Avi - 4/28/2017

Avilene ate oatmeal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate tilapia, most of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate green beans, and applesauce.

Riley's family, sister Kenzie, and sometimes the kids here call Riley "RiRi."  I do sometimes, but  usually it's "Riley."  Yesterday afternoon Avilene was saying, "RiRi, RiRi, RiRi"  so plain and so cute.  It was the first time I'd heard her say "RiRi" and I was excited!  "Riley, Avilene just said RiRi!"  Riley calmly replied, "I know."  Haha!  (Her reaction totally said, "That's old news!")  Apparently I was the last to hear it!  That's not unusual!

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when we were doing same stickers for art time and Kenzie was being a big helper.  I think this was Avilene's first attempt at stickers at Daycare.  It may be hard to see in the picture, but she has a sticker between her fingers and the sticky part is pointing up.  She kind of figured out what we were doing and just started pushing Kenzie's hand down toward the paper when Kenzie was holding a sticker - rather than taking it from her!  It was a very cute approach I must say!!  (The primary problem Avi was having was because she was trying to do it so fast and in one quick motion!!  Hard to believe, right!?!)

These last 2 pictures are from this morning.  Avilene and Hudson were "hanging" on the side of the changing table several different times this morning.  And Lauralea read books to the kids before she left for work.  (Sophie and Avi were watching Bubba do something when I took the last picture!)

Avi - 4/27/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat bagel and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate some pizza: whole wheat crust, meat mix (hamburger, sausage, eggs), olives, mushrooms, peppers, and pineapple.  With an extra serving of pineapple.

I told Hudson this morning; "Avi will be coming soon."  Hudson said, "Avi Elson, Avi Elson."  Geez! You're so right Hudson, Avi Nelson!!  He hears, remembers, and repeats everything!!  As soon as Avi arrived I started reading to her and Hudson, but Avi jumped down and ran to the window to wait and wave when Daddy came.  Routines are SO important to this age group!!  There are so many benefits to routines and I try to apply that principle here all the time.  I believe the end result can be healthy habits where everything runs more smoothly.  Avi stayed at the window after Daddy drove off so she could watch some school kids walk by.

And of course I have to post the daily mattress play with Avilene and Nora!  It lasted for 3 - 4 minutes!  Avi gets so excited and starts jumping and rolling around and Nora sits there and giggles! This is a picture of the 2 - legged takedown!  Well executed Avilene!  Nora looks pretty distressed right!?  Not!  :)

Here are a couple more pictures from this morning's activities.  Avi likes to clear this shelf with the tambourines and jingle bells.  Maybe it's the fun sounds!  This is the only shelf she clears like this - in this toy set.  Hudson, meanwhile, is dumping the 3 buckets of shapes.  Many years ago Lauralea and I named this the "dump and run" stage!!  And the last picture; these 2 were working hard to get the rocking chair to cooperate!  :)  And they were fairly successful!

Avi - 4/26/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat toast and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she had bites of pork roast, bites of toasted rye bread, ate carrots, some potatoes, and a couple bites of sweet potatoes, and ate mixed fruit.

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon just a few minutes after both of these girls had awoke from their naps.  Avi was jumping, getting both feet off the mattress, then extending her legs straight out and bouncing on her bottom.  Nora was laughing and squealing with delight!  It was so cute.  Then Avi was kind of rolling over on Nora and laying on her.  These two really enjoy each other!!

Hudson and Avi were playing with the dolls and Avi got her baby wrapped with a blanket by herself and then was giving it loves.  She also played on the Big Panda Bear and was saying, "rock rock, rock rock, rock rock" as she was rocking back and forth.  Immediately after waving bye to Daddy this morning she sprinted for the book rack, search through the 20 plus books and found "Here we go round the mulberry bush" book again.  That has been her favorite in this toy set!

 

I took this picture of Avi and Hudson playing so nicely together!!  Ha!!  Just 2 minutes prior to taking this picture Avi had grabbed a plate from Hudson, whirled around, and literally sprinted for the other side of the room.  Hudson was in hot pursuit yelling and crying!  I told her to give the plate back to Hudson and she did, very quickly.  Then she went right back and grabbed a doll he had, whirled and sprinted again!!  Dang!!  So I'm teaching some appropriate social interactions and trying NOT to laugh my head off!!

Avi - 4/25/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat english muffin and dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of chicken with stir fry vegetables, bites of brown rice, and she ate mandarin oranges.  I took this first picture at breakfast time.  Avi was being silly and then of course Hudson started laying his head on his highchair tray!  Then while she was still in her highchair, but after Lunch, I grabbed a tissue and blew my nose and Avi started mimicking me!  She kept closing her eyes and blowing - it was so stinking funny!!  And the more I laughed the more she did it!  :)  What a goof!

