3/31/2014

Mia ate two servings of cheerios and two servings of banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate cheese sandwich, drank tomato soup, and ate two servings of apple pieces.

Riley is the one who initially started this, but after the kids wash they frequently take the cloth and start cleaning the sink.  So when Mia started doing it this morning I had to grab the camera!

Here's a picture of all the kids playing with the blocks.  They built all of these towers and worked on them together and then were peeking through them at each other.  Again, Riley is the one who initiated the tower building play.  I just watched and encouraged Cooper and Mia to refrain from destroying it too soon!  And they both listened very well!  I love watching the 'child initiated play!'

During music time we were singing songs and one of the favorites is, "How much is that doggie in the window?"  Well the doggie across the street always lays across the back of their couch so the kids automatically stand up and turn around and point at him as soon as we start the song.  Today he was standing on the couch and they all started yelling at him to "sit down!!"  Then we were singing our "Good Morning" song to each one and the mailman conveniently drove up, so we sang "Good morning" to him too!!  And we always wave and say "Good Morning!" to whoever the song is directed toward.  Mia frequently initiates the singing with the other kids too.  It's very cute because she'll sit in my "spot" and Nora or Riley will sit on the window step.

Mia read lots of books this morning and enjoyed group story time too.  She also played with the food toys and feeding her babies.  If there is not a doll bottle in the toy set she'll just use one of the cups or whatever.  They always find something to substitute for feeding their babies!  Then she saw Cooper and Riley playing in the igloo so she moved the yellow bench across the entrance.  :)

3/28/2014

Mia ate oatmeal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, two servings of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, and two servings of applesauce.

Mia and Nora both got on the chair and were snuggling with Lauralea before she left for work this morning.  And I had to get a picture of them.  Very sweet!

We got the girl's bibs on and their sleeves pulled up and they lined up at the door on their own initiative.  I asked them what they were waiting for and they all pointed at the table which was still leaning against the wall.  OK!  No one move and I'll grab the camera!!  :)

I was writing the meal schedule on a piece of paper and I said, "Oatmeal and…"  When I hesitated, Mia said, "Ice Cream!!"  LOL  Yes!  For breakfast we'll have oatmeal and ice cream!  Great Idea!

Mia played with the dolls, jumped on the mattress, did dot painting at art time, read lots of books, and we went outside to look at the bird feeders.  I got one down so they could see the seeds that we use to feed the birds.

3/27/2014

Mia ate raisin english muffin and blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate turkey sandwich, green beans, and two servings of kiwi.

I started this legos piece and the kids were all working hard on it.  They added lots of pieces and did the  towers.  Well, three of the kids anyway!  Riley was busy building a long row of small legos on the floor and she probably had it about 6 - 8 feet long!  Mia was excited when all the legos pieces were used and the drawer was empty.  "Look Gary! Look!!"

I took this picture of Mia on the climber yesterday afternoon because I was watching her hair fly all over from the static electricity.  These pieces of play equipment made from plastic are great for that!  Sometimes it zaps us pretty good and the kids look at me like; "What was that about!?!"  Sorry!!  That was not intentional!

Mia joined Cooper on the climber and I thought this was a cute picture of the two of them.  They were laughing about something even though a minute earlier they were trying to wrestle the steering wheel away from each other.  (You can't see it, but there's a little steering wheel on the climber behind Cooper.)

Lauralea was fixing a sandwich for her lunch before she left for work today.  Mia asked, "What doing Lauralea?"  Lauralea said, "I'm making ME A sandwich."  Mia said, "You making MIA sandwich?" LOL!  It was quite comical to listen to their conversation!

3/26/2014

Mia ate three servings of jelly toast and two servings of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate beef & bean burrito, sweet potatoes, and two servings of tropical fruit.

Here's a picture of the kids having fun with the play dough.  Riley didn't forget where this play dough came from; "Our play dough!!"  Mia played with it for a long time - she and Riley stayed for another ten minutes after Nora and Cooper were done.

