What we've been up to

I've been slacking on this blog a lot lately and it is due for an update. Part of the slack has been because Dani throws a tantrum every time I get on the computer and she has been teething and not taking long naps. Her canines are taking their time emerging. Since there is so much to update, I cannot update everything in one post. But at least it is a post and gives you an idea of how we are doing and what we've done this week.

We started out this week trying on a new dress that Nana bought Dani. Dani thinks it is very "cute" and we had to take a little photo shoot in it while it still looks new.

Whenever she sees Winnie the Pooh on her pajamas or dress she says "help, help" because we have a book (thanks Beth & Ivet!) that she loves that talks about Pooh getting stuck in a tree from eating too much honey. She really likes her Pooh jammies for this reason (thanks Jeff).

Tuesday we built a house for her butterfly that included stairs, and made a doll out of a toilet paper roll. Dani helped me decide what facial features the doll needed (eyes, mouth, nose, eyebrow) and she decorated the dolls dress with markers. We also made yogurt which is one of her favorite foods.

Wednesday we went visiting teaching and when Trent came home we went to the library. I like having a library nearby and being able to hold items to pick up. One of Dani's favorite authors is Laura Numeroff (especially her "if you give..." books). So we borrowed "if you give a cat a cupcake". But she surprised me and seemed to enjoy Eric Carle's "Mister Seahorse" better.

Thursday we went to a meeting to start up a preschool/play group. Dani was very excited when she saw the activities the other mothers had brought especially the paper dolls.

Dani's favorite play activity lately is pretend cooking. I can't leave her alone with her cup of water long without magnetic letters being put in for "yummy letter soup". She then stirs it with a marker and feeds it to her dolls.

Thursday night we enjoyed having Uncle Sean here and going to dinner with him. Dani was fascinated by dropping him off at the airport and that he went on a plane just like Nana. I told her that we will someday being able to go on a plane to see her cousins. She was very excited at this thought and said "Dani fly plane".

I know, I tried to keep her away from TV, but she is such a magnet to the TV it is very difficult. Dani's favorite show lately is Super Why on PBS. She will sometimes guess the letters from their sounds before the kids on the show give her the answer. She gets very excited when she sees Super Why commercials and quite upset if Super Why does not come on quickly.



Today we made sugar cookies. Dani LOVES to help cook by pouring in the ingredients and stirring things together. Though she is scared of loud noises and sits on the couch to stay safe when I turn the mixer on. She also helped me pick which letters to use to write Dad a note. Dad came home earlier than normal today and that is who she is smiling at in this picture.

Later today, Trent was playing ball with Dani in her room when Dani noticed a picture that she colored in nursery on her wall. She then excitedly said "Jesus kick ball" because she wanted to play with Jesus.

There is still a lot more to update, but that will have to wait for another day.

Pictures

This post is for my cousins who wanted to see what Dani looks like today. Here is the picture Trent took just after Dani ate pudding. I decided not to photoshop off the pudding beard since it tells a story.

The rest of these pictures were taken at a park down the street from our new condo.

Cooking

Two days ago I let Dani help me make chocolate pudding. She helped me count as I put the cups of milk in and I let her "help" stir it and prepare some for her Daddy. She was very excited about this and then yesterday, she pretended to make pudding herself with a cup and a spatula. She then proceeded to set up a little meal for us to "eat". I hadn't realized until then that she understood the concept that all food needed a plate or a bowl, but she made sure the meal was well set up and then asked me to sit in the chair next to her.

Fingerpainting, swimming and talks

This week, we have been focusing on one of Dani's favorite letters, B. Since she already knows this letter quite well (including it's sound), I decided to introduce a couple other letters just for fun.

I made some homemade finger paint and we colored the back side of a few of our old wedding invitations. Though she really hated touching the finger paint, she sure enjoys showing the letters to everyone who comes to the condo. She will even try to name all the letters here. The only one that is clearly wrong is the lowercase A, which she labels 'O'.

In the picture above, I had asked Dani to say "cheese" , but since she is making a funny face, I decided to have her say "A". However, when I mentioned the letter A, she decided it would be more fun to hand them to me.

Yes, she is sunburned in these pictures from yesterday. We went swimming with friends from the Ward and we both ended up burnt. However, Dani's favorite activity of the day was still playing ball with Mason in the pool. She repeated "Ma" (Mason), "Ba"(Ball) multiple times during our evening conversation.

I have recently added a new activity to our bedtime routine where we talk about everything we did that day. It gives me an opportunity to reinforce things she has learned and add more vocabulary and conversation to our day. She will often nod as if she understands what I'm talking about, or she'll try and repeat the words that she recognizes or words that need more explanation. We then cuddle as she relaxes before being put in bed. It has become my favorite part of the day.

Bugs

Yesterday as we were blowing bubbles outside I noticed some large bugs flying around. As I looked down from our balcony, I realized what originally seemed like leaves, was really dragonflies on the end of tree branches. Lots and lots of dragonflies decorated the trees.

We also have lots of ladybugs in our fields. Dani has really enjoyed holding the little ladybugs before they fly away. Every time she sees the purple wild flowers she expects to be able to hold a bug.

So much to do, so little time...

Last week I decided to do more structured teaching with Dani. She had learned a few favorite letters (O,T,P,B) and started noticing them in her environment, so I figured it was time to focus more on teaching. I'm trying to emphasize one letter a week, but I am also introducing other letters slowly so that I don't get too bored of the same letter games.

Last week was the letter A. We played with her ABC zoo animals and searched for her plastic 'A's which I hid or she hid for the animals to find. We put a piece of masking tape on her play pen so the animals could find that A as well. We sang a song about the alligator and the monkeys swinging in the tree but changed the "monkeys" to the 'A's and acted it out with her toy Alligator. We took the plastic letters and stood them upright on a chair to see which ones would stand and then we blew on them to watch them move or tumble. We talked about things that began with A and ate applesauce.

Despite these activities that Dani sure loved, by Thursday I needed more variety and more things to do. I had been at home all week and needed to get out and talk to someone. Luckily, Sunday I met a few of the girls in my Ward and this week has been much more productive and fun. Fun enough to return to blogging.

We just returned from the Ward's monthly kid's craft activity and I decided to research more craft and teaching activities online. I am very excited to have found some websites with many fun learning and craft activities for preschool and kindergarten children. It will be much easier to not have to come up with all the activities myself. I cannot wait to get started!

Boo!!!

It has been a long time since I last posted. I can't promise I'll be much better because I still have a lot of organizing to do, but I'll try to be a little better at least.

Last Sunday I figured I'd let Dani see what nursery was like. She still has a few more weeks until she is officially nursery age, but with her separation anxiety, I know it will take longer than that for her to adjust. So, I stayed with her to help her get used to having other kids around and see what the schedule, songs and expectations are in the class so I can help prepare her at home.

We met a cute little girl who was at least 2 (probably near 2 1/2) judging by her looks and language. Dani decided to make friends with her, but since Dani has only made friends with younger babies (mainly Jackson), she doesn't quite know how to do this. She said "hi" as I told her to, but then she charged towards the little girl saying "boo" repeatedly. I took the video below to give you an example of what this looked like.

She was still about 2 feet away from the girl after charging. The two year old was somewhat perplexed at this behavior and just stared at Dani like she was strange. I tried to explain to her that Dani was playing "peekaboo" and she smiled back. The other kids were not interacting much, and I was thrilled to see Dani try to interact with others, but I think I need to teach her more common ways of approaching kids her age. Any ideas?

After the "boo!" series she just dances and I thought her dance was cute so I left the camera running. Hope you enjoy!