Becca – Page 14 – Butterbees and Bumbleflies

Animal Habitat Sensory Play

The day after Thanksgiving, we got to spend a tiny little bit of time with my best friend and her family at their home, and I got an idea from her that has become one of Becca’s all-time-best-loved “actiperies” (she can totally say activities now, but she still calls them actiperies b/c she knows I think it’s cute. ha!). She has always had a big fascination with animals and their homes, but this takes it to a whole new level… so thank you, Rena, for the inspiration!!

Arctic Habitat

What you need:
Storage Container
Flour
Sugar
Powdered Sugar
Corn Starch
Safari Ltd Arctic TOOB (aff link – thank you!)

It’s super simple – use a little bit of each of the first four ingredients and stir it up in a container. Then add your Arctic TOOB animals, eskimos, and igloo, and you are ready to play!

An old toothbrush made a fun addition, and great fine motor practice – as she decided to brush the snow off of the animals and people.

Antarctic Habitat

What you need:
Storage Container
Rock Salt (I used Ice Cream Maker Salt… b/c it was on hand)
Kosher Salt
Table Salt
Safari Ltd Penguins TOOB

Same as above – add some salt and stir up in a container, add your penguins, and you’re ready to play!

We also added some play “snow” from our ornaments project because she really wanted to make it snow on the penguins. 🙂

If you’d like, you can print out the maps and titles I made to tape to your lids.
FREE PRINTABLE HERE!

Enjoy! And be prepared – the Arctic box’s “snow” might make dark clothes turn white. 😉

Dear, Sweet Girl,

I love you beyond belief. Three years ago, we were anxiously awaiting your arrival, and 2 1/2 years ago today, you arrived. You were all red and crinkly, and I was so very sick. But even through the haze of what was to become a massive surgery and agonizingly long eight weeks of recovery (and then months of figuring out how to live without a gallbladder), I remember the moment I first held you. I remember I sort of blacked out because the joy and the emotion was just so intense. I remember crying. And I remember feeling so in awe at this tiny little being that had grown and lived inside of me that was now out in the real world.

I had no idea where these past 2 1/2 years would bring us, what you would look like, or how my heart you would capture completely. I knew there would be ups and downs, I just didn’t know how dramatic they would be. I didn’t know how much fun we would have together – working puzzles and collecting rocks and reading books. I didn’t know what an awesome big sister you would be, or how loving and gentle you would be with your kitty cat. I had no idea how intensely you would do everything you do, or how vast your mood swings would be.

I knew some things, though. I knew we were blessed beyond measure. I knew that God had a special plan for your life. I knew that no matter what you ever did or said, I would love you. And that knowledge has not changed.

Processed with Moldiv

On the days when you are silly and we laugh and giggle and snuggle, I love you. On the days when you refuse to eat and throw your food in the floor, I love you. On the days when you bring me book after book after book to read, I love you. On the days when you scream “NO!” and tell me to stop talking, I love you. Because my love is unconditional. I’ll never understand this love that God has placed in my heart, but I am so very, very thankful for it. At 2 1/2,you are sometimes the sweetest child I have ever known, and then 5 minutes later you can be a terror. It comes with the age, and I know in your heart that you WANT to do the right things. I see the love in your eyes. I see the sorrow and the tears when you mess up. I know you are learning. And even when my job is hard, even when I just want to give in and give up, I will stand strong. Because I know you are counting on me.

I love you even when I say “no.” I love you even whenI say “not right now.” I love you even when I say “that’s not safe.” I love you even when I say “stop.”

Because I love you, I say, “no.” Because I love you, I say, “not right now.” Because I love you, I say, “that’s not safe.” Because I love you, I say, “stop.”

My job isn’t an easy one. It seems some days you are determined to turn off your ears and just be a kid. And on those days, I do the learning. God is teaching me patience. He’s showing me how to love even when it’s not easy. He is teaching me that being a Mommy is a great job – that I can not do alone. He’s teaching me to rely on Him.

