I'm sure you have all been wondering WHAT Little Lady has been up to. Since I'm at home, but not watching kids, what could she possibly be doing to keep herself occupied? What does a stay-at-home Mother do to keep her child(ren) busy, stimulated and learning? Well, what DON'T we do! I tell ya', there are TONS of things to do around here and I've been trying to take advantage of them as much as possible. The reality is, I'm frugal (some might say cheap), and we've just had a HUGE unexpected financial burden placed on us, so I keep our activities to two categories - free or cheap. That has not been a problem around here. Again, the Boise Babies and Tots meetup group has been great for finding free activities, the library here has great programs too, and let's not forget about those every day things you can do at home on your own!
Here are some of the activities we get to do:
Play in the yard! Little playground + pool = water slide!
Make dinner! Lesson learned: making ravioli with a 2 year old is just too much. End result was not so great either - pasta was way too thick/dense
LIBRARY! They have little kid computers. I've given up on headphones or anything. I play the games with her - matching colors or patterns. I read and ask questions and she selects the answer on the screen. I move the mouse and let her click. There is weekly story/music time too, but not during the month of August. We still go at least once a week so she can get books and we play some computer games together.
Sitting back and enjoying life.
Picking strawberries from our plants! (aaaaaaaaand this is all we've gotten this year)
Eating the strawberries!
Finding Mama's phone and taking pictures.
Lots of pictures.
Learning technology!
Watching birds in the backyard!
Painting her nails.
STICKERS!!!!!!
Finding the cat and trying to convince her to play!
Checking on our garden.
Walking the dog.
Planting flowers!
Reading books.
Building a cedar planter box.
Washing the car.
Reading more books (working on reading upside down).
Checking out the puppies outside Cabela's.
Cuddling the puppies outside Cabela's.
Seeing the fish at Cabela's!
She can actually identify catfish and sturgeon all on her own now....
Riding her bike! She also now has a great yellow monkey helmet!
Investigating rocks. Everywhere. There is always a rock to pick up and inspect.
Remembering to stop and smell the flowers.
Making zucchini bread with our home grown zucchini!
Checking out the mini horses outside of St. Luke's! Yes, that horse is wearing sneakers!
They are service horses and they bring them to the hospital sometimes for the community and kids in the hospital to see.
A rare picture of Little Lady with Mama on one of our daily excursions.
Learning to swing on a big girl swing.
Um, riding the dog? Sorry Mika. I stopped that as soon as I came across it. Well, after I took a picture.
I did let her watch some of the Olympics. She liked gymnastics - specifically Gabby! She would do it with them. :-)
LIBRARY!
Music time!
Reading!
Reading with Mika......and plotting?
Taking more pictures with Mama's phone!
Close up pictures....
And our most recent activity: GYMNASTICS CLASS! Living Social had a deal, during the Olympics of course, for a month of gymnastics classes at Bronco Elite for $20. The most expensive activity we've done, but thought it would be a nice treat! Gotta love hand me downs! Fits her perfectly!
Following instructions in class.
Jumping onto the circle.
Climbing into the pit!
Running errands with Mama, getting a junior deputy badge and a lollipop when Mama picked up her CC permit. Also helped Mama get her license, register the car, and register to vote.
Playing at Settler's park in sprinklers.
Playing music!
Free fishing at Cabela's!
"Face" painting at Cabela's! Have I mentioned all the free activities Cabela's does? As if they are trying to occupy the children so parents will shop.....hmmmmmmm.
Riding a tractor.
Walking like a bear.
Hanging around like a monkey!
Helping with laundry.
Of course we can't forget coloring, play dough, play dates, cleaning, reading.....you get the idea.
So, there you have it! These are some of the things we've been up to. Did I mention she is also potty trained now? Yup - all done. No diapers at night or anything. She has the occasional accident, but she is really doing great. She counts well (up to 13 w/o issues), seems to have all her colors figured out, many shapes and is working on spelling her name. I'll have to figure out how to post some videos of her showing off her skills.
Also, have you been wondering what happened to family hike night? Well, it is now basically family pool night. Perfect for the hot weather! We also have a great community pool at our disposal.
A pretty nice view from the baby pool.
Best seat in the house.
No, he isn't breastfeeding (although it certainly looks like it). Freeze-pops are one of the fun treats of family pool night!
Some aerial fun with Papa!
Thumbs up to a pool with a waterfall!
Eskimo kisses with Papa. Cool pic courtesy of Instagram.
Fun!
She loves the pool - but this Little Lady has no fear. She just tries to go right in. She'll even just dunk herself sometimes, like she is totally ready to swim underwater. She has been asking for goggles lately, but we've told her she has to have swim lessons first and learn how to swim - THEN she can have goggles. I'll have to try to figure out how to work in swim lessons this winter. Hopefully I can manage it with the new baby and hopefully there will be a Living Social type deal!!!
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