Svea's Journal

Svea ate half of French Toast and half of Dried Plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate pulled pork, ate whole wheat toast, peas, and two servings of strawberries.  (Some of this Science intro is the same as you'll read in Avi's Blog.) Today we were making "Crystal Art." They were instructed to make thin lines/designs with the glue all over their paper and try not to puddle it for the best results. In the second picture we were pouring salt over the papers to stick to the glue. This particular paper was Nora's and you can see she did a large N and O with a small r and a below. In the third picture the kids were using the syringes to apply the color of water they chose for their picture. It was easy to get too much water; the instructions were to carefully dribble the water along the glue lines. We'll see how it looks when it dries. Just an FYI: Doing this hands-on Art was WAY more enjoyable for Svea than some of the Science experiments we've done. Svea is y...

Svea ate a bite of whole wheat toast and ate mangoes for breakfast. For lunch she ate most of a large serving of ground beef with marinara sauce on top of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate cauliflower and ate fruit salad. All of the kids have enjoyed watching the new pictures we loaded on the digital frame and at meal time they frequently say, "new one!" "new one!" Also, here's a note connected to the pictures. Nora frequently gives positive affirmations to her friends. (Way more than any of the other kids.) At lunch she saw a picture of Svea and said, "You really look grown-up in that picture." Svea loved it. Yesterday it was almost Snack Time and Avi needed to clear off the snack table. (Which I'd asked her to do.) Minutes later I told her that she needed "to get with the program." Svea liked that phrase and kept saying it. Then she told Avi, "You need to get with the program." Ha. This first picture is left over from outside...

Svea ate half of blueberry bagel and half of grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate bites of shrimp, ate brown rice in berry juice, ate broccoli, and marion black berries. The oldest girls know there are some foods Lauralea and I do not eat. At lunch Svea asked, "Hey Gary, what don't you eat the most of?" That really made me laugh. I've always liked how 3 year olds word their sentences. Very entertaining. Svea wanted to do her puzzle by herself of course and she said to me; "Can you NOT help me with this puzzles?" :) Ok, I'll refrain from interfering.  At the meal table Nora saw a picture of Svea in the early years (ha) and said, "Look at you Svea! You were SO cute." Svea asked Nora, "Did you like me when I was that age?" What a super sweet conversation from both sides. Love it so much! The first two pictures are leftover from yesterday afternoon. This was the first time she did this puzzle and she took her time and finished it. Sh...

Svea chose not to eat breakfast. For lunch she ate chicken with avocado, ate toasted whole wheat pita bread, cucumbers, and no pears.   First picture - This one is left over from outside time last Friday afternoon. I always think it's so funny and cute when the smallest/youngest is the designated worker. Miles was pulling the wagon across the lawn and as soon as Svea and Cal noticed they sprinted for the wagon. "Pull Miles, Pull!!" Haha. Not successful; maybe on sidewalk, but not on the grass. Next picture; We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Svea was thrilled to see some new puzzles. That was the first activity she went for; puzzles!! I love how much she likes the puzzles and she challenges herself with hard ones too!! The one in the picture is not easy; there is not even a picture to go by, but she was able to complete it. Nice work Svea. Next picture: Here's another activity Svea worked on. She followed the guide and stacked then exactly like t...

Svea ate bites of whole grain cream of wheat cereal and bites of dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate chicken, most of brown rice, ate broccoli, and no pineapple. I forgot to put this in Svea's Blog yesterday, but I was helping Lauralea during Science Time and Svea just randomly said, "Gary, you're Lauralea's wife." Haha. So cute. No one - big girls or Lauralea - else corrected her so I didn't either. I said, "Yup I am." :) This week Svea has spent the majority of her time in the Preschool Room and she's been following instructions, following the rules, and doing lots of exploring. Pretty awesome to watch her develop new skills. First two pictures: You've seen this before; Avi introduced these puzzles to Svea and showed her how to do them. First picture is from yesterday and she'd done 75% by herself. Second picture; This morning it's the same puzzle and she did 100% by herself. There are 3 different ones to follow and she did...

Svea ate waffle and two servings of fruit salad for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground turkey, whole wheat tortillas, no sweet potatoes, and ate cherries.  This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon at the end of snack time. This is more about Avi, but Svea is there as an observer. Avi asked if she could drink the blueberry juice and I poured it into her little paper bowl. It ended up being more than I anticipated and everyone was instantly on hand to watch Avi make a mess. But she managed to drink it without spilling a drop. :) The second picture is also left over from yesterday afternoon when Cal and Svea were loading up their aircraft with a big load of food. Svea was giving orders about where each piece of food should go! Today was Science with Lauralea, but you can read all about it in Avi's Blog. Next picture: After Science the 4 girls all worked on some new puzzles I got yesterday. (12 - 15 new ones.) So Svea worked on a new 24 piece puzzle and I asked her if ...

Svea ate French toast and no oranges for breakfast. For lunch she ate no Whole 30 Chili with meat, peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, and lots of good spices. She ate whole wheat dinner roll, and ate her tropical fruit.  Just an FYI: Svea has been in her Big Girl Undies all morning since arrival. She pooped and went pee on the potty. She said, "Thank You for giving me some BIG privacy." Haha. You're Welcome. My interpretation of that; I let her sit by herself for a long time. (Checked on her two or three times.) First picture: Lauralea had this paper taped to the Art Cabinet when I got back and I'm not sure what she used it for, but I got some insight into what Svea was thinking about in regards to the poster. Haha. It took a minute for me to realize what she was making reference to!! It was a very random statement in my opinion!! Haha. Svea put her hands on her hips with authority and spoke to Cal with MORE authority: "Cal!! this is the last quest...

