Avi - 4/11/2019

Avilene ate most of whole wheat English muffin and no oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of ground beef, a large serving of whole wheat elbow noodles smothered with a large serving of applesauce, and she ate half of her peas.

Avi was on the couch beside me; feet on the floor and face-down on the couch.  I was patting her back and she said, "Are you trying to burp me?"  Haha!  That made me laugh!!  So of course we went into the whole baby thing; "burp little baby, burp little baby!  oh I love my Avi baby!"

Speaking of babies, the three oldest girls were pushing the stroller (with Callahan aboard) up and down the hallway again.  Right after breakfast I was at the refrigerator putting milk away and out of the corner of my eye I spotted the stroller go zooming (zooming might be a slight exaggeration) go zooming by without a person hanging on to the handles!!  Haha!  Dang!!  I said, "Avi, we can't just give it a big shove and let it go!!"  :)

Here's some conversation between Avi and Atley this morning:  Avi said, "I have a phone Sylvie gave me."  Atley; "I have a phone too."  Avi; "What color is your phone?"  Atley; "Purple.  What color is your's?"  Avi; "Blue.  And it has an Apple on the back."  (excellent choice Avi)  Atley; "Can I come to your house?"  Avi; "Yes."  Atley; "What color is your house?"  Avi; "Hmmm...Lots of colors. Now talk to your Mom about coming to my house!!"  :)

Pictures from this morning:  First - Avi said, "Ok everyone!! I'm putting on a BIG show!!"  Ha!  Second picture:  While looking through the binoculars Avi said, "I love you Svea!"  (That was cute!!)  Last picture: Avi's expression!!  "Hmmm...I wonder if I'm busted for sitting on Atley's back!?!"  Actually Atley said, "Avi, sit on me!!"  :)

Avi - 4/10/2019

Avilene ate two servings of French toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate most of hearty paleo stew with meat, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potatoes, green beans, and carrots.  She also ate half of crackers and half of tropical fruit.

First picture:  Avi was doing some drawing on this sketch board.  (Whatever it's called.)  She said, "Hey Gary!  I made smiley face!"  And brought it over for me to see.  Wow!  You sure did and I'm impressed Avi.  I love it!  Then Avi added; "That's a girl."  Very nice.

Next picture: I've mentioned "hide-n-seek" several times in the past, but here we go again.  Nora agreed to some "hide-n-seek" with Avi and that game at this age is quite entertaining!!  So here's what's happening in the picture: Avi is helping Nora get well hidden!  Of course Avi is also going to be the one searching for Nora.  So that's handy.  Avi got her wrapped up pretty well with the dress-up clothes and then retreated around the corner.  Avi was back very quickly; "found you!"  :)

Last picture: Avi was wanting to create something with the legos.  Linnea and Svea joined her and kept offering her more legos.  Notice how close Svea's "offering" is to Avi's face.  I don't know what you see at home, but I'm impressed that Avi rarely gets impatient with her sister in situations like this. She just goes with it and if someone else complains Avi always says, "She's just a baby!"  Another note: We were singing "5 Little Speckled Frogs" and counting down.  After the last frog jumped into the pool Avi said, "Now it's zero."  Very good Avi.

Avi - 4/9/2019

Avilene ate waffle and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of chicken, bites of whole wheat tortillas, half of corn, and ate baked cinnamon apples.

This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  Lauralea was doing some "testing" with the kids for their developmental check list.  It's hard for the others to be silent when it's NOT their turn to answer!  (Good practice for them!)  I LOVE the look on Avi's face in this picture!  Totally interested and listening to what Lauralea is showing her.  Shortly after I took this picture Lauralea asked Nora, "When do we go outside?"  Well, Nora knows the answer because she's always talking about going outside "after we wake up from nap."  But it was being asked in a different way - which is part of the testing! Finally Nora just pointed across the table at Atley and said, "I want Atley to know!"  Hahaha!  Translated as; "ask her, not me!"

Lauralea has been trying to get Avi to tell her a "story" that Avi is familiar with!  She asked Avi, "What's your favorite movie?"  (And then have her "retell" it.)  Avi thought about it for several seconds and said, "Uhhh...we need to get the Internet!!"  LOL!  That made me laugh!  Yes, you need to join the 21st Century!!

A couple pictures from this morning's activities:  I was being goofy and trying to make Avi laugh while she was watching me in the mirror!  It worked!!  I've got lots of experience at acting goofy!  :)  What a wonderful smile you have Avilene!!  Avi and Atley were also playing their version of hide-n-seek. They were helping each other "hide" and taking turns finding each other.  They were actually doing a pretty good job of covering up with the dress-up clothes!

Avi - 4/8/2019

Avilene ate kix cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey, most of whole wheat hamburger bun, no tomatoes, ate avocados, and ate her cherries.  I was cleaning up the lunch table and "recording" what the kids had eaten.  I asked Avi, "Did you have a bite of tomatoes?"  She said, "I was."  Haha!  Which I will literally translate as "No."  Nice try Avi, but you don't get a point for intention!!  :)

This isn't just about Avi, but the three oldest girls were watching me change Callahan.  Nora is always saying something about Callahan having a penis when I'm changing him, but today was funny!  I was changing him and Nora said, "Does the little guy have a penis?"  Yes he does Nora.  So Atley asks, "Does Callahan have a "PEE-NUT-US?"  Haha!  (Three syllables with the best pronunciation!!)

