Kaylee's first night in a big girl bed

Last night was Kaylee’s first night in a big girl bed! This weekend we used Eric’s pick-up truck to get my sister’s twin bed and nightstand for Kaylee’s room. Eric took out the crib and rocker and made room for the bed and nightstand. He moved her bed to be right near the window and totally re-orientated the room. We made a huge deal about the new bedding and being able to climb up there (we took out the box spring so she can climb up on it). We showed her how she can have all her stuffed animals at the end of her bed. It was hard getting her down, really outside of her normal routine of being rocked and then put in the crib. So in order to help her feel more comfortable, because I could understand her being excited/anxious by everything in her room changing, I laid in bed with her until she fell asleep. Then she did wake up at about 3 or so and I had to go back in and lay with her. It wasn’t a very restful night for either of us, but the transition is worth it and hopefully will improve during the rest of the week. When I peeked at her in the morning, she was blissfully asleep with her arms over her head, and her head not on her pillow. She looked so miniature compared to the large twin comforter over her. So sweet. Eric and I were both really excited and proud to see her make this change. Hopefully the rest of the week will go fine with less needed from me.

Kaylee continues to want the nukie. It’s very disconcerting after all this time with her talking so much to hear her talking about 10 percent as much. She whines, cries and insists on it. But we’ll see what happens, we would really like to hear her voice more and see her smiling face more so we may be attempting something soon to get away from this new habit of hers. We’re congnizant of the fact that there are a lot of transitions at once happening with Kaylee and we don’t want it to get to hard for her, with the new bed and with this being her last week in her daycare and starting at a new place next week. (In case I haven’t posted on this, we are transitioning away from the center (not that we didn’t like it, it’s just the expense) to an in-home daycare, in preparation for the financial blow of having another child in daycare. The new daycare provider is a licensed teacher, mother of four, she lives in a nice place with a playground right out her backyard.)

Kaylee had a lot of fun at her first birthday party with my side of the family. She ate too much cake though and was up a lot at night – lesson learned!

Kaylee has had ½ cup of milk each day this weekend. Yesterday we gave her too much and she had hives popping up around her mouth, so we’re going to make sure and limit the exposure. But it’s great to have her making such good progress toward not having any allergies! Yay!

I am trying to get some photos of the birthday party to post here. So hopefully will be up here soon - stay tuned!

Fun new things:
1) I have started to feel the baby move! Just little flutters here and there…it’s fun to feel it again. We will not know the sex of the baby until April 30, my next OB appt – I will then be about 23 weeks along. I am 4 months but feel like I look like I'm 6 months along! People can definately tell I'm expecting and approach me about the topic as if there's no question now, even strangers have talked with me about it.
2) Kaylee has started to say some funny things re: the baby coming. She has said to me, “I think there’s a girl in there.” Then another time she said, “I think there’s a boy in there.” Yet another time, she said “There’s a baby in there.” Then yesterday she said the funniest thing yet…she said, “Mom, there’s a baby in my belly.” Then she went on to say, “There’s a baby in my belly, one in mommy’s belly and one in daddy’s belly.” I said, “All of us Your Dad, Your Mom and Kaylee will be having a baby but it will live in just my belly until it’s ready to be born.” She doesn’t truly understand what’s happening but is starting to try. It’s interesting to see it happening, she has also leaned a whole bunch of times and kissed my belly. Very sweet, but still not really sure she gets it… cute though!

Kaylee was sick with the stomach flu yesterday and Eric and I both worked half-days. She seems to be feeling better today – fingers crossed! We are more than ready for our Kaylee to just feel good for a while and be healthy! There’s been way too much sickness this winter.

I’ve told Kaylee we’re celebrating her birthday this weekend (at least w/ my side of the family) and she doesn’t get what that means. But she does like to sing “happy birthday to Kaylee!”

Update

Kaylee has been feeling a bit better starting on Thursday. That evening I was so happy to get a good report for daycare, I was starting to worry/dread their reports. She still seems a little off, but could be those 2 year molars coming in. Last night Eric gave her the nighttime orajel and she slept through the night, a first time in about a week. It is so good to see our girl happy and smiley again. It is so hard to see them not doing well, especially when you can’t be there for them (all workday, that is).

Random news:
Kaylee can walk on her tip-toes.
She likes to call me “good boy” when I do something she likes. I keep telling her I’m a girl. To say, “good girl” or “thank you,” after all I’m not a dog. J Now I’m starting to understand better the phrase “the things kids say…”
She is using her terrible two moments to prefer at times one parent over the other, “No I want Daddy (or Mommy) to do it. Not you.”
Kaylee is loving the chance to talk walks in the stroller today and will throw a fit if she thinks she’s going to get to go on a walk, and we head in the car instead.
Her favorite thing is still to play with the baby doll and a blanket.
Kaylee played at a local indoor play place, and started already lusting over the bigger non-toddler play area. Seems she won’t be contained in the toddler zone for long.
At Barnes and Noble Friday night, she delighted in running between the beloved train set and the stage. And wrapping up a bunny toy in a napkin.
Kaylee can stand up for herself with older kids, asserting that things are “mine” and fighting for said object. She gets along better with the 4 and up crowd because there’s more give and take, and she calms down more than with the 3 year olds. Kaylee has not had a nukie again since that one bad day last week.

