4/9/2015

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

Two quotes when Mia arrived:
Mia - "Where's Sophie at?"
Cooper - "Her Momma pick her up!"  (Which is what happened the last time he saw Sophie!)
Cooper - "Let's go running around!"  As he sprints across the room.  :)

I asked the kids what they were doing and they answered, "Getting bad guys!"  Hmm...Staplers would not be my weapon of choice, but I guess it's better than nothing!  :)  Maybe Cooper's having second thoughts about this plan!  :)

Cooper and Mia played with the food toys and did some camping as well.  They were also talking on the phones and it kind of went like this; "Cooper! Where are you?" (repeated over and over)  "Uhhh, right here!"  (repeated over and over)  "Cooper!  You in Texas!?"  Ha ha!  I asked them what they were doing when I took the picture below and Mia answered, "We're hiding from Elliott, Sophie, and Gary!"  Ha!

In our sets of stuffed animals we have several that have twins, pairs, whatever!  :)  Cooper and Mia were pretty excited today when they spotted the "matches."  Mia said, "Found a match, found a match!"  Cooper said, "I found a match Gary, I found a match!"  It was like they'd noticed for the first time, and maybe it was!!  :)

4/8/2015

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

Mia and Cooper had fun doing the "golf ball" painting at Art Time.  They both decided to use their hands to finish up their art work!

Cooper and Mia were playing with the dress-up shoes and Cooper said, "Those fit on my feet!"  Mia was saying, "Ho ho ho!"  And Cooper said, "You're not Santa Claus!"  :)  Then those two were reading some books and Mia yelled, "Read my Lips!"  (And she repeated it several times!)  Ha ha ha!  I asked her where she heard that!!??  And she finally said, "Hercules Movie!"  (That phrase was made "famous" during the campaign of the first President Bush.)  You can thank me later when you answer some trivia question!

Cooper and Mia (especially Cooper) were quite concerned that Elliott was "getting" Baby Sophie! Cooper yelled, "Help, He's getting her!"  The cute part is this - Sophie is a very spunky little girl and she can hold her own!  Yesterday I was just about to say to Elliott, "Don't grab her binky!" when Sophie reached up and snatched his binky!  Ha!  So today it was a similar scenario; Mia and Cooper probably should have been just as concerned about Elliott.  He was grabbing her legs and when he got within reach she grabbed a handful of his hair!  :)

4/7/2015

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

I wonder how many pictures I've posted of Mia reading books to Cooper?  It's always been one of their favorite activities!  She's reading to him and also quizzing about the book.  And when he'd answer correctly she'd say, "Good job!"

Yesterday Cooper asked for the Panda Bear, but it was too late in the day to get out something new.  But he didn't forget I had promised it for today!  :)  They had lots of fun wrestling and rolling with the big bears.

Mia asked, "Can we look at the puppies?"  Ok, it's been several days since we've looked!  (And they now have their eyes open!)  We also looked at a hummingbird nest and two different owl nests; one in the Missoula valley and one in the Charlo valley.  Cooper said, "Let's check out the hippopotamus!" And there are some web cams from Kenya; African water hole, Safari web cams, etc.  But it was too late in the evening there and too dark.

4/6/2015

Mia ate cheerios and three servings of banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate most of cheese sandwich, drank a large serving of tomato soup, and had a bite of lettuce salad.

Almost every morning Mia will pull out her ponytail and ask for two ponies.  And she always tugs hard at her hair and gets the holder off, but strands of hair as well.  And then whimpers at me if I pull it ever so slightly!!  Geez!!!  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Cooper and Mia played with the sets of keys and phones first.  They like to use the block toy shelf for their car and so they immediately emptied it and were using their keys, driving their car, with their phones beside them.  :)  It's so interesting how they'll pick something like that toy shelf to be their "car" and then it's that way for a long long time.  And they remember it from the last time we had the keys out...and the time before...and the time before that!

I liked how they were playing in these drawers.  Cooper was actually doing it first and kept telling Mia to "shut the drawer!"  She was wanting to open it and he wasn't ready to come out yet.

Like I've said before, these two don't mind being in tight places!  Mia is a pretty big girl and there is not much room in there!

