9/30/2014

Mia ate bagel and two servings of apricots for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, a large serving of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, a large serving of peas, and two servings of applesauce.

Cooper (and his sisters) had a dental appointment this morning and he didn't arrive until a few minutes after 9:00.  Mia stayed very engaged and played well all morning.  She was doing puzzles and had a running commentary going.  I was teasing her and I said, "I don't need play-by-play commentary!"  She said, "What do you mean?  I don't understand!"  :)  Very good!

She had the cloth you see in the picture and was cleaning everything.  After doing the mirror she started on my leg!  (Just part of the furniture!)  Then she walked over and got a doll and was using the cleaning cloth for a doll blanket.  It's multi-purppose!  :)

These two pictures were taken while I was reading "Toddlerobics!"  As the title suggests there are lots of actions to follow throughout the book.  They really like it when I do some of the actions as well as read it!  (However, the spinning-twirling thing is a bit much!)  The first picture is "bumping bottoms."

And this picture is "rubbing noses."  I've mentioned this many times, but it amazes me how many books and songs she knows and how she retains what she hears.  I'll be reading a book we haven't read for a long time and I'll stop before the end of the sentence and she can usually finish the sentence for me!  Great job Mia!

Cooper and Mia played with the legos, built towers with the blocks, read lots of books together as well as by themselves, and went on a "picnic."  Mia asked him, "Do you want to have a picnic Cooper?"

9/29/20143

Mia ate bran cereal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate most of cheese pizza, a large serving of corn, and ate tropical fruit.  

At Story Time I asked, "What is this book?"  ("Give the Dog a Bone.")  Mia said, "Nick Nack Dog a Bone."  Which is basically how it starts out.  We also colored with markers at Art Time and did some halloween stickers.  

Mia and Cooper were putting on the animals masks and doing animal sounds.  We could't think of a rabbit sound so Mia was just "hopping!"

Mia and Cooper were watching me change Elliott's diaper and making their usual sounds of disgust!  I was putting some cream on the baby's bottom and Mia said, "don't put paint on him!"

Cooper and Mia played with the legos and food toys and did pretty well for a Monday morning!  They had a few squabbles and Mia asked Cooper, "Are you ok...are you still sad?!"  Except it was usually because she'd been harassing him!  They also colored with markers at Art Time and did some halloween stickers.

I was putting a new bandaid on my owie and Mia said, "Ooooh, I'm sorry."  And it was very sweet with sympathy.  However, she also uses the "sorry!" thing a lot to try to get herself out of a jam; particularly when she's been a turkey to Cooper.  :)

9/26/2014

Mia ate malt-o-meal cereal and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of ground beef, elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, peas, and ate her pineapple.


I like watching the different methods they use while performing lots of tasks!  We did stickers at Art Time and Mia jams as many stickers as she can manage on her paper.  Cooper will try to keep his stickers from touching each other.  I wanted to show you a picture of their art work side-by-side and this is the end result.  I asked them to come back out and look at their papers, so this picture is basically "staged,"but they're doing it really well!  I like how Cooper is studying the table instead of his stickers.  :)

I asked Lauralea to look at a tooth for me and she was using the flashlight.  Mia was watching and said, "What Lauralea do to you Gary!!??!!"

Cooper came over to me saying, "bear bear bear..."  What?  Then he said, "bear - puter!"  Oh!  Bear on the computer?  "Yup!"  (I always feel so successful when I get it right!!)  It's been a week or more since we've checked out the Big Bears on the computer.  Explore.org has lots of video cams set up in different places for different animals.  The ones I show the kids are the video cams in and around Brooks Falls Alaska.  It's especially fun when the salmon are running too and you can see the fish jumping and the Bears catching something to eat.  And the kids loves it!!  Today we watched one "live" and one replay of a sow with 'three' cubs!

It still cracks me up how concerned Cooper gets when Baby Elliott is doing something that Cooper thinks he shouldn't be doing.  This morning the Baby grabbed a stuffed cow and it was the "wrong" one.  Cooper is saying, "Mia's, Mia's, Mia's!!!"  Mia wasn't really concerned at all!

I was feeding the Baby some cereal and watching Mia and Cooper "race."  Mia was saying her usual; "Ready set go!"  Then she came to the doorway to the lunch room and said, "Hi guys! What are you doing?!" Then she walked back to where Cooper was at and said, "Hi Dude! What are you doing?"

