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.