Yay for Spring!

The weather is finally starting to warm up. So, a few days ago we bought some bubbles, moved the climber to the backyard, and have been spending some time playing outside.

This afternoon the weather was so nice that Kylee even got to wear a little summer dress. Thanks Rikki and Charli for the the super cute, super comfy dress!

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

I absolutely love the age/stage that Kylee is in right now. She’s so much fun!!! She’s learning new things every day and is becoming her own spunky little person. It’s so amazing watching her learn and grow. Everyday I am amazed at how funny and smart she is. She already has an awesome personality with a great sense of humor, and she is definitely smart beyond her genes. Everyday she makes me smile. Everyday she makes me laugh. Everyday I love her more even though it doesn’t seem possible. She can be ornery as all get out, but I love it. She’s adorable, and she knows it. She is such a friendly, social butterfly, and I hope she stays that way. She has the biggest smile I’ve ever seen and the best laugh ever. She gives the best hugs on the planet. In the mornings, she greats me with a huge smile and a “boo!”. She is always so happy in the morning, and I love that. I always hated mornings, but she has a way of making it one of the best parts of the day.
Things are so much easier now that she can tell me things such as: she’s hungry, wants water or milk, wants more of something, is finished, etc. I always felt like such a bad mom when she was younger. It always seemed like the last thing I thought to try was the thing she wanted. It’s such a relief to know when she’s hungry or thirsty and when she’s not. I love that she can express what she wants ( like she wants to take a bubble bath or wants to know where her baby is) and that she share things that she likes and sees (like the fact that she sees a cat or that she noticed the wind is blowing.)
As awesome as the past couple months have been, they’ve also, in some ways, been the hardest. Getting rid of the daytime bottles was surprisingly easy, but nixing the bedtime bottle has been awful. The first 2 nights I tried skipping it, she did great. After that…. well… it was quite a different story. Tonight she screamed (and I mean SCREAMED) for a solid 2 hours before finally falling asleep. I am physically and emotionally exhausted and feel absolutely, 100% evil. The only thing harder than seeing my sweet baby cry and not being able to do anything about it, is watching her cry knowing that there is something I can do. Maybe I should just let her have her bottle.
The older she gets, the more worried I get about that fact that she has yet to sleep through the night. Some nights she only wakes up once or twice. Others it seems like she’s up every 30 minutes. On that note, I better go make an attempt at some sleep as I’m sure she’ll be waking up soon.

Regression

I guess I got too excited and spoke too soon about Kylee's carseat and bottle accomplishments. Kylee did an awesome job in the car on the way to the library and even smiled most the way there. However, she screamed almost the whole way home from Chic-Fila-A. She also screamed this evening when I offered her the sippy instead of the bottle during our bedtime routine. At first I was determined not to give in, but due to the intensity of her screams and the intensity of Robert's glare, I eventually caved and gave her a bottle. (*sigh*) Oh well. I guess we'll try again tomorrow.

Busy Little Bumble Bee

This morning I took Kylee to the library for the first time. We met some of our play group friends there for storytime. She wasn't too interested in the stories (They were pretty long stories), but she loved the puppet show! In fact, she ran up and stood right in front of the stage.

After story time, we went inside the library for a few minutes to look at picture books.

Then we met 3 other moms and their kiddos at chic-fil-a for lunch. Kylee ate all 4 of her chicken nuggets, one of her friend's nuggets, all of her grapes, a few apple slices, and almost half of the chicken sandwich I got to bring home for daddy!!

We got home from Chic-fila just before Rikki arrived to drop of Charli. Charli hadn't had lunch yet. So, I made some chicken fries. Kylee ate 4!!!

Not too long after Charli left, Kylee fell asleep playing with her Wal-Mart card on the office floor.

Mommy and Me Mondays

Although Kylee and I still spend just as much time together as ever (pretty much all our time), and have lots of fun, quality time with our playgroup friends (We love, love, LOVE our playgroup), sometimes I feel like we don't have as much quality one on one time together. So, since our playgroup usually doesn't do things on Mondays anyways, I've decided to try to leave Monday mornings free and make that our mommy and me day. Here's the plan... Since we won't have to worry about getting ready for anything, we can spend the morning playing in our PJs doing whatever she wants to do. Then before lunch we will do some sort of special activity together (sensory activity, art project, etc...something fun that we might not be able to do on days that we have to stay clean). If the weather is nice, we can play outside after nap (Kylee LOVES being outside). If not, I'll turn on some music and we can sing, dance, play...whatever she's in the mood for until it's time to eat dinner and get ready for our parent - tot gymnastics class.

