1/31/13

Kenzie ate all of my English muffin and a bite of her blueberries at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her saltines with chicken in them and her cherries, along with about half of her potatoes.

Emily and Kenzie played together quite a bit this morning. One of their favorite things was dressing up in the kimonos/robes and putting the headbands on and calling themselves "queens". We decided that they would love to be in that position and try to place themselves there, so we are all bowing to their every whim, frequently. They hate it that we usurp their authority regularly.

Kenzie started stripping of the dress-up clothes and headed over to the dress-up closet saying, "OK, now it's time to take a shower". She was being very creative. She put one of the blankets up with the curler outside deals hooking over it to hold it up. Another blanket was the towel to dry herself off. Joslyn and Emily helped her completely her idea and then they each took turns "taking showers".

Kenzie and Joslyn love the keyboards out in the back room and almost always have one of them, playing the preprogrammed song on them and dancing or singing along. One of them also says the colors of the keys if you have it set in that position. Kenzie figured that out today and was trying to use it to "teach" Aaron and Riley their colors!

1/29/13 & 1/30/13

Kenzie ate seconds on both biscuit and peaches at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her pineapple and about half of her baked beans, peas and dinner roll.

Kenzie and Joslyn put on the matching pink PJs then started stuffing toys in them, calling the area they were putting their toys, their "pockets"
Joslyn and Kenzie were using a couple of the curlers out as their "binoclee-ers" (binoculars) to look at the snow coming down outside. It was super cute.

Kenzie really likes this one certain stuffed frog that is out with this set. She carries it around and loves on it a lot. Sometimes, she even rocks and sings to it like a baby. If anyone (except Riley) is holding it, she tells them that is her favorite and that she wants it. She has actually been doing a good job of not just grabbing it from them or hitting to try to get it though!

Thomas was in 'bug Kenzie' mode this morning, which didn't thrill her. I moved him away from her several different times and finally just separated them on opposite sides of the big room until time to switch to the back rooms, where they a in different groups anyway.

There are a couple of the grandma Annabelle beanie baby geese down right now. Kenzie was carrying them and and then brought them over to me and told me, "When I went to grammy's house, there was geese flying by. That was when me and daddy wrapped presents yesterday!" I love how everything in the past is "yesterday" and everything in the future is "tomorrow" at this age!

First thing every day the last couple weeks, when we switch to the back block room, Kenzie and Joslyn immediately start stacking the blocks on top of each other until all of the big interlocking blocks are part of the building. Some times it is low and spread out and others tall and tower like. Today it was kind of in the middle -- not as tall as them and close to cube shaped.

She and Joslyn were also playing with the Duplos and Kenzie asked Joslyn, "Shall we recycle these blocks?" She then went over to a specific spot, held the blocks in question and said, "recycle, recycle, recycle..." It cracked me up, especially after our conversation the other day about your visit to the preschool! : )

1/28/13

Kenzie ate about half of her Cheerios and all of her banana at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her apple slices and tomato soup and seconds on grilled cheese sandwich.

Kenzie, Joslyn and Emily were all playing together for a while before breakfast. Emily and Kenzie were playing together and Joslyn decided that she was going somewhere or another. She told them, "I'll give you guys a call, k?" Kenzie answered her with, "Yeah, give us a call and let us know where you are." When iKenzie was washing after breakfast (Joslyn was already finished), Kenzie said "OK, now I gotta go call Jozzy and see where she is!" She had remembered that whole time.

Joslyn has started fussing multiple times, grabbed her stomach and said "my tummy hurts!" Kenzie told me, "We will have to watch her. We don't want her to have to throw up!"

Kenzie and Joslyn started moving all of the stuffed animals from the mattress to behind the igloo. Kenzie told me, "We're putting them all in the trunk!"

Kenzie and Joslyn (then Riley) were wearing the headbands today. Kenzie got all excited after wearing them for a few minutes when it was she and Riley. She announced, "I'm Monte and Riley's Mo!" How cute is that?

1/25/13

Kenzie ate about half of her oatmeal and craisins at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her applesauce, most of her ground beef and about half of her peas and pasta (with all of the cheese eaten off the top).

Kenzie and Joslyn went out with me to "fix" breakfast. Kenzie loves it when it is oatmeal morning because she knows I will give her a little "taste" of brown sugar after I put some in the oatmeal. I find a little chunk to give the watchers.

