Hudson - 5/31/2018

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

This first note is actually left over from yesterday, but I thought it was funny.  Less than 5 minutes after arrival Hudson said, "I didn't eat here yet!"  Haha!  No, that would have been a very quick breakfast.  So he asked, "What'd you guys eat?!?"  I guess he was sure he'd missed it!  So this morning I teased him and said, "Well we already ate and you missed it!"  He didn't miss a beat and said, "So are we gonna read Books!?!"  (Which is our first "after breakfast" activity!)  Even though he thought I was serious I consider that well played Hudson!  :)

Here's a picture of Hudson's first activity of the day - waving bye at the window this morning to Nora's Daddy Ryan.  Hudson put the plate in front of his face and said, "This will scare him!"  Haha!  Then Atley had to run get a plate and do the same thing of course.

I have to include a picture of Hudson with Svea every day this week!!  It's a good thing she's here or Hudson would be having withdrawal pains with Linnea gone all week!!  I showed him a picture of Linnea playing in the sand on an Oregon beach.  He said, "That's my favorite baby!!  So true!!

In the last picture; Hudson, Avi, and Atley were all wearing tutus and spinning in circles.  Hudson added another dimension to it by wearing the doll blanket over his head.  He said, "I'm getting kinda dizzy!"  I believe you!  You're spinning very fast!!

Hudson - 5/30/2018

Hudson ate bites of whole wheat toast and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate pork chop, most of whole grain tortilla, most of carrots, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, and he ate fruit salad.  At the lunch table Hudson scooted over by Atley, put his arm around her, and said to Avi (who sits across the table), "Take a picture." It was so cute and funny.

In the first picture; Hudson asked if he could talk to the Baby and he said, "She's happy that I'm by her side."  So sweet.  Svea does respond very positively to him!  I told him he'd have one of these at his house by the end of the year.  He said, "My baby is not a good player."  Ha!  2nd Picture; that happens to be an apron that Hudson and Avilene have stretched out between them! Hudson kept saying, "Come on puppy, come on puppy!!"  Sometimes the puppy followed, sometimes the puppy resisted!!

Here are a couple more pictures from this morning.  Hudson and Avi found the tightest cubby hole to play in.  And they played there for at least 10 - 15 minutes.  They love stuffing those bags completely full of random toys.  In the last picture you can see one of the ways they like to sit in the swivel/rocker and propel the chair around and around.  Bet you can't guess what Avi is yelling at Bubba?!  "I wanna drive Bubba, I wanna drive!!"  :)  Then Hudson had some news to share with Avilene;  "Hey Avi! There's a volcano erupting UP in Hawaii!"  She said, "oh."  He continued, "They were talking about it on TV."  :)

Hudson - 5/29/2018

Hudson ate most of breakfast: whole wheat english muffin and dried plums.  For lunch he ate chicken, bites of brown rice, ate stir fry vegetables, and a large serving of oranges.  At the lunch table Hudson looked around at everyone and asked; "Hey Gary! When are these guys gonna go to kindergarten??"  Ha!  So I asked him when he was gonna go?  He said, "When I grow up."  :)

Isn't this first picture cute?  Hudson asked if he could talk to Svea.  He loves the babies and is in training for being a big brother.  While he was watching Svea he asked me; "Did you hear the cute little noises she was making?"  So sweet.  Linnea is on vacation all week and Hudson was having some love pains dealing that!  "Is Linnea coming?!?"  :)

The next picture; Hudson pushed his pile of blocks over to the wall and said, "That is for the next working day."  :)  Then he was laying like you see in the picture working on something and I asked him what he was doing. He said, "I'm working on this thing that keeps going on and off."  :)  Nice job Hudson.  Picture number three;  Hudson was at the bottom of the slide while the others were sliding down and he kept asking all of them; "Do you want me to catch you!?!"  So here's Hudson "catching" Atley.  She intentionally kind of pushed forward and ended up on top of him and Believe me he wanted out from under her!!  She kind of just bowled him over.  :)  That made me laugh!!  But he kept trying to "catch" them!!

