The Puddle Pail

Hello readers, have local libraries in your area re-opened already? Much to our great delight, our township's library started doing online reservations and pick-up services last week. Unfortunately, though, there's a five-book limit and we read an awful lot in this household! It's also difficult to figure out what's at the library because you need to have titles in mind to search availability. My good friend and I decided to do a book swap since her own Silly Bean is six months older and loves reading as well. It is super fun because get to borrow personally curated books and also choose books for our little friend that we think he will enjoy 😄

Silly Bean's friend loaned him a book called "The Puddle Pail," a very fun and colorful book about two crocodile friends who collect things in their pails (one collects more traditional things like stones, feathers, etc. while the other friend collects puddles).

Silly Bean enjoyed reading this book--it was the first time he was introduced to the idea of collecting things, as he has never been one to pick up tons of rocks and put them in his pocket on walks. Today we were trying to come up with an idea of another way to play outside--we have been doing the chalk and bubbles thing most days for half a year now (!?!?) and we really need something new! So we grabbed our pail from the water table, reminisced about "The Puddle Pail," and out the door we went for a new adventure!

 

We went to the usual places we go to on our (pretty much) daily walks, but with a different set of eyes. Instead of talking about how the pool and playground are still closed, we noticed a lot of large rocks in the area in front of the pool.

We filled up the little pail with rocks, but quickly realized it was heavy and difficult to carry without the handle falling out, so we did dump some out and looked around for other things to collect and place in our pail.

Sticks and acorns filled up the rest of the pail and was happily much lighter. Silly Bean became really interested in finding other oak trees in the neighborhood to find more acorns, and our hunt for oak trees led us to a mini forest that's very close to our condo but we never really ventured to. Silly Bean said, "Mama, I love oak trees because they make acorns for me! Why do you love oak trees?" My answer was, "Because they are tall and give us some shade." And on a hot day today, we were so thankful for the shade, especially because this collecting activity had us outdoors for a good hour and a half!

This little adventure was such a great analogy for me about the perspective with which we see things. Are we focusing on the negative things (like the pool or playground being closed every time we go to check if they opened yet), or are we looking with fresh eyes anticipating finding treasures in the small everyday things? As the pandemic continues to get worse in some areas, and in some states moving back a phase in terms of reopening, what is our perspective on it all? I am reminded that even though we may be walking around with empty pails, God wants to fill our pails with joy as we shift our perspective, a perspective of eagerness and expectancy in the midst of it all.

Toddler Family Fun with the 50 States, Silly Bean Style

The other day, we got to talking about the different towns that family members live in, and since Nanny and Grampy live a state over, we needed a visual to show Silly Bean what we were talking about. Luckily, 婆婆 bought us a puzzle that is a map of the US, and I've been waiting for the opportune time to break out of the closet!

Silly Bean just loved the interactive-ness of learning the states this way. In addition to the songs about each state that my husband looked up, I showed Silly Bean this little song from Animaniacs that I saw when I was little (must have been helpful because I still remember it even now!) and he absolutely adored the little dog jumping and dancing on the states 😁

Silly Bean loved doing this puzzle! In addition to learning the states and regions, it gave us an opportunity to practice turn-taking (everyone had a chance to pick a piece and put it in) as well as teamwork (we told Silly Bean that teamwork is when we work together to do something)! It was also a great developmentally appropriate way to spend time together doing something fun. However, we did this more than a hundred times and Silly Bean memorized where every piece goes and could put them down in no time at all @_@

We needed some variety so we decided to try a different puzzle. Silly Bean seemed very disinterested in puzzles in the past but we figured we could apply the same concepts of playing together to this new farm puzzle.

 

It was a hit! When reasoning where the puzzle piece should go, you could tell Silly Bean was really thinking about it. Yay for working on some critical thinking!

When we're looking for fun family things to do when it's just way too hot to go outside, maybe a 50-piece floor puzzle is next!

What are fun things you and your toddler have been learning or playing together as a family lately?