9/25/2014

Mia ate half of whole wheat english muffin and ate blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, crackers, sweet potatoes, and three servings of cherries.  I like how she always asks before trying to drink the "juice" from some food - usually the fruit.  Today it was the cherries; "May I drink my juice?"  Sometimes she'll ask when she still has lots of food on her plate.  Uhhh, that will not work!  :)

I've been telling Lauralea how fun and interesting it is to watch Mia and Cooper read books together, but they usually do it a little later in the morning.  Today they started right after Cooper's family left and Lauralea was video taping some of it to use as an example in a Literacy class she may teach.  Mia was asking Cooper questions and having him point to the answers.

Cooper was almost in tears because Mia didn't want to read the same book over and over and over...guess which one..."Farm Animals" of course.  :)  So I told him to ask Lauralea to read it.  She was getting ready to leave (after several readings of the same book) and told him "this is the last time."  He picked up another book and said, "How 'bout this one?"  :)  Lauralea couldn't resist one more time!!

The puzzle theme is the same as the rest of the toys in this exchange; "farm animals!"  The first puzzle piece Cooper picked up was the "barn!"  He easily did one puzzle that is more difficult - it doesn't have the pictures so they have to go just by the shape.  Mia said, "This is a hard one Gary!" But they both completed it and did so quite easily!

Mia knows I want her to be quiet when she's going potty and Baby Elliott is sleeping and she'll "tip-toe" past his room.  Today she was sneaking quietly past his room and decided I needed to know about it so she yelled;  "Hey Gary!!  I'm going tip-toe!!"   LOL   Oh good job Mia; thank you for being quiet!

9/24/2014

Mia ate a biscuit and two servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of baked beans, ate dinner roll, bites of lettuce salad, and a bite of mixed fruit.

Here's the daily reading picture.  I took this yesterday after nap time.  It was sooo cute because Mia was reading to him and using the same questions and techniques that I use.  "Cooper, how many ducks do you see?  Show me the ducks."  And look at his smile - I love it.  He was pointing and answering her questions.

They had their faces stuck in these bowls for quite awhile - plenty long enough for me to get the camera and get a picture!  I couldn't hear what they were saying, but there had been LOTS of "puppy play" all morning so that's probably a safe guess.

Baby Elliott had crawled under the climber beam and Cooper joined him.  Then Mia came with the entertainment!  She was a being a puppy and had a stuffed animal hanging out of her mouth.

Mia and Cooper played with the legos farm animals and barns a lot like usual.  They also played with the rocking horses, food toys, read books, did dot painting, and they were flopping off the climber backwards onto the mattress.  Mia had arranged the blocks and was telling Cooper "this is our home!  This is our dog!  Come on Honey, let's go!"  Then Mia asked me, "Hey Gary, can I take off Cooper's socks?!?"  :)   Cooper, do you want Mia to take off your socks?  "Yup!"  A little later Cooper took off Elliott's socks!  Mia had taken a toy from Cooper and soon asked him, "Cooper, are you still mad?!"  Silly Mia!  Oh, I just thought of one more; Mia and Cooper were messing with Elliott's highchair (I'd just fed him and moved him) and they tipped it over.  WOW!  You should have seen Mia flee the scene of the crime!  She's fast!  :)

I had the Children's Music playing and Mia said, "That's good music you got there!"  Well thank you and I'm glad you like it!  :)  Then she said, "I got me a ukulele!!"  LOL

9/23/2014

Mia had two servings of waffles and ate hash browns for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her beef & cheese quesadilla, half of carrots, and ate oranges.  When Lauralea was leaving at breakfast time Cooper was showing her his "raccoon socks."  Mia said, "Do you have raccoon socks or eagle socks?"  LOL  (For those who may have missed the journal that day - Cooper has Philadelphia Eagle socks!)

The Templeton boys stopped by yesterday when we were outside playing.  Bode had Cooper and Mia's undivided attention when I took this picture.  He was showing them some important life skills - stretching his mouth as wide as he could!  By the way, Reed may be visiting all day on Friday if his Caregiver has to serve Jury Duty as scheduled.

After Story Time Cooper and Mia both got some books and sat together reading.  Mia was reading some books that we'd just read and asking Cooper the questions; "Are you a penguin?"  "No."  "Are you a cow?"  "No."  He was answering her questions without looking up and he continued to read his own books at the same time.  (And that was keeping her happy!  Did I mention something earlier about learning Life Skills?)

