Svea's Journal

Svea ate half of toasted whole wheat English muffin and no oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of ground beef, no whole wheat elbow noodles, half of peas, and half of applesauce. Too bad I don't have a total of how many minutes Svea played with the legos this morning, but it was a LOT!!  She loves them.  She stopped to do some building before going to the window to wave at Daddy this morning.  And I had to coax her away from them.  In the first picture the majority of this particular piece was done by Svea.  Atley stopped to join in for awhile.  (Atley had strict orders from Avi NOT to wreck Svea's work!!  Haha!) Next picture - Svea and Linnea were taking "naps" using pillows and doll blankets.  (Linnea is in the picture on the upper left; she's just completely covered with her blanket.)  Right after I took this picture Atley brought a stuffed animal for each of these two and laid the stuffed animals on their pillows. ...

Svea ate french toast and strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate whole 30 chili with meat, peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, tomato sauce, cauliflower, and spices.  She also ate crackers and tropical fruit. These first two pictures are left over from yesterday afternoon.  She was sitting on the igloo watching and entertaining herself in the mirror.  :)  Then in the second picture she's obviously jumping off the "first level" of the igloo.  If you zoom in on the second picture you'll see her tongue is hanging out in that one too!  Ha! Next picture - I was sitting beside her while she was reading books and this is actually a "selfie" that we were doing.  What a sweet smile.  Speaking of reading books Svea loves Story Time - they all do most of the time - and squeals with everyone and sprints to the couch. Last picture:  Again, as I've frequently mentioned, she loves building with the legos and blocks too.  She's d...

Svea ate bites of waffle and bites of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of chicken, no whole wheat tortillas, half of corn, and half of applesauce. This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon.  Svea was jumping on the mattress with this doll blanket draped over herself.  In "live mode" all you can see is the blanket jumping up and down. And of course she was giggling which made it super cute. Next picture - Linnea and Svea had this chair spinning as fast as their little legs could go!  Again, they were both laughing uproariously!!  Svea saw Lauralea preparing to leave for work and she was saying, "Watch me Lauralea, watch me Lauralea, watch me Lauralea." Next picture: Well have you seen a few pictures of Svea stacking blocks and making towers!?!  Yes, that's a favorite activity of her's.  You can see 4 towers in this picture and she built all 4 of them.  Last picture: I was getting a kick out of watching Svea put...

Svea ate kix cereal and a couple bites of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey (mixed with avocado that I fed to her), no whole wheat hamburger bun, bites of tomato, and most of cherries. I had to save this picture from Friday afternoon because it's so cute.  They were playing under one of the climbers and poked their heads out.  Look close at how the static electricity is doing a number on Svea's hair!! Next picture:  This is one of Svea's favorite activities right now.  She loves the blocks and legos and will work hard to construct something!!  Calahan is hanging around to watch her progress.  Thankfully, so far he hasn't had a block tower fall on his head.  :) Last picture:  Well speaking of constructing something, here's Svea using her creativity with the legos.  She was so focused on this!!  I love it.  She set up her "work station" several steps from the legos supply and she'd only bring o...

Svea and Avi ate breakfast before they came.  For lunch Svea ate hamburger stew with meat, carrots, green beans, and tomatoes.  No whole wheat dinner roll and a couple bites of apricots. Avi always wants to know everything I'm doing when I'm interacting with the other children;  why I'm doing it, what I'm trying to accomplish, etc etc etc.  She demands details!  And it's even more so that way of course when it has to do with Svea.  Sometimes I just tell her it doesn't have anything to do with her, but most of the time I fill her in with some extra details to help her understand.  One thing I really like; Avi almost always tries to reinforce my rules with Svea.  It's very sweet, cute, and sometimes quite helpful.  For example here's a Rule: the kids have to keep their clothes on at Daycare.  I said to Svea this morning when I saw she had one arm out through the neck of her shirt;  "Keep your shirt on at Gary's house."  Avilen...

Svea ate French toast and no dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of pulled pork, no whole wheat toast, bite of peas, and ate strawberries. Linnea was trying to get Svea to do something.  She said, "Hey Svea,  come on ."  It wasn't working and she turned to me and said, "Gary, she's not  coming on ."  Hahaha. First picture - I just thought it was very cute how Callahan was playing close to Svea and playing with the same stacking cups that she was using. Next picture;  Callahan was following Svea and Linnea up the steps to the blue balance beam.  The girls are looking at him waiting for his next move!!  Haha!  He really had no clue what the next move should be; so I put him on the mattress.  :) Next picture: Well it's a record Callahan; you made it into the first three pictures of Svea's Blog.  He was sitting here thumping on the blue balance beam and Svea slid down beside him and gave him a lesson in p...

Svea had no whole wheat toast and ate a large serving of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef with marinara sauce on whole wheat spaghetti noodles, riced cauliflower (I fed her), and fruit salad. First two pictures;  First things first - Svea and Linnea cleared the stuffed animals off the mattress (see bottom of picture) and then they were ready to jump, run, flop, and somersault.  Next picture: Svea doing her tricky thing again.  She was on the blue beam and was threatening to flop off it backwards as well.  "No no no no."  That did not look safe at all!!  She occasionally makes me a bit nervous!  Haha!! Next picture:  Svea worked on this tower by herself.  She got it built up and then was chuckling to herself.  That was pretty cute.  I think she was proud of herself. Last picture;  Did I mention that she occasionally makes me a bit nervous!?!  She stood up and jumped off the top of this ...

