National Geographic Young Explorer

If you go to the National Geographic's Website for kids, you can click on the NG Explorer Magazine link at the top. This will take you to The National Geographic Young Explorer Magazine (geared towards Kindergarten and First Grade) where your students can listen and read a variety of issues that date back to September 2009. They also have a teachers section for each magazine with lesson plans, worksheets, questions, etc. There is even a section for the Whiteboard.

To go to the direct link just click here.

Holding Down the Changing Pad

I decided to change over my previous blog to this blog. You can still find me over at twodaisiesandanelephant.blogspot.com. However, most of my blog posts from there will be transferred over to this one. So, at times you may see the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo going across many of the photos. No worries, it is me. I promise.


Every diaper change it seems like we have to fight Baby E to lay still. Since, she's figured out how to push herself up to a sitting position and the fact that she loves to crawl. We're always fighting her to just stop for one second. Just to let us change her and then she can be off on her merry little way.

Of course, any time we've fought her... the changing table decides it wants to try going flying off of the dresser. In the end we always look like a jumbled up mess. Not to mention what the dresser looks like.

With that, I had thought about getting little Command Velcro Tabs to hold down the changing pad. This way I could easily remove the changing pad to clean and what not. However, every time I go to the store I seem to forget about them. Even when I write it down. Seriously, it's kind of like I have a brain fart in the store.

Anyways, I figured why not just use the over abundance of Command strips that I already have. Some how during the move some of the holders were broken.. probably during the time period that my in-laws decided to drop every box we had on the ground. Who knows.

So, I grabbed them and placed one on each of the corners and pressed down. Then I placed one in the middle on the other side. I pressed each down once again, as a just in case.

I then removed the paper shield and carefully laid it down onto the dresser. Pressing down each side as I went. Once, it was completely down and pressed; I wiggled it around to see if it would move. It didn't. Woohoo!

It even was Baby E approved when I went to change her not to long after that. It didn't move and it was less of a mess afterwards.

Making Geodes

So, to end our lesson on minerals and to begin our lesson on rocks I decided to take a day and have the kids create their own geodes. The best part was they were so excited and so nervous at the same time! The day before the activity I had the kids choose their materials. Over course we spent a few minutes with some of them changing their minds several times --- but that was okay, I didn't mind :). No point in fretting over something that will be theirs!

Now, for the next day I showed them a variety of pictures of what their's may possibly look like if they chose that material. Of course, some changed again, but still it was okay! We then began the experiment....

Our Mineral Materials:                                              

• Borax
• Brown Sugar
• Salt
• Sea Salt
• Baking Soda
• Cream of Tartar
• Sugar
• Epsom Salt

Other Materials:

• Hot Water
• Spoons
• Cups
• Food Coloring
• Eggs (Halved and Cleaned)
• Egg Carton

I called each mineral material and had the kids come up for their chosen ones. Then each went back to their seats and after a few minutes and all materials were passed out, I poured the hot water into their cups. They then stirred it for a minute or so until ALL of the solution dissolved. We then added it to their eggs and placed it up on the shelf (so it wont be disturbed). 

Here are a few pictures (DAY 1: 11/11/11):

A few pictures, notice some have already completely evaporated with no crystals! :(

 This one (on left) has small crystals and has already evaporated and the other (on left) has some crystals growing on the far blue....

These two have already started to crystallize after only a day! 

The whole group......

Found the activity at Suite 101 and I'll update you on 11/14 on how they look since it's the weekend! :)

E's 8 and 9 Month Favorites

I decided to change over my previous blog to this blog. You can still find me over at twodaisiesandanelephant.blogspot.com. However, most of my blog posts from there will be transferred over to this one. So, at times you may see the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo going across many of the photos. No worries, it is me. I promise.

I honestly don't have any 8 month favorites for Baby E. Unless you count the pool and her pool toys. Those have been by far her favorite things. 

We're crawling around and attempting to walk so you know everything is now awesome! Between the tables to the chairs, the DVDs, dog toys, and even the dog bowls. Oh yeah, we found the dog bowls.

Ahh! I cannot believe in just a few short months Baby E will be a year old. The time has flown by so quickly. We haven't really bought any toys, because E seems to be more entertained by everything around us. She'd rather sit outside and play with the sticks/leaves/grass/acorns as well as throw things rather than play with actual toys. She's just a very curious little girl.

Although she's not big on a lot of toys. We do have a few new ones that she seems to enjoy.

Fisher Price Rock a Stack, Fisher Price Paint Brush

She also has a set of Disney keys that she loves to play with while we're driving down the road and as she plays in her walker. However, she also takes the toys above and just moves around like there's no tomorrow. Even as she explores everything else.... dumping them into containers, water bowls, and even the attempt into the toilet. She's a mess, but I love every moment of it... I swear some days I couldn't trade all of this even for the world. 

Does your baby have a favorite toy or activity right now? Or are we just cruising around the house into everything?... I know mine is ;)

Oh, Baby Tub

As I told you in my welcome post, you may see several post that have the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo in them. This is one of them. I had prepared it for my previous blog, but since I decided to change everything it is now here :). 