"Cooper! Mia yells, "My baby's in trouble!!"  So he dutifully goes running over to see what she needs.  Silly Mia.  She was just playing with her doll.  Later she yelled again, but this time it was to look at Elliott; "Cooper!  Come see the baby!!"  Mia thought it was funny because Elliott was kind of wedging his head behind the big chair.

Mia was doing her "puppy play" a LOT this morning!  :)  Which is just fine, but I have to keep a close eye on her because some times Cooper likes it and some times not so much.  So he's learning to say "That's not fun for me" and she learning to listen to his words.  :)  She gets a little too aggressive with it; i.e., "pit bull" style.  She said, "I howling!"  Ok, maybe "wolf style!"  :)

9/22/2014

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

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange and the kids loved that.  Mia saw the cow suit and immediately had to put that on!  She loves that thing whenever it's out and she wore it all morning!  I took this picture of her in the box and she said she was taking a nap.  I thought her choice of toys were interesting.  There's a spinning Top, fence pieces, and food toys on the right side.  I see the tomato and also the beef "steak," which is kind of ironic with her wearing the cow suit!  Yikes!

Cooper and Mia were wearing the different masks.  Cooper chuckled when he saw Mia with one so he had to have one too.  And he was happy to find a pig mask.  Mia, of course, was all about the cows.  (I noticed there is a bear mask with the farm animal masks, but hey, this is Montana so maybe that fits!!)

On the first day of toy exchange we usually don't do too many other activities as they are pretty busy all morning.  Mia was bouncing around pestering Cooper; "Hey Coop!!  Hey Buddy!!"  Then she'd take his toy and grin at me when I had her return it.  She was after one of his toys and I said, "HEY!" She jumped and said, "You almost scared me!!"  Silly Mia.

9/19/2014

Mia ate half of her oatmeal and ate dried cranberries for breakfast.  She ate a large serving of everything at lunch: ground beef, elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, peas, and applesauce.

Not too much to say about this picture except I thinks it's pretty stinking cute!!  :)  Look at her eyes; she's really examining how they look!!  And a little kiss too!

Cooper and Mia played with the blocks and stacked up some towers and were sitting behind them playing with their babies.  (Care Bears)  Mia said, "come find us!"

They also did more backward flops off the climber, read books, filled the school buses full of people, and played with the etch-a-sketch at Art Time.  I bought three new books last night (two Dr. Seuss) and they had me read those two times.

I'll often make Story Time interactive as well as just reading.  And I love the answers I hear from this age group.  (Probably because the answers are sometimes totally different than what I may be expecting!)  For example this morning we were reading a Pooh Bear book about "sharing."  This was the picture: Eeyore sitting in the rain and Piglet was walking toward him with an umbrella.  And it reads: "Eeyore's in the rain getting wetter and wetter.  What does Piglet share to make him feel better?"  Mia's two year old logic came up with; "bandaid!!"  I love it!  Hey, bandaids make us feel better!!

9/18/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast: whole wheat english muffin and blueberries.  For lunch she ate a large serving of turkey sandwich, a large serving of green beans, and two servings of kiwi.

I had to run an errand this morning and Lauralea watched the kids for me.  Lauralea picked up my pen and was taking some notes about the kids for me and Cooper did not think she should be touching my stuff!  LOL  He kept pointing at the pen and paper saying, "Uh-oh, uh-oh!!  Gary's...Gary's!!"  Lauralea told him that I'd asked her to take notes and that satisfied him!  Love it!  He totally knows that's my stuff and they aren't allowed to mess with it!  So Lauralea shouldn't either! Lauralea said she sneezed really loud and Mia asked, "Are you ok!?!"  Ha!

Mia and Cooper played with the Care Bear babies - Cooper takes the green one and Mia takes the blue one.  And it's been that way all week.  They were singing to their babies, wrapping them up, and chasing each other around.  "My baby's gonna get you!!"

Mia is really into the whole riding horses thing right now and she asked Cooper, "You wanna ride?"  Of course he did and the first thing he said was, "Faster!"  LOL  Mia likes sitting on my chair on the patio and pulling up the straps from underneath and using it as her horsey.  She said, "Come on Coop! Ride on your horsey! (There are two straps)  Cooper sat down, pulled on his strap and said, "Yee Haw!"  Then he stood up and walked off!  LOL  But that satisfied Mia.

