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.

Week with no Eric

New words:
Moon
Carson ("Carcas"- they thought that was esp. funny at daycare)
Stinky ("sinkly")
Walk
Peek a...Peek a... Peek a.... Peek a boo!
Puppy (she called a squirrel a puppy this week! :) They kinda look like miniture dogs I guess with super long tails.)
Car (she's pointed out a bunch of cars on a walk and in driveways)
Airplane ("Aircane") she stops and points to the sky everytime she hears one and is very interested in that.
She's trying to figure out grandpa and why not call him Grandma. She's invented at times a word that sounds like "GranDaddy"

We've had quite the week with Eric being on a business trip M-F. We've missed him very much. I know he participates a lot with Kaylee, it really makes a difference having that other person there. I called my parents to help a couple of days this week, it helped a lot. The good news was I didn't have to have quite so early of meeting as I thought this week so Wednesday was the only hard day. I dropped her off at 6:30 and didn't come to get her until 5:00. She was playing in the gym no problem when I entered the room, she saw me and burst into tears with a very angry cry. She was mad at me! I felt so bad. Yesterday I left her there for only 8 hours to try to make up for it. Today I will only have her there for 5.

She's such a flirt - the boys in the 7 year or so range seem to be particularly anamored. She's had several of them playing smiley, giggly, peekaboo games back and forth with her lately. One boy came up to her at the park, he got very close to her and she thought he was going to kiss her. She said "Kiss." I didn't think I'd have to worry about this for another 10-15 years! Yikes!

Happy birthday to Eric this next coming Monday!

New words

Kaylee woke up yesterday morning full of the ability to say a bunch of things we'd never heard from her before. We were reading her a book about animals and also "Pat the Bunny."

bunny
doodle-do (for cockadoodledoo)
oink (pronouced by her as "O-INK")
baa
shampoo (have I already said this one?)
bubbles (she's been saying this one for a while)
fork
book (she's been saying this for about a month)
doggie

Kaylee sometimes is now getting too tired for her bath at night. I think I need to move this up in our schedule so she can still have fun during bath time. Now when I tell her it's time to get out, she stands up and get's ready to be taken out.

Kaylee has a couple things she likes to eat now at daycare - the chicken patty sandwich and the sausages. It's good she's adding nutritionally to her diet. Variety is the key!

quick update

Eric's dad is staying with us over the weekend. That has been a lot of fun. Yesterday we went out to eat a couple of times and Kaylee behaved very well. The weather's been great and we sat outdoors and that helped a lot. She could run around a bit and make as much noise as she wants. Last night we went to a couple of parks and to my amazement, Kaylee is still asleep this morning.

Kaylee is feeling much better, I don't see many spots on her anymore and she hasn't needed any tylenol in quite a while.

New words:

circle

rice

bounce

mia (grandparents cat)

kiss

maybe I already wrote this one, not sure . "all done"

milk

bottle