Christmas 2010

Christmas really sneaked up on me this year. I think it's partly because the weather hasn't been TOO terribly bad. But it came either way and I was somewhat prepared for it. Our plans seemed to keep shifting and shaping but we eventually got everything settled. Sean, Kaelyn and I actually started opening our presents the weekend before Christmas. It was nice to spread it out a little! Sean gave Kaelyn her gift from him first...his old musical keyboard! We set it up on the toy box and she stands and plays beautiful music all the time. She also likes to climb on and over the keyboard which also makes interesting sounds! :) Next, we gave her a Zhu zhu pet. It seemed like a good idea. It was small and furry and would run around on the ground so she could chase it. Well, she seemed a little interested at first, but when she couldn't actually CATCH the thing, she got mad. Now every time she sees it she yells at it. I'm not sure if she was scared of it or just frustrated that she had trouble catching it. Either way, I'm glad it didn't cost much because we haven't been playing with it. Sean and I also gave Kaelyn a big playset that we set up in the basement back in November. It was meant to be a Christmas present but we set it up when the weather started to get cold so we'd have more to do inside. It has two slides, one down each side, a couple of steps, a steering wheel, and has been all sorts of fun for her. She likes to throw her animals on wheels down the slides along with assorted balls and other things. She slides as well and has recently taken her bubble popper toy downstairs to put that down the slide as well. We saved her last gift for right before we left on our Christmas adventures. I gave her an Elmo toy that sings 10 different songs. She mostly seems to like the chicken dance song and stomps along. Occasionally she will push another button and I am always grateful for that. But hey, I don't care if she makes a lot of noise, as long as she's not yelling at me, I'm happy! So play that chicken dance, girl!! :) Elmo had to go along with us on our travels because he needed to be poked more than just for the one day.

We started our adventure by driving to Des Moines to stay with my parents. We went on Thursday the 23rd during Kaelyn's nap. When we unpacked at their house, it was like we were moving in. 4 days is a long time! :) On Christmas Eve we spend the morning at my parents house playing around and then headed to Chick-Fil-A at the mall for lunch. It was my kind of day! :) Because it was snowing a little, there weren't many people there so that was nice. Ah yes, a white Christmas. I think I would have preferred a WARM Christmas, but whatever. After Kaelyn got up from her nap we headed over to Sean's brother's house. He lives about 15 minutes away from my parents so that was handy. It worked out nicely travel-wise for us this year. Sean's brother and his wife just had a baby in October and weren't up for traveling yet so they invited his immediate family over there to celebrate. That was great because that meant we didn't have to try to travel 3 1/2 hours between the two families in a short amount of time. We still got to see everyone and only had to drive one direction. The bummer of it was that Kaelyn did not cooperate with me pretty much all afternoon. It wasn't much fun for me. I don't know if it was her cold (she'd had a little one for a couple of weeks), being in a different house, being grumpy after her nap, or any number of combinations. It was just a rough afternoon. She kept wanting to go to the basement. It was a small, unfinished area and there wasn't much down there. I usually went just to keep her happy. But sometimes, like when opening presents, we just couldn't take off. And that made her MAD. She also wanted to crawl and stand on the counters where others were preparing food. That's not really a good idea and I wouldn't let her. That made her MAD as well. I got yelled at a lot and wasn't able to enjoy the afternoon or evening because trying to keep her semi happy was taking ALL my energy and then some. She even yelled through much of the present opening. Finally, just before 8, I had had enough. It was close to bed time anyways so I threw her in her pjs and took off. I hope I didn't seem too rude. I didn't take time to say much to anyone, I just went. I was SO tired of being screamed at! Kaelyn didn't fall asleep on the drive back to my parents house but when I put her in bed there she didn't make a peep. She must have known I couldn't take one more little yell! :) I left her there in bed to sleep and when my parents got home from church I went back to Sean's brother's house. We played bop it and there were a few more gifts to open. I fell asleep on the couch eventually, but it was the nicest time I had ALL day. Other than Chick-fil-A, maybe! ;) It was so peaceful and quiet and I could talk to everyone and enjoy the evening without having to entertain or be screamed at for no particular reason. Ahhh.

Christmas Day Kaelyn seemed to be in better spirits. We were all pretty lazy and it took until Kaelyn's nap time for all of us to get ready and showered and dressed etc. Even Kaelyn slept in. And I let her! I didn't want her getting up ANY earlier than necessary. I think it was about 9 before she finally decided to see the light of day. She was worn out from all the screaming! :) So we lounged around and after her nap that afternoon, we headed to my sister's house to see my niece and nephew's new toys. They had chili for supper. Kaelyn enjoyed playing in their school room which had some desks and chairs she could climb and some balloons she could toss. She also enjoyed playing in their big walk-in pantry, of all places! She liked investigating all the items, I guess, and climbing on the little step stool. Whatever, she was happy! I wasn't able to visit with everyone as much since I was playing with her in other rooms, but at least I wasn't being screamed at! We headed home before her bedtime and got back to my parents house in time to let her run a bit and then head to bed.

On Sunday the 26th we went to a 9:30 church service at my parents church. Kaelyn LOVES playing on the ramps at that church. It's usually no big deal and I don't feel like it bothers anyone. But lately, she's enjoyed being chased and hiding from me and having me find her etc.
Well, at church, she would go up the ramp and as she thundered back down she would see me again and it was like I "found" her and this illicited excited screams. I didn't think AHHHH in the middle of the silent prayer was a good thing, but at least she was happy! Eventually she got done with the ramps and we were able to sit and look at her books for most of the rest of the service. I guess she wore out? Is that possible? Um no! :) We went back to my parents for lunch and my sister and her gang came over. After we ate we opened our stockings quickly and I put Kaelyn in bed for her nap. Once she was awake the present opening began! It took her a little while to wake up but once she did and realized what was going on, boy did she have fun. This was the first time she really got into opening presents. She didn't care what was in them once the paper was off, but boy did she love opening the paper! She couldn't open them fast enough. She'd open one and then reach for the next. Sean was just trying to keep up and make sure she wasn't opening other people's presents as she brought them out. Which she did...mine!! I think I only opened maybe half of mine and some things I didn't even know I got until I packed things up the next day! Oh well, she was having fun so who cares! She got a lot of neat new toys and some clothes and pjs too. She's one happy girl! After all the craziness I think Kaelyn was ready to get away. The gifts were done and she had nothing left to tear apart so rather than play with all her new things she grabbed my finger and took me upstairs to chase her with her favorite Tiger toy. I think she just needed a little peace and to get back to the norm for a little while. It was hard for me to have to stay away from the group again. Play like we always play at home and all. But I figured at least she was happy and that was better than trying to force her to be in a room she didn't want to be in and have her scream at me.

The rest of the day went pretty fast and we just played and played. When Kaelyn went to bed my niece wanted to watch Ramona and Beezus. That was pretty cute. The next day, it was all over. It was still crazy because we were all in one house, but the major chaos was behind us. We all packed up and headed to the mall for lunch. Sean, Kaelyn and I went early so she could play for awhile and get some running in. She did plenty of that! Then we ate at Chick-Fil-A again and went our separate ways. We drove home and Kaelyn fell asleep before we hit the interstate and slept the WHOLE way. I think she was really worn out from it all!

