11/26/2014

Mia ate whole wheat toast and two servings of mixed berries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ham, crackers, bean & bacon soup, and most of her strawberries.  After lunch Mia had already went potty and was on her nap mat when I was changing Cooper's diaper.  He was kind of concerned because he didn't know where she was at.  "No Mia Anywhere!?!"

Cooper and Mia were finding a new place to arrange the stuffed animals.  Cooper was fetching them and Mia was putting them in place.  And they were pretty proud of themselves.

The kids did LOTS of stickers and decorative tape at Art Time and we read lots of books as well.  It's amazing how many stories and songs both of them know.  I always ask them about the book we're going to read (or the song we're going to sing) and now, instead of one or two words, they both will frequently recite an entire line or verse!  Today we were reading "Mouse's First Day at School" and in one of the pictures the mouse is walking in the paint.  Mia said, "We want to do that!! -- Feet in paint!!"  Hmmm....Why not??!!  :)

Lauralea was showing the kids how to play with this little froggy and they had it going back-n-forth to each other at the table.  Cooper said, "Crack me up!!"  :)

Yesterday or Monday one of Mia's socks had a hole in the toe.  She and Cooper were both pretty concerned about it and Mia said, "My sock's broke!!"  :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  I'm very thankful for all the Children at Little Treasures and for the very supportive families!!  The Blog will return on Monday, December 1st.

11/25/2014

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

I always ask Mia what she did "last night."  For months and months her standard answer has been "Mommy, Daddy, TyTy."  Today she said, "I don't want to talk about it."  Ha ha ha!  Then she was eating on the waffle she'd brought with her and drinking some milk from her cup.  When she was done she asked Lauralea to "Put this (milk cup) in MY refrigerator."  :)

Cooper was eating lunch and spotted the number 3 on Elliott's snow suit.  "Three, three, three!!"  And "Spider Man, Spider Man!"  (Which are on Elliott's snow boots.)  I asked Mia if she'd spotted it too and she said, "Noooo, I'm still looking for it!!"

This picture looks like a conspiracy in the making!!  (Especially if you look at the book title!) Mia was reading books to Cooper and then they were doing this for a long time; long enough for me to get the camera and get a picture!!

Riley informed us this morning the light to the little fish tank is burned out!  (I'm not sure how I survive without you here full-time Riley!!)  So Mia, Cooper, and I took it apart to reach the light.  Now all the parts are in a dish and the kids were especially concerned about the (fake) fish.  Mia asked, "Are they dead?"  I said, "Not when they're in the water!!"  And that satisfied her.

We read lots of books and did some painting at Art Time.  Tomorrow we'll be doing stickers AGAIN at Art.  They love the stickers and ask to do them almost every day.  I try to come up with a variety of things they are capable of doing, but they never seem to get tired of the stickers.  (And I have lots of different kinds!)

11/24/2014

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

Lauralea yawned this morning and Mia had to mimic her with a fake yawn and then said, "ooooh, I had a good sleep!!"  :)  It was pretty funny!

Several times Cooper mentioned Mia's shirt; "She has Christmas lights - look like jelly beans!"

Cooper joined Mia in one of her favorite games - Puppy Play.  Except Mia is usually the puppy!  They both had plates of food for their puppies.  That happens to be celery she's about to feed her puppy!  (In the picture.)  I might be colorblind, BUT that celery looks pretty realistic to me!

Cooper and Mia were having big time fun "hiding" from Elliott; mostly hiding in the igloo.  It kind of went like this; "Here comes the Baby!!"  ---  "He's coming back!"  ---  "Let's get out of here!" --- "Hide hide!  He's coming!!"  LOL  Elliott didn't have a clue he was part of a game!

Cooper and Mia are very excited about a new Dr. Seuss book.  (Just "new" to us of course.  Actually copyrighted in 1963!)  "Hop on Pop"  They both love the silly word combinations.

