Photobooks

I'm a big fan of Shutterfly photo books. I made one for our pregnancy and one for Matthew's first 6 months of life. I made our adoption book as one and then when I wanted to send a copy to the Genetic Family, it was easy enough to go into my history and order another. I love that it saves my projects so I can go back to them at any time.

But I've also made a couple of less conventional books (ie non-Scrapbooks).

I made the first one when Matthew was starting to learn that pictures were of real people and things. Quite a lot of our family is long distance so I made him a book of "his people" so that he could learn the names and relationships of our family members even though he doesn't see many of them more than a few times a year.  I made an 8x8 20 page book and each page has one member of our family on it. I just called it "Matthew's Favorite People." It's so fun for him to flip through it and it really has helped him remember family members between visits.

I kept it really simple-just a large photo or two of each person that clearly showed his or her face, and his or her name printed in big, plain text. Here are the first two pages:

Then I made him a book called "Matthew's Favorite Things" and I chose an ABC Theme. Shutterfly made it easy because there are "stickers" in their book process that you can choose to put on each page, and they had a few ABC sets.

I was pretty tickled with how it came out. I made it more than a year ago and he still loves to look through it. I may do another when he gets older of some of his new obsessions.

You can see the book here or if I am doing this right, right here:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Here is my ABC List:

A: Airplanes
B: Bible, Books, Ball
C: Cat, Colors, Crayons
D: Daddy, Dog
E: Elephant
F: Frog, Flowers, Friends
G: Grandmas, Grandpas, Gears, Giraffes
H: Hugs
I: I Love You
J: Jesus
K: Kiss
L: Lion
M: Mommy, Matthew
N: Night night
O: Outside
P: Pineapple
Q: Quack (I totally cheated here)
R: Rocks
S: Scout, Strawberries
T: Truck
U: Us
V: Veggie Tales
W: Water
X: X (he LOVED to say the X when he was first learning his alphabet)
Y: Yellow
Z: Zoo, Zebra

You can easily enough do these same things with pictures and paper or traditional photo albums. The best thing about these two books? I only paid $8 shipping. Shutterfly runs specials ALL THE TIME for free photo books and all you pay is shipping. I also regularly see them and various other photo printing sites on Groupon and other similar daily deals sites. So if you wanted to do this, you could do it really inexpensively. You could even create the book now and save it in your account until you see a free offer.

 If you do create something, I'd love to see it! Have fun :)

Toddler Songs

I think if I were to have to narrow it down, I think the thing that gives Matthew the most pleasure in life is music. Mommy and Daddy and books might be tied, but it's definitely in his top 3. He loves to sing it, listen to it, dance to it, watch it, experience it...anyway he can get it. So, we sing...a lot. We sing about everything. We sing praises, we sing about what we're doing, we sing about what we just did, we sing about our friends...whatever. If I can say it with a tune, I do. I throw in lots of "doo dahs" and "oh doo dah days" between my stentences. If a song about whatever it is already exists, even better.

So I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite songs and I hope you'll chime in (pun intended!) and do the same! We sing a lot of songs everyone knows like "Jesus Loves Me" and "You are My Sunshine" but these are some that are less common. I would love to learn some of yours.

I taught VBS recently and sung this song with the kids a lot and was asked for it by some adults. I have no idea what the original source was. I learned it when I was teaching preschool about 15 years ago. I tweaked it a bit to be about God's rainbow but for the most part, it's not mine.

The Colors Song
Tune: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Red and Orange and Green and Blue
Pink and Purple, Yellow too
All the colors that we know
Way up in God's bright rainbow
Red and Orange and Green and Blue
Pink and Purple, Yellow too


I made this one up for my little dude because he's not really a little teapot. Warning: a composer, I am not.

I'm a Little Dino
Tune: I'm a little teapot

I'm a little dino, short and stout,
Here is my tail and here is my snout
When I get excited hear me ROAR
Stomp around and then ROAR some more

His full name (first, two middle names, last) is within 1 syllable of "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" and people good naturedly sass us about his name length, so we sing that to him, too with this revision

[Name],

Your name is very long

Whenever we go out, 

your friends are gonna shout

There goes 

[Name]

We learned these songs at Gymboree Play and Music. I have no idea if they "wrote" them or not.