Harvest in the midst of much of the same

This is the 17th or so week since a state of emergency has been declared, and the pandemic is on the rise in many states. How are you feeling nowadays? From what I've seen and heard from friends, on social media, and in the news, it seems like so many of us are itching to get out, return to a normal life, get the kids out of the house now that school/remote learning is over 😅 Around here, it's more of much of the same daily Silly Bean life with the same routines we've kept since pre-pandemic (minus interacting with people less than 6 feet apart/running errands/going to the library), but we've been getting outdoors a lot more, which has been fun!

visiting baby goats and other animals at a "zoo" in a park

talking to a frog and asking how his day is going

Silly Bean loves "digging" in ponds (and basically anywhere)

storytime in the garden

Rainy weather does not deter us in the least from getting outside! Luckily though we've had more sunny days than rainy lately, and we've been able to have some great family time together as well. 

throwing rocks with Baba on a hike

scooping water at a friend's private pool

Friends from our church graciously opened their backyard pool for members of our community group to sign up to use their pool, so we've been able to "swim" despite our complex's pool being closed due to COVID! Don't let that last picture deceive you though--this moment lasted all but less than 5 minutes and Silly Bean decided he didn't want to swim (even though he talked about how much he loves swimming for the past month or two) so we played in their yard instead! 

In the midst of the uncertainty of the pandemic, not knowing what the "new normal" will look like, not knowing when things will re-open, not knowing if there will be a second wave, not knowing what the summer will look like, it can be tempting to feel discouraged in the summer season about continuing to sow and cultivate (see our post about encouragements about cultivating during COVID here), especially if you've got your own Silly Beans at home and you're going crazy in the house. A while back, I came across this image on a friend's Facebook page that I'd love to share to encourage you with:

In the book of John in the Bible, Jesus says to his disciples, "Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. " In similar ways, it may still feel like sowing/cultivating season, and it is, but where in your life/in your toddler's life is the harvest ripe? 

one tiny carrot!

We inadvertently had an unexpected harvest the other day (a squirrel dug up some of our plants!), but it made me pause and consider the metaphorical harvest in Silly Bean's life. Where am I already seeing some of what we have been working on together? (ie. emotional health, race consciousness, etc.). I definitely need to reflect more on this in this season as I think about the harvest and continue to sow and cultivate.

Where are you seeing the fruit of what you have been sowing into? How have you seen your toddler growing these past few months in quarantine?

Silly Bean Hot Weather Hack: Spray Bottles!

Earlier this week, I posted in a moms group on social media to ask about tips on how to keep a toddler cool in the summer in a carseat. Silly Bean is normally a warm kid in general, but summer is really difficult because the sweatiness also exacerbates Silly Bean's eczema (see the post about food allergies). But anyway, one mom responded with a few ideas, and one of them was spritzing her child occasionally on longer road trips with water from a spray bottle.

Needless to say, I thought that was a genius summer idea! Plus, we had 2 spray bottles at home that weren't being used (the only time I use it is when I cut Silly Bean's hair, which is maybe only once a month). The past few days, which has been in the 90s, we carried a spray bottle in Silly Bean's backpack and occasionally spritzed ourselves when we were playing outside to cool off.

Our idea then evolved as we thought about "What else can we spray?" We went around the neighborhood spraying our chalk art, ants, some grass, flowers, baby pinecones...

 

Mailboxes... other neighbors... 😁

This was a lot more fun than the ice sensory play we tried last week! We even came home and spritzed our plants on the balcony (which have been growing so much since this last post!), and sprayed some random splotches of soil. Then Baba showed Silly Bean how to turn the nozzle to change the way the water comes out, and Silly Bean had another new game of shooting water out in a line at the trees (like a mini water gun). Maybe we'll have a week's worth of more spray bottle fun!

What are your hot weather hacks for toddlers?

Easy Peasy Sensory Fun: Ice!

What has the weather been like where you are? Last week we had a couple of hot days! It's been a cooler week this week but according to the weather report, a storm is rolling in and it will be hot hot hot for the next few days (80s and even climbing up to low 90s), just in time for the start of summer!

