11/13/12

Morgan ate all of her pears and thirds on blueberry waffles at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her sweet potatoes and her tuna on saltines, along kth a couple bites of her orange slices.  

Morgan, Noah and I (and later Kenzie, Riley and Emily) read and looked at about six books first thing this morning as we cuddled.  That is a great transition activity from home to here.  

Morgan and Kenzie vacillated from getting along to having enough of each other and one of them moving away.  When one of them moved away the other one rejoined them within couple minutes almost every time and they would be back to being buddies again.  It is interesting to observe!  

Morgan and Kenzie were visiting this morning and Morgan told her, "she's upside-down like a wombat" about how Kenzie was holding her doll.  She must have learned that at home, because I don't think we have ever even said the word "wombat" here.  

Kenzie, Emily and Morgan had a playful tug of war with the giant bear for several minutes.  They pulled him from side to side on the rowdy part of the room, off of and back on the mattress.  

Morgan was following Kenzie around and she suddenly said, "hey Kenzie, stop!  I just have one thing to tell ya!"  She says so many things that just crack me up every day! 

Morgan loves to do little things to get Gary to harass and play with her.  For example, today Gary was standing at the changing table taking some notes on the kiddos.  She gets an impish look on her face as she's laying in the mattress.  she then puts her feet up on his legs until he quits taking notes and gets down on the mattress with her, playing!  It's sweet!  

11/12/12

Morgan ate all of her Chex cereal and a bite of her fruit salad at breakfast.  At lunch she ate everything -- roast beef sandwich, tomato soup and apple slices.  

Morgan explored the new toy exchange stuff.  She especially looked at the new books, dolls and doctor stuff.  

Morgan was quite out of sorts off and on this morning.  She had an extended melt down during breakfast because something wasn't quite right and she wouldn't tell us what it was.  She, then, had another one about 45 minutes later when I moved her way from the friend she had slapped across the face.  

Morgan was very excited to play with the stuffed dogs and cats that we got out with this set.  Morgan was looking at them and finding the matching "twins".  When Kenzie heard Morgan say that, she chuckled, pointed to Riley and said "No, we're the twins!"  : ) She also told me they were "following each other and sniffing each other."  During this whole time she had them over by me and was playing independently.  

Morgan and Kenzie didn't play with one another much this morning.  they did spend some time playing on and around the black chair.  One was on the chair and the other one under it.  I am not sure what the game was, but Kenzie would either bark (woof-woof) or say meow and Morgan would peek over the edge of the chair and Kenzie would crack up.  Morgan loved making her laugh.

Morgan was asleep almost immediately at nap time so was obviously tired!  

11/9/12

Morgan ate seconds on oatmeal and all of her prunes at breakfast.  At lunch Morgan ate several bites of her biscuit and all of her mandarin oranges and hash brown casserole.  

Morgan and Kenzie were struggling quite a bit with getting along, so I had to separate them -- Kenzie went to the back room to play with Emily for a while.   

Morgan really didn't play then until after breakfast.  She just hung out by me and then went out with me to fix the oatmeal. She loves doing that because I always give my "helpers" a little taste of brown sugar after I put some into the oatmeal.  That was the first thing she asked after I said she could come with me.  

The kiddos were watching a crow in the big tree out of the big window and making cawing sounds.  They also banged n the window to try to scare him away, but he just waited to fly until he was good and ready -- must be taking lessons from our kiddos!  : ) 

The kiddos used the Magna doodles today and really enjoyed that.  Morgan made a mark with three bumps on it and told me "I maked a M for me".  She and Joslyn drew with them for about 20 minutes or so.  

11/8/12

Morgan ate all of her French toast and cantaloupe at breakfast.  At lunch she ate seconds on dried mangoes and all of her squash, turkey slices and crescent roll.

We had a pretty busy morning today.  A early childhood education student was here doing an observation and checklist on our program for about 90 minutes.  She was very good about being unobtrusive, but it still changes the dynamics somewhat.  About 10 minutes after she got here, Bode's mom, Leslie, brought him and the baby (Reid) down for about the same length of time.  All of the kiddos were very excited to see baby Reid.  The four bigger kiddos followed Bode around like the Pied Piper!  It was so funny!

Then Coral only had half a day of school, so she came and ate lunch with us and will be with us the rest of the afternoon.  She just hangs out in her room during nap time so that is no issue, it just made an addition for lunch.

