April 2012 Fun

Besides Easter, Dave's birthday, and bookclub, this is some of what we did in April 2012. Lots of playing, for sure. Jessica is such a fun, happy, energetic kid. 

She invented this game where she climbs up behind me to smell my hair ("I mell your hai--rrrr!") to get my playful reaction. She thinks it's the funniest thing in the world, and I love her laugh. Although technically she is blowing out her nose into my hair, so I avoid this game when her nose is drippy.

For semiannual General Conference, I tried a new tradition: chocolate waffles with strawberry syrup. Pretty yummy. We love listening to the prophet and apostles speak.

Apparently, April was "wear pink" month, since in all of Jessica's pictures she's wearing it. Like at the Arbor Day celebration at Miller Park, which had a tree dissection, a tree climber demo, lift bucket rides, free trees, free lunch, and a lumberjack contest. I found out about some naturalist and master gardener classes that I really want to take.

Playdate with suckers at our neighbor's home 2 backyards away.

New porch furniture, swing, flowers, lanterns, and garden/outdoor toy trunk: which was my birthday and Mother's Day presents combined. Sure beats 2 camp chairs and a pile of grass-covered toys.

We also went to a local strawberry festival, and I spent Jessica's birthday money from her great-grandma Jane for her to ride on a horse named Red.

She was a great helper, and we came home with a small mountain of strawberries, none of which made it to the strawberry freezer jam I envisioned making.

Below I snapped a picture of Jessica watching Dora. I am not the kind of mom who limits TV watching to 1 hour/week. I need times when she is not dismantling the house, and there are times when she needs to eat, drink and rest so she's not so grouchy. I borrow DVDs from friends, the library, Youtube and Netflix to keep her learning. And so I don't have to listen to the same thing too often.

She loves her music, dance, ocean, volcano, body, weather, song, nature, Jesus, and Disney movies. I use the internet to teach her about fire stop-drop-and-roll, figure skating, dimples, how to swim with goggles, and hatching chicks. She also likes Bubble Guppies, Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Team Umizoomi, Curious George, Charlie & Lola, Super Why, Baby Einstein, Little Einsteins, Sesame Street, Max & Ruby, Little Bear, The Cat in the Hat, Backyardigans, Oswald, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Go Diego Go. Several are very educational. And occasionally I say "No more movies; turn it off!"

She's pretty good at playing by herself. She'll make up different voices in a toy dialogue, tell stories, sing made-up songs, turn everyday stuff into toys, and change up her toys in ways that were never intended. I'm thinking of her "family" of pencils that entertained her for an hour, mixing lots of objects into her play dough, and pushing around shoes in her doll stroller. Funny little kid.