Just another CarleSpawn weblog

Ezri and I use her blocks to make a zoo for her animals.

Collaborative Art with me. I did the drawing. Ezri did the painting.
She had fun deciding what colors things should be. She also added a spot of brown to be the red bird pooping on the house. We talked about how most bird poop is white.

Her drawings are starting to be more representative. Here’s a ladybug where I can totally tell what she was going for. I labeled it.

Here we are playing with the remote control robot I got for my birthday. His name is Hyjax. Ezri declares him to be “a good friend robot.” He’s great for her working on fine motor control and problem solving. Ivan likes to track him with his eyes. He does a cool robot spinny dance that I like to mimic. The cats – well, they have their own ideas about what a mini robot might be good for.

Here’s another collection of quotes by and spoken to Ezri.

“It looks like moose antlers.”
That was a toilet training comment. I am noticing many of this collection of quotes relate to the potty. You can tell what skills we are working on around here.

“Stop saying THAT! Stop saying that, mama. Say normal things that don’t make me cry.”
Ezri on my telling her repeatedly that it was her poor behavior had cut our expedition short.

Eric to Ezri when she was pulling at her pants, “Do you need to use the potty? Oh, no, you just still have a ladybug in your pants.” Ladybug in question was a plastic finger puppet.

Another parenting quote, this time from me. “Okay, Super Rainbow Flower Girl, you need to take your cape off to use the potty.” She had on rainbow striped pants, a floral shirt and a cape and had given herself the name “Super Rainbow Flower Girl.”

“I want to go to the red spiral place with the dot inside.” It took me awhile to figure out that she wanted to go browse Target. She knows the logo, but doesn’t remember the store’s name.

We read Ladybug Girl and The Bug Squad

We had a bug hunt for rubber bug fingerpuppets hiding on the porch.

We built a fort to be the base for bugsquad.

We made inside daisy chain art out of pipe cleaners and faux flowers.

We had snacks.

We rounded up two wagons and headed to the park.

We learned that our bug squad can fly. They just need swings with their wings.

We held slide race show downs.

Ladybug Girl proved she really is super strong by pulling the wagon home.

Ezri had a blast at the “Pete the Cat” signing at Anderson’s Bookstore in Downers Grove tonight.

It’s going to be a long big sisterhood for you, Ezri.

Here she is pouting that she can’t control the actions of her little bro.

I told Ezri that as a girl I had a dog named Shorty.

At the park today she declared herself to be a dog named Longy. She stretched out on the park bench and said, “I am Longy because I am so long. Longy is a good dog.” She pointed at Ivan in my lap, “That is Shorty.” We proceeded to play puppy, I threw a stick for Longy and she would run to it tuck it under her chin and return the stick to me. Even when we pretend puppy, we do not put sticks in our mouths. That is going too far. Ezri told me, “Amanda, you are Longy’s owner.” In addition to fetch, Longy knew how to sit, lie down, shake hands, roll over and jump. She was not very good at stay, but better at the command “Dance!” than any dog I’ve met.

Longy and Shorty play ball.

The doorbell rang and a delivery person arrived with oodles of fruit.
I had to put down the baby to claim this arrangement. It took two hands to carry.
Ivan was not pleased, but he recovered and enjoyed the floor show of his family eating fruit.
He had to settle for applesauce and playing with a wooden spoon.
Clearly, the older child got more out of this one.

Ezri was very keen to help me with this birthday present.

She selected a flower to eat first.

This is what she looks like with a half melon ball in her cheek.

She declared the flower to be yummy.

Then this conversation:
Ezri: Why are some strawberries brown?
me: Because they are chocolate covered.
Ezri: Can I have one?

A three-year-old and chocolate covered strawberries is fun, but not neat.
I have shown that said child will use one napkin per strawberry and turn it completely brownish.

It was further shown that if there are skewers of grapes in the fridge and the fridge is not locked, Ezri will eat them ALL one by one.
I had three grapes off this arrangement, Ezri had around 30.
Goodness grapes!

What are you making, Ezri?

It’s a butterfly bug!

This morning we were playing by the Recreation Center and Ezri declared herself to be on an Easter egg hunt. I thought good luck finding eggs. She wandered into the grass and returned with a golf ball. “I found a EGG!” She smiled. I looked back and realized the fence about 50 ft. away was the border between us and the local golf course. Perhaps, we can “egg” hunt in this field all summer long.