Kaylee’s new favorite thing to say is “Yep.” She answers a lot of questions with “Yep!” It is so nice to hear her answer a question with an affirmation rather than a negative. I know now when she does want something to eat, or she can say “Yep” to something and “No” to another food. Very nice. Things are starting to feel more conversational – we are communicating! J She also can say “Yea and Yes”. Her and her Dad have been exchanging “Yep”s in a game they have, where Daddy says Yep very silly and she says it’s “funny.” She said “funny” about things a lot yesterday.

Today when I brought her to daycare I was very concerned to only see 2 other kids left in her room. I guess either they’ve come down with the flu or are being safe-guarded by their parents from the daycare environment. Yesterday and today are the first times I’ve felt unsure about leaving her at daycare. It didn’t feel like a kind thing to do, but she’s not sick yet and she could get it anytime and anywhere and we need to save our PTO for that time. We can’t be preventative with her care and shield her from the world, and keep our careers safe.

Today when we left the house Kaylee told her Daddy, “I love you.” And then when I said it to her as I dropped her off, she said it again. That was so exciting to hear! I’ve heard it once a long time ago so this is the first time I heard her do it again.

Last night Kaylee had a fit about not being able to play with her straps in the booster seat because she should be strapped in (and she wants to practice with them open and that’s not safe). So, after a lot of crying, kicking and refusing dinner, we had to remove the booster seat from the kitchen. It is on a hiatus until we can reintroduce her to it. We’ve been looking around our house for buckles she can play with and she happily played with a camera bag of mine for a long time, with intermittent yelling, screeching for help out of frustration.

Kaylee loves to make a “tower” out of her blocks. She talks about “towers.” She can make very high ones and is learning on a new toy we got her the other day for 18 months up. She is doing simple puzzles now and can say “puzzle”. She plays with an animal one, a “kaylee” rainbow one and a vehicles one. She can sometimes get all the pieces in – it’s on again off again with that skill. Sometimes she pushes down on the puzzle opening with all her might wanting to force it and mutters to herself “PUSH!”

Kaylee is starting to get close to reaching door knobs. Not sure what’s going to happen with that so we’ll keep an eye out. She can now reach to the edge of countertops so we have to watch knives, cooking, etc.
Kaylee has started to enjoy eating apples. Nice, healthy and seasonal addition to her diet! Yum! Cross your fingers for Kaylee that an apple (or a few bites of it) a day will keep the doctor away!

When I dropped Kaylee off for daycare today, they said 2 kids in her classroom have come down with the H1N1. I guess she was exposed on Thursday when she was there, and she hasn’t come down with it yet. So – if she doesn’t get it today or tomorrow, she didn’t get it this time. Anyways, cross your fingers! I have been continuing to nurse her about once a day in case she were to come down with it, that will probably be all she’ll do is nurse. Also I can continue to offer her some antibodies of mine to fend off this thing, since my immune system is more mature. Wouldn’t ya know it, her room is the only one with it in the daycare!

Kaylee has begun making sentences now regularly. It surprises me though when something pops out of her mouth,
Where did Grandma go?
I got it!
My baby.
Me blanket
Eic, Daddy – Come on!
Rico, Jackson, Hi Jackson good dog.
Mommy sorry
Bless you
Wait
Beep, beep (for excuse me)
Beetle
Ant
Spider
Boat
Train
When putting on shoes, once one is done, she offers you “the other.”
Push
Open the door
Mom I poop
Stinky Diaper, ick
Cindy
Chuck
Yummy…more.

Kaylee had a lot of fun with her Grandparents who visited from NM this weekend. It was really busy, she got to put on shows for them. They were a very receptive audience! :) She stayed home all day with her Grandma on Friday and she did great! Kaylee tried new foods this weekend, she tried some soy cheese. We made her a special little lasagna out of cupcake tins, and she asked for more. (She ate 3!) We also have had success with the soy ice cream. She says, "nummy!"

"Ready... Go!"

Kaylee has been saying things from time-to-time that we haven’t taught her, it always takes us aback and we wonder where she learned the word. The other day I was leaving the house to take her to daycare, and had a coffee mug. She pointed at the mug and said, “Coffee!” Must be someone at daycare carries one around just like it!

Kaylee says “beep, beep” for “excuse me.” She also says “ready… go!” and then runs quickly across the room while putting on a show for her family. Eric taught her this one, and it’s really adorable.