Big Girl Now

A few days ago Robert installed Kylee's big girl (front facing) car seat, and it has made a world of difference! Her car tantrums had actually got worse lately, but since she's been in her new chair, she's been great (quick - everyone knock on wood!) This morning we went to a play date at Angie's. When I pulled back into our garage and turned off the car after the playdate, Kylee signed "more"!! I thought 'surely she doesn't want more time in the car', but couldn't think of what else it could be. So, I turned the car back on and circled the neighborhood for about 5 minutes. I then pulled back into the garage and turned around and asked Kylee if she was ready to get out of the car. Once again, she signed "more." So, around the neighborhood we went. After a few more minutes, she fell asleep!

I am also pleased to announce that Kylee has been completely bottle free for the last 2 days! She hasn't had a bottle during the day in over a month, but I've been too chicken to take away her bedtime bottle. Last night when I went to get the bottle I realized I had loaded the dishwasher but for some reason had forgotten to turn it on. Instead of hand washing a bottle, I decided to be brave (and lazy) and offered her a sippy cup. There was a little bit of mild fussing, but overall, it went great! Yay! Kylee is officially a member of the big girls club!

The Princess and the Potty

Last night Kylee pooped in the potty! She followed me into the bathroom (as usual), but instead of trying to climb into the laundry basket or steal the toilet paper, she acted like she wanted on the potty. So, when I finished I asked if she wanted a turn to sit on the potty. She stood in front of the toilet and put her hands up, so I took off her diaper and stuck her on. She almost always poops about this time, so I told her to push (and modeled her usual poop face) She did and... poop! Yay Kylee! I'm not sure she realized what was going on, but this is actually the second time this has happened. I didn't plan on attempting to potty train her anytime soon, but now I'm considering getting a toddler insert for our potty and having her sit on it around her usual pre-night night poop time.

Born to Shop

Sunday afternoon I was holding Kylee while checking out at Wal-mart. Before I could swipe my check card, she grabbed it from me and tried to swipe it herself! I guess we go to Wal-Mart so much that she knows where the card goes. Later that evening we went to grandma's for dinner. Grandma's purse was hanging on a chair. Kylee opened the purse, found her wallet, took out the check card, and tried to swipe it between the keys on her keyboard. She loves getting into wallets and, no matter what type of wallet it is or how many different kinds of cards are in it, she will find the check card every time! Before we left, grandma found an old wallet and an expired check card for Kylee to keep. She loves them! She spent much of Monday morning playing with her purse, wallet, and beloved check card. Then that afternoon she picked up her check card with one hand and her purse with the other, went to the front door, and said "bye bye grandma". I guess she was all ready for another trip to Wal-Mart. (We've been going to Wal-Mart with grandma almost every Sunday, and before we go I usually say "Let's go bye bye and go shopping with grandma".)
In other news... the other night Kylee played with her leapfrog barnyard toy for the first time in several weeks. This time she was able to match all the animals to their tails and put them together all on her own!

So Loved! So Spoiled!

Last night when we were at Wal-mart Daddy let Kylee pick out her Valentine's Day gift. She chose a Winnie The Pooh balloon and an animated/singing dog. She is very happy with her selections and spent all morning dancing with her dog. She also got a card from Great Aunt Paula, her first cabbage patch doll (a CPK fairy) and heart bracelets from Charli, a monkey balloon and pink puppy stuffed animal from Aunt Michelle, and a mailbox toy from grandma.

Thanks Aprill!

After we dropped Robert off at drill on Saturday, Aprill and I took Kylee to Target (a Super Target!) for the first time where she charmed Aprill into buying her an adorable dress, a BIG ball, and her first taste of ice cream. Thanks Aprill! We can't wait to take you and baby Richardson on a shopping spree!

Kylee-In-A-Box

Belly Button!

Kylee has recently become completely obsessed with belly buttons. She loves finding and showing off her belly button. She lifts up her shirt, points to her button, and yells "belly button!" ( It doesn't exactly sound like "belly button", but the "B"s sound pretty good, and she gets 3 syllables in there). Anytime she came across someone new this weekend (at Cracker Barrel, the hotel, the ER, etc), she exclaimed "hi!", waived, and then showed her new friend her belly button. People seemed pretty amused by this. I think we got more "She is so cute!" compliments than ever. Several people even showed her their belly buttons! She thought that was pretty awesome and has started demanding to see my belly button about a zillion times a day. The first thing she does when she sees me in the morning is demand to see my belly button. Then she runs (literally runs) to get her belly button book....

...Kylee is so obsessed that she even has her friend, Charli, trained. Kylee will point to Charli's tummy, and Charli will lift her shirt to show Kylee her belly button. In fact, the first thing Charli did when she saw Kylee at gymnastics today was show Kylee her belly button. Silly girls!

