Playing Catch Up

So, here are some pictures from today and yesterday. I haven't been taking as mnay pictures this week, partly because I haven't charged my camera batteries and my cell phone doesn't take as good of quality. All these pictures are from my cell.

The top pictures are from today. The UPS guy just dropped off the package from Little Tikes that I ordered. We bought a bounce house. It will work well for us both inside & outside since we have such a big house. We set it up inside right away today. She had so much fun, even if she is kinda sick & cranky. The only thing about having it inside is I am going to have to pt it away everytime because I don't want the cats to try & go scratch it and make tears in it.

We spent a little extra to buy this one with the attached shaded area. Last summer we used one at a friend's house several times and it was out in full sun and it would get quite hot for the kids bouncing around. And we do intend to have this outside, but it is also nice that we can use it indoors because then it becomes an all-weather activity. Hopefully this will help get rid of some energy on those rainy (or snowy) days that we are stuck inside. Plus it will be a fun treat for playdates.


These are pictures from yesterday morning (well, late morning, we did our baking in our jammies.) Isabel loves to help with cooking & baking and helps out every step of the way. Actualy, she usually disappears when I am actually putting stuff in the oven, so she mainly likes to help prepare something & then eat it.

I had a couple of bananas that were getting ripe and I just didn't want to make banana bread this week (I did that last weekend with the bananas leftover at the end of the week). So, I did a little searching online and found a recipe for Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that sounded good. They are yummy and made 4 dozen cookies. I also melted & molded chocolates for Easter in WI, but I did that on my own. Isabel just kept stealing my chocolate & eating it.

Bowling

We met our friends Beth & Aleyah at the bowling alley today. Each of the girls had their own lane and Isabel was a bowling machine! She bowled 2 games within a half hour. Crazy. She would grab a ball, put it on the ramp, push it down & turn around and repeat. Usually while she was pushing the 2nd ball the pins were just resetting. Afterwards, we all went out for custard at Culver's. We might go bowling again this week with church for the March Family Fun Event.

A Nice Weekend

This to picture is from this morning at church. They had cake there for the March birthday. It was very chocolately & very messy and Isabel loved it very much. When we picked Isabel up from her classroom for "church school" she handed up these 2 colored on sheets of paper that were crumpled up. To anyone else they might just think it was trash, but tous, we know she has been making "snowballs" from crumpled paper or "paper airplanes" from folded paper, which sometimes resembles crumpled paper. After church,the three of us went to Timberlodge Steakhouse for lunch (my birthday certificate from them expired today). That was yummy too.

This afternoon, Isabel & daddy went outside to fly her kite. We bought it this winter (& I've kept it well hidden so she would forget about it) and today was the first day that it was appropriate to take it outside to fly. I think the neighbors wanted to join in on the child-like fun that was happening in their backyard (they have a big back yard witht he trees far enough away & no powerlines, making it perfect for kite flying.)

This is from yesterday (you may have seen these ones on FB already) when Isabel & mommy met Carrie, Kyle & Gavin at River Bend Nature Center. Isabel had such a fun time there. We try to foster a love & creativity of nature and I think it is working. She got so dirty, which I don't mind one bit. It it stains the clothes, it's ok, she has enough that Iwould have something stain-free to wear if she needs to look presentable. And nothing was homemade by anyone, so Let Her Play!

Here is Isabel & her buddy Gavin on top of a pile of logs. He calls her Bel. He just over a year younger than her and just a couple months older than her cousin Blake.

Next week is a usual busy week of yoga class, gymnastics class & ECFE class. The big event this week is registering Isabel for preschool on Thursday evening. We plan to go bowling this week too, maybe a storytime, and maybe a playgroup at our house.

MN Children's Museum

We went with our ECFE on a group visit to the MN Children's Museum today. It's such a big place with so much to do. We had only been there one time before when Isabel was about 9 months old and at that time we stayed solely in just one of the areas. This time we got to a few areas, but probably could have stayed there all day from open to close to be able to really get to go to all the areas and enjoy everything.

Isabel enjoyed getting to see Clifford the Big Red Dog and Emily Elizabeth. She watches Clifford everyday. She really wanted to climb on Clifford like they do in the cartoon.

Yesterday

She was funny yesterday. She wanted me to take her picture, so she handed me the camera and said "Take my picture" and did some posing. Ususally she is telling me, "Put that camera in your pocket."

Yesterday we checked out a (new to us) library & their storytime in the morning, and then after naptime we went to a playdate. About a half hour into the playdate she noticed a candy dish filled with lollipops and wanted one. When I told her no she got upset & alligator tears started falling and asked to go home because she was sad. The mom put on a video, which distracted her, and the candy could be forgotten about and the playdate could continue.k

First Day Above 60 Degrees in 2009

The weather report has it being low-mid 50's today, but I think it is already there and it's only 9:30, so maybe it will be another great day.