Kaylee looks at our calendar in the kitchen made by Aunt Steph. She points out her cousins “Ellie” and “Frisco” and then “Kaylee” rubbing/patting her belly as if to say “that’s me!” One of her favorite words lately is “sorry” she says it sometimes after she hits us and then “sorry,” and a kiss (she also says “hug) while hugging, and sometimes she says it when she hasn’t done a thing wrong. I say “You didn’t do anything wrong, don’t be sorry, little one!”

Yesterday she had so much fun playing with her monkey and saying “Monkies Jumping on the Bed.” She loved the part where you say “No more monkies…” and chimed in singing those words with us.

apple orchard and fall cleaning

We took Kaylee to the apple orchard this weekend. She had lots of fun – but I’ll say that it was way harder than last year when she was 6 month old! She wants to walk, run, be independent. The toddlers are hard to keep a hold of and control of when they want their way – she screams and cries, twisting and turning to get away. Totally normal part of development – just makes it harder to go out with her. It was nice to have the family there to help out – everyone took turns holding her since I get tired after a while. Nearly 25 pounds, up a hill, twisting and turning and you get spent easily! Anyways, we got some good photos that I should post here soon! She fell in love with the tractor, just another moving thing to add to her repertoire of words she loves to say! It was so cute, she waited in line to sit on it and loved the steering wheel. We took some photos and there was a long line of other kids waiting to get on, so she cried in protest when we took her off. But from the ground, she was very interested in continuing to watch the other kids try it out. She said many times that day “dar-dar,” or tractor. On the way to daycare today, she pointed to a four-wheeler at a construction site and said “Dar-dar!”

After the outing, I took another risk and took her out to lunch. She was a very good girl and colored in the coloring book for the first half hour. She got fussy when the food came and didn’t want to eat, she wanted to escape and roam the restaurant. I was so happy my Mom brought some cars along that captivated her attention for the rest of the visit. Grandma saved the day!

Yesterday we did some fall cleaning. My Dad installed child safety locks on all the drawers that I had emptied because I’m feeling like I want the storage back. We put everything back in it’s place. Kaylee was very unhappy to have her drawer taken away and is still getting used to it. She doesn’t like not being able to explore so easily so we may have to bring in some new distractions for her to bridge this adjustment. She was very good during the cleaning, not requiring too much attention and not being naughty. Couldn’t have asked for more! Thanks to my parents for helping! Our house has seemed like it’s overflowing with things, so it was good to cull through some things.

She says “grandpa” now. To both Grandpa’s of course. Eric’s Dad is in town and was very happy to be referred to as “grandpa” instead of “grandma” this time! J Kaylee put on such a good show for her Grandparents, running back and forth in the living room taking risky turns and spinning. She showed them how she likes to take her monkey and tuck him in with his “blankie” (a washcloth). She rubs his belly, telling him “shh-shh” “nite-nite” the way we do when we put her to bed. She loves carrying her baby and blanket all around the house. She even asks if she can have a blankie with her at the kitchen table and sometimes we do, because generally after she gets it, she starts to eat. She doesn’t realize that the baby’s head should be out so it can breathe, she coves the whole baby and the whole monkey. “shh-shhh” whap-whap-whap on their bellies. It’s so cute that she’s playing Mom.

She is still calling Eric and I by our first names really regularly. Eric and I are wondering if we need to start calling each other “mom” and “dad” but this seems a real weird thing to start doing with each other. So each time she says our names, we respond but correct with a gentle, “I’m Mom” or “I’m your Dad.”

New words

Pumpkin (this is her new favorite thing to point out on car rides)
Penguin
Pencil
Marker
Spoons
Fork (‘cept it was more like pork)
Bumblebee (before just bumbee)
Bath
Nite-Nite (saying for a while now)
Tired
Blanket (saying for a month now) “blankie” too
Toot-Toot (for her train)
She can sing the words to the song “Feelin’ hot, hot, hot” It’s on her kids CD and has a lot of “La, la, la, la bada bumbum bumbum” very easy for her to sing – super cute! She also tries to sing to doing the “bunny hop” – she’s semi-successful at this.
Helga (her daycare person)
Fish (asking for goldfish crackers) and talking about fish in Eric’s aquarium (saying for a while now)
Mouth (did I say that yet?)
Eric (did I say that yet?) It sounds monosyllabic like, “Eic!”
Ewww!

