8/22/2014

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

Here's a lunch table conversation:

Mia - "Thank you for dinner Gary!"

Nora - "It's NOT dinner; it's lunch!"

Mia - "I'm not talking to you; I'm talking to Gary!"

And that's a prime sampling of their relationship!  :)

I took this picture of Mia's hair after Lauralea braided it.  Look at the thickness of the braid - and you can see it's only from the circle of hair on the top of her head.  Pretty impressive!

Mia, Riley, and Cooper were having a blast with the masks this morning; Mia was wearing the wolf mask and growling and chasing Cooper and Riley.  They were laughing, running, and playing this game for at least 20 minutes.

Mia was in the chair and was whining because Cooper was bugging her.  (So I moved him away from her.)  Nora was trying to fix it and walked over to Mia and said, "I'm a nice girl; do you want me?"  (Do you want me to sit by you?)  Mia ignores the gesture and leaves.  Nora said, "You don't want anybody?"  (Apparently not!)

8/21/2014

Mia ate whole wheat english muffin and three servings of blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of turkey sandwich, ate green beans, and two servings of strawberries.

Mia was here for 45 minutes before anyone else arrived and finally she asked, "Where's Riley, Cooper, Jamie, and Nora!?!"  Notice she included Jamie in the list - which made Lauralea and I laugh.  :)  Hey, she's part of the Day Care Family too!

Here's a picture of Cooper and Mia being very sanitary!  Actually Riley is the one who started this; every time it rains Riley has been running to all the climbers yelling, "lick lick lick!"  I know this isn't very sanitary, but it's dang cute!!  Cooper and Mia were saying, "lick lick lick!"  So after the picture we moved on to something different!!  :)

The kids were at the play house on the patio and Riley was serving them all "ice cream."  Cooper came running to me and was upset because Mia ate all the chocolate ice cream!!  :)  He was whining, "chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!"  Riley, please give brother Cooper some chocolate ice cream - and life was good once again!  :)

At first Riley was calling it "brown" ice cream.  So I asked Mia what flavor was brown ice cream.  She answered, "Chocolate!"  I was impressed so I asked her what flavor is "white" ice cream.  (even though it's not really white!)  She answered, "Chocolate!"  :)

At lunch time I was warming up my coffee in the microwave and the microwave is really loud.  The kids can hear it running and also hear it beep when we're in the lunch room.  (I can't!)  So Riley always alerts me when she hears it beep!  I said something about the microwave "running" and Mia said, "It running fast!!"  LOL  (The daughter of a Track Coach!)

8/20/2014

Mia arrived at lunch time today so her blog will continue tomorrow.

8/18/2014

Mia is with Family in Helena; Blog will return when Mia returns!  Maybe Wednesday or Thursday.

8/15/2014

Mia ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  We ate breakfast a little earlier than usual because Mia and Nora were both about to faint from lack of food.  Nora said, "I JUSSSST want to eat!"  And Mia whined, "I'm STILL hungry Gary!!"  :)  For lunch she ate meatloaf, whole wheat pita bread, bites of carrots, and ate apricots.  It was an interesting morning with only Nora and Mia here and it was fun listening to them visit at the breakfast table.  Nora told Mia, "You make me laugh Mia; you make me laugh all the time!"  (And I was thinking....if only that were true!!)  :)

These two girls played together quite well at times and at other times they played well while they were apart!  They really do like each other, but like I've mentioned many many times, they could NOT be more different in temperament and personality.  Pretty much polar opposites!  Here's the real story on the picture below: Mia arranged the blocks like you see and invited Nora to join her.  Nora was in there a few seconds (long enough for me to take this picture) and said, "Don't push me!....I'm gonna get out of here!  I'll see you in a little bit, ok!?!"  (Look closely at Nora's body language - her right shoulder and arm.  She's trying hard to get some distance between her and Mia!)  Love these girls!!

