February 14, 2008
Happy Valentine's Day!
Posted by Chris at 10:24 am
October 22, 2007
You hear about the mom's that over book their children's schedule. . .you know dance, soccer, violin lessons each week. And lets not forget girl scouts and church activities. I've always thought I don't want to be like that. Simple is better and kids NEED down time and free time to be bored and encouraged to use their imagination. Plus they need to know there is more in life that goes on than activites for them. We'll one day last week was overbooked and although it was absolutely exhausting to do 3 fun but unnecessary activities in one day it was SO MUCH FUN. I can see how moms and kids get wrapped up in signing up for too many things. The activities were all so fun. Sooo with all that said, hopefully we won't do another day this busy and all completely centered around the kids and no one else again too too soon. But we did have a great time and here's what all we did.
10:30-1pm: Kentucky School for the Blind Olympics!
Amber got to run in a race, compete in a softball throw, and do the standing long jump. She loved the race, said "fast fast fast" and smiled and laughed as she ran. She doesn't know how to jump any distance but still loved trying. And throwing a ball is not as accurate of a description as dropping the ball in her case. Competing in the KSB Olympics means she also got to eat lunch there complete and well rounded with an ice cream and Twinkie. She got to see a police car and the police were handing out beanie babies. And there was a goodie bag with candy and toys from some of the sponsors too. She got medals for competing in the activities. The medals said Bill Roby 2007 KSB olympics. (Bill Roby is the main sponsor or founder) Anyway she looked at her medal smiled and said "B! bu bu bu!" SO SMART my little girl!
Cory was too young to compete but the weather was gorgeous out and I could tell he was loving being outside and having lots of people come up and dote on him telling him how handsome he was. (well actually they used the word pretty most often) He mostly slept though to save up his energy for the next activity of the day.
1:30-3: VIPS PAL class. This is our weekly play group for infant - 3 year olds that are visually impaired. Amber and Cory both love this playgroup. You would think 2 months old would be too little for a playgroup but Cory isn't. Playgroup is led by Miss Margarete and Miss Cindy. Miss Margarete always plans lots of fun things to do that involve our different senses not just our eyes. And the activities that do involve our eyes are high contrast so that its easy for the children to see. And then Miss Cindy is a music therapist and she leads the most fun music time ever! Cory got a lot of attention while he kicked a toy that was bright colors and responded to his kicks with lights and music. He also likes in music time that they have a shaker that he can hold pretty well and he shakes it with the music. Amber had fun yesterday exploring the inside of a pumpkin. "Sticky!" was her comments on it. At music time she decided that it was fun to laugh and cheer very loud between songs because that got her a lot of attention.
6-8 Trick or Treating at the Louisville Zoo. Cory was dressed as a giraffe and Amber dressed as Tinkerbell. Chris took some pictures before we left but he had to be at church. The tickets were only good for this night though so we went just the 3 of us. We had absolutely beautiful weather. As you walk through the zoo lots of music plays. Cory I think really enjoyed riding in the stroller, chewing on his hands, and listening to the music. He stayed awake a good portion of our walking. Amber loved it too. She quickly caught on to how you go up to the booths and they give you a piece of candy. They would try to put it in her bag but she would take it out of their hand and put it in herself. She did pretty good telling them thank you and bye bye too. She walked on her own most the way and I figured we weren't in any hurry. I'm sure it took us 4 times longer to go through the zoo than it would most people. But she had a blast. She insisted on holding her bag the whole time, didn't want me to hold it. The highlight of the zoo walk though I think was that near the end there was a giant Elmo! She squealed and went up to Elmo. He got down on her level and held her hands and they danced to the music and he tickled her. Amber smiled and laughed and just stared at him as wide eyed as she could. As we walked away from Elmo she talked and talked. Elmo Elmo! Okay! Dance Elmo! Okay! Funny! Dance Elmo! Fun! Tickle! Elmo! On the way home Amber ate red licorice and talked about Candy. When we got home she ate most of a sucker before bedtime.
Posted by Abby at 2:55 pm
June 7, 2007
Amber turned 19 months old today. Sometime next month she should be meeting her little baby brother. She will pat my belly and hug it and kiss it and say "baby" but I don't think she really knows that she is gonna have a baby brother soon.
She has started naming some of her letters recently. Almost every time she will correctly say first try the right name for B, O, Y, X, and W. And she is getting some of the other letters right fairly often just not almost every time. The only letter I have tried very hard to teach her is A and she only gets it right sometimes. Her favorite letter to name seems to be W. I don't know how she learned to identify W because its not something we worked on.
Last weekend we took her crib out of her room and put in a toddler bed. She does pretty well going to bed in it at night time, nap time is a little harder.
Posted by Abby at 5:32 pm
April 13, 2007
I have a friend, Sarah, that lives about an hour and a half south of Louisville. We get together now and then and a couple weeks ago she came into town and we took our children out for a day of fun. She has a little boy a little that's 2 and a little girl just a couple months younger than Amber. We took them to the petting zoo (Henry's Ark) and to a big indoor playground for little kids. They had a blast. Amber fed a goat and really liked looking at the chickens and deer most at the petting zoo. At the playground there was a big inflatable slide that I would climb up with Amber and we would slide down. It was a workout climbing up that slide with her but she would laugh the whole time we would climb up and then laugh even louder when we would go down. All the kids had a blast that day.
Sarah brought Amber the most adorable dress that she sewed for her and yesterday Chris and I took some pictures of Amber in it. She looks so cute in it!
Posted by Abby at 4:01 pm
March 30, 2007
In case you didn't know, Amber now has a baby brother named Corban Elliot, or Cory for short. He's still in the womb, but he's alive and growing! So on the same day that Amber hunted easter eggs, Cory hid in one.
I always have a lot of fun painting and taking pictures of my babies!
Posted by Chris at 12:11 pm
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