3/29/13

Joslyn at about half of her maltomeal and raisins at breakfast. A lunch she ate all of her salad with ranch, and most of her spaghetti with meaty sauce and about half of her mixed fruit.

Kenzie, Joslyn and Riley were doing puzzles today after they helped watched me fix breakfast. Joslyn was doing a great job of putting her puzzles together. She also was cheering Riley on when she did get them in or put them back in the puzzle shelf. It is so sweet to watch!

Kenzie and Joslyn were pretending to "put make-up on" each other and themselves. I think Kenzie said it first, but am not 100% sure. What I do know is that Kenzie told Joslyn that she needed to put some "behind your ear". Joslyn immediately turned her ear toward Kenzie and Kenzie brushed the little Duplo flower behind her ear after moving her hair out of the way. After then Kenzie told Joslyn, "now lift up your arm because I need to put some make-up on her arm pit!" I just cracked up! Joslyn did and then they switched roles, with Joslyn putting makeup on Kenzie's face, behind her ears and on her arm pit! : )

3/28/13

Joslyn ate all of her blueberries and about half of her cinnamon raisin English muffin at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her canned chicken on saltines, most of her cherries and about half of her sweet potatoes.

Kenzie was using a spatula to "get spiders out of the cracks". One of the 'cracks' she was talking about was obviously the crease under Joslyn's chin because she was trying to clear it out with the spatula too. They actually played in the box together or alongside of each other for most of the big room play time after breakfast.

Kenzie and Joslyn were doing some heavy duty spring cleaning together. Kenzie was "getting the spray" and spraying all over with it while Joslyn scrubbed it with one of the scarves/handkerchiefs. I think Joslyn had the bum end of the deal. They were doing walls, the box, the wall thermometer, and many other things.

Aaron accidentally rolled off of the mattress and bonked his head on the carpet pretty hard. I played it up, saying BONK... loudly to help him not cry. It ended up being ekind of a mistake on my part because all of kiddos thought it was funny, then started rolling off and bonking their heads also. Joslyn was one of the hardest bonkers!

3/27/13

Joslyn ate seconds on biscuit and all of her peaches at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her baked beans and dinner roll, about half of her peas and a bite of her pineapple.

Kenzie and Joslyn were putting cake on plates and setting them on the table. Kenzie was verbalizing, "one of Riley, one for Jozzy, one for Emily, one for Thomas, now were ready". They were al so fixing soup and milk to go with the cake.

Joslyn sat in the box and "read" books independently for about 20 minutes this morning, either to a friend who came to join her, her baby doll or just to herself.

Aaron, Kenzie and Joslyn were all driving their "trains" along the big block tracks again today. There are three sections between the interlocking bumps, so it worked great for each of them to each have their own "track" to run their trains.

When she was done on the train track, she made "an interesting creation" as she called it. I obviously must call their buildings that frequently! : )

3/26/13

Joslyn ate all of her hashbrowns and seconds on waffles at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her brown rice and orange slices, about half of her colored peppers and half of her shrimp.

Joslyn wanted to sit by me, hold my arm, and such her thumb quite a bit this morning. She wasn't sad or upset, just a little dozy and not wanting to join in the play at that time. While she was sitting with me, she was watching Thomas playing on the mattress. They were kind of flirting with each other across the rowdy side of the big room. He was doing some crazy things to impress her and finally she had to get up to join him.

When Joslyn was jumping on the mattress a while later, she jumped off and started crying, grabbing her neck. It was wild because she didn't fall over or anything, just landed in standing position, so... Probably pinched a little nerve or otherwise tweaked it. She has things like that happen occasionally and often it is hard to tell what exactly happened.

In the block room, Joslyn and Kenzie were using the big block "sidewalk" as their railway. They each made a "train" with a bunch of Duplos that was one Duplo wide. Their "trains" fit perfectly between the bumps of the big interlocking blocks so they used it as their train tracks. It was great and engaged them for the majority of block room time. I wanted to take a picture, but was feeding Noah his bottle while they were doing it.