Riley, Nora, and Mia were all saying, "hide hide hide" and running around "hiding" from Cooper.  Running back-n-forth between the igloo and the mattress, then under the climber.  They were all puffing like little steam engines.  Cooper was totally engrossed in his legos and didn't have a clue he was involved in their game.

Nora was on the 'balance beam' getting ready to jump and said to Mia, "Watch this!"  Mia jumps up and races to the mattress saying, "I move animals!!"  And she got all the stuffed animals out of Nora's way so she could jump.  I thought that was very sweet and she was being very helpful.  I love 'catching' them doing good things and recognizing it for them!!  We want to reinforce the good behavior!!  :)

All of the kids were having fun following the instructions as I read "Toddlerobics."  :)  Lots of fun activities like, "Clap your hands, stamp your feet, nod your head, dance to the beat…"  And on it goes!

3/25/2014

Mia had three servings of cinnamon roll and ate dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her scrambled eggs, hash browns, ham, and cheese combo; ate most of her waffle, and ate cantaloupe.

This picture is titled; "Hiding! Toddler Style!"  The three girls were getting all excited about running and hiding from Cooper.  Toddler hiding goes something like this; "I'll hide here and you come find me!"  :)

I love watching Mia's morning routine; it's always the same!  Dolls or books!  This morning it was the books and that always begins by taking every book out of the book rack!  Then she was singing and combining several songs and books into one big song.  Today it was; "Bear over the mountain, bear over the mountain, little lamb, little lamb…black sheep black sheep - one boy, one dame!"  LOL

We were on the chair settling in for story-time and Mia was tugging on a plate that Riley was playing with.  (I think she was trying to help Riley get rid of toys for story-time.)  I asked Mia, "Are you being a turkey?"  She said, "No! Good friend!"  And she did the sign for friend!  Good job Mia!  :)

Riley and Cooper came late; they were at a dentist appointment.  Riley brought her blanket into the Daycare room and Cooper was laying on it.  Mia was helping Riley and they managed to drag Cooper around the room a little bit.  It was all fun and good times until they wanted Cooper to get off.  :)

3/24/2014

Mia ate kix cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ham sandwich, peas, and mandarin oranges.  Mia finished her peas and mandarin oranges and Nora started cheering wildly!  Which was pretty cute, however Mia eats everything on her plate on a pretty regular basis so I couldn't quite see the reason for the enthusiastic cheering today!  :)

Here's a picture of the kids looking at the bird feeder I made this weekend.  Now we're just waiting for the birds to come and use it!  :)  You can see it coming out right above Riley's (third child from the right) head with two feeders hanging from the ends of it.

 Mia and Cooper were enjoying these little cars that you see in the picture and driving them around and around the table bench.  They were also playing with the phones and jabbering at each other using the phones.

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Mia played with the dress-up clothes, food toys, and the dolls.  She and Nora were wearing identical things; shoes and two vests.  They were both saying, "Bye!!"  Nora said, "Bye; going to Mia's house!!"  Mia said, "Bye; going to Nora's house!"  Maybe they'll wave as they go past each other.  :)

The first thing Mia did when she arrived this morning was get a stack of books and start reading and singing.  She had the "Frosty the Snowman" (yes I know - it's Spring time; but never too late for Frosty!) and was singing, "Frosty…shiny nose"  Mixing in a little "Rudolf the red nose Reindeer."  And then she added some "Twinkle twinkle little star."

3/21/2014

Mia ate brown rice and two servings of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate meat loaf, french bread, carrots, and two servings of apricots.  (At least I'm 99.9% sure she had two servings of apricots!!)  I'd taken Nora to the bathroom and Mia was still eating lunch.  When I returned all the apricots were gone from Nora's plate and she hadn't touched them before we left!  LOL   Riley doesn't like them and Cooper was in his high chair!  Who ate Nora's apricots?  Mia confessed; "MIA!"  :)

Here's a picture of Mia and Cooper reading books and using the Panda Bear to lean against.  These two kids LOVE the books.

