The Wonder of Books...

Yesterday was Monday, October 14, 2013; later afternoon the girls and I went out for a walk, as we often do. At one point, L was holding my hand, she looked up at me and said, "Mommy, do we have any books about how flowers grow?" I told her we didn't and she asked, "Can you get some from the library?" OF COURSE I WILL!!! Just a few minutes went by and she looked up at the cloudy sky and asked, "Mommy, can you get a book about what happens to the sky when it rains?" ABSOLUTELY!!

We just started going to the library this past summer and both girls love it! We've always read A LOT! But now we read daily (I don't count bedtime... I'm talking about during the day). I THINK IT'S AMAZING THAT AT 3 1/2 SHE IS THINKING ABOUT THESE THINGS! THAT SHE KNOWS THERE'S KNOWLEDGE IN BOOKS. THAT SHE CAN READ A BOOK AND LEARN THINGS. She has questions about how flowers grow and wants books so she can LEARN!! 

Call me crazy! I'm just a proud mommy! I think this is amazing! I'm happy she loves books, I'm happy she wants to learn. I'm happy she's asking for things that interest her or just things she wants to know about!! 

Computer time...

Computer time is something I have recently started doing with both girls. At this point, M loses interest  pretty quickly. Recently we started getting on starfall.com and both girls love it; L more so than M. I now know the types of activities on there that keep M's attention. 

Yesterday we registered for 13 months on abcmouse.com and I'm so glad we did it. L loves it and gets so excited to sit down for computer time (which we sit down and do together)! Tonight I was able to sit down and explore the website a bit more in depth. Instead of following the lesson plan they make up, I am able to make my own for M. While she is at the age she is, I think this is great to be able to do to entice her and get her and keep her interested. So, that's what I did for her. I'm excited to see how it goes with her tomorrow. L on the other hand is following her lesson plan and very interested in it all!!! 

I am very excited about this; As we are only a day into it. I hope to sit down everyday for a little bit of computer time (in addition to the other things we are doing) and see there this takes!!

I am interested if anyone else has used this website and any tips you may have! Any other computer based programs that you have used/liked/disliked. Not that I want to do everything on the computer. (This is a small part that I am incorporating into our day). I would love your input on this! 

Writing ABC's

L has been very interested in writing and trying to write her letters. We have a very cool dry erase tablet where she can trace her letters. We do different activities that helps with this too. I get a lot of ideas from Pinterest. She loves to try, she concentrates so hard and gets so excited when something clicks and she "gets" whatever it is that she's trying to do! When we are about to do a "sit down activity," I'll have a few ideas in mind and I'll ask her if she wants to do a craft, do something with letters or paint. She'll choose and we get started. She can trace all of her letters really well. Upper case and lower case. But for her to try to write the letters herself on lined paper, she gets frustrated at times. There are some letters that she writes well  ( on her own), but for the most part, "trying to make letters on lined paper without tracing" can frustrate her. This isn't something we are trying often right now (because of this). I think for her age, she is doing really well, so we do what's fun and we do what she likes pertaining to this. 

Today we got the Aqua Doodle mat out. The girls love drawing and writing on this. I don't really know why, but we haven't gotten this out in awhile. L has recently discovered her new found love for drawing so we drew for awhile, lots of characters from Monsters, Inc!! I wrote her name out and she started writing letters. ON HER OWN WITHOUT TRACING THEM. Other than an occasional letter here and there, I've never seen her do this. She was asking me to write certain words then she would re write what I wrote underneath them. I was truly amazed! Then the one letter that she's always had troubles writing ... the letter B. She wrote it perfectly, over and over and would get excited for each one! I couldn't help it, I was taking videos of her, she was so proud of herself and I was proud too!! 

My baby is growing up!! It unbelievably amazing to watch this transformation happen right before my eyes!!

Are The Terrible Two's A Real Thing??

It's not fair to compare the girls and say one went through this and the other one didn't (although that's how I was thinking earlier today). But as I sit here thinking about what I really want to say, I started to think about how "at this age" they both have had different circumstances. M is 26 months old right now and will do just about anything she can to antagonize L; When L was 26 months old, M was only 16 months old new to walking around and barely talking. L didn't have much to complain about to have to or want to do anything to M. 

Oh how things are different at this stage. M is 26 months old and L is 36 months old. M wants everything L has, M wants to do everything L is doing at the same time she is doing it. We've had some difficult times lately. M will cry and cry because she wants a toy that L is playing with and it won't take to long until L will just hand it to her. L is so kind and she doesn't want M to cry. I'm sure part of her doesn't want M to be sad, and part of her just doesn't want to hear it (honestly)! I just think M thinks L is cool and wants to do and have what she does!!

L is very interested in reading what she writes (out loud), reading a book, or simply telling you something (that she made up), sometimes it's to me, sometimes it's to M, but if she asks either or both of us to listen, M will do anything she can to be loud. It's horrible! I feel really bad, yesterday it was so bad that L started to cry because M wouldn't let her read what she wrote for me. I had to put M in her room and have a few minutes for L to tell me what she wanted to tell me! THIS IS SOMETHING WE ARE WORKING ON!! I know this is a phase, but M needs to learn that THIS NOT OKAY!! 

Earlier today M said she had to go to the bathroom, I followed her in there and she stopped, stood in the middle of the bathroom, looked at me and started to pee. I asked her why she did that, and her reply was, "I wanted to." What the heck? That's not okay!

M went through a biting phase awhile back and I thought we were past that. But earlier tonight, she bit L on her back. She went straight to her room. I talked to her (sternly) and left her to sit on her bed. After some time went by, I went back in to talk to her again and when she told me that she didn't want to apologize to L, I left her in there longer. More time passed and L came in there with me, she was so sweet and so serious. She looked at M and said, "You bit me and it hurt me. Biting is a bad decision and I won't bite you. I want to be a nice girl. If you kiss my back then it's okay". Basically she was saying if you kiss my boo boo then I forgive you. M continued to refuse to apologize and L walked out of the room while M sat there crying. Then L walked right back in and said to me, "I'm leaving because I don't want to hear her crying". Soon after, M apologized, kissed her boo boo and gave L a hug. 

More antics happened in the bath tub tonight. But I think I am getting the point across. BUT I feel bad as I re-read through this because M is really not a "bad" kid. She's really good most of the time. SHE'S JUST YOUNG AND SHE'S LEARNING!! They play really good together pretty much all of the time, but then it's like a switch! When she gets in one of these moods, it's just all down hill. I'll have to start to pay attention to see if there are any triggers. Like being sleepy or something. All of the things today that were going on were later in the day and that may have been the case. But I need to reel it in on these behaviors!! But if I can pay attention and see if there are any triggers, then I can anticipate the behavior and this will help with correcting them!

Despite all of this, it may sound rough having two so close but I wouldn't change things and have them any other way. I bet the two of them would totally agree! Already, they don't know what to do without each other. If one is sleeping, then the other one wants to wake them up, if one is in one room, then other one isn't far behind. It's fun to watch ... 98% of the time and I referee the other part of it... :)