Memories...

Before I even started my Typepad blog, I had a short-lived blog called "Adventures Of A Stay-At-Home Auntie." It was short-lived because BlogChex was hard to work with, and at the time it was always shutting down.
Anyway, although my Blogchex blog has disappeared, I just found some archives on my Google Reader! I want to post a few of them here, for my own memories.

March 12, 2008
Little Bear has been very curious and interested in dinosaurs lately, partly because she likes watching the Land Before Time movies! So yesterday we had a dinosaur theme for the day! I had gone to the library by my house to get some dinosaur books, and found that the library actually offers entire bags of themed books, called "Take Home A Storytime." So I checked out a bag of books about dinosaurs, and when Little Bear saw it, she thought it was the coolest thing ever! She said, "Whoa! Look at all these books!" and wanted to start reading them right away. There was one that was in sort of a Q&A format about dinosaurs, so I would read her the list of questions, and she would pick the one she wanted to find out about, and then we would go to that page and read it. Little Bear actually knows the names of a lot of the dinosaurs, although I'm not sure where she learned them! I know that in the Land Before Time movies they refer to the dinosaurs with different names, like "long necks," not their scientific names. Somewhere or another Little Bear must have learned about dinosaurs, though, and she has a memory like a steel trap!


We also hatched a baby dinosaur from an egg, dug for dinosaurs in "quicksand", played with dinosaur shaped foamy stickers, and made dinosaur skeletons by gluing pasta on paper. And for a snack, we had "dinosaurs in mud", which is actually chocolate pudding with dinosaur fruit snacks in it. Little Bear loved making the dinosaurs in mud, but she didn't like eating it... the fruit snacks in the pudding grossed her out. I thought it was good, personally, and Little Bear's Uncle John, who is visiting for a while, loved it! But Little Bear didn't like it, so I ended up having to go through her pudding and try to fish out all of the dinosaurs. Then Uncle John ate all the dinosaurs for her! He sure did love that dinosaurs in mud!

Since their Uncle John is visiting, Monkeyboy got to stay home from school yesterday, but he didn't really do anything with us... He is eleven, and way too cool for me and the little kids most of the time. It is so weird to me, because I used to take him places all the time, and now I am taking the little girls places and he is asking to stay home! He is more interested in playing on the Internet and with his wrestling video games. Uncle John is also into wrestling and video games, so at least Monkeyboy had someone to hang with for the day! Sometimes Monkeyboy tries to talk to me about wrestling, but its just so totally something I have absolutely no interest in, so its kinda hard to bond with him over that!


I think everyone is just a little off their schedule and routine, between their uncle having showed up unexpectedly, and daylight savings time getting everyone's bodily clocks messed up! Yesterday Pufferfish barely slept a wink! She is a weird baby because even when she is dead tired, she never acts very crabby... just a little weepy. You know how, when some babies get too tired, they're inconsolable? Pufferfish just gets a little weepy, but can still be cheered up very quickly by being held or played with. Anyway, yesterday we went to the library in the morning, and Pufferfish fell asleep in the car on the way home from the library, literally only about two minutes before we pulled into the driveway... so I just carried her in and put her down to bed in her crib. Usually when I do that she'll sleep for several hours. But this time she woke up after only an hour and a half, and she was up for good, wanting to party! A few times when she started getting clingy and weepy and rubbing her eyes, I went and laid her back down, hoping she'd get another nap in... but when I went to check on her, she'd be sitting up, talking to herself and laughing! (One of the times when I went in, she was sitting up in her crib and trying to chew on her mobile! )Then I'd take her out of her crib and bring her back out to the livingroom, and she'd be fine! I guess maybe sometimes she just gets overstimulated being around the other kids and everyone, and just wants a few minutes of peace in her crib? Maybe? Either way, she is definitely an awesome baby!


And last night, she fell asleep in my arms! Little Bear and Monkeyboy were all hyper and were wrestling around, and Pufferfish was starting to get weepy, and I myself was a little overtired, so I decided me and Pufferfish would have some nice quiet meditation time together. I sat in the rocking chair and rocked her and cuddled her. She fell asleep in my arms, almost right away! If you have never rocked a baby to sleep in your arms, you are definitely missing one of the better things in life!


