Daddy's Long Trip
Daddy was gone Monday through Friday on a business trip this week. The day he left we found his destination on the big map in the study, then used GoogleMaps to see what roads he would be on (Monkey and Bug are very interested in the names of roads and how many roads we will be on to get from one place to another). The entourage handled his absence pretty well with only a few "I miss Daddy" meltdowns. Goose never melted, but she would occasionally wander around the house yelling, "Daddy! Daddy!" I think it really helped that Monkey and Bug have some concept of a calendar. A while back I made them a days-of-the-week calendar with icons for our usual outings, so they could tell each other that Daddy was coming back on Friday: "grocery shopping day." This week was also the first time Goose got to use the phone. Oh my goodness was she excited! When she heard Daddy's voice she started bouncing up and down with the biggest grin ever on her face. Of course, all she can say is "Daddy" but that hardly lessened the joy of the conversation!

Library Days
We had 3 library days this week! The first, on Monday, was a special evening storytime to celebrate Valentine's Day. (Usually this is Daddy Date night, but Daddy's out of town). The storytime involved Valentine's Day books and poems, a craft project, and a snack. The craft was a little too advanced for the entourage, but they had a great time anyway--especially since our neighbors Miss N and LA were there too. I had a proud Mommy moment when snack time rolled around: All three girls turned down the cookies and went straight for the grapes! We discovered that while Goose loves grapes, she doesn't appreciate the skins. She would pop one in, manage to suck off all the inside, then spit the skin back into my hand. The girls didn't have a lot of free play time at the library that evening, because Miss N invited us to join them for dinner afterwards, since Daddy was out of town. The girls had a great time and keep asking if we can go eat at LA again. We've had discussions about the social niceties of having to be invited before showing up at someone else's house for dinner.

The very next evening Monkey and Bug insisted they wanted to go somewhere. When I asked where, they replied in unison, "The library!" How could I say no?! So, we spent an hour or so at the library mostly snuggled up on a big bean bag chair reading books they picked out.

Then on Thursday we had our usual library day. Goose didn't go for the puzzles this time--she spent the hour or so we were there triumphantly climbing up onto chairs and rearranging all the cushions in the children's section. I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but I've been intentially reading a lot of classic folk and fairy tales to the girls. Today was the first time since I started doing that that we read a parody of a classic tale. Monkey and Bug loved it. They thought it (The Stinky Cheese Man) was hilarious and spent almost every page exclaiming, "That's not how it goes!" Unfortunately, the library's computer system was down, so we were only allowed to check out five books. We opted to keep a few from last week, too. We came home with:
Happy Pig Day!
George and Martha: Encore
Where Are You Going? To Visit My Friend: A story of friendship told in two languages (The two languages were English and Japanese. We talked about how the Japanese write differently than we do and how Aunt E is going to Japan, so she's learning how to speak Japanese.)
When Machines Go to Work
Leonardo the Terrible Monster
Swimmy
Spots
Recycle Everyday
Truckery Rhymes

After Thursday's library day, we met the neighborhood moms and kids at Miss N's house
for lunch and decided to see if the bounce house would fit in her living room.

Writing (Score 1 for Unschooling!)
Bug has decided to learn how to write. One of the entourage's projects this week was coloring the wrapping paper for Daddy's birthday present. At some point Bug looked up at me and asked, "Does Daddy start with a D? Does a D look like this?" and preceeded to execute a near perfect D! "What comes next?" she asked. I answered, explained what the letter A looked like, and wrote out DADDY on a piece of notebook paper for her to copy from. Unfortunately, after Bug completed a lovely beginner A, Goose decided to scribble all over Bug's letters. She was distraught and, because she'd been writing in 6 in. tall letters, didn't have enough blank space left on the paper to start over. Then while we were outside playing with sidewalk chalk with some friends, Bug decided to practice again. She started to write Daddy again, but after a messy attempt at the letter A, decided to switch to writing "DOG," which turned out very well but was backwards and around a corner. We're still working on the "letters go from left to right" concept, but I didn't want to discourage these early attempts. As I'm uploading photos on Saturday, Monkey and Bug are doing "projects" at their table in the study, and Monkey says, "Look Mom, I can do letters now too. I wrote [Bug]." Sure enough, one of the letters was iffy, but it definitely says "[Bug]"--not even her own name. I was impressed.

Bug's first attempt at writing DADDY
(I don't know why it's upside down, but I can't get it to flip)

Bug's writing with sidewalk chalk

Goose loves to color too!

