Friday Focus- Chip

I have even fewer pictures of Chip this time around than I usually do. None at all in the month of May. Finally found this one from April and couldn't figure out why it was such a weird angle, and then I realized O'Malley took it. I guess you can't expect miracles if you hand the camera to a four year old.


Chip has refused to talk to us for a really long time now- to the point where Roo's speech therapist has mentioned that she's never heard him say a word. Mrs. Potts tells us constantly how many new words he has every week, and while I didn't think she was lying, I was kind of thinking it might be the kind of thing where it was baby gibberish that only mama could understand. I mean, the kid said NOTHING to us. Point and grunt only. For months. No answers to questions, no commentary, nothing. If he absolutely had to make himself understood, he'd do this mime thing where he'd raise his eyebrows and mouth the words with zero sound.

Last week he decided to show us all the words he does in fact know. I was flabbergasted. The kid knows all his colors! He stood and watched me unload the dishwasher and pointed out each dish, named its color, and told me which friend uses that dish.

Plate. Orange. O'Malley.
Cup. Purple. Silvermist.
Plate. Green. Aurora.

He tells us about his sister and his mom and dad and asks us to read books and names the colors for everything. It's quite startling to go from 0-60 like this. Mrs. Potts is so pleased- it's like we just finally met the Chip who lives at her house. :)

They Call Them Stereotypes For a Reason

So this morning I took six kids out in the yard: Tigger, Chip, O'Malley, Aurora, Bianca, and Stitch. The others were sleeping, helping with lunch, or finishing up Go Diego Go. :) I gave them a choice today and not everybody picked to go out.

They swarmed out in a herd and all ran for the balls. We got a bunch of new ones recently that are still very exciting. O'Malley asked me if I'd throw some practice pitches for him to hit- he is Big Stuff on the t-ball team. And within five minutes, the three boys ALL had bats and balls in their hands and were mesmerized by the game, even 13 month old Tigger who is still in the drunk stagger stage of walking. He screamed when anybody came close to his bat and just stood there SO happy. Meanwhile, all three girls had put their balls into shopping carts or baby carriages and were wheeling them around the yard and ignoring the game.

I'm all for kids choosing their own play topics, but it's kind of funny to me that for the most part it seems like this stuff is hardwired.

Pictures Galore!!

Oh, I am excited. Today is Your Favorite Photo. It's going to take a lot of paring down to get to one particular favorite of each small child. I think I'll be leaving myself and Kanga out of this one. I We tend to be vindictive and take unflattering pictures of each other singing or dancing or leaning over with our backsides in the air. No need to post those.

My problem is that a lot of my favorite pictures have already been posted on other days. Oh well. Maybe you've seen some of those before. I guess the Hall of Fame just turns out like that sometimes.

Duchess:
My original Pink Lady, cheesy with bunny ears for Easter 2005. Sometimes I miss this tiny girl!!

O'Malley:
Boys with fair skin have to get sunscreen on their heads. It does marvelous things to their heads.

Mushu: When your brothers are having "dress like a pirate" day at their school, there's no way you can show up in regular clothes. He thought he was the coolest thing in the world!


Silvermist:
She decided she ought to wear my shoes around the house for awhile.

Aurora:
Chocolate is tasty. 'Nuff said.

Roo:
I took her with me to grab milk once. It was fun to be out in public with her and she was a big helper. :) This is the day she learned to say "I buy it?" Her momma didn't think that was as funny as I do.

Stitch: Breakfast makes her happy. Heck, just eating, any time of day or night, makes her happy.


Bianca:

She gets two pictures because I was trying to show her love of curling up in funny places, and then I realized that first picture was caught mid-blink and isn't actually a great shot of her.


Chip:
Weebles wobble, and sometimes they do fall down, right on top of their friends who are lying behind them!

Hercules:
Hello world, it's me!!

Tigger:
I particularly like this one because it was right after we put him in the hateful watermelon and made him scream. He's had a bath, he's with his mama, and he's so content. All is well.

Lady: Okay, I know I just put this picture of her up yesterday, but it's by far my favorite. I have a bunch of her sleeping and a few where she's being serious, but this is the only one where I've managed to catch the smile. :)


Mater:
I know you've seen this one before, but I have a limited number of Mater pictures just yet. :)

Fun Facts

Day 6 asks for fun facts. Yay! Bullet point list!!

• I won the school-wide spelling bee in 8th grade with the word megalopolis.
  
• Kanga was a child model in Singapore and was the trademarked kid for Lego. She also got offered the job to be the milk spokesperson but turned it down because she hates milk and was afraid they'd make her drink a lot of it on camera.
• Duchess's favorite animal is the penguin.
• O'Malley likes to prove me wrong- I said last week he was uninterested in writing but this week he's loving his schoolwork. I got him a big dry erase practice book with superheroes on it and apparently that made all the difference.
  
