WHAT TOY STORES REALLY DO TO YOUR CHILD

The LO and I were at K-mart last weekend looking for a toy.  I was amazed by how much toys there were! It was aisle after aisle of toys; and this is just one section of the K-mart.  Then we went to Toys R Us since K-mart didn't carry the toy I was looking for and lo and behold!

You see, I'm a newbie when it comes to the toy department.  For the last year, I have been limited to the baby section; and the baby section is calm, uncluttered and spacious.  So, coming into K-mart and Toys R Us where you have toys that goes from floor to ceiling is just a bit too much compared to Target's toy section.  It was very overwhelming for me to be surrounded by all the toys and I'm an adult! Can you imagine how overwhelming it is for a child? Let alone a 14 month baby?

PAPER PLAY

This is an accidental activity for the LO and it kept her occupied for 20 minutes! (20 minutes of free time for me! wow!) I was going through our mail and tearing the ones we don't need while the LO was having snack.  When she finished eating, she tried to reach for one of the envelopes so I figured "why not?, what's the worst thing that could happen?". I handed her my pile of torn papers and she looked at each one of them as if its the most interesting thing. 

HALLOWEEN THEME

Halloween week is over! Here is how we decorated our classroom:

DIY COLOR BIN

I made a color sorting wheel for my class today.  My kids for this year are much younger than what I had last year.  I have some color sorting boards from Lakehore but they seemed too distracting for my little kiddos. 

ENTERTAINING A BABY IN A RESTAURANT

I love the LO to the moon.  But I have to admit, it gets pretty challenging to entertain her when in a restaurant.  She's strapped in high chair unable to move as she pleases... of course she'll be antsy and make every available effort to squirm out of those straps.  I'm amazed at how flexible she can be! The average time for a meal is about 1-1.5 hours so we need to be pretty creative in keeping the LO occupied.  I refuse to give her my iphone to entertain her.  That being said, I've adapted a few tried and tested tricks to keep her busy.

FRIENDS' ORANGE SOFA

Who would have thought that I will get to sit on Friends' infamous orange sofa?

This is the line from the other side of the street.  The line is short being that we went at 4pm on a weekday and it was raining.  We only waited for at least 20 minutes.