She is starting to say lots of words!  She brought me a book pointed at the couch and said, "read read read...cow cow cow (couch).  Then I took this next picture when she was playing with the lid to the shape sorter and she was saying, "stuck stuck stuck."  Picture # 3: Avi was kissing herself in the mirror so I got the camera and said, "Who were you kissing in the mirror?"  She went right back over and did it again so I took this picture.  :)

I have to take a picture everyday of Avi giving Nora loves!!  I can't help myself; just too cute.  After taking this picture I turned back around and here was Avilene totally laying on top of Nora.  Nora wasn't yelling yet, but I got Avi move off just in time!  Ha!  Avi wasn't being a turkey, just treating Nora like a little toy that she can maul!!

Avi - 4/24/2017

Avilene ate bites of cheerios and ate banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate burger from taco salad, ate pita bread, bites of olives, tomato, avocado, and ate cantaloupe.  Our nap routine after lunch is the same everyday.  I take Avilene to the changing table, put on a clean diaper, put on her pajamas, and she hustles down the hall to her room where her pacifier is waiting in her crib.  As we were going past Baby Nora's room Avilene put her finger to her mouth and said, "Shhh Shhh."That was so cute!  (She's heard that before!  Ha!)  I love all their adorable routines.

Kenzie and Riley are here today (no elementary or middle school) and Reid is not here.  So I got this picture of Avi in "Reid's" chair this morning.  It's all mine!!  But it just wasn't the same with Reid gone!  Not nearly as satisfying or as much fun!!  AND, this was the ONLY time she got in the chair this morning!  (Where she sat for just a few seconds! Ha!)

Here are some more pictures from this morning's activities.  I got the camera pretty quick when I saw her crawling on the top toy shelf.  Cracked me up.  Then in the middle picture below Nora came over to check on what Avi was putting in her bucket.  In the last picture Nora had been using the airplane as a foot rest before Avilene decided to play with it.  It's so cute how much these two love each other.  Whenever Avi gets up from her daily nap the first thing she does if Nora is awake is lay her head on Nora's lap.  We also read lot of books, sang silly songs, and did some coloring at art.  Avi colored for probably 10 minutes or more.

Avi - 4/21/2017

Avilene ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of salmon, dinner roll, corn and mangoes.

Avi was the first one here and I love watching her responses when the other kids arrive!  I was reading books to Nora and Avilene when Momma Emily left.  As soon as the door closed Avi jumped down and sprinted for the window.  They all love that waving at the window routine!  It was fun to wave at Sylvie and Peter too this morning.  (Sorry if I misspelled Sylvie!)  Minutes later I took this first picture when Avi was still feeling super loving toward Nora and as you can see in the first picture I think Nora was feeling the same way!

I took this picture when Hudson first arrived and the first order of business for him (after waving bye to Dad at the window) was to dump as many toys as he could find and run to the next shelf.  Lauralea and I always called this the "dump and run" stage!  "Ok, my work is done here!  What's next!?!"  At least Bubba returns and plays with the toys.  Avilene was busy figuring out which shapes and colors to put in her bucket!

Here are couple more pictures from this morning: Playing with Hudson and Nora and allowing Bubba to rest his head on her lap.  They were on the couch as I was selecting some special books to read and Bubba had to get comfortable I guess!  Look at Avi's body language in the picture...slightly amused and "uhhh, that's ok for a moment, but this better be quick!"  We also did some play dough again and they all loved it.

Avi - 4/20/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat english muffin and oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate baked chicken, pieces of tortilla, bites of cabbage, ate corn on cob, and baked apple with cinnamon.

Yesterday before we went outside I said I was gonna put the Big Bears in the back room.  Avilene sprinted for the Panda Bear and stretched out on it with an impish grin and watching me to see what I'd do.  She loves to tease!  Little Cutie!  Then this morning just before I took this first picture of Lauralea reading to the kids, Avi essentially did the same thing to Lauralea.  She knows where Lauralea usually sits to read and she raced for the couch, crawled up and sat there grinning watching to see what Lauralea would do.

Avi was teasing (hmmm..this seems to be a common theme) Reid and was in his chair 2 or 3 times this morning.  He was pretending to growl at her when I took this picture.  She looks pretty frightened, right!?!  NOT!!  Also, you can see in the picture she has one foot on a plate.  She been standing there with both feet on the plate and trying to shuffle her feet.

It's not too often I can get a picture of all of them playing so closely together - without trying to stage a picture!  This was all about the 3 yellow buckets with the 3 different shapes and colors.  As usual one or two kids were trying to fill the buckets and one or two kids were emptying the buckets.  And Nora was the amused spectator!  And the last picture...Nora was playing on the mattress and Avilene immediately took a moment to give her some love.  Sophie was headed onto the mattress as well and you can see Avi is keeping an eye out for her!!  :)

Avi - 4/19/2017

Avilene ate a bite or two of french toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of Paleo Stew - with burger, and at least 6 vegetables in it - broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, carrots, green beans, and tomatoes.  She ate bites of crackers and ate tropical fruit.

