Hudson - 9/29/2017

Hudson ate malt-o-meal cereal and bite of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch he ate bites of "beef kabobs" (beef, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms), ate bites of whole wheat toast, and ate his pineapple. We were eating breakfast when Nora arrived and after Momma Emily went out the door Hudson said, "I wanna wave at The Emily."  Haha!  "The Emily."  Then Avilene started chanting it too!!  "I wanna wave at The Emily."  So they went to the window.

I was visiting with Baby Nora at breakfast and I asked, "Hey Nora, what does Birdie say?"  Hudson said, "Tweet tweet."  Avilene said, "Tweet tweet."  I said, "You guys will have to talk to The Emily so she can explain this to you.  Haha!!  I wasn't about to tell Hudson (or Avilene) that Birdie is the name of the Hansen Family Dog!!  Haha!  They would have verbally processed that concept ALL morning!!

Hudson was holding a mirror in front of Nora's face and then Atley's face.  He was saying,  "This is Nora.  This is Atley."  Ha!  These are some new mirrors I got; one side magnifies and the other side distorts!  (Hey!  Just trying to start them off with a good self-image! Ha!)

There were several robins in the yard when I took this picture.  This robin hopped down to the ground and Hudson said, "He fell off!"  Haha!  Robins are one of the more "calm" birds around and these kept hopping closer to the window and they didn't fly when the kids were shuffling around at the window.  We were able to watch them for several minutes.

Hudson - 9/28/2017

Hudson ate waffle and fruit salad for breakfast.  He had a few bites of lunch:  Shepard's Pie with hamburger, green beans, carrots, and potatoes, a couple bites of whole grain tortillas, and nibbled on a cherry.

This is just an FYI for everyone.  I'm having issues with my printer so I've not printed hard copies of the invoices for October.  Childcare payments are due Monday, October 1st and I'll print receipts as soon as I figure it out.  Thanks.

Baby Nora was looking at one of the color posters and Hudson went over and started pointing at colors saying, "This is brown, this is green..."  He's quite zealous in his presentation, but not too concerned about accuracy - especially with colors!!  (Haha!  I know just how you feel Hudson.)  He pointed at yellow today and said, "This is pink!"  :)

Nora was doing some more of her "snow-plowing" with the blocks.  Except she'll push up against the throw rug and then she's stuck!  And yelling of course!  Hudson was quite sweet.  He asked her, "Do you need help."  Then he came and told me that "Nora was whining."  :)  Ok, thank you for telling me Hudson and thank you for taking care of the situation.

I love this first picture!!  This is a bit of role reversal; Avi the teacher and Hudson the student!  They are basically doing this the same way I ask questions about colors, animals, etc.  Except Avi's question was the same for every picture/letter of the alphabet; "Is this a birdie?"  Then she'd go to the next letter;  "Is this a birdie?"  Haha!!  It was so cute!

Hudson - 9/26/2017

Notice to all Blog readers:  There will be no Blogs tomorrow, Wednesday, September 27th.  Little Treasures is closing at Noon on Wednesday so I can get an MRI of my neck.  The Blogs will resume on Thursday.

Hudson had a Doctor check-up this morning and arrived at Little Treasures about 10:00.  For lunch he ate pork chop meat, bites of bread, roasted vegetables (ate sweet potatoes, half of beets, bite of red potatoes), and ate lots of applesauce.

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon and Hudson was saying, "It's a monster car Avi!!  It's a monster car!"  Avi was not real impressed (maybe the book was too close to her face!  Ha!), but she sat there for a few moments and then went and grabbed another book and handed it to him!  One more note from yesterday; We picked up toys before we went outside and Avi and Hudson worked so hard and stayed on task!!  I was impressed.  I was very specific about the "jobs" I gave them.  "You can put books in the bookrack Avi."  "Hudson, you can put legos in the legos drawer."  Just a side note: When talking with this age group I rarely/almost never begin a sentence by saying, "Do you want to....?"  I frequently give them choices, but that's different.  "Do you want to put away the legos or the books?"  (Now that's a choice I can live with!)

