NYTTJA? I dunno what it means, but I'll take two.

I love IKEA. I have an IKEA problem. I need a 12-Step IKEA program. It's about 45 minutes away from home, but I still manage to go there every other month or so. The stuff is so cheap, I just can't help myself!

A few trips ago I bought a couple of $1.99 frames - with other intentions, of course. They ended up being the wrong size for my original purpose... so I re-purposed!

I made a dry erase board for The Punk! It was easy as pie. Well, a whole lot easier than pie, because pie is actually a fairly complicated pastry to make, but I digress...

I simply put a sheet of printer paper in the frame. Bam! Done! Dry Erase Board!

I feel so accomplished. I think I deserve a pie :)

The "glass" is actually a pretty flexible plastic that I feel pretty safe handing over to The Punk. I doubt it would/could shatter or hurt someone (unless thrown like a Ninja Star) but your mileage may vary.

It's perfect for a kitchen thing. And by kitchen thing - I mean something-to-keep-The-Punk-busy-while-I-load-the-dishwasher toy. Plus it has educational value, and encourages art!

I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA.

Brown Paper Packages

We used plain brown Kraft Paper to wrap our Christmas gifts this year.

I let The Punk decorate a few of them with a snowflake stamp

he picked out at Hobby Lobby.

He loved stamping, and did a great job!
The packages looked exactly how I imagined them - homemade and simple.

What is this, Top Gun?

" Of course you can go to the grocery with your Dad wearing your Flight Suit and Bomber Jacket."

I can't stand that phrase.

"Teachable Moment". It makes me cringe. I find it's over used by parents and teachers that want to sound like they know everything about Montessori, preschoolers, and being good at leading by example.

I'm not one of those people.

But...

By golly, I had a Teachable Moment!
We were watching an episode of How It's Made, and they were making ice cream filled Popsicles. (By the way, did you know they make the outside shell first? Me neither.) I paused the episode, tossed The Punk in the car, and we headed to the grocery.

We came home, un-paused the show and ate the exact same Popsicles they were making on the TV.

That's MY kind of Teachable Moment.

Circle the Sight Words

Lesson from the You Can Read section of 1+1+1=1

Dog House

We don't have a dog house. We have a Slide/Playhouse that The Punk has outgrown and The Pup has taken over.
It's funny to watch these two together when they think no one is looking. They are like siblings, almost. When The Pup has something The Punk wants, then it can cause a scuffle. They are quite silly, this pair of stinky boys.

Out of the Ordinary

Looking at his happy face in the photos you wouldn't guess how horrible and anguishing this experience was for The Punk. When I suggested PlayDoh time, he was thrilled. When I brought out this tray of unusual PlayDoh tools he cried. "We have to use my PlayDoh tools!" he managed to mumble through the snot and the tears. To use anything else was incomprehensible... which is exactly why we needed to try them.
The Punk is a creature of habit. Lots of habits. Lots of schedules. Lots of little things can throw him off kilter. He's getting so much better at bouncing back, but we still need to work on these little quirks once in a while. And so, he went to his room to calm down. When he came back out he was ready (but still not convinced it was a good idea) to try the "other things" in the PlayDoh.

With toothpicks, beads, Popsicle sticks, bits of drinking straws, buttons and pipe cleaners we made so many unusual things! Bugs and snakes, birds and pizza! We experienced all the textures that we wouldn't have felt if we had used the ordinary tools.

And we had fun. He began to smile. He began to create. He found new uses for things that only had other purposes in his mind. We rolled, we counted, we smooshed.

We found that everything on the tray could be used to make something different. Something new. And it was cool to see him open up and enjoy another approach to the same old PlayDoh he's so used to playing with. I was proud of him. He opened his mind and used his imagination.

And the moment we were done and all cleaned up he said "I'm glad that's over. Now we never have to do that again. We can just use PlayDoh tools from now on."

Oh well.

"Police Car"