Sometimes..

it's just fun to glue stuff on paper. Gotta love random stuff from the dollar store.

Tidings From The Tub

Supplies

This summer we plan to do a lot of finger painting (good sensory activity and I'm pretty sure New Fish can do it.) We ordered some fun supplies (shown above) that I'm really excited about.


Also- Kids art group starts next week. The supplies arrived this morning. It was like Christmas around here. A lot of jumping and clapping. It's going to be crazy fun! I've been taking an inventory of my personal art tools to see what we can use with the supplies for the group and it's pretty out of control.

Our plan

Paint to share (Both liquid watercolors and tempera)
Paper For Projects including water color paper, colored paper, texas snowflakes, bleeding papers and newsprint
Collage Materials
Modeling Clay

Art kit containing-
Colored pencils
Watercolors
Chalk
Crayons
Markers
Paint brush
Glue stick
Glue Bottle

I have a lot of ideas for projects including:
Collages,
Foam Prints
Monoprints
Pinch Pots- or sculptures
Water Color resists
Water color Paintings using bingo bottles, sprayers, droppers, splatter techniques etc.
Paper Sculptures
Water color stamps- leaf prints etc.
Collographs using tempera
Shaving Cream Prints
Messy Art Day

Goals-
To expose the kids to a lot of different materials and art processes so that they know how to use them on their own.
Encourage them to see materials a variety of ways
Expose them to artists
Give the kids a chance to all play together
Let them do free form artwork
To have as little instruction as possible and as much time to create as possible
To be outside where there is little clean up

Squirrel Rampage

There is a family of enormous squirrels living in the rocks behind my house and they drive my dog absolutely crazy. Earlier, I was on the phone with Two Fish and feeding New Fish in the high chair. Blue Fish was out trying to catch the squirrels. I walked out on the back porch to try and call the dog inside and the squirrel came charging across the grass so fast, I didn't have time to shut the door. Dog and squirrel came throttling into the kitchen. I of course dropped the phone and started screaming bloody murder. I grabbed Red Fish and stuck her on the top of the kitchen table. The animals were ricocheting off the walls and sliding across the wood floor. They nearly overturned the kitchen table where Red Fish was dancing wildly. Both little girls started to scream. (New Fish with terror and Red Fish with delight.) I raced circles around the kitchen, completely positive that the wretched rodent was going to run up my leg because it kept running for me. The dog nearly turned over the high chair trying to get the stupid squirrel. Luckily the rampage ended after a couple minutes when both the dog and squirrel ran out the back door. I quickly locked them outside.

The whole time all this was going on, Two Fish was still on the phone and could hear all of the screaming and barking. He thought it was pretty hysterical when I got back on the phone and told him what had happened. Who knew I was so terrified of squirrels?

What I Do

I'm a graphic designer. These are covers of the CDs I have designed in the last six months. I've also designed dozens of brochures, logos, business cards, expo booths, posters, etc. I also run a stock music library with my brothers. We produce music for use primarily in the television and film industries. Now you know why I'm going a little insane.

Sticks

When they look like this after one recording session, you know it has been a successful day. I'm excited for our new CD!

Paper Sculpture

Construction Paper and masking tape. I cut the shapes out for Red Fish, but I should probably start letting her try the scissors out.

There Were 5 In The Bed

and the little one said "roll over, roll over." One fell out and took a picture...

A pukey plague has come upon our house with weekend. At one point I made everyone sit on a plastic table cloth to control the fall out. I hope your weekend was better than ours!

8 Months, 30 Months

This post is a little late but I'm trying to track the milestones, so better late than never.
New Fish stood up in the crib a couple days ago for the first time. It's time to lower the crib mattress. She flips, rolls, squirms and army crawls to get to something she wants. She LOVES having solid foods, especially finger foods. She is really enjoying feeding herself. She has some juicy legs that I thoroughly enjoy squishing. She still has her adorable smile but now she squints her eyes when she is being especially silly. Her new tooth is halfway out and everytime she has a rough night, I swear she is getting another one. They have yet to materialize. She is extremely ticklish. New Fish has found her voice and enjoys hollering at the top of her lungs for several hours a day.
Red Fish is such a wonderful little girl. She is growing up way too fast. She has an endless supply of energy and curiosity and she pretty much doesn’t stop all day. She still never walks anyplace. She RUNS on her toes. She is in the process of getting her last two year old molar. She loves music. We spend a lot of time playing the piano together. She has recently become really interested in listening to me play the violin or accompanying me on the piano or her little recorder. She has a great sense of rhythm. She still obviously loves doing artwork. Some mornings I wake up to her dragging me out of bed so we can get started on a project. She loves to be read to. She especially loves to be read to by her Daddy. I think she will always be a Daddy’s girl. She celebrates every night when Two Fish gets home from work. When Red Fish laughs, it is impossible to not laugh with her. She is the most darling little girl.

