Avi - 8/31/2017

Avilene ate waffle and fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, whole wheat elbow noodles, carrots, and applesauce.  Hey Andy, did you notice the jogger when you came around the corner to wave at the kids?  That's what Ave was focused on!  She was pointing and said, "Guy running, guy running."  Yes indeed, now wave at your Dad!  :)

Although just about everyone knows this, I still want to mention that today is Reid's last day.  So going forward I'll have 4 kids plus the 2 after school kids until the middle of November and then a new baby will start.  We've had a long relationship with Reid's family - 3 boys and the oldest is now in the 7th grade.  We're thankful they live just around the corner so we see them frequently!!  I'm still gonna miss having Reid here and his awesome sense of humor.  And Avilene will not be able to tease Reid by sitting in "his" chair!!

Here are some pictures from this morning's activities.  Hudson was looking at the pictures in this toy and he was wanting to show Avi as well.  He said, "See butterfly Avi, see butterfly."  Of course he holding it upside down, but she was trying to cooperate.  In the 2nd picture Avi was just relaxing and I don't see this very often.  By the time I got the camera she was getting up, but she willingly tried to recreate the scene for me - accompanied by a beautiful smile.  :)  In the last picture she was just talking on the phone to someone.  I'm sure it was Mommy.  :)  We also played outside and Avilene was asking for "bubbles, bubbles, bubbles" so we played with the bubbles.

Avi - 8/30/2017

Avilene ate french toast and strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate salmon loaf, dinner roll, no squash, and ate tropical fruit.  She was at the window watching some birds; "birdie walking....birdie bye bye."  Did it fly?  "birdie fly."  :)  I like this first picture with her chatting on the phone!

I love these next 2 pictures!  I thought for sure her tower was going to fall over, but it just stood there! Then she just barely touched it and over it went!  I LOVE watching kids play and experiment like this.  There is so much she is learning just from this simple exercise!!  Well done Avilene!!

 

It has been a busy place around here this morning with the "Reid & Cooper" show!  Tomorrow is Reid's last day at Little Treasures before going to Pre-School and Cooper is back for one day to visit because his Pre-school is closed until Monday.  In the picture below Reid is building a place for Cooper to hide and it's working - you can't see Cooper inside!  At 10:00 Cooper said (from inside his hiding place), "Can you tell me when Riley and Kenzie come?!?"  Haha!!  (They come at 3:15.)  At 10:05 Reid told Cooper, "They are literally not here yet!"  LOL!  At 10:06 Cooper busted out!  :)  (I know you've spotted Avi, but she's at the left of the picture watching the show.)  The last picture has Avi watching the 2 goofy guys again!  If you look close at the picture - Reid is holding his head after thumping the wall pretty hard and look at Cooper's expression.  Reid got up and said, "Didn't hurt." Right!  Except there are tears in your eyes that say something different.

Avi - 8/29/2017

Avilene ate most of toasted whole wheat english muffin and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of pork chop, ate whole wheat bread, bites of beets, and ate applesauce.

Shortly after she arrived Avilene asked, 'Where Lauralea?"  I said, "Lauralea's in the bathroom."  Avi said, (in her 'small' voice) "Brush teeth?"  :)  So cute!

In this first picture Nora was sitting on the step (alone) and "bouncing" up and down.  I said, "It's way softer to bounce on the mattress!"  (While pointing at the mattress!)  So Avi immediately goes over and joins Nora on the hard step and starts "bouncing" too.  Haha!  Next came Atley and joined them in bouncing!  It's so silly how they'll bounce and do "butt bombs" on a hard surface.

Avilene was laying on the floor reading a book and it must have looked like a good thing to do because Atley immediately got a book and laid down to read as well.

(I'm re-posting here what I put in Hudson' Blog!  I think you'll like it!)  I like this picture of Hudson and Avilene mowing the lawn.  Earlier, during Story Time we were reading Dr Seuss' "What would you rather be when you grow up......?"  So I asked Hudson that question and he immediately said, "A Mower."  Mower?  "When I grow up I'm gonna mow the lawn!"  So here is Hudson and Avilene practicing mowing the lawn and helping Hudson work toward a life goal!  Also, just as we got outside this morning Hudson said, "bacon, bacon."  Haha! That originated with Reid after the smoke settled in the valley!