Joslyn and Kenzie have been playing together almost constantly this morning. They started out playing with the dolls and making beds for them and themselves, while they were wearing the PJs. Something happened during their play and Kenzie said, "Oh no! That was almost a catastrophe!" What a vocab!

They then started playing with the stuffed animals on the others side, especially the frogs. Joslyn had one and Kenzie told her "I like that one best". Joslyn was so sweet and immediately handed it to her!

Kenzie and Joslyn were walking around and around on the big room picnic table bench. Joslyn fell off and Kenzie cracked up. She was bent over double she was laughing so hard. What an awesome chuckle she has.

Joslyn and Kenzie were lining the top edge of the box with curler parts. They would put them all along the time until either they ran out of space or curlers then take them all off and start over. They were letting Thomas help them also, but Aaron was not allowed, for some reason.

1/24/13

Kenzie didn't eat any breakfast (blueberries and waffles). At lunch she ate all of her ground turkey sandwich and her kiwi, along with a couple bites of green beans.

Kenzie was doing Thomas' hair after breakfast. She started it out with, "hey Tom, can I fix your hair? Your ponies fell out." She also had me put a curler in her hair, then Thomas'.

She and Thomas actually played together most of the large group play time. She was telling him were to sit, what to do and even what to say a couple times. They were dancing together when I put on the music and then Kenzie told him to "go sit over there and watch me then clap when I dance." That just cracked me up. He dutifully did it, too!

Kenzie wanted me to redo her two French braids again this morning. She sits amazingly still while I do it. When I do two, it takes quite a while and it is also hard not to pull a little, but she is a trooper, seldom even saying ow.

Kenzie and Joslyn decided that they couldn't build on a single building together today (too much conflict) with the Duplos, so I helped each of them get their own building going and they were happy!

1/23/13

Kenzie ate seconds on jelly toast and dried mangos at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her tropical fruit, about half of her beef and bean burrito and a couple bites of her sweet potatoes.

Christina was making dinner while the kiddos were still here. Kenzie sniffed deeply and said, "Hmmmm, that smells good! I love chicken noodle soup." Christina had told her that is what she was making, I found out later, but it was still adorable.

Gary substituted Cooper's name for Nora,s in the Nora song we have and Kenzie did NOT like that. She kept trying to line him out and tell him to "use Nora's name, not Cooper's".

Kenzie was combing Emily's hair and told her, "You have a snarl". She loves to start the beauty salon play. She will do anyone's hair that comes by. In the middle of doing Thomas'. She almost always tells him, "Your hair's too short", but keeps working on it anyway.

Kenzie and Joslyn were making beds with the doll blankets all over today -- by the mirror, in front of the toy shelves, in the boxes, on the big chair and most frequently right in front of the gate when Gary needed to get in and out setting up breakfast. It cracks me up how they seem to have a sixth sense about what NOT to do!

1/21/13

Kenzie ate all of her banana and seconds on Kix at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her mandarin oranges, a couple bites of cooked peas and most of her ham sandwich.

When Kenzie got here she was the only non-infant here. She immediately looked around and asked, "Hey, where are all my friends?" Emily was actually the only other big kiddo who was coming for sure (Aaron may come for a little, but mom wasn't sure). He did come at lunch time.

Obviously, Kenzie played with Emily quite a bit today. One of their favorite things this morning was easing up in the matching pink pajamas and playing. They were running on the rowdy side of the room, playing in the box and fixing breakfast.

Kenzie made a tower with the play orange juice cups and topped it off with a play peanut butter jar. She was so excited and basically kept a form of it up all morning, guarding it every time either Riley or Nora came close.

1/18/13

Kenzie ate all of her raisins and seconds on brown rice at breakfast. A lunch she ate all of her meatloaf and French bread, most of her dried apricots and a bite or two of cooked carrots.

Kenzie saw Riley lying on the mattress and asked Joslyn to hold her stuff so she could "help my Riley up". Of course, Riley just wanted to pull her down on top of her rather than get up... Imagine that!

Joslyn and Kenzie, again, played together a lot today. They each had a Grover stuffed animal and were pretending they were there babies. They were taking them "shopping", but said that they "don't know where we're going". All of that was Kenzie's idea!

