Fun with Shaving Cream

I saw a cool idea on Pinterest to combine shaving cream with corn starch for some sensory play.  Daddy is out of town this weekend for a wedding, so I figured it was the perfect time to try to do something special with Sammy.  The blog that originally had the idea just had general instructions, so we kind of had to wing it.  I also thought that having some different colors to play with might be fun, so I threw some food coloring into the mix.

We started out with three bowls with some shaving cream in them.

Next I squirted in some gel food coloring.

I let Sammy do most of the mixing.  We had a red/pink one a blue one, and a yellow one.

On attempt 1, I dumped some corn starch into the first bowl and just let Sammy dive right in.  This was not a great idea.  It takes a while for everything to get mixed together and in the meantime, it's just a big mess.  I don't have any pictures of this because our hands were covered with pinkish goo.

On the last two bowls, I dumped the corn starch in and mixed it up myself with a spoon.  I don't have exact measurements, but I bet I used close to 3/4 of a cup of corn starch in each bowl.  Definitely don't be shy with the corn starch.  I tested it a couple of times to make sure it wasn't too sticky and had to keep adding more.  The yellow one ended up looking like scrambled eggs that someone had pulsed in a food processor.

The consistency was actually kind of silky, like flour or fine play sand, but if you squeezed it it would clump together.

Sammy decided to pretend to bake with it and spent a lot of time pouring it from one bowl to another and stirring it up.  According to her, we were making honey, and there were separate bowls for Mommy, Daddy, and Sammy.

I managed to make a pretty decent "snowball" at one point.

When it was mostly on the table instead of in the bowls, Sammy discovered she could draw in it.

We didn't have a ton left over after all the stuff that ended up on our clothes and the floor, but I stuck what was left in a baggie.  I'm sure it will keep for a little while.  It ended up being kind of a pale green color, but I guess that makes sense since we had mostly blue and yellow stuff.

Overall, this was a super-messy project, but it was pretty fun.  It kept Sammy entertained for about an hour (that's pretty rare for her), and clean up really wasn't all that bad.  If I had thought to throw a plastic mat down under her chair, it would have only taken about half the time.

Potty Party

Samantha had been using the potty pretty frequently at day care and at home, and I have been adamant that I would not have 2 kiddos in diapers at once, so I decided it was time to get Sammy into big girl underpants.  I decided to use the potty training bootcamp / train in a weekend method.  You basically strip the kid down for a couple of days and encourage them to use the potty as much as possible. 

Modeling her Dora big girl panties

To add an element of fun/excitement, we made the first day a Potty Party.  I decorated the bathroom with balloons and streams, got a big bag of M&Ms to use as rewards for using the potty, bought a cake mix, and came up with some other fun activities. 

Potty rewards

I then proceeded to be ridiculously enthusiastic and excited every time Sammy used the potty.  She also got to make a couple of phone calls (Grandma and Grandpa) to tell them about using the potty so that they could tell her how proud they were of her. 

Since I knew there would be accidents, I tried to come up with a lot of activities to do in the kitchen.  Clean-up is much easier on linoleum than it is on carpet.  :-)

Eating breakfast in the kitchen

We baked a Potty Party cake, played in the sensory bin with dried rice, and even painted Sammy's toe nails.  Even with all of my planning, the biggest hit of the day was one of the balloon decorations that Sammy pulled down.  We must have played with that thing for 3 or 4 hours in total.

Pink Piggies!

You want them to have as many opportunities to go on the potty as possbile, so I pumped Sammy full of salty snacks, juice, water, watermelon, etc....anything to make her need to pee.

She also decided early on that even though my bathroom decorations were cool, she'd much rather use her froggy potty in the living room.  Whatever works!

Everybody plays with balloons on the potty, right?

On Day 1, Sammy had 3 big (ie puddle on the floor) accidents, but she managed to poop in the potty two times!  This was encouraging, since she's always resisted pooping on the potty.  By Day 2 her accidents were just tiny little amounts that she would pee in her underware before she realized what was happening and ran to the potty.  I decided to keep her home from day care today (Day 3) because I felt like she was so close to getting it.  So far, she's only had one teeny tiny accident, and every other time she's made it to the potty in time.  Woo hoo!  I'm so proud of her and excited at the possibility of a couple of months without diapers before Little Bit arrives.  I know we'll still have accidents, and I plan on carrying at least one dry change of clothes with us for a while, but I think we're well on our way!

