Toddler Activities: Jumbo Peg Boards

We are introducing colors to Landon. I bought this peg board activity from lakeshore learning center. They also sell them on amazon.

to start this activity, we let him have a handful of pegs and we talked about stacking. Every time he would "stack" a peg, we would say "Stack". 

Always offering positive encouragement by saying "good job, you did it!"

Within minutes, he mastered stacking 3 pegs per row. 

On the second day of jumbo pegs, We introduced only 1 color. we talked about blue and every time he would pick up a peg, we would say, "blue." "that's blue." "stack the blue!" "good job, you stacked blue" and by the end of the week, he said blue. second week, we introduced red.

Toddler Activities: Clip-A-Bowl

This is a pretty easy activity for a toddler. I recommend clothes pins to start with a young toddler and chip clips for older toddlers.

I just had a bunch of chip clips laying around and I clipped them onto a plastic bowl.

Landon can easily take the clips off the bowl.

It took him a few days to master clipping it back onto the bowl and a few times, he clipped it onto his palm and would yell "stuck"!! 

He loved to pull apart the clips and count them. "2 and 10" are his numbers.

This activity is great because he's so inquisitive about how stuff functions. He also loves watching things open and shut. 

Landon's Date Night: Chuck E Cheese

Auntie Cat took Landon on their second date to Chuck E Cheese. I downloaded a coupon for them, for $25 they recieved 100 tokens. That was plenty of tokens to keep a toddler busy!

He loved observing the other children dance, she thought he would jump in and join, but he was very shy. 

She taught him how to use tokens to pay for rides.

He rode every ride there! It's only 1 token per ride! 

I love that he was able to explore!!

Clearly he's an expert with rides!

I love that my sister takes Landon on little adventure! She's so amazing with him and to watch them bond and grow is totally heart warming! When he sees her, he whispers "cat" then turns around and and waves "Bye" to me. He has no problem leaving me for his beloved auntie Cat! 

Until next time!

Landon Visits Pennsylvania

We had our summer visit to Pennsylvania to see my husbands family!

Here we are at Sunday church.

Landon and his pap pap walking to church. They're buddies. I can't believe how grown he looks!

Landon with his dad and grandparents!

He sat quietly through mass. clapping and cheering when the choir sang. its pretty funny.

The tractor became a huge daily activity. The minute he woke up, he would tell my fil "brrrrrrrr" and pointed outside. we would bundle him up so pap pap could take him on a ride. its pretty funny how he has them wrapped around his little finger!

On a beautiful Sunday, we went to "camp" to have an early dinner and enjoy the outdoors with my husbands aunts and uncles.

We went boating, ate pie, enjoyed a camp fire. it was pretty relaxing and fun! Definitely my favorite thing to do when we visit!

Landon LOVED steering the boat and exploring! 

Here he is with Aunt Shannon and his cousin Selah.

We also scheduled a play date with one of my SIL's friends daughter. We LOVED letting him interact with friends. They were so playful and social! I couldn't believe how well he interacted with Netty. 

My MIL and SIL took me to see my first penguin game! 

Of Course we had to visit our favorite Italian place for dinner! We even celebrated my nieces birthday! 

We love visiting Landon's Great Grandmother. We always have such an amazing time visiting my in laws. We get plenty of sleep and Landon gets to spend time with my husbands family! They've always welcomed me with open arms and they LOVE Landon so much! I have been blessed to marry into such an amazing loving family!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a wonderful & safe Halloween! 

Flying with a toddler: 15 Months

We had our first "Toddler" flight. It was VERY challenging! He is so curious and busy nowadays, I couldn't get him to take a nap!! He fell asleep the minute we landed. Imagine, a 6 hour flight... NO SLEEP.. I WAS DYING!!!!! 

Luckily, we came prepared. I was stocked with snacks, meals, activities and fully charged iphone with 10 episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

STICKERS: 

We introduced stickers on this flight. He was instantly obsessed. This activity kept him busy for almost 30 minutes. We showed him how to peel and stick. He loves stickers!

He even peeled them and stuck them on our arms and legs!

Magnadoodle:

I purchased a few travel sized toys (you can get them at walmart, target and CVS) and they were perfect for our flight! 

He spent a lot of time doodling, erasing and doodling some more! 

Glowsticks and Waterbottles:

We've been using this activity for awhile and he NEVER tires of it! We asked the flight attended for an empty bottle once she was done serving beverages.

He spent about 20-30 minutes playing with his glowsticks. He is also obsessed with screwing on bottle caps.

Earphone Plugs:

Once he started to lose his mind, we introduced earphones. He loved plugging it into the socket and putting the earbuds into my husbands ears. 

For a 15 month old, his hand eye coordination is impressive and I'm so relieved it kept him occupied!

Connect Four:

This one is a hard one, I suggest keeping a close eye on your lil one. Every once in awhile, he would try to pop one in his mouth! This activity gave my husband too much anxiety so it only lasted about 15 minutes.

He did love putting the tokens into the holder.

Last but not least, we let him watch tons of Mickey mouse club. At one point, we thought he would fall asleep watching it, but alas, he did not! 

**tips for toddlers: make sure your baby drinks plenty of fluids during take off and landing. I used to nurse him, but during this flight, we have him a food pouch and a sippy cup with water!**

**bring plenty of food & snacks. We also brought a change of clothes and plenty of diapers** 

**bring infant tylenol (just in case)** 

Good luck traveling! XO

Toddler Meals: BLD

BLD: breakfast.lunch.dinner

Landon's biggest meal of the day is breakfast! We love Portuguese sausage. It's mild, not greasy and it tastes delicious with rice and eggs! Waffles are easy, we just throw them in the toaster oven and serve with bananas & yogurt! 

We rarely eat sandwiches, I'm trying to add it into our weekly meals because they're easy to make. So for lunch, we grilled up some turkey & cheese sandwiches, served crackers with hummus and cut grapes. Quickly devoured! 

Dinner is a "eat what we eat" meal. Now that Landon is using utensils, he loves LOVES pick up foods! We are still trying to get him to pick up vegetables to eat, so offering a fork really helps! 

Enjoy!