Hailey's Picks: Great Songs For Toddlers Part 2 – Get a move on

 

When the kiddos get bored…you’ll look for most anything to get them busy. When Hailey gets bored its BIG trouble…she looks for ANYTHING she knows she not supposed to be into to occupy herself.

In times like these…I like to whip out my little arsenal of fun and silly songs to sing!

Songs for toddlers should be fun — and these songs with their arm-moving and leg-shaking definitely qualify. After you’ve sung and danced them a few times, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your little one figures out what comes next. The sillier you are….the more fun they’ll have (and yes...the more often you’ll have to sing them)!

The Wheels on the Bus

The wheels on the bus go round and round,
round and round,
round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
all through the town.
(Roll hands around each other)

The wipers on the bus go Swish, swish, swish;
Swish, swish, swish;
Swish, swish, swish.
The wipers on the bus go Swish, swish, swish,
all through the town.
("Swish" hands in front of you like windshield wipers)

The horn on the bus goes Beep, beep, beep;
Beep, beep, beep;
Beep, beep, beep.
The horn on the bus goes Beep, beep, beep,
all through the town.
(Act like honking a horn)

The doors on the bus go open and shut;
Open and shut;
Open and shut.
The doors on the bus go open and shut;
all through the town.
(Push hands back and forth in front of you)

The Driver on the bus says "Move on back,
move on back, move on back;"
The Driver on the bus says "Move on back",
all through the town.
(Point thumb over your shoulder)

The babies on the bus say "Wah, wah, wah;
Wah, wah, wah;
Wah, wah, wah".
The babies on the bus say "Wah, wah, wah",
all through the town.
(Rub fists in front of eyes)

The mommies on the bus say "Shush, shush, shush;
Shush, shush, shush;
Shush, shush, shush."
The mommies on the bus say "Shush, shush, shush"
all through the town.
(Hold finger in front of mouth as if saying shhh)

 

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Zoom, zoom, zoom where going to the moon
Zoom, zoom, zoom we’ll get there very soon
If you want to take a trip
Climb aboard my rocket ship
Zoom, zoom, zoom were going to the moon
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Zooooooommmmmm!!!!

*Ok so this one isn’t really action, but its fun (and they’re secretly learning).

 

IF YOU’RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT

Emotion version
If You’re Happy is great for helping toddlers when they are learning to express emotions.  You can act out each emotion as you say it.

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

 Additional verses: (to be sung in same fashion as the first one)
If you’re surprised and you know if say, “Oh my!”
If you’re sad and you know it, rub your eyes “Boo hoo”
If you’re scared and you know it, shiver and shake.
If you’re sleepy and you know it, close your eyes.
If you’re angry and you know it, stomp your feet.
And always make sure end up with “happy” again.

Action Version (Of course the standard version…):

If you’re happy and you know it Clap your hands…… (If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Additional verses: (to be sung in same fashion as the first one)
If you’re happy and you know it Jump up and down….
If you’re happy and you know it Stomp your feet…….
If you’re happy and you know it Shout Hooray!……

 B-I-N-G-O

Ever notice that little kids want their fun on instant replay? If they liked a song the first time, chances are they want to hear it again and again, so songs like “B-I-N-G-O,” with its repetitiveness are especially toddler friendly. You can encourage your lil one to pretend to be the pup by barking along to the tune (Hailey gets the giggles with this), or get her to clap along with you as you spell out the name.

There was a farmer who had a dog,
And Bingo was his name-o.
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
B-I-N-G-O
And Bingo was his name-o.

*You’re supposed to clap an additional letter each time you go through the verse but we usually just sing it and change the verses to Bingo doing different things each time…it keeps her attention longer.

Hokey-Pokey

 Most of all, songs for toddlers should be fun — and “Hokey-Pokey,” with its arm-waggling, leg-shaking, and circle-turning, definitely qualifies. After you’ve sung and danced it a few times, you’ll be surprised how quickly your toddler figures out which body part goes into the circle next. Make it even sillier by using toys or stuffed animals as props: “You put your bunny in; you take your bunny out....” That really is what it’s all about, right?

You put your right hand in,
You put your right hand out,
You put your right hand in,
And you shake it all about,

You do the hokey pokey
and you turn yourself around
That’s what it's all about.

