Avi - 10/31/2019

Avilene ate half of toasted whole wheat English muffin and no oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, two servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate peas, and ate applesauce.

This first note is from yesterday afternoon and Atley spotted an icicle hanging off the garage.  She said, "Is that a wind chime on the garage."  Haha!  I told her what it was and she said, "I wanna eat it! I really do!!"  When Daddy Andy came he grabbed it (he's MUCH taller than me! haha!!) and split it in half for Avi and Atley.  Thanks Andy!!

Avi did lots of activities and played in the preschool area.  We moved the preschool toy shelf about 3 feet and the room feels so much bigger and they have more room for their activities.  In this first picture she is playing with the doll house and all the numerous accessories.

Next picture: This particular tray has several bolts and nuts to choose from and figure out which ones match!!  Last picture:  Working on a puzzle again.  I'm going puzzle shopping this weekend and find some with the same level of difficulty and slightly harder.  She has worked hard to master these particular ones so I want to continue to challenge her.  :)

Avi - 10/30/2019

Avilene ate half of french toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate three servings of whole 30 chili with meat, peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, tomato sauce, cauliflower, and spices.  She also ate one cracker and three servings of tropical fruit.  She ate a LOT of food at lunch!!  :)  It takes a lot of fuel to keep her high powered motor running!

First picture: "Will you snuggle me Gary, will you snuggle me!?!"  :)  So of course snuggling with Avi frequently becomes silliness so we started doing some selfies.  :)

Next picture; Well you don't see Avi in this picture, BUT Avi, Linnea, and Svea were all still in the igloo. Callahan came over to see what they were doing.  When Callahan stood directly in front of the exit Atley felt trapped and was trying to get out of there in a hurry and kept saying to Callahan, "Watch out, watch out, watch out!!"  She yelled to me; "Gary!!  Callahan not watching out!!" Ha!

Last two pictures; Avi was working hard at different preschool activities and still wearing her catboy suit of course.  She didn't remove it until right before nap to go potty and then forgot to put it back on for nap.  Haha!

Avi - 10/29/2019

Avilene had no waffle and three servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, whole wheat tortillas, two servings of corn, and three servings of applesauce.

First picture:  Avi was working with the halloween goop!  (Whatever it's called! Ha!)  There are four different colors and she did the black one first.  You can see the skeleton picture directly in front of her right hand and the skeleton she made on the right side of the picture.  The kids have had lots of fun with this activity.

Next picture:  They also did some stickers and taping as well.  The tape has a halloween theme.  I don't think any of the stickers do, but they didn't care or notice!  Haha!

Last picture:  This was shortly before Lunch time and Avi still has her headband on.  Or whatever it was meant to be!  This was the first time Avilene tried doing this puzzle and she asked me to help her.  So I sat beside her for most of it and gave a couple of hints, but I really did nothing!  This is another of the harder puzzles - 26 pieces - and she smoked it!!  As you can see it's numbers one through nine.  I love how active and awesome her mind works!  What a sharp kid.  So fun to have her here!!

Avi - 10/28/2019

Avilene ate two servings of kix cereal and ate mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey, whole wheat hamburger bun, bites of tomato, no avocado, and three servings of cherries.  At breakfast Atley asked Avi, "Do you love your sister?"  And of course the answer was "yes."  Atley said, "I love Svea too."  Well you know what happened next; an argument about who loves Svea more!!  They were stretching their arms as wide as they could; "this much, this much, this much!!"

Here's a leftover note from snack on Friday afternoon.  We had English muffins and blueberries.  In the middle of snack Avi said, "Hey Gary, I've got juice on my foot, juice on the floor, and blueberry on the floor."  Haha!  Thank you for the heads-up Avi!  You're pretty much batting a thousand!!

Here's a note from the weekend that hit my funny bone!  We were sitting at a traffic light and the personalized license plate read, "bat-girl."  Lauralea said, "Isn't that what Avi is gonna be for halloween?"  Haha!  No, but close.  She's gonna be "cat-boy!!"

First picture: Avi was playing with the camera and trying to do a selfie.  (Not a phone camera so she had to hold the camera out in front of her.)  She got it out there, but had the camera upside-down!  Haha!  Next picture:  Avi built this using just the smaller block pieces.  She called it her "bridge."  Several minutes later Linnea was walking on it and said, "Your bridge is really neat."  Ha!  I loved that!  And so did Avilene!!  She said, "Linnea said my bridge is neat!!"  Haha!!

