2/29/12

Happy Leap Year!  Kenzie ate all of her peaches and whole wheat mini bagel at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her salad with ranch, ham and macaroni and cheese.  She also at one piece of corn. 

Kenzie looked at the book with "Morgan's 'puter'" for about 10 minutes first thing this morning.  She looked at the other pages also, but always would announce "Morgan's 'puter'" when she came to that page or when she was going to look for it in the book.  Morgan had deemed it that yesterday afternoon when she had been looking at the book and ran across it. 

Kenzie was over playing with Jadey at the mattress rowdy area steps for a long time today.  One of the things she was doing was pushing the littlest bears through the hole that goes all the way through the width of the steps and out the other side.  As she was doing it she was saying, "Here the mail!"  We thought that was pretty creative! 

Kenzie was playing with the dolls some today.  While she was playing she lay it on one of the stove tops and said she was at the "doctor's".   She then told me "Baby have a 'fection'".  I was amazed!  I don't think I have ever heard any of our kiddos say the word "infection" before!

Gary loved it today because Kenzie was being lovey with him and giving him the time of day!  : )  She also asked "Where Gary go?" every time he started to move.  It is so funny!   

2/28/12

Kenzie ate all of her pears and a taste of blueberry muffin at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her oranges and her tuna on saltines and a bite or two of her sweet potatoes. 

Kenzie told me potty once and only went one other time when I took them today.  She really didn't even want to go with the others very much, but didn't fight so I took her anyway. 

Kenzie saw Jadey wearing a couple mittens for slippers today, so she had to try it out for herself.  Hers looked even funnier because she had one mitten and one glove.  ; ) 

Kenzie was putting the little spoons into the mini water bottles today and using it as a shaker toy.  She thought that was just hilarious.  Thomas was doing it last week, but I don't know if she learned it from him or not because she wasn't into it then.

Kenzie was in collector mode again today.  She had all of the scoops of ice cream stacked together just carrying them around.  She wasn't pretending to eat them or putting them on the cones or anything, just collecting.  : )  

2/27/12

Kenzie ate all of her fruit salad and about half of her Chex cereal at breakfast.  At lunch she drank all of her tomato soup and ate all of her apple slices and about half of her roast beef sandwich. 

Kenzie needed to be reminded frequently to use her words rather than just screeching when something or someone was bothering her this morning, especially before breakfast. 

Kenzie played with Jadey almost all of the time we were together in large group and then with Morgan when we broke into our primary care groups. 

We went over some of our sign language today, sang some songs, practiced our colors using the color poster on the wall (and doing some of the signs along with the verbal words).  We also named animals in the two while animal posters on the wall.  They all were very into that and I think every child names at least a couple animals. 

This morning I decided I would try just waiting for someone to ask to use the potty to see how that went this morning and there was actually one stretch from about 8:45 to 11:00.  Both Morgan and Jadey were still dry and Kenzie was dry, but had had a poopy diaper change in between.  Overall, I would call that successful.

2/24/12

Kenzie ate all of her dried plums and about half of her oatmeal at breakfast.  At lunch she ate most of her biscuit and her hashbrown casserole and all of her "peaches" (mandarin oranges, actually). 

Kenzie was really into piling and carrying a bunch of the doll blankets, dolls and scarves.  Jadey kept trying to take things out of the pile, so I kept redirecting her to ones that no one was playing.  When she wouldn't listen I just had her move to the other side of the room.  Within a minute after I had done that, Kenzie is over asking to go "play other side - Jadey".  Here I had just moved Jadey to keep her from making Kenzie scream...

Kenzie was wearing the scarf deal that looks kind of like a shall today and it looked so cute.  I tried to get a picture, but she saw what I was doing and took it off.  Sometimes they can't wait to pose and other times you can't get them to no matter how much you try. 

Kenzie really enjoyed stacking the square duplo blocks together to "make a tower".  What she actually seemed to like best was when it fell over.  She would laugh each time and announce loudly, "I broke it!"  She immediately rebuilt it each time. 

She has gone potty each time today (and also been wet each time). 

2/23/12

Kenzie ate all of her melon and most of her french toast at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her dried mangoes, crescent roll and turkey slice and a taste of squash. 

Kenzie and Jadey have actually been playing more congenially together lately than she and Morgan have.  Part of it is because Morgan has really just wanted to play alone more lately.  The other part is that they have been having more difficulty with problem solving, it seems.  They are often in conflict over wanting to play with the exact same toy (even if there are three or four more of the exact same thing available), also have struggled some with one wanting to play one thing and the other something else. 