The night we got back, Kaelyn coughed ALL night long. I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. As I mentioned she'd had a little cold for several weeks. But I was getting worried that it was sticking around and didn't like the sounds of the cough so I took her to the doctor our first morning back home. It turns out she has her FIRST ear infection and possibly sinus infection as well. The doctor was impressed that this was her FIRST visit to the office other than regular check up and shot visits. Her left ear is pretty bad and the right ear slightly infected as well. She's on antibiotics for 10 days. So far that hasn't been fun. The first dose ended up back on her shirt after I put it in her mouth! :) But after just two doses, she only woke up twice last night coughing and only for 15 minutes instead of 2 hours like the night before. SO hopefully she's on the mend already. Maybe that was part of the issue CHristmas Eve? Who knows! She's not telling!!

Overall it was a great Christmas. We got everything we could have wanted and more, and more importantly, got to spend time with family. We have one more Christmas celebration New Year's Eve weekend so hopefully that will make up for KAelyn's attitude CHristmas Eve since the party is with Sean's family again. I hope she's an angel this time around! For her sake AND for mine! And everyone else's for that matter!

Merry Christmas and have a great 2011!!

Winter Update

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I don't get the chance to write much anymore! In October I started to feel like I needed to quit my very part time job at the radio station. I was only going in once a week and voicetracking the midday shift but for many reasons, I felt that needed to end. I gave my notice and said I would stay through the end of November. A couple of weeks after I gave my notice I started to get some freelance writing jobs. One of those jobs is writing book reviews on occasion for a publisher. I post the reviews on amazon and other websites and get paid. I love to read and I love to write so it was a great fit. The other job I got was writing web content for a website called The Content Authority. This is a great job for me. I go onto the website, and, once I was hired by them, I can see the list of articles they need. When I have time, I choose articles, write them, and get paid. If there is a day when I don't have time, I don't write, it's not big deal. It's a perfect set up for me. When Kaelyn sleeps in or naps, I write. On weekends if I have other things to do, I don't. I make as much money as I have time to make. Actually, I'm still working VERY part time, but I'm making about twice what I was at the very part time job in radio. And I get to write, so I love that. Plus I do it ALL from home. Or anywhere else I am that has a computer and the internet. It's been a really fun job for me. But that's partly why I haven't been writing as much lately. Because when I have time to write, I write for money! There are a few things I wanted to update on here, though.

It's winter now so our zoo visits have been very limited. We HAVE gone several times, though mostly in the afternoon after Kaelyn's nap. That's the only time it's semi-warm enough. Though one day last week, yes in DECEMBER, we went in the morning!! It was going to be above 50 that day and nice and sunny. It was a little chilly in the morning but with our coats and hats we did just fine. I figured we better go because it might be the last chance until spring, who knows.

Another place we have been enjoying is the children's museum. My sister gave us a season pass for an early Christmas present and we've already been a handful of times. We can also take visitors with us for free so that's nice too. Kaelyn has a lot of fun there but I do worry that she picks up illnesses from all the other kids. Last time I went, she threw up in the afternoon when we got home and two days later, I had the flu. So when we go again I'm going to try to be diligent about washing her hands often to try to fight that off. I know we'll keep going because it's a fun thing to do! I just don't want it to be un-fun later!! Right now they have a big area upstairs at the museum of outdoor play equipment. That's really nice because we can't really play outside much these days so it's nice to go somewhere and at least pretend!

Thanksgiving was very nice. We went to Lincoln and spent a few days at Sean's parents house. Kaelyn got used to their house and enjoyed the rocking horse they had in the basement. She also liked watching people play pool and pushing on a musical angel that was part of a plastic nativity scene. We spent Thanksgiving at Sean's aunt and uncle's house and I drove Kaelyn around in the car for her nap. That worked out fine and I didn't even get too lost! We came home at bedtime only to find we had no heat so that was a bummer. It was a long, cold night, but we survived. We got it fixed the next day and then headed to my parents house for the weekend. More turkey and eating, of course.

Just recently, within the last week or so, Kaelyn has started a new thing. I'm calling them fits.
They're really NO run at all and sometimes I don't even know why they start. She doesn't talk yet (though she does say "I do" and "bwah-ah") so I know she gets frustrated when she's trying to tell me something and I don't get it. And I know NO kid likes it when they don't get their way. But sometimes she just throws a fit for seemingly no reason. At least no reason that I can tell. And they're AWFUL. She will reach for my finger like she wants to take me somewhere and then push me away. I'll give her food or something to see if she's hungry. She throws it. I give her a toy to try to distract her. She pushes it away. Finally, I give up and set her on the couch and tell her to calm down and just let her cry for awhile. I'll sit across the room and read or email or whatever. Eventually she'll hop off the couch and come get me and play like nothing happened. This usually goes on for an hour or so. I'm at a loss. I guess there's not much else I can do but just let it run its course. Like I said, it seems like most of the time I don't even know what starts it. She just needs to cry, I guess. And it's full force screaming with sobs and real tears included. The other day, this one is a little funny looking back, she wanted to go to the basement. It was cold and dark so as we started down the stairs I flipped the light on. Apparently I wasn't supposed to turn the light on because she threw a HUGE fit. I turned it back off and she was fine. But it was dark and dangerous and I didn't want her going down the stairs without being able to see so I really felt like I needed to have it on. I turned it back on and the fit began full force for a whole hour. Um, Kaelyn, there are much bigger things to throw fits about than whether or not the light is on, girl! At least make it worth your while, sheesh!! So far, other than a short incident after church this week, she only does it at home. I'm sure one of these days I'll be that mom in the grocery store everyone is staring at. But right now, she's ALWAYS good when we're out places so we continue to be out as much as possible! :)

We seem to have come up with a new game. It's called chase Kaelyn around the circle in our house. It started with the bouncing Tiger and has moved on to include the hammer that makes noise and lights up. In the last few days, I think we've spent nearly every waking moment while we're home playing this game. It's funny, if we're home and NOT playing it, Kaelyn will grab the hammer or Tiger, hand it to me, and then push me away like, okay, go mama, go hide, then I'll find you and you can get me! It consists of me running around the circle and ducking in somewhere to hide. Kaelyn will catch me, I'll just out at her and she'll just SCREAM and SCREAM. Happy screams this time! Last night, she seemed to like it best if she SAW where I hid. Then she'd sneak up and I'd peek out of my hiding spot several times. This would start the giggling. Then when I'd finally attack with Tiger the scream of delight was SO loud I think I lost a little hearing after playing it for so many hours. We'd take a break here and there but inevitably KAelyn would get one of those toys, grab my finger, stand me up, hand me the toy, and give me a push off to start the game. She was having a blast. At least I know we were both getting our exercise!

Our interior of the house is painted with a bad, flat paint so I've gathered some paint samples and we've chosen some colors. Yesterday for our outing Kaelyn and I bought the paint for her bathroom. DId you know there is such a color as Rubber Duckie Yellow? Well, that bathroom is decorated in ducks so we HAD to have it! I did the first paint round yesterday while she napped. I have to admit, I'm not a good painter and I was rushing. So it will definitely need a second coat. But it's a nice bright color and it really brings out the ducks in the room! :)

I think our Christmas plans are in place now. I can't believe it's almost here already. I'll have to write after the holidays again so I remember some of the things about Christmas this year. Christmas last year is very hazy so I'm glad I wrote about it and we took lots of pictures. For now, Kaelyn seems to be sleeping in so I better get some writing for pay done! :)

2010 Christmas Picture

We took our Christmas picture for our cards last weekend. Though Kaelyn isn't looking, it turned out pretty cute. With a wiggly kid, it's the best you can do to have them somewhat smile in the same vicinity as you while snapping a shot!

