Dandelions In the Cold

Hey, y'all, it's quarantine time!

Shocking, I know. It's only been going on for the last month.

There was maybe a week (maybe just a few days?) this last month that were lovely and we got to really play outside.

Then it went back to being spring (bleh).

Anna loved gathering snow in her sandpail to eat. This was April 9, btw.

I have been putting together a photo album to give to Anna for her birthday, and it brought me back here! Man, I have a blog. I should be writing in it! So here I am!

In the last month, Anna has started coloring inside the lines!

AND!!!

She can write her own legible capital A!!! She finds the capital A's on every package, label, and book jacket now! We're working on writing N next.

Water play. Monkey loves this, too.

So so so much playing inside this month.

 Dave made her her very own awesome microphone (she kept stealing mine out of my classroom). It doesn't have its paint and glitter in the above video, but she was SO excited to have it the absolute moment the glue was dry! (The color coded clock shows when play/lunch/quiet rest/dinner happen, so "the purple part" is Quiet Rest Time).

Where is yesterday? Just like they do at school.

 (Anna loathes Quiet Rest Time, incidentally. She will yawn her head off in the hour leading up to it, actually say to me, "Mommy, I'm so tired!", and then not sleep for even a second during QRT). And then both she and I are cranky for the rest of the afternoon.

"Hi, Dorothy, this is how I wrap a gift. Special bag of tape." ~ quote from a favorite Elmo's World

Anyone got any advice for this?

And she's been doing this:

It's a nearly perfect rendition of about two pages of text out of The Lorax! She can do it even better than this, but catching it can be tricky.

Do you see how big she is??!!! She is already in 4-5T clothes! She's not even 3 yet!!

 As it slowly warms up again outside, we have been going out more and more again.

 The poor, tough old dandelions were really fooled by the early warmth. They are already in full bloom.

 Dave has been slowly working on the old dog house turning it into a real play house for Anna. He's reinforced the foundation, cleaned it out, added a real floor and a metal roof (painted green). And now he's getting ready to paint the walls. It still has a ways to go, but it's already vastly better than it was; Anna loves to visit it!

I got to try out my Pinteresty daisy crown (with dandelions) yesterday. Anna helped me pick the ones with long stems. (It was a glorious 55 degrees yesterday!)

Happy quarantine, guys.