Little Boys, Babies, and Blessings

How does nearly 7 months go by just like that?  Haha... Once again, we are due for an update!

Two sweet boys joined our crew earlier this year in January.  Both boys are super shy and took a little time to adjust to being in our care. Llama joined us several times with drop-in care January through March, and he recently turned 2 years old in April. He is a super sweet little guy with big, expressive eyes and likes to climb on things with a cute, little smirk on his face. We hope to have him again in the fall for some more visits, but currently his grandparents and aunt are helping out with his care.

Llama

Fox is an adorable red head that comes on Fridays. He loves to have his blanket nearby, play magnets, and often likes to show off his jumps. He also signs for Mom and Dad a few times a day to let us know he misses them and has gotten quite used to our busy crew. Since he turned 2 in May, his vocabulary has blossomed quite a bit, and we've enjoyed having him here!

Fox

We've had several more changes in our pride in the past few months. In May, we started care for a 3 month old baby girl named Roly-Poly. We call her this because she already knew how to roll from her back to tummy, but still can't quite roll back now that she's 5 months old. She easily gets frustrated, but definitely wants to be on the move and is super wiggly when being held. She's curious, engaged, and very intrigued by everything around her. She also is very cuddly when it comes to naptime and wants to often be snuggled or holding a hand to know you are nearby. 

Roly-Poly

We also started care for Seal on July 15th. She is the sister of Polar Bear and is 3 months old. She will be with us for a short time since her and her family will be moving to South Carolina sometime in August or September. Roly-Poly and Seal's families are very close friends and having both babies together is pretty special! Seal is still adjusting to daycare since she is a nursing baby and has trouble taking bottles. Mom is coming to feed her every few hours as needed to help us out with the transition. She gives us the best smiles though in between the fussy moments when she's hungry or tired. 

Baby Seal

Glad I have my daughters to help hold these two precious little ones!

Roly-Poly and Seal

Polar Bear, the babies, and Monarch

K-bird and Roly-Poly

Rabbit and Seal

In addition to Seal starting in July, we also began care for 5 year old Dalmatian in June and little Guinea Pig on July 15tth. They both come 2 days per week and have been a lot of fun to have around. Dalmatian loves rescue vehicles and heroes, so we thought his name would be appropriate since you often find Dalmatians in a firehouse. He loves to tell jokes and has the best laugh. He's also very good with the babies and helps out quite a bit when he's here. His mom requested that pictures not be posted of him, so we gave him some cool sunglasses to fit his cool personality!

Dalmatian

Guinea Pig is 2 years old and is very verbal and tall for her age. She loves to ask me what various animals say and also what the farmer and tractor says. She calls her mom by her first name and kept calling me Mister Karen the first day she was here. I also love that she tells me she's "texting her mom and dad." She's quite advanced for her age and fits right in with Sea Horse and Monarch.

Guinea Pig

We've also said a few goodbyes this year. Hummingbird's mom had a baby sister in February, so she no longer needed care. Thankfully, we have been able to keep in touch with their family and see them on occasion. Moose also said goodbye (and we'll keep in touch) at the end of May. Mom is a teacher and had the summer off to take care of him and Platypus. She will begin teaching a part-time position in the fall at Platypus' school and Moose will also begin preschool there. It was a great change for their family, but we will miss having them around, especially since they have been with us for 4 years!

Hummingbird's last day

Moose's last day

Saying Goodbyes to LPC friends

and Kangaroo

Overall, we are busy enjoying the all the precious kiddos we have in our care and are thankful for the warm weather and rain we've had this summer. It makes the grass greener and our playtime adventures outside have been super enjoyable. In closing, here are group pics of our crazy crew of over the past several months!

We look forward to what the second half of 2024 will bring!

Until next time....

Reunions and Goodbyes

It's amazing to see how things have changed for us in just a few short months. With the onset of the pandemic back in March, things were definitely "not normal" for several weeks. We were thankfully able to remain open and stay healthy the past few months, but not all of our cubs were able to come since parents were heeding the stay at home order.

