{"id":6205,"date":"2011-02-21T10:05:21","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T17:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/?p=6205"},"modified":"2026-01-30T09:49:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T17:49:54","slug":"in-the-meantime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2011\/02\/21\/in-the-meantime\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Meantime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Life continues as normal. We create, learn, play, grow. Things change quickly! Until a couple weeks ago, Bean just couldn&#8217;t handle scissors, although she wanted to. Her hands are very petite. Then we went to a library event that involved a craft; she picked up scissors and began snipping. She&#8217;s been at it since. It remains difficult since her hands are small; she manages small snips and can&#8217;t cut a line. She switches hands when one gets tired (she&#8217;s really a righty), but she&#8217;ll get there. <\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/5424140034\/\" title=\"using scissors by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5098\/5424140034_3493a83a55.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"using scissors\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>In the past few days, her approach to coloring also changed. She used to scrawl a few lines on a picture and move on. She also didn&#8217;t like to color very much. Then one day she wanted to use a new book sent by Aunt Linda, and I noticed she steadily worked to color the entire picture. Her movements were more controlled, and she colored about an hour. I sat with her and kept company. It was pouring rain, and she said, &#8220;I like this quiet activity. It makes me feel cozy.&#8221; And indeed we were. <\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/5464884551\/\" title=\"changes in coloring habit by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5296\/5464884551_7cdd1a2025.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"308\" alt=\"changes in coloring habit\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>We&#8217;re on to the letter R in our alphabet crafts. You can also see a collage Bean made from the bits of paper she snipped with her scissors. I put glue on the paper, and as she cut pieces fell onto it. <\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/5453745603\/\" title=\"rabbit and red by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5218\/5453745603_34c9973faf.jpg\" width=\"355\" height=\"500\" alt=\"rabbit and red\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>When she was sick a couple weeks back, I assembled some boxes so she could make a rocket ship. We had done this at school, and it was good for several hours of entertainment. It&#8217;s the type of thing that can be stored in the garage and pulled out periodically to work on. We&#8217;ll get it out again and play with paints soon.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/5465398244\/\" title=\"rocket ship by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5214\/5465398244_86f41f13da.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"rocket ship\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Way back on her birthday, someone gave Bean a little spin art toy kit. Last week I pulled it out, and we made some neat art. I helped her (it&#8217;s a challenge to coordinate squeezing paint and pushing the spin button). Here&#8217;s the result.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/5465398452\/\" title=\"spin art by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5098\/5465398452_52efb09e33.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"344\" alt=\"spin art\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Aunt Linda had sent (a loooooong time ago) some glow-in-the-dark stickers. I&#8217;d stored them for a time when she could really appreciate the phenomenon. We pulled them out on a day it poured rain and decorated a piece of black paper. After exposing them to light we hung it in our half-bath, closed the door, and looked at them. She was fascinated. She was also insistently curious about the stickers that looked like whirlpools. Out of desperation I said they were worm holes. She then wanted to know if &#8220;the astronauts go into the worm hole to watch the worms wiggle.&#8221; I told her to ask her father. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/5465400146\/\" title=\"glow in the dark planets by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5092\/5465400146_c39872bb8f.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"glow in the dark planets\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Lastly, for her birthday we&#8217;d given her a rug with a town decorated on it. She had zero interest in it. She has a nook under the stairs which I&#8217;d covered with two bath mats for cushioning. It was cluttered with pillows and bins of toys. I decided to clear things out and put the rug in there, and now it&#8217;s a hit!<\/p>\n<div class=\"photopost\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mindfulone\/5464798433\/\" title=\"playing in the nook by Mindful One, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5259\/5464798433_3e646b157e.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" alt=\"playing in the nook\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>We also have an annual membership to the Children&#8217;s Discovery Museum, activated yesterday. Prior trips to the museum were infrequent and short. Yesterday we stayed about three hours; she loved it. She understands a lot more, and she&#8217;s bigger and less daunted by the crowd of kids. She got to sit inside an ambulance, fire truck, and old jalopy. She made a collage. She played with giant soap bubbles. She made pretend pizza and learned about &#8220;eating a rainbow every day&#8221; (fruits and veggies). She painted her face thoroughly with blue and yellow in the face paint area. She built a ball ramp with giant foam blocks. And she played at the water center, getting wet and having a blast. Hub took a few photos with his camera phone, which he&#8217;s not downloaded yet. But trust me when I say we&#8217;ll be going often now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life continues as normal. We create, learn, play, grow. Things change quickly! Until a couple weeks ago, Bean just couldn&#8217;t handle scissors, although she wanted to. Her hands are very petite. Then we went to a library event that involved a craft; she picked up scissors and began snipping. She&#8217;s been at it since. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,25,34,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-education","category-motherhood","category-recreation"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6205"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13544,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6205\/revisions\/13544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}