3/28/12

Kenzie ate all of her peaches and most of her whole wheat mini bagel at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her salad with ranch dressing and her ham, most of her home-made macaroni and cheese and a bite of her corn. 

Kenzie, Morgan and Jadey were all pretending they were riding on a "school bus".  One of them (Morgan, I think) saw a school bus go by the big window and that is what started the whole thing.  When I asked where they were going on the school bus, they said to "Costco" so I don't think they quite get what school buses are for, but it was really cute.  They were using the climber/balance bean and were all sitting on the beam with their faces toward the wall for the bus. 

Kenzie brought me over a doll and a blanket and asked, "Tucker that one in".  It took me a couple times before I figured out she was asking me to wrap her baby up (or tuck her in).  : )  I love how kiddos interpret what we say and then rearrange it slightly to be so very cute.

Kenzie had about a 20 minutes stretch were she was determined to no cooperate with anything.  She kept grabbing and kicking anyone within reach so I reminded her that we only use gentle touches and asked her to move back away from them.  She told me "No" and move over and kicked Thomas.  I then told her I would help her move them and put her on the other side of me (I was sitting on the floor as a room divider in the big room).  She started yelling at me, so had to take a little break for a few minutes.  No more problems after a welcome back cuddle time when she was done. 

I facilitated some "lunch" play at the little picnic table (helping them set the table with plates, cups, spoons and food).  All the kiddos participated briefly, but Morgan and Kenzie stayed long after I had moved away.  Both of them were pretending to eat one of the play carrots.  Morgan was calling it her "lollipop" and Kenzie said it was "my spindach".  I am assuming that was 'spinach' but not sure, since we don't serve spinach here. 

3/27/12

Kenzie ate a bite of her blueberry muffin and all of her pears at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her tuna on saltines, oranges and a couple bites of sweet potatoes. 

Not long after Kenzie came this morning she and Gary were cuddling and he asked her, "What's your dad doin' today?"  Kenzie didn't even hesitate, but answered "Playin'" immediately.  We cracked up.  So that's what dad does all the time...  : ) 

Gary and I have noticed that Kenzie has interacted more with Riley here since she has become mobile.  She will plop down in front of wherever she is laying and talk to her or harass her mildly.  Riley almost always greets her with a smile or chuckle and reaches out to her.  If Kenzie impedes her progress or starts to bug her she will squawk at her, but overall she seems to love Kenzie's attention!  Kenzie is also amazing about sharing her with the other kiddos.  She never yells at them for talking to her baby or tries to get them away from her if they are talking to her.  She seems to like all of the attention Riley gets. 

Kenzie was the primary Doctor in the house today.  She had all of the other 'big' kiddos for patients except for Alayna today.  She spent a lot of time working on Joslyn.  She was examining her eyes, ears, mouth, listening to her heart, and doing other probing of her belly, back and neck.  When Kenzie was poking at her neck it must have tickled because Joslyn started to giggle and that made Kenzie laugh and do it more! 

I must use the word "harass" frequently because today Jadey was bugging Kenzie and Kenzie came over and told me, "Jadey 'harassonna' me!"  It always is an eye opener when I hear a phrase coming out of one of the kiddos mouths that I know I say, but don't realize how often I say it.  It's a good think I am not a swearer!  : )

3/26/12

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

Morgan had been calling her Tinkerbell shirt a "Cinderella" shirt.  Kenzie was NOT going to let that pass.  She adamantly corrected Morgan each time she called it Cinderella until Morgan finally gave up and started calling it Tinkerbell.  You might say that Kenzie is pretty persuasive to even get to Morgan!  : ) 

Kenzie was sitting on my lap with one of the stuffed puppies today.  She kept having it bonk her in the head.  I took the puppy and told him to be gentle and give Kenzie a kiss and gentle kisses, them "helped" him do it.  Kenzie thought that was just hilarious and had to repeat the process over and over! 

Kenzie, Morgan and Jadey all took turns being the doctor and the patients, with Morgan being the doctor the majority of the time.  One of the times Kenzie lay down in front of Doctor Morgan and said, "Will you fix me, Doctor?"  That just cracked me up! 

