Alligator Day

Though not nearly as exciting or tasty as Strawberry Day, Alligator Day proved to be fun for Audrey and myself. I was nervous to begin with because Audrey started the day at breakfast with a weighty question.

"Mom, what am I going to learn about today?"

I guess yesterday had an impact on her after all.

She has also been asking to use a new website I've been testing out with her. It's called Starfall and is somewhat like Hooked on Phonics. There are graduated categories from learning letters and their sounds all the way up to independent reading. Not only is Audrey (hopefully) beginning the process of learning how to read, but she is also learning how to use a computer mouse; something that I will probably regret at some point in the future.

One thing is for sure: I'd rather she spend an hour or so learning with me than spending Henry's entire nap camped out in front of the TV.

Today ran slightly differently. I have a feeling that the food really helped yesterday's cause. However, I also have a feeling that having any alligator food today would have had the opposite effect.

After lunch, I showed Audrey some pictures and videos of alligators online. After that we read a book called Fun Facts About Alligators!
I had a few coloring pages for her. One of which was going to be an alligator that she would color, cut out, glue onto a blue background and stick a googly eye to it. She wasn't interested.

The other coloring page I provided was a letter "A" tracing page with a cartoon-style alligator on it. After a few minutes of insisted that she didn't want to, she finally colored it. I asked her before she started what color alligators are. She told me green. However, when she asked what colors she should use, I told her she could use whatever she wanted since it was HER alligator after all. The resulting alligator is green, brown, yellow, orange, pink and purple.

After completing that, she wanted to look at some phonics letters. She chose A and L. She's getting pretty good at using the mouse, just needing help once in a while. She amazes me with how quickly she learns all the time!

Ben got home early today (which is an entirely different story that I will let him tell), so we spent the after-nap-noon taking care of errands. We dropped by the AmFork DI and I found some lovely treasures there in the form of children's books.
On a previous trip to the Provo DI, I had acquired some Christmas books, Dr. Seuss books, The Velveteen Rabbit, Goodnight Gorilla and a replacement copy of Love You Forever.

This time, I picked up (at significantly lower prices) Mother, Mother, I Want Another, Bangalee (A Serendipity Book), Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, The Runaway Bunny (I heart this one), Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (the inspiration for the movie), If You Give a Pig a Pancake and Chickens Aren't The Only Ones. I also found a few more Christmas books including a BEAUTIFULLY illustrated version of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

I'm afraid that I will never be happy to pay full price for a book ever again. The good thing about not having a whole lot of children's books is that it's much easier to find ones that I don't have!

In case you're craving a Henry Moment: We went to Chili's while we were out running around. While we were trying to give the waiter our order, Henry was reaching for a fork on the table. He pleadingly cried out with his own special diction, "FORK!" I looked up at the waiter, who had a look of complete shock on his face. I smiled and told Henry that he couldn't have the fork until we had our food. The waiter laughed, looking amused and slightly relieved. Ben enjoyed explaining Henry's little foul-sounding words to him.

Today hardly turned out the way I had anticipated, but I feel good about it in spite of it all.

Brand New Adventure

I decided a few weeks ago that Audrey needs more enriching education in her life. She gets to go to her preschool group once a week and she learns about the world around her simply because she's in it and pays attention!

I figured that with a few weeks of preparation, I'd be able to teach her something every day. I knew I'd get bored quickly if I just did worksheets and the occasional craft. I found a website in my online searches called The Perpetual Preschool . I liked their themed lesson ideas and started planning. I liked how simple some of the suggested themes were.
So, today was the first day of Audey's one-on-one preschool with me. Our focus today was on Strawberries.

First thing this morning, I made her a Breakfast Split. Instant Oatmeal (sugar & spice), pineapple, a drizzle of chocolate syrup, a dollop of whipped topping and, of course, strawberries! (I didn't think anything of the fact that it was called a split in spite of having no banana.) The picture to the right is similar to what I served her, though I didn't use blueberries.
She was skeptical when I put the bowl in front of her and insisted that she didn't like it. I told her to try it and see. Needless to say, she ate it all. I also gave her strawberry milk to accompany her breakfast split, but oddly enough, she didn't like it much.

For lunch, Aud had a PBJ (strawberry), raspberry lemonade and goldfish crackers.

After lunch, I had Audrey guess where she thought strawberries grow. She guessed that they grow underground like carrots or radishes. I showed her pictures of strawberries growing in their little bushes. I asked her what the little yellow spots were on strawberries and, to my surprise, she told me they were seeds. I told her that strawberries can have as many as 200 little seeds.

I read her a cute story called Cook-a-doodle-doo by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. It features the great-grandson of the Little Red Hen, Big Brown Rooster. He wants to eat something other than chicken feed and sets out to cook himself some strawberry shortcake! Audrey really liked the story and loved looking at the illustrations!

I gave her a strawberry coloring page and let her watch the Strawberry Shortcake movie! She almost completely ignored the coloring page. I'm going to have to get her a book to put all her coloring sheets in so that she can color them whenever she wants.

We had lasagna, garlic bread, raspberry lemonade and strawberry Jell-o with pineapple and strawberry pieces in it. Everyone ate rather more than should be advisable. As people were starting to drift away, I quickly hearkened them back for dessert: Strawberry Short Cake.

