Thursday, February 23, 2012

Another month passes...

The following is a super random grouping of the last month's activities.

Sweet (and wild) Kate is still on the move.  The thumb in her mouth is a tale tell sign that she's getting tired.  At 16 months, she's increasing her vocabulary everyday.  More recent word additions include "book", "moo", "shoe", "sock", but her favorite continues to be "NO".  She says something that sounds like "iiii uhhhh" which appears to be the equivalent of pointing and saying "this one".
She's an extraordinary eater with a seemingly endless appetite.
I've been really enjoying taking them to new places, particularly museums.  They see so much that we don't notice.  They are certainly on the move!
Kate kept running into the plexiglass this particular day... poor girl.  Kate also has a LOT of personality in nearly all situations.  She did a little dance around this octopus inching closer each time.
 This is Deane posing by the Bison.  He kept telling the bison to "say cheese buffalo".  At the point of this visit in late January, he liked to tell strangers "buffalo drink water".
More silly girl...

Deane continues to be extremely fascinated with dinosaurs so we visited the dinosaur exhibit at the Peoria Arts & Science Museum.  It wasn't particularly geared for little ones - lots of simulators, but it was still fun.

Deane doesn't like brushing his teeth, but he LOVES looking at himself ;)
Pretty much every day in our house involves building a large and elaborate train track system.  It's getting a little out of control.  All house visitors know that they will have to step around or through the daily train and if Deane is awake, you will be recruited to play trains.
 I have been trying to get serious about our homeschool activities and work to prepare Deane for whatever is next in his education.  I save most of the ideas I find here.  We have been having lots of fun and also learning more about what challenges Deane.  Here's a sampling of our activities.
The final result of our sensory bowl!

Finger paint in a bag - works for any age.

Use your hand or a brush.  I would suggest taping the top of a bag that a toddler is using :)

Fine motor pouring activity.  Two cups and a jelly pan.

We just watched Bee Movie yesterday and ended up visiting the Hurstville Interpretive Center today to see their snake exhibit to find they have a living, working bee hive that you can inspect with a magnifying glass.
A couple "Deane-isms" lately...
"I want no please" - which means I don't want to do what you asked.
"Excuse me" - used to get attention or ask someone to go away
"I want to cuddle" - I love this!!!!
Unprompted, albeit from repeated past prompting, he says "Good Morning", "Good Night", and "I love you".
We tried to start listening therapy, but wearing headphones isn't going well.  We have work to do.

We are moving in April sometime...details to follow as the date approaches.