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JDaniel4s Mom

growing & learning with him

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Muffin Tin Monday- Valentine’s Day Party Treats

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Before I share my Muffin Tin Monday Meal, I want to let you know I have a guest review up at The Book Chook today. I reviewed the book the Alaska’s Three Pigs. If you get a chance, please stop by and check it out.

 

To celebrate the second day of the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party I am sharing a muffin tin of yummy lunch treats.  We both enjoyed the foods in this tin.

This week JDaniel had a heart-shaped empanada ( I will share the recipe for them tomorrow.), homemade tomato soup, grape tomatoes, a heart-shaped crouton to dip in the soup, red grapes, and strawberry heart-shaped marshmallows.

Here is the recipe for the tomato soup:

Tomato Soup

 

3 large cans of stewed tomatoes

3 large garlic cloves

2 cups of chopped onion

1/4 cup of minced basil

1 can of chicken broth

1/2 cup of half and half cream

Salt and pepper to taste

2 slices of whole-grain bread

Directions:

  • In a large saucepan, sauté onion, garlic, and olive oil. Add tomatoes and basil; cook for 5 minutes.
  • Add broth; bring to a boil.
  •  Puree in a blender until large chunks are removed and return the mixture to the saucepan.
  •  Warm half and a half in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  •  Stir half and half, salt and pepper into the soup.
  •  Enjoy with croutons cut out of bread with a cookie cutter and sautéed in a pan with olive oil.

 

This post is linked to the Muffin Tin Mom’s Muffin Tin Monday meme.

What is your favorite Valentine’s Day treat? 

Do you have a post on Valentine’s Day treat you would like to link up to the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party?

 

Welcome Virtual Valentine’s Day Party Guests!

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I have been so excited about this Virtual Valentine’s Day Party. Can’t believe it is finally starting today. The last few weeks I have been creating crafts with JDaniel and testing out new recipes to share with you. It has been hard to not share them with you as we did them. Many of you have been anxious to share your ideas with other party guests too. I heard from one of you that you were so excited about one of your projects you couldn’t wait until the party to share it.

The Purpose

This Valentine’s Day gathering is a time to share your party ideas, enter giveaways planned just for the party, and to mingle with other guests. I hope you take the time to share your posts and visit other party guests.

Party Idea Link Up

There is a link below for you to post your Valentine’s Day Party related posts. Each family-friendly or child-related post linked up will need to have a Virtual Valentine’s Day Party badge or a link at the bottom of it pointing back to the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party Link Up. One of the people that links up a post that contains a badge or links back will be randomly selected to receive a $10 Visa Gift Card. You may link up to four posts during the party.

Here is the badge:

What party is any fun without guests mingling and getting to know each other?

I am also going to randomly pick a comment stating the two link up posts a commenter has visited to receive a prize too. You will be able to leave as many comments as you like making the above statement. I will check to make sure that you have really visited the two posts you have said you have. The prize is a $15 Visa Gift Card.

 

Reminder:

In order to be eligible for the $15 Visa Gift Card, you have to visit two of the links above, leave comments on the posts you select, and leave me a comment telling me which two you visited. You can enter as many times as you like. You will need to visit two posts for each entry.

Examples:

Entry One: I visited links 1 and 35. Each post has a comment from me.

Entry Two: I am still visiting. This time I visited links 25 and 43. Each post has a comment from me.

Entry Nine: I am having such a great time visiting. This time I visited links 50 and 3. Each post has a comment from me.

Just leaving a comment is wonderful, but doesn’t count as an entry.

 
 
 

Red Ted Art: Time on your hands?! Review

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I really enjoy reading the Red Ted Art Blog every week and am super grateful that she often links to Read.Explore.Learn on this blog. The craft ideas she comes up with and the book tie-ins she frequently creates to crafts keep me hunting for great books and ways to share the ideas with JDaniel.

I was recently asked to review her new e-book Time on your hands?! 14 Fab ideas to keep you and your little ones busy throughout the whole year….. This book shows fun and creative ways to reuse cardboard tubes. She has selected crafts that would be perfect for key holidays and summer fun.

