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Molly pulled out her Crazy 8 cards and asked, "Can we play patterns?" It was the perfect impromptu game to start off our P week.

We made a pink pig for our P craft.

After 2 attempts to get the dough right, we were finally able to make whole wheat soft pretzels. Molly helped me roll them, "paint" them with egg whites and sprinkled them with salt.

We made some bubble wrap prints,

and finally played with the pattern blocks she got for her birthday.

Molly had so much fun painting with our homemade puff paint. You can see a video of her painting here.

For our stART project, we made blueberry pancakes just like Curious George in Curious George Makes Pancakes.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Molly has really gotten into playing with my iPad. A few of her favorites are The Cat in the Hat, Word Magic, Draw, iWriteWords, Virtuoso Piano, and Pages. I'm amazed at how well a 3 year old can pick up a touch interface (as compared to, say, a keyboard/mouse interface). This video is of her typing away in Pages. The first time I showed it to her, she wanted to change the colors of the letters. So, I went through the menus and changed the colors. The next time, she did it all by herself (as you can see here).

While my mom and mother-in-law truly smock, this is my way of making a smocked sundress. (Ok, so maybe it's really a shirred sundress.) I found the tutorial on MarthaStewart.com. Molly saw me sewing it and asked all morning if her dress was done. Finally after naptime she got to put it on and modeled it beautifully.

Just a little dancing from Molly before bedtime. In case you were wondering, the song is on The Backyardigans: Robot Repairman, which Molly has really enjoyed.

Jen and Molly did some puff painting this week. I'm sure she'll post about it soon, but for now enjoy this video of a normal activity in our household.

Molly's friend Sadie had her 3rd birthday party at AIRmania. Molly and Jillian had fun jumping together.

Molly was skeptical at first, but quickly realized that sliding was a lot of fun too!

Is it possible to get a group picture of twelve toddlers in a bounce castle? Not really, but here's our best try.

Happy birthday Sadie!

Chad has already posted video of Leah crawling and talking, but she has also begun pulling up. One of her favorite things to do is rummage through the book basket.

Her first tooth broke through a couple weeks ago, but getting a picture of it is pretty difficult. Chad finally succeeded. The other one on the bottom is almost ready to break through as well.

It's interesting how closely the girls are following the same developmental milestones. Here is a post I made about Molly's milestones when she was 8 months old. I could have almost copied that exactly for Leah!

We worked on the letter I this week, starting out by making an ice cream cone with sprinkles and a cherry on top.

Molly wanted to paint, so I printed a picture of Isa the Iguana (from Dora, of course!) for her to create her masterpiece.

Molly did a great job making an igloo, using royal icing as the glue. She kept asking to eat the marshmallows, and eventually she was given the OK! She also loved that she got to eat some of the igloo for an after nap snack.

We've been working our way through I Spy A to Z. Molly really enjoys look and find books.

We spent some time exploring The New York Philharmonic Kidzone. We learned about instruments in the orchestra, sorted mixed up instruments, played an instrument matching game, had a percussion showdown, and created our own musical mingles. Molly really liked playing on Mommy's computer!

The weather was nice at the end of the week for us to spend some time outside painting with colored ice cubes.

We did some learning with inchworms.

You can't go through I week without making ice cream. We tried to make "ice cream in a bag" like in chemestry class. The result? Molly ended up drinking a milkshake instead. :(

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Leah is hitting new milestones by the minute. She's now crawling like an expert. She's also much more vocal. Make sure to watch all the way to the end to hear what she has to say.

The hallway can be a lot of fun, particularly when the hall closet has mirrored doors.