Sophie - 6/20/2017

Sophie ate toasted whole wheat english muffin and most of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate no chicken with stir fry vegetables.  She had bites of brown rice even though she said she didn't like that either.  Then she ate lots of oranges.

Here are samples of Sophie conversations this morning!  "Gary! Someone is poopy!!"  Who is it Sophie?  "Uhhh....Bubba, I'm gonna sniff your butt!"  Haha!  Thanks Sophie, now I don't have too!! "Bubba's poopy!!"  "Gary, I made a messy thing."  What's a messy thing?  "It's for my daughter....Bubba...he's my daughter." (Oh. That did not answer my question. Ha!)  "Gary, I'm not a baby anymore.  I was a baby and you fed me the bottle.  I'm a big girl and I'm going to Pre-school. And you are sad I'm a big girl."  Haha!  Well, I'm very thankful you are becoming a big girl and I'm trying hard to not be too sad!!  "Gary, my Sister is 5."  Yes, Nora is 5 now, soon to be 6, and she is a big girl!!  Sophie said, "And bossy!"  LOL!!  Hmmm...speaking of being bossy.  Do you ever boss Bubba around?  Sophie giggles.  :)

Sophie was tickling Nora when I took this picture and Nora was giggling and laughing loud!  It was so cute!  Sophie had basically pursued Nora across the mattress and continued to tickle her.  Hudson was watching and of course wanted to get in on the tickling, but Sophie was guarding (see the next picture) Nora and a serious argument ensued about who could tickle Nora! Ha!  (Intervention was necessary and successful.)

This last picture should probably be up at the top - this was the "messy thing" that Sophie was making for her "daughter Bubba!!"  It didn't look very "messy" to me; I thought she'd done a fine job with it!  Haha!!

Sophie - 6/19/2017

Sophie ate half of her cheerios and ate banana for breakfast.  For lunch we had taco salad and I serve it separately rather than all mixed together: She ate ground beef, pita bread, most of tomatoes (no lettuce, no olives) and ate three servings of cantaloupe.

Almost all morning Atley was humming, singing, making sounds - sometimes building to quite the loud crescendo!!  :)  So cute.  I love it.  Sophie said, "She's singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."  And it probably was that song!  So Sophie started singing it as well and Hudson joined in!

In the first picture all 5 kids were playing on the mattress and having lots of fun bouncing and jumping.  In the 2nd picture Hudson was tucking in Sophie - she kept calling him "Mommy" and then she said, "You forgot my lovey!!"  He seemed to know exactly which stuffed animal she wanted - the sheep.  Then he said, "I'm gonna tuck you in."  In the 3rd picture Sophie was tickling Avi with "Lovey" and I suggested she give Avi a turn and so she was handing it off!  Thanks Sophie.

I took this picture when I told the kids I was getting some books for Story Time!  Isn't that the coolest thing?  When I turned around this is the picture I saw - so I got the camera!  They are all sitting (got up there and got ready on their own initiative) and ready for it to start.

Sophie - 6/15/2017

Sophie ate toasted whole wheat english muffin and no oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, whole wheat elbow noodles, most of her peas, and two servings of applesauce.

There will not be any Blogs tomorrow, June 16th.  Little Treasures is closing for the afternoon so Lauralea and I can attend a Memorial service for the precious daughter of some dear friends of ours.  Thank you so much to all my Daycare Families for making it possible for us to attend the funeral and support this family.

For the first time this week all 6 six kids are here today!  It was a busy place this morning, but we had lots of fun!!  Here's a picture of the kids playing on the mattress and blue balance beam.  Hudson is a bit blurry in the background, as he was just coming in for a landing!!  :)  Sophie asked, "Hey Bubba! You wanna do 'how-a-bunga' with me?"  (I thought she said "cow," but she informed me it's "how.")  So Hudson immediately started chanting, "How-a-bunga, how-a-bunga, how-a-bunga...."  "NOOO!! Not like that!" Sophie yelled.  She hadn't described the specific instructions on how the game was to be played, but apparently he wasn't doing it right!!  :)

Sophie had been telling Hudson a story and the only part I heard was this; "I called him Stevie and that's funny!"  So I'm assuming that is Grandpa Steve.  :)  In the picture below Sophie was upset with Hudson because he wasn't doing whatever she wanted him to do.  She said, "You're not listening Bubba!  Go somewhere else and sing that!"  Ha!  Wow!  That's a bit harsh.  So I told her that Hudson liked singing his own songs too as well as singing with her.  :)

I think the kids were looking at some birds when I took the last picture.  I was intent on taking a picture and I never did see what they were looking at.  This picture gives you a good perspective of a big 4 year old!!  (Reid will be 5 in late September.)  NBC news recently ran a piece on how a study showed that kids who drink only Almond Milk (along with rice milk, soy milk, and maybe more) are on the average 1- 2 inches shorter than others the same age.  I think Reid may be an exception to that study!!  Haha!  He's drank almond milk almost his entire life!!