The angel food cake I got at the store turned out to be strawberry angel food cake, which I had never heard of before today. Sugared strawberries topped the cake and Cool Whip finished the whole thing off. Again, rather oddly, Audrey wasn't fond of the cake, but ate the strawberries and Cool Whip.

After dinner, my mother asked what the theme is for tomorrow, obviously excited for another yummy meal. With a smile, I sweetly responded, "Alligator Day."

Baby Gates

We have tried a variety of ways to keep the kids (i.e.: Henry) out of mischief. Hank is young enough that he still hasn't quite learned to leave things alone. Hence, turning off the light in their room every 3 seconds, peeling the glow-in-the-dark stars off the walls, pulling down the cute paper pom-poms on the ceiling, climbing on the dresser and destroying everything on it and using every method possible to climb over the baby gate.

Since we got a table and chairs set for the kids at Christmas, it didn't take long for Audrey to teach Henry how to use a chair to climb over the gate. We didn't want to have to enhance the blockade as it was very convenient to let Audrey climb over to use the restroom when she needed it. However, we couldn't have Henry running rampant all over the house, so we put up a second baby gate.

My boy is just a little too smart and quickly learned to grip the frame of the gate with his toes so he could look over both.

Here's wishing that he learns to listen some time soon so that we can let him into our room.

Last Days in the Crib

When Audrey was about two, we transitioned her to a toddler bed, which she loved and WANTED to get into every night at bedtime. We should have known that we had gotten lucky with her.

With both of the kids in a room together, space is at a premium. So we decided to get the kids a bunk bed that could be separated into regular beds when they have their own rooms.

These are the last pictures we have of little Hank in his crib. We transfered him to the bunk bed completely.. the crib was gone, so he had no choice.

It has taken several months, but he now sleeps in the bed with little fuss. Of course, he still finds it funny when he runs around the room after the lights are out, letting me chase him. Or, bothering his sister while she "tries" to sleep on the top bunk.

Their new bed(s).

Funny Face!

Love that smile!

U of U Dinosaur Museum

Audrey likes to watch Dinosaur Train on PBS

The little dinosaurs in the center are the stars: Tiny, Shiny, Don and Buddy.

After each episode of dinosaur antics, Dr. Scott usually has some words of wisdom to impart about the dinosaurs learned about that day, thereby making sure the program remains in the educational category.

I happened to find out that Dr. Scott was coming to the U of U Dinosaur Museum through a series of fluky web searches. I also found out that he is Utah's State Paleontologist. He was coming to unveil the newest dinosaur discovery. I couldn't resist and we galavanted up to Salt Lake on the appointed day.

This is the skull of the new dinosaur species. You can't tell in the picture, but this skull is HUGE! I think I had a hard time imagining the sheer size of a dinosaur until I saw this in person.

Audrey working on a dinosaur puzzle.

I don't know why my kids always look worried. I think they were both overwhelmed with all the people there.

Dr. Scott talking about the newest dinosaur species: Utahceratops gettyi

Its somewhat like a triceratops but with a LOT more horns.

This was a "live" version of the new dinosaur. Audrey was terrified of it. She didn't want to go anywhere near it.

Henry, on the other hand, was fascinated.

I think this was just about the only time he really looked like he was having a good time while we were up there.

Audrey getting Dr. Scott's autograph.

Dr. Scott & Audrey

She wasn't super excited about meeting him at the time. However, she talked about it for WEEKS after words as well as every time Dinosaur Train came on.

She was afraid of the furry puppet, but not of the angry, plastic, nasty toothed raptor dinosaur.

I'm sure, in the kids' opinions, the best part of the day was running around the park after we left the museum.

My kids have the best dad in the world...

Just as we have the best kids in the world... of course!

Gardener Village

I completely forgot to take pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes this year... bad Mom!!
HOWEVER, we did get into the Halloween spirit when we went to Gardener Village with my dear sister in law, Tammy.
Gardener Village has a fun scavenger hunt every October. They give you a list of witches that you need to find all over the village. (I was slightly disappointed to find that they were statues and not actors/actresses. I quickly repented of my snobbery because the witches were just so silly!)

I forgot my camera... bad MOM!! But dear Tammy didn't and she sent me these lovely pictures to remember our trip by.

Love, love, love this picture of Audrey in an old buggy!

Audrey was too afraid of the little witch doll to stand by it for the picture. ;-)

Ready for my close up!!

Audrey's legs seem to go on for days in this picture. She loves spending time with her cousin, Jake!

Cousins!

Audrey, Henry, Caitlyn & Jacob

Great day! Made even better by the pound of fudge I brought home!

My Christmas Tree

I guess I should have thought more carefully about posting pictures of my Christmas tree after showing you the one in the JS Memorial Building. Ah well... can't compete with the geniuses at Temple Square!

Aside from the new ornament from Santa every year, I have decided to have a new theme every year. Starting with this year, I complimented the white and silver color palate with white silk roses sprinkled amongst the branches. I'm still pondering next year's theme, but I will be posting pictures, you can be sure of that!

Something struck me about this pictures. The nearly silhouetted figures of my children on either side of my tree. It makes me feel nostalgic somehow. It would look nice in sepia, don't you think?

I thought so too, and here is the result!

Love my kids!