Rare day of Rain one July

Playing in the rain on this rare day in July of 2011! It poured and we were not going to miss out on all of the fun. We don't need rain coats in San Antonio, TX. If it rains the excitement throws the rain coat out of the picture!

Important to Brush Teeth!

Adelyn has watched her big brother brush his teeth every day and now she's interested her self. I find her often going into their bathroom, placing the stool where she wants it, climbing onto it, opening the toothbrush drawer and pulling out her and Zachary's toothbrushes. She selects three types of toothpaste although she just lays them on top of the counter. Sometimes she brings all of it to me or takes it to sit down at the little blue table. I'm sure it's because she watches us and it also feels good on her gums!

I've tried to get pictures but since she's also fascinated with the camera she puts it down when I put the camera up. :)

Summer Reading

Zachary participated in the Library Summer Reading program. I thought it might be fun for him to look back and see what he read this summer so I'm going to list the books he read here on the blog. Adelyn did not complete her summer reading. She's still into the repetition of her favorite books and is not always interested in new stuff yet.

Zachary age 4

1. The Healthy Wolf

2. Berenstain Bears Bad Habit

3. The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear

4. The Berenstain Bears New Baby

5. The Berenstain Bears Afraid of the Dark

6. If the Dinosaurs Came Back

7. Come Back Ameila Bedeila

8. The Berenstain Bears Double Dare

9. Amelia Bedeila

10. Own

11. The Berestain Bears and the Big Race

12. The Berestain Bears and the Sitter

13. Book Book Book

14. Arthur Goes to Camp

15. Curious George Takes a Job

Other new ones

The Berestain Bears Go to the Doctor

Wobble the Witch Cat

The Sun and the Wind Fable

The Berestain Bears Too Much Vacation

Obviously we've found a favorite series!

The Woodlands Children's Museum

We went to The Woodlands Children's Museum back in June. It was a little place but it had everything we needed to have fun. Zachary even met another boy his age named Zachary!

Playing in the water and fishin

Preparing the firetruck

Riding in the firetruck

Diggin in the construction area

Taking care of the house

Workin in the kitchen

Purchasing groceries

Picking out groceries

Imagining on stage

Playing on stage

Trying out a truck

Book Series on Behavior

I'm posting a series of books and link to the author's website on the totschool blog.

http://growingmemoriestotschool.blogspot.com

The author is Joy Berry.

You can also see some of the other online resources we discovered this summer!

Ideas for Children When a Parent Travels Away

One of my parenting magazines had some suggestions for making a parent's temporary departure easier.

1. Count Down the Days- Make a tear-away calendar or something similar so they have something to help understand when the parent is coming home.

2. Look at the Lovely- Take along a stuffed animal or toy and photograph it doing cool things like flying or sightseeing.

3. Record your voice- Use the computer or smart phone to record a message, video, or story for bedtime.

4. Video Chat- Skype or gmail!

5. Start a Virtual Diary- familydetails.com has a free website for the family to write day to day activities, upload pictures and texts.

6. Create Together- If a parent is gone for a long time create a picture together. Start out with a single line on a page and mail it back and forth, adding one line or shape until you have a piece of art.

Here is an example of number 2

Mouse traveled with Daddy on his business trip.


Mouse went to the pool.

Mouse sleeps in.

Daddy missed us this summer

While the kids and I were away for three weeks in June, Scott posted a sweet video for the kids. I'm just posting it here so we remember it one day. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJichBsNkoM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thanks Daddy! We missed you.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to our special Daddy! Today we made him his usual breakfast, but instead we made it ourselves and served it to him in bed! I really wanted to have my breakfast in my own bed but Mommy said it was Daddy's special day to day and I could eat it in their bed next to Daddy. I've been wanting to do this for a long time and it's finally happened!

Daddy you're going on five years as a father and you're doing a super job!

