Share!

Kaylee is learning how to be authoritative. She recently passed me a toy and when I was going to accept it from her, she pulled it back and said “No share!” She’s got it a little mixed up – share means everyone else shares with her. In the same play session, I was playing around with her tickling her and stuff, she said to me “No bite!” It must be something they hear as a warning at daycare that she picked up.

She also has been telling the dogs “No!” She said “No Rico! No Rico! No bark!” Even when they aren’t barking or doing anything wrong. We tell her they are not barking and they are okay as they are. :)

Tomorrow she will be starting in her new room with her new teacher. I hope she doesn’t miss her friends too much. She’s been visiting the new room a lot and they say she’s doing well. Although yesterday when we left daycare she cried for a few minutes saying goodbye to Kayla. She cried “Kayla, Kayla, Kayla!” Fortunately Kayla turns 18 months a week or two after Kaylee so it won’t be long…

Little green handed babe

Kaylee and Eric have both been a bit under the weather. Kaylee is not eating very much - mostly her bottle, and crackers for the past few days. She's been going to bed early and then getting up a bit more at night as well.

Found a cute Halloween costume for Kaylee this weekend. The costume needed to not require her to wear anything on her head - she won't wear hats. She's going to be a bumblebee! It's kind of a leotard thing with fuzzy surface and big fat belly in the middle portion. I got her some gold shoes to go with that she loves a lot. We had a little shoe parade yesterday - trying on all her shoes. She has a bit of a fascination - hope this isn't going to be an issue someday... :)

Eric bought Kaylee a cute new coloring book this weekend. It is a marker that colors on paper and reveals bright tones underneath. There's black paper/marker version that comes with. I'm going to call Crayola to complain because even though the markers are washable the paper is not and the black paper came off on her hands, even though I was wiping during the process. Even after 2 baths and numerous handwashings, her palms are green!

New words:
hat
body
ishy
icky
yucky
elbow
wet
cold
Krissy
pretzel
yummy (had been saying Nummy)
bumbee (this is what she's going to be for Halloween! A bumblebee!)
truck
yellow bus
mommy's button
belly button
honk
goose
vroom

Doing lots of new things

Kaylee has had fun recently with mixing colors with bathtub paints. She smooths the colors all over saying “color, color” then she splashes joyfully as she finishes her masterpiece.

Kaylee seems to have learned a motion for “wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round.” When we pointed out the neighbor girls and their bus, she says “bus” and then rotates her arms around in a circular motion. Then we caught on and started singing “wheels on the bus” song to her, meanwhile she happily accompanied the song with the arm motions.

Kaylee sang some new words for “twinkle, twinkle little star.” She said “ How I wonder” and “Up above” – the first couple words to each new verse. She sang them with me, in harmony! She has a beautiful, sweet sounding little voice!

She paraded around the house the other day with a bowl on her head, pushing her walker proudly in front of her. She loved this novel idea and reaction it got out of us. She also has been trying real hard to put on her sunglasses. She puts them on upside-down and raises her head up in order to try to balance them on her face. She wants to use my toothbrush each morning and not hers and cries when she doesn’t get her way. She also prefers to use big forks instead of forks made for a toddler in order to be a “big girl.”

She loves to practice the opening any doors – esp. the sliding door out to the backyard. She says “door”. She goes to the other side of the door, closing herself in the room and says “bye” to us. Then she cries for help when she can’t get out a moment later.

I got a report from a teacher at daycare on her behavior the other day. She said she was trying to get Kaylee from climbing up on a chair and had told her to get down twice. Kaylee cried because she didn't want to be told no. The teacher was leaving the rooms and was shocked when Kaylee pointed over to her, smirking and saying "Ha, Ha, Ha." She can be a bit of a stinker. She is very stubborn at times.

