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February 23, 2002
10/15
Snow adventure
We recently had what was reported to be the largest amount of snowfall to fall in over 110 years, since they first started tracking the weather. 27 1/2 inches. It was a lot, but I must say we got out without too much more damage then a couple of sore backs from shoveling. I was out of school, and Ella’s daycare provider shut down, so we were snowbound for the day. I decided to bundle her up and see how she liked the outside. She has an adorable pink snowsuit that her Nami (my mom) bought her and some cute boots. I have to say, it’s a little silly that we dress her in the boots all winter long, since she had never actually laid boot to snow but rather is always carried over snow, ice, slush, etc. But today we decided to venture out. Boy am I glad we did, Ella had a blast. Rather then venture into the snow, which she would have been immovable in, we stuck to the side walk. It was perfect, really. Almost everyone had shoveled and so there was a nice clean path. And the best part was, since there were drifts of two feet plus on either side, she couldn’t run away into the street nor could cars driving by splash her. It was like a little runway for her. She just loved it, she walked and walked, pointing out cars, houses, people, and everything else she saw along the way. We ended up going all the way around the block, which has to be about ¼ of a mile. I don’t think she’s ever gone on such a long walk. Well, she took a nice nap that afternoon then wanted nothing more then to outside again. When she found her snowsuit and dragged it over to me I figured it was the least I could do. Well, this time we went around the block twice! She probably walked half a mile! I couldn’t believe it. It was really nice though. There were a lot of people out to smile and wave to and we met a few new neighbors along the way.
10/17
Puddles
The weather has warmed up somewhat so today, inspired by the successes the other day, we decided to go on another walk. Ella was definitely game and I love her getting the exercise and fresh air. Well, her big discovery for this walk was puddles. After all that rain there were puddles literally about every two feet and Ella had to stop at every single one to look at it, think about it, then step in it and then STOMP STOMP STOMP! You get the picture. Often times when she does stuff like this, that are so stereotypically ‘toddlerish’ it makes me wonder… Does she have a secret manual on ‘How to be a kid’? Anyhow, we made very poor progress and eventually I had to pick her up and carry her home since she just wouldn’t go anywhere. Still, we had fun.
10/19
Singing
Today Ella was playing at a play space that I take her to when I noticed that she was babbling to herself. She does this a lot and I love to listen to it, but this time I noticed that she was kind of swaying back and forth while babbling, which made me wonder if she was singing a song to herself. My suspicions were confirmed when she stopped her babbling, paused, and started clapping. Then I knew she was singing a song, since she always claps at the end of songs I sing to her. She repeated this a number of times, singing songs about her binky, cookie, and kitty cat (I could tell because there were strings of these words in the middle of the babbling). Too cute!!
10/22
Aquarium
My cousin Emma, who just turned fifteen, was visiting us this weekend so we decided to go the New England Aquarium. Ella loved it. The first thing you see when you go in is the penguin display, and there are spots where there is clear plastic paneling around the edge, so even the tiniest visitors can see. Ella plopped herself right down on the floor in front of this area and was fascinated by the penguins. She would point over and over to all the different birds and, if one swam by near our section of the display, she would scream in excitement. She repeated this fascination looking in all different fish tanks, especially the giant tank with the really big fish in them. “Ish ish ish!” The only part she wasn’t that crazy about was the sea lion show, but she did stop whatever she was doing (mostly climbing all over Jamie and I) to clap whenever the audience started clapping.
10/23
First letter
My little genius has learned her first letter! Whenever we play with crayons I usually take a crayon and write her name in big letters on the paper and go over the letters with her E L L A. When I do that she can identify them back but I didn’t think she was doing anything more then quickly parroting me. But today she brings me over a wicker basket she has, and it’s turned upside down and she’s pointing to the sticker on the bottom. At first I thought she was just showing me the sticker but then I notice she is pointing specifically to the ‘A’ in “MADE IN CHINA” and saying “AY” over and over. I was so proud you would have thought she wrote a sonnet!
Computer play
A few months ago I decided to check out the Sesame Street website and found they have all sorts of games and activities for very young children, probably 2-6 ish. But there was one game that was specifically for babies (they called it lap-ware). It’s very cute—Peek a Boo with Elmo, Zoe or Big Bird. The character hides and the child presses any key on the keyboard and out jumps the character. Ella just loves it, she caught on very quickly and requests to play all the time. She’s mastered pressing the keys to make the character jump out but sometimes will get a little over eager and start smashing all the keys. She will also sit quietly on my lap for up to half an hour just watching me play the other games, since they feature all the Sesame Street Characters. I went on a couple different websites for young kids, though, and never found any other games specifically for babies. I am interested to know if anyone else has any suggestions. Please let me know if there are any sites your very young kids particularly like.
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