{Think Outside the Toy Box} Puzzle Pieces: Painted Puzzle Wall Art

Okay, I know this is really late, but I have a million legitimate excuses! First off, we moved.. we have been moving since last Saturday. This move an hour and a half away has been exponentially harder than when we moved 32 hours away last year. Every time I thought we were close to being done packing everything up, I found another cabinet, another closet, or another bin full of crap we somehow accumulated over the past year. Anywho, we are finally getting a bit settled, but still have no internet. So I will continue to be absent until next Tuesday when the AT&T guys come to hook us up. Also, I had a birthday! Nothing special, just another year older and I celebrated by going to the laundromat and taking a glorious 3 hour nap with Myles! So here is my Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series post only four days late!
 

If you are here for the first time or want to check out all the details again, take a look at the post introducing the Think Outside the Toy Box summer fun series. Also if you have missed any previous weeks, here are the projects we have done so far:
Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling (and bath)
Plastic Bottle Waterfall
Astronaut/Alien Costume
 Foamy Bathtub Paint

Edible Sensory Bin
Marble Drop/Race
 Shredded Crayon Canvas Art

Now on to this week's fun with:

PUZZLE PIECES

Since we just moved and Myles will be celebrating his 2nd birthday in less than a month, I figured it would be the perfect time to change his room decor and hook him up with a new big boy room! Last week I showed you my first project for his room and revealed that I decided on a dinosaur theme. I am so excited to get to decorating and DIYing and this series has provided me with some awesome opportunities to get Myles involved as well. We have already made Shredded Crayon Canvas Art and this week I came up with another DIY project for his walls using puzzles:

  Painted Puzzle Wall Art

What You Will Need: 

4 boxes of small puzzles (I found these at the Dollar Tree)
Modge Podge

Paintbrushes/ Sponges

Washable Paints

Wood Decals

Glue Gun

Hole Puncher (*not pictured)

Ribbon (I used three different colors)

Directions:  

1. Start out by putting the puzzles together. I am a puzzle fanatic, so this was my favorite part :) After the puzzles are together, use a foam brush to Modge Podge the puzzles. It will need about 4 coats, 2 on each side. Brush the glue onto one side, let dry, then turn over and glue the other side (repeat).

2. Paint! This is the part to get the kids involved and let them decorate their new wall art. I used Crayola Washable Paints (they are perfect for toddlers) and just let him go at it. I had to guide him a little because I wanted to make sure all the different colors got on to all 4 puzzles and that they were covered well.

3. I let him use his hands and feet to paint as well. This way I got the paint to spread out over the whole puzzle. Let them dry.

4. Use the hot glue gun to attach the wood decals to the puzzles. I found these dinosaurs at Hobby Lobby already painted. They had tons of others to choose from if you are doing a different theme.

 

 5. Punch a hole in the top puzzle piece. Add ribbon and tie a knot for hanging. I used three colors (the main ones I'm using for his room) and braided them.

6. Hang and enjoy!

Thanks for checking out week seven of the Think Outside the Toy Box Summer Fun Series! Also don't forget to check out what all of the other ladies put together for this week's item in the link-up below. 
  And if you have a post (new or old) that you created showcasing puzzle pieces in a kid's project, craft, game, experiment, etc., submit it below as well. No post this week? No problem; join us next Monday when we will be using bathroom paper cups! 

 And in case you want to get a head start, here is the complete list for the coming weeks:
July 21 - Bathroom Paper Cups
July 28 - Plastic Milk Jugs

Myles Monthly: 16

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 22 months old! I'm still trying to get caught up with the monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date. 

 November 15th- December 14th, 2013

Health

Growing, learning, and reaching new milestones by the day. He got two more teeth this month. His teeth have always come in two or more at a time. With the addition of two more bottom ones, he now had 8 teeth (4 middle on top and 4 middle on bottom). I now that I am super biased here, but his cuteness level just gets higher and higher every month. He has the perfect olive skin tone and those eyelashes! 

 

Still no hair cut, although by this time I actually started entertaining the idea. It was getting scraggly and hard to manage. Looking back on these pictures, he had a definite mullet going on too. I just did not want him to lose those curls. 

Eating
Really no changes since last month's update. Same favorites, and still trying some new things here and there.  

  Sleeping 

Really just the same as last month's update as well. Sleeping times vary, but usually within a half an hour. Bed from 9-7am and nap from 1pm-3/4pm. Loves morning and nap time snuggles, but on the go every other minute of the day!

Saying

He starting saying a lot of new words this month (consistently). I was beginning to get concerned about his lack of talking, but this month was a word explosion!

Duck, block, Mickey Mouse (Mitey), Elmo (memo), and book

"Boo" when you play peek-a-boo with him
"Muah" when he kisses you (you can hear it in the video below)
"EIEI" when he wants you to read his Barney farm songs book

Outings

• We took Myles to his first movie, and it was at the outdoor theater. We went to see Frozen. I loved the outdoor theater when I was younger, so I really wanted to introduce it to Myles. So when I found out they had one only 25 minutes from us, I had take the family! He wasn't into watching shows or movies yet, but I thought we would give it a try since we would just be in the car and he could move around all he wanted. He ate some popcorn and pretended to drive the whole time; totally not interested in the movie, but it was still successful. I definitely want to keep taking him back!