18 mo and Halloween

October 24th was Kaelyn's 18 month birthday. Earlier in the week we went to the pediatrician for her shots and check up. She's getting more and more opposed to those trips! She weighed in at 26 pounds which was 75%. She was 32 inches tall at 52% and her head was at 90%. Plenty of room for brains cause she's very smart. Just ask her! :) She has to go back in a month for a second flu shot. After that I THINK she's done with shots till kindegarten. That will be nice. Though she opposes EVERYTHING the pediatrician has to do, the shots are definitely the worst. I don't think they ever really did get a look in her nose and ears. They tried, but I'm pretty sure nothing came of it!

October has been a rough month for colds. I swear Kaelyn just gets over one and a few days later her nose is running again. She's had four colds from the beginning of October till now. I'm not sure what to do to help her get over them for good. She used to get sick so rarely. It doesn't make the days more fun when she's stuffy and more grumpy. She wants to be her
normal self but just doesn't feel quite right. That and all four of her pointy teeth came through AND one upper molar. There have been some rough moments! But overall, she's still a great, fun kid.

This was Kaelyn's second Halloween. It was much more fun than last year. Last year she was a lady bug and though she didn't mind the costume she just didn't care about anything at all. This year, Kaelyn HAD to be a duck. Sean suggested it because Kaelyn sleeps with two rubber ducks and takes them with her everywhere we go. I was like, of COURSE, that's a PERFECT idea! So we found a costume at Nobbies and that was that! She, once again, didn't mind the costume. Had she known she was a duck she probably would have loved it. When we put it on her to take these pictures a week before HAlloween she ran right out back to her slide and went to play. It was a little hard to get her in and out of the swing, but she managed!

The day before Halloween we were at my parents for my grandpa's 95th birthday celebration. And yes, we DID put 95 candles on the cake! No fires, just a lot of smoke. And it took him and two kids SEVERAL blows...okay, like a dozen, to get all of the candles out. Anyways, trick or treat night was the night before Halloween in my parents neighborhood so we went to a few houses. Those houses knew they wouldn't get many kids (and my parents didn't get any!) so each was rather generous with their candy.

Then on Halloween we came home and our friends from church came over with their little girl (who was a giraffe) and their new baby (who was peas in a pod, way cute!) and we had supper with them. Sean's parents came by too because they wanted to see Kaelyn as a duck in person. We walked around the neighborhood after supper and had much better luck than last year. One of our two neighbors was home (the other brought Kaelyn a candy bag earlier in the day, handy!) and some people down the street from church were home this year too. We went to more houses between this year since the kids were a LITTLE older and it wasn't like we were just getting candy for ourselves. Though I have to admit, Kaelyn has yet to try any and I've had several. Nice of her to share. Not that she knows she's sharing! :) But she DID share at one house. Instead of taking from the bowl the people offered, she gave THEM a chocolate bar. She doesn't quite get the concept yet! I'm sure she'll catch on! It was a little chilly but not too bad. We took the stroller in hopes of not having to carry Kaelyn and she did pretty well until we started to head back home. Then she HAD to have mama carry her. Mama and ONLY Mama. Anyone else that dared got majorly screamed at and I couldn't bare that. It was dark, she was tired, she was scared, it was a weird thing we were doing, totally new. So I carried her. And she cuddled right in and gave me a good work out up that HUGE hill leading back to our house. I arrived majorly out of breath and sweaty but we made it! I deserve the candy of hers I ate! And will eat! :)

Maybe next year Kaelyn can tell us what she wants to be. She'll enjoy the day more and more as the years go by, I'm sure. She made an adorable ladybug last year and a cute duck this year. No telling what the years to come will bring!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday Kaelyn and I joined our friends Andrea and Logan at Vala's Pumpkin Patch. Andrea got a season pass to Vala's and she was able to put THREE adult names on her pass. She put herself, her husband, and ME! That was so super nice of her. So whenever I go WITH her, we can get in free! Since Vala's is an expensive place and with a little kid you don't want to stay there ALL day, we've only been there twice this season. The first time was for KGBI night when we got in free due to work. Yesterday with our friends was the second time. Kaelyn enjoyed KGBI night but yesterday was WAY more fun. It was morning/early afternoon so she was fresh and we had friends to give us the tour. I didn't have to keep an eye on the map to figure out where to go!

Kaelyn loved this windmill! The first time we went up we took this picture. We went by it again later and she decided running up and down the two ramps that led to the windmill was a blast so she did that over. And over. And OVER again.
Hey, whatever works!

We visited Bunnyville, which is adorable. A bunch of bunnies running around. And they have a whole cute little town. Houses and buildings. They have quite the life! One bunny got loose and was running around on the path for the people. But he eventually jumped back in. The railing is pretty low so I can see how they could easily get out if they REALLY wanted to. Kaelyn kept putting one leg up on the railing like she was going to climb over. She never did, but she sure thought about it! She seemed to want to! She giggled at those bunnies! We got to ride this free tractor ride too. It was really bumpy but Kaelyn
loved it. She sat across from me for most of the ride and then on my lap for the last few minutes. She seemed to like the fake pigs on the ride the best. We drove by all sorts of things but she wouldn't tear her eyes from those fake pigs as they went by!

This big rocking chair is another thing both kids enjoyed at Vala's. Kaelyn liked it when I put her in it and she would slide to the back. IT kind of worked like a mini-slide. It was a little hard for her to crawl back to the edge, but she managed. Several times! Luckily, the chair doesn't really rock!

We found a play area with several slides towards the beginning of our trip. Both kids went down several times and liked watching other kids play too. There was one that was a decent size so I was able to help Kaelyn climb the slide. She prefers to climb them and then slide down. Rather than climb steps in the back or something. Easier for
her. Not so much for me! :) It's hard when we go to another playground where the slides are too tall and I just CAN'T help her climb them. We actually HAVE to go to the stairs! Like the huge playground in our town. That equipment is giant, there's no WAY I could help her climb it. She actually has to go up the stairs. And, that stuff is SO big, I won't even let her slide down alone. So I get to climb the stairs too and slide down with her! Last time I was quite sweaty when we finished!

There was a little school house just Kaelyn's size that she loved going in and out. She'd go in, look out the window at me, then turn around and run back out. There were cute desks in there she probably would have enjoyed sitting at, but she was too busy running in and out of the house! This was near the pumpkin eating dragon show. We tried to watch the show, but no one was singing so Kaelyn wasn't interested. She wandered and found this school house instead. Whatever keeps her happy and entertained!

I was calling Kaelyn pigpen towards the end of our trip because she was one big dustball. She was SO dusty and dirty it seemed like everytime she took a step she let off a puff of dust! At first I Tried to keep dusting off her pants, but eventually I gave up! We were on a farm, what did I expect!

Towards the train there was a big pit of corn. Last time we went I put Kaelyn in the corn and she immediately tried to eat it so I had to take her out. This time, she really enjoyed picking it up and dropping it and even sludging through it. I had to go in with her the first time but after that, she went in and out several times on her own. The only problem this time with the corn was that when we got HOME, I found several hard little kernels in EACH of her shoes! Poor thing was walking around for hours in that! I guess it must not have bothered her to much or she would have complained at some point!

There was an old tractor near a pit of sand that Kaelyn liked to sit on. She likes to pretend to steer things. It was pretty big for her, but she made it work! The tractor was next to a big sand pit that had little wooden landings. She liked climbing on the landings, walking around them, sitting on them. Oh, and there were stairs up to a big slide nearby too. She liked the stairs, but we never made it down the slide.

We had some free train passes so we rode the train too. Kaelyn started eating her lunch in line and happily ate her puffcorn popcorn while we rode the train. It was a nice ride and we didn't have to wait in line long so it was worth it.

