A 2-year old and a Christmas Tree

I leave the room for two minutes and come back to find this.

Thankfully Blue Rock was not hurt and this year's Christmas tree is fake.  Otherwise that could really hurt having a Christmas tree fall on you. 

St. Nikolaus Day in Germany

Christmas in Germany is a lot of fun.  There are so many traditions and activities to do during the month of December.  On December 6th, Germans celebrate St. Nikolaus Tag (St. Nicholas Day).  The night before, children leave their boot outside the front door or outside their bedroom door.  While they are asleep, St. Nikolaus comes and leaves goodies in their boot if they were good.  If they have been bad they he leaves sticks.

Blue Rock left his rain boots out.  Thankfully he has been very good so he got a few goodies in each boot.

What's in my boot?

It's Gummy Bears!

Emptying the boot is fun!

Fun bendable track to go with my train set!

Fun Preschool Game

I love playing games with kids.  Before we left to visit Texas last September I ordered a few items from Barnes and Noble to be delivered to my parents' house.  One of the games was a Color and Shapes Bingo.  I finally opened it.  When I bought it a few months ago, Blue Rock was too young for it.  He still is kind of young for it but we gave it a go.  He loved it!  Blue Rock really loves shapes and lately has wanted to name every shape we see.  To play you spin the spinner which stops on a shape or color.  Then you place bingo chips over the shape or color pictures that match.  We didn't play the whole way through but he enjoyed playing it "right" for about 5 minutes.  Then he wanted to play with the Bingo chips and spin the spinner and just name the pictures, shapes, and colors of the Bingo cards.  I give this game an A+ and think we'll have more fun with it as he gets older.

3-Day Potty Training

Well, we're finally really potty training.  I thought I would write about it since I have not found too many personal stories about how people have potty trained their kids.  Just how to do it, not how it went.  So here it is.  I will give another update later on.

About 3 months ago, Blue Rock was very close to being potty trained.  Then we went to the States.  After we found out why he was throwing-up, along with having to be on iron supplements, we decided to wait until we were back home, he was almost off iron (which causes black sticky poo), and we were not traveling anywhere before we got serious.  He used to wear cloth diapers until he got sick last year and was throwing up almost daily.  It got to be too much laundry so we went back to disposables.  Cloth is great if you have the time and a good washing machine.

We started the 3-day potty training method on Thanksgiving (6 days ago).  We had to make a few errands so we put him in a pull-up on Thursday and Friday.  Friday was the last day he wore a pull-up during the day.  Blue Rock used the potty out in public both days but had one accident in the pull-up.  At home, he has been bare-bottomed and is doing great!  When he's bare-bottomed he has had no accidents and makes it to the potty every time, even poop, which I was surprised and very happy about.  Yesterday we went to the grocery store and I put underwear and pants on him - I was so tempted to put a pull-up on him, but resisted.  He went potty before we left and had no accidents and I took him twice to the toilet at the store but he didn't need to go and told me he didn't need to go but I wanted him to try.  After we loaded the groceries in the car I asked him again if he needed to go.  He said, "no."  So we drove home and when we got home I took him to the bathroom and he went.  Yeah!  A little while later we went to the park.  He played for about 20 minutes and we came home, again no accidents.  I left his pants and underwear on and he didn't make it to the potty in time.  I read that they should be diaper free at home for 3 months.  That seems like a LONG time!  

Today I started the morning with just his pajama pants on, wanting him to get used to pants since he's doing so well at going to the potty.  He went to the potty twice but then didn't make it in time.  I tried putting underwear on him and he said, "no underwear.  No, no, no!"  So I decided to let him be bare-bottomed again.  Later this afternoon I put just underwear on him even though he didn't want to wear it.  While he was playing he peed in them.  The rest of the day he was bare-bottom and went every time in the potty.  The only time pee got on the floor was when I tripped over the potty trying to get a Kleenex to catch a drip of pee on his leg as he got off the potty.  I made a huge mess!  Pee went everywhere, including the couch which is such a shame since he's been doing so good, no accidents on the furniture, just from me.  I think we're going to rent a carpet/upholstery cleaner.  Thankfully I have some cleaner that I used and our microfiber couch doesn't seem to smell like pee.  I'm just a germophobe and the thought of pee left somewhere grosses me out. 

