The little shelf in the little living room has changed finally from all the Valentine's Day stuff. We have a dinosaur floor puzzle, a tray with toy dinosaurs, a tray with foam sheets and numbers written on them and a bowl of foam dinosaur stickers, a tray with a dinosaur map from an old National Geographic and some paper for Ada to practice writing her letters. Book bucket has our collection of dinosaur related books- the biggest hit is the National Geographic Kids dinosaur reference book (plus I can answer the questions without looking things up on my computer which is extra nice- helps show books as learning tools not just entertainment which actually appeals to Ada).
The puzzle is a popular one. This is a 32 piecer that they both can work on pretty well together which I like. Not too much competition.
Working hard.....
Inspecting their work...
Proud sisters...
There has been lots of play with the dino figures. I've been trying to rotate some toys in and out of rotation- I'm not very good about it and don't have a system but when I know we have a bunch of something of a particular theme I've made a bin and tucked it in a closet so they haven't played with the dinos in a while which was certainly part of the fun.
Without me saying/ showing/ presenting the number activity, Ada did 1-4 on her own. When I noticed this I decided to jump in and help so Emma didn't just start stickering everything since we had a limited number of stickers (only exactly enough for 1-9). We worked together and the girls did a nice job practicing their counting. Then Ada lined them up and we practiced counting a few times.
Last night on the way to bed Ada had a moment of curiosity.
Ada: "Mama, what do lizards eat?"
Me: "I'm not totally sure Ada. I think some eat insects and some eat fruit and veggies. It might depend on the lizard we'll have to look it up tomorrow."
Ada: "Maybe we should ask Barack Barama. He's still the president right?"
Me: "Yes sweetie he is."
I think I love the innocence of her thinking she can just call up the president and ask him a question. I love that she thinks that because he's the president he must have all the answers. I also love that because she's four she still pronounces some words in the most adorable way ever (i.e. Obama = Barama). Mostly I love that as she was finishing up in the bathroom and making her way to bed she just really wanted to know about lizards.
I just love her little angelic pose here. And the look on Emma's face working hard at pronunciation isn't half bad either!
And in case you were curious... the baby is indeed growing, and growing, and growing. Ada took this picture of me a couple days ago. Feeling good- I love the second trimester!!
Well, it's official I got into graduate school! I started taking a class at a time in the fall to see if it would fit into my life before really committing and I'm going to go for it. I would be lying if I said I'm not struggling at times to keep it all together but I'm working on it and it's starting to feel more manageable. I'm excited and relieved that I got in and am very excited to have something to call my own. Something I am doing for me- and something I can show the girls is worth working for. I want them to see that women have as many options as men and they just need to work for what they desire in life. Maybe I'm reaching and I just wanted to go to school, but hey we all justify right?
Who knows how things will be once baby comes along but for now I am very lucky that when I have something I need to work on the girls are typically content to just hang out and play together. Emma is getting much more verbal so she can really play with Ada and it's extremely fun and satisfying to watch. Here are a few random shots of them in action.
Building a super wicked awesome tower castle. They kept this up for a few days and played with it every morning first thing. Very cool.
Putting all the children (or as Ada says cilgren- must get on tape!) in the daycare to sleep.
Putting babies to bed is a recurrent theme around here. This time Ada and Emma were the mamas and decided to all snuggle together with their babies.
The lines on the carpet are "balance beams". Sometimes we make them straight or curved and this time we made them criss cross. Ada's building another castle and Emma is walking the beam.
Also, I don't have any pictures of me recently but rest assured I'm getting huge!
In an effort to get my act in gear I switched out the stuff that has been on the shelves since before Ada's birthday and put some Valentine's Day stuff out. It's mostly just what we had out last year I just added numbers in the heart cups for Ada to say aloud when she puts the marshmallows in and wrote out the names of the colors in the color sorting for her to sound out and to practice writing too.
I cut 6 small squares of cardstock and did my best at freehanding a size-sorting heart work with numbers written on the back to check their work- well Emma can't do that yet. Emma likes to hold the little one and say "so cute" in the most adorable way and cock her head to the side which makes me roar. Ada likes to tell the story of the Grinch and say that the Grinch's heart starts so tiny then it grows and grows. I love it.
Then of course I pulled out a selection of books about love and put them in the bin. I've added a few more since this photo was taken. We've been enjoying them.
We did some painting with heart cookie cutters although the girls quickly decided to put those down and use brushes and their hands.
And last but not least... a few pictures of the two best sisters in the world (yes, I'm totally biased)!
Not much time for writing today but wanted to share some photos of the girls. We were shopping and TJ's had those $1.50 daffodils so we got some and decided to get some that were closed so we could keep checking every day and see how long it takes to get them to open up. They each got a vase and a pair of scissors and voila....
Sorry it's been so long, but I just haven't had the motivation to write about stuff lately. But I wanted to give some credit to all the awesomeness that was Ada's birthday. She got to celebrate on her actual birthday, at her party, then again when we visited Nana and Grampa in Florida (another post). Mostly I can't believe she's 4, but I'm also a little happy we got through 3 in one piece.
Started off her actual birthday with a special birthday breakfast of banana bread strawberry shortcake, singing and candle. Nice start to the day!
She had a Sun Celebration at her school where I was able to go and she walked around a candle/ earth for each year she has been on the Earth and we celebrated her there. Then home for lunch and nap. She went out to collect eggs and found a HUGE egg that turned out to be a double yolker- we decided it was a gift from the chickens.
She decided she wanted a breakfast burrito for lunch and so she had. Plus 3 drink requests-water, milk, smoothie:)
We had a nice playdate/dinner with some friends and then home with Emma and me for some cake before bed. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and loved the look of it. This was one half of a cake recipe in one round cake pan and I just wanted something simple to make it look nice. Just used parchment and cut out a "4" that was the right size, stuck it to the frosting and started sprinkling the nonpareils on, peel off the paper and that's it.
Next we had the party. She was allowed to invite four friends and luckily they were all able to attend. The theme was rainbow/ painting and the main event was painting a canvas. We made the decorations. Paper chain rainbows and a masking tape relief painted banner. Other than that just blew up some balloons and that was it! Lots of inspiration from Pinterest but nothing specific- you can check out the board I created for the party here.
Pre-party nap wake up reading with Poppa.
I made up some simple goodie bags with watercolors, markers, playdoh, and cake batter popcorn.
And I had to include a picture of her thank you note envelopes because I'm just so stinkin' proud of this girl.
The morning after the party we were off to Florida to visit Nana and Grampa and Nana had another birthday celebration which was extra nice since we missed celebrating her birthday too! We sang to both of them (sort of) and ate cake and ice cream- a big hit!!