Mia and Cooper were flopping backwards onto the mattress again.  They began doing it on the second step of the climber, but I suggested they start doing it off the yellow piece (see in the picture) because it's closer to the mattress.  Mia said, "It's scary for us!!"  Then she promptly did it!  Then she said, "Now I'm not too scary for this!!"  LOL  I love how they form their sentences!

9/17/2014

Mia had three servings of jelly toast and two servings of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate beef & bean burrito, sweet potatoes, and most of tropical fruit.  At breakfast she made a major announcement:  "Gary!  I have a dog at my house!  His name is Ty-ty!!"  :)  Yes Mia.  And I'd be wealthy if I had a dollar for every time you've told me that!!

Nike Corporation is well represented by Mia and Cooper at Little Treasures today!  They both have Nike shirts, Nike shorts, and Nike shoes!  Mia shirt says, "Crazy Wicked Fast!"  Mia said, "Mia is FAST!"  (I would agree with that!!)  And she went smoking across the room to prove her point!  

It's a lot of fun watching Mia and Cooper play together and they really do enjoy each other!  In the picture below Mia was trying to get Cooper to eat some food she'd fixed, but he wasn't too interested.  She was saying things like; "Cooper!  You want some eggs?!...Want some food!?!....Are you awake Honey?!?.....(and everything else she could think of)...I guess you don't want to eat!!"  LOL

"You wanna read stories Coop!?!"  (I love the "Coop" thing!)  And we have the daily reading picture!  While they were reading they started looking at Cooper's tattoo and Mia convinced him that his tattoo was "broken!"  He was almost in tears wanting that thing removed!  He comes to me and holds out his arm saying, "Gary!!"  So we cleaned his arm off and he went back to reading with Mia.  She said, "Gary! You took it off?"  Yup.  "That's cool!"  :)

They played in the big box for probably 30 minutes.  Mia was constantly chattering and Cooper was going along with most of it and keeping up with her bouncing from one thing to another.  It went something like this:  "My baby's tired!  Is your baby tired?!....My baby's awake!  Is your baby awake?!....I gotta feed my baby! You gotta feed your baby?....Gotta watch a movie!  You wanna watch a movie?....I'm gonna take a nap!  You gonna take a nap?"   And lots more!!  :)

Cooper disappeared and I knew he was trying to poop.  In a few minutes Mia announced; "Cooper got some poop out Gary!!"  Thank you Mia; how do you know?  She got down and started sniffing him and said, "Ewwww!!  Poooop!!"  Cooper was laughing at her.  :)

9/16/2014

Mia ate two servings of cinnamon roll and ate dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she had bites of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and cheese combo, bites of waffle, and ate a large serving of cantaloupe.  At the breakfast table Mia looked at Cooper's bruise under his eye and asked, "Did you crash Cooper!?!"  (She heard Jamie and us discussing how he crashed this morning.)

Cooper and Mia have been into the "telescopes" lately so I gave them some tubes and took this picture of them looking at the insects.

Mia was having fun with the dress-up clothes and asked, "Do I look like a Princess Gary?!"  So I had to take a picture of what she looked like!  I said, "Yes you do Honey!  A soccer princess!"  She has the shorts, shirt, soccer shoes and the added touch of more shorts on her head too!  :)

Mia was so funny every time she went potty this morning!  She's wearing her yellow skirt (with no separate leg holes) today and this baffled her every time.  She was taking a long time and I went back in to check on her and she was on the floor looking at her skirt saying things like; "I don't know where the right foot is...this foot Gary, this foot!?!?"  ALSO in the bathroom she said, "I have frozen panties!" Huh, what??  Ha!  For those of us who haven't seen the new animated movie "Frozen" that was kind of a startling statement!!

Several times this month since Baby Elliott has arrived Mia has watched me taking care of him and she'll say, "When I was a baby Daddy hold me tight!!"  :)

9/15/2014

Mia ate about half of her breakfast: kix cereal and mixed fruit.  For lunch she had two servings of ham sandwich, ate peas, and mandarin oranges.

After lunch she was ready for nap!  You know Mia's tired when she asks for a nap!  So she went to her nap mat first and when I walked out to change Cooper's diaper there were two deer at our bird feeder.  For those who may not know the feeder is about 10 feet from the big window.

Cooper and Mia were having a great time all morning.  I took this picture when they were standing on some building blocks and pretending to fall backwards.  They were taking turns and when one was doing it the other one would run and sit here and watch.  (and laugh!!)