Avi - 8/28/2017

Avilene ate breakfast with Grandma and ate hamburger, hamburger bun, no lettuce, tomato, or mushroom.  She ate avocado and oranges.

Making mistakes on the sign-in sheet is a common occurrence and I never make a big deal out of it, but I loved Grandma Mary's sign-in this morning:  "Avilene Nicholls."  Sorry Mary, but that made me laugh.  At least you didn't sign yourself in Mary, that's the most common mistake!!  I'm frequently talking to the families and that gets everyone distracted too!!

Well Avilene came after breakfast so she missed the excitement of a poop accident this morning.  Hudson spotted it first; "There's poop all over here!!"  (Hmm, who could it be??  Not Reid, he goes in the toilet, Avi was not here, Hudson spotted it, but still he could be a suspect, so that leaves Nora and Atley.   I'm practicing confidentiality and can't tell you!!)  Hudson was talking about the top of the legos table, and it was on the mattress cover and stuffed animals.  So the washer was busy by the time Avilene arrived.  Thank goodness Lauralea hadn't left yet!  (She was wishing she was gone!)  We were scrambling getting it cleaned up and keeping kids from stepping in it!!  Hey, it's just a Monday morning and that's how we roll!!  Pretty big mess and ranks in the top 10, but not close to the Little Treasures record for epic poop messes!!  :)

Here are some pictures from this morning's activities: Hudson, Avilene, and Nora were bouncing on the mattress hanging on to the blue balance beam.  This was Nora's first time to do it as a group activity.  In the 2nd picture Reid is in the little house serving ice cream - for a fee of course.  He said, "That will be nine dollars for chocolate ice cream.!"  Ha!  Avi copied what he said, "Nine dollar chocolate!"  Haha!  Then in the last picture Avi was pointing out a beetle to Reid and that was as close as Reid was about to get to the beetle.  :)

Avi - 8/25/2017

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

Reid thinks it's hilarious to run up behind the other kids and yell or scream loudly!  He's obviously trying to make them jump or get some kind of reaction.  However, he gets basically no satisfaction because they are totally conditioned and accustomed to his nonsense!  They don't even flinch anymore!  Maybe he chooses not to notice because he continues to try!!  Haha!!  Way to be strong Avilene!!  :)

First Picture:  This is a favorite game of this age group and it totally gets passed on to the next child that comes to Daycare!!  Nora was following Avi's lead (good job Avilene) and they sit on the edge of the mattress, hang on to the blue balance beam, and bounce like crazy!  (That's obviously why Avi's head is blurry!)  They were really going strong and giggling! In the second picture Avi went to the window because Reid had noticed a cement mixer going by and said it was the same one that went by the window yesterday!  And he was right!  Nora got there too late to see the truck, but there is lots of other things out there to get excited about!!  :)

I took a picture of the kids doing a "Goodbye Poster" for Sophie.  (Yes, this is a painful day and my heart hurts.)  Look how Avi's head is kind of tilted to the side.  We also played outside with bubbles and she rode bikes and did lots of running!

Avi - 8/24/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat bagel and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate "homemade" pizza with whole wheat crust, hamburger and sausage, tomato sauce, peppers, olives, mushrooms, and pineapple.  She also ate tropical fruit.

Tate walked Reid to Daycare again today and surprised everyone by pulling one of his guinea pigs out of his jacket pocket.  Avi was pretty thrilled about that.  Yeah!!  Guinea Pigs two days in a row! Avilene kind of likes those little rodents!  Ha! And Tate is happy that at least One kid (other than Reid) likes his guinea pigs!

I've mentioned this several times already, but if you read repeats then it's something your child really likes!!  :)  She has played with the big legos blocks everyday this week.  Sophie was trying to get Avi to play with the dolls again, but Avi shrugged that off and did some building instead.  She likes manipulating the blocks and sliding them around until they fit into place.  And she builds her towers as tall as she can reach.