• This is a bit silly, but Myles got to see his first car wash. I always thought it was so cool to watch the cars go through the wash when I was younger, so I figured Myles would love it too. I'm sure the older he gets the more he will like it as well.

• Towards the end of this month, we started celebrating Christmas. Last year, Christmas wasn't really what I wanted it to be. We had just moved and I was still miserable, trying to survive on no sleep, on top of battling PPD. Needless to say, we didn't really celebrate as I would have wished for Myles' 1st Christmas. So I decided that I would consider this year his real first Christmas and I was going to do as many festive things as possible. The first thing we did was go on a holiday lights tour on a Classic Cable Car in downtown San Fransisco! I love touristy stuff like that and it was everything I wanted it to be. I so want to make it a Christmas tradition that we do every year! It started in Union Square and then toured the city, stopping once at the Fairmont Hotel. Here are some highlights and if you want to see more check out my Holiday Festivities 2013 post.   

Myles "Ooo" and "Aww"-ed over all the lights and balls!

 Myles got to ring the bell!

This was the ginger bread house at the Fairmont Hotel. It was two-stories and made out of graham crackers with candy cane and frosting decor! Myles was most fascinated by the train inside!

Milestones/Skills

• This month we celebrated Thanksgiving! We had a very chilled out day watching the parade and then going to Mark's aunt's for dinner.

• Myles painted for the first time! I knew he would love making a mess with paints so I bought these washable paints and put him in the shower to have at it! He had tons of fun and I even got in on the action! Lucky for me, the paints really are washable and clean-up was a breeze since we were already in the shower!

• Since this was our real first Christmas, we had to go all out with lots of festive jammies! We even participated in a Christmas pajama party! Here are a few of the shots I got:

• He started throwing away garbage. He has always had a weird infatuation with the garbage, so I have had to keep it under the sink with a lock on the cabinet. I guess he would watch us throw away stuff down there because then he started taking garbage over to the cabinet wanting to throw it away.

Funnies and Favorites

• He started getting to know our sleep routine and would get in the bed and lay down when he was ready to nurse and sleep.

• Kids and boxes.... cliche but oh so true!

•  He was starting to become more self aware. I took this video with the screen towards him and this is what he did:

• Loving his books: his favorites this month were his Barney Farm songs book, Panda in the Park, My First Packer book, and his family photo book.

What are new skills your kid(s) are learning?

 

Come back to check out my favorites from months fifteen & sixteen!

Myles Monthly: 15

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 22 months old! I'm still trying to get caught up with the monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date. 

 October 15th- November 14th, 2013

Health
Fit as a fiddle and as healthy as can be. Loving the months with no abnormal behaviors, symptoms, attitudes, etc. It makes life at least a bit easier with a wild-child toddler.

Eating
Eating just the same, which is good, but could be better. Still not eating breakfast, sometimes lunch, and always dinner, and getting snacks throughout the day. He had his favorites, but was trying some new stuff too. Dailies were fruit, cheese, meat, and rice/pasta, and some other new likes were salmon and macaroni and cheese.

Still going strong on the breastfeeding, nursing anywhere from 5-10 times a day. Morning, nap, and before bed were the times that he would drink a significant amount. The other times were short 5-10 minute sessions because he was upset, got hurt, was bored, etc. He did still have some days that he would want to nurse all day long, but they were becoming less frequent. When my family came out to visit this month, he didn't nurse as much because he was occupied with them and having too much fun to even think about breastfeeding!

Sleeping
Keeping strong in the sleep department! I certainly could not complain, considering where we were just 8 months prior. Sleeping from 9pm-7am, then nursing in my bed for 30-60 minutes. Normally his naps were once a day for 2ish hours from 1pm-3pm. We would lay in our guest bed and he would nurse to sleep and throughout his nap. When my parents were in town, our nap schedule was a little different though. Since we were out and about most days, he would take 2 shorter naps in the car/stroller. This worked out well as he was more than tired by bedtime! Bedtime routine was still the same: bath, jammies, book with dad, nursing/snuggles for about 15 minutes, kisses, and crib. Also still using blackout curtains with no nightlight and ocean sound machine running. 


Saying

No new words that actually stuck around this month. He would say words randomly once or for a couple days, and then stop saying them. So I am not counting those words here.

Outings

• Going to Little Gym once or twice a week. He loves going and I love the interaction he gets with other kids/adults. I continued to see a lot of improvement in his listening and physical skills. He participated pretty well, but he still had a tendency to want to go off and do his own thing. You can see the bars with the hotdog rollers under them in the picture below; that was his absolute favorite thing to do in the whole gym. If he ran off, 90% of the time, it would be to walk across those rollers.

