Atley's Journal

Atley ate most of her oatmeal and ate dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate tilapia, two servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, both servings covered with applesauce, and ate green beans.  Atley and Nora watched Lauralea fix our tilapia at lunch and Atley said, "Lauralea, you're the best Lauralea in the whole world!"  I agree Atley.  :)  Then Nora said, "Lauralea, you're the best cooker in the whole world!" Nora and Atley were bickering about something and they reduced it to the bare minimum; "no it isn't" "yes it is" "no it isn't" "yes it is."  Back and forth many times until I said, "Ok, that's enough, I don't really like this conversation."  Nora said, "I don't either."  Haha.  Whatever. First picture: Back to the drawing board!!  Oops, coloring table.  Atley was hard at work again first thing this morning doing some coloring.  Giving that left hand a workout...

Atley ate two servings of blueberry bagel and three servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of hamburger and sausage pizza with meat, peppers, pineapple, olives, mushrooms, and tomato sauce.  She ate whole wheat pizza crust (which we serve separate on the side), and bites of pineapple on the side. First picture: The Nelson girls are with their Grandparents at the lake so there are three kids here today and the group dynamics always change when some are gone or new arrivals come.  I'll start off with this picture of Atley coloring.  Avi and Atley have been coloring SO much lately.  Atley was coloring a cow (yes, I know this is a turtle, not a cow; ha) and she pointed at the udder and said, "This is usually pink. And farmers usually squeeze it."  Haha.  Isn't that cute?  So I asked, "What happens when they squeeze it?"  Atley said, "They squeeze the milk out."  Very good Atley. Next picture: The last few days it's ...

Atley ate two servings of whole wheat toast and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork roast, bites of whole wheat tortillas, ate carrots, and two servings of strawberries. First thing this morning Atley wanted to do some coloring.  I overheard her and Nora talking and Atley was telling Nora about someone "in the hospital where Papa lives."  Then she was asking Nora; "Do you like my coloring better than Avi's?"  I'm not sure what Nora said, but Atley continued with this; "It's kind of like a contest."  Silly kids!!  And that's why I'm very careful what I say about their art work and pretty much everything else they do!!  It doesn't need to be a competition especially at this age!!  :) These first two pictures are left over from yesterday afternoon.   In the first picture Atley has just sent the red ball flying out of the catapult.  Svea was too busy checking out her shirt to notice anything.  Ha.  In ...

Atley ate cheerios and half of banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, two servings of whole wheat pita bread, ate olives, avocado and three servings of strawberries.  As I was serving the food Atley said, "I don't want any avocado."  This was my response: "I hear you, but I'm gonna put some in a side dish (same as everyone else) and you can have a bite and if you decide you don't want it then, that's ok."  She ate all of it.  :) Here are some pictures from Atley's busy morning!!  The cleaning person left the car ramp on the legos table after vacuuming and Atley kind of liked it up there.  Second picture; this puzzle doesn't have a picture with it, but she did it quickly and easily.  It's a familiar puzzle, but still she did a good job.  Next two; ring around the rosy and coloring at art time. Last picture: These four kids are waiting for Lauralea's sister Julie to get out of her car.  She had just arrived an...

Atley ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of salmon, ate whole wheat dinner roll, riced cauliflower, and ate mangoes.  This first picture is leftover from yesterday afternoon when it started raining outside.  The kids were so excited to get out the "rain toys."  Second picture: We got in some bubble chasing time when it wasn't raining.  There are lots of bubbles in the picture and it's fun to zoom in on this one.  Nora's expression is full of excitement!  There's a big bubble just above the end of Avi's "noodle."  And Atley is searching for more bubbles to chase! Next picture; Nora was playing cars with Atley again this morning.  They were naming their cars "Twiggy" and "Mimi." Following picture: We made a little catapult using the wooden spoon, wooden dowel, and a rubber band!  Haha.  (Life skills class -  because you just never know when you might need this skill.)  An...

Atley ate whole wheat English muffin and three servings of mandarin oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of ground beef, ate whole wheat elbow noodles, peas, and three servings of applesauce. Avi and Atley have been talking about the weather forecast every day for the last week.  "There's a storm coming in this afternoon!"  Haha.  I asked Atley today; "How do you know that?"  Atley said, "Because the news telled us!"  :)  Then Atley continued with this latest nugget: "The water is getting SOOOOO high!!"  (Probably the news telled her that too!!)  Atley said, "The water is brown at my house!"  (I'm assuming she meant the river. Haha.)  Avi (with a calm and matter-of-fact voice) said, "I think that's mud."  LOL This first picture is leftover from yesterday afternoon.  Momma Molly told me to say, "Animal Workout" to Alexa and so we gave it a try yesterday.  The kids loved it and it hel...

