Atley's Journal

Atley ate brown rice and most of her raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of salmon, ate whole wheat dinner roll, no green beans, and a bite of mangoes.  At breakfast Atley said, "Go outside after nap!"  Yes, the grass is pretty wet this morning so we'll wait and go outside after nap.  :) This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  We didn't go outside because of all the rain and there were times when it was pouring!  We have a metal roof and it's fun to listen to the rain when it's pounding hard.  The kids were at the window several times watching it come down and also watching the water run down the road. Sometimes (When Avi arrived today was one of those times!) when other kids and parents come, if Atley is absorbed in a book she'll just keep on reading and singing loud!  Momma Molly got a kick out of that.  I told Molly that Atley will sit for long periods of time and read or sing loudly!!  So speaking ...

Atley ate whole wheat english muffin and a couple bites of oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of ground beef, ate whole wheat elbow noodles with applesauce, and bites of peas. Atley was at the window waving bye to Momma Megan and Atley kept saying, "My Megan, my Megan, my Megan."  Finally Hudson said, "I KNOW Atley."  You know what she's gonna say, right!?  Atley said, "My Megan."  Ha! Here are some pictures from this morning's activities;  About a minute  before  I took these next two pictures Atley sat on the couch and Nora started saying, "move back, move back" so Atley moved closer .  Yes she knew what Nora was saying, but I guess she wanted Nora to examine her foot.  Nora was more than happy to oblige!  Then they were doing this chanting singing routine and using their hands for special effects!  (See picture.)  Atley sang the first line of "Twinkle Twinkle" and Nora picked up the 2nd line and went w...

Atley ate french toast and strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of paleo stew with beef, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and green beans.  She ate crackers and tropical fruit. This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when everyone was examining a small roly poly bug that Hudson had in his dump truck.  They've been finding lots of roly poly bugs this year outside and everyone loves it.  Well the three oldest kids at least.  This is about the extent of interest that Nora shows!  :)  (She's in the bottom right of picture.  Like Momma Emily said, her head and Avi's head look very similar!)  Nora will occasionally look, but not touch. Here are a couple pictures from this morning's activities.  We went through the signs that the kids know (not the colors) and everyone did awesome.  We also added a couple of new ones like "fish" and "cookie."  Even though they may not be able to get their fin...

Atley ate waffle and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, half of whole grain tortilla, ate corn, and no baked cinnamon apples. We have lots of different Alphabet books and we were reading one at Story Time today.  First letter and first question;  "Who's names start with A?"  Atley yells; "Megan!"  Haha!  That made me laugh! Nora still finds a "semi-secluded" spot to lay on her belly and poop.  The other kids know what she's doing and will occasionally verbalize it, but today Atley was hovering very close and saying, "poopy, poopy, poopy..."  Atley totally knew Nora did not want her there and was wanting her to leave!  Little turkey!  Move away Atley so Nora can poop in peace.  :) It's pretty helpful the way the "older" kids keep an eye out for the babies spitting up, runny noses, being fussy, and more.  Today Atley noticed Linnea spitting up after I'd just fed her and Atley yelled, "Spit Gary, S...

Atley ate half of kix cereal and most of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey, whole wheat hamburger bun, no tomatoes, ate avocado, and bites of cherries. We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Atley stayed busy all morning playing with everything and enjoying the new puzzles.  She was the first one here and played alone for 15 minutes.  That was way more than enough time for Atley to get the majority of the toy shelves cleared with books and toys scattered everywhere.  But after that job was complete she did find individual toys to focus on!  :)  (You gotta deal with first things first!!) Atley was offering Nora some doll blankets, but Nora had already chosen the pink one and was standing there holding it.  She told Atley, "No; pink."  (I only want pink!)  But Atley tried every one of them; green, yellow, blue, but only pink would do.  :)  I do think Nora was playing with the other blank...

Atley ate most of oatmeal and no baked cinnamon apples for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of hamburger stew with meat, carrots, potatoes, green beans, and tomatoes.  She also ate whole wheat dinner roll, and ate apricots.  The kids were maybe a bit wilder than usual and I said, "You guys are kind of crazy today."  Hudson said, "Yes  they  are crazy today!"  Haha! On the days when we've been able to go outside we've been cleaning up toys in the Daycare room before going out.  We sing the same song every day and the kids have been doing awesome.  I assign each one a job (rather than just saying, "ok, pick up toys") and they've have been staying on task amazingly well!!  I couldn't be more proud of them. Nora and Atley played with the stacking cups for probably 10 minutes or more.  Sometimes they built their own tower and sometimes (like in the first picture they worked together).  As I've mentioned many times Atl...

Atley ate french toast and most of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pulled pork, whole wheat toast, peas, and maybe a taste of cantaloupe.  The Monitor for the Food Program was here to observe our lunch time procedure.  She also checks lots of paperwork including sign-in sheets, temp in fridge and freezer, and makes sure I'm serving what's listed on the Menu.  All the kids were  amazing  while she was here.  I was (and am) so proud of them!!  Hudson was just chattering at her all the time!  Ha!  I said, "Hey Hudson, tell Claudette what Gary says about your talking all the time!"  He said, "jabber, jabber, jabber."  Perfect!  You nailed it!  :) This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when Atley and Avilene were taking turns giving Svea rides up and down the sidewalk.  This old stroller with the small wheels is not an easy thing to maneuver, but they've figured it out.  You probably no...

