3/30/2015

Mia ate several bites of breakfast: kix cereal and mixed fruit.  For lunch she ate ham sandwich, two servings of peas, and ate mandarin oranges.

I like this picture!  We'd been reading books and one of them was one of the "I Spy" books where they search and identify items.  So Cooper and Mia were holding other books in front of Sophie (a bit too close to her face, but in this picture Mia is doing pretty good) and in this picture Mia is asking, "Can you find a bear?"  Ha ha!  (There actually is a bear on the page so at least it wasn't a trick question!)

Mia was lifting up the igloo (against the law) and got her hand pinched under the edge of it.  Ouch!! I was putting lunch on the trays and I heard her cry and Cooper immediately came running and said, "Mia's hand stuck!  Mia's hand stuck!"  Very well done Cooper!  I was impressed.  So I rescued her and after I left I heard Cooper say, "Let's do that again!"  Ha ha!  Mia said, "I don't want to do that again!"  Now that's a good choice Mia!

More about reading books - Mia and Cooper were answering the questions I was asking about the animals and doing a great job.  (It was more like "filling in the blank" rather than me asking the question!)  For example, I read the sentence "The little Panda likes to eat the sweet_____"  And they answered, "bamboo!"  Very good!  It's a fun way to read to this age group and keeps them actively involved in the stories.

I was going to try to describe a couple of other books we read, but I'll just tell you what they call it; "Scanimation."  How's that for a new word!?  (You can "google" it if you're curious!)  Geez - google - another new word!  It's hard to keep up!  Anyhow, maybe these books are partially to blame for Mia loving to play like animals.  :)  They have lots of different animals and they ask questions like this; "Can you gallop like a horse?"  "Can you strut like a rooster?"  "Can you slither like a snake?"  And of course the kids love these books!

3/27/2015

Mia ate most of breakfast: brown rice and raisins.  For lunch she ate two servings of meat loaf, ate half of pita bread, ate carrots, and three servings of apricots.  Or as she put it; "Apricots sure is tasty!"

This is a picture of where Cooper and Mia set up their "camp-site."  They have three plates full of food and three glasses of milk - all nicely arranged.  :)  Then they also have their pile of puppies of course.  Those Puppies represent the rest of their Family!!  They were putting the puppies in front of the heat register when the fan was blowing and Cooper said, "They're cold - warm them up!"

I took this picture of Mia and Cooper working hard at puzzles because they were doing everything together; even carrying the puzzle back to the puzzle rack.  Mia said, "Let's hold it together and put it in the rack."  They did that three or four times at least.  Some of the puzzles have dinosaurs and they were having a discussion about them.  Cooper asked Mia, "You have a dinosaur at your house?"  She answered, "Yup!"  Maybe he was still thinking about that dinosaur egg!?!  :)

Mia arrived before Cooper today and she walked in and said, "Where's Cooper and it sure is foggy!?!"  (All in one sentence!)  :)

They started playing in the swivel/rocker chair so I moved it to the Play Room.  The last time I let them play with it and spin each other - Cooper vomited.  Yikes!  That was before Riley and Nora moved on to Preschool!  Most of the time he was pushing and Mia was riding like you see in the picture.  But I still monitored him very closely!!  They had lots of fun laughing and giggling!

3/26/2015

Mia had three servings of cinnamon toast and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of baked chicken, half of dinner roll, bites of hash browns, and ate her cherries.  45 Minutes before Lunch Time I said, "I'm gonna put the chicken in the oven!"  Mia answered with a question;  "What are we having!?"    :)

The kids were having a conversation that totally cracked me up!  Mia randomly said, "I have egg hatching at my house!!"  Oh really?  So I asked her what was in the egg.  She immediately answered, "Dinosaur!!"  Oh man........Now that got Cooper's attention!  He stood motionless and his eyes starting getting huge!  Ha ha!!  He was sooooo impressed!  He asked, "For ME!?!?"  Mia said, "No!  For me!!"  There was a long pause......10 - 15 seconds or more.....Cooper again asked, "For ME!?!?"  And again Mia answered, "NO!  For me!!"  She took off jumping and running and Cooper just stood there, still in total amazement and maybe slightly in shock!  Ha ha!  Finally he looked at me after many more seconds and again asked, "For ME!?!"  Uhhhh, that's not what I heard.  Sorry Cooper!  It was soooo cute and funny.  (And totally serious!)  :)

Yesterday afternoon we were playing and running outside and Mia and Cooper were chasing me.  They were trying to get me to stop and Cooper finally yelled, "The light is red!!"  Ha ha!  We haven't played "Red Light Green Light" here for a long time so I bet he heard that one from his sisters!

I figured everyone would get a kick out of this picture of Old MacDonald Farmer from one of our special books.  Every time Mia and Cooper (especially Cooper) see this page they yell, "GARY!" Ha! Ok, I can see that!  :)

And here's a couple pictures from this morning of Mia and Cooper playing under and on the table.  It got a little wild (hard to imagine, right?) when Cooper was on the floor and he was able to start lifting the table off the floor with his legs.  (With Mia still on the table!)  Ok, that's not safe!  :)

3/25/2015

Mia ate two servings of breakfast: whole wheat bagel and peaches.  For lunch she had bites of ham, mac-n-cheese, ate corn, and apple bites.  Cooper was a little distressed at lunch because he believed Mia when she said, "Gary give you chocolate milk!"  Silly Mia.  :)

Some of these pictures seem kind of silly, but I'm obviously trying to portray some of the activities that held their attention this morning.  They played with their puppies for 30 - 40 minutes.  It started off when they stacked all of them behind the chair.