Svea ate half of whole wheat English muffin and ate grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate bites of pork roast, ate whole wheat toast, ate beets, and applesauce.   We'll most likely talk about this tonight, but just in case we don't I'll mention it here: Svea went poop 2 times this morning and potty one time. Good work Svea. Yesterday; "Hey, can you watch me go potty?" Today; "Hey, can I have some privacy?" :)  First picture: Nora joined Svea on the floor doing puzzles. Nora asked, "Does this puzzle have 48 pieces?" Yes it does and Svea's puzzle has 24 pieces. Svea loves doing the puzzles and I'll talk more about that with the last picture.  Next picture: Svea working at the Doll House. I haven't mentioned anything about changing the Daycare Room around and moving the Doll House and Preschool Reading area. Those changes really helped get everyone engaged while I was gone and made things a bit easier for Lauralea. Today Svea stated ...

Svea ate bites of peaches and bites of corn chex cereal for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground beef, toasted whole wheat sandwich thin, tomatoes, avocado, and two servings of mandarin oranges.    Well like always it's really a lot of fun to come back to a sweet loving welcome from the Daycare Kids. I give a huge Thank You to Lauralea for giving me the week to see precious family in Louisiana. Here's a picture from the Gulf on Friday and the water was so nice and warm. Lauralea had some nice pictures from last week too, but she wasn't able to Post them so I just picked out ones that I liked. This one is obviously from a trip to the park. :) You're being pretty brave Svea.  Svea was very precious with LOTS of loves this morning and a couple of random "I love you Gary" moments too. So sweet. Here are some pictures from her morning doing puzzles, looking at the popular roly poly bugs, and getting a hair-cut from Atley. Ha. We did some bubbles and Svea said, ...

  Svea ate a bite of banana and all of her cheerios at Breakfast. At lunch she ate all her strawberries, avocado and olives, several bites of pita bread and a bite of hamburger.   I spent some time teaching her our routines for handwashing and practicing so she can wash on her own.   Then I had her go wash her hands a couple times when she had stuck her finger up her nose, in addition to washing before meals and after going potty (which she did once this morning – pee).   She then told me she needed to go wash 2 other times because she had picked her nose, even though I didn’t see her do it.   Haha!   She was very excited when she saw the doll houses were in a little different spot in the preschool room and immediately wanted to play with the “new” doll house.   The other thing that she was very excited about was having me “teach her” how to use the tape the “right way”.   She practiced several time and is really good at ...

Svea ate brown rice and no raisins for breakfast. For lunch she ate salmon, ate whole wheat dinner roll, cauliflower, and ate mangoes.   First picture: Well you should recognize this puzzle by now! Haha. She loves this one and does Minnie and Daisy's faces first every time. As you can see she can even do it upside-down!! Ha. Silly girl. She always says, "Hey Gary, I got some matches." (The same phrase they use with the matching games.) Next picture: Nothing is more fun than sitting on your Sister's head! Haha. Avi's head is directly under Svea's butt. Following picture: Svea playing at the doll house. I love how engaged she gets in her dramatic play. She's very creative and her imagination is awesome.  Last picture; Now you probably already saw this picture in Avi's Blog as they were doing "Mother's Day" Cards. Everyone except Svea. Hahaha. I wrote "Happy Mother's Day" on the cards, but Svea didn't care. She said, "...

Svea ate most of French toast and ate strawberries for breakfast. For lunch she ate 2 bites of Hearty Paleo Stew with meat, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes. She ate saltines and most of tropical fruit. First picture: After breakfast and before we started "Mother's Day Art" Svea asked if she could do a puzzle. She's making good progress and is able to do this 24 piece puzzle by herself. She has done this one puzzle many many times. Maybe she has it memorized!! :) Science with Lauralea! We did something different today and the kids loved it and had a great time. For one week we replaced it with: "Art Project For Mother's Day." And it's a secret!! Ha. We'll see how that goes. So maybe the Blog will be shorter than usual; especially short on pictures because they did about 3 art Projects I think and the camera was NOT allowed to show their work. So here's a picture at the beginning as they waited with the...

Svea ate English muffin and two servings of mandarin oranges for breakfast. For lunch she ate half of ground beef, no whole wheat elbow noodles, ate peas, and bites of applesauce. I think Svea got some input from sister Avi, but it was still funny to listen to her and Cal. Cal saw a book Svea had and he said, "My book!" Svea said, "It Gary Sanks book." Repeat that (on both sides) about 10 times. Haha. First picture; Here's the kids eating their treat that Big Willy bought them. I like this picture because Daddy Andy was taking a picture and so the kids weren't focused on me! Atley had already left for Tennis lesson.  Next picture; Svea was the one who asked to do puzzles this morning. She's been on a puzzle kick and that's awesome. She loves doing this same one and is getting it mastered pretty well. So when one child does that others frequently follow and that's what's been happening. So three out of four girls are doing puzzles in the pictu...