March 13, 2008
Yesterday Little Bear and Pufferfish and I had a lot of fun! In the morning we went to an Easter party hosted by a playgroup I found. It was very cool because the people brought all sorts of toys and musical instruments and stuff, and crafts, and snacks, and most of the kids were right around Little Bear's age. She had lots of fun! Even Pufferfish had fun! She gets to have a lot more fun on outings now that she can crawl, because she can sort of move around and look at stuff! She loved playing with the instruments and looking at all the toys. There was a little boy there who was a little older than her, and Pufferfish kept sitting near him and smiling at him and trying to touch him! She loves being around other babies!


Later, Little Bear and I played a post office game. We made mailboxes for everyone in the house, and then wrote everyone letters, which Little Bear delivered! We even delivered some letters to two little neighborhood friends of Little Bear's! Little Bear loved doing it, and she was very, very excited when everyone got home and she got to tell them, "Go check your mail!"

Last week Monkeyboy had gotten a package in the mail, and Little Bear had been so excited about it, that I'd thought it would be fun for her to get a package in the mail too! We'd gone on Amazon.com and I'd let her pick out a stuffed animal, and she picked a stuffed Webkinz elephant. And coincidentally, today, on the day when we played post office, Little Bear got her package in the real mail! She had actually forgotten that we'd ordered it, and when she opened the envelope and found the elephant, she was overjoyed! She was also very excited about the fact that she could go online and actually see her elephant there. It was so awesome to see how magical the whole thing was to Little Bear! Man, I wish I could be four years old again, and have little things just make me so happy!

It was so nice out that we also got to spend some time outside. Only one thing went a little awry.

The kids have a small dog named Fluffy, and I had brought over my medium-sized dog named Jules, and all day Little Bear had been asking if we could take the dogs for a walk. But in the morning Monkeyboy had said that he wanted to go with to walk the dogs, so we waited for him! However, when Monkeyboy came home from school, he said he didn't want to go for a walk after all. Unfortunately, Little Bear still wanted to go!

So I bundled up children and animals, put Pufferfish in the stroller, and let Little Bear walk Fluffy while I walked Jules.

It didn't go well! Little Bear couldn't really handle walking Fluffy on her own. She kept dropping the leash, getting the leash tangled around her legs or the dog's legs, getting the leash tangled in the wheels of the stroller, etc.

Meanwhile, I wasn't having much luck trying to walk Jules, while pushing the stroller, either! Jules kept running forward too quickly and choking herself, zigzagging in front of the stroller and nearly decapitating the baby, etc.

Finally I said, "Lets go back and get Monkeyboy. I need help here!"

We went back, but Monkeyboy didn't want to come! He wanted to stay home and watch wrestling on TV. Finally I basically begged/pleaded/insisted he come, and he agreed. But his idea of helping was to get on his skateboard and ride along beside us, watching Little Bear and I go through the same troubles, once again!

Little Bear had wanted to walk the dogs to the park, but just as we crossed in front of the park Monkeyboy tried to jump the curb with his skateboard. Suddenly, all hell broke loose! Monkeyboy ended up on his back in a big pile of mud, Little Bear slipped on some ice and fell in the mud herself, dropping the leash, Fluffy started to run away, and as I let go of the stroller to try to sort out all of the fallen soldiers, the stroller started to roll backwards down the hill!

With both children screaming that the mud was actually dog poop, I said, "Lets turn back. Lets go home and forget this ever happened! This time, though, Monkeyboy, put your skateboard in the stroller, and you can either push the stroller or walk Jules, cause I can't do both."

Monkeyboy balked because he didn't want to do either one of these things... in fact, he was hoping I would take everyone home by myself, return to the park in my car, and pick him up so he wouldn't have to walk home all full of mud! Meanwhile, Little Bear was crying because she'd been excited to go to the park!

Somehow I got everyone home alive, and agreed to take Little Bear and Pufferfish back to the park for just a few minutes to play. By that time it was getting chilly out, and we really only stayed at the park for about ten minutes, but Little Bear was completely satisfied with that! I gave her a wild stroller ride home, taking her through the grass and over bumps and running. She was yelling at me, "Run! Faster! Faster! Faster!" By the time we got home, I was nearly having an asthma attack! But we sure did have fun!
***
Little Bear: "Pretend that my doggie was about to slide down the side of this mountain, and I was yelling for you to come save him."