11/21/2014

Mia ate half of chex cereal and ate raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of ground beef, ate a large serving of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, large serving of mixed fruit, and ate her applesauce.

Cooper is hanging out (along with sisters Riley and Kenzie) with Grandpa and Grandma today.  The Grandparents are in town for the weekend - I guess there's some kind of Football Game tomorrow!!  Go Griz!!  :)

Mia did just fine playing by herself this morning and played with lots of stuff as well as reading and doing art.  She asked if she could do stickers for Art, so that's what we did.  She jammed her paper full of stickers!

I haven't included a picture with Baby Sophie lately so here she is!  A sweet and wonderful baby!  Mia is getting lots of good training for being a Big Sister!  We had a little boy in our Program a few years ago (Colt Calahan - Darcy knows the family) and his Mommy was also pregnant with his little sister.  He called one of the babies in our Program his "Practice Sister!"  And that's what Sophie is; Mia's Practice Sister!

Just about every day after the snow has arrived Mia will look outside and say, "It snow!"  After she said it this morning I asked her; "Do you know what day of the week it is?"  :)  She answered, "Christmas!"  Hey, good guess!  Then she went to the window and said, "I'm gonna show you the snow - it's Christmas!!"  Prefect logic!  :)

For two or three days this week Mia has been using the same two pieces of legos and "fixing" everything.  She found them again this morning and was "fixing" the table and then tried to "fix" Elliott.  She said, "Elliott don't want fixed!!"  LOL  "What do you have?" I asked her.  She said, "It's my fixer!!"  :)

11/20/2014

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

Yesterday the kids were watching a deer stroll down the middle of the street just outside the big window.  I asked them; "I wonder what that deer is doing?"  Mia said, "He's looking for food."  Cooper said, "Yah!"  :)

Both Babies had just went to sleep so Cooper and Mia went outside to run and play right after breakfast.  It's a little bit warmer this week and they were very enthusiastic about getting outside for awhile.  They lasted almost 30 minutes before Mia said her hands were getting cold.  She's just swatting away some snow in this picture.  (Just in case someone is concerned: I have a sound monitor for one baby and I can observe the other baby through the window!)

And in this picture they're looking for some ice to chew on!  Cooper spotted the "bubbles container" sitting on the step (which I'd forgotten to put away for the winter) and he asked, "Do bubbles?"  Of course they were froze solid!

Mia is busy eating some snow here; but the real reason I took this picture is to show you Mia wearing my knit cap.  :)  Her hood would not stay on and this worked very well for her and kept her toasty warm!!

Mia has been a very good helper lately AND she loves to be a helper!  This morning she even anticipated what I needed and brought it for me before I asked her.  I was very impressed!  I had just fixed Elliott his bottle and was sitting in the chair to feed him and she handed me his burp cloth!  During the day I have them hanging on the gate.  Thank you Mia and good job!

11/19/2014

Mia ate biscuits and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of baked beans, ate dinner roll, a large serving of peas, and ate pineapple.

Whenever I get out the Big Brown Bear or the Big Panda Bear it's like something new.  I took pictures of them wrestling with the Panda Bear and they were having so much fun.  For more exercise they were twisting and twirling until their eyes were rolling around.  :)  Whenever they start spinning Mia always says, "We need music!!"

I was talking to Baby Elliott and asking him questions about what he did last night!  :)  Mia looked at me like I had forgotten something!  "He DON'T talk!!"  Ha ha!

While I was fixing Mia's hair she was wanting Cooper to pick up her "computer."  (One she'd made with legos.)  She was trying hard to point where it was at and trying to get him to look where she was pointing.  (The funny part was I could hear myself - I've done and said the same thing to them many times.)  It sounded like this; "Look over there Cooper.....look over there!!....look where I'm pointing!.....look at me Cooper - look at my finger!!!"  :)

We read lots of books and they were identifying lots of animals.  When we finished one book Mia said, "I like Wolf!"  Cooper said, "I like Crickets!"  :)  We also did stickers at Art Time and I even found a few little ones for Thanksgiving.

