Syracuse

Here we are up in Syracuse, NY. Linda has an aunt, uncle, and two cousins up here we are visiting. Linda has had a great time playing with them and enjoying Tom's family. She has really enjoyed playing in the snow too. We went bowling this morning as well. She initially didn't want to bowl at all, but then warmed up to it and had a good time.

Linda's cousin, Collin, received a Tag from LeapFrog. I was showing Linda the Tag to see if she liked it. There was a page where the book said to touch a word on the drum. She touched the word "rug." Then the book asked her to touch the word "bug." She looked at the words on the drum, and started to point to the wrong word. She then stopped, sounded out the word "bug" and touched the word "bug." It was the neatest thing! She sounded out the word to see what letters she should be looking for. For quite a while now I've been giving her words to read, which she has done. But I had never given her words to pick out of a group. It was just a really neat to see her do that.

We had our playgroup Christmas party today. The kids had fun. We did a snowman ornament, ate lunch and exchanged presents. Here are some pics from it. The first pic is from Sunday w/Linda in another Christmas dress Mandi and Clara gave her. The next pic is all the kids waiting patiently for their presents. The next pic is Linda opening her present from Roderic and Latisha. They got her a baby doll. The last pic is Linda thanking Roderic for her baby doll. She was so happy to get it. Roderic doesn't look too sure about it all, lol.

Ryleigh & Brianna's Party

Linda went to Ryleigh's and Brianna's party today. She had a great time. They had a princess/prince theme. The girls dressed up w/wings and little tissue paper skirts. The boys had capes and swords. They made a shield for a craft. They did a pinata (that is one of the pictures, w/Linda and the other kids pulling the strings). They played pin the tail on the donkey (the pic of Linda w/the blindfold on). They ate pizza, and just had a real nice time.

The last one worked, so let's see if this one does. She was having such a fun time doing these words, and then having me play them back for her.

Linda reading

Ok, Here is one video of Linda reading,,,I hope it works! these are simple words she is reading. These are not words that she knows by sight, she is sounding them out. I feel like a magician trying to tell people this is real, lol. I have three videos all together. Maybe I can get the other two on as well.

Puppet Show

This morning we went to the aquarium for their puppet show. They always do a nice job. Today they did their puppet show from the book The Hat by Jan Brett. Linda is very familiar w/this book, and reads it often. She was sure to tell Miss Jenny that she has this book at her house. It was cute. The main character of the story is a hedgehog named Hedgie. After the puppet show, they brought out two live hedghogs for the kids to pet. Linda also pet another snake that Mr. Harold brought out before the puppet show. I was sure to tell her when you see a snake at home you don't touch it! (for those who don't know, Linda brought a live snake into the house a few weeks ago. It was a day or two after petting a snake at the aquarium.)

I took three short videos of Linda reading words, but now I can't get them uploaded! Argh. Sorry for those who wanted to see her reading.

Old video from Halloween

We are playing around with uploading video and found this quick video from the farm from Halloween. Please bare w/us as I try to figure out what I'm doing, lol.

The last picture here is of Linda sleeping the other day before I got her up from nap. She just looked so peaceful, I wanted to try to capture the moment. I don't even think the camera did it justice.

The picture of Linda and Sierra is from the other day when I had physical therapy. You can see a gingerbread house in the background that they were working on. Linda was convinced there was a gingerbread man inside it.

We decorated our tree this evening. Linda and Tom picked out the tree last night. Linda was quite excited about the notion of having a Christmas tree in our house. She said, "We are having a Christmas tree in our home?" I told her we were and she said, "where will we put it?" She then pointed to the center of the kitchen. I told her it would actually go in the room w/her toys. She said, "in w/my toys?" but really accented the word my. It was cute. She initially enjoyed decorating the tree. After putting several ornaments on she told us to "stop decorating the tree now." It was funny. I asked her if she knew what goes under the tree. She had no clue, so I told her presents. She seemed to like that idea. The kids got stockings from church today and Linda was so excited to see what was in her stocking. This Christmas will really be a fun one for us.

Let me start off by saying, yes Linda is wearing shorts! It is a warm day in December, and we are taking advantage of it.

We went to a children's gym to their Christmas party today. That is where these pictures were taken. I was paying for Linda and turned around and she is upside down on the bar. She is so coordinated, and not even 3 yet! The picture of her waving is when Santa came out. She was quite excited to see Santa. I wasn't sure if she was going to sit on his lap, but she went w/o hesitation. Santa asked Linda what she wanted for Christmas, and Linda said, "I want a spider!" She also told my cousin last night that she wanted a spider for Christmas. Now Tom and I are wondering if we should get her a spider! The verdict is out on that one, but I'll let everyone know. They also did a little craft, and had a story. It was very nice, and only $5 a child.

We were getting ready to eat lunch and Linda was saying prayer. She said, "And please bless that Santa has a good day." Too funny. Another hysterical thing she said today was in the car. I had just pulled into the gym, and turned the iPod off. So the car was playing the radio. An upbeat song came on. The little girl I watch, Ryleigh, was in the car w/us. All of a sudden Linda says, "Shake it Ry!" It was so funny. I laughed so hard. She is quite the character.

