Rolling....rolling....rolling

So for the last month the girls have been turning from their front to their back. You know the roll that's kinda more of just a fall because they flop their weight over.  This week though they officially starting rolling themselves from their back to their front!  Yes I know all babies do that; but the part that shocks me is that they both did it for the first time within 5 minutes of each other.  I find that so strange.  The older twins would do stuff like this within a week or two of each other but these girls seem to do everything at the same time.  They smiled the same day as each other, laughed out loud the same day as each other and now rolled from back to front within minutes of each other.

These three are going to get into tonnes of trouble when they are all mobile hahaha

Book club

I have to admit I love being part of a good book club.  I love reading books that are out of the regular genre of books I would normally read for fun and the discussion with the other members after is always great.  This post is not about an adult book club though, it's about a book club for toddlers.

Joshie had a few good friends who are all almost the same age (within a few months of each other). Last month we hosted our first book club meeting together.  A book club for kids how fun! We chose Joshua's favorite book at the moment which is the very hungry caterpillar and organized our little play date around that.  Really it was quite simple and kept the kids interested because they are all at the same stage.  

The kids book club can really be broken down into a few parts:

Reading the Story

This is self explanatory.  You just sit down with the kids and read them the story.  At this stage there is a lot of shouting out during the story, touching the book and just wandering around but hey that's how it is for a two year old.

Activity

I had been wanting to make a felt board for quite some time.  I took a long time contemplating about making an actual board or re-purposing something we already had.  What I finally decided on was creating a flannel board that can attach to one side of the easel but can fold away easily when we aren't using it.  I made felt pieces for all the things the caterpillar ate in the story and then each toddler took turns putting items on our felt board while we read the story.  It was really quite easy to do and I wish I would have done it earlier because the board is now used on a daily basis.  I am looking forward to making more felt learning tools and story accessories to use on our board.

Craft

Two year olds are not great at making elaborate crafts so I decided to go quite simple.  I pre-cut out all the pieces out of construction paper to make very hungry caterpillar hats.  I had very hungry caterpillar stickers that they all stuck onto paper that I had pre-cut as well.  When they were done, we just used tape to attach the pieces wherever they wanted and help them put together their hats.

Snack

What is a playdate without a snack?  A way to get a toddlers attention is definitely through food!  For a quick snack, I just cut up a few things that the caterpillar ate in the story.  The kids really enjoyed it.

This activity is really easy to do when all the kids are super close in age because then they are developmentally at the same stage.  The activities that we chose were geared solely towards a two year old.  It would be neat to revisit this same play date in another year or so and see how much the activities would differ because of the ability levels and developmental stages of the kids.

Once a month we will rotate hosting duties and meet for one of their favorite books.  A great outing for the kids and I have to admit, I enjoyed the kids and mom company as well :)

This kid cracks me up

I had forgot just how much fun the two year old stage was.  They do the silliest things that just crack you up.  This morning Joshua was playing with his toy suitcase that sings about vacation's etc.  I have been on a lot of vacations but I am not sure I have ever been anywhere that requires his attire....

- 3 winter hats
- short sleeves
- rain boots

and of course a toy car.  Wonder where he is planning on going?

Breakfast

With kids, what they will eat is always changing.  One day their favorite food is oatmeal, the next it is the worst thing in the world.  It's always about choosing your battles.  Little Joshie had long finished up his breakfast but I heard the sound of the spoon on a bowl.  I looked over....

and voila!

Bulldozers with a side of excavator!

Timing

The boys received a religious book for Christmas titled 'The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name'.  We have been reading from it as part of our nightly routine.  To be honest though some nights we skipped reading from it because we were only a few chapters from finishing another novel or it was on another floor and mommy didn't go get it. Regardless, we have been reading it off and on since Christmas.  To my amazement on Friday night (which was good Friday), we sat down to read the next story in the book and it was the story of Jesus being nailed to the cross and his burial.  Weird how we have randomly been reading this book and yet the story of Good Friday lined up with our Good Friday this year.  Just makes you sit back and think how some things happen for the right reasons. There were many factors involved here and yet for some reason everything lined up :)