11/18/2014

Mia ate two servings of waffles and ate hash browns for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of cheese & chicken quesadilla, ate carrots, and oranges.

I took this picture of Cooper and Mia yesterday afternoon and they were having so much fun playing on the toy shelves.  They were pretending to sleep and then yelling at each other to "wake up!!"  They were spending a whole lot more time yelling than they were sleeping!  :)

And this morning they were right back to the sleeping game again!  Except they were under the climber today.  After this game they started building with the legos.  Mia said her piece was a "computer" and Cooper said his was a "boat."

Cooper kept saying, "see bear, see bear."  (We haven't looked at the Big Bears in Alaska lately so I got the computer so we could.  Actually the salmon run is long over, but there are some past highlights to look at.)  We watched a bear catch a salmon and then eat it.  Mia kept saying, "poor fishy, poor fishy." I kind of thought so too!  Mainly because the bear started eating at the tail first!!

Cooper sure liked the dinosaur (the one that moved it neck that he was playing with) at Mia's Birthday Party.  He randomly said (again), "Mia has dinosaur!!"

Mia got a book for Baby Elliott, handed it to him, and said, "Read the book Elliott!!"  Ha!  :)  Yes Ma'am!!! I'll get right on that Ma'am!!  :)

11/17/2014

Mia ate half of her cheerios and ate banana serving for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of cheese sandwich, drank a large serving of tomato soup, and ate half of lettuce salad.

Cooper loves the "I Spy" book you see in the picture.  (And Mia likes it as well, just not as much as Cooper does.)  It shows a couple different items on the left page and then you look for those items within the maze of other items on the opposite page.  There are lots of interesting things like airplanes, cars, trucks, balls, animals, etc.  However, I'm including the picture on Mia's Blog so you can see the puppy she chose to play with all morning.

Speaking of Puppies - Mia was in Puppy Mode all morning!!  And I literally mean "all morning!" Silly girl!!  :)  She said, "Call me Mia Doggy!"  Ha!  We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the stuffed animals in this set are ALL dogs and puppies!

I did see Mia playing with the shapes out of the shape sorter and she said she was making a "cake."  I like how she's been arranging everything in a circle lately.  I see it with lots of different toys and in her art work especially.

Cooper and Mia were singing, "Three Blind Mice" this morning and they were doing a good job with it.  (Cooper mentioned that song several times today.)  They also played one of Mia's favorite games; "Let's go to the race Cooper!!"  (Which is an invitation to "race" back-n-forth across the room.)

11/14/2014

Mia ate all of her breakfast: Oatmeal and dried cranberries.  For lunch she also ate everything: ground beef, a large serving of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, peas, and applesauce.

Mia has been asking Lauralea to "french braid" her hair and this morning Lauralea had the time to do it.  So here is a picture.  :)

Frequently at meal times Mia will ask, "Help me with last bite."  So I decided to take a picture of what her "last bite" frequently will look like.  This is from lunch today after she requested help!!  :)  She'd eaten her applesauce and moved the last of her peas in with the meat and noodles.  You've got several bites there sweetie!!

While Cooper was working on his legos project Mia was jabbering to him and some of it kind of went like this; "Don't play with toys out there, ok Honey?!  Promise!?!"  Ha ha.  Then she went over and started moving his legos around and I reminded her that it was his project.  She replied, "He's my Honey!!"  :)

Cooper's Mom will be returning from Washington DC tomorrow and I think he was missing his Mom when he arrived at Daycare today.  He waved at the window to his family and then just stood there with his forehead resting on the window.  Mia (who was standing and waving beside him) immediately bombarded him with questions (she was very concerned about her Coop); "Are you ok?  Are you sad?  What's wrong Cooper!?!"  And on it went.  Finally she looked at me and said, "He's probably sick!!"  LOL

We were doing Play Dough at Art Time and Mia was pushing hard on her plastic fork into the dough (making cookies) and broke it in half.  Cooper was super concerned about what had just happened and Mia expressed what I was thinking:  "Don't cry Coop!!"  :)

11/13/2014

Mia ate whole wheat english muffin and blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of turkey sandwich, large serving of green beans, and bites of strawberries.

