2 1/4 years old!

Well, 3 months have pasted since Jacie turned 2! Can I please slow down time?!?! It just keeps going faster and faster I swear! These past 3 months we have been together almost every day and I have loved every minute of it!! I am going to do my best at a little update on what she is doing.

- Lately she loves to sing! She knows lots of her zoo songs from kindermusik, Dora songs, ABC song (although not yet perfect), a number song, ring around the rosy, old mcdonald, itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle little star, and wheels on the bus.... might be more but that is all I can think of.

- So far the "terrible two's" haven't been too "terrible" She has always been a pretty easy going baby so I hope she continues to become an easy going child! She will test limits, but she definitely knows if she doesn't fix the problems she is having she will go to time out! Time out does work with her! Its simple and affective!

- We all love having conservations with her, she is so funny and will sometimes says the funniest things.

- She has an amazing imagination!!!! The things she comes up with is crazy!

- We tried potty training this summer. I know she is just not ready yet. She was using underwear just like diapers. We did the 3 day training and it didn't work at that time.  We still talk about the potty, she will sit on it at random times still. I plan to start again in a few months.

- She loves pretend play. It is by far her most favorite thing to do!!! Especially if it involves food!

- Big baby is her love!!!! She has started going everywhere with us! Giving Big baby a bath is very traumatic for Jacie! But I try to get her in the washing machine at least once a month!

- She is drinking out of big girl cups now at dinner time!

Some of her dislikes: BUGS!! SPIDERS! Being told that something is not hers! Not letting her help! Momma leaving her! Being told it is bedtime!.... Honestly there is not much to put here! =)

At 2 years old I asked her some questions. It has been 3 months I know most of the answers have changed so I asked again.
Favorite color: white
Favorite animal: giraffe
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite Dessert: ice cream cone
Favorite TV show: Dora
Favorite stuffed animal: Big baby

Big baby had to participate in the photo shoot too!

It begins...

I started back on Monday. This week went by sooooo fast. It was full of back to school basics, training's, work days, decorating the room and hallways and last of definitely not least meet the teacher!! I had the best Meet the Teacher ever! I had 13 out of my 18 students show up and they all seemed great! PLUS I had about 20 of my past students come to see me!!! I had about 1/2 of my class last year mixed in with some now 2nd, 3rd and even a 4th grader still!!  It was AMAZING! I always love to see them at my door!!! Makes me realize just how much I miss them!

Surprisingly this year we had an off day today. Of course it truly wasn't an off day. I was not ready at all for the 1st day yesterday. So Jacie and I headed back to school this morning. We finished my last minute things I needed to do and headed home. I am ready for those 18 kiddos on Monday!!! I truly believe this will be a great year!!!

These comparisons are so crazy to see!! This was my 3rd year to have my little helper with me! Although we all know I use the term "helper" lightly =) This year though she did help me get my tables set up. Everything is color coded so she did a good job at sorting!!


I haven't taken any pictures of the inside of my classroom but I took pictures of the hallway. This year our school theme is "In it to win it" Each team had to pick a game, create a shirt and get creative however we wanted. My team did great with our Kinder Land!!!! These are the pictures my partner teacher and I decorated for our Gumdrop Mountain. The team also decorated a Lollipop Land and Peppermint forest.

3D gum ball machine!!! 

The game board is running along the walls, we plan on adding student work to the pieces throughout the year. 

Gumdrop pass just like the game! 

How I spent my last day of Summer!

First of all, I am very sad to be typing this. Feels like Summer just started and now it is officially over.  This summer has been the best one yet but I know they will keep getting better!!

This morning I told Jacie "Mama has to go back to work next week" She replied "NOOOOOO stay here with me!" It made me so sad =( Then I told her "you will be going to Mimi and Papas though" and she replied "oh okay!" So then that made me feel a little better!

We spent our last day at the zoo. I had so much with her and I know she had a good time too!!! It was very hot and I was sweating like crazy but I am so glad we went and got to spend the time together!! I will miss spending my days with her!!!

Big baby had to come to the zoo too. She spent lots of time in mama's backpack though because I didn't want her to get lost. They are both ready to go!!! 

She did such a good job at feeding the birds this time. It wasn't busy at all so we had our choice of spots so the birds were eager to eat!

I knew we had to ride the carousel. This is only like the 4th time to ever ride one but it is definitely a favorite thing to do when we ever seen one. While we were waiting in line she yells our "want to ride yellow horse!" She was so happy to ride it. This one does not have seat belts so throughout the ride she kept saying "no seat belts hold on!"

We ended up skipping a section of the zoo because there are no animals there so we got to ride the zoo train back to the entrance. This was my 1st time ever to ride the train. We have been going to KinderMusik this summer and the theme was "Zoo Train" so i knew we had to ride an actual zoo train. On the train ride we were singing the train song =) 

X, Y and Z

On X day we played the xylophone and played with some x-rays!

             

Y day was full of yellow. We gathered all of Jacie's yellow stuffed animals and read the yellow book to them. She ate some yogurt, made a handprint yak and took a yellow bath... yellow water balloons and yellow bath fizz which you can't tell.

Z day- We spent the morning at the zoo! It was hot and it was just the 2 of us but we had so much fun.  After nap we stamped some zebras and made her last handprint zebra!!!.