I am very proud of Blue Rock. He has done much better than I thought.  Everyday he has only had 1-2 accidents since we started.  My plan is to everyday let him try pants and/or underwear. I'd like him to always wear something on his bottom but he has an embarrassed look on his face when he doesn't make it to the potty wearing undies.  So, for the most part, we'll probably stick to bare-bottoms while home, at least for a little while longer.  He does very well with that has had 100% success rate when being bare-bottomed.  I think he's officially potty training and definitely knows how to use the potty.  We are no longer using day-time diapers, not even when we run errands.  However, we are going to keep using them at night, at least for a while.  For one, he's still in a crib, yes, we have a toddler car bed, very cool, that he slept in for a while, but after a while, he wanted to sleep back in his crib.  He's happy, we're happy, and he sleeps 11.5-13 hours per night.  When we travel he sleeps in a regular bed.  Every morning I ask him where we go poo and pee.  He says, "poopoo and peepee go in the potty."  Then if I have to run downstairs to do laundry or something I ask him again and usually while I'm gone he uses his potty.

Here's our potty training set-up.  We have a tall house, 3 stories (4 if you include the basement) and only 2 bathrooms.  So we have a few portable potties.  I keep one in the living room, which we'll probably move to the bathroom.  And one upstairs on our top floor that has no bathroom.  We also have a little potty in the bathroom on our middle floor and a step-up potty to the toilet.  Blue Rock usually sits to pee but in public he likes to stand.  Sometimes he wants to stand at home but I usually ask him to sit.  I'm no longer asking him if he needs to go unless it's been a while or we're out in public or about to leave the house.  He has gotten very good at just going when he needs to go.  I hope this helps if you're about to start potty training your child.

Bozo's Grand Prize Game

Did you ever watch "The Bozo Show" on TV as a child? Occasionally, I saw it and the most memorable thing from the show was the "Grand Prize Game."  Six buckets were lined up and the lucky kids on the show got a chance to toss the balls in the buckets for a chance to win the grand prize!  What kid didn't want to play that game?

Blue Rock brought me his bag of plastic balls today and said, "I want to play with these."  I bought him a ball pit for his first birthday party and lots of balls to put in it.  Sadly, we don't get the ball pit out that often or the balls.  When he asked today to play with them, I thought, why not?!  In fact, we could play a game like Bozo's grand prize game. Except, we would be using only 4 buckets, rather than 6, and they are different sizes.  Blue Rock had a blast!  He even created some new ways to play, such as sitting down and standing directly over the bucket, as well as tossing the balls from a distance.

After playing this a while, I found that you can actually buy the "original" game from Amazon.  It's called: Rocket USA The Original Bozo Buckets Grand Prize Game. But for $30, I think we'll pass and just play with what we already have. =)

Fun with Salt and Pepper!

The following activity Blue Rock thought of completely on his own.  While I was getting ready this morning, Blue Rock decided to reach for the salt and pepper shakers.  Boy did he have fun!  He emptied both containers and spread the salt and pepper everywhere!

Where I found him, "innocently" sitting at his craft table holding the salt and pepper shakers

Where it started, in the kitchen

While I was scoping out the mess, Blue Rock plays with his trains in it

Fun with shapes!

Not good

After it was all cleaned up, he decided to lay on the coffee table

Empty salt and pepper shakers

Kerwe - My German Town's Fall Festival

Fall is probably my favorite time of year in Germany.  If you want to visit Germany, consider coming in the fall.  The heat of summer is over, the weather is cooler but not yet freezing, there's less rain than in the Spring, and there are lots of festivals.  The most famous festival is probably Oktober Fest, which originated in Munich. Thankfully, you don't have to go to Munich to enjoy festivals in October.  Most cities have their own.  This past weekend our small city had their Kerwe (festival).  Several of the main streets are closed down and venders come and set-up booths.

