8/31/12

Kenzie ate several bites of her craisins and a bite or two of oatmeal at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her applesauce, about half of her macaroni and pea dish with shredded cheese on top, and a couple bites of ground beef. 

Morgan and Kenzie came out and watched me fix oatmeal at breakfast today.  I was finding lots of ways for them to help me (telling me when the pan started to steam, having them push timer buttons to set, start and stop it, counting cups of water, oatmeal and brown sugar, and so forth.  I also gave them "tastes" of fresh blueberries while they waited, which was the highlight!  : )

Today Kenzie spent time "cooking" with her chef's hat and apron on. She said she was making "sticky cinnamon rolls".  She was using the mixer and the spatula like she really knew what she was doing and kept bringing me tastes throughout the process.  : ) 

Kenzie's latest mantra when she does something to hurt someone or make them mad is to say, "No, I didn't.  She did it herself!"  She has been doing it every time someone either tells on her or uses their words to tell her they didn't like what she did.  It doesn't usually work so well though, because almost always either Gary or I have seen what went on to verify who "did it"!  : ) 

8/30/12

Kenzie ate a couple bites of her blueberries and a bite of the blueberry bread pudding at breakfast.  She said her throat hurt at both breakfast and lunch.  At lunch she ate about half of her turkey burger on a bun and her tasting bites of pineapple and green beans, so didn't really eat much all morning. 

She was also pretty clingy and fussy much of the morning, so maybe is isn't feeling well in some way or another.  She didn't have a fever or anything though, so I just don't know.  I just know I spent extra time loving on her, cuddling, and visiting with her.  She told me "I wanna cuddle" at least 8 times this morning.   She was my helper setting up lunch today, which she always loves.  She did fine with that (set up cups, plates and spoons) and didn't fuss when it was just us inside one-on-one. 

She talked with me about going to the football (and baseball) game several times today, as well as seeing Monte and Mo.  She also informed me that she "went to the scrimmage and you weren't there".  I think that was probably because we were talking about the fact that we plan to go to the game on Saturday and hope to see her there.  : ) 

She was walking around today chanting something like "agnoraring-ging-ging" over and over today.  I asked her what she was saying and she said, "I don't know".  I also asked her what she was saying it for, what it meant and she tucked her little head in between my neck and shoulder all embarrassed and said, "I don't know that either".  : )  What a cutie!

8/29/12

Kenzie ate all of her dried mangoes and about half of her toast at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her tropical fruit and beef and bean burrito and a bite of her sweet potatoes.   

When Kenzie got here Morgan and Emily were jumping in the back room.  After they came back out, Joslyn and Kenzie had a turn and actually hung out back there for close to 15 minutes.  When they came back out, Morgan was building with the duplos.  Kenzie came up to her and asked, "Morgie, can I build with you?" Morgan was all for it!

After building for a long time, they they went over and plopped down in front of the book rack,  reading stories.  They literally sat there looking at the books and discussing what they saw in the pictures for at least 20 minutes. 

Another thing that she and Morgan did was tried to play "bumper blocks" with towers of 8-10 blocks tall.  That just didn't seem too good of an idea since when they crashed into each other or something or someone the tower would topple onto whatever what hit.  With effort, I distracted them from that and they turned their "bummer blocks" into motorcycles, which was way safer (as strange as that sounds).  : )

Kenzie asked me, "are you going to go to the Griz game with me?" while she was sitting between my feet as I sat on the floor being the "gate" between the two sides of the big room.  I thought that was so sweet.  She kind of got embarrassed after she said it and came up and cuddled with me.  When she sits like that between my feet she says "I am 'arrounded'."  I am pretty sure that is supposed to mean "surrounded"!  : ) 

We did bubbles outside and the kiddos chased them for about 30 minutes.  Kenzie kept trying to pop the bubbles that landed on Riley's hair, which was driving Riley nuts.  Other than that, they were all racing around and laughing so hard. 