Nicki: "Okay!"

Little Bear: "Oh no, my doggie is sliding down the mountain! Ayudame! Ayudame!"

March 14, 2008
Saint Patrick's Day is this Monday, so I thought I'd post some ideas early!


When I was a little kid in kindergarten, I learned about the leprechauns from my teacher, who let us draw pictures of leprechauns. (Most of the kids drew pictures of little men with green hats. I had never heard of leprechauns before, and probably had been daydreaming or goofing off when the teacher told us about them (typical ADHD kid!) so my drawing looked more like a naked green space alien with big, pointy ears! Anyway, the teacher then led us on a leprechaun hunt through the school. When we got back to our classroom, there were green leprechaun footprints everywhere! From that day on, I was in love with the idea of leprechauns, and started a tradition in my house of making a leprechaun house each Saint Patrick's Day so the leprechauns could come and visit during the night!

This is the first year I'm going to try to carry the tradition on with Little Bear and Pufferfish! Today I told Little Bear about leprechauns, and she started dancing around singing, "I'm gonna get some treasure! I'm gonna get some treasure!"


March 18, 2008
You'll never believe what happened to Little Bear and Pufferfish and I yesterday! The leprechauns came to visit!
In the morning, we went to a St. Patrick's Day storytime at one of the libraries in the area. When we came back, we saw that there were sparkly shamrocks scattered all over the living room!
Little Bear knew right away that we'd been visited by leprechauns. We tried to hunt for them, but we couldn't find them! They're very sneaky. Little Bear started to get worried... She didn't know much about those little creatures, and wondered if they might steal all of our things, if they bit, and if they killed dogs. I reassured her that the leprechauns are always nice, they never steal, and they definitely never hurt people or animals!

You'll never believe what happened to Little Bear and Pufferfish and I yesterday! The leprechauns came to visit!

In the morning, we went to a St. Patrick's Day storytime at one of the libraries in the area. When we came back, we saw that there were sparkly shamrocks scattered all over the living room!

Little Bear knew right away that we'd been visited by leprechauns. We tried to hunt for them, but we couldn't find them! They're very sneaky. Little Bear started to get worried... She didn't know much about those little creatures, and wondered if they might steal all of our things, if they bit, and if they killed dogs. I reassured her that the leprechauns are always nice, they never steal, and they definitely never hurt people or animals!
We decided to make the leprechauns a house, so that they'd feel more welcome. We cut windows and doors in a cardboard box, and decorated it with stickers.
Then we went and played in the bedroom for a while. When we came back to the living room we noticed that the dog, Fluffy, was sniffing suspiciously at the leprechaun house! Little Bear lifted it up, and guess what she found! All sorts of treasures! There were shiny green coins, leprechaun hats, St. Patrick's Day snowglobes for Little Bear and Monkeyboy... and a light-up squeezy pufferfish for Pufferfish!
We also made shamrock shakes with chocolate mint ice cream, which Little Bear thought was the coolest thing on Earth. By the way, if you don't have a blender handy (We did have a blender, but I'm afraid to use it ever since the Whipped Snow Incident) you can still make milkshakes with the kids in your life. Just put a few scoops of ice cream in a large cup, add a little bit of milk, and then stir it up until its thin enough to sip through a straw! Little Bear actually liked it better this way because she got to actually make the milkshake herself, and she felt like a chef.
Then Pufferfish's dad let her have two more bowls of chocolate mint ice cream on top of that! It was a great day for Little Bear!