And, to top it all off, we were able to get another mega bag of kettle corn on the way out! The pumpkin patch is about 45 minutes from our house so we stayed till 1. I figured Kaelyn would take her nap on the way home. Well, Vala's is about a mile from the highway, and KAelyn was asleep BEFORE we reached the highway! I guess she was worn out! We're hoping to go a time or two again before the season ends. We sure had nice weather for it and it was a totally different thing to do. Dusty, yes, but loads of fun!

New Cousin

Kaelyn has a new cousin! Sean's brother Joe and his wife Dacia had a little girl yesterday. It was a C-section and she was about 6 weeks early, but all seemed to go well. They named her Isla Marie (said Eye-Lah)...I'm not sure on the spelling yet. We can't wait to meet her. She's only 5lbs something so she's little but mighty! More details later when I get them! We hope to go meet her next weekend.

In other news, I found an adorable duck costume for Kaelyn today to wear for Halloween. Not that she's really into trick or treating yet. I know it's more for the photo op. But she sleeps with her rubber ducky and takes him everywhere so it only seems fitting!

I just heard from Sean today that he IS being sent to Las Vegas in January on business so I'm excited. I plan to go with him for a few days to see some shows. I said I'd only want to be away from Kaelyn for TWO nights so we'll be flying separately. My first time EVER flying alone. Could be interesting! I'm looking forward to it and I know Kaelyn will do fine. I just hope she remembers me! :) I have awhile to imprint myself on her mind.

We just got back from being at my parents for quite a few days so I'm attempting to play catch up during nap time. Better get back to it!

Long Camping Weekend

We've been camping lately! Two weekends in a row, actually! Nebraska City had their annual Apple Jack festival last weekend and it sounded like all the camping spots were full but they had some cancellations and we got in so off we went! The festival had some craft booths and special events all weekend long. We went to a pumpkin farm as well as a couple of apple orchards and an outlet mall, the downtown area, all sorts of places around the city. The campgrounds has a little playground and Kaelyn LOVED the slide. She giggled everytime she went down it. But we didn't spend TOO much time there, we were busy seeing everything else. Sean's parents came for a few hours Sunday to go to an apple orchard with us too. It was a fun camping weekend. Though Kaelyn had a little cold and she wasn't the best camper-sleeper that time. I was worried that she no longer liked her camper tent bed! She took a long time to go to sleep at night AND during her nap. But she had a cold so I was hoping that was it. She acted pretty normal during the day, at least, and seemed to enjoy our outings.

Then, this last weekend, Sean took Friday and Monday off and we took a long weekend trip to Mahoney State Park. We left Thursday when Sean got home from work. It was pouring rain so camping wasn't the greatest idea, but what do you do. Kaelyn and I hung out in the lodge while Sean got the camper set up. She found this "puppy" to pet. Okay, so it was really a wolf. And it was stone, but she loved it! I was relieved when Kaelyn went RIGHT to sleep that night. Very easily. And we didn't hear much from her all night. The weekend before must have been cold-related.

On Friday we went to Ashland to stroll their downtown and see some of the shops. We went in an antique shop and a pharmacy (that I think only had two shelves of medications and the rest was toys and cards and other items!) Then we found a really neat art gallery. It had a waterfall display and a bridge that Kaelyn LOVED running up and down which gave Sean actual time to look around. The art was really nice, a local guy to that area. We realized we actually have one of the prints! Sean's parents gave it to us for one of our anniversaries. And we recognized several other prints as ones that Sean's parents have in their house. We were in there a long time so after that it was lunchtime and we headed back to the camper to grill hot dogs. After we ate Kaelyn played at the small closeby park for a little while before her nap. Which she took easily and quietly which I again was thrilled by!! Sean had to go to the lodge to do some work and use their internet so I napped and read. My favorite things. :) When Kaelyn got up we went to the big park and played there. She had a great time. She even tried some of the merry-go-rounds. Some bigger slides. Plenty of steps. We did it all. We grilled hamburgers that night at the camper, played at the smaller park again, and off to bed Kaelyn went. Sean and I watched Sherlock Holmes which I thought was boring. I intentionally fell asleep to get away from it. Sean watched it and thought it was slow but he wanted to see what would happen.

It started to rain Saturday at midnight and didn't stop for quite some time. We came up with some indoor plans for the rainy day. After we got ready we headed to the Strategic Air and Space Museum. Kaelyn LOVES watching planes fly over so I thought she MIGHT like seeing them upclose. Or at least like running around the big open spaces in the building. But unfortunately, she wasn't really interested in either. She seemed tired, though I THOUGHT she slept pretty well. She kept wanting me to carry her. She didn't want to run around much. But she did find a kid sized plane and she enjoyed climbing around on that quite a bit. The rest, should could probably didn't much care. Oh well, we were dry! :) We ate lunch at the museum and it was only slightly misting out so we played a little while in the closeby smaller park before she napped. And she really WAS tired because she slept almost 2 hours. After she got up we went to the huge indoor play center they have on the park grounds. It was really busy so at first I wasn't optimistic that it would be much fun. Okay, so I'm a little overprotective and there were a lot of bigger really wild kids running around with no thought to little babies playing nearby that get knocked around easily! But once I found a few spots that had less kids and Kaelyn got into the playing, it was a blast. She enjoyed climbing this foam rainbow ladder thing and on the other side of it was a big purple ramp which she climbed up and ran down, sometimes falling and giggling. There was also this huge yellow triangle foam thing (my descriptions aren't great here, huh!) I would put her on top of the triangle, she would throw her duck down and then slide down after it. I would then have to climb the triangle and slide down after her because I'd have to be on her side to set her back up so she could do it all over again. Why she couldn't just slide down the side I was on was beyond me. But, actually, her favorite part of that whole game was watching ME slide down, I think. That always got a good squeal. At that point I was more worn out than her, I think. We left there at supper time to eat at the lodge. We didn't want to grill out in the rainy weather. I got the buffet which was really good. And boy did I load up! Prime rib, pork chop, red potatoes, several desserts. And then some! But in my defense, I shared a few things with Kaelyn! Sean got some buffalo steak. Kaelyn had had SO much fun in the indoor play center we went back after supper. There were less kids so it was even more fun. She got into the ball pit a bit more. We'd tried it before supper and she didn't care THAT much. She just kept climbing in and out of it. But after supper, with less kids around, we could throw her around in it more and she had it mostly to herself. I was pretty sure she would be worn out and sleep well and boy did she! She slept until almost 9am the next morning! A new record I think. And went to sleep without complaint. Sean and I watched the Hurt Locker, which I found really interesting. I was really tired but I managed to stay awake so that just shows that it was intriguing enough to me to want to stay awake and watch the whole thing.

