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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+.

Cupcake Social’s Sea Creature Cookie Cutter Set Giveaway

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Each week I participate in Muffin Tin Monday. The moms that are a part of the meme create the best looking lunches. Many of us use cookie cutters to create special sandwiches, cookies, and other food cutouts. Whether you are a Muffin Tin Mom or baker that loves make specially shaped cookies, you are going to love exploring Cupcake Social’s shop on Etsy. She has wonderful cookie cutters, colored sugars, liners, molds and more.

This wonderful poem can be found on her site:
“Welcome Oh Welcome everyone!

 

Here for adventure! here for fun!

 

Ready to ride?

 

There’s much to choose from bats to yaks to kangaroos!

 

Take a ticket, that’s the trick!

 

Then come inside but do it quick!

 

Here you’ll find (if you should dare)Rides to thrill and rides to scare!

Links below are affiliate links.

 

Exploring her shop will give you a ticket to ride on a kitchen creation adventure.
She has generously offered a set of sea creature cookie cutters along with blue, green and orange sparkly crystal sugars. This is a special prize for someone who loves to create in the kitchen.
How to enter?
For extra entries do any or all of the following leaving a separate comment for each entry.

 

*Leave a comment on Mom Loop. It is my Blog Frog Community. (1 entry per comment)
*Write about this giveaway with a link back to it on Facebook or another social network site. (1 entry)
*Enter another giveaway that I am hosting. (2 entries for each giveaway you enter)

 

*Leave a comment on a non-giveaway blog post. (1 entry)

 

*Follow my blog. Leave me a comment saying that you now follow or that you already do. (1 entry)

 

*Twitter about this giveaway with a link back, you must also be following me on Twitter. Copy and paste: SeaCreatureCookieCutters@JDaniel4’sMom(1 entry per day)
*Subscribe to my blog. Leave me a comment saying that you have subscribed or that you already do. (1 entry)

 

*Add me to your blog roll. Please leave a link to your site. (2 entries)

 

*Add my button to your blog. Please leave a link to your site. (2 entries)

 

That is 12 ways to win. The winner will be chosen by using the random number generator athttp://www.random.org/. )

This giveaway begins July 16th and ends July 28th.

 

 

Construction Books and A Crane

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We have read about twenty books on construction equipment. I am only going to highlight three today.

The links below are affiliate links.


Dig by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha is a wonderful book with rhymes about the five jobs Mr. Rally and his dog Lightning do in one day. They did up rock! They did up clay! They dig up dirt! They dig all day.

Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo has a great repetition of words. I loved reading the book to JDaniel.

Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia is another book full of repetitive words. I love that the machines come to do something with the mess they find in a lot. What do they make? They create a nature playground.

We printed out a picture of a crane. JDaniel aggressively colored it with markers. I cut out the outline of the crane so that you could see that it is indeed a crane.

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A Zeal and Zest for Construction Equipment!

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Do you get a thrill when you see a backhoe or dump truck on the road? Does excitement fill you when you notice a cherry picker at work? Up until a few months ago I would have said, “No!” Now that JDaniel is so into them I cheer, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
JDaniel is really into seeing them at work. We are so blessed to live in an area that is growing and has a lot of buildings. Machines seem to be at work everywhere. In downtown Simpsonville, they have been building a sidewalk along Main Street. We cruise Main Street almost every day to see if the cement mixer is downloading cement or if the mini front loader is scooping up dirt. JDaniel is so disappointed if it is close to noon and the machines are parked so that the workers can go to lunch.
A month ago I drove from Simpsonville, S.C to August, GA to see my mother-in-law. JDaniel fell asleep about a fourth of the way into the trip. I was a good mother and didn’t wake him up when I passed a convoy of dump trucks or the school being built by many wonderful machines or the road crew out to repair a section of the road. I let him sleep, but how scary is it that I thought about waking him up.
A few weeks we went to a local park to play and left after a short time. It was too hot. On our way out of the park, we passed construction vehicles working on a project. “Stop Mom!” JDaniel announced loudly from the back seat. I did stop and we watched them work from the parking lot in our air-conditioned car for fifteen minutes.
The names of all the pieces of construction equipment are now cluttering my brain. I don’t know what you are thinking about when you are out driving. Right now I am thinking about what machine we will see next.

 

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The Claw and Mini Claw Live At My House

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I am participating in the SITS Girls Back to Blogging week, and as part of day two I am re-posting something that I wish more people had read.
For many years my husband chased his nieces and nephew around as “The Claw”. He would place one hand around the wrist of the other and making grabbing motions with it as they ran from him with glee. They loved it. When we got married, several of them asked me if I knew about “The Claw”. Yes, I told them I have seen it in action.

