Entries from October 2011 ↓

A very fun posse assembled for the trick-or-treating. Ezri and company traveled in style in dad-drawn wagons.

My favorite trick-or-treating moment was when these three girls realized they could not reach the doorbell and began jumping for it.
Don’t worry someone came to the door with candy even though it didn’t get rung.

I also enjoyed Ezri discovering candles inside neighborhood jack-o-lanterns and blowing a couple out before I could stop her. She sang Happy Birthday to the pumpkins as she blew out the candles. Clearly, that’s what candles are for – blowing out and singing.

Many costumed kiddos gathered to watch Naperville library staff present stories, songs and a puppet show on the scenic Riverwalk. It was a grand time!

Watching the storytellers

Watching the ducks in the river

Making her “monster” face

Sitting on the wall

I haven’t been writing about Ezri’s book reading habits in awhile.
We have been reading – every day at naptime AND bedtime and often in between.

Just to give a sampling of what we read, Here are a few favorites from yesterday’s reading:

The Little Critter easy readers by Mercer Meyer
There’s nothing like a monster and his little sister trekking out into the snow to make snowball soup for their newly created snowman.
Ezri is entertained by the light stories of Little Critter’s school outings and his descriptions of daily life as a kid (monster, but this monster has all the characteristics of an average five-year-old).

Jan Thomas’ Is Everyone Ready for FUN? featuring cows whose games include jumping, dancing and wiggling on mouse’s red sofa. Mouse tells them their behavior is not permitted on his sofa and eventually they decide the only thing for it is to nap on the sofa. This slight story about rambunctious cows is heavy on fun. It has very bright and energetic art that make it a read aloud fave.

And for a bit of bibliotherapy we read
Caillou: Hurry Up!
In this book, Caillou seems to be right about Ezri’s age and his baby sister has kept his parents from sleeping the night before. The whole family is having a rough morning and Caillou’s parents are pushing him to get ready and out the door. The cat knocks over a plant and Caillou is more interested in the cat than either his breakfast or getting dressed. Dad raises his voice at Caillou and apologizes for it. Just an average morning in a busy house from the perspective of the household three-year-old.
Ezri has connected to Caillou through watching his DVDs. I liked this story of parents not being their best and the toddler being understanding for all the obvious reasons.

Another new thing we do is to read to baby brother, Ivan. He is often asleep during these reading sessions. Ezri picks stories to read to him. If it’s a story she knows well (e.g. The Curious Cat, Moo-moo Goes to the City, Brown Bear) then she will “read” it. If it is new to Ezri, I will read it to Ivan and she will listen. It’s fun for her to pick stories she thinks Ivan might like and fun to revisit the books she enjoyed a year or more ago. Ezri said, “I liked this when I was a tiny baby. Here ya go, Ivan.”

Here is Fish-Ezri running about and saying, “glub-glub.”

Here are a collection of quotes and Ezri moments I thought were worth repeating.

“This is a goose. It poops on the farm.”

This exchange shows the power of Ezri’s diagnostic skills.
Grandma Liz: Do you think Ivan is congested?
Amanda: Yes, he didn’t used to snort like that.
Ezri: Maybe he is a pig baby.

“Old McDonald had a bum E-I-E-I-O with a pfft! pffft! here and pfft! pfffft! there. . .”

“The guitar is for a rockstar. Guitar and harmonica make me a author I think.”
It helps to know that her favorite author plays the harmonica and guitar simultaneously.

Ezri: Say Bagel.
Lori: Say Bagel?
Ezri: Say Bagel.
Lori: Bagel.
Ezri: That really blows my mind!

While drinking a juicebox at Subway, the Lmfao song Party Rock Anthem came over the restaurant speakers.
The lyrics are “Get up, get down, put your hands up to the sound
Put your hands up to the sound, put your hands up to the sound.”
Ezri was listening and put both her hands up in the air, keeping the straw of her juicebox in her mouth.
The rest of her juicebox slid down onto the floor and Ezri proceeded to cry.

Ezri got to climb in a garbage truck and a street sweeper. She spent some time in the back of a sheriff’s car. She practiced saying “trick or treat” and saw a lot of costumed compatriots.

She loves her costume. It was made by Grandma Liz. Ezri painted the shoes herself. Here is a photo that is not great, but shows how much she likes to groove in her Pete the Cat suit. She will dance and play harmonica as Pete.

Here she is behind the wheel of a construction vehicle. Letting the kids climb into the big vehicles is a genius idea. It was so appealing to the kids to be behind the wheel. Plus some vehicles had horns they could push. *BEEP* Thank goodness all sirens were turned off.

It was dusky, so not the best light for photos. Here is Pete holding her Pete doll.

Afterwards, Pete got a chocolate for the ride home.

Me: Ezri, what was your favorite thing at the Halloween Happening?
Was it the firetruck?
Ezri: No.
Me: Was it the garbage truck?
Ezri: No.
Me: Was it seeing Spider-man?
Ezri: No.
Me: What was your favorite thing?
Ezri: CANDY!
(At this point she had eaten one small chocolate bar, but climbed in six different trucks and seen all sorts of costumed people. I guess it was a good chocolate bar and there was power in knowing she had more.)

Ezri enjoyed decorating this mobile project for Ivan with her stickers.
We printed out templates from this great craft blog for the Modern Paper Mobile.
I used an existing mobile frame meant for making a photo mobile.

Ezri liked holding it over Ivan’s head and watching him.
She is proud to have made something her little brother likes.
Ezri really wants to hang it in her room, but has agreed to hanging it over Ivan’s crib instead.

Ezri could not have loved playing in the feed corn more.
The slide, trucks, and metal funnel all added to the fun.

This was a great fall play time.
I had a pretty good time stomping through the corn too.
As a bonus, later in the day we found corn in her shoes and her pants.

Today Ezri helped me decorate for Halloween.
In the box of Halloween things she found this plush witch hat. She put it on and declared, “Look, mama, I’m a gnome – a special gnome – a Halloween gnome!”
I am raising the kid who is intimately familiar with gnomes, but has never heard of a witch.

She also found a fancy kitty collar from an old costume of mine and asked for whiskers.

What a great fancy-kitty-Halloween-gnome she makes!

Ezri calls this the “tractor trailer” even though she’s been told it is a bike trailer.
Eric dusted off his bike to take her on a ride.

Ezri has a new tricycle prompting us to sing, “I like to ride my tricycle! I like to ride my trike,” and “I don’t want a pickle just wanna ride on my tricycle. . .”

She continues to work on steering and pedaling. Sometimes she even manages both feats simultaneously. If not, this trike comes with an adult steer and push option.