Imagination

Can you guess what we had for dinner last night? Amber and Val were VERY gracious, and made a VERY yummy meal for us. They felt sorry for me b/c Pat left, Tom is gone, and I'm laid up, lol. It was greatly appreciated.

Linda's imagination is in overdrive. The child is incredible. Last night when we were eating our spaghetti she told me there were a bunch of worms in her bowl. She pretends about everything. She comes to me w/a crayon and pretends to paint my hand. We were taking a mini walk and she was on a tree stump. She told me to take a picture. I told her I didn't have my camera. She pulls out a pretend camera and hands it to me. I took her picture and she asked me to look at it, like it was a digital camera. Tonight at Shannon's she was helping make cookies, and each ball of cookie dough was some sort of animal. It just goes on and on. She is quite amazing.

She can read many of the flash cards we have now. Most of them aren't sight words, she sounds them out. So I got out the little pen toy she has where you can write and erase. I've been writing new words for her to sound out. She likes to take the toy and write some letters, and have me sound them out. She wrote the word "it" the other day, but I think it may have been by accident. Most of the time she writes letters that aren't readable, or random letters w/no vowels. So her reading is coming along though. She still doesn't like to read a book. I can't say I blame her. She is in the beginning stages of her reading obviously, so it may take her 30 seconds to read a word. By the time she gets two words read, she probably has forgotten the other words to comprehend them. But her love of books is very strong, so I suspect when she is reading better she will want to read books as well. I'm just crazy happy she wants to read, and asks to do words.

She is so amazing. Everything about her is fun and smart and happy and loving. She is my greatest joy. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family, including a loving husband.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Linda's friends Mandi and Clara gave Linda some clothes the other day. In the bag were two beautiful holiday dresses. This is the first one that Linda wore to church today. She looked so pretty.

After church Linda and Daddy went down to the pond to see if the ducks were out. Tom didn't think they would see any, but three ducks were there. They had taken a piece of bread to give the ducks. The ducks came a running. I guess they were hungry w/the cold weather. There are three ducks that are always seen together. I have seen these three ducks for a few years now. Linda enjoyed spending time w/daddy.

Throughout our street there are tree stumps that the city has left after cutting down trees. Linda enjoys going up on the stumps and standing on one foot. I'm not sure how she got so fond of doing this, but she enjoys it. Two pics are from the stumps.

Grandma is gone!

Grandma left this morning. It was pure HEAVEN for two weeks (minus the pain of the surgery, lol). I couldn't have done it w/out her. I know I'm going to miss her terribly. I know Linda will miss her even more.

We took Linda to see the lights at the beach. She was quite excited about seeing all the different lights. She got distracted toward the end, but we had a very nice night. We had gone to Panera before the lights for dinner. We picked up Miss Mary and she came with us. It was a nice night.

Linda was saying a prayer the other day at lunch. Pat had been saying how her hands were cold, and rubbing them together to warm them up. Linda was so sweet at the prayer, and had asked Heavenly Father to help Grandma's hands feel better. In the same prayer she had asked Heavenly Father to help her obey mommies, daddies, and grandmas, but only sometimes. It was so funny. We tried so hard not to crack up. I obviously don't want to discourage her from praying. It is just so cute.

Her imagination is really blossoming now. She comes up w/all sorts of stuff to say she sees, or to change things into (a napkin will be a sting ray, or a bunny, etc). She is quite the little girl.

The picture of her chasing Copper w/the rake is cute too. Copper will get a small plastic farm animal, or piece of chalk, or whatever else, and he will want us to chase him. I take the broom, and Linda often takes the rake, and we chase him all over. So it looks like she is going to whack him, but she isn't.

Winter Wonderland

Our local farm had their winter wonderland going, so grandma, Linda and I headed over to check it out. It was pretty fun. They had a barn type building set up w/all these moving displays w/thousands of lights. I took a picture of my favorite, two squirrels roasting marsh mellows. Linda really enjoyed looking at all the lights and displays. After the building, we could go to the petting farm. Linda played around on the playground for a few min, but then headed right over to the chickens of course! It took her a while to catch a chicken this time. I actually caught one before she did, and I'm all laid up. She enjoyed going in w/the goats, and chasing a turkey around too. She tried to catch a peacock and a rabbit, but had no success. We were there about an hour and a half. She didn't want her jacket on, so she was in a t shirt. The sun felt so warm, it felt good to be outside. We are REALLY going to miss grandma when she goes.

Playgroup

The rest of the weekend was pretty non eventful. We just relaxed from the busy holiday weekend.

Today we went to playgroup. It was a really fun time. Michelle organized a craft and an ice cream ornament. Linda especially liked the ice cream ornament, b/c she got to eat it after she made it! The weather was really beautiful this morning. We left playgroup a few minutes early and headed to a park. It was quite windy, but we still didn't need a jacket. Who can believe it's December 1st?