Atley's Journal

Atley ate waffle and bites of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger, whole wheat elbow noodles, no green beans or carrots, and ate bites of applesauce.  Hey Megan, I was pretty impressed with how easily Atley returned to Daycare this morning - the 2nd time!!  Atley went to a video shoot with Momma's work project and that's usually not easy for a child to come, then leave, then come back again all before noon.  Good job Atley.  We played with a few bubbles outside after she came back.  Like I've mentioned before she doesn't really chase the bubbles, but she laughs while watching everyone else run around and try to catch them! Although just about everyone knows this, I still want to mention that today is Reid's last day.  So going forward I'll have 4 kids plus the 2 after school kids until the middle of November and then a new baby will start.  We've had a long relationship with Reid's family - 3 boys and the oldest is now in the...

Atley ate most of french toast and bites of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of salmon loaf, ate dinner roll, no squash, and ate most of tropical fruit.  She is still doing her ritual of waving "bye" to everyone after every meal!  And then Avilene did it this morning too.  Haha!  Here are several pictures of Atley from this morning's activities.  We also played outside, but I've got plenty of pictures from inside!!!  The kids love this big poster of various animals in the first picture. Atley had the frog suit draped over her head when I took this next picture.  She was strolling around "blind" and would laugh uproariously when she crashed into something.  Silly Atley!  In the next picture Nora now has the Frog suit and Atley doesn't look too pleased about it does she?!  That's a hard concept for this age group to understand - "When I put something down someone else gets a turn to play with it!?!"......."...

Atley ate most of toasted whole wheat english muffin and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of pork chop, ate whole wheat bread, bite or two of roasted vegetables (potatoes, beets, sweet potatoes), and ate applesauce.  This morning at breakfast Nora started singing (loudly) and it was so cute!!  That was a first time for her!  I'm saying the inspiration for that came from Atley who always starts singing loudly when she's done eating!  :) These first two pictures crack me up.  Nora was sitting on the step (alone) and "bouncing" up and down.  I said, "It's way softer to bounce on the mattress!"  (While pointing at the mattress!)  So Avi immediately goes over and joins Nora and starts "bouncing" too.    Next came Atley, but Atley sat directly behind Nora and immediately got bonked in the eye from Nora bouncing.  (See Atley holding her eye.)  Atley barely flinched and then peeked around the corner to make sur...

Atley ate whole grain chex cereal and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her hamburger, bites of bun, no lettuce, tomato, or mushrooms.  Ate avocado, and bites of oranges.  It was so fun to see Atley again!  Totally missed her!  I did forget how LOUD she can be, but Momma Megan says she's happy when she's loud!!  She cried when Momma left, but she was over it in less than a minute and she was running back and forth across the room, diving on the mattress, laughing and giggling.  Lauralea and I were getting a big kick out of watching her.  I think it's safe to say that she's happy to be back in her routine and familiar environment!! Here are some pictures that I took first thing this morning.  She was playing with these phones saying, "hello, hello, hello."  In the 2nd picture: I stack the blocks 5 high when I put them away after Daycare and the kids like to take the piles and quickly have a pretty tall tower.  But s...

Atley ate brown rice and no raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of salmon, half of dinner roll, no corn, bites of mangoes. There are only 3 kids here today so it's pretty low key!  I told Reid that Atley is flying to North Carolina and it's farther than Kansas City.  (That's where he just returned from a road trip vacation.)  He said, "Don't that cost a lot of money?"  I said, "Well maybe they've been saving money for their vacation!"  He said, "Do you know what I've been saving for?"  What?  "Mega Big Shot nerf gun! That about 10 to 20 dollars."  Haha!  (And there's a child's perspective!! - totally comparable in his mind!) Well I can't help myself!  Here's another picture of Atley in the igloo.  All I have to do is peek in there and she just loves it!!  How adorable!!  In the 2nd picture Atley is watching Reid's 4-wheeler go skating off the balance beam!  He was keeping Atley well ente...

Atley ate most of toasted whole wheat english muffin and bites of oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bite of hamburger, bites of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate half of peas, and bites of applesauce. Atley was the first to arrive and she played with the stuffed animals and was thoroughly examining them.  I took this first picture of her looking at the giraffe and it's too cute NOT to post!  :)  I have to take a couple of pictures quickly while her hair still looks great!!  In the 2nd picture she was just watching the ceiling fan and again, not much too say about it, just to cute NOT to post! Atley also played with the big legos blocks and she will maneuver them around until they slide into place.  Like I mentioned earlier this week, these are the absolute best blocks I've found for this age group and the kids never get tired of them! We also read books, Atley sat for about half of the first book - ha!  We chased bubbles outside and watche...

Atley ate a couple bites of french toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she had bites of Paleo Stew with ground turkey, green beans, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and carrots.  She also ate her crackers, and half of tropical fruit. Avi was wearing the animal masks so Atley wanted help with the lion mask.  How cute is this?  I think she said, "Would you please hurry and take the picture??"  Haha!  (By the way, this is a beautiful dress Nana!)  Moments after I took this picture Hudson arrived and it's Atley's routine to run to the gate and give Colin (Hudson's Dad) a high five!  She kept the mask on to greet him.  :) The explanation for this next picture is pretty cute as well!!  Atley usually finishes her breakfast before Nora and she always waves to Nora on the way out of the lunch room.  So we kind of "re-created" the scene so you can see what that looks like!!  It was evolving into a "high five" moment w...