Here's a picture of an activity that all four of the "older" kids were involved in.  Avilene is at the bottom of this pile of stuffed animals, pillows, and blankets.  (You can see her feet and a few inches of her legs coming out the far end of the pile.)  It's pretty amazing she'd let them pile all this stuff on her while she lay perfectly still!  It makes me slightly nervous and I keep a VERY close eye on this kind of activity.  (It wasn't packed tightly and no one got on top of the pile!)  Hudson kept saying, "Don't move Avi, don't move!"  Well she really wasn't moving!!  Then Hudson said he wanted a turn and the first thing he yelled  - "Don't cover my face!!"  Ha!

Hudson - 5/25/2018

Hudson ate most of brown rice and most of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch he ate bites of salmon, ate whole wheat dinner roll, green beans, and mangoes.  Lauralea said, "bye kids" at breakfast like she does just about every day.  They (Nora, Atley, Avilene, and Hudson) were all laughing and giggling, waving bye and chanting, "bye kids" as she was leaving.  :)

This first picture represents one of Hudson's favorite ways to play here at Daycare.  Fill the containers with as many toys as possible and he sometimes combines that with making piles of toys.  Yesterday he had the majority of the toys in the room piled on the couch along with the pillows, dolls, and doll blankets.  The couch was full and stacked high!!

In this next picture Hudson and Avilene were pushing each other in the swivel/rocker and Hudson must have gotten a love surge because he laid his head in Avi's lap.  For a very brief moment!  That's about all she could handle!  haha!  Look at her hands; "ok, that's enough!"  She's ready to push him away!  Next picture;  Atley and Nora were using the legos flowers for pacifiers, so Hudson and Ave were like; "why not us too?!?"  :)

 

In the last picture the kids are waiting for me to take a picture after they finished gluing some animals at Art Time.  They enjoy the gluing as it's something we don't regularly do!  It's fun as long as I have a damp cloth ready for them to use to wipe their hands clean from any glue!!  :)

Hudson - 5/24/2018

Hudson ate whole wheat english muffin and bites of oranges for breakfast.  For lunch he ate half of ground beef, large serving of elbow noodles covered with a large serving of applesauce and ate all of his peas.  I know the kids are usually just about done eating if they start messing around at meal time.  At lunch today Atley was close to being done and she started closing her eyes saying, "nap time!" Avi and Hudson did the same.  Then Avi opens her eyes and said, "Morning time!!"  Repeat over and over.  (As you can obviously see this wasn't the first time for this game!!)  Ok kids that's hilarious, but lets go into the play room to play!!  :)

Lauralea was leaving for work and just like every morning all the kids were giving her hugs and telling her "bye."  Except this morning Avi said, "Watch for cars!"  Haha!  Hudson followed up with; "And don't ever trip!"  Haha!

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when the kids were playing in the two tunnels we have hooked together.  I think there were two or maybe three kids inside the tunnel when I took the picture. They were having fun rolling the big balls along in front of them.  I like how Linnea is just waiting for someone to appear at this end.

Here are a couple pictures of Hudson and Linnea from this morning.  He loves playing close to her and she loves it just as much!!  He's getting tons of practice being a big brother and he's loving every minute of it!!

Avi was playing with one of the little play houses and little people.  There is table, chairs, a potty, and other assorted "stuff" that goes with them.  She yelled for Hudson and asked, "Do you wanna go potty in here!?!"  He came over to have a look and said, "No."  She said, "Why not!?!  It's really nice!!"  Haha!  That made me laugh.  However, I always get a little nervous when children this age start playing and talking like that when they are no longer wearing diapers!!  (Please don't go potty here!  You're not wearing a diaper!!)