Nora included Mia in one of her elaborate pretend scenarios.  She informed me that "We're going to Boston; we won't see you anymore!  And we're going to the beach!"  :)  (That's where Nora went on vacation with her family this summer.)  She kept telling Mia "Let's go, let's go!"  Mia said, "I get my purse and phone!"  LOL  (The two essentials!)  Nora was not being very patient!  "I'm going to leave you! You need to come!"  Mia started talking about "You gonna buckle up - I'm gonna buckle up!"  They almost immediately started fighting over the big bear and that was before the trip even started!!

We filled the bird feeder and walked on the sidewalk around the yard to reach the back yard.  I was thinking about continuing on a walk, but Mia was wanting to run ahead and Nora was puttering along  behind so it was obvious that wouldn't work!  :)  Mia's motor was running fast outside and she was sprinting in circles around the yard.  Nora stood and watched her and said, "She's trying to catch me, but it's too late!"  LOL  And all the time Mia was yelling, "Can't catch me Nora, can't catch me!"  I told Mia; "You are a runner!"  Nora said, "And I'm a walker!"  LOL  I was clapping for Mia and cheering her on - trying to keep her running!  I call it preparation for Nap Time!  (Get them as tired as possible!)  As long I kept clapping and cheering she kept running.  Mia said, "Clap for me Gary; clap for me!"  :)

8/14/2014

Mia ate cinnamon toast and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of chicken, dinner roll, hash browns, and ate cherries.

Yesterday afternoon before it started raining the wind was whipping up the leaves and we were watching them blow across the yard.  Riley said, "Now I have to pick them up!!"  All the kids were quite concerned about the bird feeder too as it was flapping from side-to-side.  Nora and Mia were saying, "Oh no! The bird feeder!!"

During Story Time we were reading "Toddlerobics" and Mia and Nora were having a blast with certain parts and doing what the book said;  Especially the "bump bottoms" (they were back-to-back and bumping their bottoms together) and "rub noses."  They were laughing hard!

Mia's hair was bugging her shortly after she arrived and said, "My hair's in my way!!"  I put in a couple of ponytails and then I had to take this picture when one of the ponytails flopped down in front of the other one.

This is a picture of the daily ritual before lunch while I am getting it ready to set on the table.  Riley and Nora usually share a chair in the living room and look at catalogs.  Mia and Cooper will sometimes look together (like in the picture) or they will look individually.  After I took this picture Mia started messing around and rolling up the magazine and Cooper apparently thought it was pretty funny; he was laughing really hard!  These catalogs are full of kid's toys, art supplies, etc.

8/13/2014

Mia ate half of her breakfast: toast and peaches.  For lunch she ate most of her ham, a large serving of mac-n-cheese, a bite of salad, and a large serving of corn.  Mia kept telling us she tried a bite of lettuce salad and Nora and Riley both told her, "Good job Mia!"

We went out to the bird feeder and refilled it again.  The kids are studying the sack of bird feed and the bird feeder is leaning against the pole.  We refill it every other day.

Mia and Cooper played together several times this morning and in this picture they were having fun with the food toys.

This picture is pretty self-explanatory!  They were both pretending to sleep, but I never did catch them sleeping at the same time!!  :)  (Except I think Nora may have her eyes closed in the picture.)

At art time I gave each of the kids a choice for painting; hands or paint brush.  They all chose "brush" and that lasted for 75% of the project and they all finished up using their hands.  Riley was the first one to ask me, "Can I use my hands?"  Nora had been experimenting with pushing down hard with the brush and making different designs with it.  (And Mia was experimenting with how it all tasted!!)

Yesterday Riley, Cooper, and Mia (Nora had just left) spotted a bug on the climber and Mia had her nose about three inches from it.  Cooper and Riley were laughing and squealing so hard.  (With quite a bit of nervousness mixed in.)  When Mia realized how much they liked what she was doing she cranked it up a notch or two.  One of the times Mia touched the bug with her nose.  The other two were roaring with laughter.  As soon as I mentioned how BRAVE Mia was being that totally changed Riley's approach - she started getting brave too and then she'd jump back and giggle and squeal some more.  It was sooo cute!  And she did it over and over.