Well, Hello There!

It has been several months since I wrote anything for this blog, and I'm sorry about that!  It has been a very busy few months.  What with the new pregnancy, a few weddings across the country, Christmas, and Lydia's almost daily therapy appointments, I've been pretty swamped.  I am, however, looking to start getting back into a routine before the baby comes (in April!).

I've been a little bit of a slacker when it comes to read alouds lately.  We read  The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  Lydia thoroughly enjoyed this.  I think it was partially because it had a large number of pictures for such a long book.  She also seemed to enjoy the moon theme throughout as well.  This book only took us a few days to read, but I thought it was charming.

Based on my husband's recommendation, we're currently reading The Phantom Tollbooth.  I've never read it before, but so far it is good.  Like most of our read alouds at this point, I'm pretty sure it is going over Lydia's head, but she still really enjoys sitting and reading a chapter or two with me most of the time.  I got this one from the library on my Kindle, which is very handy!

Tyler continues to read picture books to the girls every night.  Lydia's current favorite picture book is Joseph had a Little Overcoat, which she refers to as "The Button Book."  I really like this one and enjoy the illustrations.  The other books they read on a regular basis include Where the Wild Things Are, Fox in Sox, Green Eggs and Ham, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

We've shelved most other preschooly things over the last few months.  As I mentioned, Lydia is in therapy 4 times a week and I've been working on her therapists' suggestions.  I'm interested to see where she is in the fall, because she turns 4 and could possibly start some "real" preschool activities, but I'm not sure if she'll be ready or not.  In the meantime, we'll continue to play outside, do read alouds, and put together puzzles.  Lydia is really good at all the 24-piece puzzles she has.  I'm looking to step her up a notch here soon (48 pieces maybe?).

Lydia has really taken to Vivaldi.  You might remember our Vivaldi "music study" we did probably a year ago?  It was basically just a playlist we played every day.  Well, for the last several months, she asks to "listen Valdi" every morning.  I have to say I'm getting quite bored of the Four Seasons.  She liked the Mozart playlist I made her ok, and will usually ask for it later in the day.  I've made a new playlist of Mendelssohn, based on the Ambleside Online recommendations.  Here's a link to it on Grooveshark.  I think she'll enjoy it once she gets used to it.