4/12/12

Alayna ate of her blueberries and a little over half of her cinnamon raisin English muffins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate most of her canned chicken on crackers and all of her potato salad and her canned cherries. 

Baby Nora just loves Alayna (and all the kiddos).  This morning Alayna walked by and and just looked at her.  Nora instantly started reaching out to her, smiling like crazy and making sounds to get her attention.  When Alayna realized it, she immediately stopped and went over and talked to her and played peek-a-boo to make her laugh.  She really likes it when any of the babies respond to her. 

Alayna didn't cry anymore after mom left this morning, but she was quite out of sorts and extremely testy -- pushing on the kiddos, trying to take toys, not listening or cooperating until we "helped" her and so forth.  She is still testing now (1:10).  She hasn't been to sleep yet and I have had to go to her and lay her down five different times so far. 

Alayna was doing lots of belly flops and face plants on the mattress.  Sometimes she does it because she is entertaining someone or trying to make them laugh.  Other times no one else is close and she still does it and laughs at herself just as much as if she had a whole audience.  : ) 

There was big crow in the tree across the street from the big window today.  The kiddos were banging on the window with their hands and yelling at him trying to scare it away.  He didn't even seem to notice.  When he finally did fly away (several minutes later) Alayna started laughing and said, "We did it!"  : ) 

4/11/12

Alayna ate all of her peaches and about half of her biscuit at breakfast.  At lunch she ate most of her steamed broccoli and all of her dinner roll, baked beans and pineapple. 

Alayna asked to go potty twice this morning again and went both times.  She was wet both times also plus poopy once, but still she is asking and that is good. 

Alayna has been playing with little Emily more and more.  Today they were getting all of the books out of the book rack and standing them up in the big window sill then knocking them off.  Not exactly what the books are for, but it was quite entertaining for them and they weren't hurting them, so we let them continue. 

Mia is getting big enough to sit up in the corner of the couch now and she really liked it when Morgan and Alayna went over and were talking to her when she was sitting there. 

4/10/12

Alayna ate all of her waffle and about half of her hashbrowns at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her brown rice and her shrimp and a couple bites of both colored peppers and orange slices.  

Alayna continued to use her words great with the kiddos.  Several times Thomas or Peyton tried to take one of the toys she was playing with and she was very patient with them, pointing to another toy of the same kind and telling them, "There's another one", or even just waiting until they were done with it and then getting it back. 

Alayna told me potty twice so far today, but also pooped in her diaper. 

Alayna and Jadey don't get along very well most of the time.  Jadey likes to do what we call "stirring the pot" at times, where she just kind of walks around saying or doing little things that don't get her into trouble necessarily, but do irritate the other kiddos at least slightly.  Today Alayna was playing with one of the dolls and blankets, minding her own business.  Jadey walked passed her, but on the way by, grabbed the edge of the blanket Alayna was holding her baby in and kept pulling on it on the way by.  That pushed Alayna's button and she immediately went after her with her mouth open and ready to attack.  I had been observing the situation and was already on my way to intervene and stop Jadey, so I stopped the attack first, then Jadey.  

Thomas loves to imitate what he sees other kiddos doing and he often chooses Alayna for some reason (probably because he recognizes that she likes him and is often more tolerant that the other "big" kiddos).  Today, specifically, Alayna had a plate with some pretend pizza on it and she was "cutting" it with one of the play pizza cutters.  She was really working at it and Thomas watched for a little then went and found himself a plate, slice of pizza and cutter to copy what she was doing.  : ) 

4/9/12

Alayna ate about half of her cheerios and all of her banana at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her grilled cheese sandwich, most of her apple slices and a drink of tomato soup. 

Alayna was using the play drill like a quirt bottle today and cleaning the table, the kitchen set, the posters and various other things.  It was pretty funny!  She did it for about 20 minutes, the first 10 or so totally by herself and then the others picked up on what she was doing and joined her. 

Alayna was trying to keep a whole pile of tools for herself.  She had at least ten items (pliers, drills, screwdrivers, wrenches...).  Every time someone wanted one she would either screech at them or tried to hit them.  We intervened and reminded her of the "one for each hand" rule and then let her choose which ones she wanted and move the rest totally away from her so it wasn't so temping to guard them.  : ) 

Alayna was crawling around on her hands and knees with her tongue hanging out, panting and making little barking sounds, pretending to be a puppy.  Pretty soon Morgan and Emily joined in so we had three puppies. 

4/6/12

Alayna ate about half of her oatmeal and craisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her applesauce, her noodle and pea casserole with cheese and about half of her ground beef. 

 Alayna was "helping" Gary with Nora today.  She was starting to get hungry and he had to do a couple other things before he fixed her a bottle. Alayna (and Nora) loved her job.  She talked to her and then went over to the mattress and tried to entertain her.  I love the picture of Nora leaning over to give Alayna a love.  She has just started doing this to a select few.  : ) 

Alayna has been doing such a great job of using her words with the kiddos much of the time, especially Thomas.  He really likes to try to take something then run away to get reactions from the kiddos.  Now that she is just telling him, "Give it back!" it takes away some of the sport!  : ) 

Alayna is such a loving little girl!  She typically tries to hug each of the children every morning.  Sometimes the kiddos are a little leery at first when she comes at them with her arms out, but when I let them know she is wanting a hug, almost everyone responds positively to her. 

4/5/12

Alayna ate all of her blueberry bread pudding and about half of the extra blueberries at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her turkey burger on a bun, her kiwi and a couple bites of green beans. 

Alayna didn't cry any more after mom left this morning.  I immediately took her over to pick out one of our teddy bears to cuddle with and she chose the one with the apron.  She cuddled with it and me for about 15 minutes then was busy playing the rest of the day.  While she was examining the bear, she noticed that the apron had a tear in it and wanted me to take it off and throw it away.  : )

Alayna also played with the whole bunch of the bears.  She was lining them up on the couch then along the wall.  She also piled them up and jumped on them, sat on the biggest one's lap and just lay and rolled on them.  

Alayna and Emily have been playing together on the mattress quite a bit.  She has been partially Emily's jumping partner, but more than that her instructor.  She gives her instructions on what to do different and also will tell her "watch me" as she shows her how to do different things (backwards, sideways, somersault...)

4/4/12

Alayna ate all of her dried mangoes and over half of her whole wheat toast with jelly at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her beef and bean burrito and her tropical fruit and a bite or so of her sweet potatoes. 

Alayna played with the play keys and flip phones quite a bit today.  She and Kenzie decided that the dress-up deal was their car.  They had their keys and phone and when one would leave the other one called them back.  First it was Alayna that went to get something and Kenzie called to her, "Alayna, tumm in heeyah!"  Alayna got back in and said to Kenzie, "Ya ready to doe?"  They played in it for at least 15 minutes and had no conflict the entire time. 

Alayna also spent quite a bit of time in the big room playing with the dolls and accessories.  She was feeding the doll her bottle, wrapping her up in blankets, putting her in the cradle then rocking the cradle (a little too rambunctiously maybe, but...)  : )

In the back room, Alayna was so sweet.  Riley was sitting on the floor with some toys around her.  Alayna was playing with the little car garage and saw that Riley was really watching her.  She went over and talked to her briefly, then went back over to the little people's garage and scooted it over where Riley could reach it and play along with her.  It was really cute.