Week #1

We've officially survived six days of house arrest...and we're still smiling :) Jake's doctors suggested that we keep him in 2-3 weeks prior to surgery to prevent him from getting sick. The last thing we want is for him to catch a cold or get an infection that would delay the surgery. So we decided after July 4th he would be homebound. He'll also have to stay in for about 3 weeks post-surgery since his immune system will have been compromised by being on the heart/lung machine so in total we'll be out of pocket for about 7 weeks. I was pretty overwhelmed thinking about this because I definitely love to be on the go so I decided I needed a survival plan for Jake and me. I ordered The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner from Amazon and it was the perfect solution. It has 365 activities to keep a toddler busy using mostly items I already had around the house. I went through the book and made a list of what looked good and made us a trusty schedule for the next two weeks. I scheduled two activities a day for Jake and also made a menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a fun snack. I guess I'm still a teacher at heart because I got really excited making these "lesson plans" and hung our schedule on the refrigerator. I just know that I function best when I have a plan. I also know it would make for really long days if I wasn't organized and that we would watch way TOO much TV. There's only so much Mickey Mouse Clubhouse a mom can take :) So here's what Jake has been up to this week:

My dad and Ty built Jake this train table a few weekends ago. We got him some train tracks and few trains last week and he LOVES them. He's spent quite a bit of time building tracks and playing with his trains.

The other toy he's decided he loves this week is his Lego Table. He builds the tallest towers he can possibly build. I have to lift him up to put the pieces as high as they'll go...also you can see that he's spent much of the week just in a diaper. If we're just going to be inside, I figure I'll have much less laundry this way :)

Activity #1: Magic Mud-- I just took a box of cornstarch and added water and blue food coloring. It has a really neat consistency. It feels like a solid but when you pick it up, it runs through your fingers. At first Jake was not a fan, but after awhile he decided it was fun to stir. I also let him run his cars in the "mud"--it all cleaned up really well.

Activity #2: Mini Car Wash--One super easy activity we did was letting Jake wash his ride-on cars and wagon. He loved playing with the hose and also sprayed Grace and me!

Activity #3: Popsicle Painting--Tuesday morning he painted with homemade popsicles. I just froze water and food coloring, and it makes great paint that easily washes off the table and clothes. He mixed the colors together and painted for quite awhile. He even made his Jo Jo a birthday card with the paints.

Activity #4: Blocks of Ice--Ty laughed at the next activity, but Jake loved it. I froze water in an orange juice carton and also froze little plastic animals in the water. We took the block of ice outside and Jake melted it with the hose (his new favorite toy) and watched the animals appear. He named the animals as they appeared which was also educational.

Activity #5: Collage Placemat-- I cut out the letters of his name in felt and put them on contact paper and then let him decorate it with all kinds of things from the craft box. He really liked the glitter though and it turns out the contact paper doesn't seal too well so I'm afraid to let him use it as a placemat. Instead its hanging in the window...the glitter makes it sparkle!

Activity #6: Peanut Butter Playdough--He wasn't a fan of this!

Meanwhile...here's what Grace has been up to:

She unrolled a whole roll of paper towels while I was making dinner:

She's been sitting in the Exersaucer for the first time this week:

And, she's had her first tastes of rice cereal which she surprisingly loves! Sadly, it hasn't helped her sleep through the night, but she sure enjoys it!