Here are some more pictures from this morning's activities.  Nora went to the gate and gave Daddy Colin a high five!  So cute!!  In the following picture: Hudson is showing Nora his sticker and said, "I got it from the Doctor!"  (Nora had immediately noticed that sticker was trying to pick it off his shirt!  Ha!)  I was at the changing table working on my notes and when I turned around these three (in the last picture) were tightly huddled on the couch.  Nora was there first, then Avilene, then Hudson.  :)

Hudson - 9/25/2017

Hudson ate chex cereal and peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ground beef, hamburger bun, bites of lettuce, tomato, and mushrooms.  No oranges.

Reid's Grandpa and Bode (Reid's brother - no school today) stopped by for 5 minutes this morning to say hi!  So nice to see both of them and Bode coaxed Hudson into giving him a "high 5."  He would have quickly and easily done so except he wasn't familiar with Grandpa so he was a bit cautious!  :) And it was the same with the other children too.  Hudson has always loved Bode!!  And Bode is so sweet to Hudson as well!

This picture is similar to the pictures I posted one week ago!  Every day he picks up these 2 tools and asks, "What's this one called?"  Then  the other tool; "What's this one called?"  And I answer the same every day; "Hudson, What's this one called?"  Ha!  He tells me "drill" or "stapler" and plays with them for a minute and then he's done.  :)

Hudson and Avilene were having lots of fun jumping and I took this first picture when they increased the difficulty level of their jumps.  Haha!  Then in the last 2 pictures Hudson was reaching a bit too far for his tower.  So we moved it over - actually he did all the work, I just watched and guided him - and he continued to work on it.

 

Hudson - 9/22/2017

Hudson ate oatmeal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate tilapia, whole wheat elbow noodles, green beans, and two servings of applesauce.  So at Lunch I asked this question: "Who is not here today?"  This age of kids NEVER think like adults (that's your free tip for the day), but I always like to ask "adult" type questions because the answers are always funny, but enlightening!  Ha!!  Again; "Who is not here today?"  So they've had ALL morning to realize Baby Nora is not here today (not feeling well) and surely someone will get the right answer!  Right?  Wrong!  Surprisingly, Avilene was the only one who gave an answer and it was a dandy!!  "JACKSON!!"  I roared!!  Well, I'll give you partial credit because you're right; your cousin Jackson is not here today.

First picture - Hudson was building another vacuum.  And cleaning my floor!!  Second picture - Hudson and Atley were playing in the igloo and she was giggling and loving it!!  Hudson liked making her laugh and squeal.

Hudson and Avi were riding in the swivel/rocker while Atley was pushing it around and around.  She started pushing just Avi and of course Hudson wanted on, but she never did completely bring it to a stop.  He was jogging along beside the chair saying, "I want on, I want on."  And he made it!  (They were having fun and he never got to the point of frustration for me to help out.)

Here are a couple more pictures from this morning's activities.  The kids had fun doing some dot painting at art time and then I brought in a blanket off the patio for them to play in a tent.  Avi, Atley, and Hudson are all under the blanket - I guess you'll have to take my word for it, but they are there!! (I see two different feet and a hand sticking out!)

Hudson - 9/21/2017

Hudson ate whole wheat bagel and two servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of sausage & hamburger pizza, whole wheat pizza crust, olives, mushrooms, peppers, tomato sauce, pineapple, and two servings of pineapple on the side.

Hudson was surprised to see Avi's Momma Molly driving the truck this morning!!  He said, "Hey!!  She's in Andy's little blue truck."  haha!!  Cracked me up!  I have no idea if it's blue or not, but I like the descriptive word "little."  :)

Sophie came and visited for almost an hour this morning and it was so much fun.  She wanted to read Special Stories and we read several.  As I've mentioned several times I will read all but the last word of a sentence and let the kids finish the sentence.  So, I was reading "On Top Of Spaghetti" and Avi kept answering with the word "meatball" for every sentence.  We were laughing so hard because Avi was being silly and as long as we laughed she wasn't about to quit!  Sophie was roaring!!  For example; "It rolled off the ........"  Avi said, "Meatball!"   (Answer is "table.")  Another one; "It rolled in the ........"  Avi said, "Meatball,"  (Answer is garden.)

