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August 2008 {my 16th picture folder}

28th picture

A photo from the first day that Miss L started staying with us. It's hard to believe it's almost been a year since then. She talks non-stop now (and makes sense) & has grown in leaps & bounds since last August.

Turning Two

Miss L turned two on Monday. We celebrated on Tuesday though. Before her nap I made up some cupcakes & while she was sleeping I frosted them. She was really funny when she woke up. She spied them almost immediately & just sort of started chanting "cake! cake!" 

After we sang "Happy Birthday," I gave her one & she did not hesitate to dive in...face first. She had a blast eating this. 

LOVED the frosting....

So much she had to lick her fingers clean.

Then we gave her the gifts we had picked out. I just wrapped them in tissue paper (no tape) & put them in a shoebox. Nice & easy to open but she had a great time figuring out how to get the tissue paper away.

We got her a chunky car.

A "choo-choo" - she is here all week with train loving boys. 

It was bound to happen right?

And the last thing was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. Look in her hand near the paper. It's a crayon! It's from Crayola & it has all these little crayon points off of one holder. It's perfect for toddlers & it was less than $3! 

Too Cute for Words

Okay - just a few words...

In case you are new here, this is Miss L. She's about 23 months old (she'll turn two in just a few weeks). I babysit her. I started watching her last August about three days a week. In January she started coming five days a week. She is super sweet (and as stubborn as most almost-two-year-olds can be). It's fun having a girl around. She loves her naps (night-night!) and her food (eat!). She always gives me great photo opportunities.

First Park Day

While the "big boys" were at TeenPact (post to follow), I met friends at the "local" park so J & Miss L could play. I say "local" because other than the school playgrounds the nearest park for the kids to play at is a 30 minute drive away.

J & Miss L had a great time but I really missed having B there to help chase little ones. J did fine but Miss L needed help & there were quite a few bigger kids there playing.

Miss L loves the slide - LOVES it. I love how her hair gets all out there.

She was on the swing for all of two seconds before she started chanting "All done! All done!" Not so impressed with the swing.

J did like playing with Miss L. I think it's still somewhat of a novelty for him to have someone younger than him around so much. I was a bit leery with her on this teeter toy because she doesn't have great balance. She's not quite two yet after all.

But the slide...yeah - she loved that.

"Who" Roared!!!

There is a great little natural history museum not far from where we live (that's country talk for it's less than an hour away). It's located on a campus for troubled kids & in fact my in-laws work for this school. 

During April school vacation they did a couple different "bird" talks. We managed to make the one on owls. It as a "hoot!" (sorry - I just can't resist...)

We've actually attended some of their talks before & they are all very well done. Admission is also very inexpensive. I think I could actually get in free since my in-laws work for the school (the museum is part of it) but I usually pay since it's so cheap & it's my little way of supporting them. I brought six kids & admission was less than $10 for all of us.

Wait, six kids?? How did that happen!!! 

I actually brought my three boys & Miss L plus two of my friend's kiddos. She broke her arm on Saturday & is now in a cast for six weeks. Needless to say it's been interesting for her to try to work part-time (she is the church secretary) & take care of her family. And this was school vacation so her kids were home more.

And now for my "blond" moment...we go over to their house once a week for a Bible study. Since Kathy had only one good arm, I offered to bring pizza for everyone. We meet with another family & they covered dessert. When I left I had my bag of pans & such & just walked out...leaving my purse behind. I'm really glad I have extra insulin pens & blood sugar meters at home. Otherwise I would have had to head back to their house that night after 8pm to get it. They live 20 minutes away. So I met Kathy that morning to get it & realized she was working & had both of her kiddos with her. I offered to bring them with us. Phew - sorry for that long explanation but it shows why I doubled my kids for the day.

We started in the bird room & jumped right in to talking about different types of owls. This museum is over 100 years old & they have kept the displays looking just like they did when the museum first started. A lot of the specimens are also that old (they are all taxidermy specimens & very well done). 

Then there was some fun hands-on stuff. Here is my friend's daughter (green shirt/eyes closed) with the instructor. The instructor is placing a "downy" feather from the owl in to her hand. She did this for a number of kids. They were to tell her when they felt it. No one did & she said no one ever had - it's that soft.

She also played a number of different owl calls & hoots plus some distress calls. The final hands-on fun was dissecting owl pellets. We had done this before with our homeschool group, but neither of the boys remembered it. 

The boy in the hooded sweatshirt is my friend's son. He was answering a question posed about owl's.

Miss L did very well & I didn't have to worry about her bolting. She discovered the pockets in her jacket & that kept her occupied for a bit. She did keep leaning back on the displays - had to look "cool" apparently. Speaking of cool, it was very cold in the museum as it is not heated. Some of my kiddos weren't dressed for it but that explains why everyone is wearing jackets & hoods.

While there a newspaper reporter was taking photos. He snapped one of B holding the owl down & I was sure he'd show up in the paper. He had a very cool digital SLR camera. It had a recorder inside it & he just talked in to it the names of the kids & what they were doing for each photo. I so want one.

However, the big draw was the replica of the real T-Rex skull they have on display for a few weeks. I was slightly disappointed that it wasn't real (as it was being promoted). Nevertheless, it was still very cool. One really neat feature - since it was a replica - was that the kids could touch it. And they did.

Miss L loved "petting" its nose & touching its teeth. And that the photo that made the paper - a little boy standing by its mouth. Guess who was in the background plain as day? Me. Although my friend's son was right in front of me. Next time I need to remember angles & move to the side out of range.

The passel of kids I took with me.

We had a great time & I look forward to another talk at the museum.

Fun School

I was feeling creative today & it showed in what we did for school. The kids enjoyed it immensely.