Several of our cubs went down to a part-time status for the summer and a couple of our cubs have given their notice since they will be heading off to preschool in the fall. Triceratops was our only cub that we were unable to say goodbye to because of COVID. His parents have been working at home this whole time and kept him home with his older siblings. We thought he would return over the summer, but their jobs have not yet transitioned back into the office. We will miss our little superhero friend and the sweet little way he would move his head from left to right.... not to mention his great, belly laugh too!

Triceratops our little Superhero buddy!

We will also miss Piglet's belly laugh!!! We have had her since she was eight months old, but her last day was June 2nd as she headed off to Florida for the summer to be with her dad before attending preschool in August. We were very blessed to have some quality time with her on her last day here. My kids all got some special moments with her to say their goodbyes. Keegaroo will especially miss her since they shared a special bond. We will always remember the way she was creative in play and decided that the mustard bottle in the refrigerator was a "baby". She kept having Keegaroo go check on Baby Mustard to see if it was okay.  Her vivid imagination kept us hopping each day as she played doctor, mamas and babies with Owlette, or buckling up to go to "Costo". We hope to stay in touch and have visits with her when we can.

 Piglet                                                     "Baby Mustard"

 Last Fall with Keegaroo                                   Last day cuddles

Saying Goodbye!

Platypus was with us for a few days the end of May while her mom packed up her classroom for the year. She's a bit bigger since the last time we saw her in March. She's off again for the summer months, but should be back in August depending on what the school situation looks like by then.

 

Platypus

 

Platypus and Rabbit

Iguana also was staying home for quite some time with his mom. He lives very close by, so we would have a few visits with him while Rabbit was doing her driving lessons around the neighborhood. He was so excited to see us and was finally able to return to care last week. He's coming part-time over the summer and hopefully will return full-time if schools open back up. We were thrilled to find out that his mom is having a baby in January, so we are hoping to have a new baby cub next summer if things all work out.  We've learned though that things can happen unexpectedly at an time, so we are learning to take things a day at a time.

 Iguana

Tortoise, Owlette, and Seahorse have been with us pretty regularly and little Swan has picked up some extra days this summer. Also joining us for the summer is Ladybug since her parents have returned to work in the recent weeks.

  Ladybug                                                    Sea Horse

Swan

Owlette

Tortoise

 Cooling off on a hot day!

All the kids with Puppy, Rabbit, and K-Bird

Last but not least we have a new little cub, Red Panda. She joined our cub family on June 11th and will be coming three days a week. We decided her touch of red hair and need for continuous snuggles are quite fitting with her cub name. She's been a bit fussy on her first few days day while trying to adjust to her new surroundings, but she's getting used to us the more often she comes.. We look forward to getting to know her personality more as she grows, but so far we love her little wavesd, smiles, and the way she clicks her tongue. We love her already and enjoy having her here.

Sweet little Red Panda

Now.... let's see what the last half of the year brings our way....

A Reindeer After Christmas

Beginning the end of January, in the midst of all the snowfalls this year, we welcomed a very special helper into our home. We are going to call her Reindeer because of her helpful, positive attitude and the fact that she loves Christmas time! Reindeer is my daughter, K-Bird's best friend and is studying to be an elementary teacher. She needed to find a place to do her preschool internship for her college classes, and was approved to do it within our childcare. Meet our Snow Angel!

Our cubs love Reindeer! Her cheerful attitude shined through our home for several weeks as she planned and brought fun activities for the cubs to do. We made butterflies out of hand prints, Valentines cards for the mom's, and played some fun games. She even brought and prepared a special pasta lunch for the kids and made a Valentine's Day jello treat with strawberries.

 BUTTERFLIES

VALENTINE'S DAY

 

 

SNOWBALL TOSS GAME 

Our most favorite day was when she brought her pet tortoise, Otis, to visit. The kids loved watching him walk and eat lettuce. We talked about the differences between turtles and tortoises and colored our own tortoise made out of paper plates.We also listened to a Franklin story on YouTube.

TORTOISE DAY FUN!!!

 

Thank you, Miss Reindeer for being our very special friend. 

We love you so much!!! Can't wait to hang out with you again soon!