Trip to Norman

This weekend Robert had to go to Norman for his first post-deployment drill. Since the army paid for a hotel room, Kylee and I decided to tag along and make a mini vacation out of it. Kylee did really well on the ride up. She fussed on and off and had to be distracted by books, videos, and peek-a-boo games, but she didn't start screaming and crying until we actually got into Norman (and had to wait at the longest red light EVER...twice).
Friday evening Kylee and I met some old friends at Chic-fil-a. Kylee had a great time playing on the indoor playground. She climbed all the way to the very top of playground!! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture, because I had to rush in after her (a swarm of older kiddos showed up and just about trampled us both).
Kylee and I spent Saturday hanging out with Aprill. Saturday morning daddy came with us, and we all went to the Sam Noble Museum. We had a great time!

Saturday afternoon grandma drove up and came with us to the Little River Zoo. Kylee was super tired, as I was not able to get her down for a nap, but she seemed to a good time. She was in complete awe for the first 30 minutes or so that we were there. I think her favorites were the parrots and the kangaroo. She really got a kick out of watching the kangaroos hop. She must of liked the monkeys too, because all Sunday morning she was making her monkey sound. Our tour guide went pretty fast (I think she was about to get off work); so I didn't get a chance to stop and snap many pictures until our tour ended, and we got a few minutes to explore the barnyard area on our own.

Sunday morning Robert woke up with pain in his side. We ended up taking him to the ER at Norman Regional, where our suspicions were confirmed....daddy has his first kidney stone! Poor guy!

...Stomp Your Feet!

Kylee loves the song "If You're Happy and You Know It". She has the song on several of her CDs, and one of her toys plays it as well. Every time she hears it, she gets a big smile on her face and claps her hands. She's done this for some time now, but until today clapping was the only part of the song that she could do. She's tried to figure out the stomp a few times, but it usually comes out more like a bounce (until today that is). This afternoon we were listening to her mixed CD, and she did it! She was super proud of herself, and I am super proud of her too! She was soooo cute smiling, clapping, and stomping around the living room. Unfortunately I didn't get any video or pics, but now that she knows how to do it, I'm sure I'll have plenty of photo/video opportunities. I'll try to get some soon.

1st Day of Gymnastics

Yesterday was Kylee's first day of gymnastics. I was very pleased with the class and the instructors. Both teachers were great with the kiddos. They provided quite a few fun, developmentally appropriate activities for the little ones and were very good at encouraging the kids to try each activity but were also completely understanding if any of the girls needed to do her own thing or even take a snack break (like Kylee did). As awesome as the class was, I've been debating whether its worth the money to enroll her now or if would be better to wait until she's a few months older. Well... this evening I got my answer. Yesterday we left for gym at about 5:10. Today at almost that exact time, Kylee walked to the garage door. She kept hitting the door and then looking at me and signing "more". I asked her "more what?" and she starting bouncing and repeatedly signing "baby" and "bubbles". Of course I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure she was talking about gymnastics. Yesterday she bounced on the trampoline and got to play with bubbles, and there was a little girl in her class that she kept pointing to and signing "baby". So... I guess Kylee wants to go back! :) I'm glad she does, because I had a great time. Even if she doesn't quite grasp the concept of all the activities just yet, it's a great mommy and me experience.

Mini Mother Goose

Lately I've been reciting nursery rhymes to Kylee whenever she is in her swing. She must actually be listening to the words in the rhymes and remembering them, because she is starting to say and sign words from the rhymes before I even get to them. For example, when I say "Hickory dickory dock", she clicks her tongue to make the clock noise. When I say "Jack be nimble", she signs "jump". When I say "Jack and Jill went up the hill", she signs "water". When I say "Hey diddle diddle" she signs cat and makes a "l" sound (which I'm guessing is for "fiddle"). I've never used the signs during the rhymes (my hands are busy pushing the swing), so I'm super impressed that she is recognizing the words from the rhymes and putting them with the signs that she knows.

Tumble Time

This Saturday we met Kylee's playgroup at Tumble Time gymnastics for open gym night. I was a little reluctant to take her, thinking she'd probably cling to me most the time. Boy, was I wrong! The second we walked in to door, she ran off and started playing. She had a blast running, climbing, sliding, playing with balloons, and bouncing on the trampolines, and as long as someone was jumping, she was cracking up. While we were there I found out they offer classes for tiny tots that are walking to age 3. Kylee had so much fun at open gym that we're going to try it out. Tonight is our first class. I'm so excited!