Avi - 10/07/2020

Avilene ate whole wheat toast and mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch: So I forgot to make the whole wheat spaghetti noodles before lunch - dang it - so we'll have those noodles tomorrow and we had tomorrow's bread today.  And it was whole wheat bread and I toasted it.  Haha.  They all (almost all) like toast so it's not a big deal.  As long as the Food Monitor (or Lauralea) doesn't find out I served the same thing twice in the same day and scold me!!  Haha.  Avi ate three servings of ground beef with marinara sauce, ate whole wheat toast, no cauliflower, and ate fruit salad. 

Here's a note leftover from yesterday afternoon outside.  Avilene observed the parachute on the patio bench and she said, "Lauralea didn't fold this one up very good this time!!"  LOL!!  Full disclosure Avi; I folded (wadded it up) it this time.  Lauralea did it once and Avi was SO impressed when she saw it.  She said, "WOW! Look at the parachute."  Yes, Lauralea just can't help it Avi; it has to be done the "right" way!!  I always tease Lauralea AFTER she's done whenever she helps me clean up.  "Look how neatly those trucks are all lined up!!"  :)

Avi spent a large portion of her morning doing art work.  I love how hard the Preschool kids are working at their art and the stories they tell about what they're drawing.  In the second picture - Atley brought this out to the Daycare Room to show me and said, "Gary, look at my airplane."  Very cool.  Nice work with your scissors Atley.  Things got interesting in the third picture;  As soon as Avi and Nora saw Atley's airplane they wanted her to make them one too!!  Atley said, "All my friends want me to build an airplane!!"  This age group can ALWAYS find something to argue about.  If you can look at the third picture and can guess what they're arguing about you win the grand prize for October.  (The prize has not yet been determined, but I'm sure it will be grand!!)  The problem here;  The duplication of the airplane apparently could only be made in ONE color: PINK.  Now in the art cabinet directly beside Atley there are multiple choices of color.  Avi was adamant; "You HAVE to build me an airplane in the color I ask you to."  Nope, that's not happening.  :)  As you already know we work more on social skills and problem solving than anything else.  :)  Last picture:  Avi did some cool work with her scissors too!!  Long snake out of one piece of paper.  I didn't teach her how to do this; did you?  She just kept cutting and cutting.

Avi - 10/06/2020

Just an FYI for everyone; I had a doctor appointment this morning and Lauralea covered for me.  So the Blogs will be much shorter and fewer pictures.  (Unless I have pictures left over from yesterday afternoon.)  I primarily went to the doctor today for a second opinion and reassurance that what I'm doing is on the right track.  And I got the reassurance I was looking for.  I do have another appointment on Thursday and Lauralea will cover for me again - thanks so much Lauralea!!  

Avilene ate blueberry bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  I didn't ask Lauralea to keep notes while I was gone, but she told me something cute about Lunch.  The table kids, Avilene, Atley, Nora, and Svea put their rice in the raspberry juice and everyone told me they liked the "pink rice."  Haha.  

I got a couple pictures of Avi before I left.  In the first picture she's checking out the new cars I found at Costco this past weekend.  They are really cool little cars and they zoom forward after you pull them backward and then let them go.  Second picture:  Sometime between these two pictures Avi said she needed her jacket because she was cold.  Nora, pushing the chair opposite of Avi, also has her hoodie up, but I think it was for a different reason that had nothing to do with the cold.  (Something about making a fashion statement. Haha.)  Look at Cal's face;  he was loving this 'chair ride' so much!!

Avi - 10/02/2020

Avilene ate cream of wheat cereal and most of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork roast, two servings of whole wheat toast, ate beets, and applesauce.   

This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  This is a daily activity when we go outside.  Look for bugs!!  And the kids are crazy for bugs.  For whatever reason the end of the garage where they are looking has always been a "hot spot" for the bugs.  The second picture is also left over from yesterday afternoon.  Avi found this spot to sit and I asked her what she was doing;  "I'm going to be a statue for my Mom."  Haha.  And she sat there for at least 20 until Callahan's Mom came.  Her skeleton costume cracked me up.  And she wore that thing ALL day long.

Atley was standing on the igloo shining one of the flashlights around and Avilene was chasing the beam wherever Atley shined it.  It reminded me of kittens and how they will chase the light beam.  They (especially Atley) were laughing so hard.  Next picture;  The three big girls were playing with the Doll Houses; including the newest one.  Following picture:  They also spent lots of time doing different kinds of Art that's available in this exchange.  Last picture:  I took this picture because Avi doesn't often just lay, but Svea asked her to lay here so Avi managed several minutes before she ran off to another activity.  