Atley was at the dentist this morning and arrived at Daycare about 10:30 while we were getting ready to do Art.  I get all or most of my notes from morning play so the Blog may be a bit short today.  (Although I have a couple of pictures from yesterday afternoon!)  For lunch she ate half of ground beef with marinara sauce on whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate squash, and half of fruit salad. Yesterday afternoon Avi and Atley were checking out a bug they found on the yellow climber.  :)  In the 2nd picture the kids (except Nora - she preferred to watch) were inside the geo-climber using the balls as their pillows.  And laughing; they were pretty impressed with themselves.  :)  Children laughing is music to me!!  Love it! Speaking of laughter, Nora was sitting on the couch watching Atley jump off the igloo this morning.  I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, but Nora was really chuckling as she watched Atley jump.  And ...

Atley ate whole wheat bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate shrimp, half of brown rice, ate stir fry vegetables, and ate raspberries. Hudson has obviously heard about the whole "pinky swear" or "pinky promise" thing.  He was walking around (primarily focused on Avilene, but she was basically ignoring him) with his pinky extended saying, "promise pinky, promise pinky, promise pinky."  Atley was watching it all of course and started saying, "pinky pinky pinky pinky."  And she was extending her index finger.  It was so classic Atley and it hit my funny bone and I started laughing so hard.  Atley thought that was wonderful and kept coming back and sticking her index finger in my face saying, "pinky pinky pinky pinky."  And it stayed funny until about the 5th or 6th time.  :)  She was so proud of herself for making me laugh so hard! Speaking of "classic Atley" here's a picture of her signature ...

Atley ate most of her bran cereal and ate two servings of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of her chicken, ate whole grain pita bread, olives, no tomatoes, peppers, or cucumbers, and ate her pears. I think it was last week during Story Time Atley saw a picture of Dr. Suess on the inside cover of a book and said, "My Daddy! My Daddy!"  (In the picture he is getting older with a gray beard! haha!)  Atley did it again today; "My Daddy!  My Daddy!"   Nora said, "My Daddy! My Daddy!"  Avi said, "My Daddy!  My Daddy!"  Hudson said, "NO! That's the author that wrote this book!"  (That's an exact quote! Wow!)  They kept it up and finally Hudson gave up and joined in with everyone else; "My Daddy!  My Daddy!"  Haha! Here are some pictures from this morning's activities:  Atley and Nora were having fun playing with the stacking cups.  And they were even trying to stack them!!  Well most of the time! ...

Atley ate cream of wheat cereal and most of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of "baked beef kabobs" with meat, zucchini, peppers, and pineapple.  She ate a large serving of brown rice, and half of her pineapple on the side.  I find it interesting that Atley will almost always eat pineapple when it's "alone" like today.  But when we have tropical fruit she'll eat everything else and leave all the pineapple. I'll start off with a couple pictures from yesterday afternoon.  In the first picture Atley had just awoke from her nap and went over to talk to the baby!  (Svea)  This doesn't happen too often so I try to snap a picture when it does.  So precious!!  The 2nd picture: There are 5 kids inside the geo-climber, plus Kenzie dumping the balls, and Linnea watching from the edge.  Just as a FYI for you, yesterday was the last day at Little Treasures for Kenzie and Riley as they will be going to Summer Camps now tha...

Atley ate waffle and a bite of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of shepherd's pie with hamburger, green beans, carrots, and potatoes.  She ate her cherries and whole grain tortilla. Nora's Daddy Ryan and I were talking about Nora (and others) "waving" at the window to the parents.  The kids get so distracted with everything !  This morning Nora patted her chest and was saying, "Nora Dad."  That was primarily for Atley's benefit.  Atley couldn't have cared less!  She was focused on a bug on the outside of the window and kept saying, "butterfly, butterfly, butterfly."  Of course it was just a very small house fly.  :)  Next she said, "spider, spider, spider."  No, that's a mosquito!  :)  (Have you heard this before!?!) The first thing Nora and Atley did this morning was jump on the mattress!  (See the first picture.)  And Linnea likes to get in the middle of it all!  Many kids that are j...

Atley ate french toast and strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of "Whole 30" Chili with ground beef, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers.  She ate most of her tropical fruit and most of whole wheat dinner roll. Hey Megan, just in case you were wondering, when you stopped to wave at Atley this morning she'd spotted a little birdie on the sidewalk and that was the distraction!  She kept saying, "birdie eating, birdie eating, birdie eating."  Yes, the birdie is eating, now wave at Mommy!!  "birdie eating, birdie eating, birdie eating."  :) This first picture is from yesterday afternoon while we were playing outside.  This apparently felt comfortable to Atley because I saw her laying on the teeter-totter three different times.  And of course that was the only time someone else wanted to play on it - when Atley was laying on it!!  :) Hudson is back at Little Treasures today after spending some time with his Tu T...

Atley ate whole wheat english muffin and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of pork chop meat, ate whole wheat toast, roasted vegetables (ate carrots, no potatoes, bites of beets), ate her applesauce. Atley was at the window again this morning looking at the bugs - all on the outside of the window.  There were two or three mosquitoes.  She kept saying, "spider! spider! spider!"  Then "butterfly! butterfly! butterfly!"  She was also trying to blow on it!  Ha!  That's a great idea sweetie, but it's on the outside!! Nora and Atley played together constantly until almost breakfast time.  Here are some pictures from that "before breakfast time."  When they are in a giggly mode (like this morning) they'll laugh at anything!  So they played in the chair a lot; spinning it, taking turns pushing it around and around, and laughing hard!  The 2nd picture was pretty funny.  You'll notice the bare toy shelf (top) directl...