Early Reading Skills

For a while now, M memorizes the words of a given book after only one or two read-throughs.  It has often amazed me with how much accuracy she can recite a book page-for-page.  This evening was no exception.  We checked out Smile, Princepessa! from the library last week, and M adores it.  Great book:  attractive illustrations, captivating words, and a theme any three-year-old can relate to.

This evening, when we got to this page, M pointed to each of the words and stated "snap, snap, snap".  There are lots of other words on the two-page spread, so it impressed me that she was able to pinpoint the correct words!  Very cool early reading going on over at our house!

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Oops!

"Mommy, HELP!" M cried from her bedroom.  I came running down the hall.  I found a comical scene: M had inadvertently put her arms in the leg holes of her pajama pants, and was upset that she couldn't get her head through!

"Oops!" I said, quoting one of our favorite books, Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. Silly turkey, what a goof.

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Upgrade

We all got new phones at our house. My husband and I got BlackBerry smartphones, so the kids inherited our old phones. We all couldn't be happier!

Photo taken with and post uploaded from my phone! :-)

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Super Pooh

"He's like Superman because his arms stick out"

Super Pooh!  Awesome.

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Busted

M woke up and wondered into our room.  She proceeded to lecture me:

"Mom, why is the green box in here?  You can't open the green box until the purple box is all gone.  You shouldn't have those in your room.  We only eat in the kitchen.  Did you eat those after I was asleep?"

What she is referring to is the box of thin mints that my husband and I polished off as our bedtime snack.  We ordered girl scout cookies the other day, and realized we still had some in our freezer from last time.   They. Are. Fantastic.  I think she was jealous that she was not included in this cookie binge.  And, what she didn't know, is that we finished off the purple box (caramel delights) too...

We deserved a scolding for that.

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Sick Is No Fun Part 2

The coughing-induced vomiting returned for a second night.  As M describes in a strangely upbeat way:

"Mommy, it was orange this time!"

That was two nights ago, and it appears the worst is over.  She seems to be on the up-n-up.

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Sick Is No Fun

M stayed home sick today from school.  I felt it was a bit of an obligatory sick day at first, since she was acting normal other than this persistent cough, which led to a vomiting episode last night before bed (hence no school for 24 hrs).

However, after being home with her this morning, I realize now that I'm glad I kept her home.  Get a kid bored enough, and they will start to show how they really feel!  She started out happily playing around the house, but then relaxed on the couch to watch TV, and eventually decided she didnt want the TV on at all, but just wanted to rest on the couch under a blanket.  She's been crashed there for almost two hours, not asleep, just zonked.  Not talking, or moving, or anything.  Just staring off into space, coughing now and then.  Poor little thing.  We'll be off to the doctor at 4pm.

C on the other hand has been hilarious.  He is not sick and has no cough.  But every time he hears M start hacking, he can't help but join in! He has the most fake little cough you've ever heard.

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That Crazy Alphabet

"It's a   W   when its upside-down, and its an   M   when it's upside-up"

Who knew?  hehehehe.

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Family Game Night

We used to have a regular family game night at my godfather's house.  It was always something we would look forward to, and enjoy thoroughly.  Someday I'd like to start a similar weekly tradition with M and C.   It's just a great quality time experience, especially when our weekdays can be so chaotic.

Tonight I would say was our first official Family Game Night.  My husband points out that we've played the game before, but it wasn't quite in the same context, and the experience never felt as authentic as it did tonight.  We played Super Why Bingo.  Every time someone got a Bingo, they won a gummy bear.  Yum.

There are very few games that M is developmentally ready to play.  I think our options will increase drastically as she gets a few years older.  For now, we have the following possibilities:

• The Original Game of Memory  
• Lots and lots of puzzles
• Elefun

Any suggestions for other preschooler-friendly family games? Suggestions welcome.  We have ton of games already, but few that are geared toward her age.

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Valentines!

Two big goals this weekend:  start making Valentine's for classmates/friends/cousins, and clean the bathrooms. I was excited because, in fact, we not only started the Valentines, we finished them all!  Whoo!  I was afraid I would wind up doing most of the work myself, but M was quite involved with the process and was able to help considerably.  It was a great mommy/daughter crafting time.

We made two different types, and I wanted to pass them along, since they were both very easy to make, even for a three-year-old:

1.  For folks we could actually hand them to, we made Lollipop Posies.  They turned out to be super easy and cute.  We didn't have floral tape, as the directions call for, but we used scotch tape and it worked just fine.  M stacked each set of the tissue paper circles together in a pattern.  M insisted on "boy colors" for boys and "girl colors" for girls, so we did our best with that...And we finished ours with a heart shape leaf, with the To/From on it.

2.  For those we would not see before V-day, we made these cute Guppy Love cards to go in the postal mail.  Each fish is made up of three hearts, and M loved piecing the hearts together in different color configurations.  Then she colored the backs while I wrote messages on the fronts.  Then, after I addressed the envelopes, M assisted in stuffing, sealing, stamping, and stickering the outsides of the envelopes with hearts.

PS - I cleaned the bathrooms too. ;-)

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Purple, Pink, White

Daycare gave M a candy necklace, but the candy was not strung onto the elastic yet.  M conquered the task as soon as she got home today.  She very carefully strung each candy bead, and I was highly impressed.  Not only was her dexterity beyond what I realized, she also has picked up patterns!  Right when she started she said "Purple, Pink, White - that's a pattern!"  I concurred, and she proceeded to recreate this pattern throughout her necklace, with very few mis-threads!  Nice work!

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Say What?

Two cute little mis-speaks from M tonight:

"Mommy, if you cut your finger, you'll have to go to the doctor, and get sticks, and put a bandaid on it."

And later, in the playroom:

"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, hashes, hashes, we all fall down!"

hehehe. :o)

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Our "Family" is Growing

Our stuffed animal family, that is. ;)

Introducting... Sammy the dog (left), and Annie the Girraffe (right):

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Hehehe

"When we were at the grocery store, we saw orange bubble bath!"  M told me this morning.

"Oh yeah?  I wonder what it smelled like..."  I replied.

"I think it smelled like green"

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Babies Run Wild

My husband and I stayed up late last night on a date and playing Wii after we got home, so we were not keen on rising at 7am with the kids.  They were both anxious to start the day, so we let them loose in the house so that we could continue dozing.

Perhaps letting the kids run around unsupervised after a late night may not have been our best idea.  We quickly jumped out of bed when C brought us an open bottle of Mike's hard lemonade.  Oh my!  And, he was covered in chocolate pudding.  We had left the living room a bit of a mess, and he thought it'd be a fun place to make some mischief.   At least we were awake enough to close the bathroom door - he has already gotten into the toilet twice this week - ew!

M was a little bit more constructive during her solo time:  she covered two sheets of paper entirely with stickers.  We decided the extra hour of rest was well worth the cost of stickers!

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Super Daddy

"Daddy, do you know where my game player is?"

"M, I know where everything is" Daddy told M as he retrieved her Leapster.

"That's because you're Super Daddy," M replied.

Yes he is, M.  Yes he is.

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