We've decided to rename Red Fish MacGuyver though because she can pick locks, remove child locks an get into things that she really should not be able to. It drives me a little crazy. Yesterday, she cooked her own waffle and got herself a piece of cake while I was in the shower.

Red Fish LOVES the dirt. Our camping trip was like a 4 day trip to heaven for Red Fish because she was able to roll around in the dirt the whole time. She likes to run around the backyard with Blue Fish every chance she gets and dig in the flower beds. I’m really excited to take her to the beach this summer because I think she is going to flip out when she sees all that sand and water. Her two favorite things in one place!

It has been really fun to watch Red Fish starting to really play with New Fish. New Fish is eight months old now so she is old enough to interact with Red Fish. I love watching them snuggle their baby dolls together or pass blocks back and forth. Red Fish can get New Fish laughing like nobody else. It has been so sweet to see how much Red Fish loves her little sister. Red Fish loves picking out clothes for both herself and her sister so they end up with some pretty crazy outfits sometimes.

We are all excited that the weather is getting better so we can spend a lot more time outside. We’ve started taking walks with the dog more and going to the playground. Red Fish is very interested in the temple right now and always asks to drive by it, so we’ve been walking around the grounds a lot.

We’ve been concentrating on having weekly family home evenings and I’ve been trying to laminate fun pictures etc. to go with the lessons so we can use them again. I’ve been shocked at how much Red Fish loves FHE. I think it might be her favorite night of the week. She likes to choose the song and decide who should say the prayer, and hold all of the pictures for the lesson. If we have any sort of game, she wants to play it every night for the next week. It’s really cute. She definitely inspires me to keep up with our lessons. Teaching Red Fish about the gospel has been really fun. She has such a sweet little spirit. She has started to be the one who reminds us when it’s time to pray.

Projects

Pretty much everyone who knows me, knows of my love for fish net tights and fancy hair accessories. I'm also a cheapskate because I refuse to spend very much money on these things. I've always been completely intimidated by the idea of making my own hair accessories because I am generally not very good with crafts (too much burning my fingers with the hot glue gun.) This morning, sil A, and Lovely N came over for a craft party. For me, it was some serious craft therapy.
I made 19 hair accessories, have three more almost done, and fixed three I had already. It's official. I'm totally totally addicted. I want to make hair accessories all day long. My favorite tutorials I used today are:

Click here for tutorial

click here for tutorial

Red Fish has been doing a lot of watercolor projects lately. More splatter paintings and some resists using crayon and rubber cement.

A Stop In Holland- Apraxia

We've been adjusting to the idea and trying to chart a course through all of this. Right now, I am feeling pretty peaceful about it. It's nice to know what is going on. There is a huge part of me that feels good that we can just formulate a plan and address the problem. That is how I work. I plan. I realize it might be a longer road than we anticipated, but Red Fish is so smart and special it will be a good journey. The best news is that Red Fish is very young and there are options for helping deal with this set back. We all have speed bumps in life and it looks like Apraxia will just be one of ours.

“Childhood Apraxia of Speech is a motor speech disorder. For reasons not yet fully understood, children with apraxia of speech have great difficulty planning and producing the precise, highly refined and specific series of movements of the tongue, lips, jaw and palate that are necessary for intelligible speech. a child with the diagnosis of apraxia of speech has difficulty programming and planning speech movements. Apraxia of speech is a specific speech disorder.

The act of speech begins with an intention to communicate. Next, an idea forms, outlining what the speaker wants to say. The words for the desired message are put in the correct order, using the correct grammar. Each of the words are comprised of a specific sequence of sounds (also called phonemes) and syllables that must be ordered together. All of this information is translated from an idea and information about order of sounds into a series of highly coordinated motor movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, and soft palate.

The brain must tell the muscles of these “articulators” the exact order and timing of movements so that the words in the message are properly articulated. Finally, the muscles must work properly with enough strength and muscle tone to perform the movements needed for speech.