Questions
There were some doozies this week:
What does God do?
Why do some mommies and daddies not live together?
Why don't mean people listen to God?

Self Defense
At one of our library days the girls asked me to read Rumplestiltskin to them, which led to some interesting discussions later in the week. it started with "Why did that mean little man try to take the mommy's baby?" That part of the story always terrified me as a little kid, so I redirected focus to the "clever Mommy who kept her baby safe." This led Monkey and Bug to think about what they would do if a mean man tried to take them: scream really loud and hit and kick as hard they could. They went from there to brainstorming ideas for how they would handle any "bad guys" who tried to get us in our house. God help the home intruder who shows up here! Here's their game plan: Monkey is going to "poke him through the tummy" with her light saber, while Bug hits him with her light saber, "so he can't get up anymore." But if he does get up, they are going to don their "Daddy work clothes" (fatigues, because that's what you wear when you fight bad guys) and bike helmets (to keep them safe), then run the bad guy over with their trikes. They even conceded that Goose could take on any "baby bad guys" who showed up, but mostly they plan on protecting her. They were practicing keeping the invisible "bad guys" away from her with their light sabers. Goose was blissfully oblivious to the danger. I know this sounds like I'm raising violent children, but I am proud to be raising daughters who have the confidence and creativety to protect themselves and the ones they love.

Ring around the Rosies
This is one of the entourage's favorite games. Just thought you'd like a glimpse into the everyday at our house!

Everybody's favorite part of baking: licking the batter bowl!

Projects

The entourage has been doing lots of self-directed projects lately. It's less work for me than coming up with (and doing most of) a particular craft project, and the girls seem to get more out of doing their own thing anyway. They all like to color: Goose scribbles on any surface I'll allow and a number of ones I won't; Monkey and Bug mostly practice coloring in the lines on coloring sheets or practice writing (either getting my input to write actual letters or do their own letterlike writing--lines of small angles and curves). Monkey and Bug have also been cutting and gluing this week, including learning how to use bottle glue instead of gluesticks. They also pulled out the paints at least once this week. They still don't paint actual objects, but they do lots of experimenting with techniques (narrow lines, wide lines, paintbrush prints, handprints, painting a section then drawing in the wet paint with the opposite end of the brush, etc.). They are quite proud of their creations which we hang on the art string in the playroom. Bug had so many paintings up that she decided to creat an art book by clipping a bunch of her paintings on top of each other, so we could look through and see them all but still have room on the string for other projects.

Games

They've been playing lots of board games this week (these tend to be played with in spurts, like the worksheets do). Of course, they usually play individually and make up their own "rules." For example, in the entourage's world of game play: Rush Hour is played simply by exploring different configurations and patterns of the vehicles on the board; Mancala involves counting and sorting; Candy Land turns into an imaginative telling of gingerbread men's adventures as they walk up the path; Memory is played--at least by Goose--by looking at each card and methodically stuffing it between the couch cushions. But this week while shopping at a consignment sale, I actually found a game that they will play by the rules from start to finish--nicely taking turns and everything! Bendominos. It's like dominos, but you match pictures of animals instead of dots, and the pieces are curved which creates a really fun path once you get into it. Of course, as soon as the game is over they go into their usual method of exploring the game--lining them up standing up, intentionally creating fun shapes, finding all of a particular animal, etc.

Trucks

Have I mentioned before how much my very well-rounded young ladies love vehicles? After "buddies" (baby dolls and stuffed animals), anything with wheels is their favorite toy, and we have tons of cars and trucks floating around--even Goose loves to vroom around the playroom and living room, complete with sound effects. We also have books about vehicles and usually come home with one from the library. We have several construction sites near our house, so any car ride involves keeping an eye out for active "diggers." Bob the Builder comes up regularly in our morning milk-and-snuggle-time TV viewing. The entourage even picked out a truck puzzle for their friend's birthday this week (a little girl--fortunately, it was a pretty cool puzzle and there were no objections). The girls and I have laid down masking tape roads throughout the playroom on a number of occasions, but these are inconvenient for a number of reasons. However, thanks to an idea I found online, a pair of worn out jeans, and a little yellow fabric paint, the entourage now has "real roads" they can roll out and rearrange at their convenience.

