Tag Archives: Toddler

Child #2: Quentin, Photography

Easy Toddler Hiro Costume from Big Hero 6

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Hey! It’s taken me 2.5 months to post Quentin’s 2 year old pictures. I’ve been super busy with my kids, studying photography and keeping my apartment clean!!! That’s why I haven’t had time to post anything!

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I dressed him up as Hiro from Big Hero 6. Why? Because his hair was super long and my husband really wanted me to cut it. So I had to dress him up like Hiro before I cut off his awesome hair.

This can be a super easy Halloween Costume for any little boy who has long shaggy hair! It could help if you were Asian or half Asian but either way… it’s super easy to dress up like Hiro.

I love the movie Big Hero 6 because of Baymax… I think I need a Baymax to take care of me!

Isn’t Quentin super cute!?

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Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Family Life, General Conference, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

3 year old Rock Climber

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Our friend took the boys rock climbing! I think climbing is just built into these little boys. Micah who’s 3, loved it. After a few tries, he got 3/4 of the way up the wall.

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They even had little harnesses for little toddlers for Quentin.

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However, this is how Quentin felt about climbing the wall. “Don’t make me do this!!” He was a little tired and hungry.

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We had a blast! So grateful for our friend who took us climbing!

Speaking of climbing mountains, I enjoy this great inspiring message by President Eyring about climbing mountains and “Gaining Power to Overcome Challenges in Life.”

 

Babies, Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Parenting, Toddlers

3 Easy Steps to Teach a Young Child How to Read

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How to Read

My oldest son, Micah, is now 3 years and 5 months old. He is starting to sound out words and reading short words! I’m seriously so proud of him. My goal is to teach him how to read before he goes into Kindergarten. I’ve been teaching my son how to read ever since he was interested in letters which was well before he was 18 months old. I definitely think this is from Dallin’s genes cause I have never been interested in reading very much at all.

I broke it down to three easy steps. I’m writing this down so I can teach my next kid how to read but may be it’ll help someone else too.

  1. Teach your child to recognize all the UPPERcase letters
  2. Then teach your child to recognize all the lowercase letters
  3. MAKE IT FUN!!! Teach your kids letter sounds as you would teach them animal sounds. (ex. What does a M say? mmmmmm) With this step I needed a little bit of help and guidance, I’ll list the resources I have used below.

After talking to my mom friends, I really think phonics is the way to begin teaching kids how to read.

First book, my neighbor suggested Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  This book has a really boring introduction of instructions for the parents, but once we started the lessons my son seriously took the book and blossomed. Everyday you only do one lesson and it last about 20 minutes. Everything is outlined for you so I didn’t even have to plan anything. It gives you the order to teach the letter sounds, starting with the more obvious sounds like M and S and A then moving towards more complicated sounds like silent E’s… ect. Three reasons why I love the book is 1) it’s super easy for me 2) it teaches kids how to read and not just memorize the words 3) It makes reading into a game.

Another friend suggested the Three Owl’s Reading Method which unfortunately is out of press and I can’t find a copy anywhere. Micah loves these little books!!! This is more of a Montessori approach to teaching kids how to read. The first sounds that it teaches kids are the vowels sounds: a, e, ee, i, o, oo, u. Since it’s out of print, may be I’ll recreate the books and put them online. Dr. Hulda Clark who created the reading system died back in 2009. I’ll email the publisher to find out what I can do. Micah loves Owl’s Eyes more than Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons because they come in little colorful books his size.

The third resource I’ve used to help my child learn how to read is Hooked on Phonics Ipad App. While I’m not a huge fan of their curriculum (mostly their story books are weird), I love love the letter sounds songs and the games they made for their app. Micah loves this app!

Of course, I don’t believe in forcing children to learn how to read but it’s been so fun for Micah that he’s forcing me to teach him how to read!

Now I’m not an expert at this but my younger son, Quentin is 18 months… I started asking him “What sound does M make?” and he replies with “mmmmmmm”. So I truly believe that when a child starts imitating animal sounds they can totally start learning letter sounds too! 🙂

I’ll end with my favorite scripture in Doctrine and Covenants:

D&C 88:118 …seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

What tips and tricks do you have to teach kids how to read?

