More Pup-pup Luv

Karlie pretty much chases the dog around like this all day long :)



And if you are feeling a sense of deja-vous, that might be because you saw Karis doing something similar in THIS POST :)

(Note: my computer currently does not have sound, so if this link does not work correctly, would someone please let me know?)

Reading lists for children

Since pictures are not really working on my computer, I decided to share a little about some resources I have found and enjoyed. As you well know, I LOVE reading with my girls and we borrow a ridiculous amount of books from the library every week. I usually try to reserve about 15 books that I know are really good, and then let Karis pick the rest. As a former preschool teacher, I had a long list of favorite authors and children's books that I love, but we have quickly gone through them. So I looked online and in the library and found some good reading lists that I have been using when I choose the books I want to reserve. I've printed them all out and made a little notebook full of books to borrow and I'm marking them off as we read them. And yes, I'm crazy enough to think that we will eventually read them all and most of them more than just once! So far, these books have been great! Usually, we have a handful of books each week that we can't bear to return, but last week we kept almost the entire stack! So I thought I'd share my list with you. Several of the lists are from "classical education" lists because I am very interested in giving my girls a classical education.

Websites:
Early Years Read-alouds -- Simply Charlotte Mason
Classical Christian EducationSupport Loop: 1000 Good Books List
The Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education booklist
Five in a Row booklist
Our Library's book list

Books:
The Read-Aloud Handbook: 6th edition by Jim Trelease
Honey For a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt

Best Buddies

I cannot begin to describe how much Karlie Sue loves her Pup-pup. She gets excited about the cat too, but it is not the same. She talks about the dog all day long and looks for her when she first gets up.

When we are inside, Karlie gets a toy and immediately goes to Pup-pup to play with it. She usually sits down right on the poor dog's head, and eventually wiggles her way to a position like you see in the picture above. When we play outside, Karlie spends most of her time following Pup-pup around and trying to give her food, a bone, or her water bowl. I am so thankful for such a tolerant dog!

Attempted Park Bench Photo Shoot

So happy and tired after wearing themselves out in the sun!
And while I know this last pic isn't the least bit flattering of my girls, I just had to include it because they have the exact same "exhausted and out of it" expression and I think it is just hilarious!

The perfect day for the park...

Karlie Sue at 14 Months!

My sweet, happy baby is so much fun! At 14 months, Karlie loves to:

--dance, dance, dance! We have a baby dance Cd and it is so cute to see her try to do everything Karis and I are doing (spinning around, touching toes, clapping, etc).

-- play outside! We got a touch of spring and this girl has spring fever! She will go get her shoes, beg me to help her put them on, and then run to the door and fuss to go outside.

-- Read! If anyone comes over to our house, she will usually bring them books and plop into their laps, read for a minute, and then bring another one and another, over and over. She gets really frustrated if she can't get the books out of the library bag. She also entertains herself in her crib quite well by reading books. I leave about 5 board books in her crib so that I can finish making breakfast in the moring while she reads and squeals :)

--- Our bag of balls dumped in a laundry basket -- She will throw herself head first into the laundry basket full of balls. Then she kicks and squeals and demands that Karis picks up all the balls that she knocked out. Thankfully, Karis thinks it is hilarious and fun to throw balls to Karlie :) I had some adorable pics of this, but lost them when our computer went crazy, but I'll have to take more soon.

--- People! My baby has no fear of strangers and thinks that everyone wants to hold her and read books to her. She will walk with arms outstretched to the mailman, a random guy at a park, etc. I'm not worried about having friends babysit because she is a happy camper with just about anyone!

---Animals, but especially "pup-pups!" This girl loves doggies! She can spot a dog a mile away or on a random page in a book and starts excitedly yelling "Pup-pup! Pup-pup!" over and over until you say, "yes, Karlie, there is a pup-pup!" She gets so excited whenever our dog comes inside and gives her a big bear hug and squeezes her face and plays with her tail and climbs all over her and tries to give her everything imaginable. I'm so thankful we have such a tolerant dog!

Karlie seems so grown up to me right now. she entertains herself very well. She is quite content to toddle all over the house, finding random things to carry around and put inside other random things. She chatters and squeals and makes all sorts of happy noises as she wanders around, needing no entertaining.

