on the tree tops

It didn't take long to go from lullabies to mud pies for my little boy. The most glaring example of just how "big" my baby has become is when he learned to climb his first tree. He literally went from not being able to climb it one day, to figuring out the very next. The huge smile of accomplishment was all over his face.

When I was a little girl our childhood home had a huge maple tree in the front yard. There was one strong, long, low branch perfect for me to shimmy up the trunk, cling and scoot out on the long branch, and then grab on with the back of my knees and hang. It was my thing to hang upsidedown like that all the time. Being in my tree felt liberating. Up there I was untouchable and surrounded by a lush, leafy world, a quiet place of peaceful observing.

Watching my own son have that experience fills me with pride and hope. Yes, I'm proud that E was determined enough to figure this out at the tender age of 3.5, but I'm also hopeful. I'm hopeful that he will find joy and solace in a tree of his own.

play date at West Shore Park in the Harbor

The fabulous creator of (cool)progeny hosts play dates and mom's only nights in and around Baltimore. We went to her recent play date downtown and had a blast! Be sure to visit her site and check out the great calendar listing of activities for kids under the age of five. She's got some (cool) guest bloggers AHEM as well!

natural backyard play space

Visit (cool)progeny to see my latest guest blog post! It's full of ideas for you to create a natural backyard play space for your cutie pie. Here's a dreamy sketch of mine:

Believe me, I'm fully aware of the fact that my dream space will be different than this idealized sketch. But hey - a girl's gotta start somewhere!

And since you're looking for reasons to play outside, why not turn an egg carton into a scavenger hunt? This is my version after I was inspired by someone else's egg carton on Pinterest.

encouraging creativity (there's video!)

I hope E experiences that wonderful sense of freedom and joy that comes through the creative arts. If nothing else, I hope he'll be able to appreciate all kinds of art, music, dance, and theater. He's off to a great start!

a visit to the lake and pumpkins!

 

This tulip poplar leaf was floating on the lake. Too pretty to pass by.



Daddy taught E how to toss sticks in the water.



There was no keeping him dry today. He had a point:
Why are we going to the lake if we can't get wet?!

The weather was too beautiful to be inside today so we ditched our Montessori class in favor of a walk at the lake, Loch Raven Reservior to be exact.

After E was good and soaked from trying to wade in the lake with the Canada geese, we headed over to our local nursery. Watson's is a wonderful mom-and-pop garden center so we support them any chance we get by purchasing most of our plant material there instead of a big box store. The good news? They had a great selection of pumpkins!

Despite the fact that E loves to walk in a stream or lake, he really hated getting the sticky pumpkin pulp on his hands. He's the opposite of his mama!

And in case you were dying to know, here's his most recent talk list:

ack = snack

guck = truck

uck = duck

bive = five
rrr = grrr (as in, I'm angry)
ug = hug
k = lake
k = bike
k = music (accompanied by sign language)

k = book (also with sign language)

dis = this

dat = that

nk = drink

up = up (as in, pick me up)

elp = help (and baby sign language)

t = eat

ess = eyes

sis = shoes

ess = kiss

iss = juice (as in his first taste of orange juice that was definitely memorable)

us = bus

ock = rock (like ones he picks up outside)

f = teeth

atch = Chatch (short for our cat's name)

ba ba ba = him singing a little tune :)

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I can think of right now. He's on his way!

The toddler busy-ness continues...



Why are we doing this again, Mom? For your amusement?

little things

Our baby is growing ever closer to age two. And with his independent, determined, busy-body spirit comes a faster paced world for us to keep up with. I'm trying to savor the little things, those simple moments of discovery and joy. But wow is the cliche true: oh how time flies.

Pipe cleaners + plastic jar = fun!

"Well, if I can't ride my trike yet I'll just sit on it in the rain."

Mushrooms are weird but irresistible to touch!
(Yes, we wash our hands. No, we're not freaks about letting him touch them.)