I got a new Dr. Seuss book and it has lots of 'tongue twisters' in it.  It's probably a bit old for this age group, but I have occasionally been reading it to them anyhow.  It's not a board book so I keep it with the "special books."  Yesterday I put it with the accessible books and Mia spotted it this morning and said, "Dr. Zeus!!"  :)  Very cute.

Yesterday after snack I was repairing another book with a broken binding.  The kids asked what I was doing and immediately after explaining it was a broken book, Mia yells, "Nora do it!!"  Nora yells, "Cooper do it!"  And shortly after that the girls were in agreement; "Cooper do it!!"  :)  Riley was not here yesterday to a.) accuse Mia of doing it, and - or b.) Defend Cooper!

3/20/2014

Mia ate three servings of cinnamon toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of chicken, most of dinner roll, ate a large serving of hash browns, and ate cherries.

Mia loves to build a "sidewalk" every day and here she is working this morning.  Also, Darcy, she had her "baby" and blanket tucked into her purse before you even reached your car this morning.

Here's a picture of Nora the lion face-to-face with Mia the leopard!  Cooper watched them playing and immediately wanted an animal suit on too.  So I got him into another lion suit we have.

Neither one of the above pictures shows Mia's cute face, so how about this one!?!  The little leopard's eyes are slightly piercing I would say!  Or maybe she was staring at the flash of the camera!  :)  Look at those pretty lips!

Oh yes!  FYI for Matt and Darcy; I wanted to mention that Nora and Mia banged heads on the mattress this morning pretty hard.  They basically hit face-to-face.  They were holding their noses (no blood) and cheeks so if there is a red mark this afternoon you'll know where it came from.  They hit pretty hard and both were crying hard.  Poor sweeties.

Here are some Mia - isms from this morning;
     She has heard me say this a few times - I was combing her hair and I said, "your hair gets.."
     (I paused and she finished the sentence) "snarls in it!!"
     She and Lauralea were singing "Mary had a little lamb.."  I asked, "What color was it's fleece?"
     She said, "Head Shoulders Knees Toes."  Which is another song we sing.  :)
     We were reading "Teddy Bear teddy bear….. go upstairs,….say your prayers…"  I asked them,
     "How do you say your prayers?"  Mia said, "Bless Gary, bless Lauralea, Jesus, Amen!"  Awesome!

3/19/2014

Mia ate three servings of whole wheat bagel and two servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ham, mac-n-cheese, bites of lettuce salad, and ate corn.

Mia was playing on the phone and she was talking to Jamie.  (That's a fairly common occurrence.)  This morning she said, "Hey Jamie, Hey Jamie!  Riley bugging me!!"  Which was pretty funny to me because Mia was the only child here!

The three girls all had their babies and were sitting on this step singing songs to them.  It started with Mia bellowing, "Mary had a little lamb" and then "Twinkle twinkle" and two or three more.  They were talking to each other about their babies and examining them.  "Wanna see my baby, etc…?"  I was wanting to get a picture of all the girls together and I tried to hurry Mia along by wrapping her baby.  She yelled, "No! My baby poopy!!"  LOL

I was repairing a book that was torn and Nora asked me what I was doing.  "Fixing a book!"  Nora immediately said, "Mia do it!!"  LOL  Silly kids.

Here's a heads-up just in case Mia talks about having a "bandaid."  She was coloring at art and when we snapped one of the marker lids back on, it pinched a tiny piece of skin on her finger.  And actually tore the skin a little bit and it looked like it may bleed.

3/18/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast; waffle and pears.  For lunch she ate tuna, two servings of crackers,
sweet potatoes, and two servings of oranges.