Jadey and Kenzie were all cuddled up in the big chair today, sitting across it rather than the traditional way.  Jadey was obviously feeling very loving because she lay her head on Kenzie so cute.  

Kenzie loved it when Alayna invited her to go "read" with her in the big chair.  They each got a couple books and took them over, looking at them both in parallel play and cooperatively.  One of them shut the book a little too energetically and it made quite the splat.  After that they had to "Splat" the books over and over, of course, laughing all the while.  : ) 

I don't know how many times Kenzie pointed to her cheek today and told me, "Momma forget tattoo.  Silly momma!"  It just cracked me up! 

2/22/12

This is going to be pretty brief, as I have had a very busy day between the extra time spent in the bathroom with the toilet training and having a fussy baby that has needed extra attention and could wake up anytime needing more. 

Kenzie ate all of her toast and a bite or two of mixed berries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate seconds on saltines and all of her kiwi, ham and bean soup. 

Kenzie went potty every time I took her this morning.  She didn't tell me on her own at all today.  She had two wet diapers and one poopy one, in addition to the potty use. 

Morgan came over to me and said, "Do signs" today, wanting to practice the sign language.  Kenzie got a puzzled look on her face and started looking all around the room and said, "Where signs go?"  I don't know if she was actually looking for our signing cards or wasn't connecting it to that and was just looking for signs in general.  : ) 

Kenzie made one of the best looking ice cream cones I have ever seen today.  She had one cone and then had it stacked with either 6 or 7 different types of play ice cream "scoops".  It was great!  : ) 

2/21/12

Kenzie ate all of her dried apricots and mini bagel at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her applesauce and the noodles out of her pea and pasta salad, she also did have a bite or two of the peas and a couple bites of tilapia. 

Kenzie did very well with the toilet learning today.  She peed every time I took her (she told me one of those times) and her diaper was only wet one time this morning (and not very wet even then).  She didn't poop (either in toilet or diaper yet). 

Kenzie and Morgan were all spiffed up in the dress up stuff today complete with boots, hats, coat and scarf.  It was really cute.  They both wore them for quite a while and were pretending to "go work" and "go home". 

We have this little rhyme chant that we "sing" that goes, "Hickety-pickety bumble bee, please say your name for me" then the little laminated bee buzzes around until I "get" someone with his stinger and they say their name and then we clap out and say the syllables.  Kenzie just loves the anticipation of the bee getting her and then telling me her name and all of us saying it together.

In the back room we have out these little fisher price type dinosaur cave deals.  Well, either Morgan or Kenzie decided that they were computers and they were using them as such the whole time we were in the back room.  Kenzie then invited Jadey to "skype gramma" with her.  I thought that was classic!  : ) 

2/20/12

Kenzie ate about half of her bran flakes and craisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her tropical fruit, a taste of cauliflower and about half of her cheese pizza crust after eating all of the cheese off the top.

Kenzie was very interested in checking out all of the "new" toys today.  She would play with one set of things for a while, then move on to something else for a while and basically did that all morning. 

Kenzie was poopy and needed a diaper change so she went over to where Gary was leaning against the changing table, pushed on his leg and said, "Move it!"  Gary told me to tell you guys that he thinks you might need to start teaching Kenzie to be more assertive in expressing her wants and needs!  (joke!)  : ) 

Kenzie liked dressing up in the dress up clothes (hats, mittens, scarves, boots...)  Her favorites out of them all are about three different hats.  She had a hat on much of the time in the big room. 

Kenzie went potty a couple times this morning and was very excited when Morgan pooped in the potty. 

2/17/12

Kenzie ate several bites of her malt-o-meal and raisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate everything -- spaghetti, salad with ranch and mixed fruit.

Kenzie is going potty about half of the time when I take her.  She also tells me about once a day, in addition to the scheduled times.  Sometimes she does go and others her diaper is pretty warm, so she has probably just gone.  She always is very excited to try, which is awesome!

Kenzie likes to bring one of the stuffed sheep animals over to me and then said, "Kenzie little lamb", because she wants me to sing "Mary had a little lamb", substituting Kenzie for Mary.  She always chuckles when I do it and wants me to do it over and over!  