This makes my heart pitter patter.
Is it wrong for me to hope he'll be an artist like mama and dada?

The orange paint is a natural cornstarch paint that we tried.

That's it, E. It's more fun when you get messy!

This is a favorite pastime: - s-l-o-w-l-y rolling cars and trucks on the table and watching with steely concentration.

don't rain on my parade

I try to stay peppy despite the weather, but all this rain is brutal! I usually love to be in the garden during mild September temps and I feel like the time is slipping away from me. Let's see, an earthquake, hurricane, and flash flooding in two weeks...yep. That'll put a damper on things.

Add to the fact that E is miserable when he can't play outside and you've got, well, the perfect storm.

"At! At!"
"Okay, we'll go out. But first you need your boots!"
Seriously, you want me to wear these outside?

Boots? I think not, mama.
My toes like the rain just as well as my cheeks.

Luckily I have a stocked pantry for baking to keep me occupied. I've been testing recipes from my beloved cookbook, inherited from my Grandma. Last week I made homemade cinnamon rolls (they required two attempts to get it right). Today, it's my first attempt at croissants. And since everything tastes better with chocolate, I'll be putting my own spin on the recipe. As you can see, I have a little helper in the kitchen as I cook.



The water outside was fun. Now I'd like to play with the water inside.



Yes, I realize it's not super safe. But he's learning to balance and so far, so good!
I'm always right beside him just in case...

camp!

E has his first week of "camp" today! Alright, so it's more of a mommy & me class everyday, but it's at the Nature Center where I know we'll get to hike, meet animals, sing songs, etc. (Let's face it, I planned the camp in June.) Nevertheless it's wonderful to participate as a parent and not the teacher!

He enjoyed his first day. He loved staring up at the tall trees in the forest and romping through the tall grass in the meadow. We used a sweep net to catch insects and found loads of big grasshoppers and crickets. He even picked one up on his own! He oohed at some huge mushrooms and fungus growing on an old tree. He actually turned around three times to wave bye-bye to the fungus. Further down the trail we stopped to feel moss on some tree bark. All the parents melted when he kissed the tree (no prompting from me, mind you). That's my little nature boy!

It was a cool morning with a hint of fall in the air. As we walked back to the Nature Center, the wind was gently swishing in the tree tops. "Wishhhh wooshhhhh" I whispered in his ear. He whispered the same back.

After the class, we spent some time in the amazing Outdoor Classroom. We had so much fun climbing in this huge hollow log. It's so big that I can sit inside of it with him. It was a wonderful first day of camp!

tweet boom bang: musical guest post on (cool)progeny today

I love the sounds of nature in every season. But summer is especially noisy with cicadas, frogs, woodpeckers, birds, and crickets going about their business. We love to listen to animals and try to spy where the sounds are coming from. That's a daily occurance in our yard. It's just something we naturally do.

But all this bustling sound is busy and full of energy, too. It makes me want to do something and make my own noise.

This, combined with recent research I've been doing, has me thinking about natural, musical spaces for children outdoors. My guest post is on (cool)progeny's blog today - it's full of ideas on how you can create your own space with household items and recyclables. If you've set up something fun in your backyard or at your school, I'd love to hear about it!

So now I've got one more item to add to my ever-growing to-do list. I will be sure to post photos when our musical outdoor space is complete!

great day for a hike

What a beautiful day for a family hike at our favorite stomping grounds. E really enjoys hiking and he's becoming more interested in birds and bugs...as opposed to not noticing them before when he was uber concerned about keeping his balance! Check out our recent adventures:

He looks like king of the hill to me.

Isn't this familiar, mamas?

He got sick of me and daddy pointing things out so he decided to start showing us some interesting finds.



Hmm, what's in the grass?

 


I think this is a cicada killer - a big bee. The mama finds a hole, kills a cicada, drags it in the hole (if it wasn't already living there in the first place), and lays her eggs. I can't say for sure that's what this is though, because she never came out of the hole...