We played outside until lunch time and it was starting to rain.  Reid was throwing the ball from one end of the yard to the other and he, Sophie, and Avi were running to get it.  That Reid kid has a great arm and several times he threw the ball (one he brought from home about the size of a tennis ball) on top of the garage roof.  (For those that don't know - it's 20 feet high)  Well on the last throw it landed right in the rain gutter and that's where it stayed!  The look on Reid's face was priceless - I assured him I have a ladder that reaches that high!!  :)

Avi - 8/23/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat toast and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork roast, whole grain tortillas, carrots (no beets, potatoes, or sweet potatoes), and ate fruit salad.

This first picture cracked me up!  Sophie was using the mattress as her "swimming pool" and she was trying to convince Avi that Avi needed "goggles" for the water.  Avi looked at her like; "what the heck are you talking about!?!"  Finally Avi just stood up and started jumping again.  :)

Tate and Bode (Reid's brothers) asked me if they could bring over their 2 guinea pigs this morning to show the kids.  They came about 10:00 and stayed until 11:15 so that took up a majority of the morning.  The kids all had so much fun!!  I had the boys put their pets inside the "pen" where the downspout comes out and that worked great.  (That way no kids were going to step in their poop or pee.)  Tate took one of the guinea pigs out and let the kids pet it and feed it.  I have to mention that these guinea pigs are young ones that the Templeton Family brought home with them on their road trip earlier this month from Kansas City!  :)  Hey, that kept the boys occupied!!  Avilene was getting a big kick out of the guinea pigs and watching them eat grass, feeding them grass, and once she pulled a stem of grass back out of one's mouth!  That made us all laugh.  Speaking of laughing, Avilene intentionally did a "butt bomb" on one of the climbers and of course the "big boys" laughed!  Oh my, did she ever love that!?!  She kept doing it over and over and watching for their reaction!  So funny!!  Bode and Tate also did bubbles for the kids and we had a great morning of fun with them!

 

Avi - 8/22/2017

Avilene ate whole wheat english muffin and plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of chicken with stir fry vegetables, ate whole wheat elbow noodles, and half of her oranges.  

I took this first picture yesterday afternoon when Sophie and Avilene had both just woke up from their naps.  Sophie had went right to Avi, took her hand and walked to the Play Room.  They were being so sweet to each other.  When I took this picture I think Sophie may have been questioning whether Avi was actually awake or not!!  :)

Avi brought some doll blankets to the couch and was sitting there with the blankets draped over her head.  Sophie was trying to get her to play with the dolls too, but Avi was way more interested in being silly on the couch and I was pushing down on her pretending to "squish" her.  I love the big grin in the second picture below.

We read lots of books and Avi was saying, "read books, read books, read books!"  I took the last picture during Art Time and Avi was starting to spread the paint on her face!!  Avi was laughing because Nora was making a mess with her paint too!!

Avi - 8/21/2017

Avilene ate cheerios and two servings of banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate some of her taco salad; hamburger, and mostly the olives, ate pita bread, and cantaloupe.  Reid was doing some kind of "informal survey" at Lunch time and asked everyone; "Do you guys normally get up at 2 AM!?"  Haha!  That made me laugh!  So I said, "no, do you?"  He said, "We do!  But not today.  We got up at 7:00 AM."  :)  His Mom told me this morning that Reid has been sleeping in and so today they were transitioning to get ready for the school year.  So maybe he meant 2 PM!  Ha!

Here's a picture of Avilene stacking some blocks to stand on!  I told her I'd make the base a bit bigger if I was her!  :)  The goal is to be able to see the changing table!!

As we were going outside Reid made another proclamation!  "Hey everybody!!  It smells like bacon out here!!"  LOL!!  That did make the smoke seem more pleasant!!  Isn't this next picture cute.  This is "circle time" at Little Treasures!  Avi is also sitting on a ball although you can't see it in the picture. They all wanted to do bubbles, but we were waiting until Sophie arrived!