Kaylee has accidentally hurt me a few times, jumping up into my face or by unexpectedly putting her finger up my nose way too hard. She feels sorry after she hurts us, and comes over to see how you are doing, offering a kiss to consol you. She also uses this as a method to get out of trouble. She knows if she does something wrong, a way to get you away off track is to lean in, kiss you and offer a real sweet smile. Very clever! It is working well on us! We try not to let her get away with things too much – we also have to teach her how to behave as well!

New words:
Stinky
Bus
Down
Squirrel
Paint
Dance
Door

New words:

Jump

Twinkle Twinkle then humming the rest of the notes

Mommy's nose

I'm gonna get you (in a chasing around the house game)

Sprinkle on me (while powder for diaper) this one surprised us!

Kaylee has been doing great. Eric and I got a date this last weekend and it was so enjoyable. We did things we can't do when Kaylee's with us like take a long walk (because as I mentioned earlier she wants to walk by herself now) and then we went out and enjoyed a pizza (because she's allergic we avoid this more than before she was born)

Gotta go. I'm being called. Take care.

Calm weekend

New words / phrases (yes this is the first couple weeks she's strung words together!):

Yikes

Juice

Cool

Stroller

Rain

Whoa (she's been saying this for a while but now says it on her own when she sees the cats at my parents house)

Honey

Batu (she tried to repeat Batulism when we were talking about whether she can eat honey yet - a bit too ambitious :) )

Daddy's shoes

Listen to music

and many more but can't remember them all....

Kaylee is so cute when we go over to people's houses. We were at Matt/Krissy's house last night and she just put on a show for them. I don't think if I could tell her how I want her to behave and have her follow my instructions, that she could possibly be any better behaved. Basically I'm trying to say that she is a dream to take care of. She's funny, almost always in a good mood, she goes with the flow and isn't afraid of things easily. She's pleasant when she first wakes up from a nap, even. Not to say she isn't normal, she throws tantrums and I've had my "Oh my gosh, let's just get out of here" embarrassing moments in public with her. She still doesn't sleep through the night and doesn't eat unless it's on her terms. But I don't think Eric and I could have ever dreamt of or could have prayed for a better baby. Okay, enough gushing. I just had to get it out there...

Kaylee tried the music class and she did very well, behaving better than she did at 15 months. They said she didn't sit the whole time but attempted to participate and follow instructions. They think she's ready so we are going to enroll her in their weekly class. Oh....my baby's first academic experience! We're so proud!

I went back to 40 hours a week the last couple weeks because things are more busy at work. I am tired and have fallen back on chores, etc. I can't keep up! Maybe with a couple more weeks under my belt I'll get the hang of it! I need to figure out with Eric what we need to do with our schedules so Kaylee isn't in daycare too long each day. Last week she was there an average of 9.5 hours a day or so. A bit much.

She did get bit again at daycare this week. They said her and the other baby were fighting over a wagon when she was bit. I dread that accident report and can't wait till the babies are past this phase. I'm glad they are tracking the incidents so that if there's a repeat offender they can get rid of that baby (at least during their biting phase).

Kaylee is supposed to move up to the next room at 18 months, I plan on stopping in tomorrow and meeting her new teacher. Hopefully the transition will go well, I'll keep you posted. We are very excited to get our daycare fees cut down about $24 a week. This is the first time we catch a break for fees.

This weekend felt a bit more calm than last because we didn't have any plans. I'm trying to get caught up on laundry and chores today.

Last weekend being labor day, we had a lot of family plans. It was fun for us to spend time with Eric's parents while they were in town. We went to a lot of family get-togethers, out to eat (we learned sitting outside with the babe works well), to a picnic and to the park a few times. I have some cute photos of Kaylee to post but need to get them from folks so hopefully they'll be up here soon.

