The Rainbow Fish

 

A new school year has begun!  For many of Reece's friends, it means they are off to preschool a couple of mornings a week.  We are continuing to experiment with homeschooling (and save some cash) by doing preschool at home this year.  We typically do about 45 minutes each morning upstairs in our spare bedroom - Reece's "school room."  He proudly shares what he has learned in school with his friends when they talk about their schools.  It's pretty adorable.


Every week or two we will be focusing on a different picture book (send your recommendations!).  We read the book every day and then do a variety of activities that relate to it.  We have begun with The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, a great little story about a fish who learns that sharing with your friends is more important than beauty.  Reece can use some reinforcement on sharing now that he is back playing with his friends regularly, so this book has been a timely choice him.  His favorite part is the "wise old octopus" and he loves to say the octopus' lines in a deep voice.

Here is all the fun we had with The Rainbow Fish!

We retold the story of the Rainbow Fish in play-dough.  He had a lot of fun with this, despite the look on his face in the picture!

Reece is the rainbow fish here, using tongs to share shimmering scales (pom poms) among different numbers of fish.  We talked a lot about making it fair for each fish (we'll learn the word "equal" later).

Daddy and Reece made a counting octopus.  Reece is matching the numbers written on each tentacle to the number stickers.

Our Rainbow Fish sensory bin.  This was not mom's greatest sensory bin effort, but Reece has had fun acting out the story and scooping rice.

Pattern block fish.  Reece was very focused on doing one color/shape at a time.

And of course, we made a Rainbow Fish with shimmering tinfoil scales!  Sticking with an art project from start to finish pushed Reece's patience a bit, but he was excited with the end result.

A week of (moderate) excitement

We had a busy and eventful week.  Eventful in the sense that we didn't go far, but everyone in the family achieved some sort of milestone (except Zoey).  Below is our week in photos!

Nell rolled over from her belly to her back!  She did it about 4 times and hasn't done it since.  Here she is enjoying a training session in her birthday suit.

Reece is dropping his nap.  We were getting one only every other day, and then we lost binky.  Now we're lucky to get a nap once every 3 days.  In exchange for binky, Reece is the proud owner of a new crane for his train set.  This is him taking one of his rare naps on the "reading couch" in his room (before binky left for his vacation).  Ahh furnished rental...

Mom started work at her new school in New Bedford, only one glorious day per week.

Colin turned in his dissertation draft!  (This is his John Cage smile for all you Ally McBeal fans out there)

Nell went in the swing for the first time - she loved it!

Nell is impressed at how high her brother can swing...soon baby girl.

Welcome to Cranston!

Pawtuxet Village...our house doesn't exactly look like this, but we can walk here!

Cranston.  It hurts a little, but we have to admit that so far we love our new house!  We're living in Edgewood, which is right by the bay.  We're a block from the water and just a bit of a walk from adorable Pawtuxet Village.  We have an entire 4 bedroom house, 3 floors, 2 bathrooms - all a first for us.  Although Reece's favorite part may be our almost daily drives back to the East Side of Providence, where we pass a metal scrapyard, the docks, and more trucks and boats than we can count (since he can only count to 20).

Playing in the "music room." Note the gorgeous wallpaper...

Reece was so excited to see his friends again and to hit up his favorite play spots.  It is kind of amazing, he's come back from Connecticut a little boy!

Snack time at Humboldt Park with Lizzy and Juno

Hard at work at the Children's Zoo, which isn't at all zoo-like but fun all the same

Tire swing, at the not very zoo-like part of the zoo

Our Summer in Farmington

We have always known that we were lucky to have amazing parents, but this summer they really outdid themselves by taking us in for seven weeks and taking a trip back to the early 80's.  Their houses were (moderately) child-proofed and covered in toys, bibs, and booster seats.  There were diapers and potty chairs, not to mention all of our belongings boxed up in their basements.  And amidst all of the chaos, they seemed to be having a pretty good time.  Reece and Nell certainly had a fantastic summer of fun with Nana, Papa, Grama, and Grampa!

The lack of blog posts over the summer is simply because we were so busy (and tired).  A new baby and toddler will do that to you, even when you've moved in with willing assistants.  Below are some snapshots of all of the fun we had though!

Reece's 1st Concert - Poor Old Shine at Infinity Hall.  Uncle Chris is the coolest!

Making dessert dirt - another reason why Uncle Chris (and Aunt Bridget) are the coolest!

Reece's favorite cousin Sasha visited from Seattle!

We explored some of the local parks and Nana always took her role as play buddy very seriously.

Making a train on Nana and Papa's driveway - see tracks drawn in chalk.

Zoey lived on the edge this summer by treating herself to an entire chocolate cake and a luxurious stay at the doggy hospital.  And she didn't learn a darn thing from the experience!

Reece and Nell are two lucky kids to have four amazing grandparents!  We've learned from the best.

 

 

Over the course of the summer Nell changed from a sleepy newborn into a smiley, bright-eyed and very chunky baby.  Her Grampa likes to say that she "does justice to her meals."  That just means that she has grown into (and out of) all of those adorable baby dresses faster!

Happy family...well, Nell might be pooping, but happy all the same!