March 19, 2008
What a busy day Little Bear and Pufferfish had today! This morning we went to the mall to go to Storytime With The Easter Bunny! The bunny didn't actually read a story, some sort of assistant did, and the bunny just sat there and listened with the kids. But it was still cool, and afterwards all the kids did the Bunny Hop around the room with the Easter Bunny! They got free goody bags too, with coloring books and stuffed bunnies and toys!
We were going to hang out in the mall for a while after that, since the story time only took up half an hour! The mall had these awesome strollers that were like double decker fire engines, and Little Bear really wanted one, and I saw a sign that I thought said the strollers were only a dollar to rent, so I promised Little Bear we could get one. But then the strollers turned out to be SEVEN dollars, and you could get a dollar back if you returned it later! I had already promised Little Bear, so I went along with it and fished out seven dollars. But then something great happened... Little Bear was putting money into the machine, and when she had put in only three dollars, a stroller popped out!
Both Little Bear and Pufferfish loved the giant stroller... even though I wasn't very good at pushing the giant vehicle, and crashed it into walls about ten times! I used the money I had leftover to buy a Dr. Pepper for me, and an Icee for Little Bear!
We played in the mall's play area for a while, checked out the toy store, went for a ride on the merry-go-round thing, and then left and went to McDonalds for lunch so Little Bear could play at the PlayPlace there for a while!
So Little Bear had a really great morning of running around and playing with other kids and having fun!
Afterwards we went home and did some quiter things. We made "stained glass" eggs, played a counting game with eggs, and did some educational Easter worksheets I found online! We were very very very busy! I think by the time everyone else got home, both Little Bear and Pufferfish were exhausted!
Have I ever mentioned how much fun I've been having, with my new life of watching the girls? Its definitely way better than any actual job I've ever had!

Little Bear: "You know whats weird? How come when you see characters on TV, like Mickey Mouse, they can talk, but when you see them in real life, they never talk?"
Nicki: "I don't know! Maybe when they go into the real world, they lose some of their magic?"
Little Bear: "The Easter Bunny, too! How come Santa Claus can talk, but the Easter Bunny never does?"
Nicki: "Hmm, I don't know!"
Little Bear: "Does the Easter Bunny hop to all the houses to deliver the eggs, or does he get driven?"
Nicki: "I have no clue, sugar! Maybe you should ask the Easter Bunny when we see him, today!"
Little Bear: "Uh, Nicki? He can't talk, remember?"
Nicki: "Oh, yeah."

March 23, 2008
Hi everyone! Happy (slightly belated) Easter! Monkeyboy and Little Bear and their parents and I dyed Easter eggs the other day. (Pufferfish is still a little too small for that particular activity!) Monkeyboy has always had the soul of an artist, and spent a lot of time and attention making his eggs into little oval-shaped masterpieces, so it seemed a shame to just eat them or throw them away!
On Easter Eve, shortly after Little Bear went to bed, she woke up and came out into the living room, telling me she'd had a bad dream! I comforted her, and tried to convince her that she couldn't sleep out in the living room, she had to go back and sleep in the bedroom because the Easter Bunny would be coming.
Nicki: "He won't be able to come in if he sees that there are any kids sleeping in the living room!"
Little Bear: "Why not?"
Nicki: "Well, kids are never supposed to see him! Its the rule!"
Little Bear: (rolling her eyes) "Uh, Nicki? Hello? We already saw him at the mall!"
Nicki: "Uhhhhhhh..."

March 25, 2008

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a good week! We are, so far! Yesterday, Little Bear and Pufferfish and I went to a local botanical garden for an outing. It had an awesome children's garden, with all sorts of woodsy things for Little Bear to climb on and explore. I would love to go back there in the summer, because they also have a lot of fountains and things, and even a secret river that kids can splash around in! This time we only went for an hour or two, because it was so chilly out. We played around in the Children's Garden, and then enjoyed some hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies in the cafe! (Yeah I never said I was the best influence, healthy-eating wise!)


I'd also love to go back there myself, to explore the other gardens they have, like the Reading Garden and the Fragrance Garden!

Anyway, the real reason we had gone there in the first place was because there were supposed to be bird-related activities like games and crafts and things, and we had sort of had a bird-themed day. But unfortunately, the bird-themed activities were really of no interest to Little Bear... just a few puzzles made out of laminated paper, and some informational packets, and stuff like that. We were sort of hoping there were going to be real birds there, but there weren't! Little Bear had to be satisfied with seeing a crow land on the roof of the cafe. Oh well...
We did some feather-painting in the morning, before going to the children's garden, and we did some bird-related worksheets and stuff. I also had some other crafts to do, like a flying bird and a bird feeder, but we never got around to doing them. It wasn't my best-planned day. Luckily Little Bear is easily pleased!
*****
Nicki: "Little Bear, tell me about your painting!"
Little Bear: "This is the ocean, and this is the sun."
Nicki: "Very nice!"
Little Bear: "And this is a dead guy floating in the ocean because some bad guys shot him, and here's all his blood!"
Nicki: "Oh..."

