Playdough... Embrace It!

I know, I know most parents hate playdough.  Secretly I'm a hater too.  It grinds into carpet, sticks to socks it's squishy and messy.  But you have to admit it, kids LOVE it.  It's a great thing to love because it's such an awesome tool for building fine motor.  While your kiddies are rolling and squishing, squeezing and pulling they are building their little hand muscles and perfecting their coordination.  Which translates into better paper/pencil skills and I KNOW that parents find that important.  The possibilities for playdough are endless.  There are many commercial products available the actual dough and many cutting tools.  There are even super fun pizza, ice cream and cake making kits.  Keelyn has had much fun with all of those things.  However she enjoys finding things around the house and making the playdough even more.  It's a great activity that the two of us can do.  Here's a list of some of our favourite around the house items we use for playdough

At Home Playdough Tools:

-plastic forks, spoons, knives
-potato masher
-garlic press
-pipe cleaners
-straws
-tooth picks
-various sized lids from containers
-toy cars
-Barbie shoes
-The shapes from the Tupperware Shape Sorter ball
-coins
-puzzle pieces, especially wooden pieces
-Fisher Price Little People
-cookie cutters
-cookie press
-toilet paper rolls
-old toothbrushes
-shampoo bottle lids
-sensory balls

There are many playdough recipes out there.  A quick google search or peek on pinterest will yield tons.  I had to try out a few before I found one that I loved.  I haven't had any success with the no cook kinds.  They always end up really sticky.  My favourite is a cook kind from playdoughrecipe.com with a few variations.  I use alum because it's cheaper than cream of tartar but you can completely leave it out.  I also use koolaid instead of food colour because it makes it nice and scented and sensory.

Playdough Recipe

-2 cups of plain flour

-2 tbsp of cookin oil

-1 tsp of alum

-1 cup of salt

-2 cups of water

-1 package of koolaid or food colouring (add to water) 

-Place all the ingredients in a medium pot, cook slowly on medium until the playdough thickens

-Remove from pot and carefully knead.  I use the spatula at first as it's HOT!  

-Now you are done!

Sometimes I add glitter to it as well.  

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Fall Fair

I LOVE Fall.  The air is crisp and cool and smells so clean and fresh.  Colours are bright and vivid in the trees, sky and on the ground.  I love breaking out warm sweaters and making warm drinks and soup.  It's not too cold like it's neighbour Winter but just the right amount of cool.

Today we celebrated Fall by going to a Fall Fair.  I haven't had as much fun at a fair since I was a kid myself.  We went last year but Keelyn was too young to really get into the spirit of it and we skipped nap time which resulted in the largest tantrum ever.  This year made up for all of that.  Keelyn saw the Fair a few days ago when we drove by and she instantly exclaimed, "I want to go on the round and round thing" (Ferris Wheel) and when I told her we would go on the weekend it was all she could talk about for the next few days.

When Fair day arrived she was ready to go right after breakfast unfortunately we had errands to still do so holding her off was tricky.  He excitement was even more magnified when Gram gave her money to ride the carousel.

When we got there I wanted to look in one of the pavilion's first big mistake Keelyn was so grumpy and I thought I could cheer he up with having her sit on one of the largest pumpkins ever but not even that could take her mind of the rides.

We finally went to the rides and I'm not sure if Keelyn or I had more fun.  Phil whispered to me that I had to go on the Ferris Wheel with her as he's not a ride fan.  I guess I finally have my ride partner.

After all our tickets were used up she asked for a treat. As I listed her choices she told me she was going to have icecream AND a candy apple.  I said sure why not it's a special day!  She loved the candy apple but was confused about why there was an apple inside.  It took a bit of convincing to get her to believe that a real apple belonged inside.

After our yummy treats we went to see the animals.  There was a sectioned off area where you could go in and pick up and hold baby bunnies, ducks and chickens.  Keelyn's favourite was the baby duck.  She kept petting it saying, "aww he's so cute!" I have to admit I was taken by the small cuteness of the little guys too!

Anyway, it was a great fun family event.  Keelyn's uncle, my husband's brother even came along and we ran into my husband's cousin and little guy.

I already can't wait  until next year!

Now off to eat my candy apple :) :)

A Grumpy Girl being made to sit on the pumpkins 

William enjoying his ride in the carrier on daddy!

Keelyn's first candy apple 

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Summer Break is Over :(

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed that the evenings are getting quite a lot cooler and there is certainly a bit of chill in the morning air.  September is here and my husband, also a teacher, has returned to work.  Keelyn, William and I are very sad to have daddy go but we are settling quickly into our routine resuming playdates, walks, crafts and all sorts of adventures.  We look forward to all the fun autumn crafts and activities we will be able to do.  Tomorrow Keelyn and I are going to bake pumpkin spice muffins using a pumpkin from our very own garden :)

This Summer flew by.  We spent much of our time with my sister, her husband and their beautiful daughter (almost 1 year old).  My plan is to do a big recap post of the Summer so I will spare you the details now.  Since my last entry was July 9th, I will assume it will be quite lengthy :)

Anyway we celebrated back to school by going out for a rainy day walk and play in the park.  For some reason the park was really quiet that day :)  Keelyn LOVED having the whole place to herself though!