Here's another installment of easy peasy sensory fun! We came back from our outside time last week needing to cool off--so in addition to tying Silly Bean's hair up Bam-Bam style to cool off his head, I took out some ice from the freezer, put it on a baking sheet, and we had fun for a good hour or so!

  

At first, we just touched the ice and watched it melt, noticing that it was really cold!! After a few minutes, I pulled out the watercolors and we painted on the ice. It was pretty fun watching the colors slowly melt off and mix into each other on the cookie sheet.

For round 2, I had Silly Bean help me refill the ice cube tray and put a little counting bear in each one. After his nap, we had fun watching the ice melt and we "rescued" the little bears from the cold ice!

Unfortunately they sort of floated to the top, but we simply turned them over on the baking sheet, but ideally, they would be in the middle. You can do this with any plastic animals or figurines you have at home with whatever containers you've got at home--we also tried some ice in silicone cupcake liners and it was fun to have a different shape. I've also seen online people filling balloons and freezing to make things like "dinosaur eggs," which also looked pretty cool. The possibilities of ways of interacting with the ice are endless--we used our hands and paintbrushes, but you can also have your toddler use forks, spoons, little shovels, and you can even make up a little game of mining out the little animals! You could also add food coloring to the water before you free to switch things up a bit!

5 ways to cultivate positive attitudes about race and ethnicity in all the Silly Beans out there

With all that has been going on in the nation these past few weeks, I needed to be on hiatus from the blog for a week to catch a breath, reflect, process, lament, and pray. There is much to be said about the heinous murder of George Floyd, racial tensions in America, and our broken systems, but I do not necessarily feel social media is the place to process all of this. As a mother, I grieve with George's mother over the loss of a son. As a wife and a mother raising a young child, I grieve that Gianna at the age of 6 won't have a daddy growing up in this world.  As a racially assigned Asian-American woman, I grieve the traditional silence of my people as more black lives are taken. I know that I have a lot more work to do in examining my own heart and family/ethnic history of attitude and relationship toward black people, in learning about the history of Asian-American and Black-American relations in America, and in repenting about the ways me and my people's pursuit of the American dream has contributed to the systemic oppression of black people.

But this post is not my soap box. It's about Silly Bean and all of the other Silly Beans out there, and it's about addressing the question that their parents are probably asking right now: How do I talk to my kid about race/ethnicity/current events?

I pursued a lot of resources these past two weeks re: conversations with kids about race, and they all had one common sentiment: they're not too young to talk about race. Studies have shown that even babies can perceive differences in skin tone, and may even show preference for people who are the same ethnicities as their caregivers. Even a few weeks ago, Silly Bean and I were reading a Daniel Tiger story and he said, "Miss Elaina and Teacher Harriet are brown." His statement was neutral but it showed me that he noticed their skin tone.

from the story "Daniel Plays at School"

It's helpful that I have training in talking to college students about ethnic identity and racial reconciliation, but I am at a loss when it comes to talking about it in 2 or 3 year old terms! And as we know, it actually takes a lot of thought to explain difficult concepts in a way that young children can understand! So I am no expert and am also still learning, but wanted to share 5 developmentally appropriate ways to help cultivate race/ethnic consciousness and positive attitudes toward race/ethnicity in toddlers that I have been reminded of in this season, that I hope will be a helpful to you as well.

1. Reflect and self-examine your own prejudices and biases, your relationship with your own ethnicity and with others'. Children learn from observing their caregivers, and attitudes are more often caught than taught. So how do our kids see us reacting when we take a walk and see a black man walking toward us on the sidewalk? What do they hear us saying when we talk about the landscapers who are Mexican who cut the grass today? What are they observing when we talk about how we look (do we like our hair? our facial features? body shape? etc)?

2. Provide diversity in the media (literature, music, toys, TV shows, etc) you share with your toddler. Are the main characters in the stories you read together always white? How are minorities being portrayed or treated in the TV show they are watching? Are the only books at home that feature people of other ethnicities books about ethnic holidays? There are great lists out there (just do a google search!) of books and toys that have people/children of different ethnicities you can check out from the library.

