January

January’s ice and snow, not to mention illnesses, tended to keep us home a bit more than most months.  But we got out the dinosaurs and sea creatures and we were not bored.

Nathan loves to dress himself for the outdoors or indoors in his winter hat.  It’s very cute to watch him get ready to go somewhere being so independent.  Nathan discovered building things this month and made tracks across the room with his waffle blocks.  He was proud of his work and it was curiously constructive for a change!

There were tea parties to attend.  Kaitlyn doled out invitations that were eagerly anticipated and accepted by the other kids and even myself.  Manners were worked on.

Nathan still climbed everything in sight that he shouldn’t and thought it was funny to be scolded.

We had lots of books out to read about sea creatures, dinosaurs and of course SNOW!

More construction took place as Nathan learned to stick the bristle blocks together.

Kaitlyn pieced dinosaur skeletons together coming up with some unique creations including some that could fly! 

Nathan tried that activity out as well as we listened to dinosaur music.

There were ocean puzzles to put together; Kaitlyn didn’t need any help with some of them.  We enjoyed trying to identify some of the animals and plants pictured.

To my surprise I found that Nathan can successfully work on simpler puzzles when they showed a match to make.  Kaitlyn gained confidence in putting together puzzles alone. 

Kaitlyn used the view master to see the story of Finding Nemo and always was sure to show me the scary parts.  Nathan loved curling up in the evenings for a good book to be read to him.

The household settled down enough once again for Sandy to spend more time playing with us.  She is always very curious about what the children are doing and was very happy to check out the toy bins to discover the strings that were out for stringing beads.  That is her favorite and I began collecting strings around the house again every morning after she would drag them around with her.

The kids got creative and enjoyed playing in the “dog house” they made under the piano bench.  Nathan-Pup barked and barked while my “Kaitey” Cat sang her meows.  They had quite a good time hiding out under there.

And Sandy seemed interested in just about anything else the kids were up to or had left out as well.  Nathan and Kaitlyn both expended some pent up energy on healthier days as they danced to the music on one of their CD’s.

The game “A B Seas” came out again and Kaitlyn would play this game for hours as she fished and matched capital letters to capital letters and then capital letters to lower case letters.  We even played using the “friendly fisherman” rules.  Spooky loved this game as much as Kaitlyn did and came speeding to the table from any corner of the house as soon as he heard the game come out.  I don’t know how he knew when this game came out but it must have some special sound.  It became very hard to play with him grabbing the fish constantly and he got put in the basement on a few occasions so we could finish our game in peace.

Nathan couldn’t get enough building in this month, no matter what the material.  He loved building and stacking, knocking down and starting over and over again and again.

Both younger children laced beads, Nathan needing minimal help but the interest and attention was present.

He got a few beads laced but really loved the big “necklace” that Kaitlyn had patterned for him using circles and squares.

Kaitlyn was creative and also used the wooden beads to make one ornate castle after another.  Nathan discovered that he could make “Daddy’s Eyes” (glasses) and look through them.  He made pair after pair of these to look through and enjoyed my chuckles over it.

Coloring was something that kept Nathan seated and occupied when Kaitlyn wanted to do something that Nathan would have otherwise destroyed.  He got very colorful on several occasions and walked around town with green and blue hands and face until he hit the bathtub.  I think Crayola has changed their formula again but the color still comes out in the bathtub (and washing machine).  I’m OK with that.

Kaitlyn’s drawings branched out to include flowers as well as other peoples names when she asked how to spell them.  Both enjoyed painting fishies with watercolors.

Sweet baby face makes even the coldest winter days seem bright.