Svea's Journal

Svea ate cheerios and no banana for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground beef, whole wheat pita bread, most of cucumber, and a couple bites of her fruit cocktail.  So it's Toy Exchange Monday and the kids are very busy as usual. Some Toy Exchange days they don't even want to stop for Story Time, but today we read several books. In this first picture Svea is busy at work preparing some food. She said, "Cal, I'm gonna work on your sandwich!" :) I like line-up of jingle bells on her right arm. Soon after this picture Svea and Cal were singing, "Jingle Bells." Next two pictures: Svea was putting these large beads on a string and making some fun color patterns. Look at the long string of beads in the second picture. And she managed to do all of that without spilling any of the beads. A small miracle, but still a miracle!! Haha. Last picture: Svea is measuring the table width. :) What do you have there Svea? She said, "Is this a 12?" Well actually tha...

Svea ate brown rice and a few raisins for breakfast. For lunch she ate salmon, whole wheat dinner roll, no riced cauliflower/sweet potato mix, and ate mangoes. The Food Program monitor showed up unannounced to observe a meal at breakfast, but the kids did great and it was a very minimal interruption. She has a 1 year old and 3 year old herself so maybe they sensed how comfortable she was around the kids. She was getting a kick out of Miles saying, "I'm done, I'm done" while shoveling more food in his mouth!! Haha. Cal and Svea were already done and playing and that was adding to his need to be done!! And I had  no  deficiencies so that was good as well!!  Cal and Svea were playing a "game" where he was holding onto her dress (nightgown) and they were running back-n-forth from the couch to the window; about 100 times!! :) They crashed and both were howling. We snuggled for awhile and then Cal asked Svea, "Do you wanna play that game again?" Well of ...

Svea ate toasted & buttered whole wheat English muffin and three servings of mandarin oranges for breakfast. For lunch she ate most of her ground beef, no whole wheat elbow noodles, bites of peas, and ate her applesauce. This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon. Svea yelled for me to come look what they were doing. "Gary!! You gotta come quick!! There's something REALLY BIG over here!!" (I like the "come quick" part. Ha.) They'd built the duplos in a single line from the wall to the mattress. That really does take a lot of pieces to go across there. :) All three contributed to their project. Second picture: Miles is having fun doing puzzles right after breakfast. Svea was still sitting at the table eating and watching him. She finally said, in a very authoritative voice, "Miles, if you would do the puzzle in order it would be SOOOO much better!" LOL! So funny. Here's the back story. The pieces fit fairly snug, but he's f...

Svea ate whole wheat toast and bites of fruit cocktail for breakfast. For lunch she ate Hearty Paleo Stew with meat, carrots, green beans, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, and cauliflower. She ate two servings of saltines and ate peaches. Svea worked hard to eat her stew so she could have more saltines!! And without complaining. Nice work Svea. Here's an assumption I usually make when working with Children ages Infants through Preschoolers. I assume they are  NOT  thinking like I think and I'm usually correct. We adults just assume kids think like us, but they don't and aren't capable of that yet. I find it hilarious!! Here's a quick story about Grandson Gideon from yesterday. He's 3 and playing hide-n-seek with a 2 year old cousin. She was "counting" and saying, "2, 2, 2, 2" while Gideon went and hid and then she cried because she couldn't find him. The Cousin's Grandma asked what was wrong. Gideon said, "She's sad because she c...

Happy Tuesday! Or as us Numbers People call it: "2's Day!!" 02/22/2022. Ok, I know! I know that's lame, but I still like it!! :) (I knew I'd eventually find something on Facebook worth reposting!!) Svea ate two servings of waffle and ate her grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate bites of chicken, no whole wheat tortilla, bites of corn, and no apples slices. First two pictures: One of the Preschool rules is to use the activities appropriately. However, ya gotta make exceptions at times, right!?! Look at Svea's feet in case you missed what she's doing here. :) When you are a Princess you sometimes get to bend the rules. Ha. Well she didn't crash, didn't hurt her feet, and didn't hurt the cups so I guess it all ended well. Second picture: And here she's using the activity appropriately. :) Next picture; Svea was reading to Cal and Miles was reading his own book and occasionally taking a peek at their book too. :) Following picture: Svea had ...

Svea ate oatmeal and no apple bites for breakfast. For lunch she had no hamburger stew with meat, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and green beans. She ate her whole wheat dinner roll and no fruit cocktail.                                              - Humorous Notes -  :) Svea was using a doll blanket like a cape and the boys wanted to join her. Soon the boys each had a cape too. Svea said, "If you're gonna be Batman you gotta wear a cape." Probably five minutes later I heard Cal tell Svea, "Batman has to go potty!! I'm gonna tell Gary that I....uhhh.....Batman has to go potty!!"  :) Svea had the boys playing some kind of game. I watched, but I had no idea!! :) Svea saw me watching and said, "We're playing a game." Cal asked, "What game are we playing?" Haha. He was obviously as much in the dark as me!! First two pictures: So it's hard to tell if Miles is getting hi...