Morgan and Kenzie played together for a little while this morning.  Morgan took Kenzie over to an area away from the other kiddos, started to pretend to cry, then told Kenzie, "Cry, Kenzie, cry!"  After a few seconds, Morgan then told her "stop crying now!"  I guess Kenzie must have decided that Morgan was being a little too demanding because she then left Morgan and played with Jadey most of the rest of the morning.

2/16/12

Kenzie ate about half of her cinnamon raisin English muffin and a couple bites of blueberries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate about half of her potato salad and all of her canned cherries and her canned chicken on saltines. 

All of the kiddos were quite entertained today when I showed her the sign language cards I just got and we learned several new signs.  We use some of the self-expression signs on a regular basis (please, thank you, move back, help me...) but not many beyond those.  This set of cards probably has about 40 signs on it and we will be using them regularly. 

All of my "big" kiddos spent time looking at books.  They just can't get enough of them.  When I asked if they wanted me to read to them, they all made a beeline for the couch!  It is pretty cute to watch.  One of our goals is to sow an interest in and love of books, so we love seeing them react this way. 

We got out some purple bath foam and everyone, except Emily just dived right in, spread it around and started drawing on it with their fingers and otherwise exploring it.  It took Emily until about halfway through art time to get going, but then she also loved it.  Kenzie was really encouraging her to do it right from the beginning. 

Potty training went well -- two times peeing in the toilet and one poop in the diaper. 

2/15/12

Kenzie ate all of her peaches and second on biscuit at breakfast.   At lunch she ate all of her baked beans, a bite of pineapple and about half of both her dinner roll and her steamed broccoli. 

Kenzie had another good potty training morning.  Her diaper was only wet once (and poopy once).  She has eight stickers on her chart (4 from today) and is very proud of it.  In addition to just going, she is actually going more at one time and staying dry in between, which are both good readiness indicators. 


Morgan and Kenzie were doing a lot of pretend play today.  One of them was to pretend they were sad and crying.  They would go somewhere by themselves and start "crying" then come over to me for a love.  At first I thought they were really crying (it was pretty realistic)! 

The other thing that Jadey actually started, but Morgan and Kenzie really ran with was pretending to "go potty in pot".  They would sit on one of the play cooking pans and strain like they were trying to go potty!  Oh my goodness, it was funny!  : )  Don't be surprised if you see potty themed play at home too.  They have been talking about it and playing it a LOT!   : )

Kenzie got all dressed up in a pair of cowboy boots and a vest, then came over to me and said, "See ya later!  Have good day!"  It just cracked me up.  She also went over to a corner of the room by herself and when I asked her what she was doing she told me, "Takin' a break!"  She had been a little frustrated by Peyton bugging her, so...  : ) 

2/14/12

Kenzie ate all of her waffles and bites of hashbrowns at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her shrimp, brown rice and oranges, a a couple bites of red peppers. 

Kenzie sure is glad that Morgan is back.  Both yesterday and today she followed her around like a little puppy, playing whatever she was and doing whatever she was.  One of the things they were doing today that I thought was so cute was pretending to wash and dry their dolls off.  They kept sticking them in the sinks then getting one of the blankets as a towel.  Kenzie kept saying, "I dry baby off". 

Not long before breakfast Kenzie brought me her skirt.  As she handed it to me she said, "I bug me!  It fall off!"  I thought that was hilarious. 

Kenzie and Alayna both went potty on the toilet twice so far today.  I love it that she is so little and doing it as well, if not better that an rest.  : ) 

2/13/12

Kenzie ate all of her cheerios and a couple bites of banana at breakfast.  At lunch she ate everything -- tomato soup, apple slices and grilled cheese sandwich.

We have started the second round of toilet training and this is the plan I am using.  I will take all of the oldest 5 to the kiddos to try to use the toilet at 8:00. 9:30. 11:00/or before nap (depending on their level and interest), and after nap.  In addition I will take any of them that tell me they need to go (as long as they haven't already just gone), and if I see them straining or looking like they are about to poop or pee.  I have purchased some cute little handprint charts with room for 25 mini-stickers.  Each time a child goes pee they can put one sticker on the chart and each time they poop they get two to put on.  When they get their sheet filled they can take it home.  If you want to get them a treat or fun family night other reward for completing the chart, that is totally up to you.  Since I am investing a considerable amount of time and energy into this, I am asking that you make sure to dress your kiddo in elastic waists (or dresses) and no onesies, bib overalls, or pants with buttons or snaps.  We will do this intensive training for two weeks and reevaluate to see who to continue with at that point.  So far we have two kiddos with "successes" today (Alayna and Kenzie).  When Kenzie peed she was quite excited.  She kind of gasped and then said, "I did it!"  She was thrilled with the chart and putting the sticker on. 