Mia spotted Cooper's painted fingernails and that's all she wanted to talk about.  She was hammering him with questions!!  :)  WHO, WHY, WHERE, WHEN...  She apparently wasn't getting answers that satisfied her so she turned to me and started asking me.  I said, "You'll have to ask Cooper!"  So she tried again, but didn't learn much.  She said to me (quite disgustedly), "He doesn't know GARY!!"  :)

4/3/2015

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

Cooper and Mia jumped and jumped and jumped!  Lots of great exercise!  Then they were taking turns laying on the floor between the igloo and the mattress (see picture) and saying, "jump over me!"  Silly kids, but it was safe and I was monitoring closely.  They got more exercise at the end of story time because we read "Toddlerobics."  They followed the activities amazingly well - at least 25 different ones!  And Mia could frequently remember which one was coming next.  She has an exceptional memory!  

Mia and Cooper had their blankets, some books, and other toys and were playing in the Big Box. Today was the first day Elliott figured out how to crawl into it when they were in there.  It was momentarily widespread PANIC!  "Oh No!  Elliott's in here!!  :)  

Yesterday when Mia and Nora were playing together everything was "sweetie."  And Mia carried it over to this morning as well.  "It's ok sweetie," she told her baby, "You'll feel better.  I put you to bed."  In this toy set the puppies are always their babies, not the dolls.  

Yesterday at snack time there was a lot of talking between Mia and Nora.  They sat down and Nora asked, "What do you want to talk about?"  So cute.  Mia said, "Tell me a story."  So Nora proceeded with a story about "Sofia and I went on a walk and found out we were lost."  Mia said, "Tell me a dinosaur story!"  Ha.  Nora said, "I will tomorrow!"  So Mia said, "I tell you a story.  One time I was walking with Layla.  We saw a T-Rex!  And we have a super hero!"  :)

4/2/2015

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

Nora is here visiting today and Mia had lots of fun playing with her this morning.  Nora spent most of the morning being the "Mommy" and I took a picture of Mia's napping spot.

I took this picture a few minutes after the above picture.  Mia had gotten on the floor and Elliott climbed up and got her blanket which she'd left behind.  That's one of his favorite tricks.  He'll grab their blanket and run like his life depends on it.  (And it just might!!)  :)  Mia spotted him and jumped back on the table to rescue her blanket and I took this picture when Elliott was giving her a cheesy look.  :)

Baby Sophie was laying on the floor and I had my head on her chest and she was giggling.  Mia said, "Gary, stop messing with Sophie!"  :)

At the breakfast table Mia and Nora had some very cute conversations:
M: "You come to my birthday?"
N: "I'll have to ask my Mom if I can!"
M: "No, I already have my birthday!"
N:  "I'm going to have another one!  You want to come to my house?"
M:  "I'll ask Mom and Dad.  If they say "no" I can't.
N:  "I know."
N:  "What do you want for breakfast?"
M:  "I want a broccoli and some salad!"

4/1/2015

Mia loves her jelly toast!  She ate three servings at breakfast and ate her mangoes.  For lunch she ate most of beef & bean burrito, bites of sweet potatoes, and ate most of tropical fruit.

Cooper and Mia continued to play with the block structure that Kenzie and Riley started.  They worked at this for probably 20 minutes and were laying out their "puppies."  (I just noticed that Mia has on the pants that do weird things in the pictures.  Compare her pants in the top picture with the picture on the bottom.)

Cooper and Mia did some swinging between the chair and legos table like you see in the picture.  They also played a game that was a combination of hide-n-seek, peek-a-boo, and "Happy Birthday!"  (No way to explain that one!)  And there was a substantial amount of wrestling!  Mia was yelling at Cooper,  "Let go of me!  Let go of me!  Don't grab me!"  She managed to move away and in less than five seconds she went and sat on him!  (Which is why I am very selective about responding to her pleas for "help!!"  Ha!)

Cooper went poop on the toilet (he's in the learning stages) and when he finished he was very proud of himself and kept saying, "I got to tell Mia, I got to tell Mia!!"  She was very busy hoarding toys and trying to keep Elliott away, but she did manage to quickly say, "Good job!" and Cooper was satisfied!  Whew!