March 27, 2008
What a great day we had yesterday! Little Bear and Pufferfish and I learned about the five senses, and we did some cool projects that involved using all of our senses! We did Scratch-n-sniff Painting and Pudding Painting!
The girls' 12-year-old auntie Sarah was with us for the day, too, since she's on spring break, and Little Bear and Pufferfish definitely loved the extra attention! Made my day easier too... Sarah was happy to tote Pufferfish around all day long. In the morning we went to the Kids Club at the mall, where Little Bear got to listen to stories and dance to music and have a snack. Then we played in the play area at the mall for a while, grabbed some lunch in the food court, and threw some pennies into the fountain! After we went home, Pufferfish took a little nap, while Little Bear and Pufferfish and I did our art projects.
And since it was such a beautiful day out, we also took a walk up to the park after Pufferfish woke up. Little Bear just got a new Barbie Jeep for Easter, and she wanted to drive it all the way up to the park, which was a good idea. Sarah and Little Bear played happily on the playground. I took Pufferfish on the swing... they didn't have a baby swing so I just held her on my lap and swung... and she loved it! She was laughing and waving her arms! Pufferfish loves to be in action. Someday she's going to be a rollercoaster enthusiast, I just know it!
Things started to go sort of badly when Little Bear decided she wanted to drive it all the way around the very large pond at the park! I told her I didn't think we'd better do that, since I wasn't sure the jeep would hold a charge for that long, and I wasn't even sure Little Bear would have the energy to drive the jeep that far. I envisioned myself somehow having to carry that cumbersome thing all the way home!
Of course Little Bear threw a full-out tantrum, screaming and crying and refusing to drive her jeep home. She even yelled, "I don't want you to be my babysitter anymore! I hate you!'" Sarah and I somehow got the angry little kid to drive her jeep home anyway, although she cried and yelled the whole way! We must have made a strange sight for anyone who had the misfortune of looking out their windows right then.
All in all, it was a pretty good day, and I really enjoyed spending time with Sarah! Next week Monkeyboy is going to be on his spring break, so hopefully he'll be able to spend some time with us too!

March 28, 2008
Little Bear and Pufferfish and I belong to the Kids Club at the local mall, where there are storytimes and sing-alongs twice a month. But about fifteen minutes north of here is Woodfield Mall, one of the biggest malls in the country! They have a Kids Club too, once a month... only theirs are huge events, featuring real performers! We went there today and saw the Bubble Wonders Show. It was really cool! The guy does all sorts of tricks with bubbles!
I had bought a bunch of bubbles paraphanalia at the Dollar Store the other day, so when we got home Little Bear and Pufferfish and I played with bubbles! I had bought several kinds of scented bubbles and all sorts of differently shaped wands! Little Bear ended up mixing all of the different bubble solutions together, adding some dish detergent, and making her own "formula" which we will keep forever in a cottage cheese container!
We also did bubble painting, which turned out very cool!
This afternoon was the best! The girls' 12 and 13-year-old aunties Megan and Sarah, and their friend Emily, came over, and Monkeyboy was home, and his cross-the-street friend was here, It was sunny out, not exactly warm, but in March in Chicago we take what we can get! All the big kids went outside to play basketball, and I brought Pufferfish's bouncy seat out. Pufferfish was just so happy sitting there, watching the big kids play! We stayed out as long as we could, until Pufferfish's little nose started to run!
I can't wait for spring to really be here!

April 1, 2008
Yesterday was Teddy Bear Day for me and Little Bear and Pufferfish! I ove teddy bears, don't you? We went to this place in the mall that was a little bit like Build-A-Bear, but a generic version, and the little girls made their own stuffed animals. Although, to save money, we didn't get any accessories or clothes or anything... I told Little Bear we could come back another day for clothes... so the process really only took about five minutes. The kids just pick out the stuffed animal they want, and then the lady in the store puts the animal on a machine that shoots fluff into it! Little Bear picked a big blue bear for herself, and a penguin for Hayden. The stuffed animals from there are so soft, and the kids get a carrier and a birth certificate too! Hayden loved her penguin... When I handed it to her, her eyes lit up! She loves soft things! Plus its almost as big as her! When I put it on the floor later on, she kept crawling over to it and sitting by it, like it was her friend!
We also made teddy bear biscuits, painted teddy bears with coffee grounds, and read the story "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around." Actually its just the old jump rope rhyme, turned into an illustrated book!
I love Teddy Bear Day! Maybe this summer we'll have a Teddy Bear Picnic! Even better!


