Dingoden Family Outback Yapper: 05/2008

Ship Fun

Logan and Delenn borrowed a pirate ship from the toy library.
Elora looked on with glee and delight.

Kindermusik

Last week was the last Kindermusik class for the term. Mrs.
Jennifer let Delenn participate in Logan's class. She had a
ball! In the second picture Seth is chasing her in a Kindermusik
version of "Duck, Duck, Goose."

Elora

Logan, Elora and Delenn

I included the last picture so you can see Elora in the midst
of her first roll. At that point, I said to Logan "move out of
the way, Logan, she's going to roll over." He did and we
started cheering happily for Elora as she did her first roll
all the way over. (She's easily been turning to her side for
some time now, but hadn't made the 180 degree turn until
this morning during our photo shoot!)

Elora Rolled Over for the First Time

This morning Elora and the other kids were lying on the floor on their
bellies having their picture taken. Elora twisted her body and rolled
over onto her back in the midst of loud applause from all of us!

Elora will be four months old in about four days. As I recall, Logan was
four months old when he turned over. We were visiting Auntie Cynthia
and Uncle Tom in Nashville for Christmas. Delenn was about 3 1/2
months when she started turning from her back to her front. And, like
Elora, Delenn started enjoying 10 minute spurts in the exersaucer
around 3 1/2 months old as well.

Looking Back at pictures of Delenn

If you are interested in looking back at Delenn's pictures from when she
was four months old (to compare her to Elora), here are a few links

http://dingoden.info/blog/hello/1607843/640/CIMG3301-2006.03.01-02.55.32.jpg

http://dingoden.info/blog/hello/1607843/640/CIMG3204-2006.03.01-02.37.48.jpg

http://dingoden.info/blog/hello/1607843/640/CIMG3168-2006.02.16-20.51.49.jpg

http://dingoden.info/blog/hello/1607843/640/CIMG3115-2006.02.16-20.37.50.jpg

(or you can go to the archive from February 2006 --

http://dingoden.info/blog/2006_02_01_archive.html)

It's amazing how much more hair Elora has than Delenn did back then!

Elora and Delenn, May 27

Learning about Nomads

Today for school we talked about nomads and how they moved from
place to place. We talked about the shelters they might have built
and made our own mini tepee and long house.

Logan's Harpoon

We talked about some of the weapons nomads
used and Logan decided he wanted to make a
harpoon. It turned out better than Mom had imagined.
Logan was able to propel a stick quite a fair distance.
Gulp! In the last picture above, Logan was showing off
his display and explaining to Daddy all he had learned.

Dogs

For the past week or so, Delenn's "school time" with Mom has
been about dogs. We've colored in dog sheets, done various dog
crafts, made and played a dog game (follow the paw prints to the
dog house), and on this day we made a dog sock puppet. Delenn
helped sew the ears, nose and tongue on.

Mom's Concert

While Mom was away toodling on the oboe at a concert, Daddy
had to put the kids to bed. The girls took turns screaming their
heads off until everyone passed out exhausted!

Celebrating Mom's Birthday with Friends

Mom's Birthday Bash, May 23

Mom's Birthday Hike at Ormistan Gorge

Mom and Elora

This morning we made fossils...

The kids made their own fossils. Logan's are impressions from
his Thunderbird rockets. Delenn made dinosaur tracks and
impressions of a beetle, dragonfly and fly.

The recipe is pretty easy, this is what we did:

2-3 Tablespoons used coffee grounds
2/3 cup salt (a little less)
2/3 cup flour
enough cold coffee to make the mixture dough-like

Make your impressions and then bake in a low heated oven
for a while (an hour on one side, an hour on the other).

Then we saw real Fossils

and other things on display at the Reptile Centre.

Logan and Delenn Hold the Lizards at the Reptile Centre

The Mighty Python

The croc was fed a chicken while we were there...

We could hear the bones crunching as the croc basically
ate the chicken whole!

Croc Attack!

Elora enjoys her Activity Center for the First Time

Kurrajong Playground

May 14

Playing together always means...

...that the house descends into chaos as we haul more and more
stuff into the middle of the living room! When a friend dropped
by, I saw the house through her (forgiving!) eyes and just
groaned internally!!

Strehlow Research Center

May 13

Bringing out the Guitar

Logan suggested that I bring out the guitar. Mom sang a few
songs -- and Logan thought the songs were sad. That's true of
most all of the folk songs Mom knows!

Clowning Around

Today during Delenn's "school time" (ie. her special one-on-one
time with Mommy), she and Mommy made clown faces. We
talked about shapes and colors. Mommy did the cutting and
Delenn glued the pieces onto the clown's head. After quiet time
ended we had a lot of fun throwing "pies" at the clown's faces.

Logan makes an Airport

Ready for our Evening Walk

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom received flowers from Grandma and Grandpa. Then
got treated to breakfast in bed complete with a handwritten
note from Logan (who sounded everything out on his own.)
Delenn also had a card for Mommy but "lost" it for a while (as
she was told to hide it from Mommy on Saturday). Then for
the rest of the day she would alternatively present it Mommy
and hide it again.

Hanging Out with Elora

The "Bad" Pixie

Play Dough

Delenn helped make some play dough and then they took
it outside to play with.

Elora's Hearty Laugh

Elora has had many smiles up until now, but today Elora laughed for the
first time. Mom was dancing around with her and doing some activities
from Kindermusik (moving her arms and feet and so forth). Elora laughed
and laughed. Later that evening Mom wanted Dad to get to see her
chuckle. Once again Elora broke into laughter when Mommy tickled her
chest. How endearing!

Bangtail Muster Parade (Monday, May 5)

Our friends (above left to right) Stephney (mom), Alicia in stroller,
Hannah holding Lexi's hand, Seth, Logan. Behind Hannah is
Melissa, behind Logan is Kristin holding Sydney. Delenn is just to
the left of Sydney (looking away from the camera).