It seems like many Germans love festivals.  Usually because the weather is nice, there's reasonably priced food and drinks, and lots of live music.  Our town had several bands and lots of options for food.  There were also several rides for the children as well as carnival games to play.  We had a wonderful time.

Blue Rock and I sitting under the tent at dinner

My dinner - gyros, salad, and pommes (fries)

The two person band in our tent

Blue Rock enjoying one of the rides

Lots of people at the fair

Blue Rock having fun walking around

My sweet Husband won me a prize!

My crepe - Nutella and banana - yummy!

It was one of the best crepes I've ever had

Picture of what some of the tents look like

My 2 year old throws-up, a lot!

We made it safe to Texas.  I'll be the first to say, overseas flights are not fun and double the not fun when you travel with a young child.  Blue Rock threw up two times on the flight.  About 5 minutes after departing and an hour later.  We only brought two changes of clothes for him so my husband and I kept a barf bag close by at all times.  He threw up again on the car ride to my parents' house once we made it to Texas.  He slept only 1 hour and then we have been having lots of sleep problems since.  Thankfully he's sleeping until 7am now, rather than getting up at 1:30am, or 3am, or 5am...ugh! 

The short version is the vomiting has caused Blue Rock to become a little anemic. I am crushed!  Absolutely crushed and feel like a failure.  We try so hard to give him a balanced diet but when he throws up almost everyday and sometimes multiple times a day, most nutrition is lost.  Please pray for him.  The background and how we're handling this is below.

The excessive vomiting starting around Thanksgiving last year.  For Thanksgiving we went to Paris and thankfully he didn't throw-up on our vacation there.  But once we got home he threw up everyday, multiple times for over two weeks.  We took him to the doctor it seemed like every few days and they did some tests.  He caught a virus and had an infection.  They did some blood work and gave him some medicine.  After a few months of this, he stopped throwing up everyday.  Although, sometimes he does throw-up everyday of the week.  So the problem is not completely solved, we are just better prepared now.  We keep a bowl on every floor in case he throws up.  There's not necessarily any one thing that triggers this.  At his 18-month well baby and 24-month well baby the doctors said he's growing fine and is verbally advanced for his age.  Since he exceeded the 24-month assessment and is gaining weight, the doctor didn't seem to think there's a concern, especially since he doesn't have a fever.  She said, sometimes kids get upset and they feel it in their stomachs, other kids just throw-up.  My kid is very smart and sensitive and throws-up. 

Since we were coming to the U.S., we decided to try and get another opinion from a doctor here.  Sadly, we couldn't find a pediatrician to see us but we're referred to a specialist.  The appointment lady told my husband twice that she wouldn't give us an appointment since we lived overseas.  Thankfully, my husband finally got us an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist.  I really like this doctor.  I'm so sad that we have such limited time and have to do several tests in such a short amount of time and are unable to get certain things tested.  We started with blood, urine, and stool tests.  His stool and urine are fine but we found out he is a little anemic.  I am so sad about this!  I want to cry!  I'm not surprised since he throws up so much but it is heartbreaking to hear that your two year old is anemic.  Especially, when I try so hard to give us all a balanced diet.  We had to turn in some more stool today so they could do a hemocult stool card (to check for blood in his stool). And they wanted to take his blood again to make sure his red blood cells are working fine.  We hated for them to take more blood because he's so little and they seem to take so much.  We were told to give him an iron supplement (ferinsol) for 30 days.  I was reading about anemia and the importance of getting enough iron.  He was breastfed for the first year of his life (never had formula which is fertified with iron) and at 9 months he got 3-day fever and was really sick.  They checked his blood then and his iron levels were fine.  At 12 months when they typically check iron levels they said since he was fine at 9 months, they didn't need to do any blood work, which we were glad about.  Blue Rock eats really well, most vegetables and every fruit but melons.  Since we primarily don't eat meat, the doctor told us to give Blue Rock two servings of red meat a week and that, along with the vegetables, should give him enough iron.  He also eats iron-fortified cereals.  Of course if your child throws up most of the good meals, then most of the nutrition is lost.