We were outsife yesterday from 3:30-7:30. It was great. We played with chalk, rode on toys, (pretend, she does a lot of pretend play these days) roasting of blueberries, played a lot in the sandbox, picked up sticks, filled bird feeders, payed with bubbles & grilled/ate supper.



I have one stubborn little girl. Last week we had to leave gymnastics early because she decided she didn't want to listen and wouldn't change her mind. Well, yesterday evening it was time to clean-up toys since she made a huge mess in the house. She didn't want to and decided to say "I'm sad." and go upstairs. So, I decided to threaten throwing the toys away & see if she would come. After a while she did and helped pick up some toys but didn't want to touch the toys I had in the garbage bag. I gave her several chances to take them out & put away, but she refused. So, I had to follow through and bring the bag outside. After a while I told her the garbage guy comes the next day and I would let her put her toys away since she had been so good since coming down. She refused. Then I told her that she could no longer get new toys if we throw away all the old toys. I asked her if she ever wanted new toys again and she said she did and then I told her that we have to take care of our old toys first and asked if she wanted to take care of her old toys and put them away. Finally! She said yes and put the toys away. I was afraid she was gong to continue to call my bluff and I would be ruined. Idon't think I could ever bring them back with out her remembering the trash guy was supposed to have taken them. That girl has such a memory on her.

Yeah! It's warming up!

Isabel picked out that she REALLY wanted to wear the red dress today, so I had to warm it up a bit. I thought it made her looks like Minnie Mouse a bit.

It was so nice to be able to spend some time outside. And tomorrow is supposed to be nicer yet. I am so ready for winter tobe over, but isn't everyone. We got air put in the tires on the bikes, the jogger stroller, and the burley. I bought the burley at a rummage sale a couple year ago and haven't used it. We got it all hooked up to the bike, so I think we will get a lot of use out of it now. Isabel is starting to get a little tall for the toddler bike seat and Andy wants his bike back; it won't work on my bike (but the burley does) and he doesn't trust himself riding with her on the back. Mom is safer.

Our friends Carrie, Kyle & Gavin came over for dinner tonight. We did a cheese fondue with lots of dippers (ham, green apples, baby red potato quarters, asparagus, green beans & crusty bread). It was pretty yummy. And then we had french silk pie for dessert. We went outside to play in between the meal & dessert, so it was nice to get out there again & play & move around.

Updated Slideshow

Checkout the updated slideshow at the top. I decided since her 3 year birthday is coming up in a couple of months, I would do a slideshow of every month from birth to three. Obviously, I still have a couple months to fill in yet. The first 2 years I made a concentrated effort to take her picture on 20th of every month because I had this photo album I was using. The last year, I didn't do that but I take enough pictures that some days I did take one on the 20th and other months it was the day before or after, so close enough. I decided to go with all the pictures I took rather than anything professional.

Craft Day

Today was a craft marathon. Actually, as I work on making these collages and updating the blog she is coloring with daddy. She just can't get enough of arts & crafts today. There is a different collage on FB that has these pictures & more.

The first picture is of an Octopus TP Craft. I believe I posted a link to it when I discussed the theme of the month. It's great for couting how may legs there are.

This one is an egg carton caterpillar. That idea came from Babycenter.com. Thanks to Auntie Phanie for sending us this idea.

This one was my idea. I found a shamrock template online and printed it off, cut it out and she brushed on glue and then placed dry split peas all over it.

That was it for my ideas for today, then she decided he wanted to do some drawing & stamping. She also got out the play-doh and we played with that for a while.

Glimpse of Spring

It was just shy of 50 degrees for a high here today and the sun was shining all morning & into the afternoon, until we decided to go to the park. It would peak out every once in a while.

Anyways, I woke her up from her nap & asked her if she wanted to go to the park and she was so excited and asked if we could ride bike. Luckily there was still air in the tires, so we could. It was nice to go for a little bike ride. We met our friends Caitlin, Amelia, & Gavin there. When they re-built our park they were smart about it and built up the play area, so it was not muddy. Then we came home and played in the driveway & yard. We were outside for a total of 3 hours. And then later (after we cae back from going to a fish fry) we played tag by the porch light and garage lights for about 20 minutes.

Isabel loves playing tag these days. She also learned how to play Red Light, Green Light and started teaching her a very basic version of Simon Says (just the simon says part, no leaving it out & trying to trick a person.)

Lately she has been helping me figuring out what she is saying by empasizing a letter. An example: she told me "let's sing the clown song" and I said, "the clown song?" And she says, "No! ClouD....duh, duh, duh, D, cloud" She has done that several times and it just amazes me when she sounds out the letter I am mistaking and tells me what letter it is. Seriously, if she isn't reading words already she probably will be. I try to see if she can red words or just memorizes every book we read to her, but I can't tell. She tells me she doesn't know what a word I point to is, but I'm not so sure. She's the type that studies things until she can perfect it and then all of a sudden does it and you are just amazed.

