Too Many Tulips!

The Lairds are synonymous for doing TOO much! Today we took a big family outing to the local tulip festival. The street festival was first, with lots of walking, lunch and more walking. Then finally we were off to see the flowers. We literally mapped Tulip Town and arrived at the most beautiful fields. Audette woke up from her nap upon arrival and had a rough couple of minutes trying to navigate the uneven mounds of dirt. She was not a happy little sister. I feel pretty strongly that kids are more resilient than we think. We, as parents, typically cause most of the trauma. We bring on the "TOO much" meltdown scenario more than we should. Eric and I do it all too often. We are just as much busy bodies as this little nugget is.

I am quickly finding that this age requires taking new experiences slowly at first (especially when they come during a long day). We made the mistake of immediately throwing her in front of a row of tulip with 4 awkward adults making faces at her to get her to look up and smile. We changed our strategy a little bit after the tulip meltdown. Dad picked Audi up and took time to teach her about the flowers. First one at a time, and then the whole row. He showed her how to smell the flowers and be gentle with them. It wasn't long until Audette felt quite at home in the rows of tulips. I may be biased, but I think she is the prettiest flower of them all.

Learning from our first experience, Eric took a little more time when we moved on to the horses. Within moments Audette wanted to get down and check out the horse up close on her own. Looks like Mom and Dad still have a lot of learning to do too.

And, uh, no surprise here, this guy holding the popcorn didn't take any time getting used to despite his scary/amazing costume. Foodie baby.

Flash Card Friday

Rainy days! Fun inside and it's a good thing this little girl LOVES learning. Seriously, she is almost as big a nerd as I am. Look at that face.

I found some great flash cards at Barnes and Noble one day when I was on my epic search for teaching tools for a one-year-old. They are made by FlashKids, great images and pretty sturdy. It still took a little while to teach Audi that we don't bend the flashcards.

For this flashcard game I pick out a couple of cards I know Audette recognizes: foods we eat, animals are always a favorite. Then while she is napping or eating I will set them up on the ground in a random order to prep for the game.

Then I ask her to find me the dog, cat or apple. She'll go pick it up and bring it back to me. Sometimes it takes a couple times, but I love that these cards have several cards with the same image. That way we get several opportunities to practice.

Flascard Nerd. :)

Free Stuff Rocks

A quick web search about your area can give you loads of fun ideas for you and your little one. When I moved to Seattle, I Google searched "Seattle Kids Events" and found an entire calendar of daily events around the city and suburbs. They even listed the FREE events. We love being cheap!

This special FREE event was at KIDS Quest and from 5-8pm, the perfect time for Dad to join. It also meant the place was swarming. The kids didn't seem to mind. They just ran everywhere they wanted and the parents awkwardly bumped in to each other while they chased their kids. Basically a whole pile of fun.

I loved watching Dad and Audi play. Eric is the king of creativity. I learn tons of new play tactics from him every time we all go out together.

He also proved to be a smooth talked when the older kids kept pushing Audette out of the way. All she wanted to do was put the little pins in the giant light board. Eric talked the older girl in to teaching Audi how to do it herself. Smooth operator.

KIDS Quest is more of a science museum. There were so many action/reaction games to play with Audi and plenty of ideas I could easily do again at home. Audette loved this display with tons of scarves and fans that you could point in any direction. The fans would float away and she would catch them. At home: Blow dryer and scarves.

They also had a big area for toddlers to play. Fenced in fun. I love when Audi gets to play on her own and with other kids. Confidence building!

This girl loves animals and even in a science museum she found all of the animals, alive and well, bronzed. Too bad the raccoon wouldn't wave back, but he didn't mind letting Audi point out his nose, eyes and ears.

Read and Dance

Library story time is an excellent way to entertain Audette. We haven't been to many because she is still pretty young, but we are just at that magical age where she is going to love it. Luckily we are just blocks from a library, so today we took a short 20 minute walk to get to Seattle's Central Public Library.

Both Audi and I were in awe of the incredible architecture. Even if your library isn't an architectural phenomenon, there are probably pretty amazing pieces of art, cool staircases, maybe even an elevator. What little one doesn't love pushing buttons, even if they do it from your arms. (Audette is barely tall enough to reach the bottom buttons, but it is still a fun game to see them light up when her finger gives a little push. We're glad she can't reach all of them quite yet.)

The Children's Center of the Seattle Library boasts a play/reading room, scores of books and a big rug in the back room for story time.

Although the rules for this story time included sitting on your bum, the librarian was pretty understanding with the tiny tots. Audette was one of the many who had a hard time sitting still for more than a couple of minutes. She just wanted to greet everyone.

Even if your little one can't last the entire hour, there is always room to explore. Audette liked taking breaks. Maybe the animals and puzzles were a little too tempting. I talked to one Mom who said her little boy only just barely started sticking around the group for the entire play time after a year of attending. He is two now. What a great way to teach a child to interact and participate, even if it is a slow process.

Plus, who said libraries were only for reading? Audette's favorite part of the story time was the dance party. We all got our shake on with the little egg shakers.

Trash Treasures

So the rocks have been a hit at home, literally. Here's a great way to turn your trash into a musical treasure and keep those rocks contained that you collected the other day!

Grab any empty container: water bottles, milk jugs, soda bottles, juice containers. Just wash, dry and play.

Audette loved figuring out which rocks were too big to fit and which would fall back out when she tipped the jug upside down. This would be fun to do with several different containers that have different size openings. Then Audi could try out different bottles until all of the rocks were put away in a bottle.

Now a quick twist of the lid and Ta Da! Shake, shake, shake. Not only did we make up at least three songs to sing while we shook our new instrument around the house, once Audi learned how to take the lid off and on, she was entertained for minutes. (Minutes of entertainment is amazing for this little busy body!)

Mall Play Day

Nearly every children's store hosts activities for kids, whether it is weekly or monthly. When we first moved to Seattle we did a quick web search to find the closest Pottery Barn Kids. They do a great job getting the community involved in their store. (And why not? Kids love to play and moms love to shop. Everyone wins!) We quickly found that our local outdoor mall, University Village, hosts a Tuesday play day, where each week a different store plans a kids activity.

Today we went to the KIDS Club, a fabulous toy store, where we colored animal masks. We didn't get very far before Audette was exploring the store. Even if your child isn't old enough to appreciate all of the activities, just being out and about offers excellent learning opportunities. These skeleton magnets were pretty fascinating. I can only imagine how fun they would be on our fridge at home.

If you do a little research you can usually find a mall with a play area. Even though this is an outdoor mall, the play area is covered and stays dry. Apparently Seattleites swarm here. The kids were definitely swarming today because of the Tuesday play day. Audette loves to watch other kids even if she can't keep up and it is fun to see her explore new toys that we don't have at home.

We checked out the other event at Pottery Barn Kids, a story time. Audette was more in to the snacks and checking out the other babies than sitting and listening to the story. That is, until we found the chair that suited her just right.

Tip for moms: Often times the participating stores will offer discounts on special days like today. Even though you can come and go from these activities for free, we made out with a birthday gift for Audette's friend for pretty cheap. And now we have a semi colored mask to take home and finish coloring some other day.