Each craft page has an overview of the holiday or season that craft was designed to celebrate along with fun tidbits about it. There is also material list, step by step directions on constructing the craft along with color photos that demonstrate how to construct it.

This book is filled with cute crafts. I love cute crafts that have an ahh factor. I don’t often come up with them on my own. This well-done book will leave you excited about crafting and comfortable about creating crafts. The step by step directions helped me to feel more confident that I could successfully complete them and the picture helped me make sure I was on the right track.

The fact that many of the materials used in the crafts are things that are recycled is another plus for me. I love being able to craft with things we already have at home. Being able to reuse in crafts is a great way for me to show JDaniel how to save things and use them again and again.

Here is a link to the e-book section of Red Ted’s Art Blog if you are interested in purchasing the book.

 
 
 

Queries and Questions for Hibernating Mama Quadrapeds

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I know there are many of you have sleep issues with your children. I have read your blog posts about them.

Lately I have been wondering if hibernating animal mothers have the same issues with their little ones that we do.

If I could talk with a groundhog, here are some of the questions I would ask:

Do you children call out “Is it spring yet?”

JDaniel asks if it is morning yet through the monitor at least once a week.

Do your little ones sleepwalk through your tunnel? If so, do you find them in odd places underground when spring comes?

I have a friend whose daughter walks up and downstairs at night.

Do they need to get up in the middle of the hibernation cycle to use the bathroom or to get water?

One of my sister’s children does this a lot.

Do they have trouble settling in at the beginning of hibernation?

There are many moms in my playgroup that have children hopping in and out of bed each night.

Do they complain that they aren’t tired yet or that other moms let their children stay out later than you do?

JDaniel has just started commenting he isn’t ready for bed yet. I have let him know while that may be true the bed is ready for him.

Do they need to gather fifty million loveys around them to go to sleep?

JDaniel only gets five loveys to sleep with. He would love every stuffed animal he owns in bed with him at night.

How does your husband get up to check his shadow without waking up your little ones?

If JDaniel is close to waking up and my husband turns on the microwave to make coffee in the morning, it totally wakes him up.

Finally I would want to know this:

Do you hope and pray your husband will see his shadow so you can sleep for six more weeks?

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.

 
 
 



Fortune Cookie Predictions and Groundhog Dreams

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If you were a groundhog would you want to have to wake up from a long winter’s nap to check out your shadow?

While Phil has loved to wake up and take part in the spectacle in Punxsutaney, PA for many years. Last summer he started making plans to do something different this year. It took him a little bit of soul searching before ultimately made his decision. He really struggled with whether it would be letting down the people of Punxsutaney if he didn’t show up. He was also concerned about the effect his plan might have on the local economy. Would people return to Punxsutaney if they weren’t sure he would make an appearance?

He continued to wrestle with his decision most of the fall. The other animals in his neighborhood noticed that he was a little distant with them. Phil would walk past them and barely notice they were there. Even when his friends stopped by his burrow to visit he appeared to be distracted.

Phil really wanted to share his plans with his friends. Maybe they could help him work on the clinks in his plan, but if he told anyone what he was thinking of doing would they understand. Some of the traditionalist would say it was important to keep things the same, but they never liked change. A few of his more radical animal pals would cheer him on, but might try to put their two cents in on how the plans should be carried out.

Despite his misgiving in sharing his idea, Phil was dying to tell someone. One afternoon he scurried to his friend porcupine’s house to ask him what he thought about his decision after all it was while flipping through one of porcupine’s old calendars that the he had first noticed that there was a second holiday celebrated during the week on Groundhog’s Day. When he arrived he noticed a small sign hanging from porcupine’s door knob. The sign read Gone to Visit Mom!

Phil took this as sign that he should keep his plans to himself and returned home.

Just before tucking himself in for the winter Phil made the phone call he had been planning to make all fall. He placed his order and let the person on the other end know that he would be placing the money he owed in his mailbox.