3/25/13

Joslyn ate all of her Cheerios and raisins at breakfast. At lunch she ate seconds on tomato soup and all of her apple slices and cheese sandwich.

All of the kiddos were really burning some energy off this morning, jumping on the mattress. There was seven of then on it at once for most of about 5 minutes.

Joslyn was very impressed with the "rainbow" (sun spot) Kenzie found on the ceiling after breakfast. They stared at it until it faded and went away about 10 minutes).

Kenzie was trying to convince the other big kiddos that "ghosts" were after them. Joslyn immediately told her "There's no ghosts or monsters at Gary and Lauralea's", then turned to me for reinforcement, "Right, Lauralea?" That is our stance because some kiddos get scared and it also often leads to too crazy of a line of play.

Joslyn was laying on her back and hooking one of the cake pans onto her toe and dangling it over her head, very proud of what she could do. When it would fall off and hit her in the face, both she and Aaron cracked up.

It is amazing how many times a day we remind Joslyn to keep her hands out of her pants (both for sanitary reasons and because of her blistery deals. I had to take and share a picture from today!

3/22/13

Joslyn ate about half of both her craisins and oatmeal at breakfast. At lunch Joslyn ate seconds on applesauce and her pasta and lease with cheese, as well as all of her lean ground beef.

After breakfast she and Kenzie played at the table with the dolls and food for about 50 minutes. They were having some great dialogues as they played. They were feeding the babies and Kenzie suddenly yelled to Joslyn "She's spitting up! Quick grab me a burp rag!" A little bit later she asked Joslyn, "Will you change my baby? She's really poopy!". I think Joslyn was getting the raw end of the deal. Joslyn was calling her doll "baby Zoe" so Kenzie had to name hers "baby Zoe too".

Joslyn was having a blast with Kenzie and Thomas playing on the mattress. They were calling what they were doing, "going back and forth". Basically it was just going around and around -- up the climber steps, across the balance beam, then either jumping or stepping off onto the mattress and coping whatever the person in front of them had done (bounced across the mattress, somersault, rolling across, plopping and lying there...

Kenzie was holding on to the side of the Duplo table and her feet ki d of slid a little. Her face just lit up and she started slide/running in place saying, "Hey! I'm running on my treadmill!" She then invited Joslyn to try it too. She joined her and they were really laughing and having fun with it.

3/21/13

Joslyn ate all of her blueberries and a bite or two of waffles at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her turkey burger sandwich and green beans and about half of her kiwi.

Joslyn played with Thomas for a while again today. They were playing a very simplified form of hide-and-seek, mostly around the igloo and in the corner by the changing table.

Joslyn was being such a greeat friend in the back room, helping Kenzie, Riley and Aaron find the type of Duplos they we're looking for. For Aaron that was the flowers,for Kenzie the bigger ones and for Riley the littler square ones.

Joslyn decided to make the end of the big block sidewalk her flower shop today. She put all of the Duplo flowers there then was asking the rest of my group of kiddos if they wanted a flower. It started when Kenzie asked for one and Joslyn didn't want to give her one initially, but obviously changed her mind after thinking about it.

3/20/13

Joslyn ate thirds on dried mangoes and all of her jelly toast at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her tropical fruit and beef and bean burritos and a couple bites of sweet potatoes.

Joslyn wanted some alone time, away from the kiddos before breakfast today. After she had had played for a while back there, she went poop and was much more social afterwards.

Emily asked Joslyn to help her toe her apron this morning and Joslyn spent at least 10 minutes working on it. By the time she was done, she had it twisted basically from the top to the end of the strings. It was really funny!

Joslyn is so funny when the music is on. You can tell which ones she likes because she just races over to stand right in front of the iPod dock, looking at it and listening intently.

Joslyn was very engaged in building with the Duplos again today and accessorizing with the Duplo flowers. She did two different main constructions and wanted me to "take a picture to show momma" of each of them.

3/19/13

Joslyn ate seconds on cinnamon on roll and all of her plums at breakfast. At lunch she ate a couple bites of scrambled eggs, a few bites of hashbrowns, about half of her waffles and all of her cantaloup.