The kiddos all really liked my new Teddy Bear with a football shirt.  It facilitated the singing of the 'Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn around" song multiple times throughout the day.  Then that somehow got changed to "Terry BURP, Terry burp" and they all thought that was hilarious.  I am not sure if Kenzie or Morgan started it, but it took off like wild fire.  

3/23/12

Kenzie ate about half of her oatmeal and a couple bites of prunes at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her biscuit and mandarin oranges and about half of her hashbrown casserole. 

Jadey loves getting others to help her do things that she knows she shouldn't be doing.  Today she convinced Kenzie to help her try to pick the tape off the posters on the wall.  When Gary got after them, Jadey immediately said Kenzie was the one doing it (though we caught them both).  Within 10 minutes we caught Jadey directing Kenzie to start working at it again... 

I don't know if the two were related or not, but Kenzie bonked Jadey on the head pretty hard with one of the plastic cups with pretend milk in it.  As soon as she had done it before we even had time to get after her, Kenzie dropped the cup and smoked to the other side and given herself a little break.  Jadey was yelling, "That hurt!  I don't like that!" at her and Kenzie replied with, "I already over here!"  In spite of it all, it was pretty funny and I had a difficult time keeping a straight face! 

Kenzie found two play green peppers and brought them over to me very excited.  She had to make sure I knew "they match!"  She and Morgan are always finding things that are the same color, shape, type and talking about "matching".  It is pretty awesome. 

3/22/12

Kenzie was really interested in filling the fire had she had with as much food, medical stuff and other toys as she could.  She was carrying it around or shaking it to experiment with the sounds for about 20 minutes, I believe. 

She and Morgan were playing at the table with the food stuff for several minutes also.  They were pretending to eat the potato, pretzel and shish-kabob, but she was saying, "I have some pie". 

Morgan and Jadey were really fighting over who was playing with Kenzie today.  Part of the time it was verbal and part it was physical.  After facilitating how to all three play together several times, I finally just told them that they had to take turns playing with her and that's what we did the rest of the morning.  You already have quite a popular daughter!  : ) 

3/21/12

Kenzie was quite the little mixture today.  She was saying "Move back!" emphatically and clearly this morning, while at the same time hitting, pushing or kicking the 'invader'.  I worked with her one on one about how to say and do the sign for "move back" (giving her hands something to do other than hit or push), then wait for a couple seconds and say, "Help me" if they aren't listening.  It didn't seem to help at this point, but I know it will over time and with repetition and consistency.  We are also working with her on listening to other people when they say "move back" also.  : )

Kenzie was pretty clinging and kind of fussy until about 10:00 this morning.  She acted like she was still tired, but I don't know if it would have gotten better as the morning wore on if that was the issue.  ??  She followed me around quite a bit saying "I wanna cuddle" when I wasn't cuddling her and had to do something else.  She also wanted to sit on my lap for story time (and she hasn't done that for weeks).  Usually Peyton is now since she is the youngest of the "readers". 

Kenzie, Jadey and a couple others all had pieces of the play mail in their hands and pulled their chairs together in a loose square like they were having a postal meeting.  It cracked me up!  Kenzie loves those pieces of mails and usually tried to collect them all first thing and then keep them for herself.  I am not sure how the others all had some without an uproar by the little one.  : ) 

3/20/12

Kenzie ate all of her dried apricots and about half of her bagel at breakfast.  At lunch she ate everything -- baked tilapia, applesauce, noodles and peas.

Kenzie had a cup of the play milk in her hand and was taking it around to several of her friends and telling them it was "Hot!  Blow on it!"  A couple of them tried to "drink" from it and that didn't go over now.  She responded by jerking it away and saying "No!  Mine!  Just blow it!"  : )  Pretty good articulation!

Kenzie was thrilled to see Jadey for about 5 minutes before they started fighting.  After they got done fighting, it seemed like it was for about 10 minutes, they started playing together again nicely and did fine after that.  Some times it just seems like that.  Nothing will seem to trigger it or "fix" it either one!

We got out the little rocking chairs we have this morning and everyone was so excited. We had to do some intensive facilitating because there are four chairs and 7 kiddos that wanted to sit int them.  After the initial newness wore off, it was fine, but those first 30 minutes or so were pretty intense.  Most of the time they also had one of the dolls and a blanket and were rocking their "babies" and singing to them. 