 

Avi - 10/25/2019

Svea and Avi ate breakfast before they came.  For lunch Avilene ate hamburger stew with meat, carrots, green beans, and tomatoes.  She also ate whole wheat dinner roll and apricots.  I was impressed with how she served herself the stew at lunch.  She took a very small serving and then tested it and liked it.  So she helped herself to a regular sized serving.  Good work Avilene.

Speaking of "good work" check these first two pictures!!  This is one of the 25 piece puzzles that I introduced to Avi and Atley yesterday.  She said, "I can do this without any help!!"  And she did it 100% by herself.  You can see in the top picture what the puzzle looks like and she worked hard at it. As a matter of fact, she did it two times.  :)  In case you haven't realized it yet, she's a pretty sharp kid!  Haha!!

Next picture; Avi was reading this book about dinosaurs.  She said, "Hey Gary, look what she's doing!!  She's squirting out the dinosaur toothpaste!"  Haha!  And she was right.

Last picture - Avilene thought it was pretty cool when Cal started holding his own bottle.  This is kind of like "auto-pilot" for babies.  :)  Avi said, "Hey Gary, he can feed himself now."  :)

Avi - 10/24/2019

Avilene ate two servings of French toast (That was after she saying she didn't want any French toast.)  and two servings of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of pulled pork, no whole wheat toast, no peas, and a few strawberries.  She was tired and just wanted to go to bed!!  She was asleep before some of the kids were done eating lunch!!

Avi sneezed, but nobody was quick to "bless her" so she just took care of it herself!!  "Bless Me."  Haha!  That made me laugh.  First picture:  The girls are building with the same foam blocks you saw in a picture from yesterday's Blog.  Avi asked Atley, "Will you help me make a halloween decoration?"  That was followed by Avi overwhelming Atley with directions and instructions!!  Haha!

Avi found one of the harder puzzles I just got for the girls to work with as they get older.  This one has 25 pieces and no picture on the back board.  As you can see Lauralea was helping her and giving her pointers on how to successfully get it done.  Especially getting the border pieces done.  We set it aside during breakfast, but eventually she completed it with minimal help from me.  I was very proud of Avi for sticking with it and working hard!!

Last picture:  This is an "Olaf 1 2 3" book.  Look how she's concentrating on this page.  She's finding the things they're counting such as; "7 icicles."  "5 Christmas Trees."

Avi - 10/23/2019

Avilene ate two servings of whole wheat toast and ate a large serving of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of ground beef with marinara sauce on two servings of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate bites of riced cauliflower, and ate fruit salad.  During breakfast the conversation went like this;  Atley said, "I had a sucker on the way."  Avi asked, "What was it?"  Atley said, "Red."  Avi said, "NOOOO!!! What flavor?!?"  Atley said, "Tomato."  LOL!!  Now that hit my funny bone.
I took this first picture at breakfast.  Maybe you've seen this at home, but this is how Avi has been eating her toast for the past few weeks here.  First thing, she eats the crust off all the way around bread.  :)

Here are some pictures from the morning activities.  First picture; These foam blocks are pretty nice and the girls have been creating and doing lots of nice work with them.  Then of course you have to experiment with them in other ways!!  Following picture;  Avi and Svea had the chair going pretty fast.  Linnea was repeating; "Go fast, go fast, go fast."  Last picture:  We built some steps using all of the blocks.  Avi was perched up there and said, "I'm watching the football game. I'm watching the football game.  Go Griz."

Avi - 10/22/2019

Avilene ate most of whole wheat bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of shrimp, a large serving of brown rice, ate stir fry vegetables, and two servings of raspberries.

Hey, I just thought of this!  If anyone has any old Digital cameras you no longer use, we could use two or three more.  I have a couple old phones, but the actual digital cameras work so much better for this age group.  They'll push the button on this old iPhone and get a "burst" of LOTS of pictures.  I think the record is somewhere close to 160!!  Haha!

First picture: Atley and Avi were pounding nails in the blocks of wood yesterday afternoon.  They both enjoy doing this and will keep going until their arms get tired.  As I've mentioned before this wood is perfect for this activity - very soft - and they can have lots of success.  (So soft in fact that I can drive a nail with one hit!)  And the hammers are stubby, but very sturdy so that helps too.  Avi drove several of the nails with 4 hits!  She was swinging hard!  And accurately!