Avi - 10/01/2020

Avilene ate half of waffle and three servings of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey, bites of whole wheat tortillas, ate sweet potatoes, and three servings of cherries.  

During Story Time we read a book with a "unicycle" in it.  Several times I've told them what this type of cycle is called.  So I asked, "Does any remember what this cycle is called?"  I totally loved Avi's four syllable answer!  Phonetically it sounded like this;  "tri-sick-lee-er."  It was so cute.  Good try Avi.

This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  These two were up watching a diaper change and Avi happened to look in the mirror.  There are certain places in the room where the mirror distorts the image and that's what Avi saw!  She said, "Hey Nora!!  Look in that mirror!!"  Look at Nora's focus.  

Pictures from Avi's morning:  So Avi came in the skeleton suit and eating, going potty, whatever....it was all a challenge!!  :)  But she kept wearing it regardless!!  It's pretty funny because I can't see her face and I read the children's face a lot!!  So here she is at breakfast.  Then jumping off the igloo; the suit obviously didn't slow her down a bit.   She got on the floor beside Miles and kind of in his face.  He just grinned and kept right on playing with his legos.  Haha.  He's focused and not about to be alarmed by a silly skeleton on the loose!!  Later, she put him on her lap and you can see that did not bother him too much either.  Last picture: And then on to Callahan and it didn't bother him either.  

Avi - 9/30/2020

Avilene and Svea arrived about 9:30 and Avi said they had cereal for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two large servings of Whole 30 Chili with meat, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, tomato sauce, peppers, and spices.  She ate whole wheat dinner roll and a large serving of tropical fruit.  At breakfast Nora said, "I love it when it snows and gets in the trees."  Avi said, "Yes, but if it's yellow snow you can't eat it because it's dog pee."  Haha. 

This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon when we ventured out on a very short "field trip." Ha.  Across the street and three houses down on Rainbow Drive they have their yard full of halloween decorations.  Everyone listened very well - "either that or we're heading back immediately" -  but we didn't stay long because the little boys naturally wanted to get out of the wagons when we stopped.  

Next picture - Avi's explanation; "This is an airplane with elevators." Bottom right is "a witch with a pumpkin on her head."  Middle is a "halloween blow-up decoration."  Left is "Christmas tree."  Very awesome Avilene.  Middle picture: I like how Avi organizes everything first before she begins her Art Work.  Third picture:  This made me laugh and Avi laughed when she realized what she'd done.  She said, "GARY!!  This is really hard!!"  That's because you have one leg in a sleeve."  :)

Avilene thought this was pretty cool because Miles made it into the chair (by using the yellow bench you see in the lower right of the picture) for the first time.  Last picture: Miles was sitting in the bottom of the dress-up rack (first time I've seen him in there too) and Avilene decided to join him as well.  

Avi - 9/29/2020

Avilene ate raisin cinnamon English muffin and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of chicken, ate brown rice, broccoli, and pineapple.   I was putting breakfast on the table and Svea came to the gate and asked for help with some dress-up clothes.  I said, "Ask Avi to help you."  Avi immediately said, "Or Atley."  Haha.

First picture:  We found another good doll house at a garage sale recently.  (By "we" I mean Lauralea.  Haha.)  It's very cool and in great shape and the girls were loving it.  Atley could not even break away to wave "bye" to Daddy at the window and waving bye is a big deal around here!!  When I told her Daddy was about to drive by she said, "No thank you."  Don't be offended - they live in the moment!!  

Here are three pictures of Avi's activities this morning.  First one;  We try to have one activity every toy exchange that is a "large motor" skill activity.  This particular activity combines shapes, colors, and tossing (there's the large motor part!!) the colored shapes through the correct holes.  Second picture:  She's our little puzzle wizard.  Last picture:  I could hear Avi trying to coax Cal to watch her do several Preschool activities.  When she told me about it she made it sound like it was all his idea.  :)

Avi - 9/24/2020

Hi Everyone!  Just a quick note to say there will be no Blog today and tomorrow.  The Blogs will resume on Monday the 28th.  I have a Dr appointment today and my excuse for tomorrow; our 3 Grandchildren are here.  It's lots of fun and VERY busy which is a challenge to take pictures and notes for the Blogs.  Thank you.