Nora Hansen's Journal

Nora ate oatmeal and three servings of baked cinnamon apples for breakfast. For lunch she ate hamburger stew with meat, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, potatoes, and broth. She ate whole wheat dinner roll, and ate fruit cocktail.  Well it seemed kinda quiet around here this morning. The Nelson girls went with their Grandparents to the lake and it always changes the dynamics of the group when anyone is gone! Nora did an excellent job using the erasable marker in the book you see in the picture this morning. This helps with their sequencing letters and numbers. This particular one is with letters. Good work Nora. (She finished it.) Next picture: I was sitting on the couch preparing some pictures for the Blog and I heard Nora say, "Hey Gary! I'm here next to you!" Which surprised me because I thought she was in the Preschool Room with Atley. She was buried under the pillows and blankets you see in picture. Then you can see Callahan moved in to see her too. About the same tim...

Nora ate French Toast and half of Dried Plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of pulled pork, ate whole wheat toast, peas, and two servings of strawberries.  This first picture made me laugh. (Quietly so as not to offend anyone!!) Shortly after arrival Atley and Nora were at the mirror like you see and I heard Nora say; "I'm almost as tall as you." :) Atley never said a word. Good choice Atley!! :) Today was Science with Lauralea and we did one project (Lauralea has a busy day today) that I would probably label more Art than Science. Going forward we are going to do more of that during Science Time; more elaborate Art Projects some of the time. I'll call this the early years of STEAM (originally it was STEM) education. The "A" has been added for Arts. (You get a bonus point if you know what the acronym stands for.)         Today we were making "Crystal Art." They were instructed to make thin lines/designs with the glue all over their ...

Nora ate whole wheat toast and three servings of mangoes for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of ground beef with marinara sauce on top of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, ate cauliflower and ate fruit salad. All of the kids have enjoyed watching the new pictures we loaded on the digital frame and at meal time they frequently say, "new one!" "new one!" Also, here's another example of Nora giving a positive affirmation to her friends. At lunch she saw a picture of Svea and said, "You really look grown-up in that picture." Svea loved it. You can see Svea is in this first picture, but the 3 Big Girls were doing something totally different. They're playing a game called "Spot It." (This one is actually "ABC Spot It") They are doing so good following the rules and taking turns now (along with other skills they are learning too) and I love how much they enjoy playing various kinds of games. This is a game they played with La...

Nora ate blueberry bagel and two servings of grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate shrimp, two servings of brown rice in berry juice, ate broccoli, and marion black berries.  At the meal table Nora saw a picture of Svea in the early years (ha) and said, "Look at you Svea! You were SO cute." Svea asked Nora, "Did you like me when I was that age?" What a super sweet conversation from both sides. Love it so much! This is kind of random, but in case anyone was wondering; I stopped doing the Spanish color words for the kids because - after listening to Alexa and Siri - I wasn't getting them correct and I didn't want the kids to have to unlearn and then relearn at Paxon. :)  First picture; Nora was building a tower with these little wooden blocks and you can see the "source of her supply." That would be Miles' hand. Haha. Later when Nora was done here Atley knocked this tower over and Nora said, "I wanted to knock it over." But Nora actua...

Nora ate most of bran cereal and most of raisins for breakfast. For lunch she ate half of chicken with avocado, ate toasted whole wheat pita bread, ate cucumbers, and ate pears.   I've mentioned this before, but I really like how Nora responds positively to her friends with genuine excitement when they tell her something they are excited about. (She does it regularly unless of course she's having a bad moment!!) Atley said, "Three more weeks until I get to go camping!" Nora said, "Oh my gosh!! That's cool!"  We did a toy, book, puzzle, Preschool Activities, and art (supplies) exchange this weekend so the kids were busy all morning. As usual I've always been interested in what each child goes for first and this first picture shows where Nora headed. She said, "I wanna play with the Doll House." And that's where she stayed by herself for probably 10 - 15 minutes. Following picture: Then she joined the others when they were all working on ...

Nora ate two large servings of whole grain cream of wheat cereal and ate dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate chicken, brown rice, broccoli, and ate pineapple. Because of Avi frequently mentioning her love of "cream of wheat" now Atley and Nora are chanting the same thing and eating more than one serving. And so did Callahan. :) I made a total of 8 servings for breakfast and they ate it all.  This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon and the kids are loving the new puzzles. I always tell the kids "one puzzle at a time." I didn't notice how many Nora was doing until Svea complained about Nora not wanting to share. She has 4 completed ones and working on number 5. It was snack time so I asked the table kids to wrap it up; before I realized what Nora was doing she'd just put all 5 puzzles in a big pile. Oops. :) Second picture: She wasn't happy at me, but she was proud of herself when she completed the assigned task without ANY help f...

Nora ate waffle and three servings of fruit salad for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground turkey, whole wheat tortillas, two bites of sweet potatoes, and ate cherries.  Today: Science with Lauralea and the theme is Clouds and Rain. Avi said, "We already did rain." Haha. And that's true, but guess what!?!? There is  lots  more to learn. :) We're also doing Clouds this time AND we have all  new  experiments. (Do NOT try to sneak in a "repeat" with Avi. Ha.) First picture; Make a cloud using hairspray. In the jar we put hot water, lid upside-down on jar, ice on the lid, let sit for 30 seconds, take off the lid, and squirt hairspray in bottle. And guess what?!? You got some clouds! :) Next picture; Nora was totally sure it was gonna be loud (it wasn't) and explode! (It didn't) Haha. However she was ready just in case!! Lighting a match for the experiment is what caused her nervousness! We put warm water in the jar, light a match and put it in the jar, st...

