've also seen that it falls at the end of January and usually near the superbowl. Anyway, we chose to celebrate National Popcorn Day today.

Warning: Popcorn is a choking hazard and not recommended for Toddlers under age 3 (that being said I do let Ellie eat popcorn as long as I am with her. I also give her other foods on the choking hazard list such as grapes, nuts, corn and beans. Please don't report me as being a bad mother!)


(Ellie with her friend Paiton, who came over to play. Ellie LOVES watching the popcorn pop)

Texture

Ellie loves playing with texture. Beans, Rice, Water, Bubbles...whatever I give her she keeps herself well entertained. She loved filling up different containers with popcorn.

Popcorn Snowman

This is how it could look....

use your imagination...this is a Picasso style snowman

Popcorn Pictures

It was a little bit hard to understand the concept that once the popcorn touches the glue it is not a good idea to eat it.

More Color Fun

I think it is safe to say after today that Ellie officially knows the basic colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown, Black and White). She still will default to yellow a lot, so when you ask her a color she starts saying yellow, but then tells me what the actual color is.

Here are some of today's highlights:

Traffic Lights

So, you're supposed to have the kid rip the paper. This was extremely frustrating for Ellie. I ended up helping her, but we'll have to work more on the fine-motor skills I guess.

She did love being in charge of the glue. She was very amazed that the paper stuck to the glue bottle.

She would sometimes start laying a paper in the wrong circle, but then look at it and pick it up to move it to the correct one.

Color Squishers

We've done this before with colored Corn Syrup. This time I used the left over yogurt finger paint from Monday. She didn't get very into this activity, because she knew that it was the finger paint and wanted to really paint instead...so we did.

Color Matching Parking Lot

This was a fun use of our color cards. My favorite though was when Brielle found a lowercase "t". She thought it looked like an airplane and was VERY excited. She started running through the house with it saying "airplane, airplane" Obviously she doesn't really know her letters yet. Now that we have the colors down, I guess we might have to focus on those.


We also went to Impression 5 Children's Museum today. I was a bit busy keeping track of Ellie and Wes so didn't get great pictures. Maybe next time.
I told Brielle this morning that we would go after lunch. All morning long she kept bringing me her shoes saying "seum, seum!"

Colors

Well, this doesn't have to do with colors, but we started of the day by joining a group of mom's at Krispy Kreme. They offer a free "service" for groups where they let the kids decorate donuts. I think they are just trying to get kids hooked at an early age, but it was still a fun activity.

Ellie loved the sprinkles. She doesn't really care for donuts all the much though. She only ate about 1/4 of the donut and picked off sprinkles on the rest.

She did love watching the donuts being made.

Color Mixing

This was a really fun way to focus on colors. Brielle didn't seem to understand the science of primary colors making secondary colors, but she loved mixing the colors.

She spent at least 30 minutes playing with the water and might have gone longer if we didn't have to leave to meet friends at McDonalds for lunch. She thought it was really funny to pretend to drink the colored water. I'm sure it would be safe, but I discouraged it anyway.

Color Match Cards

I made some color cards that we played a few games with and will continue to use for other projects as well. We tried a simplified Go Fish, which was fun. I tried to see if she could play memory, but she would just pick up the cards as I layed them down...we'll have to save that for when she is older.

Her favorite game: I put the cards across the room on the piano bench. I asked her to get me a certain color and she would run and grab it and then bring it to me. It was a great way for me to sit on a chair and relax while she ran around to get her energy out.


Some favorite color-related songs we've been singing:
The Spectrum Song (from Disney)
The Rainbow Song (from Signing Time)
Our Primary Colors (from the LDS children's songbook)

Hooray for James!

James found out yesterday that he past the North American Veterinary Licensing Exam. That means:

1. he doesn't have to take it again and
2. when he graduates in May he is certified as a licensed Veterinarian and can actually work!

Congratulations on passing the Boards!