I took this picture when these 3 kids were looking at the poster and Hudson was in his "teacher mode."  He was saying, "Show me the deer, Avi, show me the deer."  "Show me the fox Avi, show me the fox."  :)  Atley was just watching and rarely pointing so Bubba directed his questions at Avi.  Ha! In the last picture the kids were having fun peeking through the hole at each other.  They acted like it was the first time they'd really noticed the hole.  Hudson said, "I'm putting my eyeball up here."  :)

Hudson - 9/20/2017

Hudson ate whole wheat toast and most of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate pork chop, two servings of whole grain tortillas, ate bites of carrots and potatoes, and ate fruit salad.  At breakfast Hudson was quizzing Avi with some sign language;  "What's this Avi, what's this?"  So I asked him what it was and he wasn't sure.  BUT he knew it was a "sign."  (He was doing the sign for the color "red.")

I took this first picture yesterday afternoon when Kenzie was reading to the kids.  She needs to get 20 minutes of reading every day.  Sometimes she can coax the kids into listening, sometimes not.  :)  Hudson is usually more than willing to sit and listen forever, but not yesterday.  I like how Avilene is looking over Kenzie's shoulder.

I told Hudson I was going to run and get the mail and he said, "Watch for cars and don't ever ever ever ever crash."  Haha.  Ok.  Then he started saying the same thing again, except this time he got stuck on the "ever" part and repeated it at least 7 or 8 times; "and don't ever ever ever ever ever ever ever...."  He had a silly grin on his face and never did finish the sentence.

I had a physical therapy appointment this morning and I was back at Daycare just a few minutes after 8:00 and that is why our car is parked in front of the window.  So the kids got to wave at Lauralea when she was leaving for work.  You can see Lauralea's hand waving out the window.

Hudson - 9/19/2017

Hudson ate half of his toasted whole wheat english muffin and bites of dried plums for breakfast.  (He said he didn't like the plum, but he gave it a good try.)  He said, "Are you the muffin man?"  Haha! Isn't that cute?  I loved it.  (That song had played on the iPod before breakfast.)  For lunch he ate chicken with stir fry vegetables, half of brown rice, and ate oranges.

Hudson was watching Atley play this morning.  He looked at me and asked, "Is she not talking?"  Ha! Nope, she's not talking yet.  Actually, she talks a LOT and LOUD!  We just can't understand her yet! So I asked him if he was a "talker" and he grinned all over and said, "Yup."

This first picture is the 3 jumpers getting ready to go again!  Lauralea asked Hudson this morning who helped him learn to jump and he quickly answered, "Kenzie."  :)

Hudson was having fun creating with the blocks and built this "sidewalk" (his words) you see in the next picture.  Avilene came by and was testing it out.  I love the last picture.  I asked him what he was doing and he said it was his "vacuum."  That's actually a pretty good looking vacuum!!  :)

Hudson - 9/18/2017

Hudson ate most of breakfast: cheerios and banana.  For lunch he ate meat from taco salad, ate olives, no tomato, lettuce, or salsa.  He ate pita bread and cantaloupe.

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and Hudson kept busy exploring all the toys.  In the first 2 pictures he's playing with some tools; drill and stapler.  We read books at Story Time too, but we didn't do any Art or go outside.  The Monday of Toy exchange is always busy and I just let them have a full time of exploring!  In the 3rd picture he played with the food toys and was putting ketchup and then some mustard on his sandwich.

If you read Hudson's Blog from Friday I think I mentioned how hard Kenzie was working with Hudson on Thursday afternoon.  Well, she kept after Him on Friday afternoon and her persistence paid off! She got him to jump off the climber and she gets all the credit.  She worked so hard at it.  Way to go Kenzie and way to go Hudson!!  Here's a picture of all 3 jumpers this morning!!  They don't "line up" like this very often so I take what I can get!

