"Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings." Psalm 17:8
That picture cracks me up, and I chose it as her "First Day of Toddler Time" picture because it's so typical of how students feel about school. My mom kept saying, "Poor Millie Janalee. Your life is about to change" when I told her we were starting our little toddler time on the 16th. It's almost like Millie Janalee is saying, "Seriously? Susu was right." It just makes me smile. Two things...Actually, we are NOT doing "school". We are following a semi-structured schedule of simple baby-friendly activities. It gives us a tiny bit of structure to our days, and it certainly doesn't hurt for us to do productive activities! Also, she really did wake up happy this morning! This picture is the only one I got before she started crawling off the couch causing me to snap a picture of the carpet as I lunged forward to catch her! Ha!
This sleepy head slept in until 9:30 this morning! We had a very busy and tiring weekend that resulted in wide open playtime til midnight each night, so I imagine my little bit was catching up on her sleep. And I let her. I was able to shower, start laundry, clean dishes, and sit down for a little bit before she began stirring and talking to all her stuffed animals. Gosh, that's so cute to watch!
As always, I walked in her room and turned on the lights. Millie Janalee stands up to begin her morning conversation with me. This is when she tells me all about her dreams. I listen and act surprised and completely enamored. Let's be serious. I AM enamored! Hanging on every babble that comes out of that sweet mouth.
When it was time to get her up and change that wet diaper, she waved "bye bye" to all the things in her crib and all the stuffed animals in the shelf on the wall. This is a must before walking to the changing table. Don't you all wave at your bed when you get up in the morning? Ha! While I changed her diaper and helped her stretch her muscles, I started our scripture song, "Keep Me As the Apple of Your Eye." I added motions, and Millie Janalee was completely locked in. We will sing this song for two weeks before moving on to the letter B scripture verse.
We went ahead and dressed in our toddler time apple shirt to begin our week of fun apple activities. Her red eyelet shorts weren't clean, so I dug this denim skirt out of her drawer. We walked together down the hall into the living room. She began quietly reading her books to herself (her all-time favorite thing to do) while I started getting her breakfast ready.
She enjoyed a late breakfast of pancakes, bananas, and whole milk. I enjoyed my waffles and diet coke, and our brains were fed for a beautiful day in the life of US! (Don't judge the health rating of our breakfast. At least she had bananas, right?)
After breakfast, Millie Janalee and I took Farley outside to potty before we took a little mid-morning stroll to the mailboxes. The weather was quite pleasant. I planned to let Millie Janalee play outside in the courtyard area of our apartment complex, but apparently the sprinklers had been on recently and everything was wet. So we just got the mail and headed back to the apartment to start our day.
We got home and hydrated in time for our indoor activity - Clean up...or NOT! It was so simple, and Millie Janalee really enjoyed it. In fact, later in the day she continued on her own here and there. Basically, you load a laundry basket with stuffed animals or dolls. Dump it all out, and pick everything back up together showing her how we clean up. Millie Janalee enjoyed taking turns with me putting stuffed animals back into the laundry basket. I found myself singing the dreaded Barney song, "Clean up. Clean up. Everybody everywhere. Clean up. Clean up. Everybody do their share." Oh, the big purple dino strikes again!
After awhile it hit Millie Janalee that she recognized one of those stuffed animals. Her first dolly! She grabbed that baby doll and held her close. We call it "Looooove the baby!" She used her other available hand to continue cleaning up...or not!
She got a taste of what it's like to clean up behind her. After she worked so hard to load the laundry basket, I would just dump it all out. Haha! Welcome to my world, sweet girl!
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| Seriously Mama?! |
She and dolly snuck off to her bedroom. They played on the floor and after awhile, the dolly needed some love apparently...
She told her dolly all about turning one and showed off her birthday outfit (that is still hanging on her closet door). We talked about the number one and I reminded her how she used to say "one" and hold up one finger. No such luck today, but I tried.
