1/31/13

Aaron ate all of his blueberries and had a lick of his English muffin at breakfast. At lunch he ate all of his cherries, a couple bites of potato and a lick of his chicken on saltine crackers.

Aaron was a little perturbed that Emily chose playing with Kenzie over playing with him, but then he just started playing alongside Thomas and Joslyn. They were including him so sweetly and he liked that. They were lining up the curler outsides on the edge of the box again then knocking them off and starting over.

Aaron noticed that Mia was kind of fussy and went over to her, bent down a little with his hands on his knees and asked "wrong?", then gave her a small side hug before moving on to play again... I was very sweet.

Aaron was so cute when we went to the back room. He immediately went over to Noah's crib and started playing with him. He was making him laugh and trying to get him interact with him more.

1/29/13 & 1/30/13

Aaron wasn't here for breakfast, and only ate a couple tasting bites of peas and pineapple, with his "lick" of baked beans and dinner roll.

Aaron and Emily were playing in and around the igloo for quite a while this morning. I never could understand what Emily said was going to "get" them, but the igloo was their hiding place for a while. They then were crawling around on their hands and knees from there to the corner of the rowdy side and back. They really get along well.

Riley got Emily and Aaron bonking their heads on the balance beam then chanting "owie, owie, owie" and coming over for a love multiple times. I can never figure out what is so appealing about bonking your head, but many of our kiddos -- past and present -- find it very entertaining.

Aaron and Emily drove his cars round the picnic table 'road' for about 20 minutes straight, before moving on to other things.

In the back room, he almost always chooses to play wi th Riley. Their favorite game is either peekaboo or chase around the rocking chair. Today Riley was sitting in the regular chair and they were peeking and touching each others faces through the chair back's rungs. It was really cute.

Aaron also was working very hard lining a bunch of Duplos up along the top of the block shelf. He used it words very well when someone came over and tried to either take one of his blocks or mess them up. "No, Mine!"

1/28/13

Aaron ate all of his Cheerios and a lick of his banana at breakfast. At lunch he ate most of his grilled cheese sandwich and apple slices and a taste of his tomato soup.

Aaron shared his toy with Emily for quite a while this morning. He also was fine with showing the other kiddos until they started wanting to play with it also. No, it was only for he and Emily!

Kenzie and Joslyn had put all of the stuffed animals behind the igloo. Riley and Aaron developed a great system of taking them out. Riley went back where the animals were and tossed them out onto the floor in front of the igloo and Aaron ran them over to the mattress and climber area. Both of them were getting a kick out of it.

Riley and Aaron were both lying on the mattress and accidentally rolled into each other. They both thought it was funny so they had to do it several more times.

Aaron likes to run things around the the creases or lines of the carpet, the indent on picnic table bench or anything else that kind of makes a 'road'. It doesn't have to be a car either. He does t with the food toys, combs, books or other toys.

1/25/13

Aaron ate a bite of oatmeal and several bites of craisins at breakfast. At lunch he ate all of his applesauce, couple bites of ground beef and the he picked the yellow cheese out of the Italian blend cheese that topped the peas and pasta. He didn't eat any of the white. That cracked me up!

Emily was crawling around barking, panting and pretending to be a puppy. Aaron watched just briefly then dropped to his knees and was a puppy too. He kept crawling over for me to "pet" his head like Emily and Thomas were doing.

Aaron, Thomas and Emily all three played together a lot this morning and were very congenial with each other. None of them wanted anything to do with the other big kids (Kenzie and Joslyn), but were great with each other.

It is awesome how much Aaron likes the books. He spends time looking at them, singing to them and studying them every day.

When we switched to the back room, I was clearing away some of the Duplos that were on the floor to make a spot to build a "car" with the big blocks. Aaron obviously thought I was cleaning up because he spent the rest of the time in that room picking up the Duplos and putting them in the Duplo table drawer. : )

1/24/13

Aaron ate all of his blueberries and a bite of his waffle at breakfast. At lunch he ate a bite or two of green beans and had a lick of both kiwis and turkey burger.

