Rhymes and Songs to Share with My Kiddos

I spend a lot of time with babies these days.  I have the pleasure of being Claire's Mom, and I babysit  a little one year old named June three days a week. I love it.  Honestly, though, sometimes I get sick of the conversations I have with them/myself all day long.  It helps when I can break up the monologue with songs and rhymes.  They girls love it, too.  I have quite a few in my repertoire, but it seems like whenever I try to come up with one on the fly, nothing ever comes to mind.  So here's my big list of favorite rhymes and songs...

For Playtime

•  The Wheels on the Bus
•  Old MacDonald Had a Farm
•  Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
• The Alphabet Song
• Popcorn Popping*
• Hinges*
• She'll be coming around the Mountain when she comes
• The Farmer in the Dell
• Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed
• The More We Get Together
• We're All Together Again
• If You're Happy and You Know It (Clap Your Hands)
• Smiles*
• Do As I'm Doing*
• The Wise Man and the Foolish Man*
• Sitting in my High Chair+
• Pizza Pickle+
• Beehive+
• Smooth Road+
• Wibbleton to Wobbleton+
• Humpty Dumpty+
• Mr Sun**
• Mary Had a Little Lamb
•  Baa Baa Black Sheep
• Brush Your Teeth**
•  Baby Beluga**
• Apples and Bananas**
• Shake my Sillies out**
• A Happy Family*
• When we're Helping**

For Bedtime

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• You are My Sunshine
• I am a Child of God*
• Give Said the Little Stream*
• I Am Like a Star*
• I Feel My Savior's Love*
• Snuggle Puppy+
• I Love to See the Temple*
• Love is Spoken Here*
• Families Can Be Together Forever*
• Love One Another*

*Songs in the LDS Primary Songbook
**Songs by Raffi 
+These ones are lesser known.  They come from my local library or various books. I take no credit for any of them.  Here are the words:

Sitting in my High Chair (sung to Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread)
Sitting in my High Chair
Big Chair, My Chair
Sitting in my high chair
Banging my Spoon
Sitting in my High Chair
Big Chair, My Chair
Sitting in my high
chair
Feed me soon!
Bring on the plate!  Bring on the cup!
Mama's gonna feed this baby up!

Pizza Pickle (Tickling rhyme)
Pizza, Pickle, Pumpernickle
I know someone who's gonna get a tickle
Tickle on your nose, tickle on your toes
Tickle on your belly where the "hot dog" goes! (You can replace hot dog with any food they like to eat.  They LOVE this one.)

Beehive (Tickling Rhyme)
Here is the Beehive (close your fist like a beehive)
Where are all the bees? (shrug your shoulders)
Hiding inside where nobody sees (point to your closed fist)
Soon they'll come out, Out of the hive
1,2,3,4,5- Bzz! (count out with your fingers, then use them to tickle)

Smooth Road (Lap Rhyme)
Smooth Road, Smooth Road, Smooth Road, Smooth Road
(have them sitting on your knees facing you and sway gently back and forth)
Bumpy Road, Bumpy Road, Bumpy Road, Bumpy Road (lightly bounce them on your knees)
Rough Road, Rough Road, Rough Road, Rough Road (bounce them a little harder)
Hole! (spread apart your knees so they "fall" in between your legs)

Wibbleton to Wobbleton (Lap Rhyme) 
From Wibbleton to Wobbleton is 15 miles
From Wobbleton to Wibbleton is 15 miles
From Wibbleton to Wobbleton from Wobbleton to Wibbleton from Wibbleton to Wobbleton is 15 miles!

(You can change the words to local town names.  I use "Abbotsford and Aldergrove"
Sit them on your knees facing you and move them back and forth from one knee to the other as you say the rhyme)

Humpty Dumpty (Lap Rhyme)
Humpy Dumpty sat on a wall (bounce on knee)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (tip them over to one side)
Humpty Dumpty fell in a puddle (hold them upside down)
Humpty Dumpy needs a good cuddle (pick them up and give them a hug)

Snuggle Puppy (by Sandra Boynton)
Well I have a thing to tell you and it won't take long
The way I feel about you is a kind of song
It starts with an Ooooh... And ends with a kiss
 And all along the middle it goes something like this
It goes
(chorus) Ooooh snuggle puppy of mine
Everything about you is especially fine
I love what you are, I love what you do
Fuzzy little snuggle puppy I love you... (repeat chorus) Kiss!
Well I wanted just to tell you and it didn't take long
The way I feel about you is a kind of a song
I started with ooh, I gave you a kiss
I hope you liked the middle, now we'll end like this...
(chorus)

Pinteresting Creations

Pinterest can definitely be a source of good or evil in my life.  For example, when I accidentally let an hour go by totally immersed in finding pins about being a better parent, instead of actually paying attention to my daughter who is whining for attention at my feet- not so good.  Also, it's probably a bad thing when all the blogs of amazing stay at home Moms who are accomplishing amazing things- lead me to feel completely overwhelmed and insignificant.  Seriously, us women are so good at comparing ourselves to others.  Now thanks to Pinterest (and the internet in general), we can compare our weaknesses against the strengths of MILLIONS of other women.  Who's idea was this anyway?

