Snippets of Days

I'm skipping the next 30 day blog topic- it wants pictures taken more than ten years ago. I was teaching sixth grade and Kanga was living it up in the corporate world in DC. Don't think that anybody who reads this really cares much. :)

I've been trying to take more video. It's a challenge for me to get the length right because I don't have any editing software that I know how to use. So either it's too long to upload or it's too short and I don't catch them doing anything funny. I've got a couple that are just cute and representative of stuff we do all day, which is kind of fun.

Here's O'Malley and Silvermist playing with the new Moon Dough barn we got this past weekend. Kanga and I went on a supply fee spending spree and the kids are having a great time with all the new toys. This is an example of the kind of video that is too short and doesn't show them doing much, but it is the only one I can get to upload right now.


Oh, and RIGHT after I turned off the camera, Silvermist turned to me and goes, "You have a really big mouth. I have a little mouth."

I have no idea where that came from but it made me laugh and I wish it was on film. Reminded me of Santana on Glee. I half expected her to bust into song and sing me "Trouty Mouth".

It's Tigger Tuesday!

Tigger is having a birthday this week and he has decided that he is going to completely throw out all remnants of being a baby. Okay, well, he's not walking all the time yet. But everything else? Large. The man is large.
Today I said hi and he waved at me. Kanga asked him if he wanted more and he said, "yes. chex." Today he climbed up on top of the table and decided he'd hang out there to get a better view. And then I handed him something and he said thank you.

Long live Tigger. May every birthday be so memorable and fabulous.

Friday Focus- Roo

Roo. She does a body good. So many funny things to say about her these days. She's talking up a storm and the things she says always make me laugh. She doesn't say "not" properly- she says "no" instead, so if you ask her if she's done? "no yet!" did you do that? "no me!" I have a feeling that will be one of those sayings I pick up and say for years, to the point where she's all, "Really? Could we just stop that now?"

Yet again with the minty fresh Colgate goodness. I need to come up with more of these out of the box kind of art projects- they all had such a great time that day.

Knocking over block towers and hiding blocks in the sand.

Running amok in the backyard as usual. She's getting faster and more agile every day. I think that must be why she's still so tiny slender- try getting down on your belly and commando crawling everywhere you go. It's seriously hard work. Much more so than crawling or walking, I think.

She's really come a long way in her physical skills development since the last post. She can pull herself into this position from the floor now and sit there, which is so great for her to be able to do lots of work with the other girls. She can play Mr. Potato Head and sit for story time and hang with the crowd much easier. AND! Although I have no pictures of it, she can pull herself to standing in her crib. Huge stuff.

We timed our first day of spring egg hunt to be during her physical therapy time so she'd be extra motivated to get out with Lisa and do some stepping. She had a great time hunting for eggs, although we had a hard time keeping the other kids from "helping" so much. They wanted to bring her all the eggs she noticed and we wanted her to practice walking so we had to keep hollering at them to back away and NOT help their friend. They were perplexed.

Like all the other girls, she's very into "I do it myself", and also picking up tons of silly phrases from us. The other day Tigger was crying. She asked Kanga, "Bubba sad?" and Kanga said yes, and Roo said, "Oh mama, Bubba sad! Bubba SUPER sad!"

And even though this didn't happen at school, it's too funny to not share. At the mall the other day Kanga had to pee. Her mom offered to stay with the kids in the food court so she didn't have to drag them both in there with her. As she's walking away, Roo yells, "MOMMA! Where you going?" Kanga's of course trying to be subtle- momma's gotta go potty, I'll be right back...

And Roo hollers, LOUDLY, "Okay Momma! You go potty! Go tee tee potty! Okay! WIPE!!!!"

Ah, the joys of motherhood, being so proud and at the same time wanting to run away screaming....

Friday Focus- Aurora

Wow, I went back to look at the last Focus on Aurora, and I could have written pretty much the exact same post today. She still loves to take her clothes off. Thankfully and knock wood, she seems to have moved out of the diaper removing stage though. Now it's the shirt. She's almost always topless when we get her up from her nap. Earlier this week she couldn't get her shirt over her head because it buttoned up the back, so she grabbed it like the Incredible Hulk and ripped that puppy down the front. It was quite impressive. Completely ruined.

She's really enjoying being a puppy dog these days. I think O'Malley's influence has rubbed off on a lot of the girls- there's tons of crawling around and barking going on here. I got a set of dog ear headbands and they like them a lot. The face may lead you to believe otherwise, but she gets very into it.


Her other new obsession is Mr. Potato Head. A few years ago I spent a bunch of supply fee money on LOTS of different accessory sets. We have the princess, R2D2, the safari with the monkey and elephant faces, the king, the doctor... the list goes on. (I keep telling myself we DON'T need the Easter bunny, even though we don't have it and it's currently available!) Aurora's favorite is the mermaid and she likes to wear the crown on her own head.

