Good morning friends, happy Friday! I am sitting here at the kitchen table, sipping on my coffee with a candle burning, my kind of morning :) Lately I have been setting my alarm at 5 so I can get an early start and it always sets the tone for my day. A calm and peaceful morning leads to a more calm and peaceful day, right? I work today from 7-4 and I am hoping it goes by quickly. Michael and I have plans to make something yummy for dinner together and then go for a walk and watch the sunset on the beach after... with Ella in tow of course. We are pumped! Even though we have nothing planned for our weekend, I know we'll find something fun to do.
-Today's post may contain affiliate links, see disclosure for more info and thanks for supporting my blog-
-Today's post may contain affiliate links, see disclosure for more info and thanks for supporting my blog-
Now onto some favorites from our week...
One-
Ella has been loving her rainbow stacker that we got for her, and we have a fun little game we like to play with it too. I will sit on the opposite side of the room, and request a specific color I would like her to get for me. She will carefully select my requested color from the rainbow and deliver it to me (sooo proud of herself, by the way.) It has been a fun activity for us and it's helping her learn colors too.
I also love the way her rainbow stacker looks on her toy shelf- the bright pop of color is so pretty.
Two-
 We recently stumbled across a Momma Vlogger that we are just obsessed with. Both Michael and I absolutely love watching their videos together. Her name is Ashley and she has two young daughters and does a lot of day-in-the-life vlogs, but also has a ton of knowledge and information on Montessori practices at home. She has been a huge inspiration for us and something about watching her family's videos is super soothing and uplifting. Ashley and her husband Mike (ironic that they have the same names as us... haha) show each other such respect and have done such a good job raising their girls. If you're looking for a new Momma to follow and inspire you, you must check out their channel. |
Three-
Tuesday was my day off and my favorite day of the week because Ella and I got to do so much bonding together. She has been getting really ancy and bored at home lately-she just wants to do SOMETHING and honestly, I can't blame her. We discovered one of our favorite parks is re-opened and we decided to go check it out. It was immaculate and there were signs indicating they have city workers coming out to sanitize it multiple times a day. When we arrived there was NOBODY else there, so we stayed a bit to play. It was honestly the best and I was so happy to see Ella so happy. Of course we had masks, sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer with us.
Ella wanted to go on the swings first. She lit up like the fourth of July when we saw that swing.
She spent some time just walking around and exploring. You can see our hand sanitizer in the background haha. We stayed for about an hour and not a single person came, which was soo perfect.
Four-
I found this picture on our ipad and I thought it was absolutely hilarious and such a surprise! I barely remember this picture and I'm not even sure if I took it, or if one of the nurses did. Either way, I know Michael has a look of pure terror on his face... HAHA! I wish he knew in that moment what a wonderful Dadda he was going to be, and that he had nothing to worry about.
Five-
Ella and I have been practicing a new activity that involves rubber bands (or similar material) and stretching it from one peg to another. We were using our ikea plate organizer and a few random loose hair elastics, stretchy beaded bracelets and regular elastics. There are elastic band boards out there, but they are pretty advanced and I wanted Ella to start with something really easy. Even this activity was a challenge for her, but I know she'll strengthen her skills and get better over time.
This kept her entertained for a solid 15-20 minutes. I was impressed and will definitely be using this as a future shelf activity.
Six-
Ella learning new things is always my favorite. She's learning her colors and doing really well with them. She probably speaks more Chinese than English which is amazing to me, learning new words everyday! Every night we read these little nursery rhyme books (that I bought for her birthday and she found them and opened them early... :)) and she loves to sing along with me and it's the cutest. Anything new that Ella does is my favorite thing ever. I love when she says "blue" for something blue and when she says "food." We have officially gone pee on the potty, although I think it was just lucky timing. She doesn't quite get it yet but she's comfortable sitting on it so I figure that's a win. Watching her grow is very bitter-sweet.
Seven-
I bought a pack of these individual Breyers vanilla ice cream cups and you guys... it was such a good decision! If you haven't already noticed, I have a huge sweet tooth and apparently so does my daughter. These little ice cream cups are perfect because they are small, only 100 cals each and she usually just wants a few bites of mine before she feels 'all done.' I added a little peanut butter to mine and it was on point. This is going to be a great alternative to getting ice cream out and keeping the calorie intake low. I would love to be one of those people that ate a bowl of fruit for dessert, but I'm just not. I like sweet sweets!!!
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And that's my random mix of favorites from the week! I have a long weekend because I switched days with one of the other hygienists so I am off Saturday-Tuesday and I am thrilled. I think Michael and I are going to have a day-date on Sunday if his parents agree to watch Ella for us- also very exciting!!! :) Have a great weekend friends and we'll be back on Monday!
-Ashley & Ella
xoxo
You are so creative with your learning activities. I love the idea of those individual ice cream cups!
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