Earlier this month we took the kids to the Como Zoo in St.Paul. We’d never been to this zoo despite the fact that it is free to get in. We had a great time exploring the zoo with friends: Weston, Regan, Keeley, Michelle, and her niece Lindsey. Cohen’s favorite part was the monkeys at the beginning. Sevea didn’t seem to have a favorite. And Brynna she’s just along for the ride like usual.
Brynna must think we don’t give her enough food. She decided to raid the cupboard herself.
Cohen’s latest hiding spot. When we mention something to him he isn’t really fond of doing like getting his diaper changed or time to go to bed, this is what he does. Hides himself under a pillow. The best part that you can’t see…his huge ear to ear smile!
With Sevea and Cohen being just shy of 3 years apart they aren’t into playing the same things or the same ways a lot of the time. Play doh is fun for all ages though. One afternoon they enjoyed creating and sculpting. It was a nice change compared to the normal play they do together, which typically involves running around and noise.
School is out for the summer! We can officially celebrate summer break from school in this house. Sevea has graduated from preschool and is one summer away from being in Kindergarten. It still blows my mind. Anyway she enjoyed preschool so much and was sad for it to be over. I am so glad she has a love for school. I just hope it continues as she grows. Her class enjoyed a morning at the park and ended with a cookie treat and a mini graduation ceremony.
Sevea, her teacher, and some other classmates were hiding from other kids. They gave up and waited for them to find them on the park bench. The kids doing the hunting however decided to find a place to hide themselves. Epic fail for hide and go seek!
She grew so much this past year. It was a great year for her experiencing new things. She’s proven she is ready for next year, now I don’t know if I can say the same for myself. We are so very proud of you Sevea!
We have a new “toy” in our house. Sevea got her first “alarm” clock. She’s been sleeping downstairs for quite a while now (however it is not her bedroom and she does not want it to be her bedroom…she will sleep with Brynna again later she says.) With the new sleeping arrangement we dealt with her getting up earlier and earlier. She’d come upstairs and feel bad that she wasn’t still sleeping even though we were. She felt like she was doing something wrong. So we finally pulled the trigger on getting her an “alarm” clock. We’d known about these clocks for quite some time but just never felt like we needed it. Could have used it, yes but didn’t need it.
The clock acts like a normal alarm clock that you can set to alert you when to wake up. But the thing we use it for is to tell Sevea when it is “OK to Wake!” You can set a certain time that the clock will glow yellow letting the child know that they can now wake up (or get out of bed essentially). We set the “alarm” for 6:35am and when that time comes the clock glows yellow, if Sevea is awake she gets out of bed and comes upstairs. If she is asleep, she just keeps sleeping because it doesn’t make any sound or alert her in anyway other than if she were looking for it to change color. It has been great. She doesn’t feel bad for getting up too early. She gets more sleep because she doesn’t feel like she’s been forgotten downstairs. And the best part, Troy and I get more sleep. Everyone is happy!
What a fun month we had. Brynna learned a lot of fun “tricks” this month. Some she likes to do all the time and some when she feels like it. She started the month off learning to go from laying down to sitting up. This skill was huge for making her content and happy. She could play with toys while sitting after she crawled (still army crawling) to get them. She then little by little got better and better at truly pulling herself up. She absolutely loves to stand up and it is often a way we use to distract her from a crabby moment.
She will now wave, play peek-a-boo (her doing the peek and boo), shake her head no…all the time and occasionally give us kisses. Big open mouth slobbery kisses. She surprised us when she figured out how to drink from a straw. And one of my kids decided “so big” was worth learning.
Brynna definitely is “so big” and we took her hint to move her to a big girl car seat. There are times when the infant car seat is missed (those times when it was easier to have her contained in a seat but overall we LOVE not having to haul her AND a car seat around. Although I may need to figure out another arm workout to compensate :)
The rest of Brynna’s world is exploring. Where can she get and what can she get into. We’re just happy to be able to witness it all.
