New Baby Unit

This is the last of the "school" units for a while. School was always more for me to plan and keep busy than to make B into a super genius! And now that baby Maci is (give or take) zero days away and we started spending our every morning at the gym, I don't really need school any more. I'll probably still have fun with pintrest and pull books for different themes, but I'm retiring my lesson plan book for a while! 

We covered letters L, M, N,O, and P

For L We painted lollipops, counted lemon heads, used lemons in a science experiment, and drank lime juice.

We watched the reaction between lemon juice and baking powder.

For M we drove cars on a map, played with Bs marble maze, and mashed m's.

For N we made a nest and tried to make noodle necklaces. B had a hard time understanding that not everything we do in school needs to be eaten! 

For O we glued on cheeriOs, and made octopus hotdogs. 

Step 1. Stick 8 noodles into a piece of hot dog.

Step 2. Fish them out of the ocean

Step 3. Enjoy!

For P we played in baby powder and took advantage of one of the warm days to go to the pool.

In an effort to get B as ready for Maci as possible, we read lots of baby books and talked a lot about babies.

This was a favorite book of mine when I was little and now B loves it too. Brother Bear out grows his bed and has to have a new one. Brannon will still be in his crib, but he and Peter built baby Maci's bed together. 

B and I talked and read about what babies need (sleep, baths, milk (and only milk - I have this fear B will try to share his food with Maci, so we talk about this one a lot!), diaper changes, and love/play time).

Babies Don't Eat Kimchee (picture of book pending)

From the look on his face in the first pic you'd never know he climbed in here on his own! This one tells more of the whole story!

This is Maci's bath cot that B had to try out too. 

We played a game where I had a recording of a baby crying and B helped me try to figure out what we could do to comfort the baby. 

This book was perfect for talking about when Maci's ready, the doctor will help her come out. We signed up for a tour of the hospital, but it was a total bore! We didn't see a single baby. They keep the nursery viewing area blinds incredibly tight! B had the most fun running up and down the hall while we waited for the tour to start!

Here's B waiting to go in for Maci's fifth sonogram. 

That's one cool lookin' older brother:0)

I don't know if it will work or not, but instead if trying to convince B that he's the big kid, I've told him that I have two babies. Right now one is inside my tummy and one is outside. Later one baby will be big and one will be little. My plan is to take his lead on when he wants to be a big kid and when he wants to be Mommy's little baby. 

So far he likes Maci. He likes to see her (see my belly), "hold" her, and put his belly on her. Just today though he wanted to see her and then two seconds later told me to put her back! I'm not anxious to see what will happen when she's born and she can't be put back!