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?!?"  :)