Svea had no whole wheat bagel and ate half of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate shrimp, brown rice, couple bites of stir fry vegetables, and ate raspberries. I called one of the kids "honey" and Svea started saying it over and over and over and over.  Haha!  "Honey honey honey honey.......honey honey honey.........honey honey."  She stopped for a few minutes and was playing on the other side of the room and pretty soon it was, "Honey honey honey." Svea had her usual good morning; actually all the kids do wonderful unless someone is not feeling well or is tired.  Here are a few pictures;  Svea asked for help to take off her sock; I didn't hear it, but Atley said she did.  Ha!  Atley really likes Svea and likes to help her when there is an opportunity. Svea likes Atley as well. Next picture;  Svea gives Callahan loves every morning.  He'd just got up from his nap here in the picture and right after I took the picture he went...

Svea ate bran cereal and a few raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken (mixed with her avocado that I fed her), no whole wheat pita bread, bite of tomato, and ate her pears. This first picture is left over from Friday afternoon when Svea was being a clown and everyone was laughing at her.  She loved that!  In "live mode" you can hear her giggling and see her little tummy jiggling.  I told Avi that her sister was practicing to be the "class clown."  :)  At least she'll be a cute class clown!! We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and like always everyone stayed busy.  Svea, as I've mentioned several times, loves her books.  (Actually this entire group loves books.)  She explored and played with lots of different toys, but frequently went back to the books.  By the way, I wanted to mention that one of the times I took Linnea potty Svea wanted to go along and witness the operation!  It will be a few weeks...

Svea ate cream of wheat cereal and licked a dried plum for breakfast.  For lunch she ate all her Shepherd's Pie with meat, potatoes, green beans, and carrots.  She had no whole wheat tortillas, and ate cherries. Svea was sitting in the cozy corner reading books like she does every day!  She was saying, "ack ack ack....ack ack ack."  Earlier we'd been reading/singing, "Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack, all dressed in black black black, with silver buttons buttons buttons, all down her back back back."  Singing is such an awesome way for them to learn language. First picture; Svea played with the legos with Avi and Atley and then continued to build with them after the older girls were done.  Second picture;  Svea wanted to color with the older girls.  As you can see by the picture she's not real picky about where she colors; paper or her face!  :) I love this last picture.  I just finished putting a clean diaper on Svea and put on her j...

Svea had bites of waffle and ate a large serving of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of baked beef kabobs with meat, zucchini, pineapple, and peppers.  She ate brown rice and bites of pineapple on the side. We have this "no singing" rule at meal times.  It primarily started because Atley LOVES to entertain (mostly herself - haha) and Nora was usually the target audience.  Anyhow, I too frequently forget and start singing and the kids all chant, "No Singing!!  No Singing!!"  Yesterday afternoon outside on the patio I was singing and Svea said, "no singing."  That made me laugh.  She said it again this morning at breakfast.  I wasn't singing.  So I guess she was just reminding me.  :) First picture from yesterday afternoon.  Avi and Atley asked to do some sidewalk chalk and then they got distracted doing something else.  Svea ended up the only one to play with the chalk.  She played with it for se...

Svea ate French toast and two servings of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate whole 30 chili with meat, tomatoes, tomato sauce, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and lots of spices.  No whole wheat dinner roll and she ate tropical fruit. These first pictures are from outside yesterday afternoon.  First picture is when Linnea and Svea were pushing the ice cream carts up and down the sidewalk waving and saying, "goodbye goodby."  Where are you going?  Linnea said, "Costco."  And Svea started saying, "Costco Costco Costco."  :)  Second picture; She was bouncing on the big ball.  :)  Third picture; She looked and acted like she was gonna try walking on the narrow railing on the climber.  But she made a good decision and got off of there. Next picture:  Svea and Linnea in some dress-up costumes playing on the mattress.  Speaking of the mattress I was playing with the kids and laying my head on Linnea.  I ke...

Svea ate half of whole wheat English muffin and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate several bites of pork chop mixed with applesauce (which I fed to her), bites of whole wheat toast, and bites of beets. First picture: Linnea said she wanted some water and of course Svea needed some too.  Avi was serving the water.  Svea is sitting in the designated "water drinking spot."  Thank you Avi!!  Svea is keeping an eye on Linnea's drinking progress!  Following picture:  Linnea is sitting in the chair working on legos and Svea is pushing the chair around and around.  Atley joined them and was sitting on the floor yelling, "Red light!!  Green light!!"  But without too much success!  It worked better when she simply said, "GO!  STOP!!"  Ha! Next two pictures; Svea going off the climbing beam backwards.  She's so funny!!  (It's a bit blurry for obvious reasons!!  Actually 2 reasons; she's mo...

Svea ate whole wheat Chex cereal and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef mixed with avocado, no whole wheat hamburger bun, bites of tomato, and no oranges. I have a note left over from Friday afternoon!  Nora was asking for help with getting her jacket zipped up.  Everyone was busy getting their own stuff on, I was helping Callahan get bundled up, so Nora asked, "Can you help me Svea!?!  Can you help me Svea!?!"  That totally hit my funny bone.  Nora doesn't want to "waste" too much energy putting on her own things when someone is nearby that can potentially help her!!  And surely Svea should be able to help her!!  Haha! Here are some pictures from Svea's morning at Little Treasures.  She was trying to make a step/stool so she could see what I was doing on the changing table.  Then the block arrangement kind of took on a life of it's own.  :)  Following picture; Several times this morning Svea was building...