We have so many acorns so Grace thought it would be fun to take the acorn tops off, turn them upside-down and paint them orange to look like little pumpkins! The jack-o'-lanterns turned out so cute and she did an amazing job painting over thirty acorns! 
Jack turned ten months old yesterday. Here is an update all about our incredibly sweet boy:- Jack loves to crawl and he is so fast! He can cross a large room within seconds.
- Jack also loves to stand, cruise, and he is beginning to stand without holding on.
- Jack enjoys kneeling while playing and while looking at books.
- Jack has the sweetest personality. Jack always smiles whenever he looks at me or whenever you smile at him! He has the best laugh too. Jack laughs at EVERYTHING Grace does. He thinks his big sister is so silly.
- Jack loves sign language. He signs "more" independently - mostly during mealtimes. Jack also signs "dog" and he is beginning to sign "all done."
- Jack is imitating gestures. His favorite gesture is putting his arms up when he hears, "So big!" Jack also waves bye-bye and blows kisses. Jack loves to clap his hands too.
- Jack can climb up a full flight of stairs by himself!
- Jack's attention span amazes me. Jack sits on the floor with me every morning and attends to books for nearly an hour. Jack also plays with toys for very long periods of time.
- Jack loves to dance. When Jack hears the word "dance" he will stop what he is doing and start bouncing up and down. Jack also dances whenever he hears music.
- Jack continues to have very clear preferences for favorite songs.
- Jack loves to talk. He says "dada" and approximates the word "all done" (ah duh). Jack loves to talk to Grace.
- Jack points to pictures in books. He identifies common objects, some shapes (circle, star, heart, crescent moon), body parts (eyes, nose, mouth, hair, toes) musical instruments, toys, and animals. Jack also uses eye gaze to look at named objects and people.
- Jack is a great eater! He loves finger foods and feeding himself. Jack will eat anything.
- Here are just a few of Jack's favorite things: books, music and music group, dancing, playing with Grace, being outside, transportation vehicles, clocks, pumpkins, apples, ladybugs, our play kitchen set, crawling up the stairs and to the tub, water play, the American flag, calendar time, finger foods, painting, our art table, musical instruments, and sound play games.
We made silly putty yesterday by mixing together 1/2 cup of white glue and 1/2 cup of liquid starch. I have been looking (and looking and looking) for liquid starch for over a year now (!) to use in several craft recipes but I have not been able to find it. I was thrilled to finally find some this past weekend. We now have enough liquid starch to last us many, many years!! Grace added red and yellow food coloring to the silly putty mixture to make it the color of a pumpkin. We let the silly putty set overnight. Grace and Jack LOVED playing with the silly putty this morning. Jack enjoyed squeezing it in his hands and Grace enjoyed stretching it as far as it would go!
...the Dole's apple orchard music concert series! Every autumn the orchard near our home puts on free weekly concerts to celebrate autumn and the apple picking season. Jack continues to love music and both he and Grace have greatly enjoyed all of the performers at Dole's. In addition to enjoying all forms of music Jack has also become quite the little dancer! Whenever he hears music he will either sit up tall or stand and bounce away while singing quite loudly ~ and all this with a very big smile too!
Gracie girl made this beautiful autumn tree using cardboard and a paper towel roll! Grace painted a paper towel roll with brown paint to make a tree trunk and later cut the top into small strips to form tree branches. Grace then glued her tree onto a small piece of cardboard. As the paint and glue were drying Grace went outside to gather grass, small twigs, leaves, grass, clovers, pine cones, and bark. Grace glued these items to the cardboard base and she also glued small pieces of bark onto the tree trunk. On our nature walk Grace and Jack collected autumn leaves and when we returned home Grace placed them on the branches to complete her autumn tree!
Our super sweet "little" Jack-a-roo had his nine month old wellness visit today with his pediatrician. Jack now weighs 25 pounds, 10 ounces (95th + percentile) and is 30 inches long (90th percentile).
I love watching Grace and all of the other girls (and one boy!) dance together at Ms. Besty's Small Steps School of Dance every Monday morning. Grace has already learned several tap and ballet routines and she practices them at home several times each day during the week. Grace is enrolled in the 3-5 year old dance class, which makes her the youngest child there. Despite not yet being 3 years old, Grace has learned all of the dance positions and routines so quickly and effortlessly. Grace is so proud to be a dancer and she refers to herself a "dancer" and a "ballerina." I hope to do a post each Monday on Grace and her dance class to keep everyone updated. Next week Grace will find out what her costume will be in her first dance recital, which is scheduled for May 29, 2010! 
Note: Most of our pictures have been very fuzzy over the past month or so. I think it is because of our camera. I am working on getting it fixed and I hope to bring Grace and Jack to you in complete clarity soon!!!