They kept running to both sides of the chair saying things like, "Go to sleep puppies, go to sleep puppies..."  "They're sleeping, they're sleeping..."

Then they transferred their pile of puppies and blankets to a big pile on the chair.  One-by-one they would drop them off the edge like you see in the picture and chant things like, "Go down ___, go down ___!"  And they'd make up some nonsense word for them.

Mia read lots of books this morning.  "Where oh where has my little dog gone, where oh where can it be......?"  Mia changed it just slightly; "Where oh where is my pup at?!?!"

I've been working with Mia trying to help her accept the play times when Cooper just wants to do his own thing.  She will come to me and usually say something like; "Cooper won't play with me!!"  (And actually this happens rarely!  But it's not necessarily a bad thing, it just happens.)  So I've been encouraging her to join him and play beside him with similar toys, rather than barge in and take control and be bossy.  This morning she did it perfectly and I was watching - I love it when I "catch" them doing something that we've been working on.  He was "cleaning" and she asked, "Do you need help cleaning?"  Well done Mia!

3/24/2015

Mia had bites of chex cereal and ate half of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of roast beef sandwich, drank tomato soup, and had a bite of lettuce salad.

Mia and Cooper were playing with the stuffed puppies and that is their "family."  They pile all the puppies inside the igloo and that is their "home."  Mia said, "how 'bout I be a baby puppy and you be daddy puppy?"  Cooper agreed to that arrangement and Mia said, "Dada!"  Daddy Cooper Puppy said, "What?"  Mia said, "I want some food!"  Ha ha!  Not too far out of character right there!  Yesterday they were playing the same thing and Mia kept asking him questions and saying, "Ok Dad?  Ok Dad?"  Cooper finally said, "I am NOT your dad!!"  Ha ha!  Enough already!

First thing this morning Mia was reading to Cooper and then they switched roles.  Cooper loves reading the "I Spy" book and locating the different objects.  He was reading it to Mia, asking the questions, and then he'd say, "Ok, let's do the next page."

Mia and Cooper were sitting on the igloo surrounded by water!  Cooper is pointing at the "crocodile" to warn me.  "Crocodiles down there!  Behind you!!"  Actually I liked it better today when he called it a "rock-a-tile."  Isn't that cute?

Cooper saw the snow coming down and he ran to the window saying, "snowflakes!!"  Mia had an idea; "Why don't you go outside and catch one!?!"  Silly Mia!  We'd been looking at some "animal cams" and on explore.org there is a new cam of a long-eared owl sitting on her nest somewhere in or around the Missoula valley.  We'd also been looking at the hummingbird sit on her nest.  She was kind of shaking all over preparing to snuggle way down in her nest.  Mia said, "I think she's freezing!"  :)

3/23/2015

Mia ate her pears and three servings of waffles for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her tuna and crackers, ate most of sweet potatoes, and most of mandarin oranges.

Mia hurt her hand and Cooper was partially responsible and she was complaining about it.  Cooper was trying to help and kept saying, "I need to kiss you!  I need to kiss you!  You're hurt!"  Except he was trying to kiss her foot instead of her hand and that was making her more upset!  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend.  They had piles of food on the table and as you can see in the picture Cooper piled up all the stuffed puppies as well.  Cooper said, "They're really hungry!"  Mia looked at the food and said, "For me!?!"  (all excited!)  Cooper said, "Nooo! For Puppies!"  LOL

Then here's a picture of Cooper and Mia with Mia buried under the blanket.  Cooper kept saying, "You're freezing!  You're freezing!"  And he buried her under the animals as well.  Cooper told me, "She's sleeping for awhile!"

While we're all sitting for Story Time I'll frequently ask them questions about their life, what they did "last night," or whatever they want to talk about.  :)  Cooper said, "I played with my new skid steer!"  Mia said, "My Momma went to sleep on the couch and I watched My Little Pony on my iPad!"  I love the things they talk about.  Mia asked Cooper, "Can I take your shoes off?"  Cooper said, "No, Momma put them on!"  Mia starts whining, "But I neeeeeed to!"  :)

3/20/2015

Mia ate oatmeal and canned prunes for breakfast.  (That's a fruit that all the kids love! Probably because they're sweetened!)  For lunch she ate hash brown casserole, biscuit, and two servings of mandarin oranges.

Cooper and Mia wrestled and mauled each other relentlessly for probably 20 - 30 minutes.  They were having so much fun and no one was getting hurt, so I just monitored it closely.  :)

All morning they'd been using Mia's blanket in their play; wrapping themselves together and spinning across the room and of course that quickly evolved into a full-fledged wrestling match.  See how Cooper's head is all wrapped up in the above picture.

They are both in the picture below.  They were rolled up in the blanket and rolling across the room. We've had lots of kids in our program over the years that would not have liked being that constricted! It finally all ended when Mia's hair was getting in her face too much.  She said, "Let go of me Cooper, let go!!  I'm not a toy!!"  Ha ha!

They did stickers at Art Time, watched the garbage workers (pick up both sides of the street), read books, and build with blocks again.  Elliott was continually threatening to knock over their tall block towers.  Mia said, "That was rude Elliott!"  Ha ha!  Then she said, "That was rude TyTy!"  (That's her dog Titan.)  One other thing Mia said that you all might fine cute;  Sophie's nose was running and she was a bit fussy and Mia said, "I hope her Grandparents take good care of her!"  :)