In the back room the echo-phones are our and Kenzie led my "big kiddos" in putting together a concert on the stage I helped them build.  She was singing every song she could think of at high volume and then she ran out of song ideas, Morgan picked up right where she left off. 

3/19/12

Kenzie ate bites of her cereal and all of her dried cranberries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate a bite of cauliflower and all of her tropical fruit and her cheese pizza. 

Kenzie noticed that the "new" blankets for this set had "Twinkle Little Stars" on them and was singing "Twinkle" multiple times throughout the morning.  Morgan was thrilled when she heard Kenzie sat that because she loves that song, so joined her singing it over and over. 

Kenzie was very excited that it was Emily's birthday.  I'm sure her own birthday last month is still fresh in her mind.  She began singing "Happy Birthday" multiple times spontaneously.  We all would join in when she did and she (and Emily) loved it!  : )

Kenzie and Morgan were playing at the little picnic table this morning and Kenzie said, "I'm gonna have s'more tasty pie" at least three times during that time period.  Morgan decided it sounded like a good idea and added her desire for "tasty pie" to Kenzie's.

She was cheering for Alayna as she jumped and danced on the mattress.  She was standing up and clapping and saying, " Go, Layna"!  Alayna loved it and was just grinning from ear to ear and showing off even more.  

3/16/12

Kenzie ate about half of her malt-o-meal and raisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate about half of her spaghetti sauce with burger in it, and all of her salad, mixed fruit and noodles. 

Kenzie was super sensitive this morning.  It didn't matter if she got bumped into slightly on accident or if she bumped the edge of her foot on.   She was also super sensitive about space issues -- pushing, screaming, or grabbing anyone who happened to be in her invisible bubble (which was pretty good sized this morning). 

Kenzie asked for "cream" on her hand after breakfast then proceeded to tell me, "I have a little rash." and showed me on her hand.  There were a couple little marks on it so I put some of her face cream on it to appease her.  : ) 

I put Kenzie into panties right after you left.  She told me potty before BK and went quite a git.  She also went at about 10 :45 with her panties still dry.  Between then and lunch sometime she pooped in them.  I cleaned them up and put her in her nap time pull-up. 

3/15/12

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

Kenzie was very cuddling and talked a lot about Gramma coming.  I think she was wishing she was already here to cuddle with, but decided I was the next best thing.  : ) 

Kenzie was wearing one of the back packs today and kept kind of chanting, "I gonna go play school" over and over.  Morgan and Joslyn started doing it to (except Joslyn was saying "Preschool" instead).  He has a big brother in preschool and probably hears the word frequently. 

Kenzie told me she had to poop twice today.  The first time she had nothing in her pull-up and wanted to try on the potty so I took her.  She tried really hard and it I saw it start to come out a couple times, but then go right back in when she quit pushing because it hurt.  About an hour later she started crying over nothing that I could see and then told me she needed to poop.  She had already been able to get some out (and didn't go any more). It wasn't very much, but enough to take about some of the pressure, obviously and thankfully. 

Kenzie was really cracking up as she watched Alayna and Morgan build tall towers with the big blocks then know them over.  They are in the back room and if they bounce off of the carpet and hit the wood floor they are really loud.  I am sure that is part of the appeal!  ; ) 

3/14/12

Kenzie ate all of her peaches and biscuit at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her pineapple and baked beans, most of her steamed broccoli and about half of her bread.

Morgan and Kenzie were in conflict today over space at the climber/balance beam.  Kenzie started to move away and Morgan bit her on the bottom.  Hmm...  Rump roast?  It was actually a pretty had bite because it left a pretty good welt through her pants and pull-up.

Kenzie was dry all morning and hasn't pooped yet today.  She has told me "My tummy hurts" several times this morning and I am wondering if that isn't poop related.  If we could just get the pooping down, I would be happy to let her try underwear now that she is staying dry more in between times.

She was pretty cuddling off and on all morning, which I didn't mind at all.  She sat on my lap and watched, commented on or chuckled at what the other kiddos were doing frequently.  She also was sitting on the step under the window and looking in the direction of the front of the changing table, saying "I watchin' basketball game!"