I took this picture of Mia playing with the purse, doll blanket, and the doll.  (Which she's carrying in the purse.)  Darcy, I took this picture about 10:45 and these are the same toys she started with when you dropped her off at 8:00 this morning.  She played with lots of other toys and did other activities, but she always went back to the dolls.  :)

Here's a picture of what we did at art time.  We do not use these etch-a-sketches very often because they quickly get bored with them.  Today Cooper played with his longer than anyone!  Then he wasn't using it the "right" way according to the girls.  And he also wasn't appreciative of their offers to teach him the "right" way!  :)

Oh, I forgot to mention this when writing about what Mia ate for breakfast.  She wanted more waffle, but here's what she asked;  "I want more syrup!!"  LOL  Yup, that makes those waffles delicious!

She played with one of the phones a lot and was frequently talking to "Mommy."  Then she said, "Go Bye Bye Gary!"  So where are you going?  "To store!"  And what are you getting at the store?  The new standard answer; "GUM!"  That all started with Riley.  Yesterday they were playing on the big climber outside (with the steering wheel) and going to the store for "GUM!"  That has been the standard answer for several weeks now.

3/17/2014

Mia ate two servings of chex cereal and ate mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate everything: roast beef sandwich, tomato soup, and apple pieces.

Here's a picture of the three girls very busy and engaged building with the legos.  I like how the picture captures Cooper crawling out from under the legos table.  He was playing underneath there for at least 10 minutes.

Mia was very proud of what she'd built and was saying, "Look Gary!" so I had to take a picture of her showing it too me.  Then she built another one (about the same size as the one in the picture) using legos pieces that were the exact same size.

Nora was trying to coax Mia into being the "Mommy" this morning and she was laying on the floor saying, "Help me Mommy! Help me Mommy!"   "Mommy" was too engaged with the legos and didn't even hear the pleas.  Not a very attentive Mommy!!  :)  Mia loves to play the "Mommy" game with Nora, but she was just too busy.

Mia was so cute when she arrived and for the next 15 - 20 minutes she was showing off and acting so happy to be here.  Lauralea and I were getting such a kick out of it.  She was rolling around on the floor like a puppy, giving us loves, and running back-n-forth across the room.

3/14/2014

Mia ate two servings of oatmeal and ate dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of hash brown casserole, bites of biscuit, and ate mandarin oranges.

I am posting a picture of this shirt as a prop for what the kids were saying yesterday at snack time.  For those who haven't seen this shirt, everyone, beginning with the children think this looks just like me.  And I'm in agreement.  Anyhow, we're sitting at the snack table and Nora looked at the shirt like it was the first time she'd seen it and exclaimed; "Gary Flying!!"  I hooted and hollered and Riley was cheering!  Mia, who wasn't watching and didn't have a clue what the cheering was about yelled, "GO GRIZ!!"  LOL  I laughed so hard!

Mia and I were sitting on the step under the window and that is where the children usually sit when we sing some songs together.  Nora then sat in my usual spot and started singing, "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and doing all the actions.  About half way through the song Mia chimes in with "Mary had a little lamb" so Nora switches right to that one!  Then back to "Head and Shoulders" and doing it really fast.  (We usually do it three or four times and go faster every time.)  By this time Mia is now loudly bellowing "Twinkle twinkle little star…"  And on it goes.  :)  Pretty soon she began using one of the drums and singing "Mary had a little lamb" again.

Mia was talking on the phone again too and I heard her saying, "Hi Mommy….feel good?"  I asked her what was wrong with Mommy and she said, "Throat hurt!!"  :)  She was also saying, "Hi Jamie!!"  (That's Riley and Cooper's Mommy for those that don't know.)

I was proud of Mia for using her words very well this morning when someone (usually Cooper) was getting in her personal space or taking a toy, etc.  Their first instinct is to scream or strike back, but she was saying, "Help me Gary!" which is what I've been teaching them to say.  Good job Mia!

3/13/2014

Mia ate french bread and two servings of cantaloupe for breakfast.  For lunch she ate turkey slices, two servings of crescent roll (I'd added cinnamon!), ate green beans, and mangoes.

Nora and Mia were "hiding" in the Cooper cave and then they'd pulled the big Panda Bear in front of them to help hide themselves.  I took this picture when Riley joined the game and she was proceeding to "find" their hiding spot!  :)  That's pure cuteness right there!!  I love how both of them are focused on Riley.