Sunday we drove through the wildlife safari that has connections to the Omaha zoo. As a zoo member we got a dollar discount on getting in. Big whoop. But at least it was something. The safari was pretty neat, but, no offense to Kaelyn, it would have been a lot more fun without her. It was like a 7 mile drive and there's one place to get out and hike about halfway through. But you drive through really slow so the 7 miles takes probably an hour to drive. Kaelyn liked the elk that were right inside the gate and after that she was ready to get out of the car. And when we went on the hike we just walked to the real close things. Sean and I would have liked to talk the whole trail but with the stroller and gear and with lunchtime looming, it wasn't possible. Maybe some other time. We saw elk and bison and bears and owls and weird birds. We saw where the wolves were supposed to be but we never saw any. We went back to the camper and grilled some hot dogs again. The little park called us to play for a little bit and then Kaelyn napped. Sean and I played Scrabble which we agree that neither of us are good at. Though, I feel like I SHOULD be good at it because I LOVE to read and words are my thing. But I'm just not good at identifying words in a scramble much less thinking up words from fragments. I don't know, no excuse I guess! Sean pretty much always beats me the few times we've played. But at least I got some reading in while we played when it was his turn! After Kaelyn got up we went mini-golfing. I wasn't optimistic about this venture because Kaelyn LOVES golf balls so I was pretty sure it would be a fight. She would always be stealing our balls, etc! I got an extra one for her to play with and that helped. Sometimes Sean and I shared one ball and she played with two. Along with her duck, of course. She had her hands full! But she did pretty well and had a decent time. Except when she tripped and fell and scraped her nose which panicked me a bit because she had a bloody nose! I didn't know where it was coming from at first but then we saw the scrap. It was just an external thing and no big deal. But no mama likes seeing her baby bleed for any reason! And I HEARD her hit, it was a hard hit. Her cheek is still extra pink on that side the poor thing. What do you do! Mini golf didn't take all that long so we went to the bigger outdoor park after that and worked it over good. Kaelyn finally discovered crawling through some of the tunnels so that was something different for her. I took way more video than pictures on this trip. When I looked through it all to put pictures on here I only found the few above but I have lots of video! We grilled burgers at the camper that night and played a little longer at the smaller close park. Sean's parents stopped by on their way through for 20 minutes right before bed time. They brought popcorn for a bedtime snack, I guess!

Monday we tried to go to Ashland again to look at more stores since we only got through 3 stores on our first trip. But it was Monday, after all, and all the stores were closed. I guess Monday is their weekend. So we went back to the campground and went to the tower. Kaelyn climbed almost all the stairs on that lookout tower! We checked out the craft building (which she will LOVE in the future) and wondered where the tobogan run will be in the winter. Then we played at the bigger park where there was a film crew doing something there. It looked like some kind of boy scout video or something. There was a man talking in an australian accent, I never could hear what he said, and a young boy searching the ground behind him with a microscope. We played there for an hour or so then moved to the smaller park near our camper. More hot dogs for lunch (it'll be awhile before we want another!) and we played in the camper a short time before packing it in for the weekend. I had my car there separately from the camper so I drove Kaelyn home during her nap. We sure are sad to see the weekend go, it was a great time. Kaelyn had a blast and a half and she slept really well and was a great kid all weekend long.

I like camping. Can we go again next weekend? Oh wait, we're busy next weekend. And the weekend after that. But the one after THAT.... you never know!

Weekend and Mops

Kaelyn had a way fun weekend. Saturday there was a harvest festival going on in Plattsmouth so we checked that out in the morning. There wasn't much going on yet but we walked through a garage sale in one of the stores and a book sale as well. We also went through the quilt and flower show at the church. Kaelyn wasn't impressed by that, but Sean was! :)

After nap time we went to a co-workers of Sean's for a work party. They live on a beach at a lake. You walk down their deck stairs and you're on the beach! I think that would be a great place
to go for a weekend but I would NOT want to live there. Their house must be full of sand ALL the time! They used to even have a dog, which had to make it all that much worse! It was a nice house, though, and Kaelyn LOVED the beach. She was a little leary at first with all the people she didn't know but once Sean got her into the water, she had a ball. She had her duck with her (of course) which made for a GREAT water toy since it floated. I also grabbed a big yellow wiffle ball from the car that she could toss. She'd throw it into the water, go in, get it, run up the beach to me, then back to the water to repeat the process. It wasn't long
before she sat in the water and from then on she was completely soaked. Oh well, what do you expect! It WAS a beach, afterall! The water was pretty cold, though! She didn't care. After we ate we went for a golf cart ride around the lake. Kaelyn giggled at that when we first took off. Then sat comfortably for the rest of the ride. What a big day for her! Her first beach party! She'd been to one other beach but she didn't like that experience. She's bigger now and more into water games, I guess.

Today was our first Mops meeting, as I mentioned before. The bigger kids were in the basement so Kaelyn and I hung out with them for a few minutes before the meeting. She just watched from my lap. The real little kids went upstairs to the nursery. There were only three others besides Kaelyn. There was an older lady in there as well as a high school aged girl. I took Kaelyn in hoping for the best. I set her down and she got pretty interested in the see n say toy the lady was playing with and she went right over. She didn't seem to care that I was there so I left! I
enjoyed 10 minutes of the meeting alone and then went back to peek in the window and check on her. She was just SOBBING. The older lady was holding her and she was just SOBBING. I felt awful! So I went in and got her at which point she uttered her full force "you're killing me" scream! :) Has to ramp it up when she sees mama, you know. So I know what I put her through! :) I took her back to the meeting with me. I brought our church bag of toys in anyways so we played on the floor. I heard MOST of the speaker and got to participate in the meeting somewhat. I just didn't want the poor lady in the nursery to have to hold Kaelyn the whole time when there were other kids that needed attention. And I can't stand to see my baby upset. I know someday (preschool!) I'll have to walk away and let her be upset if she's upset. But that day hasn't come yet and when she's sobbing for me, I go to her!

But we survived the mops meeting and even enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm sad we can't go next month because we'll be out of town. At least I know when November rolls around it IS possible to enjoy the meeting AND entertain Kaelyn! We'll REALLY want things to do once that time of year rolls around!

Trains Planes Etc

This picture is from my parents house. That's me mom's cat in the background. Kaelyn likes the cats a lot more than her face shows in this picture! :) She pets my moms cats a lot more than ours. But she does like to help me brush Ollie on occasion. She generally prefers to step on him, which he does not appreciate.

We have some train tracks near our neighborhood entrance. You can hear the trains honk at our house. No matter what we're doing, whenever a train honks, Kaelyn throws one of her arms up in the air and looks at me. I then have to say "TRAIN!!!" in a very excited manner. She also does this trick when holding thing. A toy, a food, whatever. If she throws it up in the air in her hand like that I have to tell her what it is. This gets giggles, so of course I do it! :)

Kaelyn also has a fascination with planes. We must live on the track from the air force base because planes often fly over. Though they're high enough up we can't always see them. But we hear them and that's enough! Anytime we hear a plane, Kaelyn waves her little hand off. Do you think she thinks the pilot and passengers etc can see her? And are waving back? Perhaps!

All of these are cute little nuances that make me love her all the more.

Today is our first mops meeting of the year (mothers of pre-schoolers). I was hoping to TRY putting Kaelyn in with the free childcare but after she screamed bloody murder when I tried to leave the room to go to the bathroom over the weekend I'm now thinking that probably is not going to be possible. I arranged for the first speaker so I really want to be there. I'm taking in the bag of church toys (quiet things we can play with!) and I'm hoping for the best. I guess we'll see how this meeting goes before I can say how anxious I will be to go to the meetings yet to come! If only there were a train track nearby that building...or at least a plane flying over!!

Get Er Done at the Zoo

Let me remind you that Kaelyn doesn't appreciate having her hair done. It's so long now, though, that to keep it out of her eyes and off her pretty face I HAVE to do something to it. Normally that's one little ponytail in the middle of her head. Sean kept wanting me to do two and I would give him a look like...YOU do two! I'm lucky to get ONE in! :) However, over the weekend when he was home he watched me do her hair in the bath tub and the miracle of the event was that when he was watching, she didn't mind! So the next day I attempted two...WITH him watching. She didn't mind so much AND it was really cute! Today, though, we're back to one! :)

Sean went with us to the zoo over the weekend. His second full fledged trip of the year. Our 34th, if my tally is correct. It might be more than that. He went once on Kaelyn's birthday and has met us for lunch over there a few times. It's fun to take "new" people to the zoo because I get to see things like they're new through them. And Kaelyn has someone different to show around and show off for! She enjoyed petting the polar bear as he swam by on one of our four trips last week. When we don't have anything to do, we go to the zoo. And I guess we didn't have much to do last week!

