The Dr. Seuss Library

Faith has yet again received another book from the Dr. Seuss library. She loves them. The latest one in Go Dog Go. She gets so excited as we read it because she can fill in the blank and help read. "Go dog go dog go dog go" she says as fast as her little tongue will take her. Although it is not a rhyming book like Cat in the Hat or Hand Hand Fingers Toe, she loves the dogs. Faith names the color of trees as she reads and is learning the opposites in the story. Thank you Sister G for this wonderful book. We haven't read the spider one yet. She is still too busy with this one.

A day full of animals

Today was a perfect day to be outside. Windy yet warm. Faith wants nothing to do with being inside anymore. From the moment she wakes till she goes to bed she wants to be outside. That is not saying we stay out all day but we do go in and out all day. Today we went to the park at the lake again. She saw 11 baby geese, 2 sets of parents, three ducks swimming away from her, a baby robin egg and the nest it fell out of. We checked out the bird stuff because a few weeks ago we borrowed a bird book from the library about robins. She enjoyed it very much and to put two and two together it was nice to see her once again put a story into reality. Part of me just thinks, how can one teach her about stuff like that in school. You just can't.

After nap we headed into the country to visit a friend with horses. She wanted to feed them apples, carrots, marshmallows, peanut butter and crackers. She is getting cuter by the day in what she comes up with. Of course we just took the apples and carrots and the horses were delighted. Faith was all ok with them until one made that blowing noise with his nose. Then she said she was ready to go back to Andma's house. The funniest part of the whole trip was when the horse pooped on the ground. She piped up and said, "no horse, go potty in the litter box. not on the floor." I think that she has heard me yell at the cats one too many times. Anyways.... it was an exciting day and that was only 4 hours of the day. The rest consisted of playing on the slide, swings, and trapeze bar behind the house. This girl loves the outside. One can tell by all the bumps and bruises on her legs.

Where did the week go?

We were so busy this last week. With the big move happening next week I have decided to take all the time I can in doing what Faith wants to do. It won't be long we will be back in daycare. Although I am excited with the fact that I have found a home daycare willing to take both of us in. We are going to check it out when we arrive there on that first Monday. The letter "A" went over well this week. I think that is another reason we were so busy. We incorporated art time back into the mix. Not just playdough time or painting but actual art projects. We made the apple tree, airplane, colored a picture of a new apartment building, and painted Faith's hands and made hand prints which we called "art." She liked that. The brush tickled her hands so she was laughing the whole time. Our purpose of recognizing the letter "A" was achieved. She can point it out if it is in big print. Yea!! With the nice weather I think we were at the park four out of the seven days after naptime. We had a picnic at her little table outside one night for supper. She didn't really know what to think of that. With the last week finally here I think that we are going to be missed, especially Faith. Her smile and laughter really know how to brighten one's day. I'm going to miss how she hollers at Pa Pa before bed or whenever we leave. "PA PA, NIGHT NIGHT, LOVE YOU." then she makes her ever so famous loud hug. Time to start the packing yet again.

Whole lotta shakin' going on

Holy cow!! I rolled out of my bed this morning about 4:40am to the sound of my bed shaking against the wall and Faith's door rattling. What the heck!! Where is that stupid cat, is what I first thought. He likes to scratch on her door and try to get in. I got out of bed, opened Faith's door only to see my bed bumping against the wall. I looked under my bed for the cat making all the noise only to have the noise stop soon after it began. My heart was beating out of my chest. There Faith lie in bed not shaken by the earthquake one bit. And she sleeps on the floor mattress. My dad was restless downstairs so I got out of bed and asked him if he felt that shaking. Yeah, he said. It must have been an earthquake. Bud called this morning at 6:40am to see if everyone was ok. I guess that fault line was pretty close by. I really prefer to wake up to Faith's voice or Bud's instead of the shaking of my bed. All is well.

"A" is for....

This week Faith is starting to learn her letters of the alphabet. She has begun with "A" and will work on one letter a week until she has learned them all. That will be 26 weeks which puts her knowing all her letters and sounds they make before she is three. We colored a letter "A" yesterday and glued it onto posterboard. Then taped common pictures of objects that start with "A". Of course those being, Abby, Andma, and Apple. Then we taped it up where she plays so we can talk about it often. Today we made this apple tree. We also are trying to learn new songs that relate to a picture on our board. Yesterday it was an apple song. I read about a curriculum similar on a preschool site except they had more than one focus. They had shapes, colors, and counting. Which led me to believe, would she really learn the alphabet if she was focused on so many other things too? Plus she already knows all her shapes, colors, and counts well. So our focus will be the alphabet. I hope it works well.

3 weeks and counting

With just three weeks left we are on the down hill slope of being all together again. I miss Bud and I know Faith misses him too. Poor Abby can't come with us this time around. When I told Faith her smile turned to a sad face. "Abby, Abby, Virginia." No Abby has to go to Andma Pat's house. I can't wait to have our place with no kitchen. Now there won't be any reason for Bud to say there is no supper ready. Honey, we don't have a kitchen what am I supposed to do. Just kidding... we are going to have a camping kitchen. Yep, that's right. It should do just fine for what we need. A small basement apartment is what we've found. Faith will get the master bedroom while Bud and I will divide the living room space and make it into our bedroom. It will all take some tweeking but hopefully it will work out fine. I'm so excited. Faith is too and she knows all the details of the move. Let the countdown continue. 21, 20, 19.......

