Conversational tone and storytelling

Well, Four of my friends have now had their babies. I think everybody I know pregnant at the same time now has their babies. It's so exciting and now I am in the mode of ohhing and ahhing over their babies. I love seeing little newborns again and it's making me all the more excited to meet our little one about 11 weeks from now! I am also reminded of the hard work, the schedule, the breastfeeding beginning hardships, the labor & delivery, the hospital, the NICU ... everything. I'm a little scared too. I don't want baby to get sick this time! Although her sickness was lucky compared other baby's sickness level in the NICU, I am aware. Still...I'm hoping this time I can go home the same time as baby. Cross your fingers for us. I'm also hoping that maybe just maybe I'll get a little nurser and not a screaming and shaking her head at the breast baby. But to give Kaylee her full bio, she was a wonderful baby who smiled right away (I mean right away!) and had such a wonderful personality from the get-go. Not to mention I think we were sleeping through the night for a brief period after about 3 weeks old. Ah,the memories are flooding baby. I remember her being very fussy right before bedtime about 3 weeks - 7 or 8 weeks old. THat's when Eric came to the rescue with his many ways of walking, bouncing, holding and consoling that he mastered. My expertise was my growing confidence in breastfeeding, which always soothed a fair amount of fussiness out of her. I can only hope and pray that this baby is like Kaylee, she's been such fun and an honor to raise.

We have been cleaning our house for a while in preparation for the baby and that will continue this weekend. My parents will take her for a few more hours and we will be back to tackling clutter, mainly in our basement. Getting rid of stuff making way for space over stuff. I am ready with baby boy's clothes (mostly except for the winter gear like jackets - I'm in denial). We are thinking on our daycare and how much she should take Kaylee during the first weeks of my leave and we're thinking maybe more than what I was originally thinking - I was thinking we'd start our 3 day a week schedule. But Eric's right, there's a lot of bonding, recovering and teaching to be done with the brand new baby that can best be done while concentrating 100%. So I think we'll be asking Hollie to do 5 days a week for a bit, the when things get sane we'll go to the anticipated 3 day a week schedule.

Kaylee continues to be our little climber and adventurer on the playgrounds. Her legs are filled with bruises and her knees are scabbed. She creates a lot of drama telling you about her owies and falls. She will sometimes even start pouting again or acting hurt after running around for 20 minutes after with no problem, just cause someone took an interest.

On that note, her imagination is amazing. She played last night with a coloring book. Talking to the characters in it and saying, "Do you want to go to Hollie's? Do you like that? Are you hungry? Do you want to play?" Almost like talking to an imaginary friend. We are happy to see her so easily entertained and she is entertaining us herself in the process, unbeknownst to her.

When I colored with her last night, she said to me, "Oh Mom, nice kitty. That is amazing. Can you draw more?" This is the first time I think she's given me a compliment. She then continued on to turn the pages faster than allowed for any coloring and I gave up. Such is life with a 2 year old. She's also made it a little hard to read books to her lately because she wants to read it "by myself." She flips through the book several times, dialoguing the plot she can remember and adding in other stuff whatever comes to her mind. It is remarkable how much she does remember. Some books are favorites and she spends more time developing these stories. Eventually she lets me get a word in, I've been trying to introduce a little bit the idea of it's time for me to talk and you to listen. But she's a little little for this concept. But she will need to know it to get the most out of what we and Hollie, and eventually preschool teachers try to teach her.

What else can I say, she's an absolute delight... yesterday she stayed the day with my Mom cause we had no daycare. My mom played some paper dolls and she said, "Kaylee you seem to only like the pink one. I should go out and get you more pink ones." Kaylee looked up and said to her, "Grandma, don't worry about it."

Her skill with talking is conversational, her words are usually conjugated correctly, her ability to hear and repeat exactly the noise or sound is extraordinary. It's amazing what kids her age can absorb in a day. She's changing all the time and it's so fun to watch - I don't want to miss a moment. Usually I don't want to spend much time away from her outside of my work day. That seems like enough time away...especially with the new baby coming I'm trying to spend as much 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 (with Eric as a family) as humanly possible. Speaking of that, I'm going to see if she's up yet...