8/28/12

Kenzie ate all of her prunes and about half of her cinnamon roll at breakfast.  At lunch she ate her tasting bites of everything (waffle, scrambled egg, hashbrowns and cantaloupe and a couple more bites of waffle and that was it.

Kenzie put on one of the bear masks and went over to Emily, who really laughed.  Kenzie thought that was great and had to try on several other masks and head over to see if they had the same affect (which they did).  

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Kenzie and several other kiddos crowded around baby Noah today while he was having some floor time.  He really likes the kiddos and is a very social little baby, so he was rewarding them with smiles.  Kenzie really wanted his attention all to herself, but did okay with it after a reminder that we could all talk to Baby Noah. 

I think Kenzie may be starting to feel the "baby's coming" stress a little (or it could be something else, like Riley's ear procedure).  The reason I say that is that both Gary and I have noticed the last week or so that she has been a little more testy with us (not just the kiddos) and if she needs to be redirected or reminded of the rules she becomes very sensitive and even melts into tears.  She did that for a while before, but not for a long time. 

Also, today (and a couple other times over the last couple weeks) when both she and Riley are on my lap, Kenzie will say something like "I think Riley's a little git jealous!"  That was a direct quote from today.  Granted Riley is pushing on her to get her over, so it probably is accurate, but she is just talking about it more. 

Kenzie used her words well several times today and expressed "I don't want to be with the kids" when she wanted to be alone.  That is great! 

Kenzie was so engaged outside playing, especially with the dump trucks and all of the leaves the wind blew in last night. 

8/24/12

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

Kenzie asked me first things, "can I feed baby Noah?".   Told her we would have to see how the day went and when he got hungry.  She then said, "he's my baby, okay?". I told her that he was Kimberly's baby but she was sharing him with us.  I also told her at he could be her practice brother until brother came out of mommy's tummy, just in case she mentions something about that this weekend.

Kenzie was having some challenges with deciphering what was her space and when she was in someone else's space today.  She let trying to push into the kiddos space or even edge them out of their space and then would scream when they pushed back, grabbed her or told her no.  We continue to work with her on using words, moving away when kiddos want to be alone and listening to other other kiddos words.  

Morgan wanted to be alone in the box with the bear for a while today and it about more than Kenzie could handle to not go over and try to play with her.  She finally went over to joslyn and asked "Jozzy, can I play with you?" with a very longing tone in her voice.  They then played together for several minutes until Morgan was regrouped and ready to go again.  

During the time that Joslyn and Kenzie were playing together Joslyn was bringing me food to eat.  Kenzie kept bringing over one of the pretend baby bottles and pouring or squirting it on my plate and saying "I put some stuff on it.". I never could get her to tell me what kind of stuff it was!

Kenzie and Joslyns cooperative play didn't make it through outside time though and when Kenzie kept insisting that joslyn wanted to play with her, Joslyn actually bit her.  I don't think Joslyn has every bit anyone before so that made it even more strange.  Kenzie was flabbergasted and kept saying, "that wasn't very nice of her" over and over.  

8/23/12

Kenzie ate seconds on grapes and all of her cinnamon toast at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her canned cherries and dinner roll, about half of her potatoes and her chicken. 

Kenzie cuddled for a little then looked at books before coming over to me and asking if she could "go jump in the back room with Morgie".  Morgan was all for that, so they spend about 15 minutes happily and rowdily jumping and doing gymnastics. 

Kenzie was sitting on the couch at the end of the big block "sidewalk" this morning.  Emily was lying on her belly and scooting  along toward Kenzie (not really intentionally to get Kenzie though).  Kenzie started giggling and said, "Oh!  Oh!  The dolphin gonna get me!"  Emily loved that and they went with that for several minutes. 

