Summer Days

Picnic lunch at the park.

Cooking with the butterfly net on her head. Caught herself, she did.

Life Goes On

And so do we. We had a lovely, mellow Sunday afternoon, filled with lots of snuggling, a few projects, and dancing barefoot in the dining room. We're loving Renee and Jeremy right now.

Home Alone

That Grace and I had a picnic in the park for supper. Rob was out of town and Caroline was having dinner with friends, so we dined alfresco.

Bowling with paper cups -- good for at least 20 minutes of entertainment.

We went grocery shopping Saturday. That Grace's job is to put up the frozen foods. She takes her work very seriously and does a great job. She's is very intent on making sure all of the frozen food is put away. As for the rain boots -- it actually was raining that day, so very appropriate. Usually she wears them without regard for the weather.

Happy Day!

We went to the park twice on Friday. That Grace is becoming a pro on park etiquette. She understands she has to share and be gentle with her friends. This is our favorite park. It's close to our house, it has a slides, swings, and a water feature. It's mostly shady and it is rarely crowded during the week.

Sliding! We keep a park basket in the car with sand toys, bubbles and sidewalk chalk in it. We have used it a lot this week -- perfect park weather.

That Grace loves to color and write. She also loves her stickers. She sat at the table coloring and saying "happy day, happy day." Oh, that's her bunny harness. We don't use it much as a harness any more but she likes to put on the bunny backpack part and wear it around the house.

Helping

Just being adorable.

Helping Daddy wash his motorcycle.


Helping plant sunflowers.

Busy Week

Planting sunflowers.


Missing Daddy. I was folding clothes and she saw his shirt. She grabbed it, hugged it, and said, "Daddy!" She wore his shirt all afternoon.

Dressed herself, she did.

It was a rough afternoon.

Nothing else to do but put the table leaf on the chaise and start sliding! This is still up. She has had a ball "shiding."

We had a fun, if wet, weekend. There is a great marionette theater near us. This is the 2nd time That Grace and I have been. She made it almost all the way through the show (Beauty and the Beast -- 1 hour) before we had to go to the back to stretch our legs. She talked (signed) about the music more than anything.


We got wet leaving the theater and coming home.

That Grace has been working with an early interventionist because she has not been talking very much. Miss Meagan came today and that Grace must have said 40 new words today alone. It's like the flood gates have finally opened. I won't say she's a chatterbox but she's getting there. You should hear her say "Dah-dee." It is so sweet, melts her daddy's heart, of course.

Here are some more:

boo = blue
tease=please
mo=more
see see=Sweetie
bah-be=baby

On a related note, she loves the song, "The Wheels on the Bus." So tonight we were all sitting on the sofa singing it (Caroline was at MYF) and Rob says, "What does Mommy say?" That Grace responds, "shh, shh, shh." Then he says, "What does Daddy say?" Her reply? "Oookaaay." So, I try to change the song to, "The mommies on the bus say, I love you." She just stood on the couch shaking her head no and saying, "shh, shh, shh."

Oh my.

We may have to rethink the chocolate oatmeal. She ate a huge bowl of it this morning.

Coloring. She's getting good at drawing circles now, but she still eats the crayons if you turn your back on her.

Making lunch. She insisted on eating outside again today.

New Skills

I've been meaning to introduce banana slicing for a while and finally got around to it this morning. She did great with it. She is becoming so self-sufficient. It's sad in a way, but also very exciting to watch her develop. She can climb into the car and car seat by herself. She can buckle the chest strap but not the buckle at the bottom. She's getting proficient at pouring her drinks, but it can be painful to watch. Sometimes I just have to look away and remind myself, "Mistakes are how we learn!" She works so hard at it. It is just amazing to see the concentration on her face.

