Play Is A Child's Work!

So what have we been doing the last few weeks you might ask? Well, we have been playing and we have been on the GO!

I joined Bible Study Fellowship and it has been really great. I get to learn about the book of Matthew and Analayne gets to attend the 2-year old class where they do fun Bible based play and activities. Last week when I picked her up she was singing a song and doing some hand motions with it that they must have been singing. I never could figure out what song it was, but I could tell that she was happy and had enjoyed her class. This week when I picked her up she kept saying the words "little baby" and she would clasp her hands together and rock her arms back and fourth. After I read the parents take home sheet from her class I learned that the teaching topic from the morning was, Jesus was born a baby. It all made sense! The BSF children's teachers so good. BSF takes pride in the quality of their adult and children's programs and this is very evident by the way the teachers are always prepared, how they interact with the children and how they go the extra mile and take extra effort to greet each child at the door (sometimes using a little distraction....like a puppet). I cannot stress how great and incredible the last two weeks have been for both Analayne and me!

On Tuesdays our Church's preschool group have been doing some really fun "play mornings." We meet up at the designated location and let the kids play or take part in the planned activity. Thus far we have been to Chuckee Cheese, the park and Sting Ray Reef. Analayne loved the sting ray fish and the fabulous unlimited carousel rides!

We are ready for some cooler fall weather (I am sure you feel somewhat the same). We really enjoy being outside when we are not sweating to death. I plan on not taking for granted any beautiful fall weather we might get. Analayne loves to be pulled around in our wagon. She also had a great time going from one outdoor toy or ride on car to another (giving each toy about a 25 second try). Analayne has also recently discovered that our neighbors have two little girls and she loves to play outside with them. As you can see life is busy but we are both learning so much.

If you ever wonder where we are or what we are doing you can bet that we are either "on the go" or outside playing!

5 Highlights

1. Analayne has been introduced to Disney characters (by her daddy...of course). She loves Mickey and Donald Duck and gets very excited when she sees either of them. She calls Donald Duck D-Duck (pronounced just like it is spelled). Its funny to hear her get excited and loudly proclaim, D-Duck...D-Duck. We are now getting her ready for a possible trip to Disney!

2. When Analayne uses her potty, I get some toilet paper off the roll and as I help her wipe I say, "dabble dabble.." Well this week she surprised me and tucked her little hands under her arm-pits and said, "gobble gobble" and flapped them like a turkey. Hilarious! Apparently, we are getting ready for the upcoming Thanksgiving Turkey Day!

3. Many times at night as we put Analayne to bed, I tuck her in and kneel down beside her and say, "want to talk?" She would start whispering and talking but many times I could not understand everything she was saying (but it was cute anyway). I would often understand peoples names or she would start talking about her doll, Lolly. Well, this past week as we have begun the process of tucking her into bed, she has started saying, "lets talk.... talk....mama talk.." Of course I just kneel down and say, "okay, what would you like to talk about?" I can always see her wheels spinning in her little brain and I LOVE THAT!

4. We love to use our pens, crayons, markers and any paper, receipt or piece of mail available to create our masterpieces. Today at the post office I let her fill out a delivery confirmation slip and I let her hand it to the postal employee (she was so proud and of course the postal employee just thought she was precious and took the slip and pretended to use it). It was very cute!

5. The other day we were using post-its and a pen and I wrote out the letter "A" on one of the post-its. As I wrote the letter I said, "this is the letter A." Analayne repeated me and then wrote out her own letter "A" on another post-it. Now anytime she has a pen & a piece of paper she says, "A" and makes some lines (they actually resemble an "A". This little pumpkin will be writing her name out very soon (get ready everybody....here comes my sarcasm.... "and everyone told me that she would never learn to spell her name..." Oh, you silly people!)