Aaron doesn't pay much attention directly to the babies here, but he does love to look at and play with the things on their seats, saucers and play gyms.

Aaron was spinning around and around in circles this morning until he was so dizzy that he kept falling down. One of the times he fell, he actually bonked the side of his head pretty hard on the igloo, so if you see a bruise there that would be why. I kept trying to distracting with doing something else, but he is quite persistent!

Aaron was kind of piling the big blocks on top of each other in the back room -- not stacking them so that they. Interlocked, just loosely piling them. H then decided it would be exciting to try to stand on them. I decided he was feeling a little too adventurous today for his own good, first spinning way too long then this... He fell a couple times, but not bad and with no lasting Oakes that I could see.

1/23/13

Aaron didn't eat breakfast here because of his appointment. At lunch he ate all of his tropical fruit, a taste of sweet potato and most of his beef and bean burrito.

Aaron brought over one of the sets of pajamas and asked, "hep ee". I am not sure if it was "help me" or "help please". Either way, he is asking for help frequently. That is a great verbal skill.

Aaron started singing and dancing even before I turned on the music this morning. He really likes music, dancing and singing. It's awesome!

Aaron has been doing better about not hitting the children very often. He sometimes starts to, but will stop himself and yell at them or get me to help him instead.

We we went to the back room Aaron started looking all around the room, collecting the sea creatures. He brought the shark often to snow me and actually said, "ark". : ) He was having the shark eat several of the other sea creatures.

1/18/13

Aaron ate all of his raisins and a taste of his brown rice at breakfast. A lunch he ate most of his meatloaf, a couple bites of cooked carrots, a bite of French bread and a taste of dried apricots.

Aaron and Emily took turns playing with his train for several minutes. He shares and takes turn so nicely with Emily. Once in a while he will do it with one of the other kiddos, but with Emily it is guaranteed.

Riley was lying under the climber/balance beam and Aaron and Thomas thought it was a great start of a game of peek-a-boo. They were both peeking at her above and around the climber. Riley loved it. They then started piling stuffed animals on her, which she also thought was funny until Thomas decided to lay on the stuffed animals (with Riley underneath). Aaron, on the other hand, thought that was hilarious!

Aaron and Emily had their usual morning story time together again this morning. Nora actually came over to join them and Aaron was showing her some things in both his book and in the one she was looking at.

Aaron must have decided to do some heavy duty dish washing today. He had the kitchen set sink overflowing with food toys and other toys. He, then, scooped them all out on the floor and started over again.

Aaron spent the entire time were we in the block room, building tall towers with the big blocks, knocking them over and rebuilding. I love how engaged he gets when something interests him!

1/17/13

Aaron wasn't here for breakfast. At lunch he ate all of his canned cherries and licks of the other -- dinner roll, chicken strips and potatoes.

Aaron started spinning and dancing as soon as I put the music on today, clapping and ginning so cute. I love how much he likes music!

Aaron's new thing is to yell "NO!" emphatically while going into stiff arm stance. It doesn't even have to be about something happening to him or right by him, but even across the room. That is an improvement from the instant slapping when he didn't like something.

Aaron and Emily went over to the book area and spent about 20 minutes looking at books together and in parallel play. They both realY like books and it is a favorite activity for them -- next to running around on the rowdy side like crazy. : )

Aaron and Emily were also having a lot of fun playing with the stacking cups. They weren't actually stacking them, but nesting a few of them, putting other toys inside of them and then walking around with one on each ear, which makes a kind of listening-to-shells kind of sound.

Every time Gary takes something to the mail or goes to get the mail, the kiddos all love to watch him out the big window! He usually pretends he is going to "get" them on the way back which the love.

1/15/13 and 1/16/13

Aaron wasn't here nail late both days so there wasn't as much play to observe and I am just combining it into one entry. At lunch today Aaron ate all of his corn, probably about a quarter of his macaroni and cheese, with just licks of the rest.