While they were doing Dot Painting at Art Time Cooper noticed the decoration that hangs above the exit door which spells "Little Treasures."  He said, "Letters, Gary, Letters!!"  Then Cooper and Mia together sang all the "ABC" song.  Good job Cooper and Mia!

I took this picture of Mia before Cooper arrived.  She was laying on the floor behind the igloo face-down.  I asked, "Who are you hiding from?"  She answered, "Gary and Cooper!!"  I think this picture is adorable!

Cooper wanted help putting on the Lion Suit, but I was feeding Baby Elliott so I suggested he ask Mia for help.  And she did a great job of helping him.  He'd stuck his leg in through the bottom of the leg hole first, so he was getting it on upside-down.  She recognized what he'd done and fixed that  before continuing the project.  Good job Mia - I was impressed!

Then she put on her own Lion Suit.  You can see Cooper's head in the picture and he'd already taken his Lion Suit off!  It's amazing how often that happens - they'll really work hard to accomplish something and then as soon as it's done they'll move on to something different.  It's usually all about the process and not the finished product!!  I remind myself of that fact frequently when working with this age group!  It's amazing how often their perspective is the opposite of an adult perspective!!

Mia was trying to entice Cooper to eat the breakfast she had prepared for them!  "Sit down at the table Honey!.....Ok?...It time for breakfast - Chocolate - Honey!!"  Cooper was WAY more interested when he heard "Chocolate" was being served!  "Yah!!"

11/12/2014

Mia had three servings of jelly toast and ate mandarin oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate beef & bean burrito, ate sweet potatoes, and two servings of tropical fruit.  When Cooper was sitting down for lunch he was dinking around and slid off the table bench and Mia guffawed, "Whooooaaaa!"  And they both laughed.

Lauralea was helping transport the Cline Kids this morning so things were just a little different.  Kenzie and Riley were here for awhile and Mia went BAM!  That's my acronym for Mia now and it means: "Big-Time Animal Mode!"  :)  She was being a horsey, down on the floor pawing the earth like an angus bull ready to charge, and "neighing" quite loudly!  Riley looked at her and said, "We're not doing that right now!"  Ha!

Mia and Cooper had these spoons from the food toys and were poking them in every hole they could find and then sticking them in their mouths.  "What are you eating?" I asked.  Mia said, "Nooooo! We're getting water!!"  :)

It's been a few days since I've posted a picture of Mia and Cooper reading together.  It's still a daily occurrence and I love how much they both like to read books.  Speaking of reading books - whenever there is a reference to "singing" while I'm reading to them I always sing, "la la la la la..."  Well this morning there was a line in a book that said, "I sing the little baby a song" and Cooper immediately (with Mia joining right in) started singing, "la la la la la..."  :)

Mia was watching me feed Baby Elliott and she always wants to know what he eating.  I told her it was rice cereal mixed with sweet potatoes and I offered her a bite.  "Ewwwww!"  So I said, "I used to feed you baby food."  Mia answered, "I'm not a baby, I'm a girl now!!"  LOL

11/11/2014

Mia ate cinnamon toast and dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and cheese combo, bites of hash browns, and ate her melon.

Cooper was hiding under Laurlea's blanket and Mia was under her blanket on Lauralea's lap this morning.  He was saying, "I hide, I hide."  Then Mia started saying it too.

Cooper and Mia were poking toys into the hole in the middle of the table.  None of them would fit all the way through, but Elliott (see him on the floor in the picture) was watching and laughing hard every time they'd poke something in the hole!  In this picture Cooper is using the (attached) drum stick.