Speaking of the zoo...we didn't have anything going on today so we went. Kaelyn was running through the aquarium and got to the end of the tunnel with all the fish. At the end there were a bunch of bright lights and cameras and I thought, huh, they must be doing a news cast or something weird like that. Kaelyn ran RIGHT for it so I followed. Then out of the lights comes Larry the Cable Guy! A lady was talking to him telling him how much she loves his movies etc. It looked like they had just got done filming whatever they were filming. Kaelyn was definitely on a mission to walk into the light or something, she was headed right for the action, surprisingly. A zoo security guy took a step forward like he was going to guard the big star from the little 16 month old! :) I caught her in time and Larry the cable guy and his fan headed down the tunnel the way we had come. Along with the crew who began turning off their lights. I wish we'd been a few minutes earlier so we could have seen what was going on! If you ever see Larry the Cable guy in anything that involves the zoo, let me know! We were ALMOST in that! :)

That was our big adventure of the day. Kaelyn is napping now and after that, I think a walmart run is in store. Right now burgers are calling to be patted out so I must answer their yell. That's weird, I know.

Molars Stink

I'm not a fan of molars. Sure, they help you chew wonderful food and all but they are just SUCH a pain for a kid! Literally. And I have to say, they've been a pain for me too!

Kaelyn started getting her molars almost a week ago. It was a Saturday and the screaming began at 12:15pm. Of course, 15 minutes AFTER my husband left for a work golf outing, not to return until evening. She very obviously didn't know what she wanted. She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't play nicely. She wouldn't do anything but yell at me, apparently. She'd often come running over to me with her arms up sobbing like pick me up pick me up! So I'd try to pick her up and she'd push me away. Okay... I wanted to help, I really did! But what can you do?! So that day pretty much stank. That was the worst day, but most of the following week she barely ate. Which meant she was cranky. She got bored really easily and yelled at me often for no apparent reason. I could tell her gums were swollen and you could see something (a tooth) pushing up through them but they didn't break through until late in the week. I think the right one is finally most of the way through. One day I could see two of the little prongs and the skin around it looked red and almost a little bloody, the poor thing. No wonder she's out of sorts! I still don't appreciate being yelled at, though. I'm just trying to help! :)

Yesterday we were supposed to meet a friend at the zoo at 9:30. And we DID make it, but just barely. Kaelyn woke up at 8 and proceeded to scream at me until 8:45. She wouldn't eat she wouldn't get down and play she wouldn't do anything but yell. Occasionally cuddle into me and let me rock her, but mostly just scream. Once I finally got a little yogurt on her lips she licked it off and realized that might taste good so she ate the whole container and must have felt better because she had a good time in her (short!) bath and then was really good at the zoo. When we got home she slept for over THREE hours which is unheard of for her! I even went into her room after three hours and put away clothes from the laundry and she didn't stir at all. I never do that because I don't want to wake her but I figured, it'd been THREE hours so if she wakes up oh well! She didn't! And she still went to bed that night at 8 like normal.

Today was much better. Kaelyn ate pretty continuously so I'm hoping she's back on track now. She didn't yell at me much at all without reason so that was nice! She still slept over 2 hours so that was VERY nice. But mostly we just had fun and enjoyed each others company. So I'm hoping that these first two molars were the hard, practice molars and the rest will slide in easily. Because I'm not real sure I want to sign up for another week like this one has been! Can't the rest of them come in overnight unnoticed? Please?

The zoo train

Kaelyn and I have been to the zoo approximately 30 times since the end of March. I've been trying to keep track so I know how much we really used our membership. The answer is...tons! We went today with a friend and her son and we decided towards the end of our visit to ride the train. I had a free pass that I received for visiting the zoo on member's day earlier in August so I was wanting to ride it sometime anyway.

Kaelyn had never been on the train and I was too chicken to try it alone. I figured, at least if she doesn't like it and screams the whole time, if I go with someone I know, ONE person will understand! :) I won't be totally alone in my endeavor! So we gave it a shot! While waiting at the train depot, Kaelyn was a little freaked by the train whistle but as soon as I picked her up she started waving to the train. So that was a good sign.

Once we were on the train we sat for probably a good ten minutes. She was restless for that and kept climbing on and off the bench. At the time it was no big deal but it made me worry about how she'd sit still during the ride! Once the train took off I pulled her up into my lap and there she sat! She wasn't exactly giggling with joy but she didn't scream either, so I was happy! I think she kind of liked the wind in her hair. She just cuddled up on my lap and watched the zoo go by! I deem the first train ride at the zoo a success!

However, I wasn't able to get Kaelyn to eat any lunch and I think she has a tiny fever. I see a few little crevices in her mouth on BOTH sides so I'm thinking...MOLARS! I've heard kids can get little fevers and don't always want to eat when their teeth are coming in. She was really tired on the train. That's probably why she was so cuddly and didn't care if she was on it or not! It was really hard to make it home without her falling asleep but I sang and sang real loud so we made it. I tried to get her to eat again without any luck. She was practically falling asleep in the high chair, even. VERY unlike her. So I gave up and let her go to bed for her nap about 45 minutes earlier than normal. I'm now hoping for a longer nap so we don't throw the rest of our day off! Time will tell!

Kaelyn and the wasp

I've started doing Kaelyn's hair up in a ponytail on a regular basis. It's just getting so long it's in her eyes all the time. So it's good to get it out of her face, that way I can see her pretty eyes! She does NOT appreciate having it done, but I do it while she's in the bath tub playing and holding SEMI still! I work fast so she doesn't yell at me for too long!

We were at my parents over the weekend. Sean's brother closed on a house so we went to help him paint etc. Well, SEAN helped, I should say. Kaelyn and I watched one morning for a few hours! :) We were playing on the slide in my parents backyard Sunday morning, she was sitting at the top, and she turned around and picked something up. I glanced down at her hand and saw that she had picked up a WASP! It must have been crawling around next to her. She probably was going to taste it because she's FINALLY into putting more things into her mouth. I freaked and practically threw Kaelyn down the slide trying to get her away from the wasp. That sudden motion DID make her drop it. She was like, what's the deal mama?! The wasp looked like it was injured or something, probably why it was crawling around next to her slow enough for her to pick it up in the first place! So I rolled over it with her toy truck to put it out of its misery. Thank goodness she didn't get stung! IT all ended well. Except for for the wasp, I guess!

Over the weekend my mom went out to mow and she had her hair back and a hat on and sunglasses on. Three things Kaelyn had NEVER seen before. Kaelyn was running around the house and my mom picked her up and kissed her and she FREAKED out. She must have thought it was a stranger. She came running to me like someone bite her and cried and cried. She was really scared. Poor thing. Poor nana, too, she felt bad for scaring her! The good news is, though, Kaelyn didn't yell at her uncle Paul at all when she saw him, yeah! She was still real shy when he was around and stuck to me like glue, but she didn't scream at all! And she did really well around her other uncles (Sean's brothers) and grandparents too. She played happily with me and let them talk to her on occasion. Gee, that was nice of her! :)

We have a pretty full week. A Mops playdate today and planning meeting tomorrow. Friday we hope to make our weekly zoo visit with a friend and Friday night I might even get to go to a movie with that friend (minus our kids!) First movie I will have seen in over 2 years, probably! Sean and I saw 4 Christmases whatever December it was that that one came out and that's the last one I've seen in theaters. I keep up with my netflix, but never get out to see one on the BIG screen. So it'll be a treat!

