Children's Museum

Looking up at the Water Clock

Watching the pool balls in their endless motion at the Rube Goldberg Display.

Stella loved Playscape

Water Table fun

Piper loved the museum, and it was extra special because we got to go with Jaxin, Aunt Jeni, Uncle Brian, and Aunt Tabetha.

General Update: January

NAME/ALIAS: AGE: Piper, 3 years 4 months

PSYCHOMOTOR STUFF: Getting better at playing the Wii, likes the Wii Fit game for kids especially. Walked on stilts (cans basically) at the Children’s Museum. She was adamant she wanted to try them, and hopped right on. Even when someone knocked her off, she climbed right back on. I need to make her a pair to play with at home now.

COGNITIVE STUFF: Loves her Leapster Explorer, still argues about everything and debates/explains why she is right and you are wrong.

ACADEMICS: Is doing some workbook type stuff- nothing major, nothing hard. I was surprised at how easy they were, and how many things in them she learned even years ago. She really likes the Cariboo game I picked up for her, but she does try to cheat and figure out where the balls are ahead of time so she can find the right card to get it.

CREATIVE OUTPUT: coloring more inside the lines, and with more focus than before.

EMOTIONAL ISSUES: She is the most stubborn person I know, and she can ignore you like nothing I have ever seen. Everyone comments on the ignoring factor. If she doesn’t want to do something, or if she has her mind made up- she will not look at you, and there is no emotion whatsoever. You are simply not there.

SCHOOL UPDATES: n/a

ANYTHING ELSE: Loves her sister dearly. She is so good with her, makes her laugh, plays with her, speaks for her, carries on a conversation with her and then tells me what Stella said. I am enjoying watching them play and learn from each other.

Paper Dolls

One of Piper's presents was a book of paper dolls that were the Disney princesses. This was the first time she has really payed attention to any of them, except for Snow White. She had fun dressing them up and learning their names.

Christmas Day

Piper enjoyed opening all of her presents. She loves her stick unicorn she got from Santa, as well as her Leapster Explorer and FurReal Dog.

Christmas Eve

Snowman

Here is Piper's snowman I helped her make yesterday. She was so excited to go outside in the snow. It was the perfect type for packing too.

Message from Santa

Here is the video message Piper got from Santa this year.

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/guest/c6XRS2rbWB8U9fXuSUNnTQ

Gingerbread House

She was very certain as to where the candy must go.

Every house must have sprinkles

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Here she is counting the bowls. We counted a lot during this project, the candy, the bowls, etc.

Finally it was done! She's so proud.

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Polar Bear Express

We did the Santa train last night. It wasn't a complete fail, but not exactly a success either. They listened to a story, and then boarded the train for an hour long ride. We got to see lots of lights and deocrations, as well as many people and costumed characters waving to us. On board, the kids were served giant sugar cookies, hot chocolate, a bag of candy and yogurt pretzles, and given a small stuffed polar bear. They were visited by a costumed polar bear and Mr. and Mrs. Claus. It was really nice that they spread everything out and each person took time to talk and sing to every child and take as many pictures as you wanted to take.

Hiding from Santa

With that being said, the polar bear was a hit after the first time through. Piper launched herself at him after refusing to get near him when he visited the first time. Stella was okay with him.

They both liked Mrs. Claus, I think because she passed out the stuffed bears. When Santa walked through, Stella cried when he held her, and Piper hid between the seats of the train. I managed to get this shot while she was distracted by the polar bear after the ride was over.

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First Snow this Season

She would have played outside all day if I had let her.

Advent Calendar Day 5

A new animal today: a little deer. She got the box out today by herself and said let's open number 5 and then found it herself. She's mad in this picture because I couldn't get a good shot with my camera and she was tired of posing.

Advent Calendar Day 4

We missed a couple of days while Piper was a grandma's house. On the second day she got the green tree, on the third she opened a bunch of little birds that sit on the tree. Today she got some food and a basket (?) that it sits in.