Hudson - 5/23/2018

Hudson ate half of french toast and half of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate paleo stew with chicken and turkey, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, green beans, and cauliflower.  He also ate lots of crackers and ate tropical fruit.  At lunch I said, "Ok everyone, Hudson went to Denver.  Hudson, would you like to give a report about your trip?"  He said, "Well, I went to Denver."  What'd you do there?  He said, "When I was a baby I went to the zoo.  And the museum."  Haha!  He was combining some trips!  What'd you do at Tutu and Pappy's?  One word answer: "Hammer."  So I told him I had a "Hammer Song" for him and I started singing, "If I had a hammer I'd hammer in the morning...."  Haha!  (That's going back a couple of years!)

Guess who Hudson was TOTALLY focused on for the first 45 minutes this morning?!?  He obviously missed his Linnea friend and everyone else was basically chopped liver!!  Ha!  Here's a couple of pictures when he was playing beside her.  In the 2nd picture I'd just asked him if he'd kiss the top of Linnea's head so I could get a picture.  At the same time she took off, but he wasn't about to quit trying to kiss her.  Haha!  And under the balance beam they go!!

Here are some more pictures from this morning.  Hudson was filling this "purse" very full of toys and then dumping them in front of Linnea.  The middle picture;  The kids had been running back-n-forth between the mirror and the gate - their favorite "running trail" in the play room.  :)  Nora's looking at Hudson and Avi like "come on, let's keep going!"  Look at Avi's face - There's your answer Nora! And the last picture is some more dot painting at Art Time.

Hudson - 5/18/2018

Hudson had several bites of breakfast: oatmeal and baked cinnamon apples.  For lunch he ate several bites of hamburger stew with meat, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, and hash browns.  He ate half of whole wheat dinner roll and a large serving of apricots.  At breakfast Hudson was quizzing me about why Avilene, Svea, and Atley are gone today.  It was hard to have a conversation with him as Nora's voice was loudly proclaiming; "Nor Nor here!  Nor Nor here!  Nor Nor here!!"  Haha!

This week Kenzie and Riley have been catching Roly Poly Bugs and here's another picture of the kid's fascination with the bugs.  Lauralea and I were talking last night about a little boy (who's now about to graduate from high school) who was probably around Linnea's age (10 months) and just like Linnea he would put everything on the patio in his mouth!!  We found 5, yes 5, Roly Poly Bugs in his mouth one day!  Lauralea was gagging and just about puked!!

Here are some pictures from this morning's activities.  I like the 2nd picture - only these 3 kids here today and they're in a pretty tight circle!  :)  Last picture; Nora upside down watching Hudson and Linnea disappear under the balance beam.  Here's another random proclamation from Hudson this morning; "Sunday Mommy is gonna go to the hospital where my baby is gonna POP out!  And Tutu and Pappy are gonna stay with me!!"  Wow!  That's not exactly what I heard about the Denver trip, but this comes from Mr. News Broadcaster himself!!  :)

Hudson - 5/17/2018

Hudson ate french toast and most of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch he ate pulled pork, whole wheat toast, half of peas, and ate watermelon.  At breakfast Hudson asked about Linnea; "Is she gonna get bigger?"  What do you think?  "She's gonna stay a baby!"  Haha!  Just so Bubba can have someone to play with!  These next 2 answers totally were because he was playing with Linnea:  We were waving bye at the window and I asked; "Hey Hudson! You wanna wave at Ryan?"  "No Thanks."  Next - "You wanna wave at Andy?"  "No Thanks."  Linnea is more important!  :)

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon.  There is nothing like a Roly Poly Bug to get everyone's attention.  Riley had it in the back of a dump truck and the kids gathered around.  They love watching them roll up into a ball.  Starting at left it's Hudson, Avilene, Atley (under the sun hat), and Riley.

