Indoor Play : Big Balloon

I found a thin plastic bag in the house...I think it was from packaging or something. Mike and I blew it up and made a big balloon.

 Stan B was entertained for a good amount of time.

Plus it just wore him out!

 He loved it.

ballon from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Percussion

Stan B loves drumming on whatever makes a different or lovely sound. The latest found instrument that he found is this bamboo foot massager that we have. It sounds nice too!


playing the bamboo foot thingy from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Back Scratch

Stan B has discovered the amazing feeling of a good back scratch. We have this back scrubber in the bathroom and he pointed at it one day so I showed him how to use it. He was hooked. Every time we take a bath now he says, "Back scratch." He can sit there quietly for minutes getting his back scratched and sometimes he says, "Shoulders." or "Legs." Yay for back scratches!

Christmas Number Three

Here are some pics from our visit with the Grands:

Christmas Throwback

Merry Christmas!

Here are some throwbacks to his first and second Christmases.
FIRST:

We miss you guys soooooooooo much!!!!

SECOND:

We miss you, Sue, Dave, Carter and Abby! Oh, and Nala too! I hope you have a wonder Christmas! And Happy Birthday Auntie Sue!

Hide and Seek

 He hid in the fridge:

Determined Climber

Stan B is a climber. No doubt. He was climbing ladders pretty early on. Climbing walls. Climbing jungle gyms. Climbing trunks. Climbing anything. We were at the park in early fall and they have these little pole people that the Bear likes to climb. The blue one (above) is probably the hardest because there aren't many horizontal bars to firmly plant your foot.

This one day, he climbed that thing over and over again. I could tell his arms were getting tired. When I finally decided to record him doing it he was really pooped and starting to get a little frustrated. This video is also great because it shows how well he listens. It's visually boring but somehow fun to watch at the same time!


climbing 1 from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

He also climbs things like the fridge:

Maui Sugar Scrub

Sean's girlfriend, Nancy, gave me this lovely homemade sugar scrub. It's very luxurious. Stan B likes it too. It was sitting on one end of the tub and he'd open it and rub fingerfuls on his belly. But then he started using it as a toy and spreading it like it was peanut butter on his washcloth and then tossing it in the tub, so I moved it into the cupboard. When he thinks of it he says, "Sand? Sand!?" At first I was like, "Sand???" and couldn't think of what he was talking about but then put it together. Sugar scrub = sand. It does feel sandy. So, every once in awhile he asks for sand and I let him have one fingerful and then we put it away. He has the softest belly because of it.

Drum Dancing

Stan B loves to dance as you've witnessed in previous posts. This one is a little different because he is dancing to the beat of my (horrible) drumming. He's totally into it. He's holding his hockey stick because he was using it as a guitar before he started dancing.


drum dancing from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Indoor Water Play

With the weather being cold I've had to rack my brain for indoor activities. It's easy to pop in a DVD but a) I'm trying to limit screen time and b) After 30 minutes or so, he'll be done.  He's very clear about it too, "ALL DONE!" he'll say.

Anyways, I thought I'd bring out some bowls of water. Keeping it all on a rimmed cookie sheet was a good idea even though some water still ended up on the table and floor but I think it would have been worse without the tray.

He had loads of fun and it kept him entertained for at least 30 minutes - perhaps even longer!

The baster was a hit.

Swing

When Stan B was a wee baby he liked the swing and then when he was in the teen and early twenty months he started to get a little weary about them. He didn't last long...It was as if he would get nauseous or something.

Now he LOVES them. He swings on the big kid swings. I tell him, "Hold on tight!" and he always says, "Faster! Faster!" I'm trying to teach him to say, "Higher!" which he says sometimes now. When we go to the park in this cold weather I make sure I have his gloves on because he will last longer on the swings if he has his gloves. I also showed him how to pump but he hasn't quite gotten that down. He will even say, "Forward, backward." (While his legs are going backwards then forwards! Ha!)