Sophie - 6/14/2017

Sophie had bites of french bread and no strawberries for breakfast.  Our lunch was cooking in a crock pot and Sophie said, "Hey Gary, it smells in here; like soup."  Does that soup smell good?  She said, "No."  Haha!  At least she ate a few small bites!  For lunch she had a few bites of Paleo Stew with ground burger, potatoes, green beans, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli - she ate crackers, and two servings of tropical fruit.

Hey, I was able to get all 4 kids that are here today in one picture!  :)  Nora was squealing and excited to have everyone close by.  Nora was thumping Atley and Sophie and so I was saying, "gentle touches" and showing her what a gentle touch looks and feels like.  Atley just seemed amused by it all.  Ha!  Sometimes the kids aren't very helpful when I'm doing a teaching moment like that!!  For example, Nora had also tugged on Sophie's hair on the way by.  So I was doing the "gentle touches" thing again!  Sophie said, "I like her pulling on my hair!"  Haha!  Well I don't and it's not helpful for you to say that!  :)

We got the tunnels out and the kids had fun crawling through!  Nora watched and crawled along the outside of the tunnel for a while.  She eventually went inside and I took the picture when she was first going in with encouragement from Sophie!  Thanks Sophie!!

Sophie was wearing the bumblebee jacket and cowgirl boots and standing in front of the mirror talking.  Who are you talking to?  She said, "Mom.  And she's a real Mom."  Then Sophie turned back to the mirror and continued to talk;  "Mom, can I sleep with my boots and jacket on?"  Ha!  So cute. It's so fun and fascinating when you can listen to their imaginative play!!

Sophie - 6/12/2017

Sophie ate kix cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of ground turkey, some hamburger bun, no lettuce, maybe a bite of tomatoes, ate avocado, and a few cherries.

We were having Story Time this morning and reading "Barnyard Dance."  Two of the lines go like this;  "Bow to the horse, bow to the cow...."  Sophie gets off the couch and does the cutest and most perfect bow!  Then Avi gets off the couch and tries to mimic her!  SO CUTE!!  What followed was also cute - Avi was being silly and started trying to tip her head backwards instead of bowing forward.  What a goof!

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Sophie was very busy all morning with the new stuff.  She started with the food toys (in the first picture), then dress-up clothes (wore some cowgirl boots to breakfast), then on to the puzzles (in the 2nd picture).  I've mentioned this recently, but Sophie spends lots of time here with the puzzles.  I think she did every one of the puzzles this morning.  Baby Nora was standing and hanging onto the gate watching Sophie do puzzles. Sophie got excited and acted like it was the first time she'd actually seen Nora stand up! "Nora's standing up!!"

Sophie said, "Hey Gary!!  I'm wearing Baby Jammies!!"  So here's a picture of her in her "baby jammies."  Actually it's a "cow suit."  (There is an animal theme in this toy set - mostly barnyard animals.)  I was most impressed because she's gotten the cow suit on all by herself!  And it's pretty snug and wasn't that easy for her!!

Sophie - 6/9/2017

Sophie ate bites of oatmeal and I didn't see her have any baked apples with cinnamon for breakfast. For lunch she ate the meat from the hamburger stew; "I like the meat."  She ate several bites of dinner roll, no vegetables from the stew (carrots, green beans, potatoes, brussel sprouts), and ate two servings of apricots.

She was reading several books this morning in the chair and I love listening to her sing the songs as well.  This picture was "Pooh and Tigger touch the ground, Pooh and Tigger turn around...."  We also read lots of stories and she watched Reid jump and chant; "I believe I can fly!"  Ha!

Here are some pictures from our outside time.  She yelled, "Here's a dandelion Gary!!"  Love these little helpers!  We quickly find and dispose of all dandelions in the back yard!  :)  Then in the following picture the kids loved the chance to see Bode on his way home from school.  (Last day of school before summer break and they got out early.)  Bode is such a sweet and gentle boy and all the little kids love him.  He was answering all of Hudson's questions about "what's that? what's that? what's that?"  The kids also played on the geo-climber.

Sophie - 6/8/2017

Sophie ate half of toasted rye bread and two servings of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of pork sandwich, ate peas, and two servings of cantaloupe.  At breakfast Reid was requesting a different color plate for Lunch time;  "Can you remember at Lunch Time cause all my life I like blue; and get Sophie green plate."  Haha!  Sophie said, "I don't like green, I like purple."  Which Reid already knows!  (And I have purple plates so everybody is a happy camper!!)  Silly Reid!

Sophie was reading the "Frozen" book and talking to Hudson about it.  He's obviously not in the picture, but he was sitting on the window step close enough to see the book.  And Bubba was the "Momma" at this point!  "So Mom, I'll just keep reading....."

We went outside and I took a picture of these 4 kids single-filing up and down the sidewalk.  Two dump trucks, one ice-cream cart, and Atley just out for the stroll.  :)  Then Sophie and Hudson were on the geo-climber and Sophie pointed at Bubba and said, "This my sister right her," then points to self and said, "I'm the brother!"  Hudson just looked at her as if to say, "Huh?  Ok, whatever."  :)  Sometimes the "Mom," sometimes the "Baby," and now the "sister."  It's hard to keep up!!