Proud as a Peacock

Okay, okay...I know I shouldn't brag, but our little man is growing up and has taken some big steps in his little life this past month.

1. Eli is fully day trained, and I feel I can say it with confidence as he's been accident free for a full month. He has even stayed dry at school! You go, boy!
2. Eli completed a week of preschool successfully. We got nothing but thumbs ups and good reports about his first week of school. He's very happy and despite being a little younger than his peers, he's hanging in there and keeping up.
   

I cannot express the joy I feel when I look at him and all that he is accomplishing; all the new things he is trying and challenges he is tackling. He's growing up on us, pretty fast...as much as I don't want him to, it is incredibly fun to watch.

Way to go, Eli! Mommy and Daddy are very proud of you!

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On a totally different note, Eli and I have been doing another new book. I decided to do a little less as we were both going back to school and our schedules were different and very full (see my Scatterbrained post.) We decided on We're Going On a Bear Hunt since I ended up getting around to making a felt board for us. All my those bulletin boards I covered in fabric as a sorority girl sure came in handy making this a quick, and pretty simple project.
I bought an inexpensive bulletin board (but you could easily use a sturdy piece of cardboard...we wanted to be able to use it as a bulletin board later after its life as a felt board is over) and 1 yard of felt (you can also use flannel.) Then after cutting the felt down so that there was 1/2 to 1 inch of fabric reaching past the cork, I tucked the felt under the frame using a butter knife. I then tacked each corner with a staple to keep the felt from sliding around. And that's it. Simple, right?

Finally, I downloaded some fun felt patterns for several books and used spray adhesive to glue them to a panel of felt, cut around the patterns, and "Ta-da-dah!" (as Eli would say!) A super cute story set for our book.

Eli has thoroughly enjoyed using the story set on the felt board to retell and recall the events in the order they happen in the story. We both enjoyed the rhythm and pattern of this book. Eli quickly picked up on the repetition, and we even did some hand motions to go along with it. I can remember "going on a bear hunt" around the campfire at summer camp. It brings back fun and happy memories.

I am looking forward to making more story sets. This was a project I was excited about and still am!

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Next random topic....I left my "good camera's" battery charger at the beach last month. Thinking we would be back soon (and were supposed to, but Matt's super busy month at work preempted any quick getaways....), I wasn't worried. Needless to say, the battery went dead, and I had rely on my little Canon Powershot in the meantime. I took significantly less pictures this month due to that and probably some laziness on my part. Feel free to check out the ones I did manage to take.

Link to August's pictures