Avi - 5/9/2019

Avilene ate two servings of whole wheat English muffins and a few bites of oranges for breakfast.  She said, "I don't like these kind of oranges."  I told her that these are super sweet and very good right now!  (Which they are!  At Costco.)  So she tried them and actually ate three or four bites.  For lunch she ate most of ground beef, a large serving of whole wheat elbow noodles, most of peas, and two servings of applesauce.

Avi was standing on the big legos and scooting them along the floor and calling it "skiing."  I asked if she was snow skiing or water skiing.  She thought it was a funny question and that I was just being silly.  (That occasionally happens!!)  So I pulled up a short youtube video of a water skier and everyone thought that looked like fun!!

Next picture; Avi and Atley have been building with the little legos and yesterday Avi said,"I'm going to leave it like this so I can show it to you every day!!"  Sure enough, here it is.

Next two pictures: Here they are building with the same little legos.  There are quite a few very small pieces included in this set and in the last picture Avi found about a dozen "eye balls and eye lashes." Some were stuck in a crack in the bottom of the canister and Avi said,"Hey Gary!!  I can't get the friggin eyeball out of there!!"  LOL!  Oh man I roared!!  And thats' why I'm here Avi; to reach the "hard to get friggin stuff!!"  :)

Avi - 5/8/2019

Avilene ate French toast and two servings of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate paleo stew with meat, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans.  She also ate crackers and two servings of tropical fruit.  So at the Lunch table Avi started quizzing Nora about getting dressed by herself.  "Can you put your shirt on by yourself?"  No answer.  "Can or can't?"  No answer. Repeated this at least three or four times.  Nora finally answered; "This is a dress, not a shirt." LOL!!

These first two pictures were taken outside yesterday afternoon.  Avi, Atley, and Nora were having lots of fun with the new oversized beach balls.  Then I also got some orange construction cones to set up for the kids to run between and around them.  But Avi wanted the hard hats because the cones represented a "work zone!!"  haha!

So this next picture was at the breakfast table and for some reason Avi was pulling on her eyelids.  (Zoom in on this picture!)  She said, "Are you gonna take a picture!?!"  Haha!!  Ok, why not!?!  Last picture: This art picture Avi did this morning obviously represents LOTS of work.  Nice job Avi!  And I'm super impressed how well she stayed in the lines she had drawn!  I asked her to tell me a story about this picture and that was hilarious.  She went on and on about a "little guy walking through the woods" and eventually he was "eaten by a big bear!"  Ok, so maybe you don't find that part "hilarious," but it was funny the way she kept the story going ON and ON because she knew I was getting a kick out of the whole thing!!

Avi - 5/7/2019

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

During Story Time this morning there was a picture of a race car and a checkered flag.  Avi said, "That flag means the race is over."  Wow, you are so right.  I asked, "Who told you that?"  Avi said, "Mickey Mouse." Haha! Very cool.  I thought maybe Momma Molly was watching Nascar again!!  :)

First picture: Avi is just getting started on a tray and this picture is different than the ones she's done before.  Like I've mentioned several times these are magnetic pieces and you make the big picture look like the little picture.  Second picture: Avi and Atley were giving each other "rides" and Avi coaxed Nora into getting a ride. You can tell by Nora's face she's not too enthused and it didn't last long!  Haha!  You can also see that Nora really wasn't "sitting" on Avi, just kind of squatted down.  Avi didn't hardly stop and continued moving too fast for Nora to get situated!!

Last picture:  Atley was here reading books and then Avilene got some of her own books and joined her.  You can see Avi is looking at Atley's book and here's what they were saying.  It's a books about different types of travel.  Looking at this page Atley said, "That's a spaceship."  Avi said, "No actually that's a rocket."  (Because that is what it says in the book and we've read it many times.  Ha!)  Technically there's not much difference, but I stayed out of it!!  Haha!  These two were also talking about going to each other's house.  Atley asked, "What do you have at your house?"  So Avi goes through a long list of toys and their colors; because Atley always asks about the color of everything!! Atley said, "Can I ride your bike?"  Avi said, "Yes, we can share it.  And you have to wear a helmet." Atley asked, "What color is it?!?"  LOL!!

Avi - 5/6/2019

Avilene ate two servings of kix cereal and two servings of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey, whole wheat hamburger bun, avocado, bite of tomato, and ate cherries.

This first picture is kind of silly, but I want to post it because it helps you see the story!  As soon as Avi saw the table she was VERY concerned about the chair arrangement!!  Sylvie had cleaned for us yesterday and she just puts the chairs back in random order which is just fine and wonderful!!  :)  (If somebody will clean for us it's all wonderful!!)  The first thing Avi said, "Is Reid coming today?!?"  No.  Why do you ask that?  Avi started talking about the chairs.  The last time Reid was here I'd put an extra chair beside Atley's chair.  (Like you see in the picture.)  Plus, there is NO chair at the end of the table and that's Avi's spot!!  It was very cute how concerned she was.  Plus, all 3 chairs are a different size and she knew it was all messed up!!  Ha!  So she watched me go rearrange the chairs to their PROPER order and life was all good.

