4/30/2014

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

Riley and Mia played together a lot this morning.  Mia likes to stuff the largest purse full of toys (See in the picture how full it is!) just like Riley does.  I think Riley helped teach her the fine art of stockpiling toys!  You can also see the selection of toys Riley has lined up on the step behind them.  There are more toys on the rest of the step too.

And here they are sitting in the big box which they have previously filled with toys also.  They have cookies in their bowls and were shaking them.  Soon after this picture they started combing each other's hair with the play forks.

And here's a picture of the kids doing some sand table play this morning.  They had lots of fun with it and played for a long time.

At the lunch table we were talking about brothers and sisters and Nora held up her hands to indicate the size of her baby sister in Mommy's tummy.  The way she positioned her hands looked just like we do for the motions to "like a diamond in the sky..."  And that's exactly what Mia immediately started singing "Like a diamond in the sky...twinkle twinkle little star.." and it morphed right into "Baa baa black sheep..." then "Mary had a little lamb..." then "Winnie the pooh, winnie the pooh.." then "Good night baby..."  And Riley was keeping up with her and singing right along - loudly!!  And every time Mia would change songs Nora would laugh so hard.  It was so much fun watching them have such a good time!!

Yesterday afternoon Mia and Riley were at the fence talking to the school kids when they were walking by.  Which I thought was a great accomplishment for Riley; she's been known to stay back on the patio when strangers are anywhere nearby.  Maybe it helped that Mia was yelling at them when they were going by; "Hi Neighbor!!"  And there were several, so the girls were quite busy!  :)

4/29/2014

Mia ate a large serving of waffle and ate her hash browns for breakfast.  For lunch she ate beef & cheese quesadilla, carrots, and two servings of oranges.

Cooper and Mia were running around the room and Cooper tripped and fell!  Lauralea said, "Splat!" So he got up and then intentionally fell and waited for Lauralea to say "splat!"  Now Mia and Cooper had a new game to play.  When they got tired of running they both laid down on Mia's blankie.

I took this picture of Mia playing in the big box.  Riley was in the other side of the box playing too.  They'd stashed lots of toys in there and played for a long time.  She was playing with this little puppy and she was saying, "He's so cute, he's so cute!"

We played with the bath foam at art time and Cooper and Mia were having a blast with it.  At first they were sitting across the table from each other, but I let them sit side-by-side for a photo opportunity!  And they didn't fail me!  I took several pictures, but this one was my favorite when they started putting bath foam on each other!  Nora was quite appalled!  :)

We were in the middle of Story Time, but as soon as Riley saw Big Willy heading out to get his mail she jumped down and went to wave at him.  He wasn't looking this time so Mia and Riley pounded on the window to get his attention.  Then we read a book called "What do you Love?"  Riley started hugging us all and being so sweet.  Mia said, "I love you Riley!"

4/28/2014

Mia ate cheerios and banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate cheese sandwich,  drank tomato soup, and ate apple pieces.

Like I've mentioned before Mia is usually the first one to arrive at Daycare and this morning she was here for at least 30 before anyone else.  So she made a bed and Lauralea covered her up.  When she got up to play she tucked a stuffed animal under her blanket.

Here's a picture of Cooper and Mia being buddies and playing in the legos drawer.  These two frequently play side-by-side like this.

She watched the workers trim hedges and mow grass in Big Willy's yard across the street.  Then another neighbor started mowing so we had lots of activity to watch.

We were reading Special Books and I was having them "fill in the blanks" to see what they remembered.  Mia does awesome with that game; she has a great memory and words or phrases frequently remind her of what she's seen or heard.  For example I asked about a particular book and she answered, "Ocean!"  (correct!)  This is a tiger _____ and she said, "shark!"  (correct!)  This is a sea _____ and she said, "lion!"  (correct!)  Those are the two I remember!!  I'd have to go get the book or wake up Mia to remember more!  :)

4/25/2014

Mia ate oatmeal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, a large serving of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, ate peas, and three servings of applesauce.  Just as I was setting up for lunch Mia announced, "I'm not poopy anymore Gary!"  The way she worded it made me laugh!  I'm thinking; "How did you reverse that process Mia?"  (That's a frequent time of day for her to be poopy - which was the reason for the announcement - today she waited until just after lunch!)

Mia sneezed right in Riley's face, but this age group doesn't get how gross that actually is.  What did Riley do!?!  She said, "Are you ok Mia?"  LOL!

These next two pictures were taken yesterday afternoon.  The kids sat on the garage floor while I got the geo-climber down; I hang it from the ceiling during the winter.  (We have a tall ceiling in the garage!)  Cooper LOVED this climber and Mia seemed to share that sentiment too!