Chinese New Year

Warning to all of you: I'll be posting a lot more frequently the next three weeks. James is in Portland, Oregon doing an internship at the VA Hospital. He wants to know what we're up to at home...so here it is!

This week we are focusing on colors. Brielle has been very interested in colors lately. James thinks she knows her colors but I'm still skeptical. I decided to do some projects this week to test if she really knows them, or is just really good at guessing.

We've started off the week with some projects to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Chinese Lanterns

I held up two markers at a time and asked Brielle which color she wanted. She actually did a really good job of saying the color while reaching for the right marker associated with that color.

And she LOVED the finished lanterns.

Egg Carton Dragons

Ellie was a little confused by this. I've been working so hard to make sure she knows she can only color on paper. So I put the egg carton in front of her and she wasn't quite sure that she was allowed to decorate it.

I assembled it during nap time. I know it looks more like a frog face or a caterpillar, but just use your imagination and pretend it is a dragon.

Yogurt Finger Painting

I had yogurt past expiration that we weren't going to finish fast enough. I decided to turn it into fingerpaint.

When Ellie walked into the kitchen and saw these sitting on the counter she immediately started naming the colors.

Since it is the year of the ox we started by painting the picture of the ox. She loved the painting so much though that we quickly filled up this page and went on to more and more. The camera battery died before I could get final pictures, but imagine yogurt covering her arms, chest and hair...yep, we went straight to the bath after this project.


So after today I'm sure she knows Black, White, Yellow, Orange and Purple. I'm not positive that she always gets Green, Red and Blue. She sometimes called blue purple and green yellow. (and no, at this point I don't think she is red/green color blind)

Orlando Videos

Here are a couple of videos from the trip to Orlando.  Between the conference and interviews we were able to have a little fun as well.

This video clip is from the opening act of the Shamu Rocks show.  Brielle really liked the show and has asked to watch this video again and again since being home.  It was a little chilly but the show was a blast to watch.

This was Ellie's first hole at the miniature golf course.  She was very excited, even if she hit the ball the wrong way.

This is the 18th hole of the course.  As you can see Brielle was done golfing and has tried to reinvent the game.

Orlando

James attended the NAVC (North American Veterinary Conference) in Orlando, Florida this past weekend. Brielle and I were lucky enough to come along.

We had a two hour delay at the airport in Detroit due to weather. It was a very pleasant shock to get away from below freezing Michigan (-10 when we left) and into warm Orlando (when we landed it was 75 degrees!)

We stayed at the Polynesian Isle Resorts. James found a great deal on travelzoo for half of what his conference was paying for a single hotel room. It was only a couple miles from the conference (and also right by Disney World and Sea World). We had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (the master had a huge jetted tub which I loved and took full advantage of).

Our local Lansing Potter Park Zoo membership got us in free to the Central Florida Zoo. Ellie was so excited to see the Animals. As we were driving to the zoo she was in her car seat continuously signing and saying "animal." I guess she wanted to make sure we didn't forget where we were going.



The armadillo wasn't even actually part of the zoo. I've never seen an armadillo in the wild before, so that was pretty exciting. It didn't seem at all scared of us, which made me nervous because Brielle wasn't scared of it either and was trying to get close enough to touch.


After driving through the city of Celebration (a city built by Disney with a very Truman Show feel), we decided to try miniature golfing. I don't think James and I have ever been together before. Brielle obviously loved the new experience.

This course had "volcano" in the middle of it, which periodically made a loud noise blowing fire out of the top. Brielle jumped every single time, and would have been scared if she didn't look at us to make sure it was normal.


While James was at the conference Tuesday morning Brielle and I went over to the Peabody Hotel. They happen to have ducks that live in their own penthouse and everyday at 11am they ride down the elevator and come jump in the water. It was a bit random to see ducks racing off an elevator, but Ellie and I were both excited to see the ducks. At 5pm each evening they get out of the pond in the lobby to trek back up to their penthouse suite.