Avi has been enjoying sitting for all of Story Time lately.  Today I read probably 8 Special Books and some of those are much longer than the board books that are out and available in every toy set.  After Story Time Reid said, "That take 14 hours!"  Ok, it was long, but not that long.  :)

Reid and Sophie were being rowdy on the mattress and Avilene was right in the middle of it all.  The rowdier the better for her!  Reid was trying to 'scare' her (playing - not mean) and yelled a couple of times and she just looked at him and laughed!  Whatever Reido!!

I took this picture when Avilene was putting shapes in the bucket, Hudson was slinging them out of the bucket almost as fast as Avi would put them in, and Nora was curious about the situation.  Speaking of Baby Nora, when I put her down for her nap this morning Avilene started singing, "night night baby, night night baby."  (Sophie and Hudson sing that all the time.)  That shocked me and it was SO cute!!  Her vocabulary is growing (exploding) and now starting to put sentences together.

It was so pretty outside this morning and we played in the sunshine!  YES!!  Hudson asked, "Do art, do art?"  So I said we'd go outside and do sidewalk chalk and everyone was thrilled.  I think they each made 1 line and the over-achievers made 2 lines.  Ha!  We're done!!  They were off to more fun stuff!

Avi - 4/18/2017

Avilene ate flat bread and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger, whole wheat elbow noodles, peas, and applesauce.  This isn't about Avi, but I think you'll enjoy the Daycare humor!  At breakfast Reid was eating grapes and said, "I'm gonna eat these until my Mom comes!!"  (That's his default phrase when he's eating something he likes!)  Then at Lunch he made an announcement: "I can eat 8 bites of anything in one serving!!"  Haha!  And believe me, when it comes to eating Reid can pretty much stand behind his boasting!!

I took this 1st picture of Avi playing with the shapes and putting them in the holes.  She quickly realized the circles are much easier and will slide right in and she'd search to find only the circles.  Smart kid.  :)  She obviously has good spatial development - which deals with how objects fit or relate to each other.  (That is an interesting read if you're inclined that way!  Search Toddler Spatial Development.)   From my perspective it fits with how she studies everything to figure out how it all works.  See the next picture.

Reid was in "his" chair until 10:30 and Avilene "flew" to the chair when he got out.  This picture of her in the chair makes it look like she's sleeping!  NOT!  She'd just scrambled into the chair and was looking back to see what Reid was doing!  Haha!  She wasn't there long and he soon returned to his designated chair.  Apparently Reid had earlier taken off his socks and Avilene found them on the floor.  Reid said to Avilene; "Just put them on the changing table."  (As he continued to lounge!  Hmmm....Somehow this seems kind of wrong!  Ha!)  So in the last picture Avilene dutifully put both of Reid's socks on the changing table.  Thank you Avi.  (She has a sock in her left hand if it's hard to see.)

Avi - 4/17/2017

Avilene ate kix cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate turkey burger, whole wheat bun, tomatoes, couple bites of avocados, and ate cherries.

I took this first picture less than 5 minutes after Avi arrived.  These three kids got on the couch and were ready for story time.  Sophie was more than happy to read to them.  She started singing "Twinkle Twinkle" and it was so cute.  We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the kids were ready to check out the different books.  Avilene was watching me sing songs and playing with the jingle bells and tambourines and she immediately found some for herself.

I think it's so cute when Avi gets down on the floor just to hang out with Nora and interact with her.  Nora was going in the igloo (still a favorite spot of her's) and Avi peeked around the corner to say, "Hey, what's going on!?!"  (or something like that)

I told Hudson that I needed to change his poopy diaper and Avilene SPRINTED for a front row spectator seat!  That girl can move fast!  I took this next picture of her when she was putting some of the dress-up clothes over her head.  Pretty eyes!!  Or 'eye' in this case!!

Avi - 4/12/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat toast and mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger with spaghetti sauce, spaghetti noodles, squash, and fruit salad.  At lunch Reid said, "This kind of like spaghetti!!"  LOL!  Good!  We'll take that as a sideways compliment!

Sophie and Hudson were throwing stuffed animals off the mattress and Avi was pitching them back on the mattress as fast as she could.  And she was almost keeping up with them!  Ha!

Here's a picture of Avi reading a book in "Reid's chair" before Reid arrived.  I always tell Reid that Avi says his name perfectly!!  "Read read" while holding her books.  She ran to the gate to greet Reid when he arrived and when I turned back around she was already back to the beloved chair sitting and looking very proud and smug!!  Ha!!

