Learning To Sew

Maddy brought her sewing machine all the way from Vermont in order to sew Ella. Ella is a very well loved pink elephant that Grace has loved since she was a baby. Before leaving to go back to Vermont this morning Maddy showed Grace her sewing machine. Grace loved learning all about Maddy's sewing machine and she was fascinated by all of its many parts. The next time we are all together Maddy has a very special sewing project planned for Grace. Thank you Maddy for teaching Grace all about sewing. She is learning from the most talented person I know!

Jack & Poppy

The Fun Has Just Begun!

This Is What Thanksgiving Is All About...

Thanksgiving Morning

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

One of our new Thanksgiving traditions is for Grace and Jack paint the window on our door as a happy Thanksgiving greeting. Grace and Jack each took a turn standing on their learning tower and they both used brown, orange, red, and yellow paint. Later, Grace and Jack stood side by side, on the tower and each giggled loudly as they worked together to complete their window painting.

Birthday Party Shopping!

After dance class today we headed to a party store to shop for Jack and Grace's upcoming birthday party. Jack couldn't believe his eyes when we walked into the store --- balloons everywhere! He was SO excited. Grace loved absolutely everything about the store too. It was so much fun for the three of us to pick out streamers, balloon colors, and other party decorations. We can't wait for the big party on Saturday!!

Making Fog

There has been a lot of fog in our area over the past week so today we decided to make some fog of our own inside our own home. First we filled several jars with hot water. We added a few drops of rubbing alcohol to the water. Jack helped fill bags with ice and Grace put the bags of on top of the jars. Grace and Jack were amazed to watch fog develop inside their bottles. After this experiment we talked about why and how fog forms -- when a mass of cold air bumps into a mass of warm humid air, millions of tiny droplets of water are formed and that's fog!

Grocery Shopping

Grace and Jack LOVE to go to grocery stores. We always spend LOTS of time in the produce section. Jack loves all of the vibrant colors and Grace loves naming all of the exotic fruits and vegetables to Jack. Visiting the grocery store, primarily the produce section, is the perfect way to learn all about healthy foods. Today we went to Whole Foods. Grace was such a big helper. She found all of the produce items that we needed, counted them out and put them into bags to take home with us. At Whole Foods Grace shopped for apples, carrots, parsnips, and yams. Can you guess what we will be making with these items? A birthday cake, of course! :) We will be celebrating Grace and Jack's birthday next weekend with a summer beach party. We are making a harvest cake with these ingredients. Grace is so excited to help make the cake for the party. We'll be sure to share our cake recipe with you in an upcoming post.

Jack

I love closeup pictures of eyes and Jack has a definite sparkle in his. I wish I could capture that certain look of his in a picture. Jack has changed so much this week. He is standing for long periods of time while playing, attempting to take steps, is saying several new word approximations (e.g., tractor, dog, go, eat), opening cabinets, and he is certainly on the go to explore everything! Jack talks all the time, just like his sister! I love hearing my two little "talkers." Our house is always filled with lots of talking and great conversations. That sparkle in Jack's eyes is definitely twinkling! Go Jack go!!!

Oobleck

Jack and Grace enjoyed playing with oobleck today (a mixture of cornstarch and water). This has always been a favorite activity for them. Jack had an extra fun time with his oobleck today ~ he ended up wearing his bowl of oobleck as a hat. What a silly boy! Thank you for all of the laughs this morning Jack!

Making Patterns Using Beads

Grace made patterns today by stringing beads onto pipe cleaners. She designed AB, AABB, and ABC bead patterns. This was a great activity to strengthen fine motor skills, hand/eye coordination, concentration, and attention to detail. Grace ended up making her bead patterns into necklaces for her stuffed animal friends. Great job, Gracie girl -- you are such a hard worker!

Potato Print Turkeys

Grace and Jack made turkeys today using potatoes. I cut a potato in half and Grace & Jack dipped the potato in brown paint and used it as a stamp to make the body of their turkeys. They dipped their fingers in yellow, red, orange, and brown paint to make the feathers.

A Beautiful Day

We spent as much time as we possibly could outside today enjoying warm sunny weather (in November!!!). We spent a large part of our day back at the duck pond. It was such a treat to be there again and to explore the park to see how it has changed since the summer.We had the best time watching our duck friends swimming around the pond as we ate our lunch together in "our spot."We also enjoyed dancing and splashing in all of the puddles in the park's gazebo.Jack couldn't keep his eyes off of all of the sites in the park - the ducks, seagulls, water, trees, gazebo, and the little footbridge.After our time at the duck pond we went to another one of our favorite parks to spend the remainder of our day at the playground. What a special day for us.

