Linnea's Journal

Linnea ate two servings of waffle and two servings of fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of Shepard's Pie with meat, carrots, potatoes, and green beans.  No whole wheat tortillas, and she ate her cherries. Daddy Eric took Anders to the potty while I fixed Linnea's hair this morning and then took a picture for me before he left.  Linnea does so well with this and is very cooperative.  Next picture; Linnea was having fun running and working hard to keep up with Atley and Nora.  They were racing from the big window to the gate and back again; over and over.  I took this picture when they slowed down long enough to play with the school buses.  Notice that 2 of the 3 are busy on their phones.  Yup, that looks about right!  :) Next picture - Linnea was looking at a book about babies and there is a picture of a baby on the front of it.  She was excited and trying to show it to Svea and kept saying, "Baby, Baby...

Linnea ate French toast and two servings of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of "whole 30" chili with meat, sweet potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  She didn't eat any whole wheat dinner roll, and ate tropical fruit. First picture from yesterday; Svea was under the legos table and you can see her head poking out. She messed around under there for several minutes so I guess it's safe to say at this point in her life she doesn't mind tight places.  :)  Linnea was watching her and they were giggling, but Linnea didn't try to crawl under.  This morning Svea crawled through from this side and came out on the other side. Next picture: Linnea went to the mirror to examine her ponytail after I was done.  Following picture; Elmo in the school bus.  This was about 8:15.  At 10:45 Linnea was in the exact same place playing with the exact same thing; Elmo and the school bus.  Maybe it was a short day for E...

Linnea ate whole wheat English muffin and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate most of pork chop meat, ate whole wheat toast, ate a couple beets, ate sweet potatoes, and applesauce. I was fixing Linnea's hair again when she heard the stairway gate open and she said, "Lor-la, Lor-la." Yup, you know who that is coming upstairs don't you?!?  First picture: Linnea tried for a couple minutes to get the headband on, but I finally put it on for her and she wore it for several minutes. Next picture; Linnea frequently grabs one of these legos flowers and puts them in the little holes in the corner of this yellow bench.  Svea watches and tries and tries, but hasn't got it yet.  It's because she almost always has the flower up-side down and the "stem" needs to go in the hole.  I bet I've posted 3 or 4 pictures of Svea trying to do it.  And she never gets frustrated.  Sure enough, 10 minutes after this picture she was trying again! ...

Linnea ate Chex cereal and three servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, whole wheat hamburger bun, bites of tomatoes, ate avocado, and ate a large serving of oranges. Waving bye to Daddy this morning was kind of funny.  We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange so she was absorbed in that before he drove up.  I picked her up and carried her to the window.  At the same time the neighbor showed up to shovel the sidewalk and her focus went right to him!  Sorry Dad, but we tried!!  Ha! Two or three times this morning I told Linnea to take her hands out of her diaper!  (Down the back of her diaper.  Yikes!)  "Don't put your hands in your diaper."  Atley said, "Why?"  Ha!  My first thought was; "Do I really need to explain that!"  Haha!  So I asked her if she had any ideas!  Nope, no idea! First picture: Linnea was trying on dress-up clothes and in this first picture she has her arm th...

Linnea ate a large serving of oatmeal and ate dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate tilapia, whole wheat elbow noodles, green beans, and applesauce.  (I mixed the tilapia with the applesauce and fed it to her.) As I've mentioned before Linnea is almost always the first one here and I must say I enjoy the morning snuggles!!  :)  She'll come over to the couch and crawl up to snuggle beside me for several minutes; while sharing her thoughts and feelings!!  :)  One thing she has shared with me, but it's a well-known secret - she has great affection for "Baby" and "Atley."  :)  Personally, I think she loves baby the most, but likes to say "Atley" because it's easy and fun for her to repeat over and over!!  Ha! Another thing she shared with me; "Gary!!  I love the one-on-one attention!"  :) I took these first three pictures while she was the only one here.  Playing in the igloo; she doesn't have anything in her ha...

Linnea ate whole wheat bagel (toasted and buttered) and three servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger & sausage pizza, bites of whole wheat pizza crust (cut into little pieces), with peppers, pineapple, olives, and tomato sauce.  She also ate pineapple on the side. Everyone has a runny nose here.  Linnea came up to me saying, "nose, nose" (pointing at it) and her nose needed to be wiped.  I'll post this first picture along with that and we'll just say that's what she was doing; examining the condition of her nose!!  :)  She is such a cutie and a total love bug!! This next picture made me laugh!  Svea was playing in the legos drawer and if you look closely you can see the handle to the purse is looped around Svea's ankle.  It looks like Linnea is surveying the situation; "Hmm...how did you get yourself in this situation?"  :)  Following picture; Just another picture of those two playing close to each othe...

Linnea had two servings of whole wheat toast and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork chops (they were very soft - and delicious - from being marinated), ate whole wheat tortillas, bites of carrots, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, and she ate fruit salad. Lauralea walked to catch the bus again so we were waving bye to her at the window.  (Well, at least I was waving bye.)  Linnea was pretty funny about that and was grinning at Lauralea, but she wasn't about to give Lauralea the satisfaction of a wave or say goodbye!  Ha!  Linnea said, "Bye bye" AFTER Lauralea went out the door AND then she waved when Lauralea was out of sight!  Ha!  Cracked me up!  Little Stinker. I've always been fascinated by how much kids LOVE routines.  Routines help kids learn ways of doing things and routines help them feel secure.  Every morning Linnea goes to the changing table and wants me to fix her hair now.  I remember when Nor...

