We started our morning with a Level 5 Play and Learn class at Gymboree. We visited the ‘Animals at the Zoo’ again, but instead of a book at the beginning, we looked at pictures of animals that we might see there. Both Shawn and Abby loved finding hidden bananas that were scattered around the room. (They’ve gotten very good at returning Gymboree toys to their proper baskets, even if it’s not intentionally part of the activity.) They also had fun swinging across the monkey bars, calling out, “Ooo-oo! Ahh-ah!” as they went. Abby likes to hang from one, let go, grab the next with both hands, let go, and repeat until she gets all the way across. Shawn likes to move one hand at a time from one to the other, and needs just a little help to support his weight. They really were little monkeys today!
When class was over, we played around for a few minutes, but when the babies’ class was ready to start, we took a break in my car. I played a CD of Dr. Seuss stories and read a few Thomas the Train stories while we snacked and enjoyed the sunshine. I’m sure there won’t be too many more weeks that we can do this before it gets too cold to hang out in the car!
An hour later, we came back inside for Family Music. We studied country and folk music again. Shawn and Abby helped pick animals for Old MacDonald, duck and horse respectively. They love their maracas and drums! They even got to do Bah-Bah’s into the toy microphone today, which we haven’t had time to do in a long time. They got very excited when their turns came around. It’s amazing to watch these two in music class. They participate and follow directions extremely well. Shawn gave a maraca to a three month old who was in her car seat while her mom and older brother participated in class – he gently placed it in her hand and made sure it didn’t fall out while she tried to grab it. Abby wants to help everyone around get their instruments back to the teacher or basket when it’s time to clean up. They can so incredibly sweet and considerate!
After class, we made our weekly trip to the Schaumburg Farmers’ Market. But, to our dismay, there were no crepes! I’m not sure if the crepe stand closed early due to the wind (up to 40 mph gusts) or if they weren’t there at all, but , oh, the calamity! Hopefully, they’re not done for the season, the market is still open until the end of the month. We made the best of our visit and visited the apple orchard stand for some cider (and a free apple cider donut sample), the olives and hummus man for black bean and chipotle hummus, garlic hummus, and black olives (and free olive samples), a farmer for potatoes (which Abby and Shawn helped me pick, but I must have left the bag somewhere at the market because I didn’t have them when we got home!), and a fruit farmer for apple butter (and free samples of various types of apples and cranberries – pucker!) Without our crepe snack, it didn’t feel like our visit was complete, but as we were going back to the car, the vendors were shutting down.
When it was time for naps, I guess Abby didn’t think it was quite time yet. She didn’t object to going down, but she certainly wasn’t ready for sleeping. She talked and sang to herself from about 1:15 – 2:30! After listening to her for a while, I remembered to grab my SmartPen and I recorded her! I slid the pen under her door and captured her saying things like, “How about… How about…Mr. Sun? No! How about.. let’s sing B-I-N-G-O!” I could pick out a few lines from Old MacDonald, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and Bingo… but eventually (around 2:30 of the recording), she settled down and finally went to sleep.
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