My Dog Lyle

Lyle may look like an ordinary dog to some people, but not to the little girl who loves him. She sees all the things that make him special: the way he gets “surprised” by skunks and gets a tomato juice bath then turns pink, eats grass to make himself sick when he has a tummyache, and drinks out of the toilet bowl when he’s thirsty. Faith's favorite part and recites it word for word is when Lyle runs into the glass door chasing squirrels. "Ouch" she says and then laughs. I don't know how many times we read it yesterday but she turned back each page one by one and recited the words on each page. By the time the list of Lyle’s “unique” talents is complete, Faith agrees that he’s a very special dog.

Bubble blowing

Faith's Pa Pa bought her a new bubble machine. I'm not sure who likes it more, her or I. Anyways, it has brought us 1000s upon 1000s of bubble bliss. Faith has a hard time pushing the button but she is patient enough to allow me to help her. Andma said it looked like the Shriner's were in town.

Faith's little friend

So we went to see our friend from my former job today. It is always a joy to go over there and let Faith and Hannah play. They are only 5 months apart and seem to enjoy each other. Today it was all about the baby dolls. Oh my! They both love them so they had a hard time sharing all of them. The girls did good though. Hannah had her swimming pool blowup slide in the front room. Those two took turns going down on their bottoms, bellies, and backward. Faith fell on her head going backward. Her new thing to do is when she gets hurt she says, "Ouwww" and then laughs really hard. When one of them would finish going down the slide, the other one would clap their hands together and say, "Yeh". As for me, it is always nice to talk to a friend and get away from the hussle and bussle of the daily life.
On our way back home I drove by the old house. My flowers were blooming and the owner still had my sign I painted on her trellace. That made me feel good. She didn't have to keep it. Spring was always my favorite time of year at that house. After the long winter months had come and gone I often found myself walking the flower beds looking for the first signs of new life. It was a comforting sort of thing to do. As Bud says, we will have another house one day and flowers to plant and pick. And I say Faith will know all the flower names in the garden and all the bird names of those that visit.

Spring has sprung

The robins have returned. The daffodils are blooming. The crocuses have shot up. Forsythia has turned yellow and the buds on the trees have arrived. The sun was warm and the sky was blue. The evening air smelled brisk and fresh. The bank clock read 60 degrees today. Faith and I have been waiting for months to have spring arrive. Today Faith and her babies went for a walk in their strollers. We blew peppermint bubbles and dug in the mud. We all went over to a park and went down the slide and climbed the rock wall. What is it about winter that makes everyone get cabin fever? The fact that winter time is so ugly and cold. I just want to open all the windows in the house and sing. Sing, sing, spring is here. Let us all scream and cheer. We are two outdoors people that is for sure.

Life's changing.....get ready

Since Faith has turned 2 I have found myself thinking differently. What action may have not resulted in a time out before is now in full swing. And it is funny because sometimes Faith will send herself to timeout. I'll ask her why and she goes on to explain what she did wrong. Most of the time it was either she didn't clean up, she threw something, or she wasn't listening good. She knows. Oh she knows. One time she sent herself to time out because she turned the t.v. to the static channel and told Andma she broke it.
I find myself thinking about daycare differently when we go to the East Coast. It is now not just who will take good care of her but who will help in her learning at her pace this next year. Who is going to go beyond the colors she already knows and teach her more? Who is going to help in maintaining the polite little girl that she has become? Who is going to help her learn to read with the burning desire to know what all the words say.....including the long list of words on the back cover of Little Golden Books and the words of the author on the back cover. Who is going to read that story over and over to her at school when she keeps bringing it back? Who is going to help her excel. I don't know but I will search for the right teacher who will do well.
This year is going to bring lots of change. It is going to be exciting. Everyone get on board. Here we go.

Ballerina style

I do NOT like it. Not one little bit.

The Cat in the Hat has invaded our house. When Bud bought this book for her for her birthday I really didn't think that it would keep her attention. It has now become a favorite story. She loves the little fish and how he keeps telling the kids that their mother would not like to see all the chaos in the house. Faith also enjoys the very end when the mother asks, "What did you do today? Did you have fun?" Would you tell your mother about The Cat in the Hat? She says "NO." I enjoy this story. The rhymes make the story fun to read and even easier for Faith to memorize and read along.

A clean bill of health

Faith got a clean bill of health this morning from her doctor. Lungs sounded clear and the chest xray showed the pneumonia diminishing. She is eating like a horse. Could be from the almost 3 pounds that she has lost in the last 2 weeks. She asks for bowl after bowl of Lucky Charms. That is her favorite cereal now. Can anyone guess why? Who wouldn't want marshmallows for breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks in between. I am glad that she is back up to her old tricks. Yesterday it was eating my feet. Yep, that's right. Bud and I eat her feet and it tickles her. She screams "mommy all done." She decided to take my slippers and socks off and have at them for a change. I screamed for her to stop too. It tickled. I guess what comes around goes around sometime or another. Monkey see....monkey do.