every day i wrack my brain on things penny and i can do for the day. lately it’s been too cold in the mornings to go out for a walk; and penny has actually been refusing to go out too. i don’t blame her – we interrupt her morning play by trying to force her in a stroller. (this morning however she asked to go outside which was great since the temperature was in the 50s. gotta take advantage!)

when i come up with different activities such as a trip to the library, mall, or arts & crafts i do my best to spread them out during the week so we have something to do every day to pass the time. not only that but if i know for sure my mil is coming over that day or dennis has the day off, i’ll plan an activity such as going to the museum so i have an extra person to help me with penny. penny’s nap time is spent getting her snacks, drinks, and diaper bag ready so when she wakes up we can just go.

here’s our itinerary for the week of 10/30~11/5:

sunday: playdate with olivia l. (kidcity museum)

monday: halloween! family photos in the morning and trick-or-treating in the evening with grandparents

tuesday: create a fall picture using felt and glitter stickers of pumpkins, leaves, and flowers.

wednesday: paint a pumpkin

thursday: toddler sense class (9:30~10am) & the library in the afternoon

friday: introduce new activity – putting colored bean bags in a homemade sorter

saturday: my friend, katie, is visiting for the day

as you can see, these are fairly simple activities. you don’t have to go all out for a toddler since their attention span is so short anyway. think of things that your little one likes to do and create activities around their interests.

i mentioned in another post that penny really likes to color and play with stickers. what better way to get her artistic side out and have fun than creating collages and pictures? i finally ordered a long-sleeve smock for penny last night. every day she asks to use the paint and i say “no” because of the mess. she doesn’t ask after i say “no” the first time but i feel bad because i know she likes to feel the paint between her fingers. even though i don’t have the smock yet, i set aside a button-down shirt that i rarely wear for penny to use today when we paint a pumpkin. i also have rolls of craft paper that i will spread out on the wood floor to catch most of the paint.

penny also really enjoys her toddler sense class. last week she played with jello! there were other things for her to do but she spent the majority of the time squishing jello between her fingers. she didn’t put any in her mouth but, then again, she usually doesn’t put things in her mouth. tomorrow is the last class which i’m really bummed about. there is supposed to be another session starting soon that includes older kids so hopefully that’s an option.

this past weekend was daddy’s weekend off, so we kept busy! on friday we met up with our friends mouy, cali, and tristan at the connecticut science center. we are all members and it’s so worth it! this was our family’s 4th time going.

having fun with the 360 camera

 

dennis and i went to a wedding on saturday (i’ll have to share photos from that day as well as alice and john’s wedding too!) so we were gone all day while mil watched penny.

on sunday, we had a playdate with a friend from our neighborhood, olivia l. (penny has 3 friends named olivia and this one is 21 months.) it was our second time going to kidcity museum and olivia’s first time! olivia’s family enjoyed it so much they purchased a membership!

we actually arrived there an hour before olivia and her family so we had checked most of the rooms out by the time they arrived but they still spent an hour together, and we went back to the medieval room to show them how cool it is.

some scenes in penny’s life:

penny’s been having bad dreams lately and she’ll cry out at night. she was fine last night but a few nights ago she was crying every hour from 2am on. we haven’t had to go in to soothe her because she’ll fall back asleep after crying for a few minutes; but it does make us sad, and tired! i know she isn’t having night terrors because the first time she’ll cry is usually around 2am and night terrors occur a few hours after bedtime (and usually because they’re overtired).

her naps are usually good ~ about 2.5-3 hours but sometimes they’re 1.5 hours on a “bad day.” this is when her second sleep cycle ends so sometimes she’ll wake up especially if there were loud noises outside like a lawn mower. she actually just woke up after napping for 1.5 hours a few minutes ago. this loud truck kept rumbling by and it drove by again right at the end of her sleep cycle so i’m guessing it roused her from her sleep. i know she won’t go back to sleep but i’m going to leave her in there for another half hour so i can close my eyes. it’s only 1:30pm and i’m alone all day so the second half of the day is going to be another long one 😦