These last 2 pictures were taken minutes apart shortly before lunch.  (Nora is tired and ready to eat.) Hudson went over and at first tried to use Nora for a pillow!  Ha!  Then he laid his head beside her and said, "Nora missing me."  Right.  Maybe it's you missing Nora!?  She moved away from him, but he was not to be deterred.  I think in the last picture he's telling her how much she misses him and trying to coax her into agreeing with him.  Haha!!  A couple minutes later he was playing "This piggy went to market" with her toes. You gotta give him a point for being persistent.

Hudson - 9/15/2017

Hudson ate bites of brown rice and one or two raisins for breakfast.  For lunch he ate salmon, dinner roll, two servings of corn, and ate mangoes.

When Daddy Andy brought Avi this morning he had Avi tell me what she plans to do tomorrow;  "I play soccer with Jackson."  So cute.  Well I'm glad he supplied me with that information because after breakfast I over-heard Avi telling Hudson the same thing; "I play soccer with Jackson."  Hudson's answer was SO adorable!!  "Ok, I be right here if you need me."  Ahhhh.  It was so cute.  Then he wandered around repeating, "soccer Jackson, soccer Jackson, soccer Jackson."  :)

I took this first picture yesterday afternoon when Kenzie was reading to Hudson.  This is a perfect match! Kenzie is wanting to read 20 minutes every day, but she likes to read aloud to someone!!  Well let me introduce you to Bubba!!  He will pretty much listen all day so it works just wonderful!!  Speaking of Kenzie, I want to tell you about her efforts to help Hudson jump off the balance beam onto the mattress!  He's not comfortable with that yet, but he'll stand on the beam, hang on to the wall and step onto the mattress.  Kenzie was trying everything she could think of......pile up pillows for him to jump onto, pile up stuffed animals for him to jump onto, jump into her arms, hold his hand while they jump together, etc......  He continued to just step off.  She finally said, "Well, at least it's a start."  So cute.  Thanks for all your hard work Kenzie.

Atley, Nora, Avilene, and Hudson were all searching for legos "flowers" (if you look close you can see one in Avilene's right hand), but Atley and Nora soon turned it into a very loud noise maker!!  And they were laughing uproariously about their success.  Hudson (you can barely see him in upper right of photo) meanwhile, with his hearing sensitivities, was not appreciating it at all and had to stand up and walk away from the noise!  Then in the last picture you can see one of the many towers Hudson built this morning.

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Hudson - 9/14/2017

Hudson ate toasted whole wheat english muffin and most of oranges for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ground beef, whole wheat elbow noodles, peas, and two servings of applesauce.

Hudson was following Nora around with a stuffed animal and I had no idea what he was doing, but I soon found out!  (This is the fun part about having a very verbal young child!)  He offered this insight, "I'm playing a game with Nora!"  Oh, that's nice of you.  What kind of game are you playing?  "I'm taking her to play football!"  Haha!  He must see something I'm not seeing in Nora!!  She looks tiny and fragile to me!  Maybe she's really fast!!!!  :)

The activity pictured below of Hudson and Avilene is similar to the picture in yesterday's Blog about the "show me the brown" activity!  The book they're looking at is; "I Spy."  There's a picture of something on one page and you search for it on the opposite page.  They were doing a slightly different version, but the same idea!  Hudson was saying, "Can you find a bunny?"  Avi is pointing at a bunny.  He said, "You got it!!"  That was so cute.  Next he said, "Can you find a peanut?"..........   He enjoys leading the activity and asking the questions.

Like I've mentioned several times, I love asking this question; "What's this book about?" when we start reading Special Books.  And the children never cease to amaze me with what they can remember!  One of Hudson's answers today was; "The Aerobics Song."  (Sounded like; "robics.")  It's a cute book, fairly new that he hasn't heard very many times, named "Bearobics" about all the animals responding to the thumping bumping beat!!  (Coming from the Bear Boombox of course!!)  And the last picture I took during Dot Painting at Art Time today.

