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Baby Dolls for Boys

Posted on September 28, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Rewind to almost six years ago. I was the mother of a three year old little boy and was busy teaching and trying to battle morning sickness. I was pregnant with my second child, waiting to find out if NHL’s sibling was going to be a girl or boy. There were many reasons I wanted to know, but one of them was to buy big brother his own baby to take care of. I wanted the baby to be the same sex as mine. When we found out that we were expecting another little boy, the hunt for a baby boy doll began. We eventually found a baby boy doll that NHL named several times. Eventually, Howie Harry stuck.

Last year, JSL declared that he also wanted a “Howie Harry” baby to take care of. At nursery school, the kids were playing with dolls and he often felt left out there and wanted a baby to take care of. Problem, there were very few boy dolls to find that were reasonably priced. Eventually, NHL offered to loan Howie Harry to JSL. This worked, but only for a short time.

Just before going back to school, JSL started to beg, cry, and say he would do anything for a doll. There was a difference this time. He did not care if the baby was a boy or girl. He simply wanted to be a Daddy to a doll that was his own. We tried to distract this desire, but it was not working. JSL fell in love with a doll that he saw at Toys R Us a few weeks ago. TechyDad and I finally agreed that we would get JSL the baby that he really wanted. It was a very early Chanukah gift, but he has his baby and loves her.

Many may ask why JSL needed a doll since he is a boy. My answer is simple, it meant a lot to him for a very long time. He wanted to take care of something like a Daddy and it does not hurt anyone, so why not?!

My question to you this week:

Do you have any name ideas for JSL’s new baby girl? He is having a hard time naming her. He wanted to name her Howie Harry, but we insisted that was a no-go. Perhaps something you suggest will be one that he adores.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #222

Categories:
Aloha Friday jsl looking back nhl parenting photos

Learning with ABC Ducks

Posted on September 27, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I am a certified reading teacher. My youngest son just started kindergarten and I have to say, I am not entirely sure if he knows all of his letters. He will joke around when you try to ask, or change the subject. As an educator, I knew it was not wise to push him, even if he said he really wanted to learn to read. Now that he is in school, JSL will quickly learn to do this with the guidance of his teachers. Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t try to help things out at home.

Over the summer, I bought and used countless flashcards, games, writing books, and more. I have a feeling JSL knows a lot more than he is sharing with me. He is shy and gets embarrassed if he gets something wrong. Thanks to this, I tried to think of something a little different that would connect with what he likes. JSL loves Ducks. Over time, he has expressed interest in expanding his rubber duck collection. At the end of the summer, he had some new additions from the summer reading program at the library.

I wanted to get the boys a little something special for going back to school. I knew that JSL would love some additional ducks since they are not too easy to find locally. While looking online, I found a Set of 26 ~ ABC’s Rubber Duckies on Amazon. After a while, we decided to order them for JSL. They arrived this week and I have to say, they are really cute. Let me introduce you to the new members of the duck family.

Group 1 of the ducks includes an astronaut, baby, cat, dog, and elephant.

Group 2 of the ducks includes a farmer, green, hockey player, ice cream, and joker.

Group 3 of the ducks includes a king, lamb, monkey, nurse, and orange.

Group 4 of the ducks includes a pirate, queen, reindeer, Santa, and tennis player.

Group 5 of the ducks includes a unicorn, Valentine, walrus, x-ray, yak, and zebra.

Thank goodness JSL has a great container for his entire collection. Now I just need to come up with some ABC duck games to use as enrichment activities to work on his letter recognition and sounds.

If you have any ideas I would love you to leave them in the comments below – thank you in advance!

Disclosure: One link within this post is an Amazon Affiliate link for the ABC Ducks that we purchased. I will receive a percentage of money for the sale should you opt to buy them through that link.

Categories:
Educational jsl me moments photos school

Disney Letter “E”

Posted on September 26, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

If you arrived into my classroom when I was teaching, you would have been greeted with a giant Eeyore on my desk. It should be no surprise to you that my gloomy old pal was the first Disney “E” that came to mind. After that, I went a little outside of the box while looking at old magical moments from adventures to Walt Disney World.

Be sure to stop by Focused on the Magic by clicking on the button above to join in the Disney magic this week.

Categories:
Disney fun jsl looking back nhl photos TechyDad

Special Knitting Requests

Posted on September 22, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

A few weeks ago, we were out at a craft store looking for a gift for someone. At one point, NHL looked at me and asked to let him pick out some yarn for a project. You had a specific item in mind. One of your stuffed friends wanted a blanket like I had made myself. It was impossible for me to say no. We went to the yarn section and you picked out something extremely bright. It was called Crayon and I think I know why. I quickly knit up a small blanket for on your bed.

Once you saw that your brother had a blanket for someone, you also wanted one JSL. I realized this when we were at the craft store getting supplies for the Kermit cupcakes. Since we were there, you selected the yarn that you liked. There seemed to be a theme going here with your colors. Yours was actually called Psychedelic. I really loved the way it stripes and turned out. When I finished yours the other night, I left it by your pillow for you to find in the morning.

It was a lot of fun seeing both of your faces when I let you select the yarn and then again when I was finished with the items. I guess it really is hard for me to say no to something like this. Of course, now I recall hearing the two of you mention new scarves for the winter. Hmmmm…

Love,

Categories:
crafts Dear Kid Saturday jsl knitting me moments nhl photos

My Own Little Doc McStuffins the Pirate

Posted on September 20, 2012 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Happy New Year and greetings to an illness after going back to school. Poor JSL has been battling something since he went to the ENT and started ear drops. Bit by bit things intensified as the holiday weekend came upon us. Monday afternoon, I was sure that he had turned a corner. Here is the kiddo doing his best Doc McStuffins impression:

What I didn’t know at the time was he was not doing well (just thought he was stuffy). About thirty minutes after this video was taken, JSL seemed a little warm. His temperature was elevated, but nothing too serious. Then, shortly after that, TechyDad thought he was really burning up. Sure enough, in about twenty minutes, his temperature went from under 99 to 101 (his normal temperature is 97). With his febrile seizure history, I knew we had to call the doctor. Drama played out getting a medication that was in stock at the pharmacy, but we got it. Thanks to the fever, Rosh Hashanah was spent home taking care of the little guy.

JSL was fever free and ready to go back to school on Wednesday. As I pulled out of our driveway, post-nasal drip proved me wrong. I will spare you the details, but let’s just say JSL needed a change of clothing. We walked into school, since I had hoped I could just wipe him down. I was wrong and his teacher noticed how swollen his face was. We went back to the ENT again and now think it was an ear infection that is draining.

My little JSL McStuffins was fascinated with the instruments being used by the doctor to remove wax blocking his ear canal. What was even better was he was having this done while Doc McStuffins was playing on the television in the exam room.

So our Talk Like a Pirate Day Adventures were a little different than I had expected, but in the end JSL had a smile on his way and as of today no ear infection. Bonus, he got some fun new Jake and the Never Land Pirate items later in the day,.

Of course, our doctor’s office got me wondering about things. What does your doctor have to help kids to be “distracted” and assist during an exam or procedure?