I overheard this pretend phone conversation the girls' 12-year-old aunt was having on Pufferfish's toy phone.
Sarah: "Hello? Oh, hi, Bob. Yes, we can! Bye." (Turns to Little Bear) "That was Bob The Builder. He wanted to know if we can fix it!"

April 3, 2008
Hi everyone! What a great day Little Bear, Pufferfish, Monkeyboy and I had yesterday! It was a sunny day, warmer than it usually is in Chicago, so we went to this little zoon run by a neighboring park district. They take in local wild animals who have been injured and will probably never be in the wild again, and they also have farm animals in the petting zoo part. Monkeyboy is on spring break still, so he came with us, which was really nice for us all! We brought a picnic lunch (Little Bear and I made baloney and cheese sandwiches and used cookie cutters to make them into interesting shapes!) and we stayed for several hours!


Afterwards, at home, Little Bear and I made some driveway paint and decorated the driveway! One thing I've noticed about Little Bear is that she enjoys the process of making things for activities more than she enjoys the actual activities! For instance, she loved mixing up the ingredients for the driveway paints, but didn't stay long doing the actual painting. And when we cook things, she loves mixing up ingredients and following steps to make things, but rarely wants to eat the finished product. I need to find more activities that just involve mixing stuff up, I guess!
Little Bear's birthday is in July (she'll be five) and we were talking about having a surprise party for her. The reason is because a few weeks ago Little Bear was spending a weekend at her dad's house. While she was gone, Little Bear's uncle John, who lived in Michigan at the time, showed up unexpectedly for a visit. So Little Bear's grandma and several of her aunts and uncles came right over to visit with John! When Little Bear's dad brought her home, all of her favorite people were over at her house! Little Bear was realy excited about that, and has been talking about it ever since.
Yesterday she asked me, "Could you please ask my mama to do something? Tell her, one day when I'm at my dad's house, she could invite Grandma and my aunties and my cousin Mari and a whole lot of people over to my house."
It would be so funny to just not mention any birthday party at all to her, and then have her come home to a big surprise party with everyone there!
She's a really smart kid, Little Bear is. It freaks me out sometimes!
*****
While we were at the zoo, Little Bear was playing and hurt her hand. It was just a tiny little cut, but for some reason there was lots of blood involved, and it really freaked Little Bear out! I carried her to the bathroom to try to wash her hand off, and she was screaming and hollering the whole time.
As I got her hand washed off and put the band-aid on, Little Bear kept telling me, "I hate this place! I hate this place! I never want to come here again!"
Nicki: "I know, Little Bear. As soon as we get you all cleaned up, we'll get Monkeyboy and Pufferfish and go home."
Little Bear: "No! I don't want to go home!"
Nicki: "You don't?"
Little Bear: "No! I'm not done playing yet!"