Cooper was letting himself drop to the ground from the top of the climber.  So Mia was trying it too, except she'd have one foot down and the other foot stuck in one of the narrow angles of the climber.  So basically she was doing the splits every time!  And she lost a shoe almost every time!  She asked Cooper for help three or four times, "Help me Cooper!"  And he tried!  :)

The blue balance beam (in the picture) usually serves as a place to jump onto the mattress.  But it also can be a counter for serving food.  The primary menu items I heard being requested were "pizza, coffee, ice cream, and gum."  They frequently were switching roles and that meant Nora and Mia switched sides of the counter!

4/24/2014

Mia ate raisin english muffin and blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate turkey sandwich, green beans, and three servings of fresh plums.  Loves those plums!!

We were playing outside yesterday afternoon and Riley told me there was some water on the climber. There was a puddle left from the rain so I went to get the towel I leave on the patio and I told the kids to not get their mittens wet!  (Which usually is an encouragement to stick their mittens in!!)  When I got back I asked, "Did you get your mittens wet?"  Mia said, "No! I just drink it!!"  LOL  Riley said, "Her nose in the water!!"

I took this picture because Mia was laying on the block sidewalk and using her legs to scoot along the full length of it.  She was giggling and amusing herself.  :)

She enjoyed Story Time, singing, sign language, and the play dough at art time using cookie cutters, rollers, and pizza cutters.  I would occasionally ask them if they wanted me to flatten out their play dough to get a fresh start.  Mia would say, "Smash it Gary, smash it!!"  Silly girl!  :)  She doesn't suffer from a lack of enthusiasm!

All the kids were working on puzzles this morning, including Cooper.  And he's actually pretty good at it.  His temperament is such that he will work work work on finding the right spot and not get frustrated.  Maybe Mia is impressed too because at one point she said, "Help me Cooper!!"  :)

4/23/2014

Mia ate two servings of breakfast; jelly toast and mangoes.  When she asked for more toast she said, "Want more jelly!!"  LOL  For lunch she ate everything; beef & bean burrito, a large serving of sweet potatoes, and a large serving of tropical fruit.

Mia was yelling, "Help Gary, help!!"  I couldn't see anything wrong - she was just sitting on the window step with Nora and Riley.  So I asked, "What do you need?"  Mia answered, "Cooper - move back Cooper!!"  I guess he'd looked at her!  :)  At the time she yelled he was several feet away - not even close to her and Nora.  So I took this picture a few seconds later so you can get the idea!  Not a minute later, I turn around and he's sitting on Nora's lap! And Mia is perfectly satisfied with the turn of events.  :)  Very typical in the life of Toddlers!  It changes from moment to moment!

Mia loves the song "Baby Beluga" and she was thrilled when it came on this morning.  (There are probably 250 or more kid's songs on the iPod so it takes awhile to hear the same one again!)  She was yelling over and over again; "Baby Beluga, Gary, Baby Beluga!!"  And all the while I'm thinking, "It's going to be over before you are quiet and listening to it!!"  :)

Mia and Nora were waiting to get their hair fixed into ponytails and Mia was saying, "My hair pretty!!"  Nora said, "NO!!  In your eyes!!"  So I said, "Yes it's very pretty honey!  And you are right Nora, it's definitely in her eyes!"  LOL

We were doing some sign language this morning and we're learning a couple of new ones.  I did the sign for "cat" and asked them, "What's this?"  Mia remembered and kept saying, "Meow!"  (Which was a great answer, but I was just trying to get them to answer "cat.")  So I asked, "Well who says Meow?"  And Riley knew the answer to that question; "Cooper!!"  LOL

4/22/2014

Mia ate two servings of waffles and ate dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her scrambled eggs, hash browns, and cheese combo; bites of waffles, and ate a large serving of cantaloupe.  At lunch time Nora kept asking Cooper, "You love Sissy, you love Sissy….?"  And he kept saying, "Yah, yah….!"  Then of course Mia started asking the same thing and got the same answer.  :)

Nora and Riley were having this long animated conversation about the "easter bunny."  Mia heard them and yelled "Chocolate!!"  And she continued to say just the one word three or four times: "Chocolate!"  I guess in Mia's world that's really all you need to know about the easter bunny!  :)

I took this picture yesterday afternoon when the girls were doing some very serious "face painting" in the play house on the patio.  At first I couldn't figure out what they were doing and Nora (with exasperation!) said, "I painting Riley's face! - Butterflies!"  :)  Her tone clearly asked, "Are you blind!?" Mia (on the right) helped paint Riley and Nora, but wasn't too interested in sitting still long enough to get her face painted!  :)

My daughter Christina was here for probably 20 minutes this morning and the kids were having fun running from her in the yard.  Mia, Riley, and Nora were all saying, "Get me Stina (Christina), get me!" and they were running hard.

Cooper and Mia were having a blast this morning running, jumping, rolling, and squealing like crazy kids.  He was mimicking a lot of what she was doing and she was loving that!  Then Nora and Riley joined them and Riley was yelling, "Hurry Mia, hurry Nora, Cooper coming, Cooper coming!!  :)