Eating and Naps

Kaelyn reached a big milestone the other day...she grabbed the spoon and started spooning! Sometimes she helped me with the spoon but she never showed any interest in doing it herself. She feeds herself finger foods so I wasn't too worried about it. Plus I knew her feeding herself yogurt and baby food with a spoon would be a REAL mess so I didn't push it! But a couple of days ago she wouldn't let me help. So be it! Spoon away, baby, spoon away! She's doing pretty well with it, really, though it takes a LONG time to eat as she doesn't get much on the spoon each time. Oh well, I'm usually in no hurry!

Perhaps her new adventures in spooning are the reason her naps are not going well. At least the last two days. Everything was normal on Sunday but then Monday I put her in her bed for her nap and she screamed bloody murder. Usually she'll yell for like 10 seconds and go to sleep. This time she yelled and yelled and yelled. Not her normal, I'm tired, I need to go to sleep yell, but a full force scream. I let her go at it for awhile but she wasn't wearing out so I went back in. I'm pretty sure she was having some juicy toots (due to what I found in the diaper) and perhaps that was painful or something, I don't know. She was VERY upset. But the second I picked her up she calmed down. She sobbed for awhile but fell RIGHT asleep. Back to our old ways of sleeping in the chair! I figured it was a one time deal. However, today, the same thing happened...only this time no gas. I'm hoping she isn't thinking, well, I got away with it one day, I may as well do it EVERY day! When she's crying THAT hard I can't just leave her. It's not a simmer down into nap cry. It's a SCREAM. It's so loud I heard it in the basement...with her door shut...and the basement door shut...NO monitor. When she's sitting up in bed I can pretty much say that she isn't going to sleep. If she's laying down and crying she'll go to sleep at some point but she hasn't been doing that. Just sitting in there screaming her head off. She gets all hot and sweaty and it's just pitiful. I'm hoping it's a phase...a short phase, and will wear off soon. She HAS been extra clingy lately around strangers. Not that she's ever been friendly with people she doesn't know! But the last week and a half or so whenever someone she doesn't know approaches or talks to her or looks at her she not only clings to me but also buries her face in my shoulder or turns her head away from them. So hopefully this nap thing goes along with that. Though the napping thing has only been 2 days (so far) and the clingy-ness has been longer. Who knows. I'm just trying to figure out the unfigure-able! I should have learned that by now!

I have a great video of Kaelyn playing on our bed. Sometimes she free falls backwards onto it so one day I did the free fall backwards and she laughed so hard I thought she was going to break a rib. So I did it again. And again. And again. For like 20 minutes. She was giggling full force. A big ole belly laugh! Other funny things lately (to her!)...it was raining today...ALL day. When we got home from our errands we stood in the garage and I stuck her hand out into the rain and pulled it back in. Big laughs. Yesterday she was pointing to a banana in a book and I was saying banana in kind of a silly way. Huge giggles. Sometimes it's the simple things that set her off. But I tell you, when those giggles come, I would do whatever it is that's making her laugh ALL day because it's the best sound in the world. WAY better than the screaming at naptime lately, that's for sure!!

First Night Away

Well we managed to survive! By we I mean me. Kaelyn was fine and I knew she would be! Saturday, due to MY suggestion, Sean took Kaelyn to my parents house. I was going to follow them Sunday, I had a concert to attend Saturday night for work. They left at 1:15 Saturday afternoon so Kaelyn could nap in the car. I proceeded to go back to bed! :) It WAS naptime, afterall! Then I finished a book I was reading. Finished as in read the last 200 pages of it! Then I finished watching the movie 2012 Sean and I had started the night before. He had finished watching it already but I was busy entertaining Kaelyn and hadn't seen much of the last hour or so. After that I did some laundry, re-arranged KAelyn's toys a bit (she wasn't here to play with them so someone had to!) and other various things around the house. I went to Wendy's for supper and then was GOING to get a haircut but the place I go closes at 5, who knew! I arrived at 5:04. Oh well. It's been 10 months already, I Can wait longer!

I went to the Robin Mark concert and sat at the KGBI table and talked to listeners, introduced the group, and watched some of the concert. I actually stayed up till 10:30 that night, can you believe it?! And sleeping in the house alone was totally awesome. No noise, no cries in the middle of the night, no reason to get up and get going before someone else wakes up (like a baby needing breakfast!) It had to be the best night of sleep in 15+ months. I laid around sleeping on and off until 7am! Then I finally got up, ran, got a massage on my massage bed and slowly got packed up and ready for the day. I can't believe how much I got done in such a short amount of time alone! I left home at 9 so I could be at my parents by lunchtime. I don't know what I expected but I hoped Kaelyn missed me at least a little. When Sean came in with her she reached for me but she wasn't desperate to get to me. IT was like, oh, hi mama, whatever!

I had a GREAT time with time to myself. I was a little nervous to let her go. Not that I had any concerns that she wouldn't do fine, but just because she's my baby and that's what mamas do! On her side, Sean drove her over and they stopped at a park to run around for a bit. I think they just played at my parents house all evening. I hear there was an incident at bedtime...she didn't have her rubber duck...but it was quickly rectified once the duck was found and delivered to her! Other than that, she slept till 7 the next morning and was a perfect guest, from what I hear! So...now that we know this works okay...I may just have to send her and Sean away more often, ha! There was another quirk in her schedule...we'll call it the veggie puff incident! It's actually funny and no big deal. I told my mom and Sean to take her container of veggie puffs from the food bag with them to church because we would be having a late lunch and she'd be hungry before that and that would hold her off. Well, they took a container of veggie puffs and it WAS in A food bag, but I sent two food bags and I guess I meant the OTHER food bag! The food bag that had the SMALL bowl of veggie puffs. They took the LARGE bowl of veggie puffs that had enough to last for DAYS. I had one bowl ready for her and a bigger container with what she would need for the rest of the trip. And can you believe she ate almost ALL of the puffs from that big container? DAYS worth of veggie puffs? I guess she was hungry! :)

I'm pretty sure Kaelyn is officially done with taking two naps in a day. It's been more of an adjustment for me than for her! She hasn't taken two naps in over a week. She only did ONCE all last week. So I've kind of given up on trying. Unless she were to get up REALLY early, then I might. But she's been sleeping till 7 at the earliest. Sometimes 7:30 or even later (on the REALLY good days!) So that makes a morning nap hard anyways. The only problem with the afternoon nap is that if we go somewhere in the morning and then have to drive home she gets REALLY sleepy in the car. It's really hard to keep her awake and the last thing I want is for her to fall asleep because then the minute we get home she'd be up and that would be IT for naps for the day. That's certainly not okay! With me, at least! :) So far I've managed to keep her awake but it's a challenge.

I discovered this weekend that not only can Kaelyn identify things in books like cat, ball, shoes, etc, but she also knows the numbers 1-10! I had no idea! She has a book that you push each number and it says it out loud. She plays with that book in the car a lot. When I rode in the back with her once I said, Kaelyn, which one is the number 7? And she poked the 7. I did this for the remaining 9 numbers and she got them ALL Right with no hesitation. I was impressed. I guess all the book reading and playing is paying off. She may not talk, but she sure understands and is learning plenty!

Since she knows numbers and some other objects I taught her the face over the weekend. She already knew where her nose was so I did chin, cheeks, hair, ears, things like that. She won't do them on herself (except the nose) but she likes pointing MINE out. And that works too. She can see mine easier. Hmm, what can I teach her next...calculus? haha, that'll be the day!!

