This week was mostly about recovering from coughs, colds, and ear infection (A-), and working on cooking more often.

• Kaizen
  • W- reminded me that I can take the initiative instead of basically looking for permission or approval when planning meals.
  • Watching cooking videos together with W- seems to be a good way to be inspired to cook new recipes.
• Us
  • I wiped down the dressers and changed the sheets.
  • I rolled out a pizza crust, but it turned out too flat.
  • I stayed up to watch Ant Man and the Wasp.
  • We were lucky to get groceries before the supermarket lost power. I went back for more groceries after dinner since W- recommended getting another pizza crust, and A- chose to come along with me even though she could have stayed nice and warm at home.
  • We hosted lunch for Karen, Richard, Gabriel, and Linda. Look, I now have Canadian friends I've known for more than a decade! :) It was easy to prepare lots of broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, carrots, and celery for crudites. That also helped with the prep for pizza (prosciutto, pepper, and mushroom) and butternut squash soup. I bought pre-cubed butternut squash because I didn't feel like peeling a couple of squashes, and combining that with my frozen sauteed onions and frozen minced garlic meant that soup was easy to make. We enjoyed talking about life, kindness, social isolation, transit and community planning, work, and other interests. A- wandered in and out, occasionally jamming with Karen on ukuleles or telling us about her own interests. W- hung out with A- too.
• Gross motor
  • A- walked most of the way to Shoppers Drug Mart.
  • I played a game with A- to encourage her to walk home. I carried her to the next tree, and then she walked to the next tree, and then I carried her to the next tree, and so on. That worked!
  • A- liked throwing and catching the small basketball. We also kicked it around.
• Fine motor
  • A- had fun imitating W- and J- as they played video games, and she liked imitating the hand gestures W- showed her for letters and shapes.
• Sensory
  • A- loved playing with the bubble wrap from W-‘s packages.
• Language
  • A- was interested in plurals. She asked what the S was for.
  • A- looked at the toaster oven and read out the countdown all by herself.
  • “You have another cell phone. I can play with this one. I need a cell phone.”
  • A- sounded out the letters she saw on the cover of The Foolish Tortoise. “Eh eh eh kuh kuh…” “Ah, Eric Carle!”
• Self-care and independence
  • A- told me that her teeth hurt. She patiently waited for me to scrape her teeth with the pointy end of the dental flosser.
• Eating
  • A- liked pesto on her pasta.
  • A- ate lots of broccoli and fish skin.
  • A- liked dipping rolled cookies in chocolate.
  • A- was excited about making tree pancakes. She seems to respond to funny shapes.
  • A- ate a drumstick and a half of tomato basil chicken with rice.
• Sleep
  • A- quietly fell asleep while snuggling up with me. 8:45 pm, no afternoon nap.
  • A- fell asleep on the couch. We didn't want to wake her up by moving her, so W- played video games and I reviewed photos. It turned out to be just a nap instead of a long sleep, though.
• Social
  • We've been thinking about preschool mostly to find a large group of other kids whom we could potentially hang out with when A- gets more interested in doing so. We're familiar with the regulars at the drop-in centres, which tend to skew younger. Maybe play groups? Independence can come naturally. Kindergarten teachers are used to it, and kids grow into it too.
  • A- wanted W- to take pictures of her and show them to her, so she struck a funny pose behind the kitchen table.
  • I set my lunch on the table. A- pulled the bowl towards her and fenced it in with her hands, saying, “My moira.”
• Pretend
  • A- pretended that a fish bit her finger, and told me the story from the song when I asked about the bandage on her hand.
  • A- liked pretending to be her stuffed lamb's big sister. She tucked the lamb into bed.
  • A- got excited about chatting with Lola and the rest of the family in the Philippines. She got her luggage and said, “I'm going to the Philippines.” She zoomed an airplane around.
• World
  • We dug in the garden and found out that the soil near the fence was soft while the soil in the box was hard.
  • We blew bubbles outside and saw how the wind patterns were different from what they were in summer.
  • “I wonder what would happen if…” A- experimented with floating her pine cone in bowls and glasses of water.
  • A- and I spent some time in the backyard. There was a light dusting of snow, so we made footprints, talked about snow melting on our hands, looked at pine needles, and compared pine cones.
• Other
  • A- pulled out the Make and Do volume of Childcraft, flipped it open, and asked to do the activity of dipping paper towels into food colouring.

Blog posts

• 2018-12-24 Emacs news
• Weekly review: Week ending December 21, 2018
• Weekly review: Week ending December 14, 2018

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