Library Day

Library day was a gorgeous day, so we packed a lunch and had a picnic on the library lawn. The entourage had a great time exploring the picnic area and found lots of "poky balls" (sweet gum seed pods). They wanted to learn about them and the tree they fell from, so we went inside to do a little research. They know I use the computers to look up books, but this time they wanted to do it. I helped sound out the word trees, and they identified each letter sound and found it on the keyboard to do the search. Monkey and Bug then helped me find the right number on the shelf for the tree field guide. Success! My three-year-olds now know how to use the library catalogue/Dewey decimal system, and were so excited about finding out what they wanted to know "all by themselves." After this adventure we checked out these books:

It's Library Day

Trucktown: Melvin Might

If You Give a Pig a Pancake

Fancy Nancy: The Dazzling Book Report

Will Sheila Share?

Russell the Sheep

Barn Cat

If I Ran the Zoo

13 Words

Be Nice and Get Ready for Bed

Special Occasions
This week was full of special occasions and social events. Last Saturday we went to a baby shower for one of our neighbors, which means of course discussions were had about Baby D in Miss A's tummy and how their friend B is going to have a new baby brother soon. That morning I got ready while they entertained themselves with a project: coloring the wrapping paper for Baby D's present. I put big paper down on the floor, and even Goose successfully colored part of the paper. Sunday we went to a Super Bowl party at another neighbor's house. Let's be honest, the game was just an excuse: I think maybe two dads actually watched any of the game; the rest of us just enjoyed the food and conversation and watched the kids play. The entourage had their usual Monday night Daddy date to the playground. Goose apparently discovered the slide this week, and she is a big fan! They were really excited when they found out they got an additional Daddy date night on Tuesday. This one involved going out to eat at a restaurant and playing on a different playground, while Mommy got a girl's night out to The Melting Pot (4 of the 6 stay-at-home-moms on our street that I'm friends with have birthdays within a month, so we decided to take ourselves out to dinner--so much fun!). Finally, on Saturday we celebrated our next door neighbor LA's birthday. This involved not only the traditional cake and ice cream, but also a bounce house in her backyard and a pinata.

Jack and the Beanstalk Operetta
I recently witnessed Monkey and Bug combining two recent interests: narrating their lives opera style and reinacting favorite story books. The interest in opera-like narration is thanks to Wonder Pets, an animal rescue cartoon in which most of the dialogue is sung to classical music. The story you'll see a piece of here is Jack and the Beanstalk. They're singing a few of the giant's lines (lyrics were originally: "Fee fi fo fum / I smell a visitor. Yum, yum, yum. / Fish or fowl, cold or hot / I'll cook him up inside my pot!") Enjoy!

She Speaks!
Goose has added two key words to her vocabulary: hi and bye (complete with wave).

Projects
Monkey and Bug decided they wanted to paint this week. The paintings themselves weren't anything special (two colors; just scribble, nothing in particular). However, the method was something to get excited about. They started out with paintbrushes, then Bug moved from doing brushstrokes to making "paintbrush footprints." Then I here my tactile sensitive Bug yell, "Look, Mommy, I'm doing handprints!" Sure enough, she has her entire hand covered in paint and is systematically lining her big paper with them! Monkey, of course, quickly noted how much fun this was and was soon up to her elbows in paint. It was a mess, but seeing Bug that excited about being a mess was completely worth the clean up. Of course, "clean up" means they transition to water play in the kitchen sink whenever they were done with their paintings; although Bug insisted on carefully wiping the paint off her hands with a paper towel first.

Goose is really into coloring, and gets her hands on crayons at every possible moment (she even holds them properly instead of fisting them; I didn't teach her; she just picked it up from watching Monkey and Bug). We're working on teaching her "only on paper," and the most difficult part has been convincing her that paper inside books  is not paper she can color on. Interestingly, the non-paper "items" most likely to find themselves at the end of Goose's crayon: Monkey and Bug.
Dress Up
It didn't take Goose long to move from accessorizing to full dress up. Monkey and Bug were getting into costumes (a shiny cape and cow costume, respectively), and Goose insisted I put her in the Yoda costume. She was so excited, she was impossible to catch in a still shot, in fact I barely got her in the video!

Haircuts
I finally got around to getting us out to get our hair cut (it's only been, what? six months?) The results this time: Monkey and Bug have different hair styles for the first time in their lives. Bug wanted to get hers really cut ("Up to here, Mommy!" [points to eyebrows]), but I talked her into just getting it cut to slightly longer than chin length. Monkey decided she just wanted a trim (or a "chimp" as she informed Daddy). This has made their lives much easier, since they no longer have to remind church or Y teachers of who's who. Incidently, I also got mine chopped off to just above my shoulders.

