Preschool Activity: More Rice Time and Making Rainbow Rice

I wanted to share these wonderful photos of my son exploring texture, object permanence, transferring materials into containers of various volumes, and using tools.  Those are the concepts I noticed he was exploring with the Rainbow Rice tray.

He selected the toys and tools to use for this activity.  I selected the types of toys and tools for him to use, but allowed him to choose from my designated pile of toys.

We buried several objects in the Rainbow Rice and used measuring spoons and scoops to excavate them.  When we hid them, we asked, "Where did it go?" and you can see DHH's gestures and facial expressions show what we were saying!

Here's a photo of the rainbow of rice I made, approximately five pounds of it!   Of course, it did not stay sorted for very long!  I kept several small bags of individual colors so we could use it for a few other projects (maybe something with glue... textured pictures?)

It wasn't very messy.  I just spilled a handful of rice on the counter. I thought I would have made a bigger mess on this, honestly!  And I thought it would have taken much longer as well.  It only took about 25 minutes from start to finish!  I did it alone, however... I cannot imagine that it would have gone really well to have included my toddler in the creation process.  Maybe when he's three!

Here are the "ingredients" of Rainbow Rice:

Its important to use the "good" zipper bags - you don't want a leak!   You can reuse the same 3 or 4 for mixing purposes.

Buy the largest, cheapest bag of rice you can find.  White dyes better than brown.

Buy liquid food coloring - not the gel kind.  

GermX - its alcohol based, so it helps the food coloring absorb into the rice and dry.  I used about 10 pumps per bag, but I could have/should have used half that amount!

I saw this activity on the blog Pink and Green Mama (what a great blog name that is!  Mine might be Fuschia and Green though... :o)) linked from this family's website.

Another World Is Rosy Kind of Post.

Yes, this new baby is making our house incredibly sentimental and sappy.  But we love it.

Life is so good right now.  We are really blessed.

Our son wants to hug and kiss and cuddle his sister (always calls her CiCi these days), and so its easy to overlook how he is naturally rough and sort of man handles her.  He   hit her on the head with his plastic flute today, but then hit himself on the head twice as a form of penance, I think.

My husband is in his element. He has so much confidence with this baby.  But he also has so much patience with our son and desire for him to come along on errands and do yard work with him.  He really enjoys being with DHH and its apparent to an outsider, too.   He just delights in our son's curiosity and silliness.  This makes me happy and lightens my mood, too.

There's not much sleep to be had on my part, but I hope that will shift in the coming weeks.  I could really use eight hours in a row.  It seems laughable to expect that right now though.

I am hopefully avoiding the Nasty PPD affliction.  I'm remembering medications (still in lots of pain associated with uterine cramping - so still need regular ibuprofen) most days, which helps.  I am remembering to eat most meals, which helps. I am also remembering to go outside, take walks, express my frustrations before they become bitternessses, cry if I see an especially sweet moment (yes, Royal Wedding got a few tears), and ask for hugs.  I think all of these things are helping.

But sleep.  I have got to get more sleep!  Its difficult when everyone else is sleeping at 11 PM.  The house is silent, and I have time to decompress.

But tonight, sleep wins.

What We Did Today...

Newborn photo session.

Here's a little preview of the fruit of such a LONG afternoon in the
photography studio!

I Decorated for Easter!

And DHH really liked it.
I bought all the materials over a month in advance because I wanted it all done before baby time. I predicted we'd have another little Easter Egg at home!

I made this banner out of scrapbook paper, ribbon, computer printout letters, and modge podge and I love it.  I want to have one for many seasons.  DHH loves it, too. His chair is right underneath the banner, and he points a lot to it  and anytime he hears the word spring he gets so excited and runs to the banner.

Pine cone wreath we always have hanging up, this time with garland and eggs.  DHH helped me hang up the eggs.

I made these eggs from paint chip swatches from Home Depot.  I had to improvise since I did not have tiny hole punches, which is a needed thing to make the eggs hang vertically.  However, this way it is a double sided strand I could use it for other places besides where it is right now.