Kenzie was so glad to see Morgan and followed her around faithfully all morning.  Every time Morgan moved away from her even slightly, Kenzie would ask her "What doing, Morgie?"  Morgan seemed to be glad to see Kenzie too, but really didn't make as big of a deal about it. 

2/10/12

Kenzie ate most of her oatmeal and craisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her applesauce and ground beef and the noodles and cheese out of her pea and pasta casserole.

Kenzie and the other kiddos talked about it being her birthday many times today.  We sang to her somewhere between 6-8 times as a group and I heard other kiddos singing to her individually also.  She was also just talking to her friends about it and about Grandpa being here for her "party".  It was pretty cute.

Kenzie sat and "read" books on the couch for quite a while.  It was cute because Emily climbed right up and scooted close to her as soon as she realized what Kenzie was doing.

Joslyn and Kenzie are NOT the best of buddies.  They mostly just don't play together much, but when they do, it is often conflictual.  As an example, Kenzie was on the mattress side of the big room and say Joslyn just walking toward that side of the room.  She starts backing up and saying "No Jossy, no Jossy!"

Kenzie followed Jadey around a lot today since Morgan was gone.  Jadey did something minor (like touched her or touched one of her dolls or other toys) and Kenzie started just yelling at her.  I had Jadey move away from her to minimize the conflict.  Within just a couple minutes (maybe just one), Kenzie had followed her and was pestering her, asking what she was doing and if she wanted to play. 



Ken

2/9/12

Kenzie ate about half of her blueberries and a couple bites of the blueberry bread pudding at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her kiwi, a bite of green beans and about half of her Turkey burger on a bun. 

Kenzie was Jadey's sidekick today, with Morgan gone.  They played together most of the morning.  They spent time talking to both of the babies and Nora was really responding to them.  It was adorable and Kenzie loved it.  Several of the kiddos have a difficult time mixing up which baby is which, but Kenzie and Morgan know who is who all the time (probably Kenzie partially because one is her sister, but she is also just very detailed like that). 

Kenzie asked if she could sit on Jadey's lap several times today and Jadey also asked Kenzie to sit there more than once.  One of the times they decided it would be a good idea for Jadey to read to Kenzie there.  Well, that didn't work so well, as you can see.  It is difficult to see the pictures when it is laying against your nose!  : )  Jadey also asked Kenzie if she could sit on her lap, which Kenzie OKed, but that didn't last long enough for us to get a picture!   : )

Kenzie has been using her words really well today.  She was telling kids to "move back", "let go!" (Joslyn likes to grab her for some reason), "give it back", "help me" and other great words that help the situation rather than just screaming or attacking.  It is amazing how well even the other kiddos respond to the use of words. 

2/8/12

Kenzie ate all of her whole wheat toast with jelly and seconds on dried mangoes at breakfast.  At lunch she ate the tortilla off of her burrito, at least half of her tropical fruit and a bite of sweet potatoes.

I have decided that Kenzie is kind of a 'glutton for punishment' (at least I think that is the phrase).  She doesn't like it when someone is doing something to or around her, so she yells at them or yells for help.  Gary or I will come assist in the situation and usually either have her move away from the perpetrator or have the perpetrator move.  Within 30 seconds she has usually moved right back into the same position with the perpetrator and wanting them to "play" with her.  : ) 

I have been using the stuffed animals more frequently to sing, dance or teach with.  Today I was helping several of the farm animals dance to the CD music and all of the kiddos thought that was wonderful.  They each took turns bringing me an animal and asking me to "dance with mine". 

We played in the back, rooms for longer than usual today because the large group things wasn't working well today -- too many nit-picky conflicts.  My kiddos all loved playing with the farm legos in one room and the fisher price farm stuff in the other one.  Kenzie especially seemed to be excited about it.  She kept saying "playin' back room" kind of to herself as she walked around playing.  She was very excited and announced "There's a rooster!" multiple times when she found one in the duplo set.  I asked her "Is it like Riley Rooster?" and she chuckled and said, "No!  Not Riley!"  : ) 

2/7/12

Kenzie ate all of her cinnamon roll and about half of her prunes at breakfast.  At lunch she ate most of her waffle and hashbrowns, a bite of cantaloup and a taste of scrambled eggs. 