They did lots of block play and legos play.  They never get tired of those games and always finds a "new" way to use them.  Mia kept saying, "That's Cooper!  That's my boy!!" when Cooper would do something "special" with the blocks.  It was pretty funny!  She sounded just like a proud momma!

I told Lauralea that Baby Sophie has a bad "cold" and is not coming to Day Care today.  Mia said, "Yah, it's cold!!"  Ha!

11/10/2014

Mia ate bites of kix cereal and ate mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of ham sandwich, ate peas, and two servings of mandarin oranges.

This morning Lauralea asked Mia, "What's that white stuff on the ground?"  Of course Mia answered, "Snow!"  So Lauralea asked her, "What do you do with snow?"  Mia said, "Scoop it up!"  And then the answer I expected, "Sled!!"  :)

Mia and Cooper were doing lots of jumping this morning and I included another picture of Mia getting a good jump off the top of the igloo.  Today is the first time I've seen Cooper jump off the top of it too.  He has a good Teacher!!  :)

Cooper and Mia played with the food toys too.  She was asking him, "Are you ready for breakfast Honey!?!"   I didn't hear any answer, but that did not seem to discourage her.  :)  The next thing she said was; "Breakfast time!!"  Ha!  They also had fun at art time and Cooper was painting and making these big swooping finishes at the end of each stroke.  Mia chose to use the markers instead of coloring and she worked real hard at making her "map."  She's been doing that for several weeks now; "Making a map!"

11/7/2014

Mia ate brown rice and two servings of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate meat loaf, bites of pita bread, most of carrots, and ate her apricots.  At the breakfast table I said "Happy Birthday" to the Birthday Girl and Cooper started singing it!!  So Mia joined in singing with him!  :)  She said, "Good job Cooper!!"  Very cute.

I love this picture of Cooper and Mia!  I had combed their hair and was getting them ready for "picture time," and they were being so silly and giggly!!  It was so stinking cute!  We'd just finished doing Art and I was going to take a picture of their art work with the new "Flag" duct tape pieces they'd stuck on their paper.  I started singing "Oh say can you see.."  And they sang the next line ("By the dawn's early light") in unison without my help.  It was actually very cool!  Also during Art Time I said "Batman" when talking about the "Spiderman" duct tape!  Cooper looked at me like I'd lost my mind and immediately said, "Spiderman!"  LOL!!  And again Mia said, "Good job Cooper!!"  LOL (AGAIN!!)

Whenever someone sneezes Cooper or Mia (or both) will usually ask, "Are you ok?"  (Which always makes me laugh.)  This morning Cooper sneezed and immediately said, "I'm ok!!"  Just in case someone was wondering!!  Ha!  :)

This is just an FYI thing to let you know what I've been working on with Mia - "Listening and Answering" (So I know she's at least hearing or responding to me).  It's becoming a habit for her to say, "Ok Gary" when I am instructing her and wanting her to follow directions.  And I like that habit! She's been doing very well with it!  I'm also working hard at having her listen to Cooper as well; especially when he wants her to stop an activity that is irritating him.  For example, she does the animal play (a LOT), which is fine, but it's hard for her to understand and accept the fact that it's not always fun for the other person.  Or that they may not want to do it ALL the time!!  :)

11/6/2014

Mia ate cinnamon toast and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate everything: baked chicken, dinner roll, hash browns, and cherries.  During breakfast she randomly asked me, "Do you like syrup?"  Ha ha.

Also at breakfast I asked the kids where milk comes from.  Mia immediately said, "The mountains!"  Ha ha!  Then she said, "The cow-moo store!"  Ok, that's much closer!!  Cooper said (in his soft voice), "From a cow."

Lauralea fixed up a couple of bottles for the kids with a mixture of water, cooking oil, and glitter.  Cooper and Mia were very curious about watching the interesting mixture move around in the bottle.  And of course rolling it across the floor was lots of fun too.  (Mia, immediately said, "Let's open them!!")  Silly girl.  The glitter basically stays attached to the oil as it moves through the water unless you shake it vigorously.