I kept Miss L busy with this simply toddler toy....a slab of Styrofoam and golf tees. The toy hammer didn't work all that great & by the end she was just pushing them in with her hands. She loved playing with this (as did the boys).

warning: do not allow toddler to play with this unsupervised. The golf tees can be sharp.

We got in our phonics practice today by playing Clifford ABC Bingo. The boys really love playing this. I use Spell to Write & Read as my basis for our spelling & phonics instruction. It teaches the 70 different phonogram sounds. We are working on the basic sounds (especially with J playing). I call on a different boy to give me the sounds for each letter drawn & then they try to find it on their game boards. They each play two game boards & they have to cover all the letters on both boards to win.

After Bingo we moved on to Sum Swamp. I bought this game a few years ago from Hands & Hearts and we absolutely love playing it. 

There are three dice in this game - two green six sided dice & a "plus/minus" dice. Each player rolls all three dice and then does the corresponding equation to figure out how many spaces to move. If they land on a number on the board, they only roll the "plus/minus" dice. If it comes up with a plus, they  move ahead the same number of spaces as the number on the board. If they roll a minus, they go backwards. There are also "even/odd" spaces on the board. If you land here, you have to roll a single green number dice to find out if you can move. For instance, if you land on an even spot, you have to roll an even number to move ahead. If you roll an odd one, you loose your turn. My kids love the "endless loop" as well. You have to get the exact number to get out of the loop. It's a great way to practice basic addition.

Continuing with our math practice, N asked to play "Rat-a-tat-Cat." This is really a fun card game for children five and up. 

We play the simpler version which means each player gets a hand dealt like the above. The goal of the game is to get the least amount of points as possible. Each card has a point value. At the beginning of the game you know what the two end cards are but you don't know what your middle ones are. The harder version has all cards facing down.

For each turn you either take a card for the draw pile or the discard pile & make a move. If you draw from the draw pile & don't like the card, you simply discard it & play continues on. There are three "special" cards as well. There is a "peek" card which is handy in finding out what your middle cards are. There is a "swap" card which allows you to swap out one card with any player. Then there is a "draw 2" card which allows you to draw a card & use it if you like or discard it & draw again.

I think N just got a good card. He won both hands I think....must be the "card shark visor." 

My last burst of creativity....I had each of the boys stamp their spelling words. They have both been stuck on the same lists now for a couple months. I'm trying to use some more creative ways to help them learn their words. They loved doing this & have asked to do it every day. Even little J had fun stamping letters all over a sheet of paper.

It was a good day today - fun & creative.

How to Eat Lunch...Toddler-Style

Miss L is 22 months old. She loves to eat. Man, does she love to eat. She also loves to feed herself. I tend to let her. I do make the exception when it's stuff like yogurt. This is the end result of her lunch today. It was chicken & pasta with some sort of sauce on it. Oh, I should say that her mom provides lunch for her.

Don't you just love chubby little toddler hands?

Miss L

Miss L is the little girl I babysit during the week. She's about 20 months old now. Apparently she starts chanting "Boys!" and "Annie!" when her mom pulls in to the driveway to drop her off. She's been coming to my house since August 2008. It's fun to have a little girl around. I can do a mean ponytail these days!

The photo above was taken at our MOPS group on Wednesdays. Miss L loves going to MOPS & playing in the nursery. She was all about this horse that day.

These two photos were taken this past week. She has figured out pockets. She was too adorable so I had to snap a couple photos. She's a smart cookie & knows all her body parts. It's fun to name things & have her go through & point them all out.


She certainly is fun to have around & it's been a lot of fun "borrowing" a little girl to hang out at our house.

Hair Raising

If I ever decided to do Wordless Wednesday, this photo would so work.....poor kid. I redo her hair constantly throughout the day. On a positive note - I'm getting pretty good at it! ;-)

Life

Life has been a bit crazy here this week. In addition to my three boys & Miss L my nephew has been here with us since Monday. A sort of extended sleep over. My sister just started homeschooling him this year so she sent his work with him. It's been interesting to have five of them at the table.

As you can see from the photo, I had to use my little four foot Lifetime table because our kitchen table is so small I just couldn't fit everyone around it. It's tight even when it's just normally us & J doesn't join us for the entire time. In the photo below Miss L is in the playpen (after being at the table with us for almost an hour) & J is on the couch after doing a bit of preschool.



One of the fun things we did today was painting a snow scene using marshmallows & Q-tips. I saw it a few weeks ago over at His Mercy is New & I knew the boys would love it. I was right. Although, I'm thinking N has been reading way too much Calvin & Hobbs lately. Here's what he drew.....
It makes me laugh every time I see it. ;-)

When I was taking a photo of N's painting, Miss L was in her seat having her mid-afternoon snack of pepperoni & cheese. She started yelling, "Cheese! Cheese!" and smiling very big. I had to take her photo of course.




Overall it was a good day. Long but good. Here's hoping tomorrow is nice too.

Oh & before you all ask...my nephew has been staying with me because my mom has been pretty ill for the last few months. She is back in the hospital & we are much closer to finding out what is causing the pain she's been having. My sister is an ER nurse so she is great with the medical stuff especially dealing with the doctors. In fact, one hospitalist actually said, "Okay, I'll do that. I'm tired of arguing with you." ;-) She knows her stuff. She's been working for about 17 years at this point. I'm glad she's there & I'm glad I can have my nephew here where she doesn't have to worry about what's going on & I can help with the school stuff.

Quote of the day is from my nephew. He's an only child at this point btw...

"Auntie Lisa, making four child mind is tough isn't it?" ::grin::

Once I know for sure what's wrong with my mom I'll be sure to post about it. Prayers for comfort for her right now would be great. Thanks.