April 8, 2008
Every so often it is nice to have an ordinary day without a lot of things to do. I didn't really plan anything for Little Bear and Pufferfish yesterday, because I figured we'd just take it easy. We ended up having a really good day, anyway! We went to our playgroup, which was meeting at a different mall than we usually go to. The new mall had a tree house and a train ride, which Little Bear loved!
While we were there, Little Bear suddenly and without warning had to go to the bathroom, and as we were rushing to find one, an employee from The Picture People said we could come in and use her bathroom! She also said that they were offering free sittings and one free print. So after Little Bear went to the bathroom, she and Pufferfish got their professional pictures taken! The shots came out so cute! It was really hard to pick just one for the free one. I'm probably going to end up buying a few more of them.
Little Bear loves going to the playgroup because she gets to make new friends. But as for me, I just feel a little awkward at these things! I tend to talk to the kids, even other people's kids, way more than I talk to the adults. I'm just shy, I guess. Plus, when I do try to talk to other adults, they just look at me like I'm nuts! Maybe because I'm not the sort of trendy, organic-eating, smiling, sparkly-clean "mom" that they all seem to be. I'm just a tad white-trashy! Okay, quite white-trashy... but in a good way, I think!
For instance, on Saturday Little Bear and Monkeyboy went on an outting with their dad. He took them to the zoo in the city, which is across the street from the beach. Apparently, after the zoo, their dad took them to walk along the beach and look for rocks and seashells.Little Bear was begging to go into the water, even though we live in Chicago and the water is absolutely freezing in April! Their dad relented, saying Little Bear could take off her socks and shoes and get her feet wet, but that was all.
Well, as it is whenever Little Bear is involved, Little Bear fell down in the water and got completely wet! Then of course Monkeyboy had to jump in too! They splashed around
in the water for a few minutes, before they rushed back to the car to change into some of their dad's spare sweatshirts and stuff to get warm.
I thought it was hilarious that Little Bear went swimming in Lake Michigan in April, and she loved talking about it, so at the playgroup while talking to one of the moms, I said to her, "Little Bear, tell them what you did yesterday!"
Little Bear giggled and said, "I went swimming in Lake Michigan!"
The other mom gave me an alarmed look and said, "Well, I don't think its warm enough out for that yet."
Uh, okay, thanks for the info!
*****
Pufferfish's dad rented the Chipmunks movie from the RedBox about fifty years ago (In fact, he might as well just own it now!) and Little Bear and Monkeyboy have been watching it a lot. It really is a cute movie! I nver did like the cartoon, but I think the movie is adorable. The other day as I was watching it with them, I commented, "Aww! I want a pet chipmunk!"
Little Bear: (looking at me like I'm crazy) "Nicki! Third, you have to feed them all the time. Third, they bite. And third, they're not even real!"
Nicki: "True, true..."
*****
Yesterday when I stopped for gas, I bought a Dr. Pepper for me, and a bottle of Bug Juice for Little Bear.
Little Bear: "Can I bring my Bug Juice into the mall?"
Nicki: "Sure, Little Bear!"
Little Bear: "Good... cause, you know, I gotta get my drink on!"

aPRIL 11, 2008
I've been so busy with homework and other school junk that I haven't had a lot of time to think of things to do for Little Bear and Pufferfish! Today I thought we could do things having to do with clouds, and I had four ideas for projects and activities, but I only had the materials to do one of the projects, and didn't have enough money to get things to do any of the other projects! I felt so bad when Little bear asked me, "What do you have for us to do today?" and I really only had one thing, which was cloud dough. But we had a good time anyway! We went to Jumps N Jiggles in the morning, then watched the Chipmunks movie again during lunch, and made the cloud dough after lunch. Little Bear enjoyed the cloud dough. She was annoyed when I kept eating it though! (What!!! I impulsively tasted it, and it was really sort of good, and I was hungry!)


Little Bear is such a smart kid. She soaks in everything you say and do. I often catch her repeating things that I've said, or parroting phrases I or other people have used. For instance, today while playing with the cloud dough, we were pretending to have a birthday cake, and when we sang the Happy Birthday song, I added, "And many more, on channel four," at the end, which was something kids used to sing at the end of the Birthday Song when I was a kid. Little Bear didn't seem to notice it. About ten minutes later, Little Bear was singing the song to herself, and I heard her add, :"And many more, on channel four!" Very funny!
She also remembers the scripts of every TV commercial, and the lines to many movies she watches. Its an everyday occurance for her to say things like, "Yay! Mama bought a specially marked box of Lucky Charms!" or pass a Subway restaurant and blurt out, "Subway! Eat Fresh!" And she loves to mutter the lines to the Chipmunk movie under her breath while we ride in the car. Today as we drove to Jumps N Jiggles, she kept on saying, "Nicki, lets try and stay focused here!"
Sometimes her sponge-like memory backfires... like the time she spent an hour of a roadtrip giggling and saying, over and over, 'I'll give you a nickel if you tickle my pickle!" God knows where she heard that, but of course she had no idea what it meant and just thought it was a funny phrase! None of us grown-ups had the nerve to tell her to stop, because then we'd have to explain why she shouldn't say that, and who wants to get into that conversation?
You gotta love the kid, though, you really do. I can't wait until she gets into kindergarten... she's going to blow those teachers away!