We have a massage parlor here for about 20 minutes.  It started out with Jadey massaging Kenzie's shoulders, then Joslyn joined them and they just kept switching positions.  It was pretty cute.


 

3/13/12

Kenzie ate about half of her waffles and her hashbrowns at breakfast.  At lunch she was the best eater we had!  : )  She ate all of her shrimp, brown rice and oranges and a bite of her red pepper. 

All of the kiddos were a little feisty and short fused today.  I think the time change hit them more today than yesterday.  Kenzie specifically needed reminded to use her words more frequently and had a couple minor melt downs over very small issues.  (At least that is MY perspective.  Obviously she didn't think they were minor!)

Kenzie was happy to have Emily back and went over and either talked to her or played alongside her several times.  She also said "Emily not sick now?" several times to me or just to herself as she walked around or played. 

Kenzie was so funny today going over to Gary to bug him and try to get him to bug her back.  She kept having this cute little look on her face and would put her head down and race at him, burying her head in his side or belly. 

We drew with the magna doodles today and they all spent at least 15 minutes doing it.  Kenzie would write a little then erase, write then erase.  She also thought it was funny when she had the eraser part in the middle of the board and it wouldn't let her write on that strip down the middle. 

3/12/12

Kenzie ate a bite of her banana and a few bites of cheerios at breakfast.  At lunch she ate All of her grilled cheese sandwich and her tomato soup and had a few bites of apple slices.  I think she was getting tired because she kept laying her head on my knee and giving me loves.  Super sweet!

Kenzie asked to cuddle not long after she came this morning.  After a couple minutes she started to get down then saw Jadey was coming over to take her spot so she scurried back up and cuddled for a few more minutes before actually getting down. 

Later Alayna was having her turn cuddling and Kenzie came over so sweetly and asked, "come play, Layna?"  Alayna didn't answer but it must have made her feel good because she got down and gave her a really nice hug. 

Kenzie used her words very well today with only one screaming outburst (when Joslyn had done something to her).  I was very impressed, especially because she seemed kind of tired (probably due to the time change). 

Kenzie was having fun playing with the duplo blocks in the back room.  She watched as Alayna made a pretty good sides "building" and tried to follow with one of her own. 

3/9/12

Kenzie ate about half of her oatmeal and craisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her applesauce and her pea and pasta dish with cheese on to.  She ate about half of her burger. 

Kenzie vacillated between being upset by both Jadey and Morgan and playing with them.  First she would play with one then they would do something she didn't like, so she would go to the other until they did something she didn't like also.  She was also a little feisty herself -- mostly poking at the kiddos with toys, so that added to the drama a little.  What cracked me up about it was that she would get angry with one of them, but would still follow them around...  Silly goose! 

Kenzie was dry all morning (except when she pooped in her pull-up).  She was very proud of staying dry and that was awesome. 

Kenzie really enjoyed playing with the Duplo blocks in the back room and built with them most of the time we were in that room.  She stacked several of them up that had the middle piece missing to make it look like "windows".  She had to take them around to show Alayna and Morgan and Riley Room also. 

3/8/12

Kenzie ate a few bites of her blueberries and her blueberry bread pudding.  At lunch she ate all of her kiwi, a little less than half of her turkey burger and a couple bites of green beans. 

Kenzie was trying to help Jadey with the button she had on the back of her shirt.  That was just one and it had elastic as the loop that made it hard for even me.  She was really focused and determined.  When she finally gave up, she told Jadey, "Let's go have Lauralea help us!"   : )

Kenzie and the other older kiddos were so funny.  They were pretending that their babies were all sick.  They kept saying things like, "Oh no!  She puke all over!  She puke on the floor.  She poop through on me..."  You can tell we have had some sick kiddos around. 

Kenzie was quite a little sensitive today.  Every time she got slightly bumped into or jostled she would either whine about it to us or cry.  Most of the time, it was hardly anything.

I picked up these cute little Dry Erase spiral notebooks with the alphabet on them for the kiddos to draw on or practice tracing the ABCs.  They all kept wanting me to help them "Do my name?"  They all loved it! 