A few months ago my husband started chasing JDaniel around the house as “The Claw”. JDaniel loved it. If he felt it was time for “The Claw” and his dad hadn’t started chasing him, JDaniel would get “The Claw” ready by taking one of my husband’s hands and place it on the wrist of the other. He would than run like crazy. Sometimes I join in as “Wife of Claw” or “Mommy Claw”.
Recently “Mini Claw” has been chasing his parents around the house. JDaniel loves getting his hand ready to be “Mini Claw” and chase us around the house. He really enjoys been the chaser who is chopping at his parents from behind.
I do have small problem with “Mini Claw”. He has joined us at the dinner table a few times. “Mini Claw” works like a grappler or front loader to feed JDaniel. The fork and spoon stay neatly beside JDaniel’s plate when “Mini Claw” has arrived for dinner. My husband isn’t bothered by it. He says it is a boy thing.

Muffin Tin Monday- Digging Into a Good Lunch

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The blog theme this week is Construction Equipment. JDaniel loves playing with his construction vehicles and reading about them I thought it would be fun for him to eat like one.

He was given Frito’s Scoops to scoop up his taco salad lunch. He had ground turkey, shredded cheese, blueberries, peas with barley, and tomatoes to scoop up like a front loader. This wasn’t an easy task. After several attempts with the scoops, he went for using an orange peel grappler (his hand bent into a claw) to finish his lunch.

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Winner of the Pillsbury and Sam’s Club Giveaway

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Pamela S is the winner of the Pillsbury and Sam’s Club Giveaway. I have contacted her via e-mail. I want to thank each you for taking the time to enter.
There are five other giveaways that I am currently hosting please stop by and check them out. Two of them end tomorrow and they currently have low numbers of entries.

Tiger Tales Four Book Bug Collection Giveaway

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You have heard me mention Tiger Tales in a few of my blog posts lately. Now I have an opportunity for you to enjoy four of the books in their collection. I have The Very Greedy Bee, The Crunching Munching Caterpillar, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and The Very Lazy Ladybug to pass on to one of you. It would be wonderful to add to any child’s book collection. Each is well written and filled with fun illustrations.
How can you win this collection of bug books?
-Tell me who would get this collection of books ( 1 entry)
For extra entries do any or all of the following leaving a separate comment for each entry.
*Follow Tiger Tales on Facebook. ( 1 entry)
*Enter the Swanson Blogger’s Challenge Giveaway. (1 entry for each way you enter the giveaway)
*Enter any other giveaway that I am hosting. (1 entry for each giveaway you enter)
*Write about this giveaway with a link back to it on Facebook or another social network site. (1 entry per social network)
*Leave a comment on the non-giveaway blog post. (1 entry)
*Follow me on Twitter or Networked Blog. (2 entries for each)
* Twitter about this giveaway with a link back. Copy and paste: TigerTalesBuggyBooksGiveaway@JDaniel4’sMom(1 entry per day)
*Add me to your blog roll. Please leave a link to your site. (2 entries)
*Add my button to your blog. Please leave a link to your site. (2 entries)
That is 10 ways to win. The winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at http://www.random.org/.This This giveaway begins July 10th and ends July 27th.

 

 

 

 

Yammering and Yowling for Mommy to Yield

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When I was little I talked my mom’s ear off. She was forever letting me know she was busy with something. I don’t know if I talked to get her attention or because I just liked to hear my own voice. Maybe I never learned to process thoughts internally. I remember her saying some of what I was saying wasn’t really important or something she needed to know. There weren’t many quiet moments for her when I was around. I seemed to be yammering about something thought or idea all the time.

JDaniel received his mother’s gift of gab. We are constantly chatting about what he notices in the world. There are many “What’s that” statements said every day. He wakes up talking to himself in his bed. Then we chat about what to thank God for in our morning prayers and what he would like for breakfast. This pattern of chats and questions continues for the rest of the day. Unless he gets busy with “work” or reading. Work is done while chatting to himself and reading in done silently most of the time.

Those times of conversation and language sharing are great! I love them. The ones that drive me nuts are the yammering or whining conversations. They are filled with “I want” and “I need”. Sometimes they are accompanied by a foot stump or two.

Yelping or yammering is also done. I think he does it in an attempt to wear mommy down. If he goes on and on about it in a demanding voice, he thinks he will get what he wants it he sticks with the yelping or yammering long enough. It doesn’t seem to work well for him yet he doesn’t seem interested in giving it up. I try to gently remind him that there are other ways to ask. I try removing myself from the area of the house that contains the object of his desire.

I am starting to understand what my mom lived through. Do you think she prayed I would have a child just like me?



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