Nora Hansen's Journal

Nora chose not to eat any breakfast.  She sometimes has a hard time if she arrives when everyone else is already seated and eating.  You've said she usually eats before coming so I'm not too concerned about it.  For lunch she ate pork roast, most of whole wheat tortilla, no carrots, and ate fruit salad. This first picture is from yesterday afternoon and I always think it's cute when the "younger" ones are pulling the "older" ones.  Actually it's more a size thing than age thing.  Sometimes Atley and Avi will get in a wagon together and try to get Nora to pull them.  :) This first picture from today kind of goes with the comment about breakfast.  This is what Nora much preferred to do instead of eating; pretend to feed Svea.  However it wasn't any easy target because Svea was whipping her head back-n-forth! Here are a couple more pictures from today. I started building with the legos and soon everyone joined in.  And that was my inte...

Nora ate half of toasted whole wheat english muffin and half of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, several bites of brown rice, a large serving of stir fry vegetables, and a large serving of oranges. Shortly after Momma Emily left Atley was trying to get Nora to do something she didn't want to do. Nora said, "No thank you" just like I'd had her do earlier.  Very nice job Nora!  It sure beats the screaming alternative!!  :)  First picture: Morning Greetings to Svea!!  :)  Second picture: This was really cute; While jumping they were signing a song that we frequently do.  The song was playing on the iPod - "B I N G O ....  and Bingo was his name."  We use the same tune for spelling each of the children's names.  Anyhow, Avi was combining the two songs and had everyone singing: "A V I N G O....." I thought it was actually very clever. Things were a little different this morning.  I went and got a DTAP ...

Nora ate half of cheerios and bite of banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, most of whole wheat pita bread, ate tomato, olives, avocado, and two servings of watermelon. I was snuggling Nora first thing this morning and I was asking her silly questions like I do first thing every morning.  What'd you do last night!?  Chase birds!?  Did you chase your tail.  She said, "Birdie has a tail."  Yup, do you have a tail?  She said, "Yes" and pointed to her hair.  Haha!  That was cute. Well you don't today, but you frequently do have a ponytail.  Good answer. We were doing some sign language and singing songs this morning.  Then I was quizzing the kids to see how many names of the parents they could remember.  And then we did those that had siblings too.  I asked Nora, "What is Avi's sister's name?"  Nora said, "Andy."  Haha!  Well at least she kept it in the family.  (That's Avi and Svea's Da...

Nora ate most of breakfast: brown rice and raisins.  For lunch she ate half of salmon patty, bite of whole wheat dinner roll, ate green beans, and mangoes. This first picture of Atley and Nora was taken yesterday afternoon playing outside.  As you can see they were laughing uproariously and having a grand time.  They'd lay here and say, "Time for bed!" Then, "Wake up!!"  And they'd run over to the big climber and play underneath it pretending it was their work. Here are some pictures from this morning.  This first one cracks me up!  Caught her in midair while jumping.  Avi and Atley were doing all kinds of antics (apparently some kind of calisthenics - ha!) and Avi asked Nora if she wanted to join them!  "Do you wanna exercise with us?"  Thank you for including her Avi!  (Although I did hear Avi say to Nora; "You're too little for dancing!!"  No she's not you silly goose!)  These three girls were also holding hands and ju...

Nora ate half of toasted whole wheat english muffin and two servings of oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of ground beef, a large serving of whole wheat elbow noodles smothered by a large serving of applesauce, and she ate half of her peas. We were reading a story about trains so I asked the kids; "Who has rode a train before?"  Avi, Atley, Nora all said, "Me, me, me" pointing at themselves.  Haha!  So I inquired some more; "Who has been on a Submarine?"  "Me, me, me!"  Rocket ship?  Stealth bomber!?  Ocean Liner?!?  Wagon pulled by Mules?!?  Same answer every time!!  "Me, me, me!!!"  Wow!  Impressive!!  Hahaha!! Nora, Avi, and Svea were the first ones here and they were having fun crawling on the floor together.  Then Avi and Nora went out to do puzzles and I love how Avi is keeping a very close eye on Nora's progress!!  Too cute. Next picture: Linnea had a doctor visit this morning a...

Nora ate a bite of french toast and ate two servings of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate paleo stew with meat, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, and green beans.  She also ate saltines and tropical fruit. Here's a note from yesterday afternoon.  When we go outside the kids get their shoes, socks, maybe coat, depending on the weather.  Then they go to the bench on the patio and work at getting their stuff on - or wait for me to help them.  I asked Nora, "Did you bring socks today?"  Nora; "Yes!" Me: "Ok, but where are they?"  Nora said, "Gary find em."  Haha!!  Yup, I saw that one coming!! Nora did a couple of preschool trays and was a little bit successful, but she loves going back to the one you see in the picture.  She certainly has the color matching skill mastered. Next picture: I asked Atley what they were doing and she said, "hiding."  This picture doesn't really show it, but the three older girl...