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Now

Cookie Monster is Terrible

When Stan B first saw a Cookie Monster bit it was like love at first sight. It was adorable at first. He does a great impersonation. His most common treat these days is a honey graham cracker and so one night I let him pretend he was Cookie Monster while eating it(I like Dickie the Cat in the background at the beginning. She's like, "Oh gawwwwd. I'm gonna get outta here.":

cookie monster from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Ever since then we have had to reign him in and explain to him that we don't eat like Cookie Monster. He doesn't do it with actual food much anymore (the last time he did it is with a blueberry muffin on Sunday). It's quite messy. I think he finally gets it because after that muffin I knelt down and explained to him that we don't do Cookie Monster with actual food, only with pretend food. Ever since then he has just done pretend food. We'll see. haha. No matter what, it's funny. I wonder if parents wrote in to Sesame Street saying, "Please take Cookie Monster off of the air! It's ruining my clean floors!!!"

Boys and Balls

Trucks and balls. I swear. I have never pushed these things on him but he just LOVES them both...and from the earliest of ages. Those two things and pancakes.

A cool thing about kids (boys and girls) is that they can make anything a toy. If I had all the money in the world I would get him a play kitchen...but then I realize he doesn't really need one because he turns his shelves into an oven and books become trays and trucks become burgers. It's so cool.

Anyhoo. Grandma and Grandpa lent us their car while they went to paradise and in it was their cooler. Stan B quickly turned it into a ball display. Kids really like to organize stuff.

It kept him entertained for quite awhile. I also got this big red bucket to keep all of his millions of balls corralled in the backyard. 

Toddler Yoga

I totally forgot to post something for today so I am just going to share you some of Stan B's graceful yoga poses that I have on my phone. Here he is doing cobra and then down dog with one leg up:

We got this children's yoga DVD at the library - the Bear actually picked it out himself! It's really fun and he likes following along. 

Book Review : One Green Frog

Mike found this great, old (1978), counting book at the thrift store:

It's by Yvonne Hooker and illustrated by Carlo A. Michelini. It is quite charming. The illustrations are really sweet and the words are great too. The number 8 text says:

Eight quick, brown mice look for things to eat, scuttling through the house on soft and dainty feet.

Sorry for the blurry pic.

I also like number 2:

Two brightly colored toucans. What very peculiar birds! They can see as well as you can but their beaks are quite absurd.

  

Uncle Sean sent Stan B a recordable book (a book where you can record your (or anyone's) voice reading the book.) Stan B loves it! Here he is at the very end. He loves hearing Uncle Sean's voice:

uncle sean reads a book from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Thumbs Up

I feel like I posted this on the blog...but I can't find it so I think I'm getting my social medias mixed up (I probably posted it on instagram.) Anyhoo, this is funny. He does thumbs up with his index finger.


thumbs up from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

'Tend

He pretends that lots of things are hats. Here, it is a puzzle piece, "Hat." he says.

Stan B loves to pretend or as he says, " 'Tend." It started when we got this play food set. He would cut them (they hold together with velcro) and he serves me food and I pretend to eat). Then we would eat blueberries and raspberries fresh off the bushes at Grandma and Grandpa's house. There are also raspberries in the alley behind our house and he loved picking those berries & eating them.

Serving me fries.

Unfortunately (fortunately) there are lots of beautiful flowering trees and plants here with berry-like fruits that I don't know enough about (edible? poisonous?) and he would point at them and say, "Berries, eat!" and I would say, "No, you don't eat those you only eat the raspberries." One time he picked an unknown fruit and it seemed he was about to put it in his mouth and I said, "No, we don't eat those berries, " and he responded, " 'tend!" and put it near his mouth and pretended to eat it. I said, "Yes, just pretend." And then he said, "Berries, alley, eat." Which means that we only eat the raspberries in the alley. So smart.

It looks like the bears are making mischief but really it's a bunch of pizza and muffins on the ground.