April 15, 2008
Hi everyone! Yesterday Little Bear and Pufferfish and I ventured out into the world, and the results were disasterous!
We belong to a playgroup that was supposed to meet at a park that day to have a picnic and play, but because it was supposed to be cold out that day, the playgroup got rescheduled to an open gym session at a near by park district. That sort of screwed up our schedule because the open gym was at noon. Usually I try to arrange our outings so that Pufferfish gets a nap in somewhere. We generally go somewhere in the morning, then come home at lunch time, and right after lunch Pufferfish goes down for a nap and Little Bear rests her body for a while. Once in a while we go somewhere in the afternoon, and Pufferfish takes her nap mid-morning, but that rarely works out because Pufferfish's naps tend to stretch on for hours!
Anyway, with the open gym at noon, that was sort of an awkward time to be leaving the house, but we adjusted well! We left the house at about 10:30 and got some errands done (went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, then to the mall to pick up the picture the kids got taken last week.) The mall and Wal-Mart were right on the same street as the open gym, so I figured we'd make it to the open gym at noon, leave right at one, and be somewhat on our normal lunch/nap routine.
Things started to go awry, though, when I smelled a foul smell from tha back seat! Pufferfish had made a poo-poo for the second time of the morning! This was after we'd already left Wal-Mart, and we were on our way to the mall, so I figured, I'd just change her diaper in the mall bathroom. But once we got to the mall, I discovered that, unbeknownst to me, someone had taken all of the wipes out of the diaper bag and colored on them! So we had no wipes.
Next it became clear that, although there were many stores in the mall that sold baby toys and baby clothes, none sold baby wipes!
We went to another store down the street to get the baby wipes, then made it to the Open Gym a little late. I went to change Pufferfish and discovered that she'd pooped right through her diaper and through her clothes... and there weren't any extra clothes in the diaper bag!

So I just took off her clothes and figured Pufferfish could crawl around in her diaper. She's only ten months old, after all!
So Pufferfish was all naked, crawling around the gym blissfully, when a mom from the playgroup offered to borrow me her daughter's extra outfit so Pufferfish wouldn't be cold! I took her up on her offer, and Pufferfish spent the rest of the time crawling around in a toddler's shirt and sweatpants!
Other than that, the day went great! Both Little Bear and Pufferfish had fun playing at the open gym. Pufferfish fell asleep in the car on the way home, but once we got home I just made her a bottle and put her in her crib, and thankfully, she actually finished her entire nap, instead of deciding that twenty minutes of sleep in her car seat was enough for one day! (Which she does do sometimes!)
The moral of this story is, I now have a big boc of wipes which I'm just going to keep in my car, to use for the next poopy emergency! Plus, we can use them to clean up messes in the car! How handy!
*****
At home, Little Bear did some fingerpainting, and then she did a bunch of "hyomework." I had gotten her one of those Basic Kindergarten Skills workbooks like you can buy in the coloring book section at Walgreens. Its filled with worksheets where kids can practice the alphabet, shapes, colors, matching, thinking skills, etc. I had bought it thinking that I'd keep it in the house and maybe Little Bear and I could do a page or two a day, during moments of boredom or when we play "school." Little did I know, Little Bear would become obsessed with homework, and plow through half of the book in two days! In fact, last night she cried at bedtime because she wanted to stay up and do homework! She's really good at it too. I have to read her the directions, of course, and she does the work.
So today at the DollarTree I picked up two more books like that, only these ones have a Care Bears theme!
Maybe by the end of summer, Little Bear will be completely ready for kindergarten!
****
I was letting Little Bear play alphabet games on Starfall.com. Kids can click on different letters of the alphabet to hear the name and sound of the letter, and see a story and pictures that go with it. Little Bear loved the letter A and kept on going back to it, clicking through the story and picture and game over and over. I was letting Little Bear play alphabet games on Starfall.com. Kids can click on different letters of the alphabet to hear the name and sound of the letter, and see a story and pictures that go with it. Little Bear loved the letter A and kept on going back to it, clicking through the story and picture and game over and over.
Little Bear: "This is my Myspace page! See the movies I put on it? And sometimes, if cute boys like me, they send me pictures. Look, someone sent me this picture of an astronaut, and someone sent me this picture of an alligator!"

April 17, 2008
Scene in living room while eating lunch.
Little Bear: "I wish we could go to the movie theater and see a movie."
Nicki: "I'm sure we will, one of these days. Besides, in the summer, the movie theater has free movies for kids every week, so we can go to the movies all the time!"
Little Bear: (falls off couch) "Okay, I did not see that coming!"

AND THATS ALL SHE WROTE!
















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