Morgan and several of the other kiddos were trying on all of the animal costumes again today. I really like the lion suit on Morgan!

Morgan and Joslyn were looking at their two family picture posters this morning.  Morgan was very interested in who everyone was on joslyns,   She was asking Joslyn questions about everyone, asking who they were and what her grandma's name was.  They were super engaged in it for quite a while.

The kiddos asked to "do more leaves" today so we used the last of the sticker fall items Emily's momma Cynthia donated .  They all had fun and I really enjoyed seeing who stacked them, who didn't, who chose mostly leaves and who didn't...

11/7/12

Morgan ate all her toast and a tasting bite of mixed berries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate seconds on saltine crackers and bean soup and all of her kiwi and ham.

Morgan asked "what makes a BOOM?" out of the blue today.  I was trying to think about the answer because I didn't have a frame of reference since I hadn't just heard a boom.  She then answered her own question with, "a cannon?"  Obviously she's been to at least one football game!  

Morgan put one of the little stuffed animals in the skirt of her dress while she was sitting down and flipping it up so it went in the air, like we do with the balls outside in the parachute.  

Morgan was reading books again this morning and asking me " what's this one?" for the nursery rhymes that she wasn't sure of.  Then she would sing whatever that page's one was.  

Morgan wanted music on this morning.  It is amazing how many times she announces the next song after only one little note or sound. 

Morgan, Joslyn and Kenzie were all in the igloo together.  They actually managed to play without conflict in the close quarters!  It may not be a record, but it's well above average!

Morgan and Kenzie were playing and Morgan came over to me and announced, "look at me!  I'm all dressed up like a prince". Kenzie then added that she was Cinderella.  They really had no dress ups, or any thing else different on at all.  The only thing was they both had the hoods on their dress/shirt pulled up!  Great imaginations!

Morgan was doing a great "Here we go cheerleaders, here we go!" chant.  It was complete with clapping and other body motions.  

11/5/12

Morgan ate about half of her bran flakes and craisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her cheese pizza and about half of her cauliflower and her tropical fruit.

Morgan was having a blast jumping off of the climber onto the bear on the mattress.  The way she jumped onto the bear was just right to really catapult her up into the air. She thought it was very fun and tried to repeat it, but it never did it quite as well.

Morgan and Kenzie were "decorating" with the animals this morning.  They were "decorating" the igloo and the inside climber/balance beam.

Kenzie kept talking about how tired she was after breakfast.  Morgan picked up on it and they started pretending to go to sleep.  They were making beds on the big bear, in the igloo, under the chair, on the couch and in the box.

Morgan was walking around when, seemingly out of the blue, she announced, "I got a call!"  She searched around until she found a phone then 'answered' it.  It cracked me up because she hadn't been playing with a phone before the 'call came in'.

She and Kenzie were trying to "make a tent for their babies".  Of course, to them that means putting everything in the box that they can get away with.

Kenzie and Morgan were really vacillating between being buddies and excited to play with each other to yelling "move back!" and wanting nothing to do with each other.  It made for quite the emotional roller coaster ride.

11/6/12

Morgan ate seconds on whole wheat bagel and all of her dried apricots.  Morgan ate everything at lunch -- tilapia, applesauce and our pea and pasta with cheese dish.  

Morgan cuddled and visited with me until I had to fix Noah a bottle.  She then read us stories while I fed him.  It was really cute.  She had chosen one of the books that has a different song on each page and she was just singing along.

Kenzie and Morgan were "having a party" with the back packs, a bunch of the food toys and several other toys, including books.  They started out on the floor, but Mia wouldn't leave them alone so they moved their party to the box and protection from those pesky babies. : ). Morgan has been more and more irritated by the mobile babies.  So far she hasn't been physically aggressive very often, just yelling at them and getting frustrated herself.

Morgan joined Kenzie in doing puzzles after Joslyn was done.  It is fun to listen to them dialogue about where the pieces go, what they needed to do to make them fit and just chatting in general.

Morgan was on the brink of a melt down three differ times, but never did have a full blown one.  She also was asleep way sooner than usual.  She is almost always the last one (or second to last) asleep and one of the first ones awake. It is amazing how many times harder morning correlate with a change in napping -- either quicker to sleep or longer nap.