Main Dishes, Recipe

Super Easy Kid-Friendly Macaroni

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Kid Friendly Mac

I feel a little silly posting this. I’ve been going through my 2014 pictures and I took this picture 1 year ago. My little boys eat this at least once a week… cause it’s super easy for me. Lately, I’ve been minimizing the time I spend cooking so I can maximize the time I get to do my hobbies and teach my boys new things.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Cook and drain macaroni according to package then put macaroni back into pot. Turn heat down to medium-low
  2. Put the butter on top of the macaroni in the pot. Stir until melted.
  3. Stir and sprinkle Italian bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese until desired coverage (~1/4 cup each)
  4. Enjoy! Or….
  5. FOR OVER ACHIEVERS: Put macaroni on a baking sheet and broil until a little crispy on the edges (~2 minutes)
Family Life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Classic Skating

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I grew up going to Classic Skating all the time! I remember in 6th grade when they took us on a field trip to Classic Skating and I was super excited. My mom encouraged me to learn how to roller blade at a very young age and I’ve always loved it! I didn’t realize that my son, who is only 2, would love roller skating!!!

Last week, we went to Classic Skating family activity planned by our ward’s elders quorum. We had a blast! It made me really happy to see that Micah loved being on wheels. 🙂 He went around the rink like 8 times!

They’ve remodeled the place a little since I’ve been there but they still do things like “wipe out”, “snowball”, “blackout” and “train”. It sure brings back old memories!

After a while, Micah insisted on rolling by himself.

Our little Quentin bear just had fun looking at the lights. During blackout it seemed like we were at a rave or something! LOL! No, we didn’t take babies to a rave. It was just Classic Skating.

One thing that has changed is that I didn’t know they allow little kids to bring in strider balance bikes. They also let us have strollers on the rink! LOL! Our family definitely rolls in style. And yep, we used our own converted single to double stroller.

In The Family Proclamation it says that “Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”

As, a family we definitely try to work hard to keep our house in order and keep up with our studies but we also play hard too! Going to classic skating sure was a lot of fun and it was a good family/ward bonding activity.

What kind of wholesome recreational activities does your family like to do?

Child #1: Micah, Family Life, Parenting, Toddlers

Micah is growing up!

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This little kid always has a dirty face! I’m proud to be his mom. He loves to sing songs and dance. He is 27 months old (2 years and 3 months). He is starting to speak in sentences. He says things like “I want fire truck”. “Mommy, where did you go?” “Bye bye mommy, nap time”. “I want pancake!” “Pee pee in potty? Ok.”

As difficult as 2 years old are… I love it all at the same time!

Child #1: Micah, Family Life, Parenting, Toddlers

Things to do with 21 Month Old Toddler

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Micah is a brilliant little child. He is 21 months old. He can:

  • Count from 1 to 6 skip to 9 then 10
  • Knows, says, sings, and recognizes all the ABCs (Struggles with W… he thinks it’s M)
  • Match colors
  • Match shapes
  • Knows his basic shapes: Triangle, Square, Star, Circle, Moon, Heart
  • Knows his colors: Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Red
  • Knows animals and animal sounds: Cow, Pig, Duck, Sheep, Dog, Cat, Elephant, Giraffe, Penguin, Fish, Lion, Tiger, Bear… oh my! The list goes on.
  • Loves to read pictures in his book (example: A – Apple, B – Ball…)
  • He loves to point out letters and numbers where ever we go!
  • He loves to count his toy cars
  • He loves to sign to songs: Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbean, Nephi’s Courage, Wise Man/Foolish Man, I love to see the Temple, Open Shut Them, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes… are just a few of his favorites.
  • He knows the difference between a: fire truck, race car, ambulance, bus, train, tractor, van
  • He can make different noises for “car sounds”: Beep Beep! Boom! Vroom! Zoom! 
  • He can spend an hour organizing things

Micah has always done well to routines and he is really good with verbal prompts: 