Kaylee has begun not wanting to sit in her stroller when we go on a walk. She wants to walk too. This makes for a very slow pace. At first we tried to hold her hand while in the street. She fussed and cried a lot. So then we made her walk on the inside by the curb and every time a car came we made her hold hands. The first time around the block she cried the whole time we held her hand while there was a car. Then the second time around the block the next day she didn't cry hardly at all at the hand-holding. Her desire for independence is very obvious. I'm thinking it's a good sign for potty-training in a few months! :)

Kaylee Headlines

Kaylee got bit again at daycare yesterday! Eric asked when he picked her up if it’s been the same child biting her. They said that it’s a different child each time. They said kids learn it from each other unfortunately, and usually each try it out at some point. The important part they say is the response and making sure the child knows it’s the wrong behavior. I could still see the bite mark this morning on her arm.

Kaylee is starting to grow out of her 18 month clothes already. She’s starting to look taller and leaner. Her hair is longer too, when it’s wet it falls about 3” past her shoulders, but when dry curls up above her shoulders, still. She is now finally facing forward in both cars, she loves it and gets a charge out of Eric moving the car back and forth, and speeding up quickly (I can’t say I’m a fan, until I look at the look of shear joy on Kaylee’s face). She says “weeeee!”

Kaylee is starting to voice an opinion on which clothes she wears, she tries to take off clothes now. Luckily she hasn’t been too successful with the diaper – that’s the one I don’t want her taking off for obvious reasons. Her favorite thing to take off is her shoes and socks. She’s now consistently missing one shoe when I take her out of her carseat.

Kaylee has now discovered how fun it is to spill water out of her toy scooper in the bathtub. She puts all her toys in there and watches with amazement as they sink to the bottom as she pulls the scooper out of the water. She puts the scooper over her face and tips it toward her and laughs as the water almost splashes her face.

She loves the park so much, when we arrive she runs toward it and squeals the whole way!

New words:
Red
Peach
Bird
Please (she tried to use this last night to get me to give her the salt shaker at the dinner table)
Sauce (she tried to also get me to pass her the soy sauce – of course she didn’t get either one and there were some angry screams.)

Happy 17th month Kaylee!

Kaylee is getting to be so funny! She is all the sudden doing real funny things like she's putting on a show. The other day she walked, marched and strutted back and forth across the room for us for about 30 minutes, all the while jargoning and making lots of noise. She added a new antic to her show every few minutes, marching for a few laps, then walking with her face to the ceiling/hands behind her head, then carrying a ball and so on...She reminds me of Eric when she's doing this because he is so funny. She gets it from him.

In the bath tub last night she was very excitedly telling a story with gesticulations and all. Splashing and squealing - she's so dang cute!

She seems congitively more aware of her surroundings, like I said she's been noticing planes in the air, screaming kids in the neighborhood, barks from distant dogs while inside. She asks me all the time if she can "color." She talks about coloring while she's eating because she can't wait to go back to it. Maybe she's inherited some of her artistic side from my side of the family.

She's been opening her mouth for me to brush her teeth, whereas before she cried the whole time like it was torture.

She will not sit in her highchair and now sits on a phonebook on the chair. She is currently in love with green beans, which we think is pretty awesome. Eric's had a good influence with that and pushing it as a "nummy" vegetable.

New words are becoming too difficult to count. She repeats a lot of words said by those around her now. She has moved onto not just pointing out cars but also "trucks" in the neighborhood though I don't think she necessarily really understand the distinction. She has said Becky, Krissy, Matt, Nina and Rebecca now. She loves to stand by the window and call out "Annnnnnn del, Annnnn...del" to the dog across the street (Angel). It's the cutest!

Kaylee has started throwing objects now and throwing a ball back and forth. She can now stack about 4-5 blocks on top of each other. She's interested in puzzles and plays with them but can't exactly do them yet.

I think that a lot of dance moves have probably been invented as "novel" by babies dancing in front of parents. I think the deep knee squats she's doing remind me of moves I see rappers doing on stage. Also the pant leg halfway up one calf trend reminds me of the haphazard dress of the toddler. She also walks the room in a very funny manner, it resembles a swagger (picture the whole body being moved by the motion of the shoulders) I've seen rappers do as well.