6/8/12

Morgan ate all of her malt-o-meal and seconds on raisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her spaghetti with extra meaty sauce, watermelon (subbed for salad because we had some we needed to use) and a couple bites of her mixed fruit. 

We only had six kiddos here today so things were pretty mild.  Morgan was the only one from the love-hate triangle (Jadey, Kenzie and Morgan), so the dynamics were definitely different.  Gary decided since there were fewer kiddos to try to check out the light fixture part of the big room fan (that died while he was laid up with his back).  The kiddos were enthralled when he brought in the 6 foot ladder.  Morgan looked at it in awe and said, "Wow!  It's really big like me!"  : )  They sat on the couch and watched him climb the ladder and work on it for about 10 minutes. 

Morgan started singing our "you all fall down" song independently, then asked me to "help her" sing it.  It was really cute.  It is a very active song with clapping, stomping, jumping, nodding and falling.  When we finished that song she immediately asked "What's another one?"  We sang about 5 of the really active songs before she was tired of it. 

It was kind of a "more" day today.  Not only with the active songs, but the books at story time also.  I started with four books I think and every time I would get done, all of the 'big kiddos' would say, "Can you read more?"  I think we ended up ready about 16 or so!  And it would have been more, but my throat was starting to get scratchy so I vetoed it!  : )

We have these magnetic boards that have little "M & M" looking things in them that you move around with a magnetic wand to make different designs.  We only have five of them so we don't use them when all of the kiddos are here, because we have 6-8 'big' kiddos usually and there isn't enough.  Today with just 5, we got them down and the four biggest loved it.  Thomas even tried to do it, but his skills aren't quite conducive to success yet.

6/7/12

As you suggested in your email yesterday, Morgan's day was a little more challenging that the last few have been.  Not horrible, by any means, but there were several close calls emotionally.  : )  The thing that I thought was interesting and great was that she asked me to "cuddle" with her two of the times when she was starting to fall apart.  If she can begin to recognize that she can ask for help when she is feeling fragile or frustrated before she melts down, that would be huge! 

Morgan's love for music is awesome (again, another tool she can use to chill out if she can make that connection).  Even though I have all of the kiddos' music on shuffle, she still can recognize what some is coming before it starts singing words after just the first note or two.  Several times she has announced a song was coming and I thought she was wrong, but it turned out she was right!  : )  She sing to the ipod songs all the time and even cuter is the fact that today she was "singing" with no words even though we hadn't done it as a group today and when no one else was doing it!  : ) 

Morgan was being little miss dramatic today.  First of all she said something funny, which sadly neither Gary nor I could remember by the time I had a moment to write it down.  We all laughed, of course.  Then she gets this dramatic expression on her face, slightly squats down with her arms out and palms up and announced, "You crack me up!"  What a kiddo! 

6/6/12

Morgan ate seconds on biscuit and all of her peaches at breakfast.  At lunch she ate most of her steamed broccoli and all of her dinner roll, baked beans and pineapple. 

Morgan was very engaged in "cooking" and "setting up" the table for several of the toddlers.  There were Peyton, Thomas, Emily and then Joslyn came and went.  She was also being a great little problem solver when the littler ones kept trying to take each other's food.  She would either find them another one or help them get it back.  Pretty good skills!

We have been doing some playing around with our music time lately.  One of the things we have been doing is some humming the songs after we have song them with words and even whispering the words or just mouthing the words.  This gives them the opportunity to understand "quiet" and "no sound" better as well as melody without words.  All of the 'big' kiddos are actually pretty good at it! Morgan was very intrigued by it and wanted to do more songs.  Each time we were done with one, she would put her fist on the bottom of her cheek, and say "hmmmm..." as she tried to think of another one to sing.  : )

I love how Morgan "gets" so many of the funny things Gary says.  He is such a tease and most of the time it just goes over the kiddos heads because it is more for my benefit than theirs.  Often Morgan will hear what he says, look at him intently with an inquisitive look on her face then either laugh or say, "nooo!" when she figures out that it is goofy.  I can't remember the specific example from today, but it happens all the time~! 

6/5/12

Gary is back.  Hurray!  : )

Morgan ate seconds on waffles and all of her hashbrowns at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her shrimp and red peppers raw, about half of her brown rice and a bite of her oranges. 

Morgan was walking around asking me and all of the kiddos who were here at that time, "Do you want a drink of 'latte'?"  That cracked me up.  I didn't even know what a latte was until about 6 months ago, so Morgan probably had me beat!  ; ) 

Riley was looking at one of the board books and bent it back the wrong way.  Morgan obviously observed it because she went racing across the big room saying, "Oh no!  Riley broke the book!"  Sure enough, she had bent it back enough that it popped the book open -- to the mend pile it goes! 

Morgan spontaneously started jumping up and down, announcing, "I get to help my daddy with the camper tonight!"  it always intrigues me when one of the kiddos says something like that when there is no observable context or prompt.  No one was talking about camping or anything.  : )

Kenzie looked at Morgan's pants for a long time with an amused look on her face then said, "Oh, Oh!  She's got 'jammies' on!"  Morgan indignantly told her, "No it's a shirt!"  : )

Morgan and Kenzie played together quite a bit today.  During one episode Morgan told Kenzie, "Lay down.  I give you a tattoo!"  Kenzie did and then showed her where she wanted her tattoo to go (right leg).