Here are a couple pictures from this morning.  I like how everyone is vying for attention from Linnea.  Nora, Hudson, and Atley all crowding around the baby!  This is a mild mannered baby or she'd be screaming at this point; "Give me some space!!"  In the 2nd picture Hudson is giving Nora a helping hand.  This is a tricky puzzle.  All the pieces fit - they're all the same size - but you're supposed to match the front of the vehicle with the rest of the vehicle.  :)

Someone called on the phone today and asked if we'd do pictures of appreciation for the police and volunteers that are helping with the high water in the Missoula Valley.  (The person is going to come by and pick up the pictures.)  Anyhow, I told the kids about the phone call - they also listened to it on speaker phone - and after we were done with our pictures Hudson asked; "Are the police gonna come and get us?"  Hm..no.  Just the pictures.  Haha!

Hudson - 5/16/2018

Hudson ate two servings of whole wheat toast and most of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate a large serving of ground beef with marinara sauce, ate some whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate squash, and bites of fruit salad.  At breakfast Hudson said, "Atley is making me gag."  Oh really; How?  "She's talking."  Haha!  What'd she say that caused you to gag?  "Her milk!"  Interpretation: So it was at the end of breakfast and I'd taken their lids off their milks and Atley was messing around with her's.  I didn't actually see it happen (this time), but I've seen it before and that's my guess from what I was hearing.  :)  She was making sounds and apparently letting it run out of her mouth.  (Guess who doesn't get their lid off for a week or two!?)  Anyhow, it apparently did not appeal to Hudson!  Ha!

Atley was waiting at the window to wave bye to Hudson's Daddy Colin and she was playfully thumping her head on the window and each time saying, "Ow, Ow, Ow."  This is a frequent occurrence.  Hudson looked at her this morning and said, "That's not funny."  Haha!  Now that made me laugh!!  :)  Then the kids were also waving bye to Daddy Ryan (Nora's Daddy) at the window this morning and all 4 kids (including Nora) were chanting; "Emily's car, Emily's car, Emily's car."  Haha! They know which parent drives which car!!

Then later the same 4 kids were playing with the stuffed animals and pretending the animals were their babies.  And everyone was making LOTS of "baby sounds!"  (And in Atley's case it was LOUD baby sounds!)  It must have been pretty realistic because I invariably kept looking at the monitor to see which baby was awake!!  Haha!  Svea and Linnea were both sleeping at the same time.

I've explained in the Blogs before how the three oldest kids get puzzles for Nora.  Well this morning she was not cooperating so I asked Hudson to please not get a puzzle for her.  "She can try again later."  He said, "I'm never gonna give her a puzzle!"  Haha!  I really wasn't asking for a lifetime commitment of no puzzles to Nora.  :)

Here are a couple pictures from this morning.  This first picture was taken when just Atley, Hudson, and Linnea were here.  Last picture - everyone was working on building with the blocks.

Hudson - 5/15/2018

Hudson ate whole wheat bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate shrimp, bite of brown rice, ate stir fry vegetables, and ate raspberries.  At breakfast Hudson said, "I want more grapes!"  Ok, coming right up - as I'm busy getting food for other kids as well.  Hudson followed up with this; "Can you hear me?"  Yes.  Still more wisecracks!  "Is that better?"  Well, I couldn't really tell the difference in volume between request number 2 and request number 3! (He's certainly enjoying the whole hearing aid thing!!  Ha!)

Linnea was gone yesterday and the kids were happy to see her today.  She was waving vigorously at Hudson first thing this morning.  When I took this first picture Hudson was preparing to get between Atley and Baby Linnea as Atley was moving in on his baby!  That's close enough!  :)

Hudson was giving Nora a random hug and it was so cute. I told him that was so sweet.  And Nora was loving it.  Then in picture number 3 Hudson was more than happy to say hi to Svea and that's Atley's arm on the other side of the picture.  He's getting lots of practice around tiny people!  And he certainly loves them!!  Good job of being gentle Hudson.