Kenzie likes to imitate her two main buddies here, Jadey and Morgan.  But that is only half of the equation because many times she is the leader and will start doing something and the other two will then imitate her.  It seems like whatever one of those three are doing the other two are either doing also, or will be doing soon.  

There was about 15 to 20 minutes today when the couch was lined with girls reading their own individual books.  Kenzie was right there in the middle of it, of course.  What made it funny was that most of them were "reading" their books aloud with no one doing the listening.  : )

With baby Mia starting, we decided that it might be about time to see is Emily is ready to start sleeping on a nap mat, freeing up a crib space for Riley in the back rooms.  When we talked with Emily about it, Kenzie was very excited about it.  She was an excellent representative of the transition, telling it it would be "fun!" and that she would be a "big girl"!  : )  It was really cute. 

The kiddos and I had a lot of fun singing songs and being silly for a while today.  We first sang all of the song they requested very exuberantly, then I gave each of them a stuffed animal to put on their heads and see if they could keep it there.  That in itself was fun, but then I put one on my head and started singing "If you're happy and you know it, nod your head".  Of course the animal flew off and they all roared and wanted me to do it "again" and "again" and "AGAIN!"  We had LOTS of fun! 

2/6/12

Kenzie ate all of her Kix cereal and seconds on mixed fruit at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her mandarin oranges and her ham sandwich and about half of her steamed broccoli. 

Kenzie had two medium sized poopy diapers this morning, just FYI. 

Kenzie really was enjoying first exploring then playing with the new toy exchange toys.  She spent time with about everything.  She was excited about the new dress-ups and had to try on some cowboy boots, a couple of the vests and a cowboy had.  It was great!  She makes a pretty cute little cowgirl!  : )

Alayna started a trend this morning.  She asked for one of the dolls to be dressed, then wrapped it up and placed it gently in one of the cowboy hats and started rocking it back and forth like it was either a cradle or an infant seat!  It was really cute.  Morgan and Kenzie must have thought it looked like a good idea because they started imitating her.

Kenzie was playing peek-a-boo around the end of the couch with Riley while I was holding her on my lap and Riley was doing a really cute little chuckle!  

The farm/ranch legos are out in the back room and they were all very glad to see them out again.  They were really into building with them and also playing with the tractors, animals and people that go with the set! 

2/3/12

Kenzie ate most of her brown rice and all of her raisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate of her dried apricots, about half of her meatloaf and a bite of both french bread and cooked carrots. 

I was shocked that she ate anything at all at lunch because she had actually fallen asleep in the chair in the back room right before lunch.  I could tell she was super tired because she didn't want anyone to look at or touch her while out in the big room.  When I went out to finish lunch and set up, I asked her if she wanted to play in the back room so the other kiddos didn't bug her.  She said she did and in that short 15 minute time period she was out! 

Kenzie told me potty twice today, but didn't go either time!  One of the times she was already wet (still warm) and the other time she went poop within about 10 minutes after being "done", so I am sure she is feeling it, just not quite timing it right here yet!  : ) 

All of the "big" kiddos really enjoyed loading the dress-ups, doll blankets, and stuffed animals into the washing machine today.  It is amazing how something so mundane can be such a great and exciting activity for them!  : ) 

The kiddos also were really into coloring today.  We haven't done free draw for a while because they had seemed really bored with it, but I decided to try it today.  It was great!  They were talking about what they were creating, letters they thought they were making and their "names".  They spent about 15 minutes drawing.  I really got a kick out of what looks like a "border" that Kenzie put around hers. 

2/2/12

Kenzie ate seconds on both whole wheat cinnamon toast and grapes at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her canned cherries and dinner roll, most of her chicken and a couple bites of mashed potatoes.

Kenzie and Jadey were playing chase for a while first thing this morning.  Jadey was chasing Kenzie and Kenzie was just cracking up the whole time.  They also played with the basket for a while together today.  One of them would get in one of the baskets and the other one would put another basket on top of the one they were sitting in up-side-down to make an "Egg".  They really didn't have any conflict today. 

Morgan watched intently as Kenzie started lining books up in the big window sill, kind of using it as a type of display.  She then went over and started helping her on the other side.  Pretty soon all of the bigger kiddos were doing it, with Peyton and Thomas trying to "help" also without much appreciation. 

Kenzie was also reading books and sticking the read one behind her back after she had "read" them.  She was sitting int he middle of the floor when she was doing it, rather than against something and she couldn't figure out how come Thomas kept being able to "get" the books she was dropping behind her back.  : )