• Silvermist comes up with elaborate imaginary scenarios that I love to go along with. She'll come in and say, "I am MAD at you!" and I'll ask why, and she'll just smile real big and come up with something crazy. "Because you smashed me into the wall!" She's great at spontaneous answers when I ask more and by the end we're both laughing hysterically. She always finishes up with, "I so silly!!!"
  
• Aurora is happy with the status quo in relation to potty training right now. While I wouldn't exactly classify it as a FUN fact, I have to hide my smile when I ask if she'd like to sit on the potty and her reply is, "No. I poop in my diaper. You clean it."
  
• Roo is in a big pirate phase right now and goes around yelling ARGH at everyone.
  
• Stitch is extremely territorial. She's cheerful about it, but everything is MINE. Her mom thanked her for letting the family live in "my house." She brings diapers from "my Target" and wants to play with "my Silvermist".
  
• Bianca calls that black and white striped animal a "beez-ra". I LOVE THAT.
• Chip likes to grab his mama's face in both hands and smush her cheeks together when he gives her kisses.
  
• Hercules has recently become fascinated with blankets. He loves to carry one around and rub his face on it. Kanga has taken to calling him Linus.

• Tigger's Kunyai was happy when he was born because she got a grandchild that looked Asian. She tries to make him laugh a lot because when he smiles big he looks even more Asian.

• Lady and Mater really aren't quite to the stage where I have specific fun facts about them. They're both easygoing and happy and are still in the time of life where they eat and sleep and don't do a whole lot else. :) And they look very cute while doing it.
  

Friday Focus- Chip

Mr. Chip has many interests these days. Most of them still do not involve smiling for the camera, but I did manage to catch a few really cute shots of him when we were all playing the other day. We're still working with The Letters Are Lost, and so there's been a LOT of time building alphabet block towers. He was very intent on getting to stand up tall so he could knock it down.
Okay, I got this one ready....

This is the highest tower in the world! I can knock it over now!

Ooh. That was so super cool!

Oh, I love this picture. I hardly EVER get one where he's smiling *and* looking at the camera and *not* running at my face. I guess the excitement of a job well done was enough for him to be able to appease the crazy lady with the camera just this once.

He still loves to climb and has been looking for more creative and interesting things to scale rather than just the table. The other day I found him behind our L-shaped couch, stuck in the little triangular area in the corner by the wall. I suppose climbing OUT needs to be his next accomplishment. I didn't actually see how he got back there- he could have gone over the back, or just tunneled behind it, since the gate I usually have there is still not back in place after being used to corral the Christmas tree. He was happy as a clam for a few minutes, and then annoyed when he realized he needed help to get out. He would really rather not take my help with much of anything these days. In fact, I get the Great Look Of Scorn a majority of the time. He's definitely Kanga's boy. :)

It's fun to take care of the younger sibling- we have so much history with his big sister Belle. She and Duchess are still very close. Chip and Belle look so much alike to me, and sometimes they have the same mannerisms. Mostly I like to watch the way they interact with each other. Belle is pretty much devoted to getting what Chip wants before he asks for it, and cannot stand to see him get upset. I have a feeling that if the sentiment sticks around much longer, Chip is going to start milking it for ALL he can get. I mean, who wouldn't right? Why bother to get up and get your own stuff, or even have to ask for it, when big sis is so happy to do it for you? :) Duchess used to be that way with O'Malley too, but now that he's getting older she is beginning to find him annoying. I wonder if these two will follow the same path.

Big Red Barn

We just finished up five weeks of Big Red Barn curriculum. I think we all have the book memorized now and there's been lots of fun activities with animals and hay and playing outside. Everybody has their own favorite page- Aurora loves the tiger tomcat (yeow! yeow!) and Silvermist is all about the "golden weather vane, of course"... (horse don't fly! that not real! so silly!) I hear that Stitch is obsessed with the copy of the book that we gave her at the end of the unit and wants to carry it everywhere. That makes me happy. It also makes me happy that there are some hayfields around here and that the kids can all see cows and hay and point them out. Her mom came in a couple weeks ago and asked if there was hay in our barn book because Stitch freaks out now every time they drive by some. :) Love it.

We played a lot of games using various animal sounds and they've all acquired a few new ones. I think I talked in Roo's post about the confusion of the word "pig" sounding just like "moo" in Thai. That cracks me up. My other favorite is the rooster. Each kid has their own special way to cock-a-doodle-doo and they are all hilarious. One of the games we played was learning about how the rooster is the "alarm clock" of the barnyard, so they all pretended to be other animals sleeping and then I was the rooster and woke them all up by making loud rooster noises. Then they all wanted to have a turn being the rooster. I was actually kind of concerned afterwards that O'Malley would wake me up at 5 am by cock-a-doodling in my ear. Thankfully that hasn't happened. But I do have to say that his snoring sheep is the funniest thing ever.