Pop Pop Pop
Tune: One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians

One little, two little, three little bubbles
Four little, five little, six little bubbles,
Seven little, eight little, nine little bubbles,
Ten little bubbles go Pop Pop Pop!

Bubbles Song
Tune: Be Careful Little Eyes What You See

There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles in the air, there are bubbles everywhere,
There are bubbles in the air, in the air

There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way up high, there are bubbles in the sky
There are bubbles way up high, way up high

Can you catch a little bubble with your hand?
Can you catch a little bubble with your hand?
Can you catch a little bubble?
It won't be any trouble
Can you catch a little bubble with your hand?


Our favorite "real" music:
Veggie Tales Sunday School Songs
The Wiggles Yummy Yummy CD
The Colossal Coaster album I referenced yesterday
Absolute Modern Worship for Kids
Rockin Robin by Bobby Day
Splish Splash by Bobby Darin
Supercalifragilistic... from Mary Poppins
Jump! by Amber Sky Records (another VBS music song--REALLY fun for kids, hear it here)
Do-Re-Mi from Sound of Music
His Cheeseburger by Veggie Tales


At the suggestion of Ashley, we're trying out Steve Green's Hide Em in Your Heart. It just arrived, so I don't have a review or endorsement yet. I am also on the prowl for Psalty CDs.

So, what are your favorites? Made up songs, or "real" songs. Let's expand our repertoires!

Playdaux

Matthew has been exposed to PlayDo a couple of times and has always hated it. It sticks to his fingers, it's hard to manipulate, and I think he just really didn't see the point of all that trouble.

We love love LOVE the Children's Museum of Phoenix, which deserves, and will receive, a post entirely unto its own. They have this awesome art studio where children can come and play with all kinds of mediums. One day while Matthew was coloring, I noticed their dough. It was malleable and it was cohesive enough that it stuck to itself without crumbling, but it didn't stick to you. They're kind enough to give out their recipe for the dough. I hadn't made play dough in over 15 years so with no standing favorite, we gave theirs a try today.

First, it used all of my salt. I don't think I've ever run out of salt. Ever. I had to get creative to get enough, so I put some kosher salt in the Vitamix.

First, did you know that salt does this when its being ground? I didn't, either.


I eventually had enough salt and I got to making the dough. It requires some stovetop "cooking" but  it took only about 10 minutes, so I hardly think that counts.

I turned it out onto a cutting board to cool. In another 10 (maybe 15) minutes, it was cool enough for me to handle and knead.


I kneaded it and divided it in half. I let Matthew choose which colors he wanted. I tried to get him to help me knead it but at first, he didn't want to touch it. He got one little piece on his finger and did his "abassabassaba" noise that means "get it off me." So, he just watched.



He chose "red" and "blue and green."


I don't know if it was the addition of color or the fact that he watched me for a few minutes but pretty soon he wanted in on the fun. We took it to his little table with some cookie cutters and went to town. He really got into it and enjoyed stamping and punching different shapes. The dough was a little thick to roll out by hand without a rolling pin, but otherwise, it was perfect. Soft and not sticky, and cleanup was a breeze off of our hands, the table, and the bowls I made it in. I think the smile on his face shows that we have a winner.




Here is the recipe if you want to try it. Today is just the first day so I don't know how long it will last but so far, I've been pleased. Plus, it's totally non-toxic so it's safe in case anyone eats any of it (Matthew wouldn't, but I had to shoo Fiona out of the way several times!).


Children's Museum of Phoenix Play Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

2 cups salt

4 cups water

8 tsp cream of tartar

6 TBSP oil

food coloring

Mix together all ingredients in a large saucepan. Cook until it holds together and pulls away from the pan. Cool and knead. Separate dough and add food coloring as desired. You can add peppermint or almond extract for scent if you'd like an extra sensory aspect.