I'm glad we are back in Texas and close to specialists and able to get this checked out.  We're at my in-laws now, who live in the country.  We spent the first week at my parents.  We are enjoying family and Blue Rock loves all his extended family and friends.  Once I find out the test results I'll let you know.  Please say a prayer for us and Blue Rock.  Just this morning, I took him down the street to the park.  We were walking and he stopped to cough and throw up.  Most of the time it is very random.  He threw up yesterday after lunch in the parking lot of Red Lobster.  We're just at a loss for what is causing this and hopefully will find out soon.  Thanks for reading this long post and for your prayers.

***Tip: If your child throws up a lot, have the doctor check for anemia.  Some side effects of anemia include: brittle nails, finger and toe nails curling, pin sharp pain in feet, paleness, tiredness, and dark circles under the eyes.

How to Make a Picture Book out of a Folder

I created this nifty folder photo album for an upcoming trip to the States.  I'm always thinking of inexpensive things I can create and wanted something that was light and portable for traveling.  Since Blue Rock doesn't see his extended family but once a year, I thought I would create something fun for him to look at on the airplane. He loves pictures and recognizes all of his grandparents and my sister because of Skype.  Other than that, this will be a great refresher.  I'm missing a picture of one of his great-grandmothers so I'll have to create another one once I get a picture of her. I only included greats, grandparents, and aunts and uncles due to space.  In the future I would like to make another photo folder with extended family. 

How to make a picture book out of a folder:

- Print the pictures you want to use.  Ask people to email you a picture of themselves if you don't have one.

- Cut the bottom folder out of the folder so it's flat.

- I used a glue stick and pasted the pictures on the folder.

- Write the names of the family members under each picture. 

- To seal, use clear contact paper and place on top of the pictures. I cut the contact paper into four strips and placed it inside the folds. By sealing your folder, your child won't be able to tear the pictures off and if he/she spills something on it you can wipe it clean.  In Germany you can buy contact paper at places like Kaufland.

Very simple and cheap.  I think Blue Rock is going to love this.  Enjoy!

Trees and Mountains Folder Numbers Game

Trees and Mountains Number Game

Here is another folder game I created. I took a cheap folder and cut the inside pockets off.  Then I printed numbers 1-50 and pasted them on the folder. Simply print my template, cut it, and paste it inside a folder.  This is a cheap, easy, portable, and fun game.  My son loves this game too!  To download this game, click here.

To play: 

1. Select a place holder.  We usually use a plastic animal but you could use anything, including a cap off a water bottle.

2. Roll the dice and move that many spaces.

3. When you land on a number, say what it is.  Practice counting spaces and saying numbers up to 50.  If your child doesn’t know the number, say it and have them repeat what you say. 

4. There are 4 tree spaces and 4 mountain spaces to add.  You can put these anywhere you’d like.  When the player lands on a number with a mountain below it, the player slides down to the number below.  When the player lands on a number with a tree over it, the player climbs the tree to the number above the tree.

5. The first person to reach the finish line wins.

*If you have an older child playing, you could have them practice saying the numbers in another language such as German, French, or Spanish.

**When assembling the game, it's faster to keep the numbers in a row when pasting, rather than cut each number out individually. 

You may also like: Folder ABC Game

Folder ABC Game

I'm always thinking of games to play with my son.  I came up with something I call folder games.  This is the first game I created.  I took a cheap $0.25 folder, cut the inside pockets off.  Then printed the letters of the alphabet and pasted them on the folder. Simply print my template, cut it, and paste it inside a folder.  This is a cheap, easy, portable, and fun game.  My son loves it!  Of course he loves anything to do with letters. To download this game, click here.

To play: 

1. Select a place holder.  We usually use a plastic animal but you could use anything, including a cap off a water bottle.