Tonight while she was "helping Mommy cook" she started throwing things from her chair. I overlook a lot during the late afternoon/early evening -- it's always a difficult time for everyone but this was just really intentional. I turned to her and said (in a firm but kind voice), "If you throw anything else, you will not be able to stay in here with Mommy." Apparently, that would be a horrible fate, because she straightened up immediately. Another issue we have had lately is her kicking me while I change her diaper. I know, it's just one more reason we need to focus more on potty training. Anyway, I don't really like to use rewards or punishment, so I try to stay away from time-out and so forth. What I will do is enforce my boundaries. When she kicks me, I tell her, "That hurts. I don't like it. If you kick again, Mommy will leave the room" which involves going into my room and shutting the door, with her in the hall. After about 30 seconds, I open the door and ask, "Are you going to use your gentle hands?" and she'll reach out and softly stroke my arm. I've had to do that twice over a couple of days and now just the threat of "leaving the room" is enough to get her to quit beating up on me!


Rob had to go to church tonight to make dinner for Sonshine Kids and Caroline was at MYF so That Grace and I were alone for supper. The weather was beautiful today but it's supposed to turn cold and rainy the rest of the week, so we decided to enjoy this evening and eat outside. We took a walk before we started cooking supper and I put the harness on That Grace because she does not like the stroller. She always wants to walk. It's really cute. It looks like a bunny shaped backpack. Or at least to me it looks like a bunny shaped backpack. Apparently to every other kid, it looks like a leash. The first time she wore it, this boy, about 10, said, "Oh, wow, that is so cool!" I thought, "See, it's not so bad." Then he said, "You've got a leash on your baby -- like a dog!" Great. So, tonight, the little girl across the street said, "Why is your baby wearing that?"

I have to say, I like the leash, I mean, harness. At least she has some freedom and is getting some exercise, which she wouldn't in a stroller.

Pouring Water and Getting Dirty

That Grace is able to pour her own drinks now. My master plan is coming along nicely. Pretty soon, she'll be bringing me a tray for dinner!


Getting dirty in the backyard. Look at those little fingers! And that face!





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Now playing: Laurie Berkner - I'm A Mess
via FoxyTunes

Only That Grace

Last night, That Grace was sitting on the table eating her Italian ice (yeah, we're big on formality around here) and Rob and I started asking for bites. She kept shaking her head "no." I said, "Who can have a bite of ice?" She signed her own name!

On a totally unrelated note, we were doing Sleepy Yoga tonight before bed and That Grace started doing somersaults by herself! I think she even surprised herself.

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Now playing: Laurie Berkner - Ice Cream Cone
via FoxyTunes

Helping Daddy Work on the Car

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Now playing: Elizabeth Mitchell - Car Car
via FoxyTunes A screwdriver and a running toddler -- scary.

Sunday Fun

We built a fort under the kitchen table. For once, there was no hesitation. She crawled in and started reading right away.

Signing "outside" while waiting on Daddy to get home from church. She's still stuffy, so we stayed home this morning.

Reading with Daddy.

Monday Activities

I have an addiction to activity books. I picked up this one on sale before Christmas and read it recently. It's from the people at this preschool. Their tuition seems a little steep but it says financial aid is available, so everyone doesn't have to pay that much. Some people apparently pay a lot more. Kind of puts Montessori school tuition in perspective. I used their play dough recipe to make our latest (unscented) batch. I was getting tired of smelling the gingerbread. We went with red since Valentine's Day is coming up. Retailers and preschoolers measure time by holidays.

Practicing pouring.

Cleaning up after practicing pouring.

Feeling Sickly

She really wanted to go outside today. She put on her hat and stood at the door, signing "outside." Unfortunately, she's had a fever for the past couple of days. We had a big weekend planned, including visiting Aunt Donna and Uncle Craig and our cousins from out of state as well as going to a local children's museum. Instead, we had a quiet, cranky day at home.


Since she did so well on the calendar matching activity, I set up the step 1, level 1 Child-sized Masterpieces activity. She did it with ease and we did a few variations before she got tired of it and started throwing the cards.

I was inspired to pull out the easel after reading about the benefits of it over at The Write Start. I bought some paint and brushes to use later this week but for today, we just used markers. She'll write with the markers, but what she really loves is taking the tops off and putting them back on.