Kaylee has been a bit confused in the past about object permanence. She knows her Daddy sits at his computer desk downstairs alot, and when going down the stairs even if he was right next to her, she look through the window to his computer station saying "Daddy! Daddy!" I would say, "No Daddy's right there, Daddy isn't in two places at the same time." She recently seems to have figured it out and doesn't look for Daddy downstairs when she's just seen Daddy upstairs a moment before.

Eric has a gift for feeding Kaylee. I learned he can do it no problem, and she is more likely to eat when he feeds her when I'm not there. When I'm there, she just thinks she's going to get milk and gets so focused on that. Hopefully this will help us feed her more consistently.

New words:
Boy
Play
Toys (did I list this before?)
Stairs
Outside
Banana (not just "nana" anymore)
Cheerios
Cactus (sort of how she's been saying Jackson lately) (she seems to be understanding now they are two dogs each with their own name, but still calls Jackson Rico sometimes anyway)

Kaylee has become a little attached to us lately. She doesn't want to let go when we bring her to daycare -but doesn't cry either. Yesterday when Eric took her over to play with the neighbors she didn't want to share him and his attention. She was sitting on his lap, and whenever the neighbor girl would talk to him she would tell her, "No!" and cuddle into him.

Another thing we've been experiencing is that Kaylee is well-behaved at daycare and seems to come home and then throw all her fits. I've read this is normal and actually a good sign - she has trust in us to take out her frustrations of the day when she is in her most safe environment. So last night her two fits were that 1) we took away the heels of mine she was trying to wear around the house and 2) we put a sticker onto a paper and then it wouldn't unstick! Those darn stickers - they are tricky!!!

Last night we went over to some friends house and watched the game (this means of course I didn't actually watch it - I am no sports fan.) There were kids everywhere and Kaylee was fascinated but couldn't get in with their play because they were just too old and she's not ready for hide-and-seek. She did sit down with them during coloring time and colored a very good little scribble. She also used their etch-a-sketch and was so excited to try it out that she looked up at me every few minutes and said "Hi!"........ "Hi!" very happily during her scribble session.

She loved seeing their dog and petted it saying "good dog" "hi dog" pointing to it looking at me, saying "mom, doggie!" Very sweet.

She was very perplexed when we left and I got lost. She knew I was lost. She got a little worried. Then her tension went away when I found my way to the highway and she relaxed and fell asleep. I didn't know she was so in tune to what's around her but I guess I'm not surprised.

Kaylee was sick home from daycare yesterday but is feeling better today. She had a stomach thing. Today I brought her in and totally forgot that it was picture day. But she still looked cute minus the snot draining out all the time from her nose. They'll wash her up first before the photo. I've learned you just can't keep up with the runny nose. It's just a fact of life a little snot will get on her face, hand, sleeve you can't really fight it. Hope they turn out nice! I would love to have a real good head shot of her at 18 months. Hope she smiles for the photo!

New post:

Mirror

Tree

Me book

Me shoe

Mine

Hi Grandma

Hello Kitty, Hi Mia

Kaylee, me baby

Light

Cup

Spoons (pronounced oddly like poonsee)

Frisco (She says Rico-so)

Ellie

Oh and we all know she can say Ronan I never did mention how much she liked meeting her second cousin - saying his name over and over again all the way home. She feel asleep in the car and then woke up with saying his name and then plopped back asleep on a shoulder during transfer from the car - absolutely adorable how amazed and in love with another baby she was!

Yesterday she had a big day with playing with her 2 auties and uncle. She loved seeing them and there was a lot of showing off. She woke up to seeing K/M in the kitchen having dinner, after coming to snuggling with Daddy, she got up excitedly doing loop after loop around the kitchen and living room. She loved the attention! She showed Aunt B. how she walks around the house with her bowl on her head. Aunt B. gave Kaylee her cell phone and Kaylee promply began her jargoning conversations saying "hello" into her phone and slobbering onto it much to her horror.

