Homemade Silly Putty

I got this one from my favorite blog for playtime and learning activities. The consistency is kind of different than real silly putty but it is SO FUN to play with, squeeze, stretch, and hide things in (it's fun for adults too; Doug and I spent an hour mixing/playing with it last night while we were making it for Jacob). The recipe is here. I found the proportions were a bit off though. I used much more liquid starch than the recipe asked for. If the mixture is too runny/sticky add more liquid starch.

Hiding marbles

As you can see when the "silly putty" rests for awhile it gets more runny and when you knead it it becomes more solid. Jacob had a glorious time :) 

Please Touch Museum

Jacob is beyond cute. Today we went to the Please Touch Museum with our good friends Rachel, Jack, Asa, and Zoe. Jacob was beside himself with excitement. Unfortunately I did not get any good photos of the kids because our camera's flash is broken and they wouldn't refrain from running in circles long enough to get a non-blurry shot. This video does give some idea of Jacob's overflowing joyousness (the Please Touch Museum might be his favorite place on earth). I love this kid!

An Ode to Doug

Imagine my glee yesterday upon returning home late in the evening from my internship, exhausted and discouraged, to find dinner ready and a house that had been cleaned stem to stern. I love my Dougie.

Wonderful Boy

I'm starting to realize that positive reinforcement has more than one desirable outcome. I try to tell Jacob often that he is good, smart, handsome and wonderful, that he is doing a good job, and that I am proud of him. Apparently this has made an impression. The other day Jacob said to Doug out of the blue: "Baba, I'm proud of you." Needless to say this made "Baba's" day. 

Exploring and Experiencing

Recently I have been trying to provide Jacob with opportunities to learn through experimenting and exploring with various materials. I have to say these activities are usually the funnest part of the day. Watching Jakey learn and being a part of that is just so energizing. Here are photos of some of the fun.

Experimenting with feathers:

What happens if I blow on the feathers?

Showing Mama a feather.

This is one of Jacob's favorites...I'm talking hours of entertainment. I have a baggie of various dried beans, pasta, popcorn, stones and rice. Mix this with different types of containers and voila!

Charles and Jacob poured, emptied, counted, felt, listened to the different sounds each object made, and carried a conversation throughout the whole process.

Jacob: Mama what's this?

Jacob: Oh the rock is cold.

Charles: I want to scoop it in piles.

Charles: Let's see what happens with the corn.

Later on other toys were integrated into the play.

Fun with pipe cleaners and pompoms:

 Working on shapes, colors and sorting.

The "train" we made with our pipe cleaners.

Rotorfest 2011

We went to Rotorfest 2011 last weekend with Uncle Micah, Aunt Erin, and Cousin Charles. The boys were able to get inside real helicopters, see an airshow, watch people parachuting out of a helicipoter, watch "baby" RC helicopters be flown and see a variety other very exciting things. In fact, it was so exciting Jacob ran around in circles for awhile when first got there. 

Charles' and Jacob's excitement and energy made it hard to get any pictures, and Jacob just wouldn't look at me because there were too many other things to look at. So you'll just have to take my word for it...they had a great time.

Labor Day Weekend

As a last hurrah! for the summer we went on a weekend getaway.

 We spent the first day and night in Strasburg, PA (Lancaster County) exploring Cherry Crest Farms, riding the Strasburg Railroad, eating and relaxing at our hotel.

Jacob loved this slide

Feeding the goats

Mama and Jacob building with the life-size Lincoln logs

Checking out the buggy-I feel like such a tourist in this shot

 

Looking out the window of the train

The other leg of the train trip. Jacob has been talking about it ever since:

"Mama, I like da riding da train!" and "Thank you Baba (Doug) for riding da train!"

The second day of our trip we drove further north and west to the State College area up in the mountains. It was beautiful. We enjoyed napping, reading, hiking and just generally being out in nature and away from the city. Doug also got to see the test wind turbine that Penn State has up.

Here's a picture of the bed and breakfast we stayed at.

We had fun...now it's back to school and work!