I suggested they fall backwards onto the mattress instead of (pretending to fall) onto the floor.  (It was pretty obvious one of them were going to actually fall over backwards.)  So we practiced it and here's a picture of Mia doing the backwards flop.  :)

She had fun doing the decorative tape at art, reading books, answering questions about the books at Story Time, and playing with the food toys.  They have been "cutting" the food toys after sticking them together with velcro.  Also, Cooper accidentally figured out the velcro likes to stick to the material that his shirt is made of and he came to show me;  "Look Gary, Look!"  Then they were standing on the building blocks and Mia was scooting them along and saying, "skate, skate, skate."

9/12/2014

Mia ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate meatloaf, half of pita bread, ate carrots, and apricots.

Mia has been using the legos blocks for a "telescope" all week.  I hear the word "pirate" a lot so I'm assuming there's a movie involved.  Now Cooper is also doing it with the legos; except in this picture he's holding Grover up to his eye.  :)  They also use the legos to make "cakes" and they were randomly singing, "Happy Birthday" several times this morning.

I had some "scratch" paper and I was taking notes for this journal and I also write down what the kids eat at meal times.  Mia was watching me and the paper had lines and other marks on it.  She asked me, "What is this game?"  LOL

Cooper wanted to put on dress-up clothes like Mia.  He had on shorts, shirt, and soccer shoes.  Mia said it wasn't a shirt, but a "jersey!"  :)  They also played with the blocks, glued and did stickers at Art Time, and were wrestling and laughing while I was putting their lunch on the table.

This is kind of a side note that you may find interesting.  My Mom asked me if Cooper and Mia were missing Riley and Nora.  My response was this; Children this age rarely express "thoughts" about feelings, so we watch for it more in behavior.  (So judging from behavior, I think these two are doing fine.)  Also, they have a totally different concept about "time" than adults do, so days, weeks, and even months can go by before they even mention the person who is gone.  (Lauralea and I have seen this over and over throughout the years of Child Care.)  So as an example, this morning after Mia came she was sitting at the table doing her morning ritual; eating some little pancakes she brought with her.  She looked around and said, "Hey, where's Nora!?!"  That's the first time she's asked.

9/11/2014

Mia ate cinnamon toast and three servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of chicken, half of dinner roll, ate hash browns, and cherries.  Right before lunch Mia was oblivious to Cooper trying to poop and she was saying, "Ready! Set! Go!"  (over and over) wanting to "race."  Cooper just kind of looked at her;  "No."  (Huge poop!)

Mia and Cooper laid out the stacking cups around them and got a stack of books to read.  They read lots of books everyday - I love it!  During Story Time this morning I asked them; "What is this book?"  Cooper said, "Down low!"  It was "Do your ears hang low?"  :)  Mia can quote lines out of almost all of our "Special Books."  (That's what we call the ones on the shelf that I read to the kids.)

They put all these piles of blocks in front of the igloo and then crawled through the hole.  When I took this picture Mia said, "Hi Gary!  We're hiding!"  :)

We played with the bath foam at Art Time and for a couple of minutes Cooper just watched Mia.  I would agree Cooper, it was quite entertaining!  Cooper was rubbing the table vigorously and said, "Happy Birthday!"  :)

Mia will sometimes (mildly) resist my daily suggestion to fix her hair.  Lately she's been taking the initiative by saying (before I even mention it) something like this, "My hair looks good!"  LOL  And that's what she said this morning!

9/10/2014

Mia ate whole wheat bagel and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ham, most of mac-n-cheese, a large serving of corn, and ate her apple pieces.  She did really well this morning; you would have never known she did not feel well yesterday!!  I took several pictures to illustrate the point!  :)  And she was full of energy and played hard right up to lunch time!

This picture was taken before breakfast.  They were spinning for at least 20 minutes.  Mia had the two "Grovers" and Cooper had two "Cat in the Hats."  After a few minutes Mia said her "babies are so tired" and put the Grover family to bed.  Then she was right back to spinning.

Here's another picture of them playing with the school buses again.  Cooper was thrilled to have his buddy Mia back today - running at full throttle!  It's amazing how much better she is feeling today!

I took this picture when Mia and Cooper were talking to Elliott.  Actually they were making funny sounds and I think they were being horses.  Elliott is just fine with lots of activity and loud noises!