I was using my date book as a hard surface to take my journalling notes on this morning and Kenzie realized there was a picture of a lizard on the back.  They then wanted to look at my "book pictures".  Each set of pages has the week's plan on one page and an Arizona picture on the other.  It is spiral bound so I always fold it over for compactness and convenience.  We went through the whole thing looking at picture (as we have done many times already this year).  Morgan obviously is familiar with cacti because every picture that had a cactus on it she would touch the page and say "ow-ow-ow!".  Since it is an Arizona date book there are MANY pictures of cacti and several of the kiddos imitated Morgan and were "ow-ing" right along with her!  : )  Kenzie thought that was great fun!

Kenzie was being very motherly this morning.  She wrapped up one of the dolls very well then was kind of rocking/bouncing it as she walked around and saying "Shshshshshsh!"  She was talking to the baby, telling it she was going to lay it back down for a nap and also telling us we needed to be quiet because her baby was sleeping.  It was very sweet.

Kenzie must have been quite tired late this morning because by about 11:00 everything was either frustrating her or making her sad.  I had her come in and help me when I went in to fix lunch.  She was an amazing helper.  She lay down all of the nap mats and pillows.  Baby Noah also woke up right about then and she fed him his bottle for me so I could keep cooking.  She did a great job and he ended up drinking the whole thing for her, which I usually can't even get him to do.  She was SO proud of herself!  I have a couple great pictures, but need to still figure out a plan for loading them here now that my other computer died. 

8/22/12

Kenzie and Morgan were having quite a bit of conflict so Kenzie spent more time playing with both Joslyn and Emily.  She was even being lovey with them -- giving them random hugs several times throughout the morning. 

I went out to take some mail to the mailbox to be picked up this morning and Thomas saw me and started waving like crazy and yelling, "Bye!  Bye!"  Gary said Kenzie looked at Thomas half disgusted and half amazed and said, "She not leaving!" pretty indignantly.  That cracked me up! 



Kenzie made a "camera" out of three of the duplo fence pieces.  She kept pointing it at me and saying "say cheesy pickles".  At first I couldn't figure out what she was saying, then I couldn't figure out why she was saying it that way.  It finally clicked that I often tell the kiddos to either "say cheese" or say "fuzzy pickles" and she had obviously put the two together!  : ) 

One of the kiddos favorite games outside lately has been "Run!  Thomas is coming!"  I probably would intervene if Thomas didn't like it, but he just thinks it is a fun running game.  He doesn't understand that they are actually running away from him!  He just runs along with them, laughing and having a great time!  : ) 

Another thing they have really enjoyed is pushing the little lawn mower around.  I decided I was going to try to get a picture of them pushing them around and that was when they decided to "Get Lauralea!"  I continued to make a valiant effort to get far enough ahead of them (running backwards) to be able to get a picture before they all got to me.  I did get a couple, but now can't get them to load here, so...  I will continue to work on that later. 

8/21/12

Kenzie ate all of her pears and a bite of her blueberry waffle with syrup at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her orange slices and her tuna on saltine crackers, along with her tasting bite of sweet potatoes. 

Kenzie cracked me up this morning when she was playing in the box and saw Peyton heading her direction.  She started saying "Oh, oh!  Peyton is coming to harass me!" 

She actually played in the box several times throughout the morning.  Some of the time it was with Morgan and other times just by herself.  She was playing with the duplos in there part of the time and others just cuddling with Bear. 

We have the duplos with the little flowers out with this set and both Morgan and Kenzie really like them.  They stack them all together and use them to sing into, like a microphone. 

The big blocks were all stacked together and laying down like a sidewalk across the floor today and Kenzie started walking across them saying "March, march, march, march..." then turning when she got to the end and marching back.  Morgan and Peyton both picked right up on that and started imitating her. 

While we were outside this morning a vehicle went by with its music blaring.  I looked down by the gate and Morgan, Kenzie, Joslyn, Thomas and Peyton were all just dancing like crazy.  It wasn't very long music, but it sure got them jiving!  : ) 

8/20/12

Kenzie just spent the first part of the morning exploring the toy exchange to see what was out.  She kind of bounced from one thing to another until breakfast time then settled down to play for a while with one thing/set of things more. 