Jack truly loves music. One of Jack's favorite activities is going to music group every Thursday morning. He literally shakes with excitement! At home I love to watch Jack crawl out of our living room, down the hallway, into our kitchen, and finally over into our dining room where our piano is located. Along the way Jack crawls right past some of his favorite toys to make the long trip to the piano ~ it is quite clear that he is on a mission to make some music! Once Jack reaches the piano he stands up as tall as he can in order to reach the piano. Jack often sings along while he plays too. He is quite the little musician!
Look for pictures later today!
We have so many acorns so Grace thought it would be fun to take the acorn tops off, turn them upside-down and paint them orange to look like little pumpkins! The jack-o'-lanterns turned out so cute and she did an amazing job painting over thirty acorns! 
Jack turned ten months old yesterday. Here is an update all about our incredibly sweet boy:
We made silly putty yesterday by mixing together 1/2 cup of white glue and 1/2 cup of liquid starch. I have been looking (and looking and looking) for liquid starch for over a year now (!) to use in several craft recipes but I have not been able to find it. I was thrilled to finally find some this past weekend. We now have enough liquid starch to last us many, many years!! Grace added red and yellow food coloring to the silly putty mixture to make it the color of a pumpkin. We let the silly putty set overnight. Grace and Jack LOVED playing with the silly putty this morning. Jack enjoyed squeezing it in his hands and Grace enjoyed stretching it as far as it would go!
...the Dole's apple orchard music concert series! Every autumn the orchard near our home puts on free weekly concerts to celebrate autumn and the apple picking season. Jack continues to love music and both he and Grace have greatly enjoyed all of the performers at Dole's. In addition to enjoying all forms of music Jack has also become quite the little dancer! Whenever he hears music he will either sit up tall or stand and bounce away while singing quite loudly ~ and all this with a very big smile too!
Gracie girl made this beautiful autumn tree using cardboard and a paper towel roll! Grace painted a paper towel roll with brown paint to make a tree trunk and later cut the top into small strips to form tree branches. Grace then glued her tree onto a small piece of cardboard. As the paint and glue were drying Grace went outside to gather grass, small twigs, leaves, grass, clovers, pine cones, and bark. Grace glued these items to the cardboard base and she also glued small pieces of bark onto the tree trunk. On our nature walk Grace and Jack collected autumn leaves and when we returned home Grace placed them on the branches to complete her autumn tree!
Our super sweet "little" Jack-a-roo had his nine month old wellness visit today with his pediatrician. Jack now weighs 25 pounds, 10 ounces (95th + percentile) and is 30 inches long (90th percentile).
We were all so very excited to meet Memere and Pepere at the Fryeburg Fair yesterday. We had a great time walking all around the fairgrounds together, watching several performers on a small stage, dancing together, listening to music, touring the animal barns, and going on rides! It is a day will will never forget and it was the perfect way for us to end our 2009 fair season. Thank you so much, Memere and Pepere!
We collected pine cones this morning because the theme of the day at our home was celebrating autumn using pine cones! Grace decided to make a wreath with her collection of pine cones. She glued pine cones onto a piece of cardboard that we cut out into the shape of a circle. Grace also added several fall leaves to her wreath and we added a small bow that we made by cutting up a paper bag into thin strips. 
One of the most beautiful finds in nature are acorns. Acorns are so whimsical with those cute little caps and the possibilities with them are endless! They make the most perfect little pocket to hold little treasures. Over the past week Grace has been collecting acorns as we went on our daily nature walk. She has quite the collection! Today Grace made acorn pendants with several of her acorns. To make these Grace simply filled her acorn caps with glue and placed small treasures inside of them. Grace chose lavender, glitter, poms, rocks, and cinnamon as her treasure choices to fill her acorn caps. Once the glue dries we will screw tiny eye screws into the acorn caps and later attach the pendants to cording to make acorn necklaces. I'll post picture of Grace wearing her acorn necklaces once they are finished!
Grace and Jack worked together this morning to make a spider out of the letter S. They used glitter paint, poms, and googly eyes to decorate their cute S spider. Grace later folded eight spider legs out of construction paper and she glued them onto the back of the spider. Jack laughed and laughed when Grace used their S spider to accompany the Itsy Bitsy Spider song! 
Grace and Jack then went outside in their Halloween pajamas (thank you so much Maddy!) to make spider webs. To make their webs Grace placed black construction paper onto a tray. Grace poured white paint into the center of the paper. Grace and Jack then worked together to shake the tray in order to roll a marble and a ball through the white paint. The final result was a spider web painting for their spider! 
Gracie girl continued to make several marble web paintings while Jack-a-roo cheered her on. What great teamwork!
Today's weather forecast was rain all day long so we decided to take Grace and Jack bowling for the very first time! We all had such a great time bowling together and this will be a great family activity for us to continue with during the upcoming winter months too!