Kenzie wanted to wipe her own nose today, so I just put a couple boogie wipes on the corner of the changing table for her to get as needed. She loved that! Joslyn wanted to do the same thing because it looked so "fun".

Kenzie and Joslyn spent most of the time we were the block room building with the Duplos. They worked at it for a long while and came over to show me the finished product when they were done.

1/17/13

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

Kenzie and Joslyn went out to do puzzles, but the first one Kenzie got out was the 26 piece alphabet puzzle and she didn't really spend much time working on it. She wanted to either just abandon it and get another one or just be done and go back out to the big room.

Kenzie, Joslyn and Emily were all lined up sitting backward on the couch with their feet stuck into the crack between the cushion and the back of the couch. They then would lean backwards until laying on the seat with their heads drooped back over the edge of the seat toward the floor. Then they were doing sit ups. Kenzie did it with ease repeatedly.

I don't know who started it, but several of the kiddos decided to push the couch cushions up to look for "broken ponies" -- probably Kenzie! Sure enough they found several, along with some fuzzies and other bits and pieces of stuff. It amazes me what they find to be interesting and entertaining sometimes!

Joslyn was Kenzie's friend of the day. Emily tried to join a couple times, but again the third wheel element didn't work well... It is so funny how it is one child some days and the other others.

Every time Gary takes something to the mail or goes to get the mail, the kiddos all love to watch him out the big window! He usually pretends he is going to "get" them on the way back which the love.

1/16/13

Kenzie ate seconds on bagel and all of her peaches at breakfast. Kenzie ate all of her corn, most of her ham slice, about half of her macaroni and cheese, and a bite of both sugar peas and yellow pepper (the salad we had purchased was bad when we opened it so we couldn't use it!).

Kenzie was very glad to see Emily today and immediately wanted to go out and do puzzles with her. They did puzzles together until about 8:40. After that they came back out to the big room and were playing on and around the climber and mattress. When I asked Kenzie what they were playing, she indignantly told me "we're going to 'gymastics'!" I guess I was supposed to already know that, or not be butting into her business! : )

Often Emily is playing with Aaron, but he had an appointment this morning so wasn't here until later, which Kenzie took full advantage of.

Kenzie was very excited when she spotted a squirrel in the neighbors tree. She showed Emily and they stood at the window trying to find more for about 10 minutes before deciding that he "went home".

Kenzie and Joslyn were in conflict multiple times today, but it was mostly initiated by Joslyn, who isn't feeling very good with her stuffy nose and cough.

Kenzie and Emily were pretty inseparable during whole group time today. They invited Joslyn to play a couple times also, but they didn't work well -- three seldom does. They did include Thomas briefly a couple times, and that worked much better.

Kenzie slid all of the wrist sweat bands up over one of the kitchen set faucets. It was really funny. I had to take a picture of it.

1/15/13

Kenzie ate all of her pears and a bite of her blueberry waffles at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her oranges and her tuna on saltine crackers.

Kenzie invited Thomas to play with her first thing after he got here today and they played together a lot during large group time. Most of the time they played on the rowdy side, with Kenzie telling him what to do and him doing it. Kenzie kept telling Thomas that she was going to "go on an errand". She would then go over to the other side briefly and back announcing she was "back from my errand".

She and Thomas were also peaking at each other through the holes in the climber steps and under the whole step and were laughing so hard. Riley tried to join them but ended up just watching because she kept getting jostled around and didn't enjoy that much,

Kenzie participated during story time so well. She was singing the songs that went with, answering the questions Gary asked and just very attentive.

Today has been a regular day for her, so different from yesterday when she didn't want to play at all. She did start getting tired (by both verbal expression, look on her face and things making her sad easily) about 11:00' but made it until actual nap time today.

1/14/13

Kenzie ate all of her fruit salad and about half of her Chex at breakfast. She didn't eat anything for lunch because she fell asleep right before it was ready, see below.

Kenzie was pretty lethargic this morning, but not fussy at all. She just got a lot of extra cuddles and visiting with me in today, which worked great because we had three kiddos gone. When I had to change on of the kiddos or do something else, she just lay down on the couch.

She did try to play with Joslyn, but she wasn't wanting to be friendly and gentle with her so she decided that cuddling was a better bet.