But- man I love how Pinterest helps me copy other people's smart ideas.  All of my adventurous cooking has come from pinterest.  I've found some great food.  I've also found some crappy food.  I now have two recipes boards.  One is for "untested recipes."  After I've cooked it, if it's good, I move the pin to my "Recipes that I've actually tried and liked" board.  I like to think that this is helping my followers find the good stuff that's out there.  I've learned to ignore the pins that say "This is the BEST recipe I have EVER eaten!   This will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!  MY HUSBAND WANTS TO EAT THIS EVERYDAY!  IF YOU ONLY PIN ONE THING THIS YEAR...!!"  etc., etc.  You're overselling, people, and I find it suspicious.  But seriously, you should make this mulligatawny soup:


http://www.made-famous-by.com/2011/06/german-chocolate-cake-and-mulligatawny.html

and this sweet and sour chicken
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2008/07/sweet-and-sour-chicken-updated.html

They will change your life.  

In February, Hubby was in charge of "treat day" at his work on Valentine's Day, so Pinterest and I went a little overboard. 

Our dinner table that night

Strawberries with cream.  The cream was only okay, and I couldn't make it look cute like the pinterest picture. Meh.

Valentine's chex mix.  Good, but I've had better mixes.

The pizza with heart shaped pepperoni was the best part.  We decided to make it a Valentine's Day tradition.

I didn't get up close pictures of the Valentine's candy and the rice krispy treats in heart shapes.  They were about as exciting as one would expect. 

In March, I helped plan two showers.  Pinterest to the rescue again.  Here's the owl cupcakes I made for my sister-in-law's owl themed party:

Pretty cute, right?  Just add Oreos and Reese's Pieces!

I got some ideas for games and activities on Pinterest as well.  I kind of hate shower games, but I found some less awkward ones.  At the first shower (for a girl in the ward) we played Baby Mad Lib, Present Bingo, Photo Scavenger Hunt, and a trivia game about the Mom and baby.  We had the same games at my sister in law's shower, but no one played them, because we were busy with another Pinterest Idea- a headband making station!  It took some money and preparation, but it kept everyone interacting and entertained without a bit of awkwardness.  Plus Heather got some really cute headbands!  (I made some for Claire with the leftovers, too!)

In May, I was in charge of a Mother's Day activity for our Young Women.  (Remember how I planned a tea party last year?  Hey, that was the first post in this blog.  Ah- memories.)  This year, I planned an Amazing Race for the Mothers and Daughters to do together. 
I had fun making the invitations, signs and game tickets:

The Moms and daughters raced to three stations: The church, where they decorated cupcakes, Value Village, where they found clothes to fit a challenge and had their picture taken, and the common room of my apartment building where they completed a "Mom Relay."  As a part of the relay, the Moms got to sit and relax while their daughters put on dresses and aprons, did chores, and took care of their Moms for a change...

Changing Diapers

Packing Lunches

Pedicures

Manicures

Vacuuming

When everyone was done, they headed back to the church to step on the finish line.  Then they enjoyed cupcakes and candy.

 I took the picture of the refreshment table before I added my favorite part- water and lemonade with some Pinteresting ice... cut up strawberry and lemon frozen in.  Seriously- so easy, pretty, and tasty!

I hope the girls and their Moms had fun at this activity.  It sure was fun to plan. 

Also in May, I tried some activities to keep my kiddos busy.  Here's June-bug (the cutie I babysit) enjoying the "edible finger paint" we used to make a mother's day card for her Mom.

It took about 30 minutes to set up, 20 minutes to clean up, and 5 minutes for her to get bored of it.  This seems to be the case for every "How to entertain your 1 year old" pin I try.  Maybe things will get better when I'm entertaining a 2 year old.  

Anyway, I've enjoyed many other pins, but those are the ones that stick out in my memory at the moment.  Yeah Pinterest!  (When it is used for good.) 

Fun with Nursing

Jason wanted to make sure that I blog about one more detail of Claire at (now) 8 months old.

Now that she's mobile, she is not a big fan of holding still.  (She screams and wrestles away when we change her diaper or put her in her car seat unless we give her something REALLY engaging to distract her.)   

Nursing remains her favorite pastime, though.  She's just figured out ways to keep moving while she's nursing.  Her hands are usually busy ripping off any blanket or cover I'm using to stay modest.  In the absence of a cover, her hands absently play with my hair, face, clothes and nipples.  (She will drink from one while she squeezes the other.  Then she'll get distracted when it squirts and try to experiment with it for a while before she goes back to drinking)  She likes it the best when I'm lying on the bed and she can kind of crawl around me and drink at her leisure.  The funniest is when she pushes off my body to pull herself up to standing- while she's still nursing.  It's like she's leaning over to get a drink at a REALLY low drinking fountain.  I hope you're not offended by a picture.  I'm pretty modest.