Bug Unit

We have been learning all about bugs over here. Isla just calls all bugs "bees", but it's still pretty cute to hear her say that. Every day at naptime we say "night night" to the yard as we shut the curtain. Now after I say "night night yard", she adds "night night bir-bir (birds), night night bees, night night mice" (not sure why the mice...). She's really interested in bugs now and I love seeing that as a result of learning about them. Here are some of the fun things we've done:

She had fun making imprints of the bugs in the playdoh.

Bird nest (with worms!) and bug sensory bins

 Our "invitation to play" for the bug unit. She loves to retell the story of the Itsy Bitsy Spider with the felt board. She knows the motions to the song too! 

This little activity lasted awhile for her. I just taped some bugs down and she went to town picking them off then wading the tape in a ball. 

 She really likes painting with bugs. We did this one day and now we have to do it every day (fine by me!). She points to the bin and says "bees" and "ent" (which I think means paint). And then she nods her head until I get it set up for her. She's come a long way with allowing her hands to get messy. It helps if I have a water bin to follow so she can wash up :)

 We saw a really fun video about how bees make honey in their combs. We worked together to make a house for the bees. I was amazed that she would pick up the hexagon and say "honey". I'm not sure if she understood the correlation, but it impressed me!

 She has liked working with tape. I trapped some bugs in a tape web and she spent time digging them out. I gave her tweezers to use, but that was too hard. She counted them as she put them in the bowl. Right now, she can count up to 4! It usually goes, "one, two, free, fuh, bees!" haha

 Isla liked adding dots to her ladybug. Michael was impressed that she kept most of the dots inside the bug outline. 

Next up, our spring/gardening unit! 

And if you cared, here's me at 21.5 weeks a few days ago:

Baby is kicking all the time. He loves to kick after I eat and right before bed. His kicks have gotten so big that my belly moves all over. I'm feeling pretty good lately, although pregnancy insomnia has kicked in (much earlier this time around). I wake up multiple times a night and just wish I could fall back asleep. At least this time, I'm not snacking yet. With Isla I would fight my insomnia with several granola bars a night haha! My leg cramps have gotten bad again too, especially at night. I had that for most of my pregnancy with Isla. Baths and magnesium drinks help. Current cravings are Keebler fudge cookies (it has to be the little man cookie) and fried cheese balls. We are so happy and blessed with a healthy baby! I can't believe August is coming up so soon!