Road Trip Recap

Nolan was such a trooper in the car. We won't mention the actual wedding ceremony he was supposed to walk in but the 14hrs in the car each way were great. I only sat in the back next to him for an hour or two on each trip. He did nap a bit in the car but the first night stayed wide awake until we reached our stopping point well after 11pm.

His favorite activity on the trip that I made was definitely using the railroad tracks and roadways to "build". He didn't even bother to play with the cars or trains on the roadways much just made new paths and tracks over and over. He did play cars, trains, and airplanes separately.

The magnet toys on his cookie sheet were also a hit along with the magnet books. The alphabet plate game was fun but required a lot of mommy help to physically maneuver it and clip the clothespins. Nolan is big into sorting by color at home and that proved to be true on the road too.

The travel tray we used was fun but he would tire of it quickly. I didn't strap it around him and just let it lay there so he could toss it when ready. The cookie sheet was definitely much more used and much cheaper at only 1 dollar from the dollar store!! His homemade neck pillow was also a favorite. He would put it on and off by himself and slept with it during all his naps.

We didn't get to the activity pages I made but did plain coloring. He didn't understand the marble maze and wanted me to take the "ball" out and out the "pirate hat" on his head.  At home we tie a bandana on and play pirates so he thought that was what it was.

Here are some pics of Nol in the car!

Road Trip Prep

So besides helping with the revamp of my moms group procedures and getting ready for Carter's arrival (nursery posts to come!!) I've been prepping for our big road trip. Here are a bunch of the cool things I've made and gathered to help keep a certain 33 month old busy the whole 14 hours we are on the road. Pinterest has been my friend but as usual I don't follow directions well and seem to have tweaked everything to my liking.

I printed out a bunch of dot activity pages. These are perfect for fine motor development in toddlers. On this trip we are planning to use stickers to decorate. Place a star sticker or circle sticker in each circle. At home we often use the bingo dauber markers, play dough balls, or puffs. Besides the fun animal sheets that will be colored once the sticker fun is done, we have some letter and number sheets too. I purchase these templates from Play at Home Mom for 5 dollars total. (all letters and numbers).

My train and car obsessed little boy would never want to spend time in the car without his beloved toys. For this fun I took the simple 1 dollar cookie sheet that we plan to use as with numerous activities. I printed some stock roadway and railroad tracks and cut them into various pieces. Then we headed to UPS and laminated the batch. With magnets on the back they will now stay on his sheet while he runs his cars.

Here is our travel pack of cars, planes, trains, and various other transportation fun!

Another fun medium besides paper to paint or color on is wood. JoAnn's has a great supply of little boy approved items. Nolan's favorite is this train or his birdhouse sitting here waiting to be decorated. I plan to have him use his washable markers on the wood for fun vibrant colors. Then we can hang it in the car or let him play with it on the train tracks he builds. Dual purpose!!

I've been stocking up on various already made coloring and art pages. The velvet ones should help him to have a more detailed picture when he is done as his scribbling won't show up on the black felt! I found lots of superhero play at various dollar areas (Target, JoAnn's, Dollar Store). Also shown here is a spiderman magnet set. You color the magnets then get to play with them on a skyscraper magnet board they provide. Clearance at JoAnn's rocks!

Along with the super hero coloring we plan to paint. Paint is a bit too involved for the car though so these already paint applied sheets are perfect. I placed a sponge with a bit of water in a small tupperware container and packed two brushes. With just water Nolan can now bring these to life!

Various magnet fun shown here includes letters and numbers, dinosaur magnets, and a magnetix set similar to blocks but from magnets!

 I finally had my ISpy book made with a shutterfly coupon. You can read more about this project here.

We also made a portable lego box!!

Next Nol will be practicing matching his letters. I did not do capital and lowercase matching because he is not yet ready for that but instead just plan to have him work on fine motor with the clips and talk about what letters he sees. He likes sorting and doing these projects on his own so I plan to hand it to him as is to see what he does. I have a bag for the clothespins ready but wanted to give him a headstart the first time he sees it!

 We made a fun non-messy sensory bottle with toothpicks and rice. The rice makes fun noises as it falls through the toothpicks!

