This week was not nearly as eventful as last week, but the girls did make a special discovery in the neighborhood...friends! Although I don't have any photos of them (I'm not sure how they or the parents feel about me photographing them, so I didn't take any), but the girls met some neighborhood girls around their age and also discovered a couple of their friends from school live in our neighborhood, so they were able to play together quite a bit this week. My feelings on the topic of friendships and such will come in a later post because I have been thinking a lot about my own discovery of friendships when I first moved to the US...and learning to play across the language divide...but as I said, it will come in a later post when I have some more time (and I have my thoughts sorted). Now, on with the "show."
This week started off with a lot of pretend play because Ri got a new Duplo playset for her birthday last week and she loves the horses and building the pen.
She also enjoys building towers...
Even Rea got in on the action and did some tasting of the "grass" and the "fence," of which Ri did not approve...
While the building and licking were going on, Tay was busy playing the Boxcar Children (she is always Jessie, I am always Henry or Violet, depending on whether or not Ri is playing, and Rea is always Benny). We have been reading the second book in the series, I think, and it's about Surprise Island. Anyhow, in one of the chapters, Jessie writes down the list of items they need delivered from the mainland to be put in the box for the Captain to pick up for them. At first, she told me to write them down as she dictated, but I told her Jessie is the one who writes, so she agreed that she should be the one to write the list. Off she went for paper and pencil, came back, and started to write. I helped her break down the sounds a bit, but here's what she came up with...I didn't tell her they were right or wrong. I am just encouraging her to sound things out and write...: bread, seed, dish, pan, pot, cup. I'm pretty proud of her!
Another activity we did this week was make some birdseed ornaments to hang up outside because we have been seeing more birds lately...although after we hung them up, we haven't seen them around. I forgot to take a picture of them after we hung them up, but will try and remember to do that for posterity. Here is Tay mixing the birdseed with gelatin and hot water (while Ri works on a puzzle).
Then each of the girls got to take turns filling the shapes with the birdseed.
We added string to be able to hang them up. I think you can also just use a straw to make a hole on the ornament to string up later, but I decided to go with this method instead. It worked out okay, but the larger ornaments didn't stay together too well, and I think this would have worked better in molds rather than the cookie cutters I used. A couple ornament strings also didn't stay in, but we were able to hang up at least six of them. The rest we just placed in strategic locations to be able to observe them and still give the birds enough comfort to come eat...hopefully. :)
Oh, did I forget to mention that my "middle" fell on her face this week?!? Goodness, I was horrified, but she cried a little, brushed off her face, and moved right along. Now she has this huge scrape from between her eyes down to her nose and upper lip...but look at her...she's a little champ.
Moving on. I always try to have the girls either help me prepare the meals and prepare their own snacks. Some may see it as child labor, but I see it as preparing them for the future. Here's Tay cutting up some cucumbers for a snack for her and her sister.
She did a decent job cutting them evenly, but got much better as she got toward the end. Of course, I supervise closely anytime they are working with sharp utensils.
Here is Ri helping me mix up the pancake batter for breakfast. Saturday mornings are usually our pancake mornings. :)
Since the older two girls started school, I've had a lot of one-on-one time with the littlest. She has me rolling with laughter the majority of the time, and the rest of time, I am just amazed at her daily increases in abilities. Here she is reading for a block from the sitting position. Flexible little gal, isn't she?
This picture was just funny because her legs looks so disproportionately long!
I don't know if you can see it, but this photo is so funny because I sniffed a flower in front of her, and then let her "sniff" it, too...can you see her "sniffing" face? hahahaha...
Now that we are fully into introducing solids, she is quite a voracious eater. She wants to eat (or at least taste) everything I am eating, so as long as it's not a high-allergenic food, I let her. Here she is tasting a toasted plain bagel. She just slobbered all over it and gave it back to me. Yum...not.
Because she's in a stage where she wants to move around so badly, we do a lot of tummy time. Sometimes she gets tired...
...but she's so cute...
...and whenever our eyes meet, she does this! :) I love her!
And some more tummy time...here she is doing her push ups. UP!
DOWN.
Cobra!
Forward lunge!
Back up!
So, my mom sent me these cute 9-month outfits that had caps that come with the set. Well...the outfits fit great, but the caps...not so much.
Hehehe...just barely on.
Really cute...but...
Doesn't quite cover that noggin of hers. :)
I tried measuring her length the other day...here she is on the mat that has a growth chart. She's just barely breaking 70cm, I think. Silly face!
Now, I didn't do much cooking this week, but I did bake some oatmeal cream pies for the neighborhood girls and made Jeff some Broc-Cauli chowder today at his request. And of course, here are a couple of the "snacks" the girls took to school this week.
Now some parting, less exciting photos. We had a lot of fog this week and some low-lying clouds, This one was particularly neat because it covered only the top half of the windmill. Can you see what I'm talking about? (Are those things called windmills?)
Here are some of our strawberries! We haven't gotten to pick any yet, but as of this morning, we had at least three that have turned over halfway red! Yay!
Please pardon me, but I'm a little addicted to taking photos of my kids...and with my kids...hehehe...they're just so cuddly and funny when they can see themselves on the camera with me. :)
Have a great week, everyone!
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