Here are some pictures from Avi's morning:  I mentioned in Svea's Blog how Avi was following her around and doing what you see in the first picture.  Both of the girls were having fun!!  Second picture: The three older girls were taking turns pushing Callahan in the stroller; helping me keep him happy!!  Basically me using child labor!!  :)  When Avi was pushing the stroller I reminded her to slow down.  (She was basically running down the hallway with him!)  I said, "Don't see how fast you can go!"  And Avi responded as I expected, "Why not!?!"  Haha!!

Last two pictures; Avi was working on some activities in the preschool room.  The first one is threading (or "sewing") some clothes on the little girl.  Last picture; Avi was doing another "threading" activity with some different shapes.  She's using all ball shapes this time.

Avi - 4/5/2019

Avilene ate brown rice and a few raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger stew with meat, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes.  She also ate two servings of whole wheat dinner roll and two servings of apricots.  So at breakfast the three table girls (Atley, Avi, Nora) were talking about "bandaids" for at least 10 minutes!  Atley and Avi both have bandaids this morning and Nora was chiming in about an old bandaid experience of some kind.  Finally Nora decided to whip out the trump card: "You can't eat my chocolate chip!!"  Haha!  Apparently the chocolate chip is presently used to wash down her antibiotic!!  :)

I have some pictures left over from yesterday afternoon when Reid was hanging out with the kids again.  They love it and, not surprisingly, he likes being the "big dog" too!!  His Momma Lesley came earlier yesterday than he wanted and he said, "You gotta be kidding me!!"  Haha!  She actually came right after I took the first picture and Reid was wanting to do chalk outside with the kids.  Second picture: The three oldest ones did some chalk; except Nora didn't last more than a couple of minutes.  However, when I asked, "Who made this beautiful H?"  Atley, Avi, and Nora yelled in unison, "I did, I did, I did!!"  Haha!  Ok, never mind!!  That was a silly question!!  :)

Next picture is also from outside yesterday.  The three amigos were on the geo-climber together.  Avi got off and said, "I did it better!"  Ha!  I'm not sure what determined that, but they were all pretty sure they each did it better of course!!  Last picture: This morning they were playing in the preschool room with different games and activities, reading books, and we also sang songs and did some sign language.  I'm occasionally adding a new sign now too.

Avi - 4/4/2019

Avilene ate two servings of French toast and ate dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef with marinara sauce over whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate cauliflower, and fruit salad.

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when Reid was here and he'll be here again today.  He was showing off his handiwork (displayed on his legs) to his mesmerized and adoring viewers; Avi, Nora, and Atley.  :)  He called these "melty beads."  So I looked on amazon and sure enough there they are.  (Little plastic beads and you can make all kinds of shapes and designs, then "melt" them together with an iron.  The thought of Reid with an iron scares me!!)  Reid has always made me laugh and here's a zinger from yesterday that you may like - even though it doesn't have anything to do with the little kids.  As soon as he arrived he said, "I bet you be wondering why I'm wearing so much neon!!"  No, I bet I not be wondering!!  I didn't notice.  Haha!  He said, "It's Neon Day at school!  So much neon it was hurting my eyes!!"  Ha!

Next picture: Avi said, "Hey Atley, you wanna make something with the pillow!?"  THEN, she didn't want Atley to touch it!!  Uhh...that's not acceptable, you invited your friend to join you so she gets to touch it too!  Avi totally accepted that with a good attitude and it was all fine.

Avi has been super cooperative the past few days letting me put a ponytail in her hair.  Her hair is getting long!!  I pretty sure her hair hanging in her eyes bugs me way more than it bugs her, but she's been letting me fix it!!  Last two pictures - She did lots of activities in the preschool room from puzzles to sorting to stringing beads.

Avi - 4/3/2019

Avilene ate three servings of whole wheat toast and a large serving of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pulled pork, whole wheat toast, peas, and strawberries.  So for you observant types that noticed whole wheat toast for breakfast AND whole wheat toast for lunch here's the reason!!  Haha!  Our menu is set up to not have repeating breads or anything else in the same day.  However, we switched Wednesday's Lunch with Thursday's lunch, so there you have it!!  :)  And I won't bore you with the reason for that switch!!

I was in the kitchen getting lunch on the plates and Nora started howling and screaming frantically like the apocalypse had settled in at Little Treasures!!  She was standing in the center of the mattress, no one around her, and no one else even on the mattress!!  What the heck is she screaming about!?! "A BUG, A BUG!"  Where?  "THERE!!  THERE!!  THERE!!"  I finally spotted it with the help of Avi and Atley and it was a stinking house fly walking across the side window!  I managed to subdue the beast and that satisfied Nora.

We've been able to start going outside in the afternoons and the kids are LOVING it!!  Avilene totally LOVES outside time.  I will occasionally post pictures from the previous afternoon and here are some from yesterday.  First picture:  Again, it makes me laugh when Nora is being the "work horse."  Haha!  She pulled Avi and Atley for several minutes much to their delight!!  Second picture - Avi sticking her head through a hole!!  Haha!  "Look at me Gary!!"

Last picture: Atley and Avilene were having a blast playing the "grab my tail" game.  It was hilarious.  Avi kept saying, "Grab my tail Atley, grab my tail!!"  So Atley would grab it and away they'd go!!  Sometimes Avi would sprint around in circles with Atley chasing her.  Then they were jumping off the balance beam and doing lots of laughing!