Joslyn asked to go play by herself twice this morning. When she went back, both times she spent the whole time playing with the little people house and accessories. Both times were because she just didn't want to play with anyone, or thought someone was bugging her.

Joslyn was telling me a story about looking outside and finding "two cups in the yard". She then told me they were rolling and Colt got them and threw them away in the garbage.

Kenzie asked if we could "do the blue thingies today?" The "blue thingies" are the magna doodles. We did do them and Joslyn was very engaged. She scribbled for a while first, then wanted her name written on there. I wrote it then showed her how she could trace it herself. She was very excited and actually did a pretty good job of actually going over the lines without wandering for some of the lines.

Joslyn was doing what she called "my spink" on the mattress today. She would do a somersault into the wall then lift her legs up the wall so her bottom and part of her back were off of the mattress.

3/18/13

Joslyn ate all of the mixed fruit except for the grapes and about half of her Kix cereal at breakfast. At lunch she had thirds on ham sandwich and seconds on both peas and mandarin oranges.

Joslyn didn't want to cuddle or do anything cooperative first thing this morning. She decided she wanted to go to the back room for a while rather than quit screaming. Wen she came back out a few mnutes later, she was much less testy. Kenzie managed to push her buttons a few times, but other than that the morning went well.

Joslyn loves having the purses out. She played with one or more of them often during out big room play time. Several times she had three at once.

Joslyn and Thomas were playing in, behind and around the igloo for awhile today. They were carrying all of the bunnies first behind the igloo then inside it then over to the corner of the rowdy side, then under the climber/balance beam...

Joslyn loved all of the little people house stuff out with this exchange and played very peacefully and engagedly.

3/15/13

Joslyn ate all of her rice and raisins at breakfast. At lunch she ate very little and then had a tantrum and didn't want to eat any more when Gary reminded her to use her spoon for her meatloaf, instead of shoving it in with her hand. We had meatloaf, French bread, carrots and dried apricots.

RaeAhanna looked up at me and said "mom, mom!" Joslyn wrapped her arms around my leg and said, "no, that's my Lauralea!" Kenzie heard her and said, "That kind of freaks me out too!" : )

Our furnace didn't turn on this morning and it was a little chilly after breakfast. We were all thankful when the furnace guy, Randy came over and got it going again. We put long sleeve shirts or jackets on everyone with short sleeves.

Joslyn and Kenzie (and sometimes Emily or Thomas) played together quite a bit this morning. They did some shopping at Costco (at Kenzie's prompting), fixed some chicken nuggets behind the climber/balance beam (counter), and were playing in the box with their babies mostly.

Joslyn and Kenzie were pretending that the bid interlocking block building was "Schroeder's house" because they had a "birthday cake for him". The 'cake' was make out of Duplo blocks and was Joslyn's idea. The name Schroeder came from Kenzie.

3/13/13 & 3/14/13

Joslyn at seconds on cinnamon toast and all of her grapes at breakfast. At lunch she ate everything -- chicken breast, dinner roll, cherries and potatoes.

Something wasn't quite right at breakfast wash time yesterday so Joslyn thought she would punish us by not eating. : )

I cracks me up how Joslyn knows basically all of her colors, but often mixes up black and white. She was insisting she had on black socks today, for an example.

Joslyn was a little out of sorts this morning (putting it mildly) and it kind of had a magnetic factor for Kenzie. It seemed like Kenzie was often right by or in front of her pestering her in some way, adding to the drama.

She asked to cuddle, lay on the couch or sat as close to me as possible much of the morning yesterday, but today she played great with Kenzie until right before lunch time, then she got pretty testy.

3/12/13

Joslyn ate seconds on blueberry waffles and all of her pears at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her tuna on saltine crackers and most f both her orange slices and her sweet potatoes.

Joslyn "I'm gonna put a French braid in it. Look that way for a minute. You have lots of hair." He let her mess with it for nearly 15 minutes.