  • Are you hungry?
  • Are you tired?
  • It’s nap time, close your eyes and go to sleep.
  • It’s night night time
  • It’s still night night time (for the odd times he wakes up in the night)
  • Close the door
  • Go back to your room
  • Clean up your toys
  • Do you want water?
  • Do you want to read a book?
  • Say “Bye Bye” to ______ (We say bye bye to everything)
  • Dada has to go “Bye Bye”
  • Can you say Hi?
  • Fold your arms
  • It’s time to pray

Lately, I’ve realized that Micah needs to be playing, stimulated, or learning every minute of the day. Whenever he gets bored then he starts throwing a tantrum. He needs more than just play time with toys. I recently felt inspired to add structure into his daily routine by making his play time into learning time. I try hard to make sure Micah never gets bored.  It has worked so well! Here are some ideas I’ve come up with:

  • Singing Time
  • Story Time
  • Homemade Car Mat
  • Matching Colors with his toys
  • I spy games
  • Name the object game
  • Homemade ABC flashcards
  • Homemade Shape Matching
  • Homemade Puzzles
  • Water Play Time
  • Cooking Time
  • Laundry Time
  • Cleaning Time
  • Building Blocks
  • Counting Toys
  • Youtube Time
  • Scripture Study Time
  • Snack Time (Creative Snacks)
  • Library
  • Park
  • Playing with Balls
  • Building Forts
  • Zoo

I will alternate activities throughout the day and week. It has worked so well that Micah wants his own free time. The last few days he has been going into his room for 30 to 45 minutes and he’ll close his door to play with his toys by himself. I didn’t know what to do with myself! I thought he was making trouble but really he just wanted time to himself. 🙂

What do you do with your toddlers?

Child #1: Micah, Children, Family Life, Parenting, Photography, Toddlers

Happy 18 Months Micah!

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I can’t believe Micah is now 18 months. Woot! He is old enough to go to Nursery at church now. How exciting! Now we just need a bunch of nursery aged kids to move into the branch so there can actually be a nursery. 🙂

At 18 months Micah likes:

  • Lasagna, Ham Fried Rice, Pesto, Eggs, Sandwiches and Cold Cereal (He could live off of cereal)
  • European Chocolate, Ice Cream, and Cheesecake
  • Push Cars, Buggies and Trolleys (aka Shopping Cart in the USA)
  • Knock on doors on our street like a missionary
  • Chasing the seagulls and pigeons
  • Go down the slide and be on the swing
  • Conduct music in church and FHE
  • Ipad (he’s a little obsessed)
  • Gigglebellies and Other YouTube videos
  • To read books (sometimes we have to read all his books before he goes to bed)
  • To pray!

Micah can say:

  • In English: Mama, Dad, Ball, Car, Dog, Baby, Whee!, No, Oh oh, Temple, Jesus, Ipad, Moo, Quack Quack, Oink Oink
  • In Portuguese: Agua, Orar, Pexies

Micah can sign:

  • Milk, Airplane, Teddy, Bus, Pray, Book, Spider, Telephone, Hello/Bye, “Yay!”
  • Itsy Bitsy Spider
  • Wheels on the Bus
  • Popcorn Popping
  • Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam
  • Patty Cake
  • Hop you Bunnies
  • Do you Ears Hang Low
  • This Little Piggy
  • Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
  • When You’re Happy and You Know It

Micah can point out:

  • Bellybutton, Ears, Nose, Head, Shoulder, Knee, Fingers (he thinks his fingers bunnies), Toes (he thinks his toes are piggies)

Micah can follow instructions:

  • Set the table
  • Put groceries in the fridge
  • Find his shoes, socks, and jacket
  • Put laundry in the washer
  • Put something in the trash
  • Go wash your hands
  • Go to the potty
  • Go brush your teeth (He loves brushing his teeth!)
  • Clean up
  • Blow on the food, it’s hot
  • It’s time to say “Bye Bye”
  • It’s “Night Night” time

Micah can answer:

  • Are you hungry?
  • Do you want some juice?
  • Are you tired?
  • Do you want to take a bath? (In Chinese)
  • Do you want some milk? (In Chinese)

Here is are the pictures I took of at 18 months photo shoot. I’m very please by how these pictures turned out!