One of the cutest things that I saw early in the day was her putting one of the purses around her neck with the purse hanging in front of her.  She then put one of the babies into the purse.  It was obviously her baby front pack!  Very creative. 

Kenzie talked about being on the farm quite a bit, especially about tucker being in doggy heaven and about riding on the combine.  She told me "grandpa and I ran over two big rocks!"  Morgan said she wanted to run over big rocks too, and Kenzie indignantly told her "Just me and grandpa!"  : )

Morgan and Kenzie didn't have any major conflicts today but also played apart some.  Kenzie spent some time just cuddling and wrestling with the big bear in the box while Morgan built with the duplos. 

Gary just cracked up during outside time when Kenzie picked up one of the big red balls out of the house and headed out onto the grass with it.  It is so big she really couldn't see around it (and obviously forgot there were posts on the patio).  She was headed out at a pretty good rate of speed and ran smack into the post.  Because the ball was in front of her, she didn't actually hit the post at all, but it made her bounce back, knocked her feet out from under her and right onto her bottom.  She kind of shook herself as to clear her mind, looked around a little and off she went.  I missed the show, but Gary told me all about it after her quit rolling on the ground laughing.  : ) 

8/17/12

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

It was as I figured with Aaron here today.  She totally ignored him except to tell him quite emphatically to "moooove back" and "No, Aaron!".  ; )  

Kenzie was enthusiastically stapling the posters with the staple guns today.  Soon the other kiddos were at it too until all of the staple guns were in use and there was a "my turn next" list!  : ) 

Morgan and Kenzie were both a little wound up this morning before breakfast, so they went to the back room to run, jump and do gymnastics on the mattress and climber/balance beam while I fixed the oatmeal.  They had a blast and burned off some of that excess energy.

After breakfast they spent most of the morning right together also.  First they hung out in the box with Kenzie making Morgan a "bed" with the big HARD blocks.  I said something about being careful so that she didn't hurt her "noggin" and Morgan chuckled.  I asked her if she knew what a "noggin" was and she immediately pointed to her head!  : )  The look on Morgan's face when Kenzie handed her a stack of blocks and told her it was her "pillow" was classic.  After deciding the "bed" just wasn't working out so well, they moved over to the side of the box with the big bear in it and both used him as their bed together.

8/16/12

Kenzie ate all of her cantaloupe and about half of her french bread at breakfast.  At lunch she ate a taste of squash (saying "It's not very good!"), and all of her turkey slices, crescent roll and dried mango. 

Kenzie asked me to help her change into "not wet" clothes after you left today (and her shirt was pretty wet on one side) so I did.  I loved the way she asked for "not wet" rather than "dry" clothes.  : ) 

The kiddos were really into reading books today, so we read LOTS at story time.  I read many familiar ones so that they could actively participate and "read" with me, which they all love.  I also asked them a lot of questions about sounds and colors and shapes and other sorting types of things, even in the ones that aren't as familiar.Kenzie, especially, likes that type of participation.

Kenzie and Thomas had conflict over one of the flip phones today and Kenzie was on the receiving end of teeth this time (on her right ring finger)!  Ugh!  I seriously don't think I have every had this much biting (as we have had in the last year or so) EVER!  We are working so hard to keep the kiddos safe, provide a peaceful and safe environment, watching extra closely for early signs of conflict and teaching positive choices, but...  I have to keep reminding myself, that it will end, they will learn to use their words and I AM doing my best!  Sorry, I obviously just needed to air my own frustrations!  : ) Anyway, we put a cold cloth on it (it did slightly break the skin) and cuddled for about 15 minutes. 

