4/10/13

Joslyn ate about half of her bagel and all of her peaches at breakfast. At lunch she ate thirds on macaroni and cheese and all of her ham, corn and salad with ranch.

Joslyn spent quite a bit of time looking at books independently today. She also was sharing her "colorings" (which I am sure she meant markers, but were really pretend carrots) with both Riley and Nora.

When we were in our whole group, Joslyn pretty much picked up where she left off with the vacillating feistiness. For example she was doing the above, then not five minutes later she shoved Nora over just because she touched her. She also was not using her nice words a lot today with all of the kiddos off and on -- yelling, growling or saying hurtful things. I think Aaron was the only one she was actually tolerating regularly, which is funny because she usually doesn't have much to do with him at all. Granted everyone was very testy because of their colds, so it want just Joslyn! I split us into our small groups over half an hour early because they were just having too hard of a time playing in the larger group peacefully.

Kenzie and Joslyn were cracking me up today when they decided to play "potty training" in the back room. They were using the big block creation as their bathroom and were taking turns training each other. When Kenzie was the trainer, she asked Joslyn, "OK now... Did you poop?" Joslyn dutifully grunted a few times then nodded. Kenzie then said, "Okay, lean up and I'll wipe your poopy butt, then we'll go get you three stickers!" Oh my goodness! I haven't heard that one before and thought I was going to die laughing!

Joslyn spent some time sitting with Reid, playing with him, talking to him and loving on him.

4/9/13

Joslyn ate bites of both pears and waffles at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her saltines with tuna on it, a couple bites of oranges and bite of sweet potatoes.

Joslyn has been very volatile both today and yesterday. It has take very little to set her off. To her credit she has been able to regroup pretty quickly and with minimal reminders. I am sure the runny nose/cold is contributing to that. It is very hard to be mild or even-keeled when you ants feeling very well.

Joslyn spent about 20 minutes between talking to and playing with Noah and Reid. She hasn't been spending as much time or attention on the babies overall lately, so it was sweet to see it today.

Joslyn has been very unpredictable with her friend play lately. Overall, she is wanting to play independently quite a bit. Then there are times when she wants to play with one of the kiddos (usually either Emily or Kenzie), but will be so easily frustrated with them or hurt by them that she ends up not wanting to play with them after all. Then a couple minutes later she is back to being a great little friend again. She is probably sensing the upcoming transition away from here and working through whatever she is thinking and feeling about it, I would imagine.

4/8/13

Joslyn ate about half of her fruit and her Chex cereal at breakfast. At lunch she ate everything -- roast beef sandwich, tomato soup and apple slices.

Joslyn has been trying to doctor everyone, much to most of their dismay. Mia did cooperate longer than anyone, Riley for a minute or two and then finally two of the dolls. They didn't mood as much when she poked, prodded and mauled them as the real people did!

Joslyn fixed her baby all up then lay her down to "take a nap". She came over to me and said, "my baby's sleeping. We need to be quiet!" She went over and sang and read to the sleeping baby and kept trying to get the toddlers to be quiet around her.

She was also reading alongside of Nora. I think she was trying to read TO her, but Nora was more interested in doing her own thing.

Joslyn was making what she said was a "garage" with the Duplos today. She worked at it for most of block room time.

4/5/13

Joslyn ate a couple bites of prunes and abut half of her oatmeal at breakfast. At lunch she ate thirds on mandarin oranges and all of her hashbrown casserole and biscuit.

Joslyn twisted her knee jumping on the mattress again today and was limping. It seems to happen about once a month or so to some degree. It makes me wonder if she has loose joints or something to make it be so easy for her injure her joints. No one else seems to have problems with it. It isn't that she falls/jumps differently or harder than the other kiddos that I can see. I just wanted to mention my observations and wonderings, as well as let you know it happened again. She was walking around pretty normally after about an hour and a half.

Joslyn was standing in front of the mirror and Emily asked Joslyn something. Joslyn answered with, "I'm fixing my braid! I'll be done in a minute!" She was really focused on twisting it around and around.

Joslyn was thrilled when she found the third section of the Duplo train. The then stacked thing on each train car until she had it just right, then asked me to "take a picture to show momma". She played with it the rest of the time in the block room.

4/4/13

Joslyn ate all of her cantaloupe and french bread at breakfast. At lunch she ate seconds on crescent roll and dried mango, and all of her turkey slices and fresh pineapple (subbed for squash).

Joslyn worked at the kitchen set both by herself and alongside of Thomas. They looked like they were doing dishes, cooking and washing off the counters.

Joslyn also played with the dolls along with the doctor materials for a long time -- most of the rest of our big room play time this morning. She took everything she wanted into the box and was so engaged and focused on taking care of her dollies! A couple times someone tried to invade her little doctors office and she did a great job of asking for help or telling them to stay on the "other side of the box." For example, Kenzie went over and talked to her, and Joslyn told her "Quick! go get a baby and come play in the other side" (of the box).

In the back room, Joslyn was being so sweet with Aaron. Emily hadn't wanted anything to do with him this morning for some reason and he was kind of feeling bad. When we broke into our small groups, Joslyn must have noticed, because she invited him to ply with her. He was thrilled to play with her all of the block room play time. Part of the time they just built their own thing side by side and the rest of the time they were working on a creation together.

I have been working with Joslyn on telling me what she wants or asking rather than either started to fuss and say her "tummy hurts" or howling. Many times I don't even know what is wrong until after the fact and then find out she wanted to help me with something or go with me to get the baby's bottle or put her shoes on before her coat or something...

4/3/13

Joslyn ate all of her toast and blueberries at breakfast. A lunch she ate most of her kiwi and all of her saltines, bean soup and ham.

Joslyn loved the sign review we did today. We hadn't really sat and worked on them for a while, other than spontaneously as needed. I was surprised as to how many of them she, Kenzie and Emily remembered. They had fun both identifying the signs when I did them and doing them when I would say the word or phrase.

We did some bath foam painting today and Joslyn was super into it! Usually everyone is done after about 10-15 minutes, but Joslyn, Thomas, Kenzie and Emily were still really into it after almost 30. It was great! They had all four colors, were drawing in it, just handling it and enjoying the texture, were using the craft stick to draw in it, traced their letter after I helped them with it...

We had a class of five early childhood ed students from Butte and their instructor visit us for the tail end of art and when we went outside after that. It actually went pretty well and it didn't seem to bother Joslyn at all. We had prepped the kiddos after breakfast that they would be coming and i heard Joslyn telling a friend or reminding herself several times until they came. "There will be some big people like Gary and Lauralea coming to visit in a little while.". She played like she always does, seeming untroubled by the visitors after they got here.

4/2/13

Joslyn ate some of her whole wheat bagel and a couple bites of her dried apricots. At lunch she ate all of her applesauce, all of her tilapia and most of her peas and pasta with cheese.

Joslyn was engaged with the dolls and doctor stuff. She wanted to play by herself independently, but did let Kenzie join her off and on.

Joslyn has really been collecting a huge bunch of toys and not wanting anyone to take, touch or even look at them. Our typical rule of thumb is one toy for each hand, so we have been doing a lot of reminding.

Joslyn was into layering today. She had three different dress up vests on at once. She is developing her own since of style. A little later she had a tambourine on each leg, pulled all the way up. Styling...

Joslyn, Aaron and Kenzie were all singing into their echo phones on the big block stage I made for them. They were quite the trio. What they may have lacked in to me quality, they made up for in volume!