It was at this point she walked over and gave the mamarazzi a piece of her mind! I'm pretty sure she may be blind after I snapped this picture of her grabbing the camera. Haha!
The dolly got bored, so Millie Janalee moved on to another adventure. She showed me where her nose is. She's getting closer and closer. When we first learned where her nose is, she would point to her cheek (in a tapping motion) so proudly and smile! Now, we are closer. Pointing just under her nose. One day I'll tell her that is actually her mouth. But not today. Today, I said "Yes! That's right!" and put my finger on her nose. We have also learned where her belly button is. She points to her belly sometimes and her chest other times. Regardless, she knows it is somewhere on her torso. That's pretty good in my opinion.
At this point, Millie Janalee and I needed to run a couple errands. I needed to run to the post office and the grocery store. I knew I was cutting it close with lunch getting closer, but I chanced it. We picked up our package at the post office (one of the inconveniences of apartment life) and did a little grocery shopping.
Let's take a moment to talk about grocery store etiquette. My Public Service Announcement: When you see a woman holding a toddler on one hip and trying very hard to steer a defective cart out of the store with one hand...offer to help instead of standing behind her acting like she's holding you up. And furthermore...when you see that same woman wobbling and holding heavy bags on all arms while carrying the same toddler to the car so she won't have to wrestle the cart anymore, offer to help her too. Thank you and goodbye! And for heaven's sake, flag the woman down when she drives off with her trunk up! Bless her heart. She's probably crazy.
Lunch and more playtime is exhausting, and it was time for an afternoon nap. I rocked my mini me to sleep close to 3:00, and she napped until nearly 5:00. Now that we take only one nap a day, it has become a very sacred time. Today I was already showered, so I loaded and started the dishwasher and started another load of laundry. I spent the rest of the time loading and editing picture from our weekend and even had time to turn the television on. Sadly, this is when I saw the Navy Yard Shooting.
Since our scripture song is "Keep me as the apple of your eye," I picked up some apples at Kroger. We picked up a Gala, Granny Smith, and Red Delicious apple. I didn't see any Golden Delicious apples. I thought it would be fun to let Millie Janalee hold the apples and to show her what apples look like. She basically thought the were the equivalent to balls...rolling them around and throwing them all over the room. I would hold it and say, "apple." She would grab it and hold it for a minute. I'm thinking, "Aww, she's checking it all out." About that time, she would chunk it as far as she could. Or roll it on the ground. Haha!
This next picture is the last thing I saw before that Granny Smith apple was hurled into my face. Thankfully the camera took most of the force and no bruises or bloody noses were evident. It scared me to death though. We are obviously working on our pitching arm these days!
Later on in the afternoon, we read Biscuit Visits the Farm, and I pointed out all the apples to Millie Janalee. We also found the animals we have been working on: dogs, cow, chicks, etc. I made the noises, and Millie Janalee managed her version of a "mooo." Or maybe she was moaning in frustration that I wouldn't turn the page.
Finally, we did some coloring before supper. Much like our last coloring experience, she enjoyed banging the crayons making dots all around more than coloring lines. But, she must've decided crayons don't taste all that good, since she chose not to eat any today. That's progress, I suppose.
Or a fluke.
I did my "mommy thing" labeling her artwork for the scrapbook, and all our structured "Toddler Time" activities had come to a close.
Until tomorrow.
We did have a good day. I felt more productive, and Millie Janalee seemed much happier with a variation to our schedule. I'm excited to see how the week pans out. I'll try to share some of our fun activities each week, but I'm not making any promises. One thing about doing these things...is a decrease in time to do other things (laundry, dishes, just sitting for a minute, etc.)
2 comments:
I think it is wonderful that you are spending time with Millie Janalee in this way. It is intentional, which is how Christ wants us to be in all things.
You may not have as much time for dishes and such, but you are making memories with your precious girl!
Yay for Toddler Time!
What curriculum are you using? I've found several free ones online, but would love your opinion or recommendation since you're a teacher.
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