Atley ate waffle and grapes for breakfast.  At the end of breakfast she started singing, "Good night baby, good night baby..."  Not yet sweetie, that happens at lunch!  :)  For lunch she ate about half of her baked chicken, bites of whole grain tortilla, no roasted cabbage, and bites of cinnamon baked apples. "Good night baby, good night baby...."  Yup!!  :) Hey Megan!  I figured out what she was singing...to the tune of "B I N G O."  They love to hear songs with their name in it so we use that tune and sing, "There was a Mommy had a girl and Atley is her name-o. A T L E Y, A T L E Y, A T L E Y and Atley is her name-o."  We've had many kids leave our Program who could "spell" everyone's name because of that song!!  :) Here's a "structure" that Atley has built with the big blocks.  We've tried many different kinds of blocks over the years and these large "legos" blocks (that's what I call them)...

Atley ate kix cereal and maybe a bite or two of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of turkey burger, several bites of hamburger bun, no lettuce or tomatoes, ate avocado, and most of her cherries. Our morning was somewhat interrupted when the County Health Nurse came to check my records and see if I had all the children's immunization records up to date.  Everything was good so thank you parents for remembering to bring your child's records after their regularly scheduled immunizations.  The Nurse was preparing to leave when the Food Program Sponsor also made a bi-annual visit to make sure all those records were in order as well!  Two weeks ago the State Licensor from DPHHS was here doing a yearly inspection!!  No deficiencies from any of them so all is good!!  :)  It's not a huge deal if they find something wrong; I just have to come up with a correction plan.  Unless it's something serious of course!!  (For example...

Atley ate oatmeal and no baked apples with cinnamon for breakfast.  For lunch she ate some hamburger stew with green beans, carrots, and tomatoes, ate some dinner roll, and no apricots.  She came in so happy and full of energy.  Wonderful - and quite different from yesterday!!  I'm thankful for that! I took these first 2 pictures shortly after she arrived this morning.  In the first picture - this was the first business of the day - she had to get these pillows that I use and arrange them on the couch where I sit.  (I actually don't have a lot of "sitting" time, but when I do this is where it usually happens and the pillows are for my back.)  As soon as she was done arranging my pillows she headed for the balance beam like you see in the 2nd picture.  She was giggling and laughing while flopping on the mattress.  I think she's her normal self today.  Ha!  (Yesterday morning was so weird.)   The kids were playing with th...

Atley ate whole wheat toast and most of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger with marinara sauce on whole wheat spaghetti noodles, bites of squash, and maybe a bite of fruit salad. Atley was done with breakfast and we'd washed her and walking by the table she waved "bye" to Sophie and Sophie giggled; "She waved bye."  (Happens frequently.)  So cute. Speaking of cute I like this picture.  Atley was here again for probably 35 - 40 minutes before anyone else arrived and we have lots of fun!  And we're getting well acquainted!  :)  She likes to crawl into the igloo and just sit and wait for me to peek in at her. Avilene arrived next and started jumping on the mattress and I had the camera ready because Atley was looking like she was ready to jump off the mattress.  But she decided to leave that for another day.  I did show her that she could just step off and that would be a good first step.  So she'll do it when she's r...

Atley ate whole wheat bagel and lots of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate shrimp, brown rice, no stir fry vegetables, and ate raspberries. I took a picture of these new dolls I got recently because the first story is about them.  All four of them came with an attached pacifier.  It was actually hooked to the clothes, but ALL the kids wanted to suck on the binky!!  All the time!!  Haha!  So very sanitary!  I knew it was going to be that way, but I gave it a try anyhow!  I cut them off last night and you should have seen Atley searching FIRST thing this morning.  She picked up every doll and searched them front and back!  Tipping them up and down.  In the 2nd picture she's telling Nora, "I know that binky was right here yesterday!!!!  :) Here's a Toddler version of "standing on your head" in the next picture.  You wouldn't believe how many children I've seen do this!  It's like a "right of passage!!" ...

Atley ate lots of bran cereal and most of her raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of chicken from chicken salad, ate pita bread, olives, no peppers, cucumbers, or tomatoes, and ate pears. She was working at saying words this morning and that was so much fun to hear.  She said "hi" to Lauralea and she cooperated when I asked her to say "Gary" for Lauralea to hear.  Haha!  So cute.  Atley was in a great mood like usual and had a fun morning.  She is not inclined to sit on the couch for Story Time, but she likes to read the books LOUD - especially during Story Time.!!  Ha!  I took a picture of her reading and I love this first picture.  This age group really doesn't care much if the book is upside down or whatever; especially when they have a temperament like Atley's!!  I always say they get "twice the mileage" out of a book because they can turn it right-side-up and you have a completely different book!!  :) This ne...

Atley ate brown rice and bites of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pieces of beef from beef "kabobs," some whole wheat elbow noodles, and I'm not sure about the peppers, zucchini, and pineapple. First I just want to give kudos to Daddy Brad for the way he dropped off Atley this morning.  I know it's hard for parents to simply leave when their child starts fussing.  I want to assure you she was doing that just for you!  Atley was done fussing before you got to your pickup and she had a great morning and was in a super good mood.  (Sure nice to have her back to her normal self!! ) Here is the bottom line: even though it's hard as a parent to just leave it sure makes it easier on the child!  Well done and thank you from Atley and Gary.  :) This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  I don't think Atley or Nora were awake from their nap yet when Reid build this blockade with some help from his sidekick assistant Bubba! ...