Hudson - 9/13/2017

Hudson ate most of breakfast: french toast and strawberries.  For lunch he ate several bites of Paleo Stew (with ground burger, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peppers, cauliflower, and broccoli), ate crackers, and tropical fruit.

Hudson and Avi were building side-by-side with the legos in the first picture. The following picture cracked me up with Avi at one of our color posters.  Hudson was saying, "Show me brown, Avi, show me brown."  (He's mimicking what he's heard me say previously.)  What's so comical about this!?  Well, he's asking her to do something that he's not yet mastered!  Ha!

Hudson is obviously impressed with how well Nora is walking!!  After a 4 day weekend he kept saying this morning, "Hey, Nora's walking!!"  She walked over to him and was trying to just touch him; notice his body language in the next picture!  (Leaning back, arm in defensive position!)  It was cracking me up!  She's just trying to touch you Hudson!  And he didn't want her too!  In the following  picture she joined him playing with the airplane and he was fine with that.  :)  In the last picture Hudson was working hard to stack LOTS of block towers.  One "rule" we have at Little Treasures: You build it, you get to knock it over!  You don't build it, you don't get to knock it over. So now all I have to say to the kids is something like this;  "Hudson built it, so it's his tower."  This is obviously not an easy rule to learn or understand for someone Nora's age, but they all do very well with it and I stay consistent.  (And she is totally getting the concept!)  Look at all the work that Hudson was doing and everyone was doing other things.  Nice job everyone!!

 

Hudson - 9/8/2017

Hudson ate half of his breakfast: oatmeal and apple bites.  For lunch he ate half of hamburger stew (with meat, carrots, potatoes, and green beans), bites of dinner roll, and ate apricots.

I'm going to give everyone a little update on why I've visited the Doctor on Friday and again this week. I've got some inflammation above my shoulder blade and in the muscles that go from my neck to my shoulder.  And I was having some muscle spasms as well.  It's been very painful and uncomfortable! So they started me on a strong dose of steroid and I should see some improvement over the weekend!  That is why Lauralea is hanging out with us today!  Thank you SO much Lauralea!  It made the morning totally manageable!

Hudson was playing with the blocks - well actually Avi and Atley were building and then he decided to join them.  I like his tower; especially the little yellow block in the middle.  That building may not pass inspection!  Ha!  (You all know I'm just kidding - At Little Treasures it's all about the process, not the end product!)  In the 2nd picture he was calling this his "hammer."  "My hammer; pound pound pound."  :)

Lauralea took this picture of me reading to the kids so I thought I'd post it for you.  These Blogs are about the kids, not me, but when Lauralea and I worked together we'd frequently have pictures of the caregivers with the kids!  In the last picture the kids were doing some "free-draw" and I asked Hudson what he was drawing.  He said, "mattress, igloo, and sidewalk."  Objects from his immediate environment.  We always called that "representational drawing" when they started drawing "something" and then want to show you what they have drawn.

Hudson - 9/7/2017

Hudson ate half of his french toast and bites of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of pulled pork sandwich, ate peas, and cantaloupe.

In the first picture Hudson was playing with the cars and the car ramps first thing this morning.  (See the car sailing off the end of the ramp.)  Atley was watching this and then she went and gave it a try.  Except she was standing directly in front of the ramp.  Oops.  That won't work; but she didn't care.

We didn't go outside this morning because of the smoke, but we sang songs and did some sign language.  Hudson is pretty interested in the simple signs we do and remembers several of them.  And makes wild guesses at the ones he doesn't remember!  Haha!

Here's the benefit of being the last to arrive at Little Treasures.  All the kids want to line up at the window to wave goodbye!  That's Andy, Avilene's Daddy in his pickup.  The kids were at the window several times this morning; watching school kids walk by, two different neighbors walking their dog, and some workers putting on a new roof across the street.  (See the last picture for the workers on the roof.)  By the way, I told Daddy Ryan (Nora's Daddy) what Hudson said this morning;  "Ryan didn't wave!!"  (Hudson is like the Classroom Monitor!!)  Ryan went zooming by and Hudson looked at him like; "Hey!  We're back here waiting!!"