Also from yesterday afternoon outside the girls were "having a party."  I asked, "What are you guys doing?"  Atley said, "We're having a lemon party."  Avi said, "no, it's a juice party."  Haha!!  Then I called Callahan a "person."  Avilene said, "NO!!  He's a boy!!"  Haha!  Also, from yesterday Atley had told her Mom and Dad last night "we had a snake at Gary's house."  (She had them convinced.) I asked Avi about the "snake" from yesterday.  Avi said it was a "dead worm."  (That was my guess.)  She said she "threw it into the grass."  Atley said, "That was a good problem!"  LOL!!  Translation:  "That was a good way to solve the problem!"

Here are some Pictures from this morning!!

Avi - 10/21/2019

Avilene ate half of her bran cereal and no raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of chicken, bite of whole wheat pita bread, ate avocado, bite of tomatoes, and ate pears.

First picture; Avi asked if she could feed Callahan his morning bottle.  Cal is such a mellow little guy; he doesn't really care who feeds him at Daycare.  Avi, Atley, and Nora all take turns feeding him.  After she was done feeding him Avi asked if I'd snuggle her.  So she was on my lap and it was like part jungle gym, part wrestling match, and constant movement!  About that time I had to take Linnea potty.  Avilene said, "When you come back will you snuggle me some more!?"  Haha!  I said, "That is not exactly what I call snuggling."  LOL!!

Next picture:  We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and like always everyone stayed busy.  We have some cameras out in this toy exchange for the preschool kids and Avi was taking a picture of Atley; "Can I take a picture of your cape?"  (She's wearing a Superman cape)  Avi was wanting to take it from the back view to get the Superman (Supergirl) Symbol!  So there were more instructions/orders!!  "Now turn around!"  "Now move your ponytail out of the way!!"  "Now don't walk."  And Atley was cooperating - for the most part.  :)

This next picture makes me laugh!  Atley was reading/singing and combining two songs;  "Mary Mary, her gently down the stream."  I love how Avi looked over there at Atley's book!  "What the heck kind of book are you reading!?!"  :)  Last picture: They had fun playing with the potato heads and all the accessories!!  You've seen pictures of these before, but I'm still proud of the box full of these that we found at a Garage Sale - just across the street.  :)  For $25!!  And they are in super good condition.

Avi - 10/18/2019

Avilene ate a large serving of cream of wheat cereal and ate her dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she had one big bite of Shepherd's Pie with meat, potatoes, green beans, and carrots.  She ate whole wheat tortillas, and ate her cherries.  As I've mentioned several times frequently I hear questions at meal times like Avi asked today: "Gary, where do cherries come from?"  From cherry trees just like apples come from apple trees.  Avi said, "Just like pears and meatballs!"  Haha!  Yes for pears, but only in our silly books do meatballs grow on trees.  I then asked, "So where do meatballs come from?"  Atley said, "Books."  :)

Atley was aiming her question at me, but Avi was MORE than ready and happy to answer!!  Atley was proud of the legos she built and asked, "Can I take this home?"  Avi said, "NO."  Atley; "Why not?"  Avi; "Because it's Gary's."  Atley; "Well, can I make it another day?"  Avi; "Yes you can do that."  I'll just sit back and let Avi run the show here.  :)

Here are some pictures from this morning's activities.  Atley, Avi, and Svea are the only kids here today.  So it was similar to yesterday when the two older girls chose to play with Svea and included her in everything.  Thank you Avi and Atley; that was very sweet.  I'm not sure what they were doing in the first picture, besides squishing Avi, but Atley was more than happy to be on top!  Second picture; In the legos drawer and in the third picture she has a "tower" she built and wanted me to take a picture and show it to her "Mom and Dad."  Last picture; Coloring - and she worked HARD at it.  She said she's gonna continue to work on it after nap and snack.

Avi - 10/17/2019

Avilene had no waffle and ate two servings of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate baked beef kabobs with meat, zucchini, pineapple, and peppers.  She also ate brown rice and two servings of pineapple on the side.

Avi and Atley were at the window waving bye to Daddy Andy and Atley said, "He's driving a new truck!"  That set off an immediate and sharp rebuke from Avi!!  NO HE ISN'T!!  Haha!  Here's a quote from Avi: "Hey Gary! Fall is when the leaves fall and fall is when people fall."  Haha!!