 

And in the last picture you can see Linnea is on the mattress with the "Big" kids.  Yes, Nora too is one of the "big" kids!  Haha!  I judge according to capability, not size!!  As I've mentioned many times I love how all the kids can play on the mattress at the same time and rarely have conflict!  Part of the reason - NO toys allowed on mattress - nothing to fight over except space and that's a rarity!!

Hudson - 5/14/2018

Hudson ate most of bran cereal and bites of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch he ate chicken, ate whole wheat pita bread, no tomatoes, bites of cucumber, half of his peppers, ate olives, and ate pears.  At the breakfast table Hudson was asking me about movies I may have seen.  "Hey Gary! Have you watched Frozen?"  No.  "Have you watched Zootopia?"  No.  "Have you watched Monsters, Inc.?"  Yes.  This continued until we got to one I couldn't decipher what he was saying.  Something like; "Animals get wild" or "Animals in the wild."  Anyhow, none of my guesses hit the correct answer.  Finally he said, "Do you have your hearing aids in!?!"  LOL!  Oh man that hit my funny bone and I roared!  It was funny on several levels; one being the fact that he would never think it might also be partly him!  He saw how hard I was laughing so of course he repeated it!  "Do you have your hearing aids in!?!"  :)

It was a pretty normal Monday with a couple exceptions.  First, Linnea is home feeling kinda low from having a cold and secondly the kids were fairly tame for a Monday!  :)  Avilene was asking, "Can we do some of those blue things Gary?"  So in the first picture the kids are doing some of those "blue things!"  2nd Picture: You may have seen these, but just in case you haven't they are called water painting doodle mats and you can get lots of different mats with different pictures.  You put water in the applicator, color with it, and a picture starts to appear.  In this case it was simply 4 different colors, alphabet, and numbers.  Then after sitting for 10 minutes or so the mats are completely dry and bare (no picture).  Hudson just stared with "open mouth" when I showed the children their pictures at Lunch time which were now just blank!  :)  The nice part about Doodle mats is the NO mess, no cleanup factor.  I love it.  Last picture is "fun on the mattress."  All the kids were jumping with doll blankets over their head and Hudson is in the middle.  (Nora was doing it too, but I never caught all 4 on the blue balance beam at the same time.  Almost and then one would jump!

Hudson - 5/11/2018

Hudson ate cream of wheat cereal and dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch he ate a large serving of "baked beef kabobs" with meat, zucchini, peppers, and pineapple.  He ate a couple bites of brown rice and a large serving of pineapple on the side.  Hudson had a story for everyone at Lunch time.  "A woman lived in a house and she took care of an elephant.  Then she ate it.  That's a real story."  Haha!  Thank you Hudson.

These first two pictures are from yesterday afternoon.  Kenzie wanted to read to them and lined them all up for a story time.  By looking at the crowded front row, how long do you think this lasted!?  :)  You're right!  Not too long!  Especially after Hudson realized he could reach their hair with his feet!  Ha!  Shortly after this we were ready to go outside and the 2nd picture shows the kids chasing some bubbles.  You can see lots of bubbles in the picture!

Another picture of more puzzle time!  They love their puzzles and they also love being able to go through the gate to another room.  We had a fairly normal (for Little Treasures) morning!  Everyone has a runny nose and is a little feisty, but that's part of "normal" around here.  :)  Hudson gave Avi a big shove and I had him come sit by me.  He soon wanted to play of course, so I told him he could go play when he told me "why" he pushed his friend.  (Kids this age can not answer "why" questions.  I just said it because I knew he'd think about it.)  He soon said, "Because I was being mean."  Holy cow!  I've NEVER had that kind of confession from a 2 year old!  You're forgiven; go in peace.  :)

Here are a couple more pictures from this morning.  Hudson and Atley were playing on the climber and mattress wearing some masks.  Atley manages to get the mask on backwards and upside down every time!  Ha!  In the last picture Hudson was doing some of his building again.  Also, Hudson was talking to Baby Svea this morning and said, "I think she's doing the 'I Love You' sign!" Well of course!  She's very advanced!  :)

Hudson - 5/10/2018

Hudson ate two servings of waffle and ate half of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch he ate shepherd's pie with ground beef, potatoes and sweet potatoes, carrots, and green beans.  He ate bites of whole grain tortillas and no cherries.  I rinsed Hudson's bib and then shook a few drops of water over his head!  I said, "It's raining!"  He said, "Old man is snoring!"  Well played Bubba!  (He skipped a line - intentionally.)