Probably about the cutest thing about the last two days with Aaron has been seeing how much he adores Emily (was super glad to see and play with her today) and how much he missed her yesterday, with her sick. Yesterday it took about. 15 minutes and quite a bit of effort on my and Kenzie's part before he was engaged in play. Today, with Emily here, it was immediate! So sweet!

Aaron mainly got to play in the back rooms the last two days, since he came late. He was very excited yesterday when he was able to build a Duplo tower as high s he could reach without it falling down. He made a pretty solid base for it, which helped a lot, then just built the tower up with singles. When he had out s many on it as he could reach, he came over to me and said, "Look, Lauralea!!" proudly showing me his accomplishment.

1/10/13 & 1/11/13

I found that I didn't have very many notes on the kiddos from the last too days -- things were a little too hectic for me make as concentrated observations, I guess. Anyway, I am combining the two days into one.

Aaron wasn't here for breakfast, but ate all of his mandarin oranges and about half of his hash brown casserole along with a couple bites of biscuit at lunch,

Aaron played with Emily almost the entire large group time yesterday. They both just really enjoy playing with each other. She looks forward to it as much as he does, i think. This morning when he wasn't here during out big room play time, Emily just like of lay around, not doing much most of the time. She was kind of lost without him.

When we switch to our small groups Kenzie and Joslyn have really been interacting more with him also, which is nice. Today Kenzie invited him to play with her in the "car" she and Joslyn had made with the big interlocking blocks. After they used it as a car for a few seconds, it turned into a race track for the trains and then (several minutes later) a "walking trail" for the Pooh characters.

1/9/13

Aaron wasn't here for breakfast. At lunch he ate all of his saltines, but no ham, bean soup, or kiwi, although he did "kiss all of them goodbye".

Aaron shared his cars with Emily and they continued to play around and under the big room picnic table for At least 30 minutes. They both like to do the things they are interested in repeatedly.

As soon as Emily decided she wanted to switch to the other side of the big room, Aaron was right there with her, just waiting to see what they were going to do next.

Emily had pooped her diaper and she must have been trying to pass the buck. She turned to Aaron and asked in quite the accusatory voice, "Aaron, are you poopy?" Aaron immediately answered "No!" Emily wasn't ready to give up. She tipped her little head off to the side and said even more suspiciously, "Are you?!" Of course, he wasn't. I would have to say it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black!

Aaron and Emily were taking turns with one of them in the igloo and one out. The outside one was either pounding on the top of the igloo and saying, "anybody home?" or was peeking around into the opening and saying "peek". It is great to see him using so many words just in the course of play!

1/8/13

Aaron tasted both the dried apricots and the bagel at breakfast. At lunch he ate all of his applesauce,about half of his peas and pasta with cheese on it Nd kissed his tilapia goodbye.

Kenzie was reading to him and Emily in the big yellowish chair for quite a while this morning. She was having them count things on the pages, find different things she mentioned and answering other questions. If they answered correctly, she told them "good job!" and if not she would tell them the right answer. He was really enjoying it all.

Aaron was bringing me different stuffed animal characters today to show me. The first one he brought over was the cat in the hat and it sounded like he said, "at, at". That isn't a very common character, so I was surprised and asked him who it was again and he repeated it!

Aaron was spinning and dancing so cute when I turned on the music today. He was also singing like crazy. It wasn't the same song as what what's playing, but it was very enthusiastic and happy.

Aaron was sharing his shoes with Emily again today and I couldn't resist another picture.

Aaron was trying to help baby Noah by piling stuffed animals on top of him. He had so many that it was hard to see that their was even a baby under the pile at one point. Noah really didn't seem to mind, though. : )

1/7/13

Aaron didn't eat anything at breakfast -- bran flakes and craisins. At lunch he ate all of his cheese pizza, a couple bites of tropical fruit and a kiss of cauliflower.