3/7/12

Kenzie ate all of her whole wheat toast with jelly and dried mangoes at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her tropical fruit, about half of her beef and bean burrito and a bite of her sweet potatoes.  I think I have already told you this, but Kenzie is sitting at the table full time now and doing great.  She often eats more than she did in her high chair and will try things she didn't want to try before.  I think it is because of the positive peer pressure of seeing the others eating. 

Kenzie was trying to put on the dress-up leopard jacket and was determined to get it zipped.  She first looked at both Gary and I and saw that we were feeling babies, so she turned around and asked Joslyn if she could help her "zippah".  : )  Joslyn worked at it for a couple minutes and finally told you "You do it!" and walked away when she couldn't get it!  : )  By that time Gary was done feeding Nora and helped her, but it was so funny!

At breakfast Kenzie leaned over and lay her head on my knee.  I then leaned over to her and whispered, "I love you, Kenzie!"  She immediately backed away and said, "Gary love me!" with a silly little grin on her face! 

Morgan took a little break this morning and when she came back out to join us, Kenzie was very excited.  She came racing over to her and said, "Morgan, you gonna listen?" very hopefully!  It was so sweet. 

Kenzie was in the bathroom with us when Jadey started pooping;  Kenzie was very interested and wanted to watch the entire process.  She was giving her lots of praise and support.

3/6/12

Kenzie ate all of her cinnamon roll and most of her plums at breakfast.  At lunch she ate most of her waffle and cantaloup, and a bite of both hashbrowns and scrambled eggs. 

Kenzie was very loving all day today to both Gary and I, but also nice to her friends.  She was a good listener and overall, just had a great day.  She has continued to go potty somewhere between 2 and 5 times a day, being wet in between times more often than not. 

The only thing we struggled with today was Kenzie wanting to hoard all of several different items.  For a while it was all of the books, then it was all of the phones then the Velcro foods...  On the plus side, she did a great job of cooperating when we reminded her that she could have one (or one for each hand) and the other kiddos could play with the other.  

Kenzie was doing lots of phone play today and especially focuses on talking to "grampa".  She also was talking about looking at new houses and said that Gramma and Grampa were going to "look at our new houses too".  I thought that was so cute!  She wanted to have them involved in this important part of her life!  : )

3/5/12

I hope our little Riley Roo is doing better.  Casey told us she had a really bad night. 

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

Kenzie was very excited to explore the "new" toy exchange toys.  She had a back pack on and a phone in one hand and a baby in the other most of the rest of the morning until we went to the back rooms.  She was "talking" on the phone, putting things in the backpacks and carrying the doll so cute. 

Part of the time she was doing it along side of Jadey.  When they were all read to go, she turned to Jadey and asked, "Where we goin'?" 

After lunch time when Gary was helping her wash she told him, "My Gary".  Gary told her that he loved being her Gary and she immediately came back with "My Lauralea".  I guess she didn't want it to go to his head!  : )  She did have to feed his ego a little more by giving him a very sweet kiss on the cheek.  He loved that! 

Kenzie was really examining several of the new books out with this switch.  She was really studying them like she was trying to figure out what they said.  It was really cute! 

3/1/12

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

Kenzie and Jadey played together most of our large group time this morning.  She played a little with Morgan, but not much.  One of the times she tried to ended badly.  Morgan was laying on her belly on one of the doll blankets and Kenzie must have decided to try to lay down beside her.  She scooted up to her head and Morgan bit her right on the thigh really hard!  I immediately put a cold pack on it, but I am sure it is going to leave marks and a bruise.  It was one of the worst ones I have seen (through cloth).  : (

Kenzie and Jadey, on the other had, played great together and had a lot of fun.  One of the things they spent the most time doing was hanging out in the dress-up deal and pretending it was their car.  They were pretending to "go doctor" and it was very cute.

Kenzie was really into fitting the duplos together in the back room.  When she started, she said, "I need red" then actually went around and collected all of the red ones she could find and hooking them together.   Alayna started helping her and Kenzie loved that. 

Speaking of Alayna, she had Riley really chuckling this morning.  She was playing "peek" with her in the back room and Riley was loving it.  Alayna loves to make the kiddos laugh and she was all smiles.