Tubing on the Slide

Today we went to play at the park. One little structure happens to have two parallel slides with a steering wheel directly in front. Having just been at the lake Zachary got the idea to go tubing. First he said he would drive so he took his spot behind the wheel. I sat at the bottom of the slide facing up. Adelyn practiced her sliding on her tummy feet first as all of this went on. After I rode the "tube" and pretended to get tossed off we switched and I drove the "boat" while the kids did their tubing.

News Signs and Verbal Words

Yesterday Adelyn had her 15 month birthday. Already! So much has happened in a month.

• The past 2-3 weeks she's been attempting to say "flower" and I think "fan" by saying "fa".
• Monday June 13 she said moo when my mom read her Is Your Mama a Llama?
• Monday June 13 she said roof roof when she saw Sandy or another dog or a picture of a dog. It sounds more like "oof oof".
• She signed please this week for the first time on her own. Still a little inconsistent but at least it's happening now!
• She signed book for the first time this week and consistently today on June 17! She's been selecting her preferred books for us to read her at night since before she turned a year. I really don't think Zachary picked his own at that time. He always seemed to like whatever we chose. She definitely likes to pick herself. Her favorites are Blue Hat Green Hat, The Wheels on the Bus, Is Your Mama a Llama and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

Just talking to my brother.

Signing Finished!

Exploring Toys

Stacking some pots and looking at a soft farm book.

Boys aren't the only ones who love cars.

Pouring the tea!

Mixing the tea!

Easter Fun

My First Easter Egg Hunt when I was Mobile

We had an Easter Egg hunt in our backyard. I found a few eggs and I got to play with some large eggs. It was a fun time. I was here last year for the egg hunt but I was only 3 weeks old so I didn't do much hunting.

I was most interested in these eggs.

And sitting up here watching.

Zachary did a great job finding those eggs.

Our neighbors joined us.

Zachary decided to pose in this one. They may have bribed him, I'm not sure.

Admiring our finds.

I ran out of grass to pull out.

Playing Tee Ball

I got this baseball tee for my birthday from my Paran and Aunt Kitty. I'm hoping to play next year.

Just Hanging Around the House

I remembered how I used to love Super Why and Now I want to be a super reader again.

My favorite downstairs toy.

Doing what Brother Does

Zachary gives me so many ideas! He gives me ideas about playing, eating, signing, and all kinds of things! Watch what I learned in these two videos.

Observing

My turn to try it out!

Happy 4th Birthday to Zachary!

Happy Birthday to Me!! I turned 4 on Easter Sunday. Since it was going to be a very special day we invited both sides of the family over. Mommy, Daddy, Adelyn, Granna, Pop2, Aunt Michelle, Uncle Matthew, Uncle Brian, Krystal, Uncle Kevin, Gramsie, Pa-pa, Paran, Aunt Kitty, and Grandma Marilyn were all there. I got the Disney Cars garage with a few of the car characters for my birthday! I LOVE the movie, Cars. I also got a Spider Man, spiral art, a baseball tee, baseballs, a Berenstain Bears book, and Lincoln logs!!

Me in my birthday chair.

Our family on my 4th birthday!

I had a very special dirt cake. Do you see my letter?

Adelyn enjoyed the dirt cake too!

My new Disney cars garage!

Almost Walking!

Adelyn is taking some steps. I really think she gets so excited that she goes way to fast for herself. Sometimes she just reaches for us with her arms and leans forward without taking any steps at all! Obviously that doesn't work! She's balancing so much better when she is just standing in one spot so that she doesn't always need support. In the meantime she's extremely cute when she crawls!

Doggie and Da da

Our sweet little girl is figuring out language again! When she sees or hear Sandy she says da da. And when she sees or hears Scott she says da da or da ta! I'll have to attempt at getting this on video. I love to see her become so sweet towards Scott. She's following Zachary to the garage door when they hear him come home. She reaches toward him a lot to go see him.

Dirty

Here is our dog, Sandy. Although this day he was not worthy of his name, Sandy. He didn't have his beautiful sandy color nor did he have sand pieces stuck to him as he sometimes does. He was obviously covered from head to tail in dirt. Wet dirt. So this day his name was Dirty.