Advent Calendar Day 1

We got Piper her first Advent Calendar this year. It is a Playmobile one with a forest theme. Today she opened the first door and found a tree. It went very nicely with her Schleich raccoon.

Dear Santa

Piper wrote a letter to Santa telling him what she would like. I'm not sure about the Barbie stuff as she has no idea what that is. I will go and get her the purse she saw at Meijer because she won't stop talking about it.

General Update

NAME/ALIAS: AGE: Piper, 3 years 2months

PSYCHOMOTOR STUFF: getting better at really using a hula hoop now, tries to dribble a ball (hands)

COGNITIVE STUFF: She is big into arguing her point now, and is very logical about it too- not the typical arguing tantrum type stuff she has done for months. Her language is much more rich and complex and expressive. Sometimes I am just amazed at how she speaks- and the things that come out of her mouth in her baby sounding voice.


ACADEMICS: Last night we went out to dinner and she entertained herself with the sugar packets: making patterns and counting them. She is really into counting everything right now and has great one to one correspondence. The teens mess her up, and as long as it took her to count to 12, it might be ages before she gets to 20 correctly. She continues to be fascinated with the moon, and we talked more about it last night since it was a crescent moon. At dinner she told us that our lemons were crescents- apparently her word of the day. She pointed out the stars in the sky and argued with us about whether one was an airplane, a star, or a planet. Self-sufficient on the computer with general use. Can use Word and Paint. plus several software programs like KidPix and JumpStart. Opens and closes programs with ease, prints, and shuts down computer.

CREATIVE OUTPUT: Lots of building of forts, tents, houses: out of pillows, couch cushions, blankets, and other misc. materials. She has very elaborate plans and gets upset when we make her clean up. Poor Stella is picked up and carried to these areas and forced to play. :) She has also been rewriting songs that she knows with new lyrics. I was impressed that the meter and rhythm still matched the original tune.

EMOTIONAL ISSUES: Again, very argumentative, usually age appropriate when tired or hungry, but often just to be silly or sarcastic. Is completely logical and uses reasoning with her debating. She’s loud! I guess in general we are a loud family, but it really comes to light watching her. Will not sleep in her own bed. We have finally got her out of our bed and sleeping in a chair/ottoman combo in our bedroom. Is embarrassed about performing still- will NOT perform if asked. I caught her waltzing the other day with her stuffed dog and she immediately stopped and hid when I looked at her.

SCHOOL UPDATES: n/a

Halloween

Piper loved Halloween and true to form was Dorothy again this year. I don't think the costume will fit next year, so she'll be forced to pick something new. :) She was up bright and early Halloween Day dressed in her costume and shoes watching the Wizard of Oz for the upteenth time.

She loved trick or treating once she got into it. She was a bit shy going to the doors by herself, and when she got tired, she was done. Nothing would convince her to go to another door. She told us she had plenty of candy. When we got back to her grandparents' house, she passed out a few pieces to the kids who were still coming to the door. She also had fun sorting all of her candy into piles and counting it all.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch today with both the girls. Erick got free passes for us at work, so that saved us $18. :) Piper had a lot of fun picking out just the right pumpkin. They had lots for the kids to do: corn mazes, tricycle path, petting zoo, hay ride, bounce house and slides, live music, food, and more. She was a little cranky and grouchy by the end, but she had fun. She fell alseep in the car on the way home.

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Leaves

Puzzle Video

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She's not a big puzzler, so
I was happy when she drug this out and started showing an interest in doing them.

Riding Her Bike

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Piper finally has enough interest to ride her big bike now. Her 12 in. bicycle is too small for her, but she wouldn't really try riding this one (16 in.) much this summer because it is still a little big for her and wobbles a bit. This one also has the braking issue when the pedal is pushed the opposite direction, so she sometimes has trouble getting around it. She is getting a lot better at it after this first time though.