Friday Faves: All for Fall

The September air is crisp; the yellow school bus just cruised by a little while ago; Maisy and I are both sporting our blue jeans today; and the leaves on one of our trees is even changing color.  Fall is coming.  As much as I enjoy summer, I really love the fall.

With a coupon for 30 percent off a kids' Halloween book in hand, Maisy and I trouped off to Barnes & Noble today to find a fall-flavored book. Here's what we agreed on:

1. Plumply Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo
I love this book!  The language is fabulous and so fun to read aloud.  It's chock full of catchy rhymes like "Peter's looking for a pumpkin, a perfect plumply dumply pumpkin" and "Helps his dad carve into place a simply dimply, dumply face."

For you teachers out there, this book provides plenty of pumpkin-themed examples of rhyming, alliteration, "juicy" word choice, synonyms, and antonyms.

Cute story, clever language, and colors that catch Maisy's eye: This one is a keeper!





Back to school means back to Sunday School and Wednesday night children's ministries as well.  Since I teach PreK-K Sunday School and K-2 Awana on Wednesdays, I thought I'd include a book with interesting game ideas for kids.

2. 180 Faith-Charged Games for Children's Ministry

One reason I like this book is the table of contents. The first 100ish games in the book are related to Bible stories, and the table of contents makes it super easy to see if what I'm teaching this week has a game to fit. In addition to the Bible story games, the book has icebreaker games, team-building Games, and more. Each game has an energy-meter, a Bible verse, brief discussion questions, and a list of the "power tools" needed for that game.

A word of caution: I don't have all of the "power tools" needed for all the games, and I doubt you do. Also, some of the games get pretty competitive for the little people I work with to be able to handle. That's where improvisation comes in. Switch up the power tools if you need to. Get rid of the competitive elements if you prefer. Make it work for you. Regardless, this book is a nice starting point for finding activities to go along with your message.

A Week of Baby Book Moments

What a week for Maisy!  I don't think she's had so many "firsts" occur in one week since the day she was born!

Maisy's First Wave

Last Wednesday, we were in the middle of a 9-day vacation that started with a night at the North Shore and continued at my family's lake cabin near Bemidji.  Maisy was a little sparkler all week long - smiling, giggling, squealing, babbling, and otherwise dazzling my parents and grandparents (and Rick and I are not immune to her charms either).

That Wednesday, Maisy went with my mom, grandma, and me to Summerhill Farms, a collection of cute shops with a yummy cafe.  We were eating lunch, Maisy in a borrowed high chair, when a tour bus pulled up and dozens of seniors made their way down the hill towards the patio where we sat.  Clearly, Maisy thought that the tourists had arrived for the sole purpose of smiling at her, so she beamed at all of them as they went by, flapping her arms excitedly.  But that wasn't her first wave.

A family with two cutie pie kiddos had settled in at a table across the way from us, and Maisy caught their eye.  The girl peekabooed like crazy, the boy giggled, and their mom waved... and Maisy waved back!  Really!  It was a whole arm wave, a definite eye-contact, grinning arm flap that could only be interpreted as a 6-month-old's wave.  Soooo adorable.  A baby book moment for sure.

Maisy Makes a Splash

A picture is worth a thousand words, so as soon as my mom sends me a picture of Maisy swimming in the lake in her bright pink, inflatable Sunshade Buggy, I'll post it.  Maisy had seen it before, and even floated in it briefly over the 4th, but she was pretty confused about what was all going on.  This time, as soon as her daddy started blowing it up, she got SUPER excited, literally squealing with delight.  

The water was chilly for most of the week, so she played in it on the floor and on the dock (supervised, of course).  She thought it was one awesome on-shore toy.  The baby boat only got launched on Saturday when the water finally warmed up to a comfortable temp.  I'm happy to report that she's a water baby - she smiled, she splashed, and she kicked her little feet in the water.  Next up, the Snoopy skis!

Maisy Rolls Over

All week long, while vacationing, my family and I could tell that Maisy was getting so much closer to rolling over.  Of course, she waited until Sunday when we had been home for all of 20 minutes to put on a show.  Thanks, Maisy, for rolling over for the first time (twice!) when both Daddy and I could watch you!  (And sorry for spooking you with our excited cheering!)

Maisy Discovers That Cheerios are Food

Rick and I had fed Maisy a Cheerio or two in the past just to see what she'd do with them (she reluctantly made a chewing motion, but mostly seemed very confused).  For a while, I think she just thought Cheerios were fun little toys.  She would chase them around her tray, picking them up, inspecting them, and eventually dropping them in her lap.  Sure, she would put everything else in her mouth EXCEPT the Cheerio.  

Then, on Monday, she took a Cheerio, brought it up to her lips, and popped her thumb in (Cheerio falls into lap).  Repeat - pick up O, bring to lips, pop goes the thumb, no O.  Again.  Then, miracle of miracles, she brought that tasty little O up to her lips and popped it in - victory for Maisy!  Now she's already a Cheerio eating champ.  She seems to like this new finger food business, but I must say that I think our pup Houdini loves it even more.   

Maisy Cuts a Tooth

It's just a sharp little white nothing protruding from Maisy's lower gums, but I know what it is: Maisy's first tooth, at last!  Her buddy down the street (just 7 hours older) has four already, and now Maisy has one itsy bitsy pearly white.  I know I am one lucky mommy, because she has just been as sparkly and happy as can be in spite of the teething that has apparently been going on behind the scenes.  

Between the waving, the splashing, the rolling, the Cheering, the teething, and some mighty intense babbling, I have to say that almost-7-months is a pretty exciting time to be a baby.