In typically developing speech, children make word attempts and get feedback from others and from their own internal systems regarding how “well” the words they produced matched the ones that they wanted to produce. Children use this information the next time they attempt the words and essentially are able to “learn from experience.” Usually once syllables and words are spoken repeatedly, the speech motor act becomes automatic. Speech motor plans and programs are stored in the brain and can be accessed effortlessly when they are needed. Children with apraxia of speech have difficulty in this aspect of speech. It is believed that children with CAS may not be able to form or access speech motor plans and programs or that these plans and programs are faulty for some reason.” - apraxia-kids.org

So we are preparing ourselves for a trip to Holland. I'm not sure how long we will stay. I'm still thinking we will make it to Italy, but I don't know when or how exactly that will happen. But the best part is that I get to be on this trip with Red Fish and my family so it will be okay wherever we end up. She is so smart, so special, and has lit up my life in ways I never knew were possible. Whatever this trip brings, we are going to find ourselves in a good place.

"When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland." - Emily Perl Kingsley

Weekend Fun

I've been feeling like I'm in a bit of a funk lately. Everything has felt a little overwhelming and crazy. Luckily this weekend managed to bring plenty of reprieve with it. Things that made me happy this weekend: Fresh cut grass, sunshine, watching my girls play dress up, tricycles, a movie with the girls, BBQ, picnic, fresh air, long walk, open windows, clean house.
Dresses from Hawaii

Sounds Heard At My House Today

Paint splattering
Squeaky mop
Vacuum
Breaking glass (I stepped on a brand new frame - spastic.)
A killer moose puppet
Giggles
Squeals
Squeaks
Barking
Crying
Laughing
The Wheels On The Bus
Violin music
Violin screeching
Fists,knees, and heads pounding the floor (crawling attempts)
Pudding being beat
Running feet
The jingle of a dog leash
The ABCs and animal sounds
Wood blocks clinking
and oh so much more. The only thing not heard was... silence.

Splatter

Today I let Red Fish do a liquid watercolor splatter painting in the shower. She was a bit timid at first and then she just went crazy.
We tried a resist with some shapes cut out of contact paper but the edges bled. I think Red Fish had as much fun trying to clean up the rainbow shower with a squeegie as she did making her painting.

Serenade You To Sleep

Sort Of Crawling

She is on the move.

Mother's Day

I have been blessed with a wonderful Mother! I still pretty much need her on a daily basis. She has been a wonderful example to me and I hope to be more like her. I also hope that I will have the kind of relationship I have with my Mom, with my girls. I love my Mom so much! I'm a lucky girl to have her in my life.

I have been really lucky to be surrounded by women who inspire me to be better. My Mom, my mother in law, grandmothers, sisters in law, and some awesome friends have all made me want to be a better woman and mother.

Holler Baby

We call her "Holler baby" because she enjoys shouting at us all day just so she can hear the sound of her own voice.

Penguins

We took a field trip to the aquarium yesterday to see penguins. They put on quite a show!

Firsts

Motherhood has become a blur of kissing skinned knees, filling bubble baths, and snuggling little sweethearts. I spend my days cleaning up more than my fair share of bodily fluids and getting just the right number of baby kisses to counteract the madness. I run next to maniacal two year olds on trikes (who usually request the baby be put on back as a passenger.) I sing songs and clean up streaks of paint. I step on toys and tuck kids in bed (repeatedly.) It is an ongoing influx of joy, frustration, disgust, and laughter. I'm finding every day of motherhood to be humbling, overwhelming, hilarious, and fun.

On Sunday, New Fish got her first tooth. She is working on#2. She has been up on her hands and knees today trying to crawl and pulling herself into a standing position. Too many firsts for this mama! I want to slow time down and keep her little. Life just seems to pick up speed every time I wake up.

Playtime

Don't worry. I hold on to New Fish when they get to really moving.

Our Life- The Musical

Two Fish's Mom made Red Fish a book and CD of songs and finger plays for Christmas. We pretty much use it every day. We have a few instruments (but we could use a lot more) and we are adding to our favorite CD collection. We also spend a lot of time playing our piano and lately Red Fish has been requesting some violin every day. She loves to dance around me while I play and it is good for all of us.

Collage

Red Fish has been making a lot of collages with contact paper or glue sticks. We especially like using the Anthropologie catalog because it offers plenty of colors and textures.