Kenzie, Riley, Thomas, Joslyn, and Aaron were all squished into the little corner behind the igloo. Kenzie told them it was their car and they were going shopping at Costco.

Kenzie and Joslyn decided to "fix" Mia as she was lying on the floor taking a little rest. They were massaging her tummy, messing with her feet and other parts. Mia was actually letting them do it for a long time.

Kenzie and Joslyn were pretending the interlocking block creation was their order counter and were giving Aaron and Riley "chicken nuggets and fries". Aaron actually went along with it well, pretending he was eating then asking for more.

Joslyn played more today (and sat, observed, or wanted to cuddle less) than she has here for quite a while. It was nice to see her busy and engaged.

3/11/13

Joslyn ate a bite or two of her fruit salad and about half of her Chex cereal at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her roast beef sandwich and seconds on both apple slices and tomato soup.

Joslyn bonked her head pretty hard on the corner of the couch arm. She just kind of dived into it, then needed lots of loves and cuddles, of course.

Christina and Matthew had an old mattress that they were getting rid of that was way more springy than our jumping mattress, so we traded and the kiddos are all having a lot of fun jumping higher than with the other one. Joslyn was probably the least thrilled with it, as the extra bounce kind of surprised her and she bumped lightly into the wall.

So far (10:15) with those two exceptions she has mostly either wanted to cuddle with me, sit right beside me or lay down on the couch. Maybe she decided it was safer after crashing twice.

Joslyn and Kenzie were both trying to put toys into the picnic table hole (where an umbrella can go). At first they took turns a couple times, then needed intervention because they started fighting over it,

Nora was trying to lick Gary's nose and Joslyn thought it was hilarious. She started cracking up when Nora succeeded.

3/7/13

Joslyn ate didn't want to eat breakfast this morning, said her stomach hurt and went to lay on the couch. Se was fine as soon as some of the kiddos were done eating and got up to play with them. At lunch she ate seconds on dried mangoes and all of her crescent roll, squash and slice f turkey.

Joslyn did a little fishing with the fishing poles again today, then decided she had a better idea. She was holding it like a bat and talking about baseball. I thought they had potential for danger as poles, but bats... Ugh! We discussed how baseball is an outside game and she did fine with that.

Joslyn really likes the animal suit dress-ups and has tried on all of them, but especially seems to like the frog suit.

Aaron and Joslyn were hanging out under the picnic table, examining the underneath with their binoculars. Kenzie and Riley saw what they were doing and went over to start peeking in the hold and sticking the play knives through it. All of them were having a great time!

Mia went over to Joslyn today with her arms out, wrapped them around Joslyn and held on in a great hug for several seconds. Mia then started kind of spinning until she pulled Joslyn down on top of her.

Today Kenzie, Emily and Joslyn played together with the Velcro fruits and vegetables, knives and cutting boards at the kitchen set. They played peacefully together for about 20 minutes. Usually three just doesn't last that long!

Joslyn was walking on the big block and both Aaron and Riley has to follow her. Joslyn told them she was "testing".

3/5/13

Joslyn ate only part of her bagel and dried apricots at breakfast. At lunch she ate seconds on pasta and peas with shredded cheese on it and all of her tilapia and her applesauce.

Kenzie announced "my friend, Jozzy is back!" Joslyn's face lit up and she said, "yeah, I am back". It was a really cute exchange.

Joslyn put one of the back packs on and wore it for a long time this morning as she took care of her babies and lined them up along the step.

Joslyn, Kenzie, Thomas and Emily all put on dress up animal suits and were jumping on the mattress. I told them they were my crazy little jungle animals and they thought that was funny. As they were jumping Kenzie started singing the "monkeys jumping on the bed" chant then they would all "fall" at the right time. It was pretty funny.

Joslyn has obviously either been fishing before or watched someone fish because she was doing the casting motion with the play fishing poles into the box "water". Kenzie was really watching her and trying to imitate her.

Joslyn was very tired by nap time--fragile and moody for the last half hour before lunch, then asleep almost immediately at nap time, which NEVER happens.