Peas....Please??

After Grace's dance class this morning we never imagined that we would be eating lunch back at the duck park. Eating lunch outside in Maine in the month of November is unheard of! We were beyond delighted today to have spring-like weather so we headed straight to one of our favorite summer spots today ~ the duck park! Since this day was so unexpected I did not pack any extra food to feed the ducks as I typically did this past summer when we would go. The only extra food we had left after our lunch were our organic peas! We decided to share these with our duck friends. Grace was so excited to be able to feed the ducks again that she excitedly poured all of the peas into the water. Immediately, all of the duck and all of the seagulls came over. A single duck took one bite of the peas, it's little bill was chomping and chewing that little pea for quite a long time. After that NONE of the ducks and seagulls went anywhere near our peas! Here I thought that ducks and seagulls would eat anything. Poor Gracie girl kept pointing to the peas in the water and saying, "Here they are ducks. See? Here are the peas. Come eat them!" She went on to tell the ducks how delicious the peas were and how much they would enjoy them if they just tried them. Hmmm...I wonder how long those little green peas will be floating in the duck pond?!

Eleven Months Old

I can't believe Jack is eleven months old and that he is going to be one next month. Where did baby Jack go?!! He is getting to be such a big boy. Here is an update all about our super sweet Jack-a-roo:

• Jack produces ten signs (sign language) including: more, all done, eat, car, truck, fly, shake, dog, jump, up, and hot. Jack's signed productions have increased tremendously over the past month.
  
• Jack produces several gestures such as waving hello/bye-bye, so big, blowing kisses, clapping, etc. Jack also produces and imitates many song gestures.
  
• Jack says dada, ah-duh for all done, and duck. He has become much more verbal over the past month as well and he carries on very long conversations. Whenever Jack gets really excited he says, "dut dut dut dut dut" with great enthusiasm!
  
• Jack continues to be very musical. He loves all music, musical instruments, and he always dances whenever he hears music.
• Jack is standing all by himself for up to 30 seconds at a time. Hooray, Jack! I'll be sure to post a picture of this soon.
  
• Jack is tentatively trying to take a few steps on his own. He loves to walk pushing a push toy.
• Jack's attention span continues to amaze me - especially how well and how long he attends to books. Some of Jack's favorite books are the following: It's Spring, Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever, Barnyard Banter, Fruit, I'm as Quick as a Cricket, Beep-Beep Peekaboo, First 100 Words (Bright Baby), Goodnight Moon, and Time for Bed.
  
• Jack identifies many more body parts, pictures in books, objects around our home, landmarks, and animals.
• Some of Jack's favorite things: smiling, laughing, books, transportation vehicles, climbing the stairs, music, musical instruments, dancing, Grace (anything and everything she does is SO FUNNY!), sliding on our small slide, being outside, our play kitchen, water play, phones, standing with Grace on the learning tower, his Monkey, calendar time, American flags, bead toy, balls, playdough, painting, play silks, sound play, O cereal and puffs.
  
  

Gobble, Gobble

Grace and Jack made turkeys yesterday using playdough for the body, feathers, googly eyes, orange construction paper for the nose, and pipe cleaners for the legs. We used homemade pumpkin spice glitter playdough that Grace and Maddy made together nearly one year ago while I was in the hospital with baby Jack! Grace and Jack love playing with playdough and they had such a great time making their turkeys. Their cute turkeys will be displayed on our Thanksgiving table!

Veterans Day

Grace and Jack worked together to make an American flag on Wednesday, Veterans Day, to honor all of the hard working men and women of our nation's armed forces. Grace painted the stripes on the flag and Jack painted the blue. Grace later added the stars. It is so important for us to remember, recognize and celebrate all of our veterans, which are our true heroes. The heroes we honored on Wednesday were Poppy, Pop-Pop, Pepere, and Uncle Steve. Thank you all for your tremendous service and sacrifice. Grace and Jack will be sending each of you a handmade flag as a special thank you for service.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Playing In The Leaves With Maddy

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

Picking Bittersweet with Maddy & Poppy

On Tuesday morning Grace & Jack showed Maddy & Poppy where the bittersweet was located across from our home. We all worked together to gather some bittersweet for Maddy & Poppy to bring back to Vermont to enjoy. We know that the bittersweet will always serve as a sweet reminder of our very special time together.

Jack cheered everyone on as we cut down several of the bittersweet branches.Thank you Maddy & Poppy!