Here are a couple of pictures of Autumn walking to the car for church. It was a very very rainy day, so she got to use her "rella" not to be confused with "Rella" (the princess Cinderella). :)

Children's Imagination

Because I work with children who are very delayed it has been interesting and fascinating and fun watching Autumn just naturally learn what children do. My students struggle and struggle and maybe after a year or so get one or two new skills. It is a great grounding in typical child development. It is one thing to intellectually know the stages and steps of development but to watch them happen almost effortlessly is truly a miracle. How God created this little being with the ability to learn all it needs to is just.........well it's certainly beyond me! You see it with animals as well, babies who stand within minutes of birth, babies who climb up a mothers back and hang on for dear life seconds after birth......

Yesterday evening Autumn was playing with an old scratched and discarded CD. She was sitting on the couch making car noises and holding the disc out in front of her as if it were a steering wheel. Then we lined up some chairs and made a bus so she could drive all her babies and animals to school. She honked the horn by hitting the center of the disc. The disc was also a phone, a hat, a shoe (though that didn't stay on very well), her nose fit through the hole in the middle and then she used it as a camera because she discovered she could see through that same hole.

This little snapshot of Autumn's play is a good reminder that our kids don't really need expensive toys that light up and sing a thousand songs or teach languages. They are perfectly content with a pot and a couple of lids and spoons, some blocks and a ball, an old CD, a few ribbons and clothespins. That doesn't mean we should stop buying all the new fancy toys but maybe limit the number of them that we have. We need to nurture kids creativity and we can't do that if the toys do all the work and all a child has to do is push a button.

Now just to argue the flip side of that coin.........many of the kids I work with don't have those imagination abilities, nor do they have the motor abilities to build with blocks or throw a ball. So in these cases the fancy toys are great because a child can do a lot with very minimal movements and effort, they too can play and be successful just like their peers. This is so important to them and to their parents. Technology is a wonderful thing as long as we limit it and use it appropriately and not rely on it to be babysitters and to replace the brains and imaginations of our children. Ok that's my soapbox speech for the month.



A few eggs and a basket and wha-la you have 45 minutes of amusement.

A race track on your floor with some painter's tape.

Mud Puddles and Spring Cleaning

Monday I had the day off and Autumn and I had a great time together. After her nap we went outside to drive the car and play some golf and with her new frisbee. Instead, after splashing through the puddles for almost 1/2 and hour, she decided that they needed to be filled up and proceeded to do so, one handfull of mud at a time. Oh yes, each handfull was then dutifully stomped or patted into oblivion. She spent almost 45 minutes doing this. In her "princess clothes" of course! After cleaning up, throwing all our clothes in the washer, and putting on our PJs, she helped clean with our new dust buster.

Eggs and Other Things

Hmmmm.....if you look at these pictures from bottom to top, you'll see them in order. I always forget that this thing puts the first pictures you add at the bottome and the last at the top!



















After going back and forth on the topic of dying eggs this year I finally decided we should give it a go. It wasn't the disaster area I was expecting so that was good. Right before we did this Autumn was in a hyper state and was running around, turning circles, standing on her head, and trying to climb the stairs using only her hands and the railing! I didn't have high hopes, but we planned a bath right after so all was well. She had lots of fun dropping the eggs in from nice heights and watching the dye splash all over. And she discovered that vinegar and food coloring don't taste all that good. :)

Check It Out

Over on the left side of this page you will notice a new link to our Family and Friends section. Kurt has started a blog for his music. Right now it is some background information but in the future there will be lyrics and music posted and other musical musings from Kurt's mind. Scary, I know, but interesting as well. Enjoy!

Mommy's Garden

I ordered a hanging strawberry kit and it came today! I'm so excited to try this. I had to call them though and ask if I could plant these now and if I could start them inside or what. There weren't very good directions other than how to put the plants into the bag. So I'll start them in the sunny window in the spare room and hang them outside when mother nature figures out if this is really spring or not! This is what they are supposed to look like later this summer, YUMMY!!!!!!

Spring Golfing

Autumn has a little golf bag and clubs that she enjoys playing with. She went out with her daddy, or is it caddy? They had a grand time trying to whack the ball. She loves to pull that 'bag' behind her and push it in front of her and swing the clubs. Great find Mommy! Of course a week later she couldn't take her golf clubs out because there was 3 inches of snow on the ground!

Hi!

Here is the anticipated video clip, it pretty much speaks for itself.

Such a Big Girl

This weekend we went to an Easter celebration some friends told us about. Most of it was above Autumn's head, playing games to win prizes, etc. But the Teddy Bear Band was there and she really loved that. http://www.teddybearband.com/ This is a band made up of dads and grandpas (who also have a grownup band) who go around the state entertaining our youn'uns. There is usually a panda mascot walking around at these events. Usually these kinds of walking animals scare Autumn to pieces. But Saturday she went right up to it, tagged it and ran back to get a hug. Next she went up there and danced beside the panda, and next thing you know she was hugging it as many times as she could get it's attention! What a brave big girl she is!

This is a picture of the bear Autumn hugged and hugged, but no picture of Autumn, I was too slow, :) I was just so proud of her I forgot all about the camera.