Almost 