I'm not ready to let this story die yet, so here goes!!  Hudson told this story yesterday and re-told the story several times.  Well this morning Avilene told Lauralea about it!  "Hey Lauralea!  Maddy stepped in a puddle of buffalo poop!"  Hudson was not happy that Avi stole his story!  "Hey!" he said.  "That was MY story!!"  Haha!  We laughed so hard!  (I personally would like to see this story keep going!  It's too good to quit now!)  The part Avi did not tell was how, according to Bubba, it "wrecked Mom's purple shoes!"  Except Mom said they were polka-dot!  And probably even more-so after the errant step!  :)  Bubba failed to tell everyone that Momma was only 7 years old at the time!

Hudson frequently likes to arrange toys, blocks, etc into rows or some sort of order.  Here are a couple pictures from this morning depicting the idea.  Also, I wanted to mention how fun it is to joke with Hudson and his ability to grasp lots of simple humor.  I was getting Linnea ready for her morning nap and Hudson said, "I wanna nap too."  (about 8:30 this morning)  I said, "Ok, you can sleep in Svea's crib."  He (laughing) said, "That would be weird."  :)  Yes it would.

Atley, Hudson, and Avi were doing some skiing with the blocks.  Hudson could make these slide along the floor pretty fast.  Also this morning we read some new books that a family donated to us!  The kids love new books and so do I!!  Thank you to Kenzie and Riley's Grandparents and the books long stored in their attic!!  :)

Hudson - 5/9/2018

Hudson ate two servings of french toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ground beef, whole wheat hamburger bun, no tomato, no lettuce, ate avocado, and ate oranges.  So at Lunch Hudson was apparently conducting a random Infant/Toddler survey with only one question, but three options to choose from.  "Do you like Momma, Daddy, or pizza?"  The question was first directed at Avilene, but Atley and Nora wanted to participate as well.  The good news - all three answers got votes.  The bad news - the answers must remain confidential!!  :)

Hudson was telling Lauralea a story this morning and it basically went like this.  "Hey Lauralea!  One time my Mom was outside and stepped in a big puddle of buffalo poop!"  Wow!  Now that's a story Hudson!  Were you there?  "No.  They told me that story."  Oh.  Dinner conversation?  :)  He added, "It wrecked her purple shoes."  That's sad, but definitely worth the cost of a good story.  :)  So Hudson, here's a hint for a less messy and less exciting life; Watch where you're stepping!  :)

Here's Hudson's commentary while watching Linnea.  (Picture below.)  "Hey Gary!  She's putting her hand on there!"  Yes she is.  "Hey Gary!  She's standing up!"  Yes she is.  "Hey Gary!  Linnea's crying."  Yes she is.  She gets herself in a pickle and panics!  :)

It's kind of difficult to do sign language and sing songs with actions and take pictures at the same time.  But I wanted to give you an idea what that looks like.  You can see them lined up on the little step at the window.  When I mention signs or songs they race to this step!  They all participate real well.  Also a note about the kids doing puzzles.   All the kids help Nora with puzzles.  (She's not yet graduated to the puzzle area, but it's coming soon!)  Hudson walked by when she finished a puzzle and asked; "You want to do another puzzle?"  "Yes!"  So he takes the finished one back and retrieves her another one.  Later it was Avilene; "You wanna do another one?"  This time the answer was "no."