Nukie!

Kaylee’s having a bit of a hard time right now. I’m not sure what’s all wrong (could be the ears, teething, growing pains, attachment issues). But she has been very upset at daycare and very hard for the daycare staff to comfort. She’s continued to have problems with her ears, I brought her back to the doctor early this week, and they said her ear infection isn’t getting better so then they switched her to another antibiotic. She’s been on that now for 3 days. (she has been on the other for 4 days) She still is very upset at daycare, and yesterday they gave her a nukie to calm her down after she asked for one. Note: She hasn’t had a nukie since she was 2 months old, and at that time only used it for about a month. So you can imagine my surprise when I picked her up and she had it in her mouth. Then in the evening, she asked for it. We went out and got her all the coolest new teethers at Target and tried to give them to her, she turned her nose up to them. She then woke up in the middle of the night crying so hard for 20 minutes we resisted the calls for a nukie and then finally gave in.

So today at daycare she is using on again, and today I did give her Motrin before I brought her in. She’s been on so much Motrin lately I’m getting worried we may be getting close to that max allowable duration of 10 days. Suffice it to say, we hope to see our Kaylee feeling better soon. At home as long as she’s with us, she still seems her happy self. So we’re not sure what’s happening at daycare... We’ve wondered if she’s having some attachment issues now. The teacher say she is esp. upset at transition times like lunch time and has thrown her food on the floor, refusing to eat her lunch or snack. So it seems whenever she’s removed for the person & scene she’s gotten used to, she is not happy. Anyways, I hope today at pickup to get better news than I have the rest of this week. I am very very busy preparing for a deadline at work and won’t be able to miss much work, and as far as the daycare rules for sickness Kaylee isn’t breaking any since she doesn’ t have a fever. Wish Kaylee a speedy recovery and to snap out of it with the nukie!

"Mississippi!"

Kaylee is doing so many new things all the time!

She can now say two 4-syllable words – “alligator” and “Mississippi”. It’s so cute to hear her say them in her little, tiny voice sounding so smart. Kaylee loved going on walks outside with us again, and seeing the Mississippi River! She now cries for her stroller every time we head out to the car, thinking we are taking a walk.

Kaylee sings to herself in the car often, sometimes it’s her own song she’s been making up. She recently seems to like to sing “My fair lady” and “Wheels on the bus.” She has the melody right, but often gets some of the words wrong or mispronounced. It’s so cute to hear her sing in her soft little voice! Speaking of voices, she has also at the same time, learned to whine. She now whines for many things she wants and we are trying to teach her to ask for things nicely. We ask her to calm down from a cry/whine and try “using your words” and saying please.

Kaylee gets time-outs now. She sits for 2 minutes in an area where I can see her. I do it the supernanny way since I watch that show. She now gets the warning, “do you need a time-out” and sometimes stops the behavior before we need to do that.

Kaylee has another ear infection! It’s in her left ear this time and she’s on the same antibiotics. They sent her home Wednesday with a fever from daycare. Then that night I took her into the doctor. Then yesterday they sent her home again from daycare at about 3 saying that she wasn’t running a fever but was very despondent, asking for her Mom and Dad over and over and crying a lot. So I picked her up and this morning she seemed okay. Hopefully she will bounce back over the weekend with lots of rest and relaxation.

We bought a new toddler sized potty lid and tried to get Kaylee interested but she is not. So we will continue to try to get her intrigued but I’m not pushing her if she is scared or unwilling. She’s still really little.

Kaylee’s grandparents came into town last weekend. They said that Kaylee has grown an inch in the last 2 months they haven’t seen her. She had fun with them, we went out to eat a few times and she behaved admirably. The only bad thing was we went to a benefit for someone’s child, and the music there was way too loud. While we were there Kaylee looked out of sorts/dazed and when we left, she cried very hard. Some things a nearly 2 year old just aren’t up for. She loves to play with the train set that her grandparents brought with them, and loved having a new audience to perform for.

Can’t wait until her 2nd birthday – it doesn’t seem too far off now that it’s March! We are hoping to get her transitioned to a big girl bed and potty trained before the new baby comes. Those are my focuses for her as her b-day approaches.

First bubble wrap

Kaylee was at my office the other day and discovered some bubble wrap.