Here are some pictures from this morning's activities.  Linnea is not here today or tomorrow and Svea played lots with Avi and Atley.  Avi made sure Svea was included in everything they did!  First picture; They were burying Avi on the couch.  You can see a piece of Avi's legs; her pants have stars on them.  Next picture: Atley and Avi were doing a "standing broad jump" and both of them pretty easily cleared the two rows of blocks.  Well done girls!!

Avi and Atley were playing all kinds of creative games this morning and here are some of them; Pretending to sleep, pretending to be sharks, playing lots of variations of "chase," piggyback rides, and camping,  The camping was funny because it was primarily riding in the car to head for the camping area.  Haha!  Two of them would sit in the chair and the third person would push the chair around and around; while the two riders yelled to go "faster, faster, faster!!!"  But they did eventually get to the camping spot and then it was all about sleeping!  (See last picture.)

Avi - 10/16/2019

Avilene ate a bite of French toast and two servings of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of whole 30 chili with meat, tomatoes, tomato sauce, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and lots of spices.  She also ate whole wheat dinner roll and tropical fruit.

Yesterday afternoon outside;  I saw two men walking down the sidewalk and one was very very tall.  The red fence at the sidewalk in exactly 6 feet high and we could see all of his head above the fence. I think I may have said something like, "Wow."  Avilene said, "Wow!! His head is bigger than the fence!!"  :)

This first picture is also from yesterday afternoon outside.  We can call this the "late summer, early fall bug harvest!!"  Ha! They LOVE capturing all the bugs they can find.

Next picture:  Atley and Avi were putting some "fall themed" tape on their papers.  Following picture;  I introduced a new game to the girls called "Farmyard Bingo."  There are several different ways to play and they said they really liked it.  Last picture;  Now they're both wearing lion suits.  Atley was the "Daddy" lion and Avi the "Mommy" lion.  They were talking like this; "Daddy, do you want to get all the legos out?"  "No thank you Mommy."  And on and on and on.  :)

Avi - 10/15/2019

Avilene ate whole wheat English muffin and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork chop, two servings of whole wheat toast, ate beets, and applesauce.   Lunch conversation: Avilene said, "Pass the pork."  Atley; "What is that; meat?"  "Yes."  Some of you may recall a lunch conversation a few months ago about where pork comes from.  (They had no idea.)  So here we go again: I asked, "Where does pork come from?"  Avi nailed it first time; "Pig."  Yes, good job.  Atley looked at other food on her plate and asked, "Does beets come from ducks?!?"  Uhhh.....no.  I roared; that was too cute and funny.  So later Atley asked, "Does bread come from owls?"  Haha!

First picture: Linnea said she wanted some water so Avi was serving the water.  Linnea was sitting in the designated "water drinking spot" waiting.  Thank you Avi!!  I just looked closely at this picture and noticed how Avi is holding Linnea's bottle; right by the mouth piece.  Ha!  Not the most sanitary thing!!  Second picture; Avi asked if she could feed Callahan again.

Here are some activities Avi was doing in the preschool room.  First was the "dance challenge" game. And she's even calling it by the right name now!!  :)  Second picture - we were laying out strings of beads of various lengths and measuring them.  And we found one that was the exact same width as the table.  Last picture: Avi did well with this activity; identifying the numbers and counting the objects and putting them together.  (Numbers 1 - 10)  Well done Avilene.

Avi - 10/14/2019

Avilene ate whole wheat Chex cereal and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, whole wheat hamburger bun, no tomato, bite of avocado, and no oranges.  At the lunch table Avi and Atley were making their eyes cross and it looked pretty weird!  Atley said, "I have a mirror in my eyes."  Haha!  That's a first; never heard that one before!  :)

Atley was running on and through the blocks and of course she crashed.  She immediately started howling and Avilene immediately said, "Gary!!  I didn't do anything to her!!"  (That's true; I saw it all.)  Atley confirmed Avi's statement by mournfully and tearfully saying, "I did it all by myself."  Haha!

Here are some pictures from Avi's morning.  One of the first things she did was put on the lion suit.  Then she was laying under the blue balance beam waiting for the others to be done with breakfast.  She invited/coaxed/begged Svea to join her under there when Svea finished her breakfast.

Atley was on the igloo about to jump and said, "I'm gonna fly today!!"  Haha!  And sure enough she flew right off the igloo with a picture to prove it!  Avi, of course had to do it as well.  Last picture;  We were playing with some "slime" (I don't know what it's called.)  and trying to follow the pictures.  That's pretty good Avi.  The kids also asked to do some gluing.