They love to make headbands and this unit especially offered a lot of opportunities for that. We did a pig and a chicken. I don't think I remembered to get pictures of Hercules or Tigger wearing theirs, but it's fun that there are things even the littles can do with us.

Since O'Malley has dropped his nap I try to do some big boy work with him in the afternoons. Most days it's fighting a losing battle. He really wants to play Wii and isn't nearly as interested in doing school the way his big sister Duchess was. I think homeschool may be out of the question for this one. But anyway. This activity was called Bats in the Barn and it had cards where you count how many bats there are, and then match them to the numeral. He had a good time and I was pleased to actually have a day where he got something done, even if he did make faces at me.

Miss Bianca, hard at work painting a muddy piggy. I think when we're not doing a Read It Once Again unit, the thing they all miss the most is the painting. (Well, except for Chip. He doesn't like to paint for some reason. Not sure why.) We're doing some Thanksgiving books and getting ready for our big feast the next few weeks, and they're always asking me when they can paint again. I'll have to find some turkeys for them to do. :)

Friday Focus- Chip

Chip is getting so big. I tend to think of him as one of the babies still, and he is definitely not that anymore. He is a big boy. And he's excited that Hercules is getting old enough to play with. They were copying each other's movements here and having such a good time.



Lately I've been having a hard time getting pictures of him because when I point the camera at him, he gets completely excited and RUNS at me. I can never take the shot before all I have is nostrils. But he's got an awesome mohawk these days that I will try to document soon.

He climbs like a monkey and gets this sheepish embarrassed look whenever he's on top of the table. Chip! Off the table, buddy! Feet on the floor! And he's all... okay. Just checking to be sure the rules didn't change. What about my bum? Can I SIT on the table at least? No? Fine then....

He's just getting out of the pointing stage, in which he would point at everything he saw and grunt at it so you'd tell him what it was. The way he pointed was hilarious- he did the Roman Salute constantly. (And oh, I love that when I googled it they called it that instead of the heil hitler thing, because that isn't so complimentary....)

We who are about to die, or win a soccer game, or get something down from the top of the cabinet, or learn a new word, salute you!!

March- Monthly Recap

Let's see...

Curriculum:
Not a complete fail, but partial. All on my part. They had a good time with the safari stuff that we got to do, but there is still half the month left. It took me something like ten days to find the curriculum book and by then we had gotten out of the habit of doing it. I don't feel like our time has been wasted though. We've completely rearranged the playroom and they are working on helping me figure out which toys they want down and which should be rotated out. Changing just a few things makes it a whole new room for them and it's nice to be able to SEE the toys in different places so you know what you want to play with.

And we're still doing lots of singing and coloring and talking about letters and learning. Teamwork, manners... our time is well spent. But the licensed teacher in me sometimes thinks I need more product to take home. I keep telling myself that clashes with my actual philosophy of the way small children learn. :) I confuse myself sometimes.

April is going to be devoted to finishing safari work, dinosaur and mammal recap, and pulling out some generic spring projects if we have time. We'll also probably pull out the water table, get more sand, and spend as much time as possible in the yard before it gets crazy hot. Oh, and maybe have a random egg hunt since I never got around to doing one. The weather was not cooperating the day I wanted to do it and then I got thrown off.

Comings and Goings:
Flik has moved on to his new place, although we still see him at t-ball practice. He's doing well, of course. And yesterday was Boo and Sully's last day here. It's very strange that O'Malley and Lilo are the only big kids by more than a year. Next in age is Silvermist and she's just 20 months. It's becoming a little kid place all of a sudden. Lilo will be leaving at the end of the school year and I'm actually thinking of sending O'Malley in the fall to one of my friends who does all older kids, at least part-time.

Kanga is on maternity leave with baby Tigger for the next couple weeks and Mrs. Potts (Chip and Belle's mama) is here filling in for her. It's sort of rocked Chip's world a bit. He's fine when she's not here, and he's fine when he's home and it's just them. However, he doesn't like to nap here when his mom is working, and likes to hang on her leg and cry when she's dealing with the babies. Sharing is hard work.

OH! And here is baby Tigger!


Are those cheeks not insane? I want to eat him with a spoon and sniff his neck folds. If I can find his neck... :) And we have official word- he does actually weigh more than Hercules at this point. It will be very interesting to see how the two of them compare as they get bigger.

I guess that's all I can think of for now. Happy spring!