Not too much to say about this picture except it made me laugh when Nora dove between the other two kids.  Sure enough, there's room for everyone here!!  Before Lauralea left for work Sophie yelled at her; "Hey Lauralea!  You wanna come play with us!?!"  So Lauralea read a few books to the kids before she left.  Notice that Avilene is reading her own books.

This was Avi's first time with the Play Dough and she did awesome.  I timed her and she played with it for 16 minutes before she got bored and was ready to leave.  That's great!  And she never even tried to eat some so that's good as well!  (I don't think it would be very tasty!  This is homemade play dough and it's over 2 years old!  It's still in great shape, but it's about time for a new batch!)  The kids use little rollers, plastic cookie cutters, pizza cutters, and knives, forks and spoons.

Avi - 4/11/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat bagel and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate some shrimp, flat bread, a few bites of stir fry vegetables, and ate mixed berries.

I'm just posting this first picture because I think it's super cute of Avilene!!  There is plenty of room for the two of them in this chair, but the first one up usually tries to keep the next one out!!  However Avi worked hard to get up there past Bubba's foot and she made it.  She is persistent!  Here's the story behind the 2nd picture: Hudson was making a "pile" with the stuffed animals and saying, "Make pile Gary, make pile."  Avi grabbed an animal off the pile and tossed it onto the mattress.  You can see Hudson looking at it.  He was saying, "don't don't."  She was totally doing this to watch his reaction and believe me she was totally focused on his reaction!!  (Notice she has another animal in her left hand ready to toss. as well  Ha.)  I didn't intervene because Hudson wasn't that upset and in a matter of seconds after I took this picture Hudson decided to join her and started tossing animals off the pile too!!

Lauralea was watching (from the kitchen) Avi and Hudson play this morning.  She asked, "Where'd Avi go?"  She was "hiding" under the blue balance beam for a few seconds and it was pretty cute.  Hudson went there to join in the fun.

We did some coloring at Art today and I think Avilene really enjoys doing this.  She stayed on task for several minutes before she was done.  Nora sat in her highchair and watched the "big kids" doing their Art.  You're one of the big kids Avi!!  Haha!

Avi - 4/10/2017

Avilene had bites of bran cereal and ate raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, flat bread, and from the chicken salad: ate some olives, couple bites of red peppers, no tomato, bite of cucumbers, ate avocados, and two servings of pears.  I must have been having a flashback moment because at lunch I was singing, "Come on people now smile on your brother..."  (from the late 1960's)  Sophie said, "I don't have a brother!!"  Haha!  Oh man I laughed so hard!

I'll try to remember and remind you Molly when you drop Avi off to watch for the kids at the window.  It's their routine to run to the window and wave.  Hudson, Avilene, and Sophie were all waving.  Sophie was the only one who knew you didn't see us.  She said, "Molly didn't stop right there!"  And she pointed where you needed to stop and wave!!  Ha!  Moments later Avi went back to the window and there was a crow right below the window, just a few feet away.  It flew when she got on the step and she squealed.

Here's Avi in the chair and who do think she's watching!?  If you said "Reid" you are correct!  She loves getting in Reid's favorite chair.  Then she decided to lay on her tummy.  I said, "Be careful Avi" while I was taking the picture.  Silly girl.

Avi was putting this doll blanket over her head and then brought it to me for help.  She said, "hat, hat."  And tipped her head down for me.  There was no mistaking what she wanted!  She is sure starting to say lots of words - and trying to say lots more!  I asked her to say my name this morning and she said a "G" sound followed by and "e" sound.  Thank you Avi!!  :)  Well done.  In the last picture Sophie and Hudson had joined her with the 'blanket on the head play' and then they added some spinning as well.  Lots of spinning and falling down!!

Avi - 4/7/2017

Avilene ate malt-o-meal cereal and I didn't offer her any dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate some of everything:  beef steak, brown rice, vegetables (zucchini, mushrooms, red peppers), and pineapple.

Avilene was working VERY hard to show Lauralea's daughter Missy how she could jump on the mattress and she actually got both feet off the mattress at the same time for a very brief moment!  That was the first time I've seen her do that!

I love this first picture.  Avi knows that Reid loves the blanket she's holding.  (It's one of my blankets - Reid is holding his special blanket from home.)  Avi found the blanket on the other side of the room, picked it up and raced over to give it to Reid saying, "Ree Ree Ree!"  So cute!!

When I took this picture of Lauralea reading to the kids this morning I was trying to get all four of these kids with a finger in their mouth.  So I got 3 out of 4!  :)

This picture from this morning looks kind of familiar right!?!  If someone is reading this Blog for the first time today, look at yesterday's Blog and see the explanation with the picture where Hudson is "fanning" Nora with the pillow.  This was so cute because Avi actually started doing this from several feet back and then just slowly worked her way toward Nora while continuing to fan the pillow!