Frequently, when Mia wants help, she turns to Riley.  They were spinning in circles (Mia spins so fast and gets dizzy quickly) and every couple of minutes Mia was asking Riley to pull up her socks.  Those socks would not stay up!  :)  And Riley is amazingly helpful!

Ok Darcy, I think everyone has been sick enough lately!  I wrote in Mia's journal a couple days ago about the kids playing like their babies were puking.  "My baby puke!"  And then washing the babies in the sinks.  Today Mia had her baby and said, "Baby has goopy eye!"  And she was examining the baby's eye.  LOL  It was pretty cute.

Mia was playing with the view finder looking at the animals.  Even if she couldn't remember the animal's name she was matching it with the animal on the poster.  Good job Mia.  One of the pictures in the view finder is a squirrel.  Mia said, "Kangaroo!!"  LOL  And then pointed to the squirrel on the poster.

3/12/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast; Whole wheat toast and mixed berries.  For lunch she ate ham, crackers, half of a large serving of bean & bacon soup, and ate kiwi.

In this picture the kids are taking turns serving "coffee."  Mia was saying, "Coffee, coffee…want coffee?!?"  Then she followed that up with, "Riley, chew gum?"  Yes Mia, she'll have some "chew gum" with her "coffee!"  :)

I put this poster up for the kids to learn some more animals.  I like this poster because these are all animals from our part of the world.

During story time every day I am usually reading from our "special books" which are not placed in the book rack accessible to the children.  The exception to that routine is when I read the accessible books the day after the toy and book exchange every two weeks.  They probably hear all the special books every two - three weeks.  (I've never counted exactly how many there are.)  Anyhow, I will ask them; "What's this book about?"  And they frequently say something that indicates they know which book it it.  For example this morning I asked about a book and Mia said, "Hang Low!!"  The book is "Do your ears hang low….?"  LOL

Nora and Mia were having this lengthy conversation at the breakfast table about visiting each other's home!  Nora said, "Go to your house and see your doggie!"  Then Nora asked Mia, "You wanna see my dog?  See my Mommy?  See my Daddy?"  Mia was responding about seeing her "Mommy, Daddy, and TieTie!"  (Titan is Mia's dog.)  It was so cute and they were so serious.

Riley and Mia were sitting on the chair reading after breakfast.  They were taking turns making these hooting/howling sounds and it was loud!  Nora was still eating breakfast and said, "What that sound?!? What that sound?!?"  :)

3/11/2014

Mia ate two servings of whole wheat bagel and apricots for breakfast.  For lunch she ate everything; chicken, elbow noodles with shredded cheese, peas, and applesauce.

I took this picture of Mia playing with her "baby" which she was carrying around in this fanny pack.  The three girls played with their babies a lot this morning.  (Riley said, "My baby puke up!!")  So they were washing their babies in the sinks!  Nora said, "My baby crying!"  Mia bellowed (very loudly I might add), "OH NO!!"  Now I think the baby is totally frightened!  :)

Here's a picture of the girls doing some painting on the floor.  These sheets of paper were a bit too large to fit them all on the table.  Mia painted for awhile and then started putting her paintbrush in her mouth.  (Don't worry - it's nontoxic!) Some kids are very oral (that would be Mia) and they like to experience everything through their mouth.  Of course I will ask her to remove it, but that's always her first inclination!  One obvious problem with that -  the oral children, and we've had LOTS of them, get sick the most because everything goes into the mouth!

Mia was in a great mood and doing lots of jabbering this morning.  She was saying several things I thought was quite comical so here's a couple of those things!
     Playing with the phone; "Hi Mommy! I'll call you!"
     Before Cooper even arrived;  "Where'd Cooper go?"
     I showed her the skunk picture in the viewfinder again.  Yesterday she said, "Panda!"  Today she
     said, "Cartoon!"
     I thought I heard something (it happened to be the phone) and I asked "What's that?"  Mia said,
     "Gary phone running!"  LOL!