Outside the kiddos were very busy, but now with any one thing really.  They played with the lawn mowers, on the climbers, did some "racing" across the yard and back, rode bikes and played on the merry-go-round and teeter totters. Kenzie told Morgan "Let's go on the 'motorcycle'" then headed over to the merry-go-round, which cracked me up.  She also came over and asked me "Where's Aaron?" out of the blue.  Since he only comes one day a week if we have space, the kiddos don't really ask about him much.  He will be here tomorrow so I am anxious to see if Kenzie plays with him after asking about him today.  : ) 

8/15/12

Kenzie ate all of her whole wheat toast and a couple bites of mixed berries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate seconds on bean soup and all of her saltine crackers, ham and kiwi.

Kenzie was very excited about feeding the dolls with the new sippy cups.  She found one for Morgan, Emily and Riley to "feed" their dolls also, which was very sweet.

Kenzie was quite feisty this morning and tried to bite three different times that I saw.  I was able to catch her before she actually chomped two of the three, but Morgan was the unlucky recipient of that one.  Morgan was playing at one of end of the big block creation we had all made.  Kenzie didn't like something about that -- not anything I could see or figure out-- and just grabbed her arm and bit.  We have really decided to have a 0 tolerance for biting or other non-provoked aggressiveness. so immediately told her "Biting hurts our friends and we can't play with friends if we are going to hurt them!"  I took her to the back room to play alone for about 5 minutes.  A while later she pulled Emily's hair and tried to bite her also so I said the same thing and again took her back there.  She really doesn't enjoy being removed from her friends, so I am hoping that will really help make a connection and behavior change.  She didn't cry when I moved her either time, but was VERY ready to come join her friends after both breaks.  

She and Morgan did have fun playing in the same big block creation that the biting incident happened in later.  She told Morgan that she had made her "a bed" and they played "going to sleep" and "taking a nap" for quite some time.  

The neighbor across the street had her little grandson with her today and the kiddos were all clustered around the gate to watch and "talk" to him as he played in their front yard.  It looked really cute with them all focused on him while at the gate.  

8/14/12

Kenzie ate about half or a little bit more of her whole wheat bagel and all of her dried apricots at breakfast.  At lunch.she ate most of her tilapia and applesauce, and about half of her peas and pasta.

Kenzie spent the first part of the morning playing with the tool bench.  She is just figuring out that the tools (wrench, screwdriver and pliers) can be used to work the gears, bolts and nails in the tool bench.  She was very focused on making them work.

I sat down on the floor when Nora came to greet her and play with her a little.  Kenzie came over and sat down with me for a couple minutes.  She was quiet and looked deep in thought, then she announced, "Now we have a Noah and Nora!"  I was wondering if she maybe thought that Nora had turned into Noah, because Nora left and Noah showed up!  : )

Morgan requested the "Hickety, pickety bumble bee" song even before breakfast this morning so I told her we could do it after breakfast.  That song let to many other songs, of course.  Those led to doing our sign language cards and that led to story time.  We usually do all of those things, but with spaces in between for free choice play.

Kenzie never sits on the couch when it is story time.  She always waits until all of the kiddos are sitting there and the "reader" is seated then takes her place on their lap.  Since she is the smallest (not youngest) of the readers, it actually works great, but I am sure she isn't going to like it when the time comes for it to be someone else's turn.  

8/13/12

Kenzie ate most of her craisins and about half of her bran flakes at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her cheese pizza, most of her tropical fruit and a bite of her cauliflower. 

Kenzie and Morgan visited steadily all through breakfast and afterward for at least 20 minutes.  Morgan asked her "What you do this morning, Kenzie?" and later "What you do last night?" and Kenzie told her about going to the dentist and "watching the Grizzlies.  It was great conversation. 

Morgan and Emily both finished breakfast a little bit before Kenzie.  When Kenzie came into the play room and say them playing on the block side, she bent down with her hands on her knees, topped her little head off to the side and said, "What are you doing on that side, Girlies?"  It just cracked me up.  Morgan obviously didn't think anything about it, because she said very normally, "Playing with blocks!"

Kenzie played mostly with Morgan, but also built with the duplos with and alongside Joslyn.  When Riley came over to her and tried to take some of their blocks, Kenzie yelled, "No Riley!" very forcefully.  I told her that she could take them over to either the block shelf top or the box so Riley couldn't get them as easy and they immediately picked them up and changed places. 

