Friday Focus- Silvermist

Okay, I dropped the ball last week, posted this completely empty, and then never got around to fixing it. I'm going to back post it for Friday anyway so I'm not as behind, and we'll try round two.

Silvermist has settled in extremely well now. It took her a bit longer than the ones who start when they're tiny, and sometimes she does cry at drop off for a few minutes. But give her "silkie" and a snuggle and she'll be off and running.


She's highly articulate for somebody her age and tells us new words every day. I heard her count to five this morning, which made my head snap around. Had no idea she could do that. She's got funny little ways of saying things. One of my favorites is when you ask her if she wants something, she says "please" instead of yes. If she doesn't want it, she doesn't usually tell me no. She just looks at me like, okay, what's choice number 2? And the dimples! I love when I can find something that makes her smile a LOT, just so I can keep looking at those killer dimples. They rock. This is just half a smile here- usually they pop out even more.


She and Aurora are pretty much always near each other. Sometimes Stitch or Bianca will sneak in to play too, but they're both pretty independent and do their own thing more frequently. These two are thick as thieves and they crack me up.

You will eat this. You want more bites. You really do.

Hmm. Looking at this makes it more clear why one of them went home with bite marks on her finger yesterday. It's all fun and games until you can't snatch your hand back quickly enough.

Taking care of Silvermist has cemented the idea in my mind that our niche REALLY is special diet kids. She's got quite a few allergies and limitations on her menu, and it's actually been kind of a fun challenge for me to learn to tweak my recipes to keep her safe. We're gluten free here already, and I've taken care of nut allergy and dairy allergy kids before too, but this adds a new level of awareness that I enjoy, in a strange way. I feel like having her here has really made me think about the kind of meals I serve and caused me to cook healthier- more fresh fruit and veggies, less processed foods. That's good for everybody anyway, and I like being able to keep her safe so her family doesn't have to worry. It's one of the great intrinsic perks of this job.

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!

Announcing Tigger!

Kanga is my hero~ Tigger was born this morning, weighing ELEVEN pounds and ELEVEN ounces, 21 1/2 inches long. I'm not sure if that puts him the same weight as Hercules, or maybe even a little bigger. :)

Can't wait to meet you, Tigger!

One Liners...

Okay, so Lilo is completely killing me these days with the crazy things she says. I don't know where she comes up with this stuff, but it's awesome.

• The other day she and Boo were playing and all of a sudden out of nowhere, Lilo turns to Boo and says, "Welcome to the jungle!"
• She has decided she is Princess Daisy. I don't know why, but it's become even more specific than general princess discussion. And when she is being PD, she refers to herself in the third person. Princess Daisy doesn't want to eat that. Princess Daisy does not clean.
• She's got this little shaky dance thing she does, and every time she says, "You want to see my booty shake? My daddy taught me how!" (which by the way is not the case. he looked very surprised to hear that he was supposedly responsible. )
• 
  

Breaking News!!

Kanga is being admitted to the hospital this evening- Tigger will be born in the morning!! Woo Hoo!!! Congratulations, prayers and good luck toward everyone in the hundred acre woods. :)

Friday Focus- Esmeralda

Who, me?

Esmeralda and Tinkerbell spend lots of time pestering each other and rolling on top of one another.

Miss Esme... she is such a cheerful girl, and oh so fashionable. She has leg warmers, and also pacifiers that announce her as Punk Princess. She's always dressed to the nines and tops it off with a smile. I love when she gets especially excited- she pants like a dog, with her tongue hanging out and her hands flapping with glee. It's awesome to watch. Most times though, she's very ladylike. She takes small bites of food and eats slowly and carefully. She's observant and watches everybody like a hawk. I have a dangle ring and she's the only baby who ever notices it. It's hard to feed her because she keeps trying to grab it. Likes the accessories better than the food, I guess. :)

Stall....

So. I lost the curriculum book somewhere. Horribly annoying. We are at a complete standstill with the safari work because I have all these cutesy pieces of paper and no instructions on what to do with them. This week is kid-driven and floor play and not so much themed until I find my silly book. Which is not a bad thing per se. I guess it's a good thing I had planned to carry it over to April anyway. Now we'll have lots of stuff to get done.