3/10/2014

Mia ate half of her bran cereal and ate dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate cheese pizza, corn, and tropical fruit.

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the kids had fun exploring everything.  They all enjoyed the drums and were gathered around the table beating on the drums singing their own separate songs.

I moved the climber into the middle of the floor and we were singing songs and the kids were running around and around the climber.  You really don't have to change the environment very much for this age group to enjoy a completely "new" play area!  This is a picture of them playing on the climber after circling it dozens of times!

Mia comes with a binky, but gives it up before breakfast and then I put it on her cubby until she leaves for home.  This morning she took her binky out, handed it to Nora and said, "Here binky!" So Nora says, "Ok! And she heads for the gate to give it to me!"  It was pretty funny; Mia was busy and knew Nora would handle it for her!

This set of toys has another set of those viewfinder toys (I don't know what else to call them) with animal pictures.  I was holding them up to Mia's eyes and loving her answers.  She actually does know her animals pretty well and we frequently work on them.  But here are a couple of funny ones from this morning;  It was a close-up of a squirrel - "Horsey!"  A skunk - "Panda!"  (love that one!)  A close-up of a large toad with huge eyes - "Owl!!"

3/7/2014

Mia ate a large serving of malt-o-meal cereal and ate raisins for breakfast.  She ate most of her food for lunch: ground beef (I mistakenly forgot to buy pasta sauce), elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, lettuce salad, and mixed fruit.

I was flossing my teeth this morning and Nora was walking around pretending to floss her teeth so I asked her if she wanted some floss; and of course Mia needed some too.  I thought it was cute how they went right to the mirror to floss.

We played with the bath foam at art time and of course Mia loves to experiment with things like that and kept tasting it and declaring it was great!  :)  I like how she's keeping an eye on Cooper as she prepares to smear a little foam on his head!

I was a little concerned about the foam getting in her eyes so I got swim goggles for her and Cooper.  Well that didn't last more than a few seconds of course and then she was smearing the bath foam with the goggles and holding it all up to her face!  LOL  Silly girl!  But she was having fun and enjoying the process!  She rubbed a bit on Cooper's head too and Nora was appalled;  "NO MIA, NO!!"

She was very engaged in different kinds of play this morning and I was happy to see her so involved.  She said, "Build sidewalk!"  And she did build a sidewalk with the big blocks all by herself.  Good job Mia! She did lots of jumping on the mattress and "Going to the store Gary!"  What are you getting at the store?  "Gum, ice cream, and ice cream cone!"

3/6/2014

Mia ate two servings of english muffin and ate blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, crackers, sweet potatoes, and three servings of cherries.

Mia was wearing the same dress-up clothes that she has been wearing all week and you've already seen several pictures of them.  But I thought this was cute how it was hung-up on her ponytail and she didn't notice or didn't care.  :)

Then later she was wearing these dress-up pants and she was so proud of herself for getting them on.  She told me, "I did it!!"  And in typical Mia fashion I knew I had better take a picture quick if I wanted to document it.  Sure enough, one jump and off came the pants.  :)

We had built a platform beside the climber for the kids to stand on.  They played on it for awhile, but I think they had way more fun destroying it.  Once they had it scattered all around they were pretending to "swim" through the blocks.

Mia read lots of books like usual and the first book again this morning was "London Bridge" and she was singing, "Cooper baby safe and sound, safe and sound…"  She also enjoyed sticking the pieces of paper to the glue at art time.  Well, at least for awhile.  Riley and Nora wanted to do a second piece so Mia said she did too, but she soon started smearing her glue all over and making a mess.  Which is just fine, but it was time to move on to something else.  :)

3/5/2014

Mia ate biscuit and three servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she had two servings of baked beans, ate dinner roll, peas, and  pineapple.