Even though it's been extremely cold and rainy today, the ice cream man still drove through our neighborhood. He does everyday, regardless of the weather. He's more reliable than the postman. Rain, ice, freezing temperatures notwithstanding, at some point between 4:00 and 6:00 pm, his truck, with its tinkling melody trailing behind it, will come winding down our street. That Grace loves the ice cream man, but not for the reason you might think. She loves his music. To her, he's the music man. She will drop everything she's doing and head to the kitchen at a dead run for me to pick her up so she can look out window at his truck and sign "music." One day, she'll realize why he's called the ice cream man and we'll be in trouble.

Cold Weather Essentials

Settling in for the cold snap.

We braved the cold for a few necessities and took pity on some birds in the parking lot. We happened to have a few crackers in the car and That Grace threw them to the birds. I was worried they would scare her. They were pretty aggressive and got very close to us. When she was feeding them, she started making this sort of screeching noise. At first, I thought she was afraid, but she didn't look afraid and she kept signing more. I finally figured out she was imitating them. She used to do a lot of animal imitations but she doesn't do it very often anymore.

9 degrees

We had to entertain ourselves inside today, because it was bone-chillingly cold outside. We are simply not equipped to deal with that kind of cold. After the fire died down, That Grace went over to the hearth and dragged another log out, clearly indicating we needed to restart the fire.

We started off the morning eating breakfast with chopsticks. We always eat our bananas and yogurt with chopsticks.



The puppet master at work. These finger puppets and stage were Christmas presents. I bought it because I got a good deal on ebay, but I figured it would be a while before she was really interested in it. I was wrong. She loves this, both watching us do puppet shows and doing them herself.

These boots are really too big but she loves them. She brought them to me and wanted me to put them on her. She has a little trouble walking in them but she manages to tromp around.

Almost 2 is so much fun.

Tuesday with That Grace

My mom came to visit not too long ago and brought some extra calendars. I picked one out and sent the rest back home with her. After she left, I realized that I already had a calendar and didn't need another one (part of my ongoing war with clutter). I decided to keep it anyway because it had gorgeous pictures of wildlife. I cut it apart and make the matching picture activity from itty bitty love. Basically, I cut apart the calendar and then cut out the little thumbnail pictures on the back and covered it all with contact paper. The object of the activity is to match the little picture to the big picture. I thought That Grace might be a little young to do all 12 so I only put out 4 to start with. She did those with ease and begged for more, so I put out all 12 and handed her the little cards. She did great and apparently enjoyed it, because she kept signing "more" when I tried to put it away. We'll probably do some more of these. I didn't get the Velcro dots put on but I think that will add another point of interest.

Tea Party!

Weekend Fun + A Scary Incident

Reading to her babies in Daddy's chair. She has all of her back issues of Babybug up there. Check out that hair. No, I'm not trimming it. I put it up during the day. It's fine.

Putting on a finger puppet show, mostly consisting of throwing the finger puppets though the stage, at the audience. Ha, break a leg!


Eating crackers with a fork. We tried to explain that crackers are finger food and therefore quite correctly eaten with the fingers, but she insisted.

This was after I put some of our food on her plate and cut it up. She's definitely at the imitating stage.

Shortly after this was taken, she finished eating and we gave her Rob's glass with the last little bit of (iced) tea in it to drink. She finished the tea and started chewing on the ice. She loves to eat ice. I heard her making a noise and looked over and she was choking. It wasn't just a matter of something going down wrong -- that happens all the time. She really was not able to breathe. I grabbed her up and handed her to Rob and he flipped her over and kind of pulled up on her stomach and pounded on her back, then flipped her back up to see if she was okay. Nope, she still couldn't breathe. He did that several more times before she was finally able to get a good breath and start screaming. And scream she did. A sweeter sound has never been heard. I took her outside to calm down. As hysterical as she was, she managed to wave to another toddler on the way out. She seemed to be over the whole incident by the time we got in the car and headed home. We will say a few extra "thank you" prayers tonight.

Last night, I finally got around to embroidering a place setting place mat for That Grace. She had a lot of fun carefully putting her little dishes in the outlines.