Library Day
We really had the library all to ourselves this week, and Miss D, the librarian, had her antique candy machine out with just enough pennies for us to get a special M&M treat on our way out the door. Monkey and Bug are getting more into picking out books for themselves (Bug says she's ready for her own library card), so our weekly stack is growing! This week we came home with:
The Napping House
Swimmy
The Owl and the Pussycat
Sheep on a Ship
Truckery Rhymes (classic nursery rhymes go to Trucktown)
Recycle Everyday
Spots! Counting Creatures from Sea to Sky
Time to Get Dressed
Aa and Bb ("Letter books like we have letter books!")
Froggy Goes to School

We are loving this beautiful weather! The girls decided to have a pretend picnic with their buddies, and it just looked like a picture perfect childhood memory.

"I did it!"
The climbing dome has been conquered! Monkey and bug finally figured out--all by themselves--how to actually climb up it. (Thus, the triumphant yell when Monkey reached the top for the first time ever.) They are now all over this thing; although I don't think Bug has actually gone to the very top yet. She informed me that she needed to get better at going down before she went any higher. Probably a wise choice, but Monkey figured out that she doesn't have to climb down: she can just hold on tight, slip through one of the top triangles, and drop to the ground. Goose is also very excited about this development, but fortunately she's satisfied with running around and through the bottom right now.

New Word
Goose now says "kitty"! Well, she doesn't pronounce the ts, but it definitely counts when she's yelling it while chasing after the poor beast.

Pretend Play
Monkey and Bug recently expanded their pretend play repertoire. They now play doctor (doctor/workbench tools + exam table/arm of the couch + doctor's/reading light; Goose is frequently drafted to be the patient), mechanic (workbench tools + trikes in the garage; usually Monkey "finds the problem" and takes it to Bug for fixing), school (couch = school bus; buddies = students; Monkey and Bug usually pronounce some location in the house their buddies' class and the drop them off, sign them in, and inform them of what project they're going to be doing).

More Steps to Reading
We started off our week playing the jumping letters game alot: Monkey and Bug push the climb 'n slide off the mat in the play room, and they take turns jumping to whatever letter I call out. They don't even need many clues anymore (i.e., "The letter B is in a blue square"). Monkey and Bug have been really into letter sounds and what words start with what letter, so I decided it was a good time to start making letter books:

It's just pages staples together: the cover is a tracing page, and they can glue in cutouts of clipart that start with the right letter.

They also invented an endlessly hilarious reading game for the bathtub. They put up random lines of their foamy letters on the bathtub walls and get me to pronounce their newly minted words (we need more foamy vowels!)

Pet Store
Bug has been begging to go to the zoo lately, but the closest one is 1 1/2 hours away, so it's not really a spur-of-the-moment trip. However, we discovered a temporarily satisfactory substitute: PetCo! We got to see and talk about: gerbils, hampsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, mice, ferrets (we got to pet one!), lots of fish, sea stars, sea anenomes, hermit crabs, a variety of snakes, turtles, lizards, scorpions, a cockatiel, a bunch of parakeets, and a dog getting his hair cut. Who needs a zoo?! Goose also thought this was a really exciting outing because I let her walk and many of the tanks are low enough that she could see in them.

Speaking of animals, did I mention that on our last grocery shopping trip Monkey and Bug ran up and down several aisles pretending to be howler monkeys? Do you know how loud howler monkeys are?

Bling
Goose recently discovered accessorizing. Bags, sunglasses, and mardi gras beads (lots of them) are now among her favorite toys. This, of course, results in my occasionally having to referree spats by yelling across the house, "Give Goose her bling back!"

Sample Questions from This Week:
Where does Jesus live?
How do ants talk?
Why do I have to wear clothes outside?
Why did that bug crawl in my food to die?

Library Day
The girls made a friend at the library this week: a 3 or 4 year old girl who was also hanging out on the bean bag chairs. I think this was the first time I've ever actually witnessed Monkey and Bug talking to a kid who wasn't one of our neighbors that we see every day.
We came home with these books:
Pigs Make Me Sneeze!
Dinotrux
Mushrooms in the Rain
Mouse Count
Look! Look! Look! 
Follow the Moon
The Gingerbread Man
Across the Stream
Honey...Honey...Lion!