Olive Stats- 14 months

Olive continues to be Miss Personality.  She loves to smile and put on a cuteness show for strangers.  It always works.  The last time we were at the library, we actually had librarians coming out of the back room to get a peek at her.  She has a naughty streak to her, too.  If I tell her no (usually it is to eating something that isn't food), she holds it up to her mouth and waits until I'm looking.  Then she smiles and put in her mouth.  Steve taught her how to stick her tongue out, so that doesn't help any either.

She now has 8 teeth.  She loves saying Mama and Dada.  I'm not sure how many other words she knows.  Sometimes she says "ba" for ball and baby, and "suh" for sis.  I think I've even heard a "no".  She usually shakes her head for no and nods for yes.  We gave her a spoon and right away she started eating with it.  Maybe she is a fast learner because she watches Hannah so much?  She can also scribble with a crayon and go down a slide by herself.

Her favorite things outside are the sandbox and water table.  She is really good at pouring things from one container into another.  Inside, she likes to ride the rocking bear and play in little kitchen.  Fun game: look back at pictures of her and see if you can spot a plastic fork or spoon in her hand.  She carries those with her everywhere.  I guess you never know when you'll find some food, so it's good to be prepared with a spoon.  She is also becoming a big fan of books.  Since I'm no longer holding a bottle, I can read to her while she drinks her milk.  She loves listening to books and also likes to flip through them on her own.  She always giggles at Peek-a-who, Freight Train, and Big and Little.

8 years

We went to the Melting Pot for our 8 year anniversary on June 12.  It wasn't that exciting, but there aren't many choices on a Tuesday night.  Yeah, I'm weird and I want to do something on the actual date.  So, Melting Pot it was.  We'd never been there before and didn't know exactly what a fondue restaurant entailed.  We got to pick out our cheese sauce and it was heated right on the table.  Then we had unlimited "dippers" which included chips, bread, vegetables, and applies.  Then we chose our chocolate and the dippers were cheesecake, strawberries, brownies, rice crispy treats, bananas, and poundcake.  It was so yummy!  Strangely, almost everyone around us at the restaurant was also there for their anniversary, including a girl we went to high school with.  Small world.

Toddler Time

Another adventure with Brody and Levi: Toddler Time at Matt Ross.
 

 

 

 

School Unit- Transportation

Hannah is already super excited about preschool.  She started listing all the things she wanted to learn about: trains, bikes, bugs, trees, houses, dinosaurs...and so on.  I told her we could learn about those things this summer, too, and she couldn't wait to get started.  And so our own version of summer school was born.  Classes meet (almost) every week day at 9:00 when Olive takes her nap.  Snacks are provided and getting dressed is optional.  We don't do flashcards or workbooks.  I don't think those are very fun for her (or me), and I don't think that's how kids learn best.  We're doing our learning around a topic that Hannah chooses.  Since she is already motivated to learn it, it's easy to study letters, numbers, colors, etc. that fit in with the topic.  That's how I teach 2nd grade, too.  We travel around the world and we do reading, writing, math, science, and social studies related to each country.  The kids make connections easier because the learning is in context and has a purpose.

Our first unit was "Things that Go" since Hannah was interested in trains, trucks, and bikes.  We sorted through all of our books and Hannah decided if it had a form of transportation in it.  We read a few every morning with Olive before she took her morning nap.

Then Hannah and I do an activity together for about 20 minutes for our "school time."  One day we made letter roads for her to drive on, and we also grouped her toy cars according to color, shape, etc.

Another day we played a game with Thomas the Train cards.  She counted the trains on the back to see if she got the right match.

 

 We made vehicles out of shapes.  She liked cutting the felt more than making the pictures, though.

 

I made some transportation cards from clipart.  Hannah (and fish puppet) grouped them by air/water/land, number of wheels, colors, etc.

Hannah was very excited about building a wagon out of our pipeworks set.
 

And Olive loved riding in it.
 

 Of course we also had to get out every car, train, firetruck, dump truck, and airplane that we own.  Hannah liked lining them up according to size.

We also did some things on the computer and iPad.  Hannah really liked the Baby Einstein video "On the Go."   Our field trip to Thomas the Train ended the unit.  Next up...dinosaurs!

Random Hannah Pics

 

 

 

 

More Sprayground

Sunnyside Park is still my favorite sprayground.  It is closer to our house and it is never crowded.  Last summer, we met Steve for lunch here or at other parks.  Now that he works downtown I miss our summer lunch dates. :(

 

 

 

Somehow we always end up picking clovers after spraygrounds...
 

Thomas the Train

We met the Finleys at a Day Out With Thomas in Baldwin City, KS.  Hannah has been looking forward to it for a long time.  I wouldn't say it was worth the money or the drive, but Hannah loved it.

 

Our plan was for Olive to sleep in the car on the drive to Baldwin City.  She did not.  This was the result on the train ride:
 

 

Hannah and Brody looking at Thomas.
 

 

 

No lines for the slide.  Hannah did this a lot.
 

Olive spent most of her time with the blocks.
 

Hannah's first tattoos.  Thomas was on one cheek and Diesel 10 on the other.
 

This girl makes a friend wherever she goes.  She met this one on the slide and invited her to play on the train tables.  We are constantly amazed that she is so outgoing.
 

I think she was even more excited to meet Sir Topham Hatt than Thomas.
 

She was asleep as soon as she hit the car seat.

Hannah quotes from the day:

"Is there a potty on the Island of Sodor?"

Hannah (crying):  I don't want to leave!

me: We have a surprise for you.  We're going to Norah's house to take a nap!  You get to see Norah!

Hannah:  Suddenly I'm not crying anymore!  The tears are going back in my eyes!  I'm happier and happier.

Parents as Teachers

Another summer adventure:  We went to Parents as Teachers playtime with Broday (and Levi).  It is for ages 0-3, but apparently that means up to, not including, age 3.  They said Hannah was really too old. :(  I wish I would have known about this place last summer.  It has a ton of fun stuff to do, and it's close to our house.

 

 

Baby Levi- just chillin'
 

 

Corporate Challenge Track

 

 

 

 Hannah was super excited to watch Steve race, although she was upset there wasn't a kids' race.  He did some laps on the field with her after he was finished, so she got to run, too.

Loose Park

One of our first adventures of the summer was to Loose Park.  It was Olive's first time playing in a sprayground.  She lost interest pretty soon, signed "all done", and started picking clovers off to the side.        So we took a walk over to explore the rose garden since we've never been there before.  They were in full bloom!