Nora ate French toast and three servings of oranges for breakfast. For lunch she ate two large servings of Whole 30 Chili with meat, peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, and lots of good spices. She ate whole wheat dinner roll, and ate tropical fruit.  First picture: This is officially "Puzzle Week" I guess. :) Everyone has been doing more puzzles and I think part of that is because of Svea's extra interest in puzzles right now. Whenever one of them gets super interested in some particular activity it always looks more inviting to the others as well. Second picture: Three Big Girls at the Doll House playing together. As you all know by now this is simply not Avi's thing, but she'll agree to play here as long as she can be the "Delivery Person." Ha. And they did that activity for probably 15 minutes or more. Next picture: Atley and Nora finishing up some focused efforts at the Art Table. Both of them are proud of their pieces. Atley said, ...

Nora ate half of whole wheat English muffin and ate grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate pork roast,  whole wheat toast, ate beets, and three servings of applesauce.   While Nora and Atley were at the window waiting to wave bye to Grandma Pam -who flew by the window looking straight ahead and Nora yelled; "GRANDMA!!!" Haha - Atley said, "Nora, I'm gonna have a sleepover at your house if my Mom says it's ok." Nora said, "ok." After a slight pause Atley asked, "Can I sleep on the bottom bunk?" Nora said, "yes." :) First Picture: First thing this morning Atley got all the puppies on this shelf and she was trying hard to make Nora laugh and she succeeded. She told Nora; " This is Miles, my Care Dog ." Nora sure giggled about that. Atley has always known how to get Nora to giggle.  Two more pictures from Activities this morning. Nora joined Svea on the floor doing puzzles. Nora asked, "Does this puzzle have 48 piece...

Nora ate three servings of peaches and ate corn chex cereal for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground beef, toasted whole wheat sandwich thin, tomatoes, avocado, and two servings of mandarin oranges.   Well like always it's really a lot of fun to come back to a sweet loving welcome from the Daycare Kids. I give a huge Thank You to Lauralea for giving me the week to see precious family in Louisiana. Here's a picture from the Gulf on Friday and the water was nice and warm. Lauralea had some nice pictures from last week too, but didn't get them to post on the Blog so I just picked out one to post that I like. This one is obviously came from a trip to the park. Here are some pictures from Nora's morning: Reading books with Atley, looking at the popular roly poly bugs on the patio, and giving Atley a haircut. Ha. We also ran around and chased bubbles. I liked it when Svea said, "You got me all dirty with bubbles." Haha.

  Nora ate everything (bananas and cheerios at breakfast.   At lunch she ate 3rds on strawberries and 2nds on olives, all of her avocado, hamburger and pita bread.   I have given the “big” girls the job of helping the littles wash and get ready for meals, which they have really stepped up to the plate and loved so far.   Calahan is Nora’s charge and she took him out to the utility room and helped him wash his hands then helped him get his bib on after he is in his high chair and made sure he was safely buckled in (he does it himself – she just checks on it).     She was having so much fun being my nurse today: taking my temperature, putting Band-Aids on me, giving me medication and giving me shots.   Her favorite was giving me medication after I unthinkingly made a horrible face and gave myself a pep talk saying, “you can do it!”   She had to give me more and more medication after that, carefully watching my face for reactio...

Nora ate brown rice and no raisins for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of salmon, bites of whole wheat dinner roll, ate large serving of cauliflower, and a large serving of mangoes.  This first picture is from yesterday afternoon The kids had on their sunglasses and were ready to do some bubbles. Avi likes to chase bubbles with that noodle. Nora was busy trying to get Svea to stand in the right spot and be ready for the camera! Haha.  Nora and Avi were hiding eggs again this morning. Yup, still hiding eggs since Easter Week. Cal was watching Nora hide the eggs and apparently he'd asked, "Nora, What are you doing?" one too many times and she'd had enough! HaHa. " Cal! I'm hiding eggs!! " (And it should be in BIG BOLD PRINT! ! Ha!)  Next picture: Atley is not here for a few days - back next Thursday - but Avi and Nora were having fun. It started at the breakfast table and Nora got the giggles and Nora LOVES to giggle. When she's in that mode ...

Nora ate French toast and two servings of strawberries for breakfast. For lunch she ate Hearty Paleo Stew with meat, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes. She ate saltines and tropical fruit. She ate all the stew and said, "There was something spicy in that stew!" I don't think so, but it was to her taste buds. Nora and Atley were playing a matching game again this morning before Svea and Avi arrived. Just in case you're wondering, both of these girls are getting pretty good at the matching games we play! Avi had more experience, but Atley and Nora are catching up fast. Anyhow, this morning while they were playing Atley said, "You're running the table Nora!!" Hahaha. That cracked me up! I'm sure that phrase is used in various settings, but I enjoy Billiards and that's the only place I've heard it. :) Science with Lauralea! We did something different today and the kids loved it and had a great time. For one...