When Baby E started to figure out how to stand up in the baby bath tub we knew we were screwed. Literally. We would tell her "no" and sit her back down. She'd laugh. Then give me the look. Kind of like "HAHA Mama, you know I'm going to do it again!" And of course she would. Then laugh.

Our Baby Bath Tub
First Years Sure Comfort

So, we tried a baby seat. She figured out how to scoot out of that one and climb up the side of the tub. We would once again tell her "no" and sit her back down. She would once again laugh. Give me the look. And do it again.

Our Bath Seat
The Hug Tub

Once, this started happening we would pretty much end the baths either really quickly... you know get down to business and get out OR we would have to sit in the tub with her to keep her from attempting to stand. Let me just say it's really uncomfortable even with a baby in a tight tub. I always felt squished. 

So, one night while perusing Pinterest... I do that a lot once Baby E is down for the count... I found this nifty little idea about using a laundry basket in the tub. When I saw that, a light bulb went off. That was probably one of the coolest ideas I've seen on there. 

Tub Time Lifesaver from Happy Home Fairy

After thinking about it, I realized we only have one laundry basket... So either I needed to be ridiculously prompt regarding our clothes or I needed to go buy one. Then I thought about the fact that I would possibly need to put a lot of water in their to honestly make it work for her. As much as we LOVE bath time at her age, we don't really need a lot of water. 

I then dismissed the idea.

About a week later, I was going through our front room. Organizing and throwing things out. When I came across a storage bin. It was just sitting there without a top on and it was like once again a light bulb went off. I could use this as a tub! It would be a tad bit harder for her to stand up and it could be easily reused without having to worry about having to keep switching/drying with the laundry basket. Plus, we could put the needed amount of water for Baby E.

All we had to do was rinse it out. Cause it was a little dirty from the stuff that was in there. Then it was on.

I just placed it under the faucet, filled it up with the desired amount of water. Placed her baby seat within it... for comforts sake and added her toys. Clean up was a breeze too. Once she was off to bed, I would wash it out and lay it up against the inside of the tub to dry. Then we could use it the next day without any fuss. She seemed to enjoy it and it worked like a charm for almost a couple of months. Until she figured out how to stand up in that too.

And it was back to the beginning of laughing at us. Until she all of a sudden would start crying when we told her "no"... Oh, Baby E.

Book Shelf Additions Part 1

When we first started our daughters room we didn't have much. We only had a crib, a rocking chair, and a hand me down old dresser. So, we looked at some of our items that didn't have a home; we chose to take the bookcase that matched the crib and rocking chair.

I figured we could use the bookcase as a place to store her books, dolls, and toys. At first I had placed several Huggies wipes boxes in there. My goal was to recover them at a later date with polka dot fabric. Well, the more I thought about it the more i didn't like the idea. This was because I felt the boxes wouldn't hold up to wear and tear as well as they didn't seem big enough. So, back to the drawing board I went. After talking with my mama she suggested picking up some fabric bins. I had thought about them, but, also thought about a few baskets.

After weighing the options and looking at baskets we figured that the fabric bins would be our best option. So, we drove down to Target and picked up 4 bins in 2 different shades of pink. This actually helped pull out the lighter and darker colors of baby E's comforter.

Baby Bottle Funk and Gunk

I decided to change over my previous blog to this blog. You can still find me over at twodaisiesandanelephant.blogspot.com. However, most of my blog posts from there will be transferred over to this one. So, at times you may see the "twodaisiesandanelephant" logo going across many of the photos. No worries, it is me. I promise.

Okay, so after time and most of us know it; things that are seemingly clean end up having a funky smell. Although Baby E's bottles seemed beyond clean they would some how start having a weird smell and sometimes we would still see grime left from her formula. Now, this after the bottle's been washed umpteen times with a scrub brush, checked, and then washed in the dishwasher. Sometimes, I even wonder if my eye sight is getting worse because I don't see it until I pull them out of the dishwasher. Then it's like "eww gross" and back to the hand wash again.

Now, this starts to get a frustrating especially when you have a little one screaming their head off. Cause they want that bottle, like now and your not moving fast enough.

So, one day while I was washing dishes and I saw the bottle of vinegar sitting next to the sink. Once, again light bulb.

Vinegar has become one of my favorite things to clean with. Especially when you add baking soda into the mix.

So, I'd sit each bottle on the counter and add a little bit of baking soda to each. Then. I would grab the bottle of vinegar and add it. Of course, you know, you get this awesome chemical reaction... that brings you back to being a kid.

Once, the chemical reaction was finished... I would swirl it around and then dump. Then I'd add a little bit more water and a smidgen of soap and scrub. Just in case. Popping it into the dishwasher when I was finished.

Let me tell you, Baby E's bottles never looked better. They almost looked brand new and smelled even more amazing.

This has become my new regimen and the bottles look awesome. I don't have to worry about that funky smell and then finding gunky formula residue after washing.

Have you guys found an easy way to wash the gunk and funk out of your baby's bottles?