Good bye Summer, hello Fall!  My most favouite season of all!

She was absolutely soaked, even her boots were full of rain!  But she had so much fun!

William and I stayed nice and dry under the umbrella :)

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William Has Been Handed His Eviction Notice!

I almost don't want to write this but William is sleeping in his crib.  In his shared room with his big sister Keelyn. Tonight we handed him his eviction notice.  We decided to go for it after frequently waking him during our bed time.  He is such a light sleeper.  His big sister however could sleep through a drum solo outside her door.  According to her baby sitter, she has in fact done this!  

I was really nervous how bed time would play out  but it went smoother than anticipated.  Keelyn has been a monkey lately pulling out all the excuses but she was so happy to have her little brother there that there was none of that! We did our bed time routines, Daddy read the stories while I nursed and rocked William in the chair.  Once Daddy left Keelyn only had a few questions to ask me and then started to nod off.  She was out 10 minutes later.  William took a bit longer but he is happily snoozing.  Let's hope it lasts a bit longer then teh previous nights.  I don't need a miracle an 8 hour stretch isn't necessary but 4 or 5 would be nice.

William continues to be a tough guy when it comes to sleeping.  Night time is rough, naps are worse.  I've read a total of 4 books about sleep training and I've come to the conclusion that the Cry it Out (CIO) method is not for me.  It just doesn't work with my parenting style and beliefs.  I've been co-sleeping to survive so how do I go from my little guy all snugged up against me to leaving him alone in his bed.  Anyway a friend of mine sensed my frustration and she gave me a book to read called, "The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program" by Polly Moore.  I've heard a lot about 90 minute sleep cycles so it isn't really a new concept for me but I decided to give it a go.  When I read this in her introduction, "As a mother, I understand that no sleeep program will work if it asks you go act against your instincts," I knew it was right for me.  Admittedly I am only a few pages in and I am not certain if it's going to be a fix for William but it can't hurt.  My husband Phil is going to be on Keelyn duty for a few days in a row and I'm going to work on his naps.  

Wish me luck!

Let's hope this book is the cure for our rough sleeper!

A big "hello" from my own bed!

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Keelyn's First Printing!

Can you make out the 'a' and 'k' 

This is a total 100% Mommy brag post.  Keelyn printed 2 letters tonight.  For the first time.  An 'a' and a 'k'.  I printed them first and then she copied.  She's 2.5 year old and I think that's pretty fantastic!

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Washing the Dishes

This afternoon I set Keelyn up on our deck with a Rubbermaid bin, water, soap, and her play dishes. I told her that I had a surprise activity outside for her after lunch and she was so excited! When she got outside she was thrilled and she set to washing right away. Her neighbour best friend even came out and the girls happily washed dishes over and over while singing, laughing and chatting. What great oral language skills going on not to mention cooperative and life skills. Man I love when play based learning goes so well.

No I wonder if she will find so much joy in washing dishes when she is 15?

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Cranberry Banana Baked Oatmeal YUM!

Cranberry Banana Baked Oatmeal 

My healthy baking kick continues.  It's two fold really.  I'm trying to trim my weight but since I'm a breast feeding mom I'm trying to keep my milk supply up.  I struggle with low supply.  Currently I am pumping twice a day, eating a ton of oatmeal, drinking lots of water, taking 9 pills of Domperidone and 12 of Fenugreek every day.  In spite of all of this my supply is down again and poor William has dropped slowly from the 50%ile to the 10th.  I'm surprisingly calm about it.  When this happened last time with Keelyn it was devastating.  But he's generally happy so he's getting enough but I'd like to increase it to more.

So my baking this week all involves oatmeal because it is said that oatmeal increases supply. I have been eating oatmeal daily for breakfast so to change it up I made this delicious recipe Banana Bread Oatmeal from Budget Bytes but I made some modifications.   

4 Medium mashed bananas
1/3 cup apple sauce
2 large eggs
1tbsp of vanilla
1/2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp baking powder
2 cups almond milk
2.5 cups old-fashioned oats
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup of cranberries
4tbsp brewer's yeast
2 tbsp ground flax
1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut


The recipe calls for brown sugar but I omitted it completely and added 1/3 cup of applesauce instead.  I also put 1tsp of cinnamon and nutmeg and 1tbsp of vanilla.  I didn't have walnuts so I put in dried cranberries.  I put in a 1/2 cup of dried unsweetened coconut, 4 tbsps of brewers yeast (as it is good for supply) and 2tbsp of flax. I also omitted the salt and used almond milk instead of regular.  I have to say my cookies were an epic fail but this is really good!  Even Keelyn likes it.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 Mash Bananas then whip in apple sauce, eggs, vanilla and almond milk.  

Step 2: Add dry ingredients.  It's so flexible you can add any dry fruit or nut.  Even chocolate chips would be yummy! Give it a good stir.  

Step 3: Once everything is mixed pour into a baking dish.  You can use glass. I used a round stone from Pampered Chef.

Step 4: Bake for 30 minutes covered with foil.  Then remove for 15-20 until centre is firm and edges are browned.  

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