Lilypie 5th Birthday Ticker

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Fun with flash cards

A couple months ago I bought 3 boxes of flash cards for Astrid at Costco: 1) picture words (Astrid's favorite), 2) colors and shapes, and 3) numbers.

Although the packaging says it's for children age 3+ years old, and Astrid isn't yet 2, I thought it would give Astrid a jump start on learning new words, shapes, and numbers. Plus I thought it would be something fun and easy for my nanny to do each day with Astrid to help her learn.

At first Astrid loved to pull the cards out one by one and have us tell her what the word was. She started to associate the picture with the word. For example: When she pulled the card with the picture of burning logs she would shout out "Hot!" Or when she pulled the picture of the snowman in winter wonderland she'd shout out "Cold!" There's also a picture of an octopus eating spaghetti, and Astrid knows that's the card for "eat". She also knows the card for "off" and "on". And then there are some cards that are confusing. For instance there's a picture of a hippo sitting down at a table and he's holding a crayon in his hand. Whenever Astrid sees this card she says "eat". I can see how the crayon may look like an eating utensil.

Lately she's gotten into the habit of dumping all the cards out onto the floor and picking up the ones she knows and shouting out their names. There's a card with a picture of a motorcycle on it and the word is "ride" but Astrid surprised me today by holding the card and shouting "bike!"
And then tonight this happened:

Astrid was holding a card and jumping up and down and saying "jump" over and over again. Uwe and I were both in the family room watching her and smiling at her.

I turned to Uwe and said, "You know she's holding the jump card don't you?"

Ahhh the fun of raising a toddler. It almost makes up for the tantrums.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Poop humor

This evening Astrid had her animal book open to this page and she kept saying "poop...poop...poop" and pointing to her book. I looked down at the page and saw she was pointing to the picture of the log and had to laugh out loud.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2007!

Today being St. Patrick's day, I dressed Astrid in a green outfit, green shoes and put a green St. Patrick's Day clip in her hair and off we went for a walk in Griffith Park.
This happens a lot. I'll pull out the camera and right when I'm about to take a picture, Astrid will run towards the camera. She knows she can view the photo right away (since it's a digital camera). But the thing is she doesn't realize that I have to FIRST take the photo and THEN she can see it. So invariably my first photo will be a blurry one of Astrid running towards the camera.
"Nothing comes between me and my Oshkosh."
When we went shopping a few days ago a couple girls in the store oohed and awed at Astrid and one exclaimed, "She looks like a living doll!" This photo reminds me of that.
Astrid spots some dogs up ahead.
Off she goes!
"Happy St. Patrick's Day!"
Pointing to the babbling brook.
Astrid's hair is long enough now that I can pull it back into a single ponytail. Our nanny Lorie bought this St. Patrick's Day hair accessory for Astrid - green and white ribbons with a pot of gold in the center.Deep in thought.
I also think her molars are coming in, since lately she always has her fingers in her mouth and is drooling a lot. It seems like the teething process is never ending.Bending down to pick a dandelion. That's one new thing she loves to do now. She loves to pick them and blow their seeds in the wind.
Astrid goes for 2 walks a day now. She goes walking with our nanny right after breakfast in the morning, and then again with me when I get home from work in the evening. She loves spotting the neighborhood rabbits, cats and dogs. She's also at that age where she wants to know what everything is called, from a rock to a blade of grass to a leaf.
Uwe and I are also starting to go for walks with her on the weekends. It's great for her to be outdoors to be able to see and experience new things; plus it's great exercise.Giving Papa a dandelion present.Entering the forest.Our little Brigitte Bardot. It still amazes me how blond her hair is. Uwe holding onto the hood of Astrid's jacket to keep her from falling into the water.
It's a fine balance to let her be independent, but then to make sure she doesn't get hurt or wander off. There were many times Uwe and I were going to go one way and she had it in her head to go off in another direction. She listens pretty well for the most part but she also has a strong independent streak. Taking a peek down at the water flowing downstream.Listening to Mama, and not getting too close to the edge.Holding onto the log railing.Uwe and Astrid stomping on the bridge to make the "boom boom" sound and vibration. Astrid really got a kick out of that.Showing Papa how to make the "boom boom" sound.More stomping of little feet on another bridge.
One last look before we go back to the car and drive to Philippe's for dinner (and then home for a bath and then off to bed).