French Update

I'm just tickled by Linda's French so far. She is doing very very basic stuff, but it's so cute to hear her speak and understand. The other day she was eating lunch and the little girl I watch during the day was eating too. Linda said, "Bounjour Ry. Ca Va?" (Hello Ry. How are you doing?) Ry wasn't sure what to say, lol. Just a few minutes ago at lunch I looked at her and said, "tu as soif?" (are you thirsty?) She shook her head yes and took a sip of her water. It was so cool! She is into counting in French right now. She can count to ten. We were looking at a book and a pic of the sun was in it and she said, "le soliel." It is just amazing how she is blossoming and understanding so much in French. I need to start speaking more to her. Her little mind is just so amazing. I just wanted to share that while I was thinking about it.

swimming and praying mantis

Well swimming is in full swing now. Linda has been somewhat reserved when it comes to the pool so far this year. Today she took a major step and wanted to wear her life jacket. At first she would not let go of my hand at all, but then she got used to it and swam all over w/it on. I tell you what, that will tire a kid out. Her little legs and arms were just a movin' the whole time. She had a great time. Her safety around the pool is paramount. I'm so grateful to Uncle Tim for putting our summer safety cover on our pool last year. It's a net that goes over the pool and is tightened thru a pulley type system. It gives me such a peace of mind knowing it is on when she isn't swimming. I can let her play in the back yard on the other side of the fence w/o having to stare at her.

The other picture is of baby praying mantis' we found. They are so cute. We found three of them running around near the deck on the deck post. They are brown. It makes sense that they are brown b/c they must be pretty easy to eat for other insects. That way anyway they are hard to see. I hope at least one of them grows up to an adult. They are my favorite insect. Linda was excited to see them, and wanted to hold them. They were actually quite quick compared to the adult praying mantis. I didn't let her though, b/c they were so tiny and I didn't want her to accidently kill them, like she has done in the past w/other bugs, lol.

Butterflies

We released three of our five butterflies today. Linda really enjoyed watching the process of caterpillar to butterfly. We didn't get a chance to actually see the butterflies emerge. We have one more cocoon. Maybe we can watch that one. There were four to release. When we brought the container outside all the butterflies got so excited to be free. We let go the first three and they flew off w/Linda trying to catch them. The fourth one flew off but stayed near and we caught it. For whatever reason, the butterfly didn't feel like flying much, and let us handle it. We eventually decided maybe he wasn't strong enough to be on his own, so we put him back in our container for another day. These are painted lady butterflies. They are quite pretty. I'm so glad that we bought them, as it has been a great science learning for Linda. She knew the process of caterpillar to butterfly, but to see it is so neat for a kid.

Farm

I went up to the temple for the day, so Daddy and Linda spent the day together. They decided to go to the farm. Tom said Linda was so excited! Look at all these cute pics of them. This is the first time she has picked up a goat, lol. I thought the other pic of her peeking under the steps for a chicken was so cute. It didn't take her long to get a chicken, as usual. And of course she had a great pony ride too!

more Busch Gardens pics

here are a couple more pics from Busch Gardens.

Busch Gardens

We went to Busch Gardens on Friday and had a blast! Linda really really loves it there, but what kid wouldn't. She did so nicely w/o a nap. We went to some shows. One show had dogs and cats and other cute pets running around. One show was an Irish dance show. She especially liked that one. She rode a roller coaster and played in the sprinklers. She held and fed some birds. She just had a really really good time!

Ballerina

After a couple months of talking about it, Linda's first ballet class happened tonight. Oh my word did she love it. The instructor asked the parents to leave the room. I completely understand, as it was 15 little girls + parents would have been quite a commotion. I was able to peak in the window several times. She was sooooooooooooo cute. The one time I looked in she was going down the room holding a little girl's hand doing tip toes. It just brought tears to my eyes. They did 1/2 hr of ballet and 1/2 hr of tap. It was so cute to hear all their little tap shoes just a going in there. She came out really beaming. She couldn't wait to go back. This class is 5 weeks long. The 5th week the parents will go in and they will show us what they have learned. I can't wait. I love having a little girl!

Beautiful day at the gardens!

We went to the gardens today. What a pretty day it was. Did I mention how much we LOVE the gardens? The girls played in the fountains for a little while, and then we went off exploring. They added another little house in the arid section of the children's garden. It has a puppet show in there, along w/books and a couple other activities for the kids. We also saw the century plant getting ready to bloom. This plant blooms once every 100 yrs. After it blooms it dies. The plant is taller than me to begin with. I think the flower stalk goes up 25ft or so. I hope to see it bloom in the next couple weeks. Linda fell out of one of the trees she was climbing today. I guess she fell about 4ft or so. She just popped right back up and climbed it again. (It was the tree that we took pics from on our last trip and are in an earlier post on this blog.) Linda was also giving a dissertation to Ryleigh about the process of plants obtaining water from their roots, lol. It was cute to see her squatted down and pointing and trying to teach Ry. Linda is such a little leader. As usual, we had a great time. Ballet class starts tomorrow, busch gardens on Fri, and strawberry festival on Sat, so standby for many updates!

Barbies and Butterflies

The jar contains caterpillars that have made their cocoons. We got a butterfly kit about a week & a half ago. It came w/the caterpillars, food, and a cage for them. The caterpillars came very tiny and then grew so fat. Four of the five have gone to the top and made their cocoons. The fifth one had gotten stuck and wasn't eating. He has since gotten big, but is a few days behind the others. I'm hoping he will attach himself soon so I can take the top off and put it in the net area. Linda has been very excited about this process and has enjoyed seeing them get big, and now just in the last two days form a cocoon. She can't wait until they turn into butterflies, b/c she has a net she plans on using to catch them. too cute.

The other pics are the new barbie jeep we found at a yard sale. I got a great deal on it. They run $250 new. This one is only two years old and I got it for $25. Most of the time if you get it that low the battery needs to be replaced. This one the battery is running fine. It really was a great deal! Linda tried it out and didn't like it much. It jerked her unexpectedly the first time and then she was leary of it. The picture of me in there is how I am showing her it's so fun to ride, and not to be weary of the jerk. The battery is quite powerful as it drove me around w/no problem. I'll give her a couple weeks to warm up to it. If she doesn't like it then we'll sell it to someone else for $25.

Homeschool Fire Safety Day

Most of you know we are probably going to homeschool little Linda. Since we are leaning toward that direction, I decided to try to find some support groups and homeschool playgroups since the current playgroups Linda are in won't be appropriate for her as she gets older. I found a homeschool group that organizes field trips. Several of the field trips we aren't able to attend b/c they are at around 1pm. This field trip was early in the morning. It was organized thru the city, and I must say I'm impressed. They went all out for these kids. They had a fire truck, an ambulance, a monster fire truck. They had a fire safety trailer the kids went thru. It had three little rooms and the kids went into each room and identified problem areas (pot holder on burner, newspaper near fire place, etc) Then they practiced climbing out a window. The kids were told over and over not to hide when there is a fire. They were told to stop drop and roll if their clothes caught on fire. They were told to crawl on the floor when there is smoke. They even had a room set up they filled w/smoke and the kids crawled thru and climbed out a window! Linda knows her phone number and address so I had her practice saying it to the fireman. I thought this was very important instead of her just saying it to us all the time. Have I mentioned how grateful I am to live in this area? I am excited to take such a large part in Linda's education. These are the types of things she will be doing all the time to learn. I suspect at least 1/2 her education will be outside or going somewhere doing different things. I think it has really made her well rounded so far.