DHH loved these bunnies.  He called one Mama, another Dada, and other De (me?).  Then he dropped the Dada and the head fell off.  He was upset. Husby glued it on, but it took awhile to dry.  He missed it while it was away!

Easter Basket for DHH.

I think the large, singing rabbit robot counts as a decoration, too.  DHH really liked it and the song "Here Comes Peter Cottontail".  I don't mind that its time for that bunny to rest his voice for another year now!

The front door will have this egg wreath on it for a little while longer.  Then I will replace the eggs with some other faux objects. I like the look of the ferns though and will keep them!

We also had a bunch of plastic eggs in a pretty blue bowl (ordinarily used for fruit) on the kitchen table.  It was nice to look at.

The other decorations are two small egg/topiary/lily statues that are on the TV cabinet.  They look nice, but I guess not nice enough to photograph!

Better to post later rather than never, right?

Her Umbilical Cord Stump Fell Off and I Thought It Was a Spider.

So I freaked out because why is there a spider on the changing table?


And then my husband actually asked if I wanted to save it for a scrapbook or something.  WHAT?


And then I noticed she has a totally normal and cute belly button.  The only evidence that we once were connected.

Baby Photo Comparisons.

 Exhibit 1.

Less than half hour old.

Does Elsa look more like:

a) Brother

Five days old

b) Mother

Less than day old

c) father

'Less than week old

Exhibit B

Elsa on Day 2, still with hospital security tag on cord!

Does Elsa look like...

a) father

Father, less than two weeks old. 1982!

b) mother

Mother (with her mother!) 1 day old.

c) brother

Brother, half an hour old.

Exhibit C

On her second morning of life.

Does Elsa look more like...

a) brother

Day 4, at home.

b) mother

Mother, 2 days old. 1982 Hospital photo.

c) father

Father, less than a week old, at home.

I have strong opinions about people telling a mother that the child she carried for ten months, suffered through labor for to deliver, and then spends all day caring for that the baby doesn't resemble her.  Come on, people!  Give her a break.  Just say the baby looks like her!  To say otherwise is cruel.


However, in my son's case, he did look a LOT like his father as a newborn.  People say they look alike right now, which is odd, since my husband can grow facial hair and my son's eyebrows are so light they rarely show in photos (Husby has dark, nearly Bert - of Bert and Ernie - eyebrows he refuses to groom). Currently, my son makes expressions a lot like my father and one of my sisters and seems to have their coloring.  He also looks a lot like his dad's brother, too.


I think that my daughter favors my family.  I can see all three Douglas girls' baby photos resembling her photos (after swelling went down from birthing).


It is so neat how genetics play out and how features either combine (multi-factorial genes) or show simple dominance patterns.

Pretty Good Day - and Due Date!

Today was my due date for this pregnancy. Instead of having a 40 week baby, I got a baby who was shy of that mark by eight days.

I look at these days as eight BONUS days I get to spend with my daughter.  Its also been eight consecutive days to spend with my husband!  We've had several (okay, like 6...on different days... perfect number!!)  visitors, which has made the last few days more pleasant.

In these last eight days, I've really appreciated not being pregnant.  Even during the 48 hours of extreme puffy and discomfort associated with breastmilk production, I was more comfortable than I've been in the last several months!  I've been able to get rid of two (of the five) pillows I slept with and even slept on my belly.  How wonderful!  Today I wore a pair of sweats I had on two weeks ago, and I enjoyed seeing how I looked in them.  My belly did not protrude from the bottom of my t shirt.  I squeezed through a narrow space today, too, and I felt very surprised I didn't get stuck or scraped up!

Today, I did five loads of laundry (only half folded and put away twelve hours later), fed the baby at least a dozen times, picked out some flowering plants for our front flower garden and pointed to where I wanted Husby to plant them, napped on the couch holding my baby, tidied up a little, had a nice conversation with Misty (who brought us a new baby meal), and ordered over three hundred photos with an online store promotion.

I also really missed my little boy, who spent the day with my husband's parents.  REALLY missed him.  He will be home in 14 hours and I am counting them down!

Just Photos of My Baby Girl.

She is five days old in these photos.  

She is so beautiful and clever at being a baby.