February Recap

Mammal month is now over. :) I think this one was the most interesting and successful theme we've had in awhile. Sometimes by about halfway through the month, either I'm tired of it or they are. We were able to stick to it and there are only about 3 or 4 animals we didn't do. I think we're going to take the leftovers from the past three months at the end of March and do a review of each one during April. Saves a bit of curriculum money and keeps it fresh in their minds, not to mention cleaning out the clutter in my art box.

Today starts Going On A Safari. We'll be studying African animals, culture, weather, and landscape. Looks like fun and should give us a chance to practice our new mammal identification skills as well.

Roo has been doing awesome in her physical therapy lately and her new stander was delivered last week. It's really bittersweet to watch her work with it. It's absolutely awesome that it's available, and that now she's able to stand up on a level with the other kids her age and have both hands free to color or play. I'm so thankful that we live in a time where we have so many opportunities to meet kids' needs in so many different ways. On the other hand, I hate so much that she even needs it in the first place. She's a magical kid. So much fun, with worlds of depth to her that a picture of her in a chair doesn't begin to cover. But, one step at a time. It's Kanga's fervent hope that working in the stander will give Roo the strength and balance she needs to be able to get up and walk away on her own. In the meantime, she really loves being in it and it's so much fun to get her involved in big kid stuff.


Bianca has joined the ranks of the big kids as well. Her schedule for a long time had been that she took a long morning nap and woke up for a late lunch while the big kids napped, and then many times was ready to go back down when they woke up. So she never got to interact with them much, and I didn't have very many pictures of her in the group. She's been enjoying the past few weeks running with the crowd now that she doesn't sleep quite as much.


Chip and Tinkerbell coordinated wearing their UT clothes the other day. It cracked me up that I COULD NOT get a picture of either of them smiling while wearing it. It was more like, see, my parents like this school and made me wear these clothes but I am so not excited about it... so cute though.


Silvermist has decided that she loves Aurora, and also Aurora's mom. She always wants to hang out for a few minutes when Aurora gets picked up. The girls are ten days apart and talk about each other all the time. Love it.


And in other news, Flik and O'Malley play games on their "iPhones" all day long. These are my old cell phones from several generations of electronics ago, with zero charge, nothing working at ALL. But they play skeeball and the alien game and text their families and talk to each other constantly about what new content might be downloaded. It's hilarious. Boys of the technology era, for sure. It's nice that they can blend it all in with their imagination so well.


I would imagine that our March recap will include Kanga delivering Tigger! The time is getting close on that. Chip's mom is going to be our backup and will be here while things get settled in the Hundred Acre Woods. :)

Christmas Slideshow

Every year for Christmas I do slideshows for the parents. Usually it's got one show with all the pictures of their child, and then a sort of "best-of" with a couple pictures of each child so they can see playmates and more of what goes on during the day. There was just a new update to iLife, so I can finally turn them into movies and put them on the blog!

Here's the favorites collection- maybe not all necessarily the BEST pictures, but lots of the ones that make me smile.

Practicing With a String Bean

Ever read Bread and Jam for Frances? One of our favorites. There's a line where baby Gloria is eating green beans and Mother tells her to eat them up, because it's always good to practice on a string bean.

Here we have three stages of bean eating:

1. Tinkerbell: This is my first bean at daycare! I am so happy to be sitting up here with those big kids and I have NO IDEA that I am supposed to be putting this stuff in my mouth!


2. Chip: Really? Beans? Is that the only choice? I think maybe I will throw it on the floor. (Which he did, right after I put the camera down. Must ham it up for the camera.)


3. Stitch: Holy cow these beans are good they are the best thing I ever ate please give me more after I shovel these in my mouth kthanks....

Rapid Mood Swings

These three pictures were taken in the space of about fifteen seconds. It's nice that he doesn't stay mad very long.

Scuse Me, I Believe That's My Chair...

I love watching the babies get bigger. It is so much fun to get a tiny infant and watch them learn to do things. One day they're all just lying around on mats and the next they're rolling, sitting, standing... it's one of the best things for making sure this job never gets boring. There is always something new going on at each stage, for each kid.

Chip has learned to sit up alone. He is highly pleased with himself. He also really likes to grab his feet. We have learned two things from this:

1. If you put him in this particular bouncy chair, the effort of trying to reach his feet makes him fall over sideways. He's perfectly happy to hang there, but it looks really silly.

2. He does much better sitting on the floor. However, this results in a very Weeble sort of effect- he's constantly doing a slow roll sideways or backwards, because it's really hard to balance on just your bum while you're trying to put your toes in your mouth. Just doesn't work too well.

Roo was a few feet behind him in the living room, hanging out and totally minding her business, just chillin' on a blanket when Weeble Boy came crashing onto her from out of nowhere.

She was very startled.