Second picture: Atley was giving Avilene and Svea a ride in the chair.  Notice how Avi has her arm draped around her little sister's neck.  So precious.

We read books and the two older girls did some preschool activities.  When I took this next picture Atley had just asked Avi, "Can you get me (i.e., chase me) with the raccoon?"  And then she took off running. That lasted for a few minutes and then in second picture you can see Avi had grabbed the wolf mask.  Instead of saying, "I'm gonna be the wolf" she said, "I'm gonna be the wolf mask."  :)  Last picture; Again I'm not exactly sure what game they were playing, but Atley had her head on two pillows and Avi had two more pillows around Atley's head.  Anyhow, they were laughing and having fun.

Avi - 5/3/2019

Avilene ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of hamburger stew with meat, carrots, green beans, and tomatoes.  She ate whole wheat dinner roll and apricots.

First picture:  The battery powered cars work so much better on the hardwood floor!  So the three girls, with Avi as the chief negotiator, asked if they could expand their play area to the hallway with the cars.  Ok, and we set up a couple of boundaries for them.  One primary rule - keep the cars away from the stairway!  Of course one took a tumble and Avi said, "It went down the stairs all by itself!!"  Haha!  Of course it did.  Stinking self-driving cars!!  :)

Second picture; Avi hooking together some "chain link" pieces and she managed to get lots of them clumped together.  It was pretty cute because she was doing her own thing, but at the same time keeping an eye on what Nora was working on and giving her helpful hints as well.  (Some hints accepted, some hints rejected!!)  She also strung lots of little beads and did some more building with the legos.  And consequently Atley has been working hard today building with the legos too!

Last picture: This is pretty much the same picture as yesterday; same activity.  This is not as easy as it may look and there is lots of "details work!"  Which she is very good at!  I love her observations too. If you zoom in on the person on the other side the fence (under the sun) Avi said, "I bet that's a neighbor!!"  I bet you're right Avi!!

Avi - 5/2/2019

Avilene ate half of French toast and most of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of pulled pork, ate whole wheat toast, peas, and ate her strawberries.  Here's a conversation between Avi and Atley at the lunch table:  Avi said, "Sylvie big performance coming up tomorrow!  Are you going Atley!?!?"  Atley said, "Yes I wanna go."  Avi said, "Well you can't talk!  You gotta whisper-talk!"  Then after additional thinking Avi said, "We can't walk around."  Atley said, "We can't walk around?!?"  Avi said, "No."  Atley; "Why not?"  Avi; "Then they can't play the music."  :)

First picture: Avi and Atley were watching Lauralea do some testing with Linnea, but I wanted to show you Avi's pant leg still pulled up!  Avi had showed everyone else her wounds from crashing on the sidewalk, but she wasn't about to cover up the 2 bandaids on her knee before Nora got to see them!!  "I wanna show them to Nora!"  Ok.  And when Nora arrived she didn't disappoint Avi; she got down on the floor and carefully scrutinized and examined the wounded area.  :)

Last two pictures: This is a new magnetic puzzle activity we recently picked up.  She's trying to make the "big" picture look like the "little" picture.  I believe there are 4 different pictures to choose from. This is NOT an easy activity and there are lots of small pieces, but Avi kept working and kept working at it and I'd assist her a little bit when I had a free moment.  She must have stuck with it for close to 30 minutes!!  One time she was yelling, "Hey Gary! I need some help! Hey Gary! I need some help!"  Callahan was hungry and his milk was almost done warming up for me to feed him.  I said, "Hey Avi! Do you hear that baby screaming!?!"  She cupped her hand behind her ear as if to help her hear better!!  Haha!  I roared because that was really funny!!

Avi - 5/1/2019

Avilene ate three servings of whole wheat toast and ate a large serving of mangoes for breakfast.  It was after 11:00 when I realized we'd forgotten to cook the spaghetti noodles for lunch!!  Ooops!  So we had more toast!  However that gave everyone something to talk about at lunch!  Over and over! And over!   "They forgot to cook the noodles!!"  "They forgot to cook the noodles!"  "Gary, you forgot to cook the noodles."  For lunch she ate ground beef with marinara sauce, whole wheat toast, bites of cauliflower, and half of fruit salad.

As I've mentioned many many times in Atley's Blog she will look at books and sing random songs that frequently have nothing to do with the book.  This time it was "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" and Avilene noticed this time and it was bugging her.  Avi said something like, "That is not a bear."  Atley acted like she never heard, or at the least didn't care, and just kept on singing.  Which also bugged Avi!!  :)  "Atley, that is not a bear!"

Next picture: I just thought it was cute how Linnea was sitting on the couch along with Avi and reading books.  I don't know if you can see it in the picture - well you can if you zoom in close - but Linnea's got her book upside-down.  I posted a picture yesterday just like this one and it's interesting how they'll do identical things for a day or two, then go days before they might revisit the same activity again.

Last picture - I announced doing some sign language and this is what they do.  All sit on the window step and wait for the signing to start!!  Avilene knows all the signs of course and gets them right every time.  Notice how Svea was "backing up" to the step, but her "backing up skills" need some work!  She was about to plop on Linnea's lap!  Haha!!