January 2011 videos

4 years + 3 months

This is a picture of Emily in one of her favorite outfits.  I confess to actually hiding it on a few occasions so she was forced to wear something else.  I try to limit it to not wearing it both preschool days in the same week.  In other clothing news, Emily figured out how to zip zippers all by herself on New Year's Day, much to our delight and the delight of her preschool teachers!

Emily also practiced counting to 100 this month.  She's usually pretty close.  We've done a LOT of counting!  She has a funny "video game" she plays on the basic calculator we have on the desk.  She types in numbers and then says, "Look, when I press the AC button it eats all the numbers!"  Kids can be quite creative!

Besides the letters and scrapbook (see previous posts), Emily has been quite preoccupied with all kinds of "projects" involving writing.  At the beginning of the month she was all about rules, probably because they talked about resolutions (which were more like rules), at preschool.  The picture on the right is one of her rule lists with interpretations. 

Next came the sign phase.  She made signs for everything.  It was okay when she was using free sticky pad paper Austin brought home from hotels.  Then she started using her glue stick to attach the signs to things.  Now we limit the number of signs and use parent-controlled tape to hang them up.  There are currently two signs hanging on our back door.  One says "No dogs and no cats" and the other (in Emily's own spelling version) says "You can play in my garden".  Not sure where either of those came from.  There is also a sign on her bedroom door that says "This is my room not Lincoln." :o) 

The latest craze is to-do lists, probably inspired by the short story "The List" from Frog and Toad Together.  She wants to make a list of things to do every day that she can cross off.  The lists include things like wake up, eat breakfast, make bed, etc.  I finally took my mom's suggestion and found a free font online that is dashed letters perfect for practicing handwriting.  With Emily's help, I typed up a basic list of 18 things that we can easily modify based on the day and print off for her to write (i.e. trace) and cross off.  It has inspired her to clean her room on more than one occasion.  However, we found out that you need to be very specific.  The last time she "cleaned" her room, most of the stuff ended up in the closet.  Then she said, "Next time we should put 'Clean closet,' too."

We have been very blessed with extremely healthy kids who rarely get sick, and then only have a runny nose for a few days.  Emily hasn't even had a runny nose for months.  However, there is usually at least one "friend" from her preschool class missing because they are sick.  Emily keeps careful tabs on this and reports to us every day who was gone.  She also prays for them just like they do at preschool, although she usually embellishes the number to 5 or 6 friends who are gone.  She also talks about being sick herself and tries to tell us that she is sometimes.  I just tell her that it's not fun to be sick and that means she'll have to spend the day in her bed.  That usually produces a miraculous cure! ;o)

Emily also is hung up on losing teeth.  She often says she really wants a loose tooth or she thinks she has a loose tooth.  Then she tells me what she's going to do with her loose tooth.  Then she asks if Lincoln has a loose tooth.  All in good time...

The last funny note about Emily involves food.  She likes her food cold.  Especially leftovers.  This is not limited to pizza.  She also prefers things like scalloped potatoes and ham, noodle casseroles and cooked vegetables straight from the fridge.  If she asks for oatmeal for breakfast she usually doesn't actually eat it until it has been sitting on the table for over an hour.  It seems really gross to me, but it makes leftover lunches a little easier to prepare.  However, just yesterday she apparently changed her mind and declared that she liked hot food and wanted things warmed up.  Whatever.  She also still likes slices of bread plain and straight from the bag, although once in awhile she asks for toast (still plain).  They learned about rectangles in preschool this month, so she likes to make "rectangle sandwiches," which just means folding her plain bread in half so it is shaped like a rectangle.  :o)

The great book sort

Like the great toy sort we did last October (and really need to do once/month), we were in desperate need of a great book sort.  I inherited my weakness for children's books from my mom.  Now that bookorders come home from preschool once a month (and will continue to come home for years to come) I needed a plan.

The first step was to gather all the books from all over the house.  There are a couple hundred at least.  Even with them spread all over the floor, Lincoln was still able to find one of his favorites. :o)

The next step was to sort the books into piles and categories and figure out where to put them.  Here's how it all turned out before I redistributed the books throughout the house.

1. I was especially excited about the new canvas sling bookshelf I just got.  I've been wanting one for a long time.  Now that we have a large and growing collection of thin paperback books it has almost become a must-have.
2. There is a special space reserved for the Sing-and-Read books from bookorders that both kids, but especially Lincoln, currently love.
3. This is where the seasonal books are (currently winter & Valentine's Day).
4. This is the shelf for our massive collection of board books.
5. All the treasuries and box-collections are kept on this shelf.
6. I decided to move all the Dr. Suess/Beginner Reader books out of Emily's room since Lincoln has started showing more interest in them--especially Go, Dog. Go!
7. This basket of books will go downstairs to the play area.
8. A lot of books came out of Emily's room, but quite a few are going back because the are either especially for her or just more age-appropriate.
9. This small stack consists of seasonal books that will be rotated out when appropriate.
10. This collection will go in Lincoln's room to read before bedtime.  They can be rotated out with any of the other board books.
11. This basket lives under the end table in the living room and contains all the bulky, oversized board books that don't fit well anywhere else.
12. This is a pile of books that are going to go away for awhile.  I might get them out later for Lincoln, or I might just pass them on.
13. This fabric drawer from Emily's bedroom cube shelves contain all the books that actually belong to my mom, including twenty-one Berenstain Bears books from my childhood. :o)
14. This final pile are the books that are definitely going away.  Most of them were garage sale purchases to begin with.  They served their purpose, but they are not favorites and are just taking up space.

