Tuesday: "Miss Jenn" dropped all three kiddos off to me today at 12:15. Brendan had been at sailing camp (Reeds Lake) and his class was finished at noon today. The little kids played on the nearby "beach" a little while before it was time to come over here. It has been three weeks (perhaps four) since Brendan has been here--I have missed him! Brendan said his sailing class was a little "rough" today due to the rain, which was a little chilly. His partner in his sailboat today was his friend, Teddy--he was happy about that.
Last week, nobody at all got out the trains! But today, almost immediately, Aidan went right to the train bin and began constructing a layout. He almost always has something definite in his brain that he wants to make out of the tracks ... and Erin is NOT welcome to interfere in his plans. She takes it rather well, especially if we build a separate track for her. Today, though, she just moved on to other things.
Last week when I went to the library with Kaity, I checked out an educational tablet--it is pre-programmed with a bunch of learning activities. Brendan navigated through all of the hoops of operation very readily and was very entertained throughout our day because he was learning new stuff and having a lot of fun with it. Look at Brendan's smile--worth gold to me.
Before the kiddos showed up this morning, I printed out some pictures of them for our Memory Game. We had so much fun matching up the pictures! There were two identical pictures of each of the four in the O'Brien-Pahman family. They asked if I had done "the cousins" -- I plan to do them this week -- as well as a few of Matey and perhaps some of our favorite toys around here.
We did some reading around here too. Brendan read all three Mo Willems' books right from the get-go. I think his favorite was "I'm a Frog!" at which he laughed right out loud. He read these books aloud--Erin loved this.
As you can see from the pictures I've posted, Brendan spent most of his time on the tablet. He did read and learn about artists (i.e. Rembrandt), how to identify in a picture what people's EYES are saying (are they sad? mad? confused?) which is really a good exercise and goes along with what he is learning about in therapy. There was only ONE game on the tablet--Whack a Mole--which cracked Brendan up too. There were a couple of very nicely illustrated and animated stories to read on the tablet too.
Erin enjoyed the tablet over Brendan's shoulder ... while Aidan built the heck out of the Magnatiles.
Look at Brendan's amused expression ... and Erin with the Pokey-ball ...
Aidan still building ... he said he was attempting to make a "rocking house" i.e. a house that rocked like a rocking chair. I think he gave that up after a little while. I told him a rocking house would make me sick to my stomach if I had to live in it.
We ate lots of snacks today. Aidan naturally ate his gold fish and chocolate milk ...
Aidan has gotten much friendlier with our little Matey-Bird--I'm so glad.
Matey checking out my refrigerator pictures ...
We spent a little bit of time around the table doing art ... one of my favorite things to do with kids.
We got a whole bunch of different scissors out to practice cutting ...
Erin was super pleased with the little animal scissors.
Aidan requested my "ADimal" books ... so I got out one of the easiest to follow Ed Emberley books in my collection. Dear Aidan went to town with it ...
I absolutely love these pictures of this little child ...
Brendan even put down the tablet and drew with us for awhile ...
Aidan, examining his finished work and explaining to me that HIS pictures didn't look "ZACLY" like the pictures in the book, but he liked them anyway. I like them too, Aidan!
Brendan reading about Rembrandt.
We also did a bunch of space LEGOs today ...
This badly focused picture shows the battery-powered cars that Erin loves to play with--but today we had a tiny problem with these cars! Erin kept turning them on (the wheels spin really fast) and then holding a car super close to her face to try to figure out how it was lighting up (I'm assuming that's what she was doing) but her little curls got all tangled up in the wheel of the car! I'm talking SERIOUSLY tangled to the point where there was NO untangling it without a pair of scissors! She was quite distraught about it, poor little sweetie--but I was careful to snip only what was necessary to free her from the car. There were a few tears, but she didn't quite learn the connection between holding the car too close to her curls and it happened all over again about 10 minutes later--with much MORE of a tangle to UNdo. I put the cars out of sight from that point on ...
Here are these two rascals in the playroom seeking out what is next to play with ...
Here is a little creation Aidan made with Magna-Quebix.
We drove back to their house and arrived by about 5:45. Kelly left to pick up Dylan (and pizza) and I got to play with darling Cal, along with the others, for a nice little while. It was a good day to be a grandma.
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