We decided not to go to Disney World on this trip (due to lack of time and money) but stopped at Downtown Disney to capture a little piece of the Disney experience. They have a lot of fun shops there. This is at Rainforest Cafe.

And this is outside the Lego store. The dogs and people are obviously all made out of legos...very cool.


One of the vendors at the conference gave away some free tickets for an after-hours event at Sea World. They provided a free dinner and then had a few of the attractions open. Ellie wasn't tall enough to ride on anything and I wasn't supposed to due to being 7 months pregnant. We still enjoyed seeing the baluga whales and penguins at the Wild Artic. Brielle loved playing in the sand at Happy Harbor.

But the Shamu Rocks Show was our favorite event. It was cold that night (for Florida at least...it was in the 40s) but that didn't stop us from sitting in the splash zone to see the killer whales preform!

Just as a side note we did more than play. James attended sessions at the conference and also had a couple interviews for a residency position at University of Florida. They were impressed enough with him that they are flying him out to their school next weekend so he can actually see the facilities and meet the others there.

It's Cold Outside

One good thing about the cold winter weather is being able to defrost the freezer without even hurrying. I didn't even bother to boil water or anything. I (with James help..thanks J!) just put all the food outside in the negative degree weather and let the freezer defrost itself.

Then Ellie helped wipe out the freezer so we could put the food all back in. So easy.

Another thing I like about the cold weather is being able go shopping and then run other errands without worrying about food spoiling in the car.

However, I am VERY excited for spring to come.

Blocks-Christmas Present Spotlight

I'd have to say Ellie was pretty spoiled this Christmas. It wasn't by her parents (don't tell her, but we didn't really get her anything! We figured she wouldn't notice yet and since we don't have a lot of money...we'll just save for another time.)

I love these presents particularly because it shows so much time and effort of our friend Jim.

He made all the blocks, burned letters and numbers into them and also made the wagon to carry them in. I know, he is IMPRESSIVE!!

I usually keep them downstairs, and it is always the first thing she runs to to play with. She loves building towers. She especially loves knocking those towers down.

Luckily she has learned to set them down nicely (not throw them across the room like she use to) and also to help clean up when she is done playing.

Jim even made a pull string and put wheels on the cart. She pulls her blocks all over the house.


He also made this stool. I think of a stool as merely a functional item. To Brielle though it provides hours of entertainment. She loves to carry it over to the window to look out. She plays "two...jump" climbing on and jumping off.

She also likes to just sit and rest.

Isn't it nice to have great friends?

First Born-Brielle

I don't usually do these sort of things, but I was tagged by Deb, and thought this would be interesting for my own journaling sake as I start thinking the delivery of our next baby.

All about Brielle:
1.Where were you when you first found out that you were pregnant?
In the bathroom at my house in Lansing..I had a pretty good inclination before though due to pregnancy symptoms (I won't go into details) while I was jogging.

2.Who was with you?
Just me. James knew I was going to take the pregnancy test and wanted to be there, but I woke up early and couldn't wait.

3. How did you find out that you were pregnant?
Home pregnancy test

4.What was your first reaction to finding out you was pregnant?
Excited, a bit shocked and nervous...but mostly excited.

5. Who was the first person you told?
James. I went back to bed and waited till he woke up to tell them. Of course I couldn't fall back asleep, so I just tried to lay quietly as my mind raced about all the changes that would be coming in our life.

6.Did you plan to get pregnant?
Yes. We kept praying to know when the time was right. We got a clear answer at the Temple the month before we got pregnant...we just didn't know it would happen so quickly.

7.Did you tell everyone else right away?
No. I wanted to wait, but then needed someone to talk to about it (other than James) so told my Mom at 6 weeks. Since I told my mom James thought it would only be fair to tell his parents...and then from there the families found out pretty quickly.

