Jul 13, 2010

Hannah & Penelope

My best friend Hannah came to visit on Saturday. She brought her almost 2.5 year old Penelope with her. It's been a while since I've seen Penelope (since they live 4 hours away), and she had really grown! She's a super cute and fun kid, very energetic and happy. It didn't take long for her to warm up to me and Kevin. She kept calling our cats her "baby cats."

Here she is with her beautiful flyaway blonde hair.


Penelope is in a Montessori program back where they live (I'm interested in Montessori in the future for our little lentil). We don't have many toys around the house, yet, so I whipped up a Montessori-inspired activity. I took some of different dried beans we had and put them in different containers, and also took a piece of cardboard that was part of the packing for our new bedframe. I showed her how to make rows of beans in the cardboard tray, sorting them. And then we moved on to using a spoon to pick up the beans.

Hannah and Penelope playing with the beans.


She LOVED those beans. That is all she played with when we were at the house Saturday and it was the first thing she went to when she woke up on Sunday morning. Such simple, natural materials, and so much possibility for fun!

We also went to the park on Sunday and took a walk. We went right up to the lake and saw some geese swimming by. When they noticed us, they swam closer and stopped right in front of us. They took a few minutes to bathe and clean their feathers, and swam on. It was so neat!


We will definitely make sure to visit more often. I definitely want to be in this little girl's life! Plus, when I have a little one of my own, just 3 years age difference, we can have play dates!

Hannah's going to try and come visit again, just herself, before I start working again. Then we'll be able to have more in depth conversations about baby and plans!

4 comments:

  1. 1. Penelope is over that 2.5 mark already, yo! She's practically an old lady now.
    2. She is still loving the dry-bean activity you came up with for her. We've "drawing" whole families of dogs, and bicycles, out of the beans.
    3. Yes! to more in depth conversations about babies, which are truly delightful little topics.

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  2. What a sweet little girl. I have never heard of this program before. It must be an American thing.

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  3. Aww Hannahs little girl is just so pretty and so grown up, I love her hair, Im glad that you got a visit from them :o)

    Im glad you liked the cocoon, when you find out the sex of the baby I will make you a couple more if you are interested, hope you are having a good week so far HUGS

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  4. [Hannah] I know she's old. I meant to write "just over" 2.5 years, but oh well... I'm glad she's loving the beans, still! When are you visiting???

    [Michelle] I think Maria Montessori started the program in Italy, actually. It's just a more child-centered approach to learning.

    [Lynn] Yes, Penelope is really cute, especially in person :) And I would love a cocoon. You can crochet it and then I'll line it in fleece to make it extra warm for those first couple of months... so cute! :)

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