Svea ate whole wheat English muffin and dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she had a couple bites of pulled pork, no whole wheat toast, ate a large serving of peas, and ate strawberries.  This is about Cal before Svea arrived, but I think you'll like it. Cal was the first one here today and shortly after arrival he came over and sat on the couch beside me. "WoooWeee. I'm gonna take a rest! That was a looonnnngggg week!!" Haha. And he uses the same inflection and intonation that he's heard when the adults say that. His memory for words is pretty impressive. He makes me laugh a lot and it's frequently with repeating phrases he's heard. Awesome. Cal was so happy to see Svea. This was the first question he asked upon arrival. "Is Svea coming today?" And she was happy to see him as well. When those two have been apart for a couple of days - like the weekend - they're pretty much inseparable the first day back. You can see by all the pictures tod...

Svea ate bran cereal and no raisins for breakfast. For lunch she ate chicken topped with avocado, ate whole wheat pita bread, ate cucumber, and no pears. At breakfast Svea was telling me a very lengthy story about watching the Movie about "Rapunzel" and I basically understood none of it except that her hair changed colors when she sang. And thankfully that was enough to convince Svea I was listening! :) Svea was happy to hear that "Rapunzel" was always one of Lauralea's favorites. :) First picture: We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange and Svea was playing with the Mr Potato Head. Well actually She and Cal were both playing with them, except Cal took off and that's what Svea is yelling about in the picture; "Cal! Come back and help me pick these up!!" :) Following picture: Svea is working on one of the puzzles. Next picture; I had to run for a very quick appointment this morning and Lauralea covered for me for about 30 minutes. I took this pictur...

Svea chose not to eat breakfast: cream of wheat cereal and dried plums. For lunch she ate a large serving of chicken and nothing else. Brown rice, broccoli, or pineapple. This isn't about Svea, but you might like it. After Miles was done washing for Lunch I told Cal to climb up and wash his hands. Cal said, "Ok Bob; Bob Hansen!!" LOL. He cracks me up. First picture: Svea wanted Cal to hide the eggs so she could find them. Ok, no problem. Haha. Cal got them hidden and when he was done all 22 eggs were in a radius of about 4 feet. Ha. Svea wasn't super thrilled with the lack of challenge finding them. :) Next picture: Well this is kinda what it looks like: Svea preparing to build with the duplo's and Cal watching. :) Additionally Cal was looking for a specific piece to grab before Svea got it. Ha. Following picture: We decorated some hearts with stickers, markers, and stamps. (Not everyone used all of those.) Last picture: Svea and Cal were experimenting with the ma...

Svea chose not to eat breakfast: waffle and fruit cocktail. For lunch she ate ground turkey, whole wheat tortilla, bites of sweet potatoes, and no fresh mandarin oranges. I'm sitting in my chair right now doing Blogs and Svea came running over and said/whispered, "I need to kiss you." "Huh?, What? Please repeat." "I need a tissue." Hahaha. Sometimes hearing loss is quite entertaining; but probably only for me and not anyone who has to put up with me!! :)  First picture left over from yesterday afternoon during the Boy's Nap Time. The book Svea is looking at: I have a friend in Northern Alberta who is an amateur photographer and did a wonderful self-published book about flora and fauna in the Peace River Country where she and her husband live. (We have been to their place to visit them.) I text her this picture yesterday and told her I guess the book is just as interesting upside-down. :) She loved it. Next picture: Svea was working hard at this lit...

Svea chose not to eat French toast or strawberries for breakfast. For lunch she ate several bites of her serving of Whole 30 Chili with meat, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, tomato sauce, peppers, and lots of spices. She ate her whole wheat dinner roll and ate her mangoes. Svea especially liked the sweet potatoes in the chili and picked those out to eat. Cal said, "Gary, it's a USPA Truck!!" :) "Well that was an excellent try and very close. If you'd drop one letter and then rearrange the reminding three letters you might come up with UPS." Haha. Svea has called it "USP." At least they have all the letters they need!! Next two pictures: Svea had gotten out the Log Homes building project and she's studying one of the illustrations. Cal walked up and asked if he could join her. (They are doing really well at asking to join instead of just assuming they they can join without asking!!) She asked Cal, "Can you look for this one!?!" He played wit...

Svea ate whole wheat English muffin and ate grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate no pork roast, ate whole wheat toast, beets, and several spoonfuls of applesauce. Svea was asking about a bathtub accessory she saw in the bathroom. "What is it?" I told her you put it over the drain to keep out the hair and unwanted stuff. Svea asked the coolest question; "Is it bad for the earth?" Good job Everyone teaching your children to care for our awesome earth.  First picture: Svea had only been here a couple of minutes when I took this picture. She knows what happens when she brings something from home into the Daycare. You gotta share it, or put it out on your cubby. And of course Cal knows it too and immediately raced over to the couch. She was not terribly thrilled, but the pillow was able to stay in the Daycare Room. Second picture: Cal and Svea were building block cars, boats, and motorcycles. I asked, "Is it a horse?" Svea said, "It's a horse and a ...