2) Left hand
3) right foot
4) left foot
5) head
6) booty
7) whole self

 

I Use My Brain

(From 500 Five Minute Games by Jackie Silberg)

I use my brain to think, think, think (touch head)

I use my nose to smell (touch nose)

I use my eyes to blink, blink, blink (touch eyes)

I use my throat to yell (touch your neck/throat as you yell the word yell)

I use my mouth to giggle, giggle, giggle (touch mouth)

I use my hips to bump (touch hips or I like to hip bump with her)

I use my toes to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle (wiggle toes)

And I use my legs to jump (jump)

 

One, Two Buckle My Shoe
One, two, buckle my shoe (act like buckling shoe)
Three, four, shut the door (act like shutting a door)
Five, six, pick-up sticks (act like picking up sticks)
Seven, eight, lay them straight (lay them straight)
Nine, ten, let’s do it again

 

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear reach up high

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear wink an eye

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear touch your nose

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear touch your toes

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear shut the door

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear count to four

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear climb the stairs

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say your prayers

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn out the light

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say goodnight.

 

This Little Piggy

This little piggy went to mark. (Wiggle big toe)

This little piggy stayed home. (Wiggle second toe)

This little piggy had roast beef. (Wiggle third toe)

This little piggy had none. (Wiggle fourth toe)

And this little piggy cried… “Wee, wee, wee: all the way home. (Wiggle baby toe)

Out the window!

It doesn’t matter what you have planned or how organized you are….when your kids get sick everything else goes out the window! As most of you are probably now guessing yes I had sick duty today. Livie has an Upper Respiratory Infection and Hailey has a stomach bug….JOY.

Needless to say mommy had the sick sister watch today. My poor little pathetic babies…. They were a sight to see and YES I do have pics (is that evil of me or what?). LOL, they don’t care Hailey even hammed it up a bit.

So in other words ya’ll get a last minute post, but at least you get pics…right?

 

Now mommy's main goal is to try to avoid getting either child's ailment...we'll see how this goes!

 

Wordless Wednesday – Nature Girl

This is her element…she absolutely loves anything and everything about being outside. She has to stop each and every time we go in and out of the house to pick stuff for her ever growing nature collection.

Not to mention, that she constantly wants to go out and play…even if it’s pouring down raining. I’m ALL about it as long as a) we don’t freeze our badonka donks off to do it and b) its not pouring down raining!

This is one of the awesome pics that our friend Kim took of Hailey the other day…I can’t pick just one that’s my favorite. If only all of us could be so photogenic….

 

 

Sweet tooth monster

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I do believe I’ve unleashed a monster….a sweet tooth monster that is! The girl had never even really had anything sweet (other than fruit) until Halloween this year. Even at that she didn’t really have much other than gummies. (Trust me….the little boss-bucket knows where those are kept.)

I know I’m constantly saying how she’s my mini me…well I think it’s complete. To say sweets are my downfall would be true…and now I do believe they are Hailey’s as well…

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Today I did groceries and bought some peppermint bark…..YUMMY! I should know better than to buy that stuff…its evil incarnate. Every time I pass it…I look at it longingly…LOL. You think I’m kidding!

So tonight after Hailey ate her dinner I let her have a bite of the coveted peppermint bark. That was all it took and she was hooked. One bite was definitely not enough for her… every couple minutes she was back at the counter and saying…”more candy.” Then she’d look at me and bat her big ole baby blues and say, “please mommy.”

The girl can work it already!

Resorting to the list…

Romania

Ok, ya know I’ve put my post to the last minute or am totally having writers block if I resort to the post prompt list. Not that I think they’re a bad idea…they’re not. I just usually end up with better posts on my own.

The actual Dracula...ick

Today’s post prompt was: “Do you speak more than one language? How did you learn the additional languages?”

Why yes, yes I do know more than one language. Don’t we all? I had to do a language in both high school and college. I learned Spanish in high school and then in college I decided to do something a little different and took Romanian. Yes, Romanian. Is that totally off and bizarre or what? It would have been a heck of a lot easier if I’d just continued with Spanish, but oh no….I had to make it difficult. LOL

I know...when most of us think of Romania....we think Dracula. I however think Dracula and about all the stuff I learned while in the my language class.

The more hot version I'd rather think of!

It was actually really fun and interesting…I’m dating myself here, but at the time I was taking it my professors had escaped Romania right before all the issues with Ceausescu. He was a Communist leader in Romania that was hated by the Romanian people for good reason.