I showed Daddy Andy on Friday how Avi could walk down the slide on the little climber.  I know I say this ALL the time, but she's ahead of the curve big time when it comes to coordination!!  I said that was pretty cool and Reid said, "Well I can walk down that slide!"  Ok, but you're 4 and she is 1. In the last picture - Sophie arrived and these 3 were on the teeter-totter having fun, but by the time I got the camera Avi was not having fun and wanted off.  Look at her face.  So I guess you'll have to just take my word for it; earlier she really was enjoying it!!  :)

Avi - 8/18/2017

Avilene ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate salmon, most of dinner roll, bites of corn, and ate mangoes.  Hey Molly - Reid spotted you backing up to wave at us and he started laughing. "She backing up!!"  Then he had to add; "She backing up for no reason!!"  Haha!  What a goof!

Atley has been building with the large legos blocks a lot lately.  This morning Avilene decided to join her.  (Maybe because there are only 3 kids here today - Avilene, Atley, and Reid!)  I love these blocks because the smallest children can manipulate these into stacking.  And the kids - young and old - never seem to grow tired of them.  Believe me, we're tried MANY different styles of blocks and we've always liked these the best!  Avi's tower tipped over and now you have a sidewalk!!

We did some painting with a brush, but as usual it evolved into finger painting which is lots of fun for them.  I had to change Atley's diaper as we were getting ready to paint and Reid asked if he could put a paint shirt on Avilene.  He was pretty proud of himself for getting it on correctly.  He said, "I actually got it on the right way!"  And he had!  (He put the Large on Avi and the Small on himself.  That made me laugh!)

Reid and Avilene chased bubbles outside - Atley doesn't really care for that sport!  :)  When the bubbles were almost gone I let Reid blow LOTS of bubbles for Avi to chase and they had lots of fun. Reid is actually really good at it; blowing slowly and deliberately making lots of bubbles bigger than a softball.

Avi - 8/17/2017

Avilene ate toasted whole wheat english muffin and oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate turkey burger, whole wheat elbow noodles, bite of peas, and ate applesauce.  This next note isn't about Avi, but I think you'll like it!  I told Reid that I was sure going to miss having him in my Daycare.  At lunch he asked me if I had any potato chips.  "No, I never eat potato chips and we never serve potato chips!"  Reid said, "Well it is my last day.  (Actually his last day is the 31st.)  LOL  Nice try Reid!  Not to be deterred he then asked if we could have "elbow noodles every day until he leaves!"  Haha!

Obviously, Reid is back after a 2 week road trip to Kansas City.  He had to bring something to Daycare to keep himself occupied and in the first picture he's showing Atley the inner workings of a "Paw Patrol" truck!!  I love how intently she is listening to him!  Avi also played with the legos, jumped on the mattress, enjoyed story time, and played with the masks.

We went outside and here are a couple pictures of Atley playing on the big balls.  She's been doing this just about every time we go outside.  She's been doing the same thing with the little balls.  I happened to still be taking pictures when she did a "header" off the big ball.  We also chased bubbles and during bubble time Nora spotted the scab on Avi's knee and was poking at it!

Avi - 8/16/2017

Avilene had bites of french toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of Paleo Stew with turkey burger, green beans, carrots, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts.  Hudson asked me about the brussel sprout - he called it a "ball."  Then he tried it and ate it all.  I was kind of making a big deal out of him bravely giving it a taste!  I then noticed that Avilene had picked up one of her brussel sprouts and started licking it!  Haha!  She did nibble on it too.  She also ate crackers and tropical fruit.

Hudson was playing with the binoculars that have animal pictures in them.  (Similar to the "viewfinder cameras" from the last play set.)  These binoculars are much easier for the kids to use.  Hudson said, "What's this Gary?"  I told him it was "a moose standing in the water."  Avi want to see and it amused me how she was trying to have a look too!  "I wanna see!  I wanna see!!"

I primarily took this next picture because 3 of the kids were playing with the same toy!  Sometimes it does work to have multiples of the same toy!  We also read books, played outside, and tried some more Art today.  I gave them markers (I like washable markers more than crayons) but out of the 4 kids here today Hudson was the only one to make lots of marks on his paper.  The others were more interested in coloring their hands and sucking on the markers!  Ha!  So we'll try finger painting next!