She will sit with Silvermist and Stitch for a good hour some mornings, making and remaking Potato masterpieces. I love to sit with them and hear the commentary on it. Sometimes it's very serious business and all features are in the correct place. Other times the goal is to make the weirdest thing possible, with arms and ears sticking out all over. It's nice to see some things never change.... (and oh wow, I think Snow White is about done with kindergarten now. I bet she is SO BIG now!)

And in major breaking news, she is wearing big girl panties at school for the first time today! Granted it's still early in the day, but so far things are going well.

Hmm. I started this the other day and things did not end up so well. :) We're still trying, but not successful so far. Lots of accidents. But hey, at least she's finally willing to sit and try. One of these days something will happen.

We had our first day of spring egg hunt yesterday and she had a great time running around and looking for eggs. Even more excited when she realized they had marshmallow bunnies inside. The girl is all about her junk food. We have a lot of time now where she sits on the potty and I'm her captive audience, so she was telling me this morning about her donuts and chocolate and "sparkles" (sprinkles, I think) and also how her dog at home eats poop but she doesn't because it is not tasty. Chocolate donuts are tasty. Poop is not.

Just so we're all clear.

"Friday" Focus: Silvermist

If I wait till Friday something will happen! I have a bit of time now and I'm thinking of it and that is indeed a miracle. And just as an aside, somebody got to this blog yesterday by googling a refrigerator color called Silvermist. Wonder what brand that is? I bet it's pretty, but nowhere as cute as OUR Silvermist. She dances! She sings! Her dimples are to die for!

This may be my all time favorite picture of her. Love those sparkly eyes and the crater dimples!

We do a lot of singing during meals. Now that I think of it, probably not the best idea, since my mother always used to tell me it was bad manners to sing at the table. It's the easiest way to keep everyone happy when mealtime begins and ends at different times for different kids though, so we sing. This was the "down came the rain" section of the itsy bitsy spider, if I remember correctly. Either that or "up came the sun". Not sure which.

The favorite activity for The Letters Are Lost has definitely been squishing out the toothpaste. I'm hoping nobody has tried to do it like Ramona Quimby, all into the sink. We had a big discussion about how this was special toothpaste JUST for art and should not be tried at home. She had a blast with it, although I'm pretty sure she got some in her hair. :)

She loves her some frosting. The cookie is merely a vehicle by which the shoveling takes place. I'm so happy that her food choices are opening up- she's been outgrowing a couple of her big allergies and tolerating more ingredients lately and it's AWESOME. I made our favorite chicken soup today for lunch and she was super excited that she can eat it again. She was the pixie girl I referred to in that post, when she was brand new and we didn't know the extent of what she could and couldn't eat. She jumped up and down and clapped. "OH!! I CAN EAT THIS SOUP?!?!" For the last couple weeks they've been paring down her diet to get baseline and do testing on what her tummy can handle, so it was constantly, "Please can you find me something I can eat?" with this pathetic little face. We made it through the rough times though and now we get chicken soup with rice. Life is good! Sometimes a bit muddy, but definitely good!

Place Holder Post

I have skipped Friday Focus for three weeks. I know this. It's Silvermist's turn and I have written several fabulous posts in my head. When I come to the computer to put them down, I either can't remember them or can't locate the picture I wanted to put with it, or someone poops or needs their nose wiped. And the blog of the day challenge coming up next is pet peeves, which is a little daunting to write in relation to work. It's difficult to write things that bother you about your job when the people who make your job possible are reading. :) Oh wait! I have one- people who think it's really funny to teach their kids to wipe their snotty nose on the couch. Nobody here now does that, but we did have one a long time ago who did it on a regular basis and it was really gross. Mom just laughed. Not cool.

It's spring break here. Several of the kids are out all week and others are only coming a few days. So hopefully I'll be able to catch up on the blogging. Maybe I'll backdate Silvermist's post a week or two so I can write a few more as well.

If you need to know our days off and holiday schedule, please refer to the print out we gave you, or the link on the sidebar, or be friends with us on facebook because it's there too, in the discussion tab. We try to remind everyone of days as they come closer, but pickup and dropoff times are busy and we don't always get a chance to double confirm with each family. (Or sometimes we tell one parent, who then forgets to remind the other parent.) With multiple ways to check the calendar, I feel like it ought to be covered, and I dislike feeling guilty for inconveniencing people at the last minute because they didn't read the printed info and therefore didn't know. No matter what job you do, everybody needs a day off now and then to avoid burnout. We are better providers after the occasional short break, and you have the entire year's schedule by Christmas of the previous year. Please make use of it. Hmm. I guess I do have a pet peeve after all....