Relaxing

1--Mena relaxing in the recliner watching a video at nap time.
2--Mena put stickers all over Daddy's face :)

EXCITE Program

We found out that Mena has been accepted into the EXCITE Program at LPS. Instead of a teacher from Early Head Start and a teacher from LPS visiting our house once a week, Mena will begin going to an EXCITE classroom 5 mornings a week this fall. I took the girls on a walk to show Mena her new school, Holmes Elementary. Mena is very excited to go to school and got mad when I told her she can't go right now. A school bus will pick Mena up at our house and take her to school for me since I don't have a vehicle big enough to fit all the kids to take Mena to school. The school is 10-15 minutes walking distance from our house.

2 years 9 months

Mena is now 2 years 9 months old. She weighs 33.6 pounds. She is wearing size 4 tops and size 3 shorts. She's excited that she's got a couple of dresses to wear. Now we have to teach her to keep the dresses down. Mena gets a dose of Miralax each night before bed and is doing just fine eating anything. It's difficult to get her to drink as much as she should but the Miralax helps keep her regular so we don't have to worry about it.

The newest change in Mena's life is that she's pretty much given up napping. We weren't intending for naps to be done this early in her life, but she was taking an hour to fall asleep at night and an hour to fall asleep at nap time. Sometimes she just wouldn't fall asleep at nap so I started letting her get up before the other kids. We noticed on the days she didn't nap she went to bed much easier at night. In order to keep Mena entertained and quiet while the other kids sleep I let her watch a Barney video from the library. If she's really tired she'll fall asleep during the video curled up on my rocking chair. As she gets used to not napping, she's falling asleep less and less during her video at nap time. For the most part her bedtime continues to be 8 pm and she gets up at 7 am. She sleeps in on the weekends so we don't have to get up that early everyday!

Sisters

Mena enjoys holding her sister. As you can see in this picture, Mena stayed in the same clothes all day but Maggie drooled so much I had to change not just the bib but also her clothes!

Lincoln Children's Zoo

On June 8th, we went to the zoo in Lincoln. Mena and Daddy climbed into the eagle's nest. Before we left we rode the train around the zoo. Mena's into trains right now and was very excited. Mena's latest habit is to give the biggest smile ever when she sees you pull out the camera. It looks like she's growling at you but she's actually very happy and trying to give you a great big smile. At least her eyes were open in these pictures; a lot of times she smiles so big that her eyes squint closed. The band-aid on her cheek is covering up 2 bug bites. Mena seems to swell up a lot when she gets bit. It helps to cover the bug bites with neosporin and a band-aid.

New Uses

In the first picture an old 2x4 has become a balance beam. In the second picture Mena has become brave enough to lay on her tummy on the swing and pick her feet up so she moves a little bit.

Spray Bottle

I came up with a new activity for hot days. I gave the kids spray bottles of water and they were thrilled!