Disney on Ice

We went to see Disney on Ice today at the Target Center. Our seats were really close, which was so nice. Isabel says she wants to go back another time. We went up with our friends Kara & Calista. Things can get really pricey at something like this. We bought the girls these Cinderalla Cups with a sno-cone in them and that cost $10. Our friends bought a plastic bucket of popcorn that cost $8. The popcorn was actually in a bag (in the bucket) and was more than could fit in the bucket if you took it out, so they gave Isabel the leftover from the bag which was about 1/4 of the bag. She didn't even finish all of that. It cost $6 for some cotton candy with a mask (we didn't buy any, they were just walking around the stands selling them.) Plus there were lots of other treats & snacks and lots of themed toys & t-shirts. You could easily go broke. Ticket prices are $11, 16, 23, 42, or 65 each. Ours were at the $23 level.

Anyways, we did have fun. She loves Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck, probably because they are a big mouse & big duck. I don't know if she has ever seen a cartoon. She was definitly more drawn to the animals characters than the people characters. She has seen very little of Disney movies so far, so this wasn't about seeing her favorite characters. If that was the case we would need to see Word World, Clifford, Curious George, Super Why, Bob the Builder or Dragon Tales (yes, we pretty much just watch PBS.) So, when we go to the Children's Museum in a couple weeks she will be super excited because they have a Clifford exhibit there.

Bowling

We went bowling again. This was her third time bowling. We were able to bowl 2 games without her getting tired at all. She is getting stronger and carrying that 6 pound ball (even with a Cheetoh in hand) is getting much easier. It's the carrying a 6 pound ball from the ball return to the ramp is what tires her out. We had a lot of fun. It was just the two of us. She actually bowled a 90 on her first game with a strike (which you can see that video on Facebook). Her second game was a 77. She did have the bumpers and a ramp to use, athough I don't think I would bowl much better with both ether.

The girl has too much energy tonight. We played a good 20-minute game of tag running around the house. She finally gets how tag works. She loves to play tag and hide-n-seek. And she was just jumping on her trampoline and now her & daddy are throwing & kicking a beachball.

She has such a good imagination. We went shopping at Kohl's this evening and the whole time we were there she was carrying around an Easter basket they had for sale and was pretending to pick apples throughout the store. When it came time to leave I told her we were not buying it because she had an Easter basket at home and I asked her to give it to me. She asked if she could out it down herself and I told her she could. Then she puts down the basket and says "I'll just leave all my apples here." And we walked a few steps and she ran back and pretended to grab something out of the basket and said, "Just one more apple." Then pretends to take a bite and says, "It's so crunchy. It's so tasty." Then after we get in the car she pretends one more time to take a bite and says, "That was a good apple."

March Theme: Numbers

I have to say, that our theme of the month is really good for her. We did colors as a theme in December and it really helped her get past confusing purple & blue. The January theme of winter really helped her experience & learn about winter sports & the importance of feeding the birds & basic properties of ice. February was all about fruits & vegetables and she is loving watching her pea plant grow and every time she eats a fruit or vegetable she identifies the seeds in each.

So, this month we are learning about numbers. I am hoping the repetition of numbers this month will help her learn the order of the numbers in the teens. She counts 1-13 just fine and then skips to 16, as if 14 & 15 don't even exist. And sometimes she skips 17 too. Usually 18-20 are ok. We haven't counted much past 20 just because there hasn't been a lot of opportunity to count things that high, plus I think she needs to learn the teens first and then we'll work on the twenties. After that I think it will all come together and she just has to learn her tens and can figure it out.....but that's the big picture.

Some fun print offs to use this month:

Clifford 1-20 connect the dots
Count & Color (15) Dogs
Caterpillar Felt Board (I previously printed this out & attached felt to the back, so I will get this out to use, which we never really used when I made it)
5 Fish in a Bowl Coloring &Activity
Clown with 6 Balloon Coloring Page
Octopus Craft
This website has a bunch of number crafts. I think I made do the one to ten chart and maybe a couple of the number jigsaws.

Here are some number songs:

I will get out her number flashcards to help this month and I know I have some preschool math workbooks that we will get out & work on, as well as a Garfield math computer game that was in her stocking at Christmas. Also, we have a few of number puzzles (0-9 for one of them and 1-20 for the another, and a long catepillar one that counts 1-10, oh and a Big Bird one that is counting 1-6), so we will make a point of playing those often this month.

As for book, we already have the first one from the library & it is a GREAT book for teaching counting:
Grapes of Math
The Very Hungry Catepillar (we have this one)
Ten Apples Up on Top
One Gorilla
One Frog Sang
20 Hungry Piggies

I will also look through our bookcase to see what other ones we have to use.

And I am sure I will come up with some other things too.