Like toys, sorting books is a good way to eliminate things no longer loved that could possibly bless others.  It is also a chance to rediscover things once loved.  Austin & I both love books and are thrilled to be able to pass it on to our kids.  I'm sure there will be many more book sorts in the future!

Another mini money lesson

One of Emily's latest "projects" has been making letters to send to people.  She'll do a little drawing, maybe cut it out and put it in an extra return envelope leftover from my bookwork bills.  Then she'll write an "address" and want to send it to someone.  I tell her it will need a stamp, so she will draw, cut out and glue on her own stamp.  Then she wants to mail it by hanging it on the mailbox for the mailman.  One afternoon she made six letters, so I decided it was time for another mini money lesson.

I tried to explain that real stamps cost money.  Emily's initial solution was to write a check from the bank, which she quickly designed and cut out herself.  Then I had to explain that stamps cost real money, so she found a purse with some change leftover from her pillow pet purchase.  We had a quick lesson in coin values, which will definitely have to be repeated.  We determined that she had $.64.  Then we counted out $.44 and she bought a stamp from me.  I wrote out a real envelope with a real address and she put her letter inside.  Then we hung it outside for the mailman where she kept close tabs on it until it was gone.

Of course, she wanted to send more envelopes, but she didn't have enough money to buy any more stamps.  This was mostly due to the fact that the day before she "bought" one of her bookorder books from me.  As you may recall, she didn't have enough money at the time the bookorders were due to pick out a book.  However, I had ordered a cute (pink!) princess book called The Very Fairy Princess that I thought would be fun for her to have (it is a good book).  She was so excited when she saw it she wanted to "buy" it from me because she had saved enough money by then.  I decided it might be more effective to have a visual stimulus like an actual book to purchase rather than placing an online order and waiting, so I let her buy it and might do something similar in the future.  However, that book purchase pretty much wiped out her small stash of dollar bills.  Plus, one of the next times we go to Wal-mart she has to buy a new tube of toothpaste for herself because she squeezed almost everything out of her old one into the sink earlier this week after watching a movie that another little friend brought over.  Apparently she is very impressionable.


Anyway, as Emily continues to grasp the concept and power of money, I'm sure the list of things she wants to buy will grow by leaps and bounds.  This will create many more future lessons in money.  In the meantime, maybe I should come up with some ways she can earn a little money at home.  I'd love to hear any good ideas!  And if you get a letter from Emily, you know that it is very special, because she likely had to pay for it herself. ;o)

Barnyard dance party

This is our new post-bathtime activity.  Not exactly recommended for calming kids down for bed, but it does burn some energy. :o)

Emily's scrapbook

Another thing my mom brought from her basement last week was an unopened scrapbook.  The first thing we had to do was number the pages to 100.  Since then Emily has literally spent hours filling pages of it with drawings and letters and numbers.  Below is a movie slideshow of some of the best pages with explanations.  If you would like to study a page longer, just pause the movie.

You gotta start somewhere...

 

I haven't even begun to think about potty-training Lincoln.  However, Lincoln has become increasingly interested in the toilet--especially since he figured out how to open the lid.  Just for fun I pulled down his pants the other day and held him on the big potty with a diaper on.  He thought that was pretty fun, so I dug out the little potty.  He thinks it's pretty fun to sit on that, too.  I guess you gotta start somewhere!

Silly shoes

It has been a bit slow for the past week for blogging material.  

Here are some snapshots of a fun new activity...

20 months old

Lincoln is 20 months and counting!  I'm not sure if he has any more teeth because it's getting harder to look, but he seems to be ever so slightly decreasing the drool.  He usually only soaks one bib per day.  Maybe it's because we let the rest get absorbed by fleece and sweatshirts. :o)

Lincoln has added several new words in the past month, which makes me feel better.  The clearest ones are "coo-kie" and "cah" (car).  He also does a funny "hah" (hot) and "co-oh" (cold).

Another new skill he has acquired this month is blowing his nose, although he really hasn't had a runny nose lately.  He can do it better than Emily at age 4+.  He also likes to walk on his tip-toes and try to jump.  He has made a lot of progress with the jumping over the course of the month and actually slightly leaves the ground once in awhile, which sort of surprises him when it happens!  He has also started experimenting with chucking various objects--especially his sippy cup.  I blame it on the influence of his cousin, Ryan. ;o)

I'm sure most kids go through this phase, but Lincoln is really into drinking bathwater lately.  He has moved beyond just sucking on washcloths and takes full gulps from whatever object he can get ahold of that holds any amount of water.  Blech! :op

One thing I have really noticed this month is the way Lincoln has started to copy everything Emily does.  He wants to do all the "tricks" she does on the Little Tikes climbing slide downstairs.  He wants to color like her and does his best making chicken scratchings with crayons and pencils.  Just this afternoon Emily was throwing a tantrum about something or other and kicking her feet up and down while sprawled out on the floor in timeout.  So he came into the kitchen, laid down and started crying and kicking his feet up and down, too.  Have mercy!

A grandma visit

Austin is out of town all week for new employee training, so my mom came to keep us company for a few days.  The kids had a lot of fun with paper.  Grandma made them "party hats" out of newspaper.

She also brought a whole chunk of continuous-feed computer paper she found while cleaning out her basement.  Who would have thought the tear-off strips on the edges would provide the most entertainment?  They made 3-D sculptures and had "Happy New Year" confetti streamers.

 And of course, there was a lot of book reading.

Thanks for visiting, Grandma!  We love you!