I took this picture after they had barricaded themselves behind the igloo with block walls on the sides.  They were "hiding from the baby."  Then they were calling out to him; "baby! baby! baby!"  The baby was all the way across the room at the book rack playing with some books.  :)

I yawned and Mia said, "You're NOT tired Gary!!"  Oh good!  :)  They were setting down to do some dot painting at Art Time and Mia enthusiastically said, "Let's DO this Cooper!!"  LOL  Mia got some paint on her arm and she asked me, "Did Cooper do that?"  :)  Uhhh, no.  We also did some singing and sign language and Mia remembers our signs so well.

9/9/2014

Mia ate waffle and pears for breakfast.  She did not want any lunch.  About 10:45 she started crying and after I asked what was the matter she said that her head hurt.  She sat in the chair for a couple of minutes and then started going to sleep.  I said she could lay on the mattress and you can see in the bottom picture what happened next!  Anyhow, when it was lunch time she was only interested in sleeping so we'll see how she feels when she wakes up.  It was really quite different because it seemingly came on so sudden.  She'd been playing just fine and then while she was sitting for story time is when she got so tired.

When I was putting syrup on her waffle at breakfast I was reminded of snack yesterday afternoon. We were having cottage cheese and pretzels and she asked me for some syrup for her cottage cheese. That made me laugh and then she started laughing too!  Nice try Mia!

Another note from yesterday afternoon: I'd laid out a blanket on the grass for the baby to crawl around on and Mia told Cooper; "We're having a picnic party Cooper!"  :)  Very cute.

Cooper and Mia were having fun doing some painting at art time.  She was playing great and they painted for a long time.

Then after art is when I started reading stories and here is what happened next!  :)

9/8/2014

Mia ate two servings of chex cereal and ate mixed fruit for breakfast.  At the breakfast table she asked if she could drink her milk out of her bowl.  I said she could; expecting her to hold the bowl and drink it.  She started lapping it up like a puppy.  "Uhhh, you're not a puppy Mia!"  :)  For lunch she ate roast beef sandwich, drank half of tomato soup, and a bite of lettuce salad.  At the lunch table Mia sneezed and Cooper said, "Bless you!"  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Mia read books, played with dolls, and pushed the school buses around.  And she was making lots of cakes with the legos pieces.

She started doing some "silly singing" (quite loudly) I might add!  So I managed to get a picture of it before she moved onto something else!!  You can see one of her birthday cakes she made on the arm of the chair in the picture.

In this second picture Mia was reading the books to Cooper again and he was stretched out using Pooh Bear for his pillow and resting his feet on the bar in front of the mirror.  Mia said, "Cooper's going night night!"  :)

Mia yelled, "Stories; I want stories!"  Cooper immediately searched around and found my chair pillows!  He knows the routine!  And he was making sure I saw he had found them.  :)  Thank you Cooper.

9/5/2014

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

During Story Time we were reading an "I Spy" book and it shows an item like a "heart" on the left page and they search for the "heart" on the right page.  Mia does very well and can locate the items quickly.  Later Mia and Cooper were reading the "I Spy" book again and Mia was using the kind of language I was using when reading to them.  "Cooper, I need you find...on this page....!"  And like you see in the picture he would find it and point at it.  Mia would say, "Good job!"  They probably did that at least 20 times going through every page again and he was furious when she stopped!  "Book book book!"  Right after I took this picture Cooper sneezed and splattered Mia's arm pretty good!  She whipped her head around and looked up at him like "what the heck!" and came to me to have her arm wiped off.  And it needed it!  "Cooper sneezed on me!!"  LOL

I took this second picture after Art Time and they went right back to reading books.  Mia was singing "Twinkle twinkle little star..."  Cooper was reading his own books and doing his own singing.

This morning Lauralea was checking some work messages on her phone and Mia asked, "Why are you texting Riley?"  LOL  Then Mia was looking at the Birthday Poster and she said, "My cake is November - November Seven!"  I said, "I think it's November five."  She said (very adamantly I might add!), "NO! SEVEN!"  So I went and looked at the calendar and "Sorry Mia; you are so right! Your cake is November Seven!!"

