• Field trips: We made it out to Riverdale Farm, the Science Centre, and High Park Zoo. We also made it all the way out to Hamilton while hanging out with Jen and E-.
• Gross motor
  • We've been practising going for walks in the neighbourhood. A- can walk to the supermarket or the playground now, although I usually need to carry her on the way home.
  • She enjoyed building sandcastles and swinging across the monkey bars with help.
  • A- has been practising rhythmically swinging her feet back and forth on the swing.
• Fine motor
  • So much scissors practice!
  • A- wanted me to trace her feet, her hands, and her arms.
  • A- was interested in pushing and stacking large pegs at the OEYC.
  • A- had fun wrapping tape all around a column of Duplo blocks. She passed the tape from hand to hand and around all by herself.
• Language
  • A- asked for and made up stories about everyday objects.
  • She referred to herself by a nickname and corrected me a few times.
  • A- is learning how to ask questions instead of just declaring that she wants something. “Can I have this?” She's getting better at thoughtfully asking about other people, too.
  • A- and I took turns telling a story that ended up like this: “Once upon a time there was a little girl named A- who wanted to nurse. So her Mama set a timer.”
  • A- talked about something she wished we bought a few months ago: “I have no stars. I have a star at IKEA.”
  • A- lined up random magnetic letters along their baseline.
  • “I did not caught the ball.”
  • “Oh no, hair. That is from you.”
  • “I don't know what that is.”
  • I made a quick book about going to the hospital, and one about babysitters.
• Self-care
  • We've been trying lots of playful tactics to get A- to let us brush her teeth. Improvising silly songs, involving her toys, and playing dentist seem to work.
  • We went to Sick Kids for A-‘s dental surgery to repair cavities in her top four teeth.
  • Afterwards, we hung out with Popo and R-.
  • A- was okay with drinking 1.5ml infant Tylenol diluted in two small glasses of smoothie.
• Emotion
  • A- got a little anxious about Mr. Potato Head and a monkey puppet.
  • A- wanted to play with dolls, and she wanted me to put on a hand puppet.
  • A- didn't want to go to sleep. After trying to insist for ten minutes, I decided to give her suggestions a shot. We went downstairs, played a bit, and even practised a lot with scissors. Surprisingly focused time. Maybe I should trust her a little more when it comes to sleep.
• Household
  • A- dropped a lot of breadcrumbs on the kitchen floor. Unprompted, she got her broom and tried to sweep it up.
  • A- and I made muffins, blueberry scones, and red bean buns, which we've been sharing with the neighbours.
  • A- wanted to water the lawn with the hose.
• Social
  • We've been experimenting with having a babysitter over one afternoon a week so that A- can interact with people who are not me. =) A- handles the transition well, and I can usually get around two hours of focused consulting time. We've picked up a few new games to play, too. I've been working with a babysitter agency so that I don't have to worry about scheduling or screening, and I might experiment with having an independent babysitter once we have more experience.
  • A- has started getting curious about other kids' toys in the sandbox and wanting to borrow stuff. She often asks me to ask, and I also nudge her to try asking.
  • J- stepped in for emergency child care during my dentist appointment, since the independent babysitter cancelled the day before.
  • A- was okay with going to the JFRC, and even stayed there all afternoon one time.
• Pretend
  • I stuck a twig in a sandcastle and pretended it was a flag, and then A- repurposed it to be a candle on a birthday sandcake.
  • A- liked helping her toy dinosaur have a bath, brush teeth, wear its conformer, and read a book. She happily took her turn, too.
  • A- loved pretending to order food from a restaurant.
• Cognition
  • We stayed at the JFRC all afternoon. She played with cars and paint, a matching puzzle with three sets of 18 photos, and a playdough press. She even played with a facilitator while I interviewed a babysitter.
  • A- had fun spotting the cat in the Plume book. I think she's starting to appreciate incomplete images.
  • A- paid lots of attention to stop signs and stop lights, and even insisted on following them while on the sidewalk.
• Kaizen
  • We set up the sprinkler and the timer to help us grow grass in the backyard, and the grass has been doing quite well.
  • I worked on automatically filtering, categorizing, and formatting my journal entries.
  • We got a shopping trolley from Ikea so that we can easily carry more supplies.
  • I tweaked my Memento Database workflow to make it easier to edit the CSVs on my computer in case I have time.
  • I stayed up late to compare the numbers for hiring an experienced babysitter directly or through an agency. Along the way, I developed an appreciation for using Calc's fsolve with org-babel. Nice way to quickly solve an equation.
  • I set up Google Pay and tried it out at the supermarket. It's pretty handy.
• Us
  • J- made chickpea masala. It was yummy!
  • I checked out Persona 5.
  • Lots of gardening: basil in the boxes, peas, tomatoes, and chives in the ground, more seeds started, and thyme and tarragon out back. W- has been putting a lot of work into the backyard. He built a ramp for the shed, a platform for the sprinkler, and three planter boxes.
  • Slowly getting back into consulting.

Thoughts for June:

• Music classes start up again, so we'll see about waking up early.
• I might experiment with requesting the same babysitter again so that we can see what that's like.
• More neighbourhood walks, too, I think.
• Maybe potty training?