Big Sister

As the boys have become more mobile Juliana is more interested in playing with them and sharing their toys. She wants to know what they are doing as soon as she wakes up in the morning and Ruslan and Wyatt are always excited to see her.

Juliana is quick to tell me when they are doing something they are not allowed to do. She doesn’t quite understand why they can’t play with all of her toys – she says she will share. She doesn’t completely grasp that toys with tiny pieces are dangerous. But most of the time she is happy to take things away from them…like remotes or a favorite toy that she left out and one of the boys is happily chewing on.

It’s a delicate balance and can quickly go from happy, fun playtime to 3 children crying.

There are wonderful moments where they play together – children entertaining other children without a parent also playing – this is huge!

Quiet Playtime

Juliana was so wild Sunday morning, no activity was holding her attention for more than a few minutes - so I asked her if she wanted to use her paints and stamps - that is an activity guaranteed to keep her sitting quietly and occupied for about half an hour. I was sitting no more than 10-ft away at my computer doing some online Christmas shopping, while stopping every few minutes to add more paint, swap stamps, wash brushes, etc. This worked well until I the final time I went to check and found this...at least she was quiet for a while...but we did need to have a pre-lunch bath.

Counting Animals

Juliana was quietly playing this morning before I took her to daycare and then I heard her counting. I looked over and she had lined up all of the zoo animals in a long row and was counting them - there are26 animals and she made it halfway through with the correct numbers and then she just said random numbers the rest of the way. She was so pleased with herself when she got to the end of the line. And the best part - she put them all away when she was done - I didn't even have to ask.

Cleaning

One of Juliana's most used Christmas presents has turned out to be the Little Tikes cleaning set - she loves to sweep with the broom and then empty the dustpan into the waste basket. She even did some dust mopping on Christmas day.

Play-Doh

A new quiet activity - her current favorite thing to do is just remove the play-doh from the container and then put it back in the container and put the lid back on and then say "open" start all over again. Open is a word that we are hearing a lot from her. The other day she got in the car and saw the watermelon that I had just purchased and said, "watermelon, Mama open".

She also uses the animal shape cutters to make elephants, horses and ducks and then "walks" them around the tray while making the appropriate animal sounds.