9/4/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast: Whole wheat thins with cinnamon and sugar, and cantaloupe.  For lunch she ate turkey, dinner roll, green beans, and two servings of mangoes.  At the breakfast table she was talking about someone (I couldn't understand who) "take me to the water slides!"  Cooper started saying, "water-slides, water-slides!"  Mia said, "No! I am!!"  :)

I can't let a week go by without a picture of Mia feeding one of her babies!  In this toy set she has favored the "bunnies" rather than the dolls.  :)

Elliott was crawling by and Mia was saying to him, "Come up here Baby, come up here Baby!!"  She was pretty concerned yesterday afternoon when we were picking up toys to go outside because Elliott was grabbing toys during clean-up time.  :)  Cooper is also very concerned when Elliott gets within 5 feet of his toys; "No baby, no baby!"

Lauralea was working on her iPad this morning and Mia asked, "What is that? What is that?"  (As if she didn't know!!)  I told her; "You know!!"  She said, "I love iPad!!  I love Daddy's iPad!"  LOL

Mia and Cooper had fun during Story Time identifying colors in the "Color Book" and other items in the "I Spy" book.  She did lots of "puppy play" as well.  She was being a growly puppy and saying some really silly things; only about half of which I could understand.  Then she had her hands on her hips and was lecturing about something!  She said, "Titan will bite you in no time!!"  (I think that's the first time I've heard her not call him "ty-ty.")  I had to laugh at that one!

9/3/2014

Mia ate whole wheat toast and two servings of mixed berries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ham, crackers, bites of bean & bacon soup, and ate strawberries.

I took this first picture yesterday afternoon when Mia and Cooper were sitting side-by-side, playing with some bunnies, and keeping an eye on Baby Elliott.  I asked the kids if Elliott was a baby girl or a baby boy.  Mia (laughing) said, "Nooooo!  He's a BABY!!  He's a Alley-lit!"  (Elliott)  LOL  Baby Elliott barely fussed one time this morning and Mia said, "Baby hungry!!"  She already knows the routine!  :)

Mia says lots of funny things that make me laugh.  She said, "I have a great idea!"  Ok, let's hear it.  She just grinned and said something about a "super ride."  Then we were at the window waiting for Mommy to drive by and wave this morning and she said, "My Momma always goes the wrong way!" I didn't bother trying to explain that we sat there looking the wrong direction for quite awhile and she may have driven by during that time!!

Mia was playing with the food toys and had all (6) of the cookies.  Cooper wanted one, of course, and I encouraged her to give him "one for each hand."  And she gave him two.  Good job Mia.  She was proud of herself and said, "I share with Cooper!"  And then added, "You can't have all of them!!"  :)  She was setting the table again (like in the picture I posted yesterday) and said, "It's dinner Honey!  Come here!"  Cooper was not responding and she said, "It's dinner time!!  HONEY!!"  LOL

It's amazing how many stories and songs the kids hear and retain.  I was reminded again of this today when I heard Mia singing along with a song on my iPod called "Children of America."  (Cactus Cuties)  There are probably 300 kid's songs on the iPod and lots that we don't sing, but just listen to like that one.  And there are lots more that we do sing which are not on the iPod.

9/2/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast: whole wheat bagel and apricots.  For lunch she ate most of her chicken, large serving of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, ate peas, and applesauce.

Things were a little different this morning with Baby Elliott starting, but Mia and Cooper did just fine and played together really well.  Mia looked at Elliott and said, "What is that one!?!"  LOL  Lauralea and I laughed about that!  Cooper was here before Mia and already knew the baby's name and he said, "Elliott."

Cooper was funny because he was sure the baby was going to "get him" or "get his stuff!"  When Elliott was sleeping I had the baby monitor in the play room and Cooper was chanting, "Elliott Elliott Elliott..."  Lauralea had told Cooper and Mia that "those are baby toys" and they were for Elliott.  Mia said, "Cooper!  Get that one there!"  :)

Cooper had the Panda Bear and was dragging it across the floor trying to keep it away from the baby and he was saying, "Oh oh, oh oh!"  Then he had the Panda Bear on the mattress and was trying to roll it across the mattress and Mia came to his assistance.  The baby looks like quite the "threat" to steal their bear doesn't he?!?  :)

I took this picture after Mia had the table all set and she was saying, "It's ready Honey, it's ready Honey!" over and over.

I put ponytails in Mia's hair and then I sprayed a little water on Cooper's hair and combed it.  Shortly after Mia walked by and patted his head.  He was not impressed; "My hair!!"  :)  Those two had fun standing on the Panda Bear and flopping backwards onto the mattress - over and over.  Then they were in the big box and Cooper was being Mia's "baby."

My goal is to continue to have these journals complete sometime between 12:30 - 2:30.  It all depends on the schedule of the baby.