Here are a couple pictures of Avilene from this morning.  She was really studying the poster and I always think that's so cute.  Speaking of cute, her outfit today is adorable!!  And the last picture; she has been closing her eyes a LOT lately and even a couple of times when she walking and being silly.  I showed Hudson the picture of Avi with her eyes closed and asked him, "What's Avi doing?"  Hudson said, "Rocking the chair."  LOL!  Ok.  She probably was rocking the chair too!

 

Avi - 8/15/2017

Avilene ate half of waffle and ate grapes for breakfast.  I assumed she was happy to see the grapes because she started chanting, "grapes, grapes, grapes...."  For lunch she ate half of baked chicken, no whole grain tortilla, no roasted cabbage, and ate baked cinnamon apples.  At lunch she was saying, "Come on dude, come on dude."  :)

I took this first picture of Hudson and Avilene examining the little stuffed monkey with the white bottom.  Hudson said, "Oh No!!  He's got a tooth skin on his butt!!"  Haha!  What did you say?  He repeated it about 3 times for me, but I couldn't really figure out what he was saying and that's what it sounded like!!  He did point to the white tag hanging from it's butt.

The kids were watching the street sweeper this morning and Hudson said, "He's sweeping the water! (Well they did spray water on the street first!)  We don't do Art Time very often during the summer months, but enjoy going outside when we can.  However, we decided this was a good day to do Art before we went out and I took the next picture of Avi sitting at the table doing some dot painting.  I occasionally move the paper around for her if it looks like she's about to make a hole in the paper.  :)

When we're going outside I'll be holding the door open as the kids walk out and sometimes Nora will stall by doing an "about-face" and head the other way.  So if my arms are full I'll tell her I'm taking the stuff out and will come get her.  Avi must think I'm leaving Nora behind and she doesn't like having Nora inside when the door goes shut.  Today Avi stood there saying, "Nora, Nora, Nora"  I said to Avi, "Hey, Little Mommy!  Are you worried about your Baby?"  That seemed to surprise Bubba!  "Avi a little Mommy?"  Yes.  Haha!  Then in the last picture Avi is holding her shirt down while Nora tries to lift it!  Nora eventually gave up trying and wandered off to something else!

Avi - 8/14/2017

Avilene ate kix cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of turkey burger, ate hamburger bun, no lettuce or tomatoes, ate avocado, and ate cherries.  At breakfast time Avi said, "Hi Gary" 3 or 4 times.  It was so cute.  Last week she was doing that outside; coming up to me randomly saying, "Hi Gary."  Then when I was putting her in the highchair at Lunch time she was saying, "nick nack paddy whack."  That's a book we read here and we probably read it last week.  ("Give the Dog a Bone.)

Our morning was somewhat interrupted when the County Health Nurse came to check my records and see if I had all the children's immunization records up to date.  Everything was good so thank you parents for remembering to bring your child's records after their regularly scheduled immunizations.  The Nurse was preparing to leave when the Food Program Sponsor also made a bi-annual visit to make sure all those records were in order as well!  Two weeks ago the State Licensor from DPHHS was here doing a yearly inspection!!  No deficiencies from any of them so all is good!!  :)  It's not a huge deal if they find something wrong; I just have to come up with a correction plan.  Unless it's something serious of course!!  (For example, I'm not allowed to store the nap mats together and have their bedding touch!  Maybe they don't realize the kids chew on the same toys!  Ha!)  Anyhow, I'm glad that's all over for a year!  It cut into our morning activities a bit, but not too bad BECAUSE:

We did a Toy, book, and Puzzle exchange this weekend and that keeps the kids engaged!  So it was kind of the perfect day for disruptions!!  :)  Avi, Nora, and Hudson were wearing some animal masks and how cute is Avilene in this bear mask!?  I helped her put it on (look at those cute eyes) and then she made some adjustments on it!!  :)

By the way, Avi displayed some "stranger anxiety" this morning that I'd never seen; totally normal and fine, but I'd never seen it from her before.  However, I LOVED it!!  Haha!  She snuggled (laid on my chest) all the time the Health Nurse was here and then the next stranger walked in!  So sorry that was uncomfortable for you Avi, but we NEVER snuggle like that.  In this last picture Hudson and Avi appear to be having a conversation and I'm thinking maybe they're discussing the traffic during the daily commute!  "I could barely get my bike through that busy spot!!"