Atley ate three servings of French toast and three servings of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of "hearty paleo stew" with meat, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, and carrots.  She ate two servings of saltines and ate tropical fruit. First picture: Here's the bunny rabbit Atley spotted on the way into Little Treasures this morning.  Daddy Brad was holding Atley up to the window in the entry room when I took this picture.  Yesterday Nora saw the bunny when she came in and it was still there when Avi and Svea arrived. Next picture: Atley was at the window and yelled; "Awesome!!"  What's awesome?  "There's a big worm in the rain."  Ha! Yup, they like to crawl out of the wet ground and get on the sidewalk.  Following picture; Atley has lots of cars on the ramp toy.  This is one advantage when you arrive first; no competition for the toys and you can have all the cars to yourself. ...

Atley ate two servings of waffle and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of chicken, ate whole wheat tortilla, corn, and two servings of baked cinnamon apples.  Atley and Nora were bickering at breakfast time and part of it sounded like this; Atley said, "You're repeating yourself!"  Nora said, "No I'm not, no I'm not, no I'm not, no I'm not."  Haha.  Atley said, "You're still repeating yourself."  Same response; "No I'm not, no I'm not, no I'm not, no I'm not."  Goofy kids. I let the girls tell "Alexa" what songs to play.  This morning I was busy changing Miles' diaper and I didn't recognize the song and all I heard was "thunder, thunder, thunder, thunder..."  I said, "What the heck is this song?!?"  Avi and Atley yelled their answer simultaneously, "THUNDER!!"  LOL!!  Well that would have been my guess. I took this first picture mom...

Atley ate kix cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey, whole wheat hamburger bun, no tomato, no avocado, and ate cherries. First picture: Well it's new toy Monday and the kids were all happy campers again.  There are several cool animals in this toy exchange and the first one Atley grabbed was this bald eagle.  And she continued to play with it and hold on to it for 20 - 30 minutes.  (Nora had her doll, Atley had her bald eagle. Ha. She said, "I love bald eagles.") Next picture; I got out a different collection of papers for them to color too and here's an example.  The directions said, "Color the D's yellow."  So Atley was done in about 2 minutes.  She'd colored just the letter D.  :)  And in this age group that's what we call "concrete thinking."  So cute.  So I showed her it meant to color the entire sections with the letter D.  Boy, check out progress she's making on coloring within the ...

Atley ate half of oatmeal and ate baked cinnamon apples for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of hamburger stew with meat, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, and potatoes.  She also ate  whole wheat dinner roll and two servings of apricots. First picture: Yesterday afternoon we put up the two tunnels and the kids played in them for several minutes.  All 3 girls are in the picture if you look closely.  Atley is in the tunnel just entering the climber on the left and Avi has just excited the climber on the right.  And of course that is Svea just crawling out the end of the tunnel.  :) Next picture - It was nice to have Nora and Miles back with us on this Friday!!  And of course no one was happier than Atley to see Nora!!  Atley had to take Nora to the car ramp first thing.  :)  Following picture: Someone - I think it was Atley - spotted a "worm" on the concrete just outside the window.  Which of course is not unusu...

Atley ate two servings of French toast and ate dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of pulled pork, ate whole wheat toast, peas, and three servings of strawberries. This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  It's SO nice that the weather is allowing us to go outside every day.  What a treat.  The kids are as happy as me - if not more.  We got out this building set you see in the first picture and Atley had fun building with them.  She did the three things  that are lying on the concrete floor and she was calling them "chimneys." Last two pictures; Some more art time.  They have been loving the art activities so much lately!!  Today they did some gluing and then more coloring.  I found another "Doug & Melissa" coloring book hidden up on a shelf while they were gluing and they were immediately ready to throw the gluing aside!!  It's an "animal" book and so Atley colored gazelles in the l...

Atley ate two servings of whole wheat toast and ate mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of ground beef with marinara sauce, ate whole wheat spaghetti noodles, bites of cauliflower, and ate fruit salad. This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon right after nap time.  So Atley and Avilene each have a camera and are taking a picture of each other.  And I'm taking a picture of them.  :)  The second picture is also from yesterday.  Atley spotted a spider on the airplane and called in some backup support.  :) That was a very small spider, but they were using their noodles for protection.  And they conquered the spider using good team work.  :) Next picture: Atley played with several toys and did several activities when she was the only one here before breakfast.  Avilene and Svea arrived right at breakfast time.  In the first picture Atley is drawing on this board which in this picture looks simi...

Atley ate blueberry bagel and grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate shrimp, brown rice, most of stir fry vegetables, and ate strawberries. Yesterday at the Snack table Atley said, "Gary, you play with us for a long time; you're really old; and Happy Birthday!!"  LOL!  Well thank you!  Yup, that pretty much covers it all. First two pictures - Avi seriously spent the majority of the morning doing Art (mostly coloring) and Atley kept pace with her for the most part.  Atley would get bored and do some other activity, then back to more art.  Atley chooses something like stickers before coloring, but she does like coloring with the markers sometimes. Last picture; Now this may look like she's just laying and chilling out on the floor, but actually she and Avi were searching for glitter.  Ha.  I had opened a Birthday present which had paper (with some glitter on it)  stuffed in it.  So that was a treasure too good to pass up!! ...