By the end of Ceausescu’s reign the control over the people of Romania was so strict that phone bugging was the norm and one in three people were informants for the government. His secret police maintained strict controls over free speech and the media… there were drastic shortages of food, medicines, and other basic necessities that drove the people to the point of near starvation.

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Another big issue at this time was the ban on birth control. This caused a HUGE issue of abandoned children that were left neglected in orphanages. Many of these children were adopted here into the U.S. after the fall of Ceausescu.

Now that ya’ll had your blog history lesson of the day….

How many and what languages do ya’ll know?

Long weekend wrapped up

For those of you concerned that I was going to miss my post today….you can breathe a sigh of relief. I know I left it down to the wire for sure!! But here it goes…figured I’d wrap up that long weekend (speaking of wrapping….who has started on that one yet??).

 

I hope everyone had a great time and spent time with friends and family. I know we got to see all kinds of friends and family and had lots of great food. As you can tell from the pics…the kiddos had so much fun they all pretty much snoozed all the way home today (I need to figure out that panaram pic thing so I can get all the sleeping beauties in the pic).

 

 

Hot diggity

I love it when the hubby has the same mindset about something as I do…it makes life sooooo much easier! Especially when it comes to a new TV for the bedroom. Can we say early Christmas present...why yes, yes we can.

Yea, yea…I know you’re not supposed to watch TV, play on the computer, etc. etc. in bed.

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If I actually listened to that bunch of hooey ya’ll would never get any posts from me. Cause the only time I can get any peace and quiet to actually put a sentence together is to sit right here and write on the laptop.

Anyhwho…with all my blathering on about not going out into the black Friday madness…as soon as the hubby said: “hey, ya wanna go get a new TV for our bedroom”…I was like when we leavin’? Granted, this was in the afternoon after all the downright craziness was going on. Boy did I hear some stories about all that too…all I can say is to quite Hailey and say….dude, seriously!

Speaking of the girl….can these teeth please come through all ready….ai caramba!

 

 

Swirling vortex of doom

 

There is NO WAY in “you know what” that my happy behind will be caught in the midst of the utter chaos that is known as Black Friday. I don’t even like doing grocery shopping on weekends let alone going Christmas shopping on the busiest shopping day of the ENTIRE year! To drive home my aversion to being anywhere near said craziness…I made sure we had any and all possible groceries and errands done well before today (I will be a home-body all weekend…might possibly consider venturing to the park but that’s about it).

For those of you that brave the craziness….more power to ya!

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I actually wish I was one of those people that could get all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, but as most of you can probably guess…I’m not! I’m not a total last minute person, but it’s like that month before is the best time to do it…after Turkey Day it’s like this switch that says “come one Christmas.”

 

I Hope everyone is having a good extended weekend in whatever you’re doing…whether it’s braving the stores or recuperating from eating too much!

Happy Turkey Day!

I am so thankful for so many things in my life, but most of all I am thankful for my friends and family...especially my kids!

When I first came across this I knew I had to put it aside for something special. I’ve stopped to read it multiple times since first getting it…maybe I’m sappy, but it brings tears to my eyes every time.

 I hope you guys enjoy it and are having an awesome holiday week!

The following is called: A Child’s Ten Commandments to Parents, by Dr. Kevin Leman

1. My hands are small; please don’t expect perfection whenever I make a bed, draw a picture, or throw a ball. My legs are short; please slow down so that I can keep up with you.

2. My eyes have not seen the world as yours have; please let me explore safely: don’t restrict me unnecessarily.

3. Housework will always be there. I’m only little such a short time—please take time to explain things to me about this wonderful world, and do so willingly.

4. My feelings are tender; please be sensitive to my needs; don’t nag me all day long. (You wouldn’t want to be nagged for your inquisitiveness.) Treat me as you would like to be treated.

5. I am a special gift from God; please treasure me as God intended you to do, holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by, and disciplining me in a loving manner.

6. I need your encouragement, but not your praise, to grow. Please go easy on the criticism; remember you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.

7. Please give me the freedom to make decisions concerning myself. Permit me to fail, so that I can learn from my mistakes. Then someday I’ll be prepared to make the kind of decisions life requires of me.

8. Please don’t do things over for me. Somehow that makes me feel that my efforts didn’t quite measure up to your expectations. I know it’s hard, but please don’t try to compare me with my brother or my sister.