2. Roll the dice and move that many spaces.

3. When you land on a letter, say the letter's name and the sound it makes. This is great phonics practice.  If your child doesn't know the letters or sounds, say it and have them repeat what you say.

4. The first person to reach the finish line wins.

Dot Paint is Fun!

I bought my son the Alex Toys Dot and Dashes Paint Set and Do-A-Dot Book: Discovering My World. He loved dot painting. I don't like messes and was not sure how this would turn out. Well, dot paint was not messy and my 2 year old had a blast painting with it. In fact, he even stayed mostly inside the lines. I was very impressed! I recommend dot paint to anyone with a young child learning how to paint and draw.

A fun, mess-free, indoor activity

First dot paint picture. Love it!

Make your own fraction circles

He was super excited about these!

Is two too young to start learning fractions? I personally don't think so. =)  I'm always looking at ways to save on educational games and activities.  I bought some foam sheets for a craft I am planning on doing with the Moppets (preschoolers) in my MOPS (Mother's of Preschool) group.  I am in charge of Moppets this coming year and am planning on doing some cool things with that.  But until then I was thinking, what else could I do with them? Then it hit me, I could make some fractions!  My son loved them! He's only two so he doesn't necessarily get what a fraction is, but they were an instant hit and he loved putting the pieces together.  

Here's how to make fraction circles.  I took 4 colors (green, yellow, blue, and white) of foam sheets and drew a circle on each one.  I left one circle whole, cut one in two, another in three, and the last one in four.  I wrote on the circle pieces what they represent (1/1, 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4).  Then I explained it to my son and let him put the pieces and colors together.  I would say something like, "this is one-half of a circle.  If you have two halves and put them together that makes one circle."  He also counted the different color pieces and enjoyed playing with them.  There are a lot of ways you can use this inexpensive learning tool.  Eventually I'll make more fraction circles but I thought four was plenty to start out with.  If you have an older child they would get even more out of this activity.

How to Create a Sensory Box

Green / Letter Gg Sensory Box

I have been wanting to create a sensory box for a while and finally did. A sensory box is a box or container filled with different objects, colors, scents, and textures. We have been having some crazy weather in Germany these past few weeks and have gotten more rain this summer than the past two. The parks near our house turn into mud pits because of all the sand. It can get easy to run out of things to do with a 2 year old so I decided to make a sensory box. Here is how to create a sensory box using dyed rice.

You can put anything you want as the base of a sensory box. I bought 10 lbs of rice and dyed 9 cups green - so between 4-5 lbs. You can also use pasta and dye it, water, or anything else that would be fun to play with. A few weeks ago we started doing the Hooked on Phonics for Preschoolers, which gives a good review of the alphabet and the phonic sounds.  My son has been obsessed with letters since around 17 or 18 months when he started noticing letters on signs when we went out. He still loves our letter games but I wanted to do something more with him. I did some research and decided to buy the Hooked on Phonics for Preschoolers. Although it's pretty basic, at least it has him attempting to write the letters (fine motor skills) and reinforces of the phonic sounds (which will help him learn to read). Since we were on the letter "G," I decided to dye the rice green the day before.  I filled the box with objects that started with "g" or were green.  My son had a blast digging through the rice and looking at all the objects.  One of his favorite books lately has been Goodnight Gorilla so I brought that out as well. 

The only downside of this activity is that rice will get everywhere, unless your child is older and/or understands better than mine.  I had to remind him several times to keep the rice in the container and on the blanket.  He wanted to put it rice everywhere!  Thankfully he did pretty well except when I left to get my camera upstairs, he put a few handfuls on our couch.  Besides having to stay near him while he played, this was a great activity for him. 

How To dye rice: Put dry rice in a large bowl, add about a teaspoon at a time of rubbing alcohol, and a few drops of food coloring, mix and adjust coloring as needed. Dry on wax paper for at least an hour before storing. I got this idea from Totally Tots. 

I had to make two batches for 9 cups