Nora ate bite of waffle and ate lots of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, bite of whole wheat tortilla, two servings of corn, and ate baked cinnamon apples. This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when Avi, Atley, and Nora were playing with the big balls in the yard and having a blast. (I'm making that assumption from all the squealing, giggling, and laughing.) They were diving on the balls belly-first and rolling around before falling off. I've mentioned before that State Childcare Licensing is requiring a formal emergency preparedness plan, plus some drills, which of course includes fire-drills.   We've always done fire-drills, but lately my fire-drills have looked more like this: "Ok everyone, in case of a fire emergency just do what I say!!"  So Lauralea helped me this morning and was prepping Avi, Atley, and Nora as I took the picture while getting the two babies ready to go. Lauralea also spent time doing some preschool activ...

Nora wasn't here for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of turkey burger, bites of whole wheat hamburger bun, ate tomatoes, most of avocado, and ate cherries. We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and as always the kids are very busy on Monday morning toy exchange!  Do you wonder what Nora chooses to do first?  Well here's your answer in the first picture!!  Atley has recently began to play more with the dolls too, but usually it's after Nora is playing with them.  And that's the way it was this morning; Atley didn't look at the dolls until Nora arrived! Next picture: That ponytail looks awesome Momma Emily!!  Nora's hair is getting long enough that it doesn't just stick up, but it's also hanging!  Very cute.  She was playing with the iPod and listening to music.  (Well maybe not a real iPod!)  And she was doing some drawing in the following picture.  Look at how much detail she has in that picture.  Very c...

Nora ate most of oatmeal and ate baked cinnamon apples for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of hamburger stew with meat, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, and potatoes.  She ate most of whole wheat dinner roll, and ate her apricots. This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon when Atley was pulling Nora in the wagon.  These two were having lots of fun together; everyone else had already left.  Shortly before I took this picture Atley was in the wagon and Nora was trying to pull her - well actually she was trying to push the wagon and it wasn't working too well.  Anyhow they were laughing and giggling and Nora was doing her deep belly laughs.  I just love that!! Next picture: All five girls playing on or beside the mattress.  It's pretty cool how they all play on there and almost never run into each other.  Linnea is sitting on the mattress and loves being right in the middle of everything.  That's a temperament/p...

Nora ate french toast and bites of dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef with marinara sauce, ate whole wheat spaghetti noodles, taste of squash and she ate a large serving of fruit salad.  I asked Nora if she'd had a bite of squash and she said, "Yes."  (Which apparently meant she was just getting ready to do it!  Ha!)  Then she very carefully touched the end of her finger to her squash and put that on her tongue.  Haha! Nora was here for probably 40 minutes before anyone else arrived and I took this first picture when she went out to read books.  I just thought it was cute how she'd positioned her legs.  :)  Second picture: We also had lots of snuggle time and that was fun!  She said something about "Gary and Lauralea" and I said, "Thumbs up for Gary and Lauralea!"  So she was doing a "thumbs up!"  Haha! Even though she got up a bit early today, she had an awesome morning!!  I've done this business ...

Nora ate whole wheat toast and ate mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pulled pork, half of whole wheat roll, ate a large serving of peas, and two servings of watermelon. Yesterday Nora was reading (and singing) the book; "Teddy Bear Teddy Bear, turn around, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear touch the ground...."   Except she kept saying, "Happy Bear, Happy Bear.."  And Atley kept yelling, "Teddy Bear!!"  And Nora would yell, "NO! Happy Bear!"  This happened several times.  I was wondering if she really thought that's the actual words.  Fast forward to this morning: Nora with the same book singing, "Teddy Bear Teddy Bear...."  :)  I should have renamed my Daycare to "Little Turkeys!!"  :)  Here's a picture of a little turkey doing some selfies today with Gary!! Nora was playing with the legos and getting very frustrated because she was having problems getting them together.  She was yelling, "It broke, it broke!!...

Nora ate three or four bites of whole wheat bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate shrimp, bites of brown rice, ate a large serving of stir fry vegetables, and ate her raspberries. Lauralea was with us for about 2 hours this morning doing some preschool trays and also some testing on the three oldest kids.  I think the parents will appreciate these development assessments and it will also help me as their caregiver to look at some things to focus on.  In this first picture Nora was trying to manipulate using these scissors after Lauralea had given instructions on how to hold them.  This is a little past her age, but she seemed to have fun trying and didn't get frustrated by the difficulty of it.  In the middle picture Lauralea is helping Nora thread some pipe cleaners through the holes.  Just an FYI; we are strongly encouraging Nora to keep her thumb out of her mouth in the "preschool" room so she doesn't get the materials wet....