I feel so happy to have her in my life.

I am working on writing her birth story, writing about how breastfeeding is going, and getting her blog written in chronological order.  This is taking quite some time!  Especially when I get distracted by just holding her and enjoying how much she seems to prefer snuggling than any other activity, even more than eating!

Scenes From Easter with the Haids!

This Easter was actually really different for me.  I am still an emo girl and crying when I dwell to long on the sweet things and on the sentimental things.

So a holiday about Jesus dying on the cross and redeeming the world is basically too much for me.  Its just to big for me to wrap my head around right now.  All I can comprehend right now is thankfulness for such a blessed life.  I am just so thankful for what I have now, which is more than I had expected to get or even imagined would be a happy and wonderful thing.

The baby distracted me during church today from the Resurrection Message.  What did strike me to today though was about receiving God's love and forgiveness no matter where one is in life.  I thought about how easy it would be to be content with what I have and ignore the Cross and salvation and etc.  It would be less easy to be complacent if I had a rough life of substance abuse or poverty or terminal illness.  For some reason, suffering seems to get my attention and turn my heart towards God.  Right now, for example, I'm not suffering and so my relationship with God is a little more casual and less sincere than it ought to be.

So moving on to Easter traditions.

As a girl, we had Easter baskets with candy and usually new springtime dresses.  Sometimes we did egg hunts on Saturdays.  Sundays were usually an early church service in our new dresses, covered up by warm jackets since the weather was usually 40 degrees and misty.  My child is too young for any real traditions to be established, but we did talk about today being a Jesus holiday and being thankful for God's son Jesus with DHH.  We didn't do anything Easter Bunny related like an egg hunt.  It was 50 degrees with an occasional sprinkle here!

We went to our normal church service (8:15 AM - arrived only ten minutes late with toddler AND new newborn! That surprised me!).  Then we took photos at church in our Easter clothes and as a formal "out and about" family of four.

We dress up as a family!My mom bought an outfit for DHH that made him look even more like a child.  My husband dressed up like a high school boy with a baseketball game (nice shoes, tan pants, cotton shirt with collar, free sports T shit underneath) and looked especially handsome (I think because he shaved for the first time in about 10 days, which dramatically altered his appearance and made him look younger, perhaps even high school). I had bought EK a dress just in case she was here for Easter Sunday, and it was cute, but required the use of hot pink sweat pants underneath.  I wore the dress I selected for the baby shower (which was not nursing friendly, so I we brought a long a bottle... funny story to tell later on this one!).

We dressed up and thus, I brought out the camera.  I don't know if I'll be in much other than yoga pants and nursing tank tops for awhile!  And I felt like it was a great time for proof we have a family of four!

It would have been another ordinary Sunday at our house - which is usually an early lunch, a nap, some sort of outdoor playtime, leftovers, and America's Funniest Videos, but my sister R came to visit!  I was happy she did. We often visit my parents or go to husby's mother's family's Easter dinner.  This year it seemed a little much to travel with a child who is not yet a week old.  Our family had all visited us in the last week, some twice, so it seemed unfair to ask them to pay $50 in gas for another visit.  But luckily, my sister came, so it felt like a holiday.

My husband grilled outdoors, we took photos of the kids in Easter apparel, and spent the day relaxing.  There was a noticeable LACK of Easter candy!

I made a little Easter basket for DHH.  Inside I put things I knew he would love:
A pinwheel (he's loved them for over a year now and its been a long winter without one!)
A recorder (we called it his horn, the toot flute, and he calls it Toot Toot)
Playdough filled eggs (this was risky, he's never played with this before!)
2 eggs with a Hershey's kiss inside (he LOVES chocolate)
Glow in the dark binks (yes, he's 21 months and still on the bink; this was by far his most exciting gift!)

Next year will be very fun for us to have older children who understand more about the religious significance of the holiday.  I will do the Resurrection Eggs, perhaps as an egg tree, and we'll also celebrate Jesus similarly to how we do on Christmas.  I think we will also have kids who can understand an egg hunt!  DHH will be able to look for eggs and EK will be able to follow her brother around (toddling or crawling!).

PS, I wrote this last night!