8. Was everybody happy for you?
Definitely.

9. Did you go out and celebrate?
Probably, I just don't know for sure what we did.

10.Did you want to find out the sex?
James did; at first I didn't think I wanted to know, but then I was so stressed about coming up with the name that I changed my mind. I'm glad I did, because for me it helped start bonding when I knew it was a girl and could call it "she" instead of "it"

11. Did you get any outfits at the baby shower that you knew you wouldn't put on your baby?
Ummm...I don't think so. I have picked up some other free clothes that I didn't use...they just weren't my style.

12. How much weight did you gain?
I didn't trust the doctor's scale, since it depended on my shoes and clothes. I didn't weigh myself on our scale the last couple weeks though, so i'm not exactly sure. According to my scales beginning weight and the doctor's scale ending weight I gained 36 pounds.

13. What did you crave the most?
Oatmeal and Popcorn. James was disappointed that I didn't have an major craving that he had to go out to get. He was hoping I'd crave ice-cream or cookies or something fun for him.

14.Did you crave anything crazy?
No. I really didn't have any strong cravings. It was mostly just things I liked anyway that I felt I could indulge in more because of the excuse of pregnancy.

15.Who or what got on your nerves?
I was still working for progressive, so it was just the crazy or angry people that I had to talk to on the phone once in a while.

16. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy?
Nope, just the normal pregnancy stuff. Acid reflux starting at 16 weeks and not quitting until the end. Throwing up through the end...but no real complications.

17.Where and when did you go into labor?
I was at work. I wasn't postive I was really in labor but kept track of the contrations the whole time I was there. I only worked a half day since we were supposed to go to James' grandparents in Ohio that day. I came home and told James it would be better to stay home. I had to call my mom before I believed I was really in labor though.

18. Who drove you to the hospital?
James

19.Who was in the room when you gave birth?
Just James, the nurse and a resident. My Doctor didn't get there fast enough. There could have been other nurses or something but I honestly didn't notice anyone else.

20.Did you go early or late?
A LOT earlier than I expected. I told myself I would be a week late (I didn't want to feel to anxious when it got close to the due date). Ellie was born 3 weeks and 2 days before the due date and we were not ready, at all.

21. How long were you in labor?
about 13 hours. Starting at 8am at work for four hours (contractions were 8 minutes apart). I then labored at home until 7:30pm when James said it was probably time to go in. My goal was to labor at home as long as possible, I didn't want to go to the hospital and only be dialated a couple centimeters. We got there and I was at 8 centimeters...Ellie was born at 9:39pm.

22. Did you have any drugs for the pain?
No, I didn't want anything. The bath and walking helped the most.

23. Did you go natural or have a C-section?
Natural

24.What was your first reaction after giving birth?
I was still shocked that it was all really happening. I remember laying there telling myself I needed to focus on my baby, but not knowing what to do.

25.How big was the baby?
7 lbs 5 oz, and 21 in long

26. Did your husband cry?
I don't think so. He was just excited and busily taking pictures.

27.What did you name the baby?
Brielle Christine Finlay. We didn't really decide until the 2nd day at the hospital. We had it narrowed down to 4 and this was my favorite...I was just waiting for James to say okay.

28.Does his name have any significant meaning?
Brielle means "Heroine of God" or "God is my might"-it is the femine version of Gabriel. I heard the name when I worked at summer camp about 10 years ago and fell in love with it. Christine is my mom's name. My Mom has always been my hero, so I knew I would want to pass her name on.

29. Did you have any visitors?
Yes, a good friend who brought by some needed supplies (I didn't yet have a nursing bra or nursing pads and didn't want to send James to pick those out.)

30. Did the baby have any complications?
No. She didn't nurse great at first and was considered "failure to thrive" for the first week or so until we started getting the hang of it. It wasn't too bad though...I knew I didn't want to use formula, so was glad that it wasn't bad enough that anyone pushed me that direction.

31. How old is your baby today?
20 months

32.When is the next one coming?
In roughly 2 1/2 months, or whenever he gets here.

33.If you could would you do it all over again?
Yep, she is a sweetheart (most of the time). I love being at home with her, and I enjoy the challenge of trying to be a good mom.