V and W

V- Jacie colored the flowers and decided were to glue them on her vase, she colored her velvet picture, we made the vehicle and then finished the day with the vinegar and baking soda experiment. She wasn't into it so much so it was short lived.

On W day, we spent the morning at the water park Hawaiian Falls. It is right up the street from our house and I have never been so I figured it would be a perfect time to try it out. They have a fun little kid area for little kids and another area for some bigger kids but she still got to slide down the bigger slides in that area. They have a big splash pad but the sprays were a little to hard for her and then the lazy river. She loved the river and riding on her "boat" (a inner tube) We went around twice and she would say "hi" to all the life guards. After nap time we watched some Wiggles, and did our crafts. Finally the last thing was the window painting. She loved doing this! We played for a long time. We practiced our letters, numbers and shapes too in the paint!!

Goodnight kisses

Tonight after I tucked Jacie into bed and started to walk to the door she pops her head up and says "1 more kiss?" Of course I am going to go over there and kiss her, then she says "eskimo kiss?" followed by "butterfly kisses"

I love that kid!! 

S, T, U

I am sooooooo running out of days! I have had training and meetings and now getting my classroom ready I don't have much time at home anymore. Next week is my last week of summer :( We will be doubling up for the remaining letters so we can get it done in the next 2-3 days. 

           On S day she ate strawberries, played on her slide and she made the sunflower craft.


T and U we did together in 1 day:

She brushed the boy and girls teeth with a tooth brush. She did really good at following this direction. She is a strong willed child who likes to do this her way so usually our crafts and activities don't always turn out the way I planned but in this case she did good. I honestly figured the people would end up with paint all over them because she would want to "brush" everything. We read her tiger book and finally did the puzzle at the end of the book. Then we played with some "t" toys... trampoline (notice her tiger ears) and her train set.

She made the under water sticker scene. I love the way she put the dolphins and whales in an order and then how the yellow fish on the left are with their "family." There are also some fish that are belly up but she said they are just "laying down" =) I wanted her to play with a umbrella but it turns out my umbrella is too heavy for her but I did set up some rain (sprinkler in the tree) and she played a bit in it. 

P, Q, and R

P day- She ate a popsicle. We watched Peter Pan for the 1st time. We tried to paint with popcorn but she only lasted a  minute because she wanted to eat it and got mad when I wouldn't let her eat those pieces! We made a penguin with her foot. We had made 1 back in February for a winter craft and seeing how much her foot has grown in just 5 months is crazy. 

 Q day- Not much we could do for q day. We painted with q-tips which she did actually enjoy and read some stories on her quilt that her mamaw made her.

On R day we created a handprint rabbit. She loved making this rabbit with gluing cotton balls on it (she was so proud of it and actually wanted her picture taken) We did an experiment with milk and turned it into rainbow milk and ate rice krispies for dessert.

M,N, and O

 For M day, we hung out with my friend Miranda, practiced our fine motor skills with marshmallows and toothpicks, colored Map with markers, made monster feet (she even did those toes by herself) and created the handprint monkey.

 N day, we practiced our numbers and 1 to 1 correspondence with the stickers, she created a nighttime sky and created a necklace.

O day- simple as opposites and octopus. This was a busy day so we didn't do much. We also watched some Nemo.

Our staycation

This was meant to be posted 2 weeks ago!!! I forgot about it!

Last summer we planned on doing a real vacation this summer but we changed our minds. We decided we will do a real one next summer when Jacie is 3. She will probably enjoy it better then anyway. Sea World 2013! Disney World 2014 or 15 (Prob 2014...I dont think I will be able to wait another year!!)Yes! That is the plan =) It is okay to plan that far ahead.....

It started on Sunday with Ben's 31st birthday. We spent the afternoon at his parents and went out to dinner followed by cake.

On Monday we headed out to the museum. Jacie played in the kid area for a while but it got busy fast. We went to the exhibits and then ended with a Sesame Street planetarium show.

Tuesday we went to Fossil Rim. Its an outdoor safari park. You drive through and the animals come to the car and you feed them. We were told to just throw the food out the window because the animals could bite but we could hand feed the giraffes! We were all so excited to feed them. When we got to that area only 1 giraffe was by the cars all the others were by the trees. The giraffe was not on my side so I only got to feed it 1 time as I was reaching across Ben in the driver seat.

Wednesday we went to Kindermusik. Ben got to come with us though. I think she did better this week than last. She was more interactive and doing some of the activities on her own.

Thursday we laid kinda low. My car was taken to the shop and will stay there for a few days. It was also the day that Target dropped their toys to 70% off so I did a little shopping for future birthday parties and Christmas. We ended the day at Outback Steakhouse for dinner while Jacie spent a little time with her grandparents.

Friday we got up and headed to the movies. This was the 2nd time we took Jacie. We went to see Ice Age 3. Jacie has gotten much louder since the last time we went! I felt sorry for the people in front of us but for the most part she did pretty good.

Saturday was the day I have been looking forward to all week! It was the day we were going to see The Wiggles!!! 

Sunday we went to my nieces 7th birthday party! Can she really be 7?!?

She actually kept this birthday hat on for a long time

I Can't wait until next summer so we can take our 1st real family vacation... with a 3 year old? OH MY! 

Potty training

..... enough said!