She was very cute giving somewhat of a play by play account of what she was watching the other kiddos do.

Kenzie talked about grandma and grandpa coming to see her "after Mismo this weekend". She said she had lots of fun, and I couldn't tell it that meant with grandpa and grandma or at Mismo! She did say that she was "so happy to see ,my friend, Morgan!"

About 10:30 Kenzie started falling asleep, so I rearranged her and interacted with her to get her to wake up a little. She started to fall asleep again about 11:00 so I had her come out and watch me get lunch ready for a change of pace and position. She just couldn't make it and fell asleep hard around 11:20' so I just lay her down. I figured if she was that tired, she probably wouldn't eat anyway.

1/10/13 & 1/11/13

Kenzie ate all only a few bites of her oatmeal and fruit at breakfast. At lunch she ate about half of her hash brown casserole and all of her mandarin oranges and biscuit.

When I sat down today do do journals, I realized I really didn't have very many notes for most of the kiddos from either day, so I decided to combine the two. Kenzie actually had more than anyone (and the greater difference between the two days).

Kenzie has been doing a super nice job of including Thomas (and sometimes Aaron) in much of her play even with her other friends. She invites in to play and then will l one him out as to his role or what he is supposed to do.

She was being Emily's beautician again yesterday. Thankfully, she didn't have real scissors, because she was really getting after it. She had ahold of all of her hair in one hand and was kiind of pounding on where the cutting would be happening, saying trim, trim, trim".

Kenzie was playing along and suddenly announced, "We need to clean up this mess" talking about all of the books and other toys that SHE and a couple friends had piled in the box.

Kenzie has been asking others if they are okay, even when she wasn't involved, giving hugs, and otherwise being sweet to her friends more lately.



I don't know if Kenzie heard us talking about how good she was doing this morning or what, but she had a very challenging time being a good friend after breakfast--two light bites and many pushes and hits. It must have been too much pressure for her! : ).

She had several moments of being her fun and friendly self such as when she was reading books to Riley and Thomas,

and when she invited Aaron to play in the "car" she and Joslyn had built together.

1/9/13

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

Kenzie initiated some salon play. She was first fixing Emily's hair then "painting her nails". They used the step of the climber/balance beam for the salon and the fixer sat on the top step with the customer on the lower step. They did it multiple times during the morning. One of the times Thomas tried to join them, but he was informed by Kenzie, "you don't have enough hair!"

Joslyn and Kenzie got out every single book from the book rack and all of the dolls and put them in the box. They then put all of the books in the yellow chair and started "reading" them. Kenzie first made a pretty good sized pile to sit on and called it her "chair". I had them put them all back into the book rack before they moved on to another type of play.

Kenzie decided that the stuffed animals needed to all go in the climber/balance beam washing machine. She recruited Joslyn and Thomas to help her. It was amazing how quickly they had every single animal there.

Kenzie and Emily only played together briefly, but du ring that time they were having a blast racing back and forth on the rowdy side of the room from the igloo to the corner by the changing table. It ended pretty abruptly when Kenzie raced across the room at a high rate of speed and tried to kind of dive/slide into the igloo opening, but misjudged just slightly and bonked head on the top of the opening!

1/8/13

Kenzie ate about half of her dried apricots and a couple bites of bagel at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her tilapia and applesauce, all of the noodles and cheese out of the pasta pea dish and only left about a spoonful of peas.

Now that Morgan is graduation, Kenzie has new sequence of play partners. Joslyn is almost always her first choice, Emily the second, Riley third and if none of those three wants to play with her, she will the settle for either Thomas or Aaron. Thomas is always absolutely thrilled when she asked him he he wants to play with her! : )

Kenzie was reading stories to Emily and Aaron for quite after breakfast. She was having them count things on the pages, find different things she mentioned and answering other questions. If they answered correctly, she told them "good job!" and if not she would tell them the right answer.

Kenzie and Joslyn played together for about 20 minutes during whole group, but it ended abruptly when they had a difference of opinion over whether Kenzie should stay in the igloo as Joslyn thought she should or come out like Kenzie thought!

When we split into our small groups in the back room, they mended their differences and working together, built a very tall tower with the big interlocking blocks. It was so tall that they had to use blocks to reach to add more to the top. when they were done, i was afraid it was going to crash into one of the kiddos, so I talked them into letting me tip it over to use as a stage. They loved that and sang to the CD until time to switch rooms.