It seems like I always pull Mia's hair at least once while I'm fixing it!  Ugh!!  Thankfully she's pretty forgiving.  Today she said, "Gary pull my hair...Mommy pull my hair....Daddy pull my hair."  I don't know if that's necessarily true, but it made me feel better!!  :)

11/5/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast: whole wheat bagel and peaches.  For lunch she ate ham, a large serving of mac-n-cheese, a large serving of corn, and ate apple pieces.

Lauralea was going out to sit with Mia while I finished up the Daycare food preparation for the day.  Mia asked Lauralea; "Are you coming out with your breakfast?!?"  Ha ha ha!    (Translation: "I want some!!")  So I just had to take this picture of her drooling on Lauralea's arm!

I started this building of legos and Cooper and Mia immediately joined me.  We got a good base started (then I sat in the chair and watched) while they worked on it for about 30 minutes.  Then they tore it all apart and started over again.

The kids were coloring and putting stickers on these cardboard rings to make "bracelets."  Cooper was WAY more interested in rolling his across the table and also making it roll by just blowing on it. Mia joined in the fun, but they did eventually get their bracelets colored and decorated!  It was fun watching them experiment with different ways to roll them.

11/4/2014

Mia ate two servings of waffles and ate pears for breakfast.  Instead of asking for more waffles she said, "Want more syrup!"  Ok, would you also like more waffles with that?  :)  Also at the breakfast table Cooper said, "Crack me up Gary!"  Oh man, I roared!  Then Cooper and Mia started doing these fake laughs and it was hilarious.  For lunch Mia ate tuna, two servings of crackers, ate sweet potatoes, and two servings of oranges.

I took this picture yesterday afternoon after Cooper had arranged all the books around the table bench just the way he wanted them!  Mia joined him and was helping with the few books he had left.  He was mostly concerned because he had more books than he had bench space.  :)

Mia was working on Cooper's hair and they are both watching the progress in the mirror.  Mia kept going to her mouth like she was getting something and I asked her what it was.  "Ponytails!"

Before Lauralea left this morning she was holding Baby Elliott while I was preparing his bottle.  She had her iPad in her hand and the Baby grabbed at it and it almost flew out of her hands.  Mia was watching and said, "Good save!!"  LOL  That was pretty funny!  She will repeat every phrase she hears and she applies them in an applicable situation!

I got some new little paint rollers for the kids to experiment with, BUT as usual they would rather spread it around with their hands!!  :)  These rollers have a short handle attached to balls (slightly bigger than golf balls) and the balls are textured.  One has little bumps all over it and the other has different shaped lines.  Mia enjoyed them for a few minutes and then on to finger painting!

11/3/2014

Mia arrived shortly before 10:30 so her blog will be shorter than normal.  For lunch she ate half of roast beef sandwich, drank a large serving of tomato soup, and ate half of her lettuce salad.

I thought I'd include this picture of Mia from halloween night when she showed up here to trick-or-treat!  She was such a cute little pirate.  And very wild just like I imagine a real pirate to be!!  :)  We usually get several "graduated" Daycare kids as well as currently enrolled kids stopping by to trick-or-treat and it's always a fun night.

I was reading books to Mia and Cooper this morning and one of the books asked the question, "How old are you?"  Mia said, "Six!"  Cooper said, "Six!"  Mia said, "NO! I'm Six!!"  LOL

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and this toy set is all about animals.  Mia and Cooper were putting on the animals (leopard, frog, and two lion) suits.  And the animal masks as well.  Cooper had LOTS of animals lined up in the window when she arrived and he told her, "Lots lined up!!"

When Mia arrived this morning the first thing wanted to do was make sure Cooper knew it was her Grandpa and Grandma who brought her.  Very sweet.