When February 2nd arrived, a crowd gathered just outside Phil’s home. Some in the front row closest to the door noticed a note tacked on to the door and a small bag from the local Chinese restaurant.

Dear Groundhog’s Day Followers,

I know that each year you look forward to my telling you whether winter will be ending soon or continuing for a few more weeks. I have decided to enjoy a complete winter’s nap without a break this year.

While I have enjoyed seeing you in the winter year after year, this past summer and fall were extreme exhausting for me. This spring will be super busy too. More rest will be needed so I can gain the strength and stamina I will need to work on all the tasks I will need to complete.

I hope you will find the predictions you seek in the fortune cookies contained in the bag by my door. Happy Groundhog’s Day !

See you next year!
Phil

 

Muffin Tin Monday- Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox

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I found this wonderful book about a groundhog that encounters a fox when he wakes up to see his shadow called Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox. The fox is excited to find lunch while out on a walk. The groundhog invites him to spend time wandering the woods and have a picnic with him. Of course, the groundhog never plans on being lunch his plan to outfox the fox.

Since Groundhog Day is this week, I thought JDaniel would have a groundhog and fox picnic. I wasn’t sure that a fox and groundhog would eat for lunch so; JDaniel and I explored the reference section at the library. We pulled out the F and G encyclopedias and searched for what they would eat. He is way too little to totally understand what an encyclopedia is, but I thought it would be fun to show him a new section of the library. He enjoyed looking in the big books for a few minutes then he wanted to go look for machine movies.

What did we learn? Foxes are omnivores. They will eat meat and plants. They really prefer meat. Groundhogs like to eat plants and tree parts. They like nuts, berries, and grains the best.

JDaniel’s tin contained split pea soup, blueberries, cornbread, pears cut like trees, Cheerios, and a blueberry muffin. Most of the contents were things a groundhog would eat. The ham in the soup was for the fox.

 

What would you serve at a winter picnic?

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Mom.

 

Winter is a Time for…..

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Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time for home.  ~Edith Sitwell

 

 

Lately, it has been much colder here in South Carolina than it normally is. We have had more snow and ice. There have been many days it is too cold to go out and play so we stay warm inside.

We have been finding more ways to have fun in the house. There have been hours of playing with construction equipment, building train tracks, and playing in a fort beside JDaniel’s bed. We have played shape dominoes and worked with pattern blocks at the kitchen table. Each week we have devoured a new bag of library books under a throw snuggled together. We have danced to Laurie Berkner and Ross King so that we can move and get exercise.

Unlike my son who loves to run around the house sockless, I hate being cold! Even inside the house with the heat on I feel the cold. Each morning I pile on layers of clothes. I have sweaters of all weights and thicknesses along with turtlenecks and thick socks. As it warms up during the day I start to shed layers but keep them near to pile back on as the sun goes down.

New soups have been explored this winter. We normally stick to meals of meat and vegetables with a casserole thrown in every now and then. The cold winter weather has motivated me to make minestrone and vegetable soups. I am going to try homemade tomato soup next. We have also inhaled pots of creamy macaroni and cheese. I don’t know why it has always been a cold-weather comfort food for me. Both my husband and JDaniel love homemade macaroni and cheese as I do. It has been fun to try several different recipes for it.

Cold weather also leads to long talks in our living room huddled under fleece blankets. They are great opportunities to share not only our days but our dreams for tomorrow.

It is the cold of winter that reminds me that our house is a home.

What is your favorite part of winter?

 
 

Read.Explore.Learn.- One Snowy Day

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One Snowy Day -Read.Explore.Learn ActivitiesWelcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

  • Link your activity below.

  • Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

    Read.Explore.Learn badge

 

  • Please try to visit at  least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.
  • If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:
One Snowy Day by Tammi Salzano is a wonderful padded counting book about a penguin and the wintry objects he encounters. He has one hat and two mittens. There are three penguin friends who join him in riding four sleds. The book continues with the penguins creating a snowman, eating snowflakes, making snow angels, and throwing snowballs. After a day of play the penguin takes nine steps home to have a cup of chocolate with ten marshmallows.
One Snowy Day -Read.Explore.Learn Activities
    I love counting books and JDaniel does too. One Snowy Day has been a fun counting book for JDaniel and me to read together. With all the snow we have had recently JDaniel has been able to do alll the  fun things penguins got to do in the snow. It has been fun to have him point to a page and say, “I did that too.” The illustrations by Hannah Wood are perfect for the book. The muted colors fit so well into the winter scenes she has painted for each page. The silvery snowflakes that reflect light give a 3-D effect to the pictures.

What did we do?

Number Practice

One Snowy Day Counting Activity

I found pictures online that matched each of the objects counted in the book. I had JDaniel match the pictures I printed to the pictures in the book.

One Snowy Day Counting Activity - You can put the pictures in number order.

Then we arranged the pictures by the number of objects in the pictures.

 

Craft

 

One Snowy Day Craft Idea

I found a really cute penguin craft on DLTK. We printed out the pieces and then JDaniel tried to trace my hands. We used the hand prints to make the penguin’s wings.

 

signature

 

 
 
Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book to review by Tiger Tales Books. I was sent a box of all their fall releases to review. The opinions of this book are my own.
 

Pruney Fingers and Pickled Toes

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Many years ago my sister Michelle asked me to give her oldest son a bath. I asked her about the water temperature and she said he liked cold baths. I thought it was odd, but filled the tub with mildly cold water.

When the tub was ready, I lifted my nephew into the tub. He screamed loudly about ice cube water and stood shivering in the tub with his arm wrapped around his body. I grabbed him out of the water and wrapped in him in a towel.

My sister came running into the bathroom wanting to know what was wrong.

“Ice cold water is in there!,” my nephew told his mom.

“She put in super cold water!” he pointed accusingly at me.

“Why did you do that?” she asked.

“I did what you told me to,” I announced.

Jump forward from the past to the present day

When JDaniel is ready for a bath, I always try to draw a warm bath for him. The water is not too warm and not freezing. Every time I put him the water he complains it is too hot. I remind him that it will lose all its warmth by the time he gets out of the water and encourage him to sit down.

By the time he has been bathed, shampooed, and has played with his bath toys the water is frigid. He protests that he needs more time. He hasn’t tried to swim in the water yet or he hasn’t squirted all the water out of the toys. (Bath toys that could now start growing icicles.)

I let him stay in the tub until all the water has drained out of it. He tries prevent the water from exiting the tub by sitting on the drain and to keep the water in the tub.

When he finally gets out of the tub, his fingers are pruney and his toes are pickled. Wrinkles cover his hands and feet.

I don’t know how he stands it. I do know that long ago when the water was that frigid another little boy couldn’t even stand in it.

 
This post in linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!

 
 



These Mittens Don’t Fit

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Last year I brought JDaniel fleece mittens online on sale. They were a little big for him even though they were size 18-24 months. He has little hands.
This year I pulled out the mittens when we got snow at Christmas time and tried putting them on him. They were still too big. I had hoped that his hands would have grown a little in a year.
The more I looked at the mittens the more I thought that they really should fit his hands. I decided to investigate the mittens and JDaniel’s hands in the mittens. First I tried placing his fingers in a mitten as far as they would reach. This was super easy. Next I tried placing his thumb in the mittens. This required my pushing my fingers into one of the mittens while it was on his hand. It was a tight fit in the mitten with both our hands in there. His thumb won’t push up. I really tried and it wouldn’t go up more than half way into the thumb section of the mitten.
After removing my fingers and his fingers from the mitten, I turned the mitten inside out. I tried stretching out the thumb section to its full length and the inside layer won’t extend. It didn’t make sense the out layer would extend, but not the inner one.
My inquisitive mind wanted to know if this was true about both mittens. It was true the inner layer of the thumbs on both mittens only extends so far.
JDaniel’s mittens were too large for the finger section. That I could fix by pulling them down further on his hands. The thumb issue wasn’t something I could fix. The thumbs were just not put together well in these warm yet defective mittens.
Do you think that is why they were on sale?

 

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