Dinosaur DayMonday turned into a very dinosaur day, which started by watching Dinosaur Train. It inspired Monkey and Bug to pretend to be dinosaurs throughout our trip to Walmart, much to the amusement of the employees who thought two little girls stomping and roaring through the store was hilarious. The girls spotted a couple of T. rex sippy cups that in a weak moment I bought for them, and it absolutely made their day. Then during our reading time before nap we just happened across a dinosaur poem or two in a kids poetry book we got from the library last week. We talked a lot about dinosaurs, and Bug was particularly fascinated by the fact that some dinosaurs fly and live in nests like birds. Monkey concluded the day by wearing her triceratops PJs to bed.

Monkey accomplishing her first "all by herself cooking job." She made snack mix by measuring and mixing the ingredients I set out for her. Side note: she is also wearing the triceratops PJs here.

Aunt E Is Here!
Much to everyone's excitement Aunt E came to visit this past week. The entourage loved having the additional adult playmate to read to them and take them outside to play. And as usual, watching E practice clarinet was highly popular. Mommy and Daddy even got a date night!

More Words for Goose
Pleae note, these words can usually only be understood in context, and she hasn't said any of them frequently, but she has said them spontaneously (as opposed to repeating after me): chewie (pacifier), dolly, sisters, bear, book, thanks, cheese

We Can Ride Bikes Now!

Monkey riding her bike all by herself for the first time.
She had moved on to other things by the time I got the video camera out.
Bug was happy to show off her skills in the video below.

International Wednesday
Wednesday morning started off with the discovery of a fun new (to us) tv show to watch: Pingu, a Swedish cartoon about a young penguin. Pingu never actually talks, but we're not sure if the adult penguins are just making noises or speaking Swedish because the dialogue of the adult penguins is unnecessary to following the plot. The entourage was enthralled. Later in the morning some of our neighborhood friends came over for a Japanese-themed playdate hosted by Aunt E. We sampled really yummy Japanese snacks (Poky sticks and shrimp chips were favorites), let the kids paint cherry trees with dot paints, and the grownups tried origami. Monkey and Bug really loved helping Aunt E make things by creasing her folds for her. We followed that up with homemade Chinese food for lunch (egg foo young and fried rice--extremely popular with this crowd! I think Goose ate as much as I did!). To top it off, that evening at bedtime they chose a Spanish/English book for their bedtime story.

This is what our playdate looked like. The laptop is out so we could show the kids what real cherry trees look like. That's Bug's tree in the foreground (Monkey didn't make one; she was focused on the origami E was making.)

Even Goose painted a tree!

Library Day
Aunt E came with us to the library before she left, so of course she spent a good hour reading book after book to the entourage. Here's what we came home with:
Night Rabbits
Tiny & Hercules
Yoko's Paper Cranes (Aunt E found this one, and Monkey and Bug love that it has cranes "like [Aunt E] makes!")
Farm Alphabet Book
Toddlerobics
Counting Birds
The Elves and the Shoemaker
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (This is one of my favorites that we've checked out before. It doesn't have any text, but the illustrations are so rich you don't need words. It follows the parallel adventures of a little girl touring the museum and her runaway balloon finding recreations around the city of the famous works the girl is seeing in the museum.)
Night House, Bright House (The girls picked out this one, but it too incorporates famous works of art)