WEEK 2 WITH BABY SIS

~Punkin is 35 months old.~

We are pretty much in survival mode around here these days. I am dealing with some strong baby blues at the moment, and Punkin is really seeing how far she can stretch the limits now that Mommy is often occupied with a new baby. But, because I am one who needs structure and routine in my day, we have made an effort to try and do at least a few of our normal activities at least a few days this week.

Before Firecracker was born, I had put together a bag of "tot school" stuff that was all ready to go and I could just go and pick out an activity. That has helped. Also, I had restructured our morning calendar / circle time routine to make it geared more towards a 3 year old / preschool than what we were doing. I also purchased Carisa's members only powerpoints, and we have started the first lesson on that. (I love that it takes little prep on my part and Punkin still loves it.) Our new calendar time follows the same lessons as in her powerpoints, and I am really enjoying doing some different things with Punkin. We didn't finish our letter themes before Firecracker was born like I had planned, but since Punkin really knows her letters and sounds so well, we were really just using the letters as a springboard for other fun activities related to that theme. So, I decided to just stop where we were at and start fresh. All that being said, we got to do 3 days of our new calendar time routine and powerpoint lessons this week, which thrilled me. (I didn't take pictures yet of our new board or doing our new work...maybe someday soon I'll get to that.)

Okay, on to a few pictures of a few things we did that I actually captured on the camera.

Punkin spent a lot of time this week cuddling with Firecracker and holding her and talking to her. In spite of the fact that she is testing us with her behavior, she truly does ADORE her baby sister.

She spent lots of time reading books by herself and with Grandma and Grandpa.

She is fascinated by her flashcards lately, and spent one morning lining them up, finding her favorite pictures, and pretending to make "words."

She also did some tot trays that I haven't had time to change in awhile. But she still enjoys them. Her favorites are the puzzle ones right now.

We actually got out the paints and did some star cookie cutter prints.

Then, she wanted to just free paint.

We made a sign for Daddy's birthday.

And she is really into singing and performing lately. She found this old cardboard tube and walked around the house using it as her microphone, singing any and every song she could think of.

Punkin also has enjoyed dressing up in her princess dresses and turning on the radio to dance to the music. She calls herself the "Ballerina Girl."

Well, that's all. We'll see how it goes next week..... In the meantime, hop on over to 1+1+1=1 to find out what other tots have been up to lately.