At one of the playgrounds there is a little counter-like thing and I asked him if I could buy and order a hot chocolate. He looked at me, smiled and without much hesitation he turned around picked up some tan bark and handed it to me. I pretended to drink it. I pretend to pay him too. We play that often. When we are at home he uses his stacking cups and hands them to me and I pretend eat and say, "Spicy!" or "Hot!" or "Sour!" or "Sweet!" He loves watching my expressions and loves pretending to do it as well.

He is serving me a hamburger or pancakes here. You can also see his black eye a tiny bit. He either got it by running into the wall or the chair. He runs and dives on one of the dining room chairs and sometimes lands badly...

I came upon this pot with my little salt and pepper shakers in it. He was making something delectable.

Another pretend game we play is "Is that a dog?" It started out one evening when he was playing peek a boo and hiding behind the door jamb....he said, "Stanley are?" (He gets are and where switched around...so what he meant was, "Where is Stanley?") I said, "Did you hear something Mike?" and Mike plays along. This one time we heard the neighbors dog bark so we said, "Is that a dog?" and Stanley said, "No, Stanley!" and we say, "That dog talks!" and he giggles. It's really adorable...even after the hundredth time doing it.

Feeding the dino.

Playing with the play kitchen at the local toy shop. He loves those little pots and pans.

I made fake salt dough mini breads for him to play with.

Here he is serving the pretend bread.

He clears his bookshelf off (in the background) and uses it as a oven. Here he is spatula-ing  bread out of the "oven".

Here he is making cakes out of yoga blocks, books and trucks.

He was eating apple slices one day and I came in (because it was awfully quiet) and he pushed the ottoman up to the t.v. and was cutting his apple into tiny pieces while watching a cooking show:

He also pretends to make phone calls. Most often he calls Papa but he often calls Carter and Abby too. Here he is calling Papa:

calling papa from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Mushrooms

There are a lot of mushrooms here. They even offer a mushroom hunting class via the Parks and Rec program here. I may take it eventually.

 Stan B loves them. He likes looking for them and nudging (kicking) them over with his foot.

Here he is hunting for them with a stick. He also likes to poke them.

The Vaccuum Cleaner

Stanley loves to vacuum...or pretend to vacuum. But he gets frightened when I am vacuuming. He'll run away. It's funny. One day I new he was hiding behind the door but I was surprised to see what was on his head...

He was wearing Mike's shop ear protectors! Haha!

Video Catch Up

I have so many videos that I haven't posted so I'm going to post them all here! Have fun:

In the tub:

bathtub from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

A fun light up bath ball/toy:

bath ball from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

playing with the frisbee:

frisbee from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Mud play:

mud swim from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Drums and cymbals:

drums and a cymbal from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Playing Hockey:

the very particular hockey player from erin kawamata on Vimeo.

Biking

There are some great biking trails here. I bought a bicycle seat to attach to my bike back in Raleigh for $10! Mike finally attached it to my bike and Stan B and I (and one time Mike joined us) went for bike rides. Before the bike seat was attached Stan B enjoyed just wearing his helmet around the house:

I was really hoping that he would like the bike. We rode east on our first ride and it was wonderful. Stan B loved it. 

On the back of the bike, pre-ride.

While riding we would have conversations like this:
Stan B: Mama!

Me: Yes.

Stan B: Mama!

Me: Yes, talk to me. I can't see you.

Stan B: Mama!
Me: Yes, Buddy, what?

Stan B: FUN!!

Hahahaha. Seriously. We had that conversation about 3 times. So, he had fun.

Here he is on our break.

He conked out on the way home. I could tell because one, I could feel his weight flop back and forth on turns and two, I have a little rearview mirror on my helmet.

We did the same trail with Mike the next weekend. There are fruit trees (of course) along parts of the trail and Mike stopped to pluck some plums and apples.

Apple plucker

The weekend following that we went west and rode to Washington State! It was lovely but windy. I really wanted to get to Pullman but Stan B was getting cold because of the wind. Here is some of the landscape on that trail:

Stan B pointing at a plane:

I am looking forward to when the weather gets warmer so we can put our wheels on pavement again!