Ok, I know I frequently post very similar pictures of Mia reading books.  However, this is a daily occurrence and it shows what she really likes to do.  She was reading and singing this book with "Cooper baby safe and sound…"  :)

Darcy, I will just continue to offer Mia the opportunity to go to the bathroom every time Riley or Nora ask to go.  I simply ask her, "Would you like to go in and go potty too?"  I am not making a big deal out of it and I will not pressure her; just letting her 1.) know what we're doing and 2.) giving her the opportunity to go too.  Yesterday and today she just simply says, "No."  Yesterday she did ask to go potty at the end of the day shortly before she was picked up.  I'm also wanting to reassure you that we've seen this many times and it's very common for her age to relapse.  Some don't, but many do and it works soooo much better to not pressure them.  And I know you are working hard at that too.  It's not easy to back-off when we know they are totally capable of doing the whole thing!  And regardless of what anyone says ("my child trained at age.., blah blah blah..") she is still young and everything is developing.  Birthday # 3 is kind of the magic moment when everything clicks and we've seen it over and over.  And at that point it's usually a done deal!  There have been lots of children go through our program who didn't start until right at age three and it was soooo easy.

Mia was doing the "sign" for Friend.  (We always call it "Good Friend" just in case you hear her saying that.)  And she was also saying, "Good Friend."  So I asked her, "Who's your good friend?"  And she answered, "Nora!"  Well Nora heard that and said, "No!  Mia!"  (Meaning "Mia is my good friend!")  And that's how the ensuing bickering started and they were going back and forth.  LOL  So I asked Nora, "Who's your good friend?"  She answered, "Mia!"  And Mia yells, "No! Nora!"  And on and on it went!  I love silly toddlers!!  :)

3/4/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast; waffle and hash browns.  For lunch she ate beef & cheese quesadilla, most of her carrots, and ate oranges.

Here's a picture of the kids marching around the table bench while listening to music.  I took this picture quick because Cooper was in a bad spot and would soon need some intervention; Mia and Nora were closing in on him from both directions!!    :)

I was wiping Mia's eye and Nora was watching and asked, "What's that?"  Mia immediately answered, "Goopy eye!!"  Don't panic Darcy!!  :)  It was just some "sleepy stuff" (whatever that is) mixed with a little tear!  :)  But Mia knew what to call it!

Mia read lots and lots of books like usual (the daily "Shoo Fly" and then "Red Light Green Light") and also enjoyed our group reading time along with singing and do some sign language.  She probably knows 15 different signs (including some colors) and can readily tell you what they mean.

They were pretending to eat and Mia was bringing me food.  I wouldn't "eat" anything until she'd tell me what it was.  So she'd think hard and come up with some random food.  I should have wrote them down because she was trying hard to think of different foods.  I remember "cookie, berry, carrot, and ice cream."  And she was thinking of a different one every time.

3/3/2014

Mia ate cheerios and banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her cheese sandwich, drank tomato soup, and ate half of apple slices.

Cooper and Mia were sitting in the big box reading books and leaning back against my pillows.  I always use the pillows for story time and now the kids do too.  You gotta have pillows to read!!

Mia is usually the first one here every morning and she always gets several books to sit and read.  I like listening to her as she usually reads aloud.  She was doing her usual "Shoo Fly, follow me."  I asked Lauralea, "Wasn't that Joslyn's (Callahan - another First Interstate Bank family) favorite book too?"  And it was, but Mia immediately said, "No! My favorite!!"  Then she started reading a Doctor Seuss book about feet; "Left foot, right foot!"  Good job Mia!

When Mia saw Lauralea this morning she said, "Hi Lauralea Lu Lu!!"  Nora was the one who started that, but I think that's the first time I've heard Mia say it.  Nora's Grandpa has a puppy named "LuLu."

Mia played with the food toys, dolls, jumping on the mattress, and the phones.  She was using a phone and said, "Hi Daddy! I talk to TieTie?"  I'm sure everyone already knows, but that would be their dog, Titan!

Mia was standing in front of the mirror and just randomly said, "I be good friend!"  And she was doing the sign for "friend."  Good job Mia!  That's one of my phrases when they are struggling to be nice to each other; "Be a good friend."  Hooking your two index fingers together is the sign for "friend."