Aaron and Emily played together so well again today. They were just racing around in circles on the rowdy side of the room. Emily also initiated a game of hide-and-seek with him. She informed him that he needed to hide, then sat on the mattress with her hands over her eyes, peeking through her fingers and counting then "ready or not here I come". Aaron obviously understood because he went into the igloo and waited until she "found" him.

They were also laying on the carpet and the mattress on their backs and moving their arms and legs back and forth, "making snow angels" as Emily said and Aaron imitated.

Aaron took off his shoes today and shared them with Emily. Emily actually even got them all the way on, but must not have liked the feeling because she didn't even take any steps with them.

Riley went over to the side that Aaron and Emily was playing on and Aaron emphatically told her "Go 'ther sigh!" (For "go to the other side"). That was all independently and not just an imitation of what someone else had just said!

1/4/13

Aaron didn't eat anything at breakfast. We had malt-o-meal and raisins. At lunch he ate all of his mixed fruit, several bites of spaghetti with thick meat sauce and even an actual bite of salad with ranch dressing.

Aaron and Emily played together non-stop until breakfast. First of all, they were "driving" their mixers (cars) around the picnic table race track over and over, then they moved over to sit in the yellow chair together. They took their mixers with them along with a couple scarves and were covering and uncovering the mixers in their laps.

Emily and Aaron were playing in and around the igloo and laughing so hard. Me would "hide" and the other one would walk around saying "ee--ee--ee" until they peeked at the hiding person and both cracked up. They were also doing similar play, peeking through the hole in the inside climber step.

Aaron worked and worked at getting a pair of the dress-up shoes on today. He didn't get frustrated, but finally brought them over to me so I could help him.

Aaron was a little lost and forlorn looking when Emily decided to play with Kenzie for a while instead of him. He stood and watched them for a while then started playing alongside them.

1/3/13

Aaron ate all of his berries but no cinnamon raisin English muffin at breakfast. At lunch he ate all of his canned cherries, a bite or two of hash browns and gave his canned chicken on saltine crackers a kiss goodbye.

Aaron really enjoys mimicking whatever Emily does -- marching, putting on dress-ups, jumping, playing on the mattress, pretending to cook or eat...

He especially enjoys spinning around and around to the music. Even after all of the other kiddos are done spinning and dancing, he still continued. Some of the time he will sing with the song, but no matter what, he always has a kind of dreamy and pleasant look on his face. Music is obviously a blessing to him.

When we switched to the back room the kiddos wanted me to help them make a big block car for them to play in they played in it for most of our time in that back room. He also was spinning the flower Duplo and laughed when it got going pretty well.

1/2/13

Happy new year! It is great to be able to continue to care for Aaron in 2013!

Aaron ate several bites of Cheerios and a kiss of banana at breakfast. At lunch he ate most of his apple slices, bites of his grilled cheese sandwich and no tomato sip -- sniffed it! : )

Aaron has been going around and around the climber/balance beam them jumping onto the mattress with Thomas and Emily today. They all really enjoy both jumping and watching each other. They also are awesome about taking turns, going around each other and waiting until they are out of each other's road.

He, Emily, Riley and Thomas were all having lots of laughter when they were in the Igloo playing! It looked like they were taking turns being the igloo "door" (except for Riley).

Aaron was hitting and hitting at several different kiddos this morning so we repeated went through the "gentle touches" teaching process, and gave him some words to say instead of hitting. He said them after us well. Now we just need to get him to say them on his own initiative.

Aaron really gets enjoyment out of watching the other kiddos, even if he isn't directly involved in the fun play. Gary was "getting" Emily today and Aaron was just grinning and chuckling like he was the one being tickled.

The kiddos all started marching around the big room without him. He went up to them with both hands up in the "Stop" sign and was saying "Top. Top guys!" He started marching around with them and he was fine with them doing it then. I think he just didn't want to be left behind! : )