And He is teaching you – whether you seem like you are listening, or not. Teaching you to respect, to love, to be patient, to be gentle, to be kind. He’s teaching you how to one day be a Mommy. I pray I will always be a good example to you of how to be a good Mommy. But I know some days I will falter. And on those days, I pray that you will see me turn to Him for my strength.

These past 2 1/2 years have been amazing. And I know the next 2 1/2 will go even faster, and then faster, and faster, and one day, many years from now, you’ll be sitting down with a piece of paper in your hand. It’ll have an email address and a password on it. And you’ll begin to pour over the countless letters I will have by that point sent to you. And I pray in that moment, the moment when you read THIS letter, that you will feel my love. That you will sense the desperation that sometimes I feel. That you will know the stress. That you will feel the incredible weakness that I admit to owning. That you will know I am human. That you will know that your little 2 1/2 year old self has taken me through so many trials already that sometimes I wonder how on earth I’ll survive your teenage years.

And in all those feelings, I want you to know that LOVE overshadows them all. Because it doesn’t matter what you throw at me (literally or figuratively!). This ship refuses to sink against the waves and the storm. My sails won’t rip. I will stand strong. I will ALWAYS LOVE YOU. I will take tantrums in the floor standing strong. I will let you cry yourself to sleep, and watch you on the monitor to make sure you made it into the bed and got covered up so you won’t be cold. Because I LOVE YOU. No matter how stressed out. No matter how much coffee it takes to wake me up. No matter, no matter, no matter.

I LOVE YOU, Sweet Becca Boo. 2 1/2 years ago today, God placed you in my arms. I loved you then, I love you today, and I love you always – with a love that can only grow stronger throughout the years.

I LOVE YOU, baby girl.

Always,
Mommy

Wacky Astronaut Wednesday

So, if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know that Becca is what is termed by professional educators as “gifted.” Most of us “normal” folks think pretty much inside a box – even if we are high achievers. Well, Becca doesn’t have a box, or even really know what it would be like to be inside one.. unless of course, it’s that big box in the family room that she likes to pretend is a car, or an airplane, or… a rocket. Becca’s main interest at almost 2 1/2 (in just 5 short days! WOW!) is outer space. She’s quick to tell you she’s going to go to the moon some day. And Mars. And Saturn, too. And who knows, maybe some day she will. She enjoys watching “This Week at NASA” with me, and often has questions that I have to google the answers for because I’m a little clueless when it comes to deep space and techy-science stuff. We are learning a lot together about our space program! She’s certain one day she’ll live on the ISS (International Space Station). And if this interest continues for her, maybe she will. (The sky isn’t her limit… deep space is her limit! Heaven help us the day she first sees Star Trek…)

So, we’ve of course been tracking the creation of Orion, and we anxiously watched and waited on the 4th for it’s launch. I woke up early and began tracking everything, taking screen shots on my phone of the launch pad as I waited for liftoff so I could show her… ready to go get her up if it was really gonna happen. Well, so, I waited, and waited, and if you, too, were tracking Orion, you know that liftoff did not occur on the 4th. I got her up near the end of the time window, and she came down and ate her breakfast in front of the tv, anxiously hoping that maybe they would be successful. Here are some of her responses as she watched the rocket sitting there, not moving:

In response to being woken up and told the rocket was hopefully going to launch soon: “I’m gonna go on that rocket all the way to Mars! Are you gonna go too?”

Watching:
“Mommy, it’s not moving.”

“When’s it bwasting off, Mommy?”

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4… Can it bwast off now?”

“10.. Bwast off.”

“Is it moving, Mommy?

“That’s a big rocket! It’s gonna bwast off. The grass is shaking!”

“It’s got smoke, Mommy.”

Hearing that the launch has been cancelled:
“Mars… but they’re not going!”

Yup, the girl was super bummed out, and unimpressed – as you can see in the pic. So, as you probably know, the very first Orion test launch time on the 5th was successful, and I had it cued up on the dvr to show her when she got up. So, we once again had breakfast on the tv trays in the living room while having our watch party for Orion.