Since I had such a good time being alone I'm anxious to do it again. That may be weeks or months away, but I look forward to it! We both survived and maybe even enjoyed it! I know I did! And she seemed like she couldn't care less about being away from me...thank you very much!!

Crazy Head Girl

Kaelyn does this thing where she shakes her head from side to side or throws it around in circles. I call it her "crazy head girl" move. Whenever she does it I'll say, there's my crazy head girl! She's done it so much that all I have to say now is, where is crazy head girl? And she'll start doing it. It's just one of her many silly moves!

This picture shows her greatest fascination, her rubber ducky. We have many of them but this is the one that gets chewed on the most. It just happens to be the one we accidentally stole from the children's museum. I don't think we'll be returning it now. The eyes have been chewed off!

We had a success last night at dinner! I gave Kaelyn a bite of hamburger and she ATE it!! She didn't push it away or spit it out, like normal, she ATE it! And then she reached for another bite! So I gave her a second bite and she ate that too! I was in awe. The third bite got pushed away, but two bites is awesome, way more than she's ever been willing to try before!

Another fun incident from last night, and, I might mention, Sean won't appreciate me sharing this story, but oh well! :) Kaelyn has gotten more and more into petting the cat (who Sean doesn't appreciate either!) and she was petting him last night. Sean got home and she grabbed his finger and started dragging. When she wants you to go somewhere or do something she'll grab your finger and take you wherever. When you arrive at the destination she intended and she wants you to do something (like sit down) she'll drag your hand to the place she wants you to sit and let go. She may not talk yet, but she communicates! So anyways, she grabs Sean's finger, drags him across the room and pulls his hand down onto...the cat! She SO wanted him to pet Ollie! :) He didn't. She tried! :)

This weekend is a big test for me, mostly. We're headed back to my parents for Sean to have a couple of golf outings. I, however, have to introduce the group at a concert Saturday night. Rather than all of us wait to go over on Sunday Sean and Kaelyn are going Saturday afternoon and I'll go over on Sunday morning. It was my idea, but now that I think about it more, I don't like it anymore! :) That means I'll be without her all Saturday afternoon and night and Sunday morning. Sounds like a nice break, you think. Well, yes, it probably will be. I may even get to sleep ALL night! And get up WHENEVER I want Sunday morning! But still...my BABY!!! She'll be gone!!! Can I handle it?! I know she'll be in good hands being with Sean and my parents and all, but still!! :) MY crazy head girl!!

Steamy hot

Why is it that kids don't seem to feel the heat? Or at least don't care! It's FELT like over 100 degrees the past few days but I can only keep Kaelyn inside for so long. Usually after her second nap (on the days that there IS a second nap) I take her out to the driveway because by the late afternoon the house shades part of it so we can at LEAST play in partial shade. Yesterday, of course, she wasn't happy with that so she ran all the way around the house and wanted to play on the slide, in the FULL sun. No shade, no breeze, sticky hot. But she (as you can see from the picture) was having a GREAT time!

She also got up earlier yesterday so she had two naps. That was nice because we had a lunch date with some friends and I didn't want her to fall asleep in the car on the way home. It's 7:20 now and she seems to be waking. I guess I'll end by saying I'm glad cooler weather is on the way and hope that it stays, though the forecast says that it will not!

Learning Fast

What a whirlwind weekend we had! A month ago my mother in law asked if I'd help arrange a baby shower for Sean's sister in law. Her baby is due in November and she's no longer traveling so the idea was to word the invitation so that people could just bring gifts to my mother in law and she would deliver them if they wanted, rather than drive 3 hours for the shower. Well, when she shot that idea by her family they didn't like the idea, they WANTED to make a road trip! AND they decided that the very next weekend was the time to do it. Incidentally, that was this past weekend. On such short notice there wasn't really anywhere to have the party but my parents house. My mom had already said if we needed to have it there that would be fine. The shower was a surprise to the mother to be and she WAS surprised! Everything went really well. Sean's family arrived and set up in quite a whirlwind fashion. My only regret is that I did barely ANYTHING! I had a list of things to get like ice and strawberries. But I didn't help set up and I didn't help clean up and I didn't do much between! I guess I provided a house...and the plates! :) It went well and she was surprised and got lots of nice baby things so all goals were met!

We were hoping to go to the balloon festival in Indianola, IA over the weekend too but due to rain one evening we didn't make it. I haven't been for several years so I was disappointed. I think Kaelyn might enjoy it too.

Even though Kaelyn doesn't talk yet, she really seems to understand a lot. When you say, hey, you want to go outside? Go get your shoes! She goes and gets her shoes! In the evening I say, Kaelyn do you want your milk? And you've never SEEN that kid move so fast! She gets up and high tails it into the fridge to get her milk! Over the weekend when we were driving to church my mom was showing her a book with lots of items in it. Shoes, ball, cat, dog, train. She'd say, Kaelyn, where's the ball? And she'd point to the ball. She knew ALL of them (except the apple, she had trouble with that one). I was amazed. I didn't know she could do that! We've looked at that book dozens of times and she often points to things and I tell her what they are but I had no idea she knew what they were if I just said the name! Wow, she's getting smart! I think once she starts talking, she won't stop!! She can take her time!

I think she's getting tired of baby food too. She's getting a little more brave about real food. She ate a few bites of baked potato this weekend and now LOVES wheat bread. Or anything bread-like. I still can't get her to even try fruits or vegetables so I try to get a little baby food in her each meal just so she gets a little of that stuff. She seems to be eating more table food, though. Even if it is just cracker and bread-like things!

This weekend also brought about a rather large change. Kaelyn slept Saturday morning until 8:45!!!! A new record. BLEW AWAY her old one of 7:30! I checked on her once and she was just laying there, happily resting, so I left her until she wanted to get up. That meant no morning nap. She usually goes back to bed 2 1/2 or 3 hours after getting up but that would have been almost noon and that's not a great time for a nap. And that, then, would have meant no afternoon nap most likely. So I let her skip her morning nap and she did pretty well with that. That was amidst the shower and she got real tired at 1:30 when everyone was eating. She had a little snack and got screamy so I put her to bed and she konked right out. I heard her at 2:30 but rather than rush right in I let her be for awhile and she went back to sleep. I was glad. It would have been hard to entertain her AND participate in the shower. She was in bed for 2 hours, that was nice. The next day she slept till 8:20! Another no-two-nap day. We went to church and lunch and then headed home from my parents at 1. She fell asleep pretty much right away and slept the whole 2 1/2 hour drive home. But was TOTALLY ready for bed that night at 8 too. It's Monday now and 7:40. She's still not up but I hear her cry a little every now and then. She does that in her sleep ALL the time. It's majorly annoying when I'M trying to sleep!! But since I'm up it's a little better. It still makes me think she's getting up. I prefer her to wake up happy! Then I know she's really ready to get up. So far this morning, I DID go up to get her once at 7 because she was crying more consistently, but JUST as I got to the door she stopped so I went away. Since then nothing has been consistent so I'm pretty sure she's still sleeping.

We're heading to the zoo today, yeah! We haven't been in a couple of weeks, can you believe it?! My mother in law and my niece (from Sean's side) are coming to go with us. It's supposed to be hot and humid so it may be rather sticky, but what do you do. I'm guessing Kaelyn will have only one nap today too so I hope she does well at the zoo and doesn't fall asleep on the drive home so she can nap for as long as she wants in her own bed! I wonder how many of the zoo animals she knows that I don't realize she recognizes!