February

The month started out freezing cold with the groundhog giving us promise that spring was right around the corner.  Until then we are still indoors a great deal of the time.  In fact it seems that the entire month was spent indoors with colds, coughs, fevers, ear infections, sore throats                     and stuffy noses. 

February brings out the bears at our house.  Nathan enjoys playing with Pooh Bear and Friends.  He makes up little stories and helps them find and eat the honey and hide under the bed from Hefalumps when they are found.  He has a really good time doing this.

Kaitlyn adds more books to her repertoire of stories that she can read alone to Nathan and me.  Nathan loves this.  So does Kaitlyn.  Nathan particularly loved the books about bears.  Nathan looks pretty relaxed on Kaitlyn’s lap but is looking pretty big next to her these days.  They are just 6 inches apart in height and and 8 pounds apart in weight.

We enjoyed making some snowmen early in the month.  These snowmen are a cross between a snowman project my sister-in-law did and a snowman that Tristan came home with.  Kaitlyn enjoyed cutting and making a poke-out carrot nose that was her own idea and design.  Nathan enjoyed coloring and GLUING. 

Nathan learned to count to “two” all by himself this month to my surprise, and to say “circle” whenever he found that shape.  He enjoyed stacking the shapes on the rods and moving them between rods.  Kaitlyn liked sorting foods into food groups and serving up nutritious meals with one food from each food group for us.  Nathan just liked pretending to eat them or finding a specific food that was asked for.  Kaitlyn made sure we all stayed “heart” healthy during the month of Valentine’s Day by checking our hearts, temperatures and blood pressures. 

The kids loved stacking the giant Lego’s making towers of all sizes, shapes and colors and then knocking them down again.  Nathan mostly enjoyed dumping the entire contents on the floor so he could find the Lego car and people.

Bear puzzles were the order of the month.  While Kaitlyn enjoyed puzzles with more pieces we discovered that Nathan could successfully put together any puzzle labled “3+” all on his own.  Last month he needed some help still.  Since Nathan loves Winnie the Pooh he got lots of practice at puzzles by dumping the pieces continuously and putting the puzzle together over and over again.

Nathan also got the Little people house out at every opportunity and played and played with the family that lives here.  Kaitlyn greatly helped in creating some drama for storylines.  Our kitten, Spooky, assisted by becoming the “Big Black Bear” that everyone had to hide from.  So funny!

 

Meanwhile, Nathan’s spoken vocabulary expanded greatly as he played, learned and used his imagination.  He ALSO learned somehow that he could do just about anything and if we were unhappy with whatever it was all he had to do was say “Sorry” with a particular look on his face and then everything was OK again.  I’m going to have to watch this one.  Nathan saying “sorry” also came as a surprise to me but he has definitely figured out it’s usage and the fact that it comes in handy.  At least he’s trying to do the right thing so far!

Nathan loved getting a hold of colored pencils which are more readily accessible than the markers which he also enjoys but tend to turn his hands and face into a rainbow of color.  His big brother Tristan used some of his “sick” days recovering from two bouts of strep to finish reading the book of Matthew in the Bible for one of his Cub Scout goals.

Kaitlyn enjoyed interacting with stories and games featuring letters, numbers and shapes when she could get this light up electronic toy away from her brother.  She also practiced matching and stitching clothing on the wooden lace-up bear. 

February was a very good month for keeping warm like a bear and cuddling.  We are looking forward to March which will bring spring flowers and hopefully better health and outdoor time.  I already see little green leaf buds on my lilac bushes and Maple tree promising that Spring will be here in just a few more weeks.