3. Develop relationships with people of other ethnicities/SES/life experiences. Are the people you/your toddler interact with people who are very similar to you in thought, ethnicity, religion? Find ways to branch out and intentionally cultivate living, breathing friendships with others.

4. Every moment of tension is a teachable moment, but if you miss it, you can always go back to it. Your toddler probably doesn't feel tension the way that you do when she asks a question about that woman's skin color, or what "black lives matter" means. By the time you nervously formulate your response in your head, she's already onto the next activity and has forgotten her question altogether 😅 You can always go back to it because it's an ongoing conversation, not one-and-done. Or maybe you're like me and didn't realize a teachable moment until later. When Silly Bean said "Miss Elaina and Teacher Harriet are brown," it was only after I thought about it and recognized a week later. I brought it up again ("Remember when you told me...") and I got to explain to Silly Bean very simply that we have different skin tones based on how much melanin is in our bodies, and that God made all of them and loves all of them (we are in the Christian worldview). Silly Bean was very interested to hear, and I'm sure we will continue to have the same conversation for weeks to come.

5. There is grace! You don't have to have it all together. You don't have to have figured out all of your stuff about reconciling your own ethnicity or figuring out how you fit the bigger picture of fighting racism to start having conversations with your kid about race. We're all on a journey, and it's important for our kids to know that we're all learning and growing together. There's no better time than today to begin that journey if you haven't already!


What has been helpful for you in talking to your kids about race and ethnicity?

The COVID Generation: Cultivating, Growing, and Thriving

Happy last week of May! It's the last week that Silly Bean can say, "Happy May!" to passing neighbors, but he has been looking forward to turning the page on our calendar since the beginning of May anyway! The weather here has been a lot warmer this week, and we've been enjoying writing new chalk messages, going to the park with appropriate social distancing, and playing in Silly Bean's new tent (new to him--a Christmas present that we stowed away for such a time as this!)!

our newest chalk message for our neighbors 

Silly Bean's version of "sunny days ahead" to the neighbors

This morning, Silly Bean and I looked at our "garden" on our deck and said good morning to each plant,  as we do every morning. We water them, say hello and talk to them, ask them how their morning is going, because apparently if you talk to your plants, they grow better ;) We wanted to show you how they are shaping up!

from left to right: carrots, lettuce, string beans

tomato plant #1

tomato plant #2 

tomato plant #3

lettuce #2

tomato plant #4

Recently I feel like I can now relate when people use the term "the daily grind." For us in toddler world, our lives generally follow the same routine every day, which is really important for young children to feel secure and thrive within familiarity. Lately, I have self-doubted about whether Silly Bean is doing all right. It's hard being a young only child in quarantine, and I wonder how this will affect his development, particularly socially, in the long run. How is this entire generation of under 5 being affected socially by the quarantine? Will he lack the social skills that any other child would develop in normal circumstances? Will kids in this generation not know how to interact with their friends, think all interaction happens 6-10 feet apart, or via screens?

When we were talking to our plants this morning, I was reminded of that Raffi song "Everything Grows" (this might be for another post, but we LOOOVE Raffi around here!) and what our pediatrician always says about Silly Bean's development: "You can't stop progress." Everything and everyone is continuing to grow, despite quarantine, despite doing the same things day in and day out... development and progress are happening even if we don't see it, just like how the plants are growing. I was also reminded that our words have power and what we have the power to speak things into being (for good or for bad). I or others might say this entire generation will be the COVID generation--that they will be the socially distant, hyper-sentsitive to germs, etc., but instead I want to speak into being that this COVID generation will be the cultivating generation--the generation that knows how to sow good seeds, nurture them, and find thriving and life. The generation that will learn perseverance in the mundane, who will continue to do good and reap the harvest in the proper time.

What things do you want to claim and speak into being for your child, yourself, this generation?