Playing Cars, For Real

My son is obsessed with anything with wheels. Thomas, Lightning McQueen, the backhoe from "I'm Dirty" and the garbage truck in "I Stink" (books by Kate and Jim McMullen), and any other thing that rolls, honks, or beeps. He even goes to bed each night with a garbage truck named Garbee. When he wakes up he carries it around all day wrapped in a baby blanket. He even feeds Garbee with a baby bottle.

I decided to feed off this obsession and take my kids to an overpass. Not far from us there is a big giant overpass over the freeway that connects the light rail station one one side to a parking lot on the other. Not only did we get to watch cars, trucks, buses, and even the occasional boat on a trailer, but we also go to watch the light rail trains come and go. I kind of expected this outing to last maybe twenty minute or so (I mean, how long can you watch cars go by really) but we ended up staying about an hour. I'm glad a brought a snack along!

"Do it Myself"

 "I want to do it myself!" is a phrase I hear a lot. Last week I had an epiphany. I thought, maybe my daughter keeps saying this because I'm not letting her do enough by herself. So, when she asked, I let her do several things all by "myself". I was pretty amazed by the outcome.

She cut up her own banana.

 

She vacuumed the living room (and even got most of the corners!).  

 She buttered her own toast.

And she even came up with this idea, to sit on the bottom rung of the stool and use the seat as a table. Her brother thought she was genius and quickly followed suit.

Maybe I should be embarrassed that I never let my kids do these things before, but I definitely have learned something. I've made it a goal to listen when she asks, and try not to be so impatient.

What Do You Think?

It's been very snowy around here the last couple of days. Today my daughter asked if we could go to the park. I asked her a question because I was really curious what her answer was going to be. I said, "Do you think it will be snowy or grassy at the park?" She thought about it for a minute and then said, "Grassy Mommy!" I thought that was interesting. It makes sense to me. She's never seen it snowy before so why would it be snowy? She then looked outside and said, "Maybe snowy." I love to see the way her mind works.

Looking Fancy

A few months ago my daughter started showing interest in dressing up. As a person who spent most of her childhood in either a leotard or princess cape, I couldn't be more thrilled. Today she wanted to dress up in all of her bows. She then got a kick out of looking at herself in the mirror and making all sorts of faces. Our favorite library book right now is Funny Face by Anna Walker. As the book describes each face, we both do our best to look happy, sad, surprised, etc. As my little munchkin was looking in the mirror admiring her hair accessories, I saw her go through the whole list....happy, sad, angry, and finished it off with a couple of kisses to the cute girl in the mirror.