Popsicle sticks and pip cleaner sorting. I only pulled a few from the container but using an upcycled oats container redecorated I made him a sorting box. I painted the area around each hole with a corresponding color. He loves to sort with a muffin tin so this will be similar. 

Marble maze! X marks the spot With this fun safe game the marble moves along a path until it gets to the other side.

I got Nolan one of the new Lego Duplo build and read stories. There is a board book inside and various duplo pieces with which you build the corresponding pictures. This one is a farm themes so lots of animals!

Magnet boards. I found these at a specialty toy store for very cheap! They are pirate and robot themes and come with a magnetic storyboard and lots of magnet pieces. He'll love making his own robots and playing pirates. I figure if the boards are hard to handle he can play with the pieces on his tray. 

Flashlight shapes. This nifty little flashlight has covers to make shadows. It's space themes so he can make the moon, rockets, etc. on the seat in front of him. Since Nol is rear facing he has the perfect platform to aim it at.

I also made him a travel pillow to keep his head comfy while he sleeps and his wedding tie! It's harder than you think to find a simple black toddler tie. 

 Here are all of his activities packed and ready to go!! I'll be sure to report back on how well each item worked to occupy some time. You can follow my road trip board on Pinterest for more fun ideas.

Artwork

Nolan loves to do "Artwork" as he calls it. Painting, coloring, any sort of crafting project I set up it doesn't matter what. We call JoAnn's the artwork store and he asks to buy artwork when we go there. It's a good thing for me because I tell him to keep his eyes open for things he needs and it lets me get some shopping in my favorite store done! I've added a few new projects to the house in the past few weeks but one of the most fun was his bathroom art piece. Enjoy!

As you can see once it dried mom added some embellishments. JoAnn's has the perfect finished wooden pieces for a construction themed bathroom.

Magic Obama!!

Hubby's latest iphone/ipad app collaboration is live in the Apple store. You can check it out here. With the election coming up politics are all the rage. Remember your favorite "magic" pool ball toy you used to ask questions too? Now you can shake rattle and roll with Obama while finding out how he'd answer your best questions. All spoken in his actual voice and phrases he really said, it's quite comical.

Don't worry...like Obama, dislike? This app isn't against him or for him. It's just political humor! Share with all your friends!!! Future characters coming include Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

Purchase in the Apple store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magic-obama/id535115496?mt=8&ls=1

Nolanisms!

The other night after waking up very late from his nap, we had a cranky toddler on our hands. He didn't want to eat dinner or really do anything. We finally got him to sit down at the table when he realized I had a baked potato and he didn't. Usually this is the norm since he won't eat one no matter what. He asked for one so I cut mine and put it on his plate. Since it was my food though it was piping hot and hadn't been cooling like his own plate. The potato steamed as I sat it on his plate and I told him it was hot. About 20 seconds later the steam stopped and the tears started. It took us a few minutes to figure out why he was crying but for the next 10 minutes he kept saying "Where my hot go mommy?" "I need my hot" and refusing to eat or do anything but cry. Finally, it dawned on me that he was upset his food had stopped steaming! He kept thinking we took his "hot" away and he wanted it back!

Me: Nolan you're face is all red. 
Nolan: No mommy I yellow.

Yellow is his favorite color and apparently in toddler world you should get to be the color you like best!


Nolan: Mommy I yucky eww.
Me: Are you supposed to go poopy in your pants?
Nolan: No mommy. I go yucky eww at park.

He got me there. He did poop at the park!

Dress Up

There has been a lot of dress up play in our house recently. It's time for me to get a few new outfits for Nolan to play with. 

Finally wearing and loving his 2yr old birthday outfit!

Every time he wears his tutu he flips his legs in the air to be a ballerina.

"Mommy, where my sword?" So mommy made him a sword!

I blast off!!

Stylin' getting ready for his walk down the aisle.

IKEA trip teaser

Yesterday was our much awaited IKEA trip!! Four adults, 5 hours in the store, and one large truck meant this....

In store caravan. We actually had a third push cart full of stuff out of frame. That's two carts and three push ones.

Loading the giant truck.

Inside the cab is all our small stuff!

Craft area! My awesome husband got to work right away. Better finished pics to come soon.

The whole craft set up. 

I didn't take pics of our other items built yet but more will come once it's finished and decorated. I just couldn't wait to show this neat stuff though!