A celebratory slice of cake.  (Sammy did her hair all by herself.  Nice, huh?)

Baby Vogt

Most of our friends and family know already, but I thought I'd finally share our exciting news here too...we're are excited to be expecting a new baby this October!!!  We found out I was pregnant on the day we signed the lease for the new house, which means that I've been pregnant for our last two moves.  Between the first trimester exhaustion and the morning/day/evening sickness, this move has felt like it has been going on forever.  Just as I started to adust to all the crazy pregnanct hormones, Sammy and I got really sick and then I threw out my back.  Yikes!  Let's just say that it's been an eventful pregnancy.

When we first told Sammy about the new baby and asked her if she wanted a baby brother or a baby sister, she requested one of each.  Luckily, we have confirmed by ultrasound that there's only one little bean growing in there, so now Sammy has decided she wants a little brother.  She may be in luck because I defintely have a "boy" feeling with this one.

Still Kicking!

Our family has not completely dropped off the face of the planet, our lives have just been incredibly hectic lately!  I'm not going to try to catch up with everything since the last post, but I'll try to hit the high points.

We spent a really nice Thanksgiving weekend in Bellingham with some of Pat's family.  I even got to meet his cousin Lisa for the first time.  Uncle Don and Aunt Mary let us crash in their guest house since Grandma and Grandpa Burgess' house was pretty full.  We were really glad we were able to see everyone because shortly after Thanksgiving we began what has become the L-O-N-G-E-S-T move ever.

We decided not to try to drive from Washington State to Washington D.C. with Sammy and the cat, so Pat had to do that long roadtrip alone while Sammy, Mimi, and I flew.  We took a pitstop in Missouri to visit family and then got to Pat's parents' house on Christmas Eve. 

We had inteded to stay with Bill and Jo for a week or two, but the house hunt proved to be much more complicated than we anticipated.  We found a really great neighborhood, but kept barely missing out on houses.  Apparently BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) is brining a lot of people to Ft. Meade, which is very close to the areas where we were looking. 

We finally found a place that would work for us, and scrambled to get an application in before anyone else.  After about 4 anxious days we found out we got it (Yay!), but that the current tenat wasn't moving out until mid-January (boo).  Bill and Jo were amazing enough to let us keep staying with them.  A couple of days ago, we moved into a hotel so that we wouldn't have to do the D.C. to Baltimore drive while looking for daycare centers for Sammy, picking up the keys to the house, etc.  Our furniture is scheduled to come Monday, and I can't wait to finally spend a night in my own bed!

Hopefully I'll get some pictures of the new house up soon.  I just have to figure out where I packed the charger for the camera!  lol

And now to your favorite part of the post....adorable pictures of Samantha.  She has been a champ during the move, but I know she's ready to be in a house with all of her familiar things again.

Pumpkin Carving

Somehow we ran out of time last year to buy a pumpkin and carve it in time for Halloween, so this year was Samantha's first time participating.  She was a little freaked out by the "yucky" pumpkin, but eventually she got over it.  We had let her pick out her own little pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, so we let her decorate it with markers and stickers while Daddy was carving the big pumpkin.

Pinned It, Did It

I have gotten completely sucked into Pinterest lately.  If you're not on it, it's basically a website where you can gather all of those great ideas that you find on the internet in one place.  I'm trying to be good about actually doing some of them and not just "Pinning" them, so here are a couple of activities Sammy and I have done lately.

Here is a fun and a little different way to practice writing and drawing skills.  It's Elmer's glue and a little bit of food coloring in a Ziplock baggie, and then you write on it with a Q-tip.  I like it because it's all things that most people already have around the house.

Naturally we have to teeter on the edge of danger while trying
out this new toy

Disclaimer: Mommy drew this heart

Just squish it to start over

This is Sammy painting in the tub with shaving cream with a little bit of food coloring.  Next time I think I'll do two or three primary colors so that Sammy can see what happens when the colors mix.

We ended up with some pretty awesome green bathwater
when we rinsed off Sammy's artwork.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Pat and I bought this ridiculously adorable (and a little pricey) Halloween dress at a little boutique in Old Town St. Charles.  Sammy wore it last year, and I was thrilled when I saw it in her closet the other day and realized she could probably wear it again.  What a difference a year makes!

October 2010

October 2011