Kenzie was very interested in Baby Noah and kept calling him "Jozzy's baby".  She also talked about getting ready to have "my own baby" and babies being in mommy's tummies.  It was great!

8/3/12

Kenzie ate about half of her raisins and malt-o-meal at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her grapes, most of her noodles and a tasting bite of both the fruit salad and the meaty spaghetti sauce. 

Kenzie loved playing with the BIG bear with Morgan.  They cuddled with it, wrestled with it, buried themselves under it, pulled it around, talked to it, had it help them build with both the big blocks and the duplos... 

Kenzie was also very interested in watching the neighbors' yard sale progression.  She stood and looked out the big window more than anyone.  The whole while she was commenting on the cars coming and going, as well as the people and what they were taking away with them.  It was pretty funny!

Morgan and Kenzie played in the box quite a bit today. Morgan labeled it "our bedroom" and Kenzie was obviously going along with that because she pulled down and then back up her skirt and panties, saying, "I'm gonna get dressed!"  That cracked me up!

Kenzie was also very attached to one of the phones and a set of keys.  She was "talking" to someone on the phone a lot and 'going' one place or another -- CostCo, the doctor, home, work, the farm...  It is so cute to watch and listen to their dramatic play.

Outside they spent most of the time playing in the cars and big wheels.  We had to do a little bit of facilitation to make sure everyone got turns in both, but they actually did an amazing job of self-regulating.  

8/2/12

Kenzie ate most of her cinnamon raisin bread and a bite of blueberries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her chicken on saltines and her potato salad and a couple of her cherries.

Kenzie and Jadey played together a lot today, joining Morgan briefly a couple times.  Kenzie and Jadey were building on the duplo truck base with the duplos for a long time.  They had it stacked way higher than the truck was long which, I'm sure, is a major trucking violation.  : )

After breakfast Kenzie got busy setting the play table with the plates and putting "breakfast" on it for her friends.  She kept calling the slices of cheese "eggs" which cracked me up!  When Jadey was done with her breakfast and zipped on past her to the block side of the room, Kenzie called out, "Jadey, come here for breakfast!"  Jadey immediately stopped, said "Oh, OK!" and went over and sat down, waiting for Kenzie to serve her.

She, Joslyn and Jadey spent over 30 minutes playing in the box with the big blocks.  They were arranging and rearranging them over and over, then making precarious stacks of blocks to try to stand on (or crash off of).  If she has new leg or back bruises that would be where they came from, although there were no tears.  Right in the middle of their busy play Kenzie looked up at the clock in the big room and announced, "It's 20:40 o'clock!"  It was really funny.  

8/1/12

Kenzie ate all of her peaches and about half of her biscuit at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her pineapple, about half of her broccoli and her dinner role and a couple bites of her baked beans.

When Kenzie came this morning she obviously noticed that both Emily and Morgan had two pony tails in their hair also.  She told me "They have two ponies like me".  It cracks me up how each one of our children (and all other children) are always the center of the universe.  It is never "I have two ponies like them".  : )  

Kenzie and Morgan built with the duplos for probably half of our inside free choice time.  It was great because they spent part of the time working at independent projects and others working together.  Kenzie build this long skinny tower deal and told Peyton, "Don't get my baby.  It's very special", so obviously that creation was a "baby".  Later on she had a smaller creation and was hopping it up and down across the room, saying "boing, boing, boing."  I asked her what she had built and she looked at me like I was crazy, saying somewhat indignantly, "A Boinger!".  Well yeah!  : )  Later on, she helped Morgan add duplos to the duplo truck.

Kenzie and Morgan built a 'stage' that was 5 or 6 big blocks high and just about perfectly sized for just the two of them to stand side-by-side on top of it to sing to the iPod.  I said something about it being a "stage" and Kenzie again gave me that "what do you know?" look and informed me that it was their "sing ladder".     : )