1/7/13

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

Kenzie explored many of the new toy exchange toys and then settled on playing with the dress ups and dolls mostly. She tried on every shoe, most of the sports clothes, and a hat or two.

Kenzie brought over the taekwondo suit top and lay it down by me saying, "I need help with this, because its only 50 degrees out!" I helped her lay it out so she could just flip it over like she does her coats. She had a hard time getting her arm into the hole for some reason and said, "What's wrong with me?!" Kenzie also put on a sporty tank top and called it "that's my sweaty shirt!"

Kenzie and Joslyn were using the box for their dolls bedrooms for a long time. It was also the "truck", store, school, and home.

Kenzie and joslyn were both very excited to see the Disney character Duplos were out with this set. They were also hiding them behind the big blocks that were still on the shelf, then searching for them and acting surprised to see them there. Kenzie said, " now how did those guys get back there?" That cracked me up!

1/4/13

Kenzie said she had eaten yogurt at home and didn't want to eat breakfast here. At lunch she at all of her mixed fruit and salad with ranch and about half of her spaghetti with very meaty sauce.

Kenzie was done yelling and crying by the time mom drove by this morning. She was still a little testy and whimpered some for another 15 minutes, but did fine.

Kenzie let Thomas join her in the box today, which is very unusual. She said it was her "car" and when Thomas started to get up and out she told him to sit down because they were going to go get some string beans. He has a big sister at home that likes to tell him what to do, so he sat right back down.

Kenzie asked what we were having for lunch. When I told her it was spaghetti, salad and fruit, she immediately reminded me "Thomas can't have ranch!" She has taken over helping us monitor Thomas' food intake not that Morgan is not here. She also went out with me to help set up and she was telling me what he could and could have as I put different things on his plate. She was correct each time -- she has taken over the job from Morgan.

Kenzie and Joslyn spent quite a few minutes examining the family posters on the wall, especially their own. They were telling each other the names of their grandparents and the others in the pictures.

After playing together for quite a while, Joslyn and Kenzie parted ways and Kenzie played with Emily for a while. One of the things they did was to fix dinner for themselves and Aaron.

1/3/13

Things were a little busier today with Cooper starting and getting myself and the rest of the crew back into gear after the holiday. Actually things went very well! I just found that I didn't have very much concentrated observation time to take notes for journals.

Kenzie was my big helper "just like Morgan used to be". She helped with so many things, from getting something for me, to being one of the other kiddos with something they were struggling with, to helping me set up lunch...

Kenzie asked about where Morgan was a couple times today. Only the first time did she talked about her not being her friend. The rest of the time she just said something like, "it's okay, I can still play with Emily and Joslyn ."

Kenzie and Joslyn did play together a lot (and very peacefully) today. I will continue to cross my fingers that the congeniality will last. Joslyn is used to having a big brother that likes to tell her what to do, so it might actually be a good fit. She does a good job of either going along with what Kenzie says or using her words and telling her she doesn't want to do it.

One of the games the girls we playing today as to fix coffee for their friends. They were warning them that it might be hot and to "be careful". Thomas was their best customer and kept coming back for more.

1/2/13

Things were a little busier today with Cooper starting and getting myself and the rest of the crew back into gear after the holiday. Actually things went very well! I just found that I didn't have very much concentrated observation time to take notes for journals.

Kenzie was my big helper "just like Morgan used to be". She helped with so many things, from getting something for me, to being one of the other kiddos with something they were struggling with, to helping me set up lunch...

Kenzie asked about where Morgan was a couple times today. Only the first time did she talked about her not being her friend. The rest of the time she just said something like, "it's okay, I can still play with Emily and Joslyn ."

Kenzie and Joslyn did play together a lot (and very peacefully) today. I will continue to cross my fingers that the congeniality will last. Joslyn is used to having a big brother that likes to tell her what to do, so it might actually be a good fit. She does a good job of either going along with what Kenzie says or using her words and telling her she doesn't want to do it.

One of the games the girls we playing today as to fix coffee for their friends. They were warning them that it might be hot and to "be careful". Thomas was their best customer and kept coming back for more. Their coffee shop was the box.