Linnea ate whole wheat English muffin and a couple bites of dried plum for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of chicken, ate brown rice, stir fry vegetables, and oranges. Lauralea rode the bus to work today so she was able to hang out with us for awhile.  She hasn't done that in the morning for a long time and the kids and I enjoyed having her with us!!   Linnea and I were sitting on the bench and Lauralea liked it and took a picture.  She is such a little love bug!  And she is a lot of dfun. Next pictures; Lauralea was helping Linnea put on some heart bracelets and Atley joined in the fun. Actually I think it was Atley who started doing it first.  Later, Linnea was at the gate and said hi to Lauralea. "hello Lor-la, hello Lor-la."  :) Linnea was missing a sock and there it was on the changing table; that's where the kids put their socks during the day when they want to take them off.  So I was ready when she was taking the next sock...

Linnea ate whole wheat English muffin and two servings of oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, whole wheat elbow noodles, peas, and applesauce. First two pictures: Here's Lauralea sneaking a goodbye hug from Linnea!  Ha!  Linnea's trying to focus on the poster and pretend she doesn't care!!  :)  Second picture: If you zoom in on the picture you'll see she has the book upside-down.  That always makes me giggle because at this age they don't seem to really care.  And I always say they get twice the mileage out of the books!!  :) Next picture: Several times this morning the kids were at the window watching it snow.  One of them would say; "It's snowing!!" and they'd run to the window!  So I grabbed the camera one of the times and got a picture.  They also watched our neighbor (who's house is in the picture), Big Willy, out shoveling snow.  I yelled across the street and told him to go slow because he was ...

Linnea ate french toast and a large serving of strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate "hearty paleo stew" with meat, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, and carrots.  She ate crackers and tropical fruit too. First picture;  Nora was the last one here this morning and they all lined up at the window to wave at Daddy Ryan!  Doesn't this picture make Svea look tiny!?!  Haha!  Makes me laugh.  (If Svea wasn't in the picture it would be Linnea looking pretty small!)  Tiny, but mighty!! I took this second picture shortly after Linnea arrived.  She's looking at Lauralea in the kitchen and Lauralea was trying to get her to say, "Hi."  Linnea was just being kind of silly and making some goofy sounds that sounded similar to a puppy.  She's concentrating pretty hard on what she's doing and totally "woofing" at Lauralea.  :) I love this last picture.  Linnea and Svea were playing with the legos that A...

Linnea ate waffle and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, whole wheat tortilla, ate corn, and baked cinnamon apple. Atley knows all the rules and likes to yell out all the violations she sees!!  Pretty typical of this age group, but they have a much harder time applying the rules to themselves!!  Ha!  Anyhow, this morning Atley yelled, "Linnea threw the animal out the gate Gary Sanks!!"  Haha!  That made me laugh!  Thank you Atley Condra!! I think these first two pictures are super cute.  Svea and Linnea were playing at the legos table and they were passing a legos toy back-n-forth through the door to the little house.  :)  Following picture: Svea had been playing on the mattress and Linnea joined in on the fun.  These two are pretty good buddies!!  I've mentioned this more than once, but I think it's so cute that Linnea calls her "Baby." This morning I told Linnea that Svea was coming and she ...

Linnea ate kix cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate most of ground turkey, ate whole wheat hamburger bun, avocados, bites of tomato, and ate cherries. We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend so it was a super busy morning like it always is on these Mondays!  Or as Atley called it; "New toy Monday!!"  I like that phrase too!!  I took this first picture shortly after Linnea arrived and Atley arrived soon after as well.  They were busy busy busy!!  Second picture: We also took the chairs out of the big box and replaced them with lots of pillows!  Linnea was just laying in there holding one of the dolls. Next picture: Linnea was sliding (forcing herself) between the couch and the big box!  Not sure what she was trying to do exactly, but most likely just exploring and experimenting!!  :)  She doesn't mind being in tight spots!  Some kids can do that, some kids can NOT do that!  Ha!  (Sam...

Linnea ate oatmeal and baked cinnamon apples for breakfast.  For lunch she ate hamburger stew with green beans, tomatoes, and carrots.  She didn't have any bites of whole wheat dinner roll, and she ate her apricots.  Lauralea asked me if I wanted to smell her tea; peppermint. Yummy smell.  So of course everyone wanted a sniff.  When they were done Lauralea asked Linnea if she wanted to smell her tea and held it under Linnea's nose.  Linnea opened her mouth for a big drink.  Haha!  That was very cute. Linnea was playing with a toy "stapler" in this toy exchange and moving part of the toy in-and-out.  Atley walked by and said, "What doing Linnea?"  So Linnea proceeded to tell Atley what she was doing??  "Jabber jabber jabber." Here are some pictures from this morning:  Linnea was playing with one of the slides we got out yesterday.  I like how she was getting up close and personal!  In the second picture she's basic...