 

what keeps childhood alive?

For today's post, I am piggy-backing on a wonderful post I just read from the blog Intentional Life. She paints a scene from Mother's Day, one overflowing with gratitude for her family and the simple joys her children know. She poses a great question: what keeps childhood alive?

I'm sure we all wish we had the answer to this one. It's something I think about often in my experience as an educator. I am a big believer that it's positive experiences and the emotions born from those positive experiences that we hearken back to as adults. To me, the best way to keep childhood alive is to share it with young children and help create new feel-good experiences for them.

Especially in environmental education, I'd be foolish to think that scientific nomenclature is what a young child remembers best about time spent in the garden or in the woods. No, it's the feeling she gets from discovering the place that resurfaces throughout her life.

This is a topic that is deeply personal to me as an educator. But now as a parent, it is particularly troubling to me when other parents seem to nonchalantly brush this idea off. I am adamantly passionate about how important it is for us to spend real, quality time with our children. Quality time is about creating a bond of love and respect with our kids, of course. But it's also tied in to setting examples, creating positive experiences, and showing them IN ACTION (not words) that they matter.

Raising "good" people is serious challenge for anyone.

And guess what? This takes effort. LOTS of effort. And sometimes planning. It's not easy to let go of our own personal needs, especially after a long day or when we are under stress, to focus on our kids. Some days it may not seem humanly possible, and believe me, I've been there. But devoting UNPLUGGED, UNDIVIDED attention to our kids is crucial if we want to fan that beautiful spark that is blissful childhood.

How can we expect to keep childhood alive if we miss out on it in the first place?

discovery jars

A friend of mine visited a Waldorf School in Baltimore recently and said that the children enjoyed dropping objects into tissue paper covered jars. The "ka-plink" sound is pleasing to them and the paper protects the glass. I think she said that the kids were dropping old wooden clothespins into the jars.

I didn't actually get to see the jars myself, but I thought this was a cool idea. I figured I could make my own!

I re-purposed these leftover Ball canning jars and a recycled sauce jar to make my version of "discovery jars". I had some handmade paper scraps that were thick and perfect for covering the glass. (Tissue paper or fabric would be lovely, too.) I used regular Elmer's Glue (not the washable kind) to seal the paper on the outside of the glass. On the bottoms of the jars, I cut and hot-glued felt just to make sure they wouldn't break when set on a hard surface.

These jars are great for sorting, grouping, and counting (all important math concepts for early learners). Given my toddler's obsession with lids, these jars are perfect! I made a few for my preschoolers as well. They can sort seeds, shells, stones - you name it.

And you know what else? Lots of grown-up uses, too. The jars would be beautiful with a tea light inside as a lantern or tied with a ribbon for a flower arrangement.

down and dirty

What do you get when you combine flowerpots full of muddy water, sunshine, a bucket, and a toddler?

A down and dirty afternoon play of course!

Here's E thoroughly enjoying his wet playtime outside (as mommy clips the hedge row - got to work on that to-do list!). He is content to splash and scoop up water much like in the bath tub, only the reverse happens: he gets dirty, not clean.

Because we are always getting dirty and muddy, I keep a spare set of clothes in our living room, ready for a quick change once inside. All of his clothes are "play clothes" so I never have to say "don't do that, you're going to get your pants dirty." What a drag for a little kid to hear that all the time - that's definitely not our M.O. around here.

play date with (cool)progeny!

I'd like to thank Heather from (cool)progeny for hosting a great play date today! I contribute to her blog about once a month because it's such a fantastic resource for families in the greater Baltimore area. Her play date (the first of many to come) was an invitation for families to meet up and play!

We had never been to the Great Kids Village in Columbia but it was clearly an imaginary wonderland for kids ages 1 - 10. E seemed to have the most fun in the cooking and grocery area, but he also enjoyed playing in the huge sand pit, examining the real fire truck, and climbing on the dinosaur slide.

We can't wait for our next outing!