Kaylee played with Play-doh with Grandma D. for the first time today. She loved using the play scissors, stamper and hammer that she had to go with it. She was very excited about Play-doh and it looks like we'll have to start doing that activity at home soon too! She squealed, smiled and looked very excited during the whole thing. It made me aware of how used to the process of doing an art project she is. She knows she should get her sleeves rolled up, she even seemed to know how to use a scissors. Sometimes when she knows things I haven't taught her it makes me realize just how much I am away from her and I feel a little sad - but then I wouldn't want her to not learn while I'm away from her, very obviously! She's got an artistic side for sure!

My last post was a little fast - I didn't mention how much it pleased Kaylee to get all those 5 objects named correctly. It was so cute to she her feel so accomplished. She put her hands together and sort of gave herself a hug, with a huge smile across her face. I think that was what REALLY made me excited about the experience. It's very promising that Kaylee likes to please others so much and be a "good girl." It should help us with some of these lessons we're trying to instill in her during her terrible two tantrum sessions.

Every dinner this past week has been very stressful because we are trying to teach her she needs to sit at the table with us while we eat. I make a good meal and everybody sits down, and she cries and cries; an angry cry the entire meal until we're finished. She barely takes a bit of food that's prepared for her. But we are trying to teach her eating happens at the same time everyday, and we don't graze on our food around the house. So it's important I'm hoping soon she will capitulate, calm down and eat her dinner. Plus sometime a baby's got to eat.

Kaylee likes a couple new foods. She likes sausages and bagels. She doesn't really eat the potstickers anymore so we are on a "break" from that food.

On the daycare front, her teacher was pretty nice when I met her - I only met her briefly. She is only in from 9-1 so it makes meeting her a challenge. She said Kaylee is a very good baby, good easy kid to take care of." She said things are going smoothly and there's no problem she can see with the transition which I was very glad to hear!

Well today was a big day! I met Kaylee's teacher today and I took her to the doctor for her 18 month well-child appt. When we got there, they were confused they were like, "so what's wrong with her?..." I guess they hadn't seen any "well" children yet that day - just a lot of sick kids. Kaylee is 23 lbs 0 oz. When they doctor started to get concerned over the drop from last visit, I explained that Kaylee had a bug about a week ago that kept her from eating much and that is why I suspected the weight loss. I explained she hadn't been well for long - and now she has a cold - yikes! anyways, I had questions about what to do because I want Kaylee to have a flu shot and they say no due to her egg allergy (the allergist says no). The pediatrician is referring us to another allergist for a second opinion because she feels the restrictions on Kaylee are a bit much, like not being able to eat egg. I had already set up an appt to have her tested on her arm for the egg allergy and then if she passed, the doctor would administer a test shot of 10% of the vaccine. The doctor thought this was a slow process and said I might be better off with the other referral. She said she for sure won't be getting the H1N1 vaccinne if she's allergic. She said the fact that Kaylee received a shot of the MMR with no reaction before we knew about ht allergy was promising.

We have been giving Kaylee a bit of egg in Ramen noodles with a facial reaction - red dots all around her lower face. We figure we monitor it carefully and our doctor likes the protein and fat it gives Kaylee. She is on my case again about Kaylee waking up at night, and says we need to continue working on it for the health of our family. She said we need to teach Kaylee how to better fall asleep on her own and that the milk and rocking are preventing her from doing that. I agree, partially...we've tried the militant crying-it-out a couple of times and it doesn't go well. It is traumatic for everyone. I've also tried the slow-separation while awake technique with some success but lets face it - I'm tired at the end of the day and just want to put her to sleep and relax myself! Anyways, we'll work on it with her. She also wants me to stop giving her a bottle in the morning. She says Kaylee doesn't need it and needs her breakfast more. She also wants her in a booster seat. Demanding!!! We'll try these things out and see what works.

One the positive front, she said Kaylee is well above average in her speaking abilities and was shocked when she had stacked all the blocks (in the test) and then knocked the block over onto the floor and said, "where'd it go?" The doctor looked up at me and said "did I hear what I just heard!" I told her Kaylee can say over 100 words for sure. She tested Kaylee's understanding of language with some pictures of a dog, a cat, a bird, a "daddy" and a horse. Kaylee got all of them correct. She looks so proud of herself, and I was so proud of her!

There were some tears during the appt because it happened during her nap time and that wasn't so good but overall it was a pretty good visit, minus the nagging from the doc, and there were no shots! Yay!

New words:

Heart

Tree

Circle

Star

Others...got to go baby crying!