She also follows directions really well. If I say that it is time to brush our teeth, she will turn around and head for the sink. If I say it is time to go outside, then she will go find her shoes. Most of the time she listens really well and I am really enjoying the calm before the storm of the willfullness of 18 months! She is very stubborn, however, and gets very upset when I won't let her do something or have something that she wants. But overall, she is a super happy, super sweet girl that I just love to peices!!!

Messy Peek-a-boo

(In case you are wondering, she was eating a smoothie :)

Teaching Karlie "Blanket Time"

I've been meaning to teach Karlie how to stay put for blanket time for quite a while now, but just never made the time to do it. We started on Monday and I'm pretty excited about her progress. The first day wasn't much fun, of course, because she didn't understand why I was restricting her to just a blanket. And she really wanted to play with Karis (who was on blanket beside her). Karis wanted to play with Karlie, as well, so I finally decided to just give them the same blanket. I mean, my goal is for them to be best friends and want to play together for the rest of their lives, so I might as well let them have blanket time together :) Ever since we made that change, blanket time has gone smoothly for Karlie! She can't do a half hour like Karis, of course, but she can do 10-15 minutes without too much of a fuss. And it is amazing what I can get done in those 10-15 minutes without a certain 1-year old pulling out everything that I put up!!!

sweet sisters

"Her Daddy's name?"

(Note: I would love to put a cute picture of Karis in this update, but alas, my computer is stuck in ubuntu and doesn't know I have any pictures. Don't you wish I knew something about computers? ha, ha :)

I suddenly realized that I hadn't posted a Karis update in a while, so here you go:

Karis is all about names right now. If she meets you on the street, she will undoubtedly ask you your Mama's name, your Daddy's name, your Doggie's name, your brother's name, etc, until you find a way out of the conversation. It would be really hilarious, but after you hear, "Her Daddy's name?" (asked about a person you saw out the window of the car) 50 million times, well, ok, it is still hilarious. I don't really understand her fascination with the names of people she will probably never meet, but it is pretty funny. She also likes to talk about the "sissy" (sister) relationship. About 20 times a day she will ask me, "What is Karlie's sissy doing?" and grin really big because she knows she is being clever.

Karis is still obsessed with gender, especially animals. We go on a walk every morning (unless it is storming) and often in the afternoon, too. We see a lot of animals and somehow I am supposed to know the gender of every single one. And when we go to the dog park, she will ask "is the doggie a girl?" of every single dog there. Thankfully, she doesn't mind if I say I don't know, because it gives her the opportunity to decide for it a female gender :)

Karis loves to correct my speech. For some reason, I often call Pup-pup a he. Don't ask me why; I have no idea. Anyways, she will correct me every time. (Mama! You said he!!!") She corrects other things I say as well. This week I asked if she wanted to eat milk (Silly, Mama! dwink milk, not eat!!") or read books on the bed when I pointed to the couch (no, Mama, read books on couch!) Nothing gets past my girl :)

Warm enough to get wet!!!!

After playing outside for most of the day, we were pretty hot. So I filled up the water table and they had a blast! They really didn't get that wet for the first ten minutes. But then I heard Karis say, "Mama! I wash Karwie hair!!!" And let me tell you, that was ice-cold water and a pretty cool breeze blowing! But as you can tell by their smiles, being completely soaked did not seem to bother them a bit. I have a feeling we are going to be soaking wet almost every day for the next several months :)

a wordless "Not-Me" from the girls!

Fav books of the week

What Did I Look Like When I Was a Baby? by Willis -- a cute book about different little animals asking their parents what they looked like as a baby.

Snowbears by Waddell -- Karis loved this book about 3 bears playing in the snow

She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain by Sturges -- a funny version of the traditional song. All the animals are waiting for the bookmobile to bring them some new books.

Dr. Suess ABC -- Karis was so excited that she could pretty much read this book to Karlie all by herself!

Snowmen at Night by Buehner -- a really fun and beautiful book about what the snowmen do while everyone else is asleep

Please Say Please Penguin's Guide to Manners by Cuylier -- Karis thought this was so silly and funny, and I liked it because she saw how ridiculous bad manners ban be :)

How many headbands does 1 baby need?

Apparently at least 5 :) Karlie knows where we keep Karis' headbands and will randomly start pointing and signing "please" and (hollering of we don't respond :). Then she wants to wear them all at once. I think she is adorable, but I know that I am extremely biased :)