In response to being woken up and told the rocket had, in fact, successfully launched and we were going to get to go watch it: “Oh wow! Mommy they aren’t going to Mars today. They’re gonna go around and around the Earth. But I’m gonna go on ‘Rion to Mars. I am. Let’s go see!”

So she sat there through the countdown, anxiously awaiting, and I got this video of her watching. (Turn your volume up so you can hear the tv narrator.) Her comment is epic… and the expression on her face is priceless.

View the YouTube Video Here

“It’s going!”

“They counted!”

She sat and watched with rapt attention through the first 5 or so minutes of the flight, as each stage successfully broke away. We had to leave to go to an appointment, and haven’t had a chance yet to watch the splash down, but it’s saved on the dvr and we’ll watch it soon.

The next morning, after having had some friends babysit for us that night, she showed me a rocket she had built in her room out of Duplo flowers – all stacked high, and sitting on top of a “launch pad” of Duplo bricks. She told me she made ‘Rion but it breaks apart. Proceeded to run over, grab her rocket, and fly it through the air, breaking off flowers and dropping them “into orbit” before leaving just a final set of two flowers. “THIS is ‘Rion, Mommy! It flies around WAY out in space and splashes in the water and becomes an airplane!” (yup, still has that 2 1/2 year old imagination! HA!)

I love her fascination with space, and I want to encourage her in every way I possibly can. The struggle always is to remember that it’s totally ok if she doesn’t become an astronaut for real. Because her interests will change, and her skills may excel elsewhere. And that’s ok. But for now, she’s my little astronaut-in-dreams and it’s super fun to call her my own little space cadet. Her daddy and I are so proud of her and so amazed every day by the things she comes up with. Her brain is beyond our understanding, and we pray we are always exactly the parents she needs us to be.

Some Orion photos for you:

Christmas Tree Busy Bag

This is probably one of the most basic projects, with the most open-ended results, and tons of fun!

What you’ll need:
Felt in lots of colors, mainly scraps – but one large green piece.
A Ziploc bag for storage

Simply cut out a tree shape, and then cut your scraps in random other shapes to make the ornaments for the tree… sit back, and let your child decorate! It’s really that simple! I made this bag last year as a craft at our MOPS group, and was so excited to pull it out of the Christmas box for Becca this year – she is LOVING it!

Christmas Treasure Box

Back in August in my post, Buried Treasure, I had made a little storage container of beans, and hidden pom poms. She enjoyed that activity for a while, and then I recycled the beans over to her sensory table for our big Thanksgiving activity… but the idea is BACK… for Christmas!

I was grocery shopping and on the dry goods aisle, I saw a bag of split peas, and there the idea was born. I grabbed that $0.88 bag, a $0.64 bag of rice, and I was done! I already had at home the other items needed for this box.

Here’s what I used:
1 bag split peas
1 bag rice
Mint extract (b/c it’s what I had, you could use essential oil)
Vinegar
Red food coloring (it pretty much took the whole tiny squeeze bottle for it to not look pink, so be prepared)
A large Ziploc bag
Wax paper
A large Ziploc storage box
Treasure, a scoop, and a bowl

So to make the rice red, you’ll dump your bag of rice into your big Ziploc bag (I used a gallon storage bag), add 2 Tbsp vinegar, and then lots of red. I think I ended up counting like 45 drops before I got it really red. The gel food coloring supposedly works better – I haven’t tried it b/c I just always use what I have. Thinking I’ll buy some next time. Then, if you’d like, add a few drops of your Mint scent – you could use Essential Oils if you have them, or if you happen to have Mint extract on hand from cooking, that will work too – that’s what I used. Shake it all up really good, and spread it out on wax paper to dry. Once it’s really, really dry (give it several hours), you can combine the peas and the red rice in the storage box. Then I had some little shatter proof ornaments ($1) and some cookie cutters I put in the box to be her “treasure.” She has LOVED hiding the items under the peas and rice and then digging them out. We even tried a candy cane ornament from the tree, as well as a bracelet. The possibilities for treasure are endless!

The best part about this activity was it’s cost and how quickly it all came together once the rice was dry – on a day we had a ton of other stuff going on, no less! And she loves it! SCORE!