• Still going to the park regularly. Usually sometime every day we would end up at the park. The weather was gorgeous and I couldn't get over being able to play outside in November, in t-shirts no less! After 28 years of Midwest winters, I was not about to let any nice day to go to waste. Pretty safe to say we were loving California! 

My family came to visit this month! We got a whole week with my mom, step-dad, and brother! We tried to get a good balance of our time between activities, touristy explorations, and down time. And I think it ended up perfect, although time went by way too fast :(

• We visited a local farm for their annual pumpkin patch. We got to check out some animals, watch a little concert, run around a hay maze, and most importantly, pick out our own pumpkins! This was the first time I have ever gotten to pick a pumpkin right from the patch and I was pretty excited to make this memory with Myles. Pretty sure he thought he was in heaven being surrounded by all of the "balls" and getting to take one home! See more of our visit in my Halloween post.

•  Myles got in some quality Uncle Chris time. My brother got a new skateboard when we went into the city and then he also got a new best friend. Myles would not leave that thing alone and he was so fascinated by what it did. My brother was my little side-kick when he was younger, so I just love seeing them together. It reminds me of our time together. I know he is going to look up to him as he gets older and I think he is an awesome role model!

•  One day I took them to the Contra Loma Regional Park to show off the beautiful scenery around Antioch. This park is only 2 miles from our house and has an awesome man-made swimming lagoon (you can see in the top right picture). There is also fishing, hiking, biking, grilling, etc. It is so cool to have this so near our house. My mom, brother, and I hiked to the top of the main big hill there and I had to snap a few photos. I had seen people climb it and went by it a dozen times before, but this was the first time I went to the top. It was so incredibly peaceful up there. I could have stayed for hours.

•  We of course had to go into the city. We experienced the city as true San Fransiscoans and took public transportation everywhere.

 My family had already been to the city on a previous vacation, so we planned on going somewhere they had never been. We went to Haight and Ashbury to do some shopping and hippie watching. Oh and of course, we had to go to the Ben and Jerry's right on the infamous corner.

 Since we were so close, we had to stop by our favorite city park, Golden Gate Park. Myles' favorite part was chasing the birds away.

• We also spent a day in Berkley. I wanted my family to see the Berkley marina and the awesome view of the city over the bay.

Myles got to test out the feel of the wet sand and beach water. It was really hard to keep him from going all the way in; he so would have done it if it weren't for grandma holding him back. 

There was also a park by the beach that we played at for a bit. I tried to do a little photo shoot, but Myles had other plans.

Mark's cousin recommended the Berkley Rose Garden, so we stopped by there on the way out. I'm so glad we took the time to go. It was beautiful there and it was so cute to see Myles discover flowers! I showed him that you smell all the pretty flowers and then he had to stick his nose in every single rose in the whole garden!

• Later in the month, Myles got to go to his first parade, and it was for Veteran's Day. It was pretty short, but that worked perfectly for us because Myles had a very short attention span. He loved the motorcycles and horses the best; no candy, but we did get a cool flag!

Milestones/Skills

• We celebrated Myles' 2nd Halloween! I considered this his first real Halloween though. Last year he was only 3 months old and we didn't take him out or anything because it was too cold. I did dress him up as a chili pepper, but I don't count that as a real first Halloween. So this year I went all out! We celebrated for weeks! You can check out all the details in my Halloween 2013 post, but here are some of the highlights:

We went to a party at the Little Gym and dressed as Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn. Myles was the superhero and we were the villains! They had lots of activities, a haunted house, professional pictures, and the gym was open for free play.

We also went to a party at the gym that we go to. They did a parade around the gym, had games, and a little photo shoot set-up. I dressed Myles up in a horse costume :)

The pumpkins we picked and carved.

On Halloween night we took Myles out to do the holiday right! We pushed him on his bike and he was such a trooper. We did a trunk-or-treat and then walked the neighborhood. He lasted the whole 2 hours and we all had a great night!

• First sucker: Myles got his first taste of a sucker. While out for lunch when my family was in town, grandma sneaked this treat to Myles. He LOVED it! Even after it was gone, he wouldn't let me take it from him: I mean freak-out, full on temper tantrum!

• We also had our first California playdate. We met Cameron and his mom Leesa at the Little Gym. They were a lot a like and I just thought he was the cutest. When Leesa and I started talking, we instantly clicked and the boys got along great. We took them to the marina to feed the ducks, and although the ducks wanted nothing to do with our bread, the boys had fun! They even got in a little hug action (that I missed with my camera)!

Funnies

• One night I was cleaning the living room and got out the vacuum to suck up the crumbs in the couch. Once I pulled the cushions off, it was like a light went off in Myles' brain! "This couch was made for jumping mom!" He also loved falling on his butt, and would do it on command! He started doing it one day on the ground (ouch) and then whenever I told him to 'fall on your butt', he would plop right down :)

• We were at the park one day and he decided it needed to be cleaned up! I have no idea where he got the idea from or why he started doing it. He was done playing on the equipment and started wandering around. Then he found rocks and this happened:

What are some of your kid(s) new sayings or funny rituals?

 

Come back to check out my favorites from months fifteen & sixteen!