9. Please don’t be afraid to leave for a weekend together. Kids need vacations from parents, just as parents need vacations from kids. Besides, it’s a great way to show us kids that your marriage is very special.

10. Please take me to Sunday school and church regularly, setting a good example for me to follow. I enjoy learning more about God.

 

Wordless Wednesday - Follow Me

 I Figured I'd give you guys the progression shots as we traveled through the yard....
Of course she had to bring along her Cinderella purse.
















Notice that in the first two pics the coat is still on....I think she has daddy's warm blooded nature cause mommy was definately wearing a sweatshirt!
















By the time we got to mommy and Hailey's play/garden area the coat was ancient history!

Ahhh…to have unlimited money

One can dream…right? LOL, one of the prompts for this month was: If you could live anywhere, where would it be? I actually love living in Georgia, we have moderate temperatures for most of the year and get the occasional snow in the winter.

It’s great this time of year with the fall leaves changing and the cooler temperatures at night. We live in metro Atlanta so anything you can think of to do is here somewhere… Yet we live in the burbs so it’s still like living in a small town. I'd say that was the best of both worlds. The only downside to being in Atlanta is our horrible traffic. Granted, you do figure out how to avoid it and the best times to venture out.

Anywho…back to the question. If I had an unlimited money option where I could have multiple properties well that would be the life and I definitely would have to add a beach house. The hard part would be to choose which beach. It seems that every beach has a personality and are good at different times!

Our unlimited money awesome beach house would have to have a pool as well (I did say the unlimited money option J) We like to mix it up between the pool and the ocean. Why not do both if you can, right?

 

If you had unlimited money then that means you could travel a lot as well….then I wouldn’t technically have to pick just one location. Can ya tell I get wishy washy with too many options?? Where would you guys pick to live if you had the unlimited money option?

*The pics of Hailey are from our last trip to the beach at the end of September.

 

 

The big reveal!

Woo hoo the day is here to show ya’ll our new downstairs bathroom. I’m sitting here wondering as I write this post…is it sad how many times a day I stop to admire my new bathroom? That’s totally what it is…it doesn’t even remotely look anything like it did before. It amazes me how much bigger it seems…

I’ll quit blathering on and get to the nitty gritty. As ya’ll saw from an earlier post I had a plethora of colors to choose from in the Benjamin Moore Aura paint series (if you didn’t see that post you can look here…if you’re new and have NO idea what I’m even talking about you can also find the before pics here).

I had so many mini projects to put into this one small bathroom I don’t even know where to start….I’m sure my pics aren’t even doing it justice either! First and foremost I want to thank the Academy…no, no the Buzz Agent people and Benjamin Moore people who got my booty shakin’ to get this project started and completed (not to mention the free paint)!

Before I started anything I had to pick a color…this was no easy feat with the thousands of colors to pick from ( I finally chose a yellowy green color called Anjou pear)…once I started narrowing the colors down I was able to find my beautiful new valance (by Waverly from Lowes) and start looking for accessories.  I knew I didn’t want to spend a fortune on decorating but wanted a Pottery Barn/ cottagey/ shabby chic type look.

I found all kinds of stuff at home that I wasn’t using or in other rooms of the house…not to mention repurposing stuff I bought. The new shelf is actually a Pottery Barn shelf that I refinished with homemade chalk paint. The light fixture was one we had from one of the rental properties that I painted (with Rustoleum in oiled bronze).

 

 




I had to take my time to do this room…the walls were in horrible shape. This was the very first room when we initially got this house that I bandaged up a bit for us to get by. Needless to say it got put to the wayside. I pretty much had to skim coat the whole room…did I tell ya’ll that I had to do the ceiling as well….joy, joy!



 

This paint was amazing with low smell and great coverage. Like I said in my sneak peak the other day…I was beyond concerned after the first coat that a) the color wasn’t what I picked out and b) it wasn’t going to cover that dark green (they guarantee 2 coat coverage). I was SUPER relieved to say the least! I do have to say I balked at the price of the paint initially, but when you consider how well it does and that it includes the primer…it’s not too far off base. The company also guarantees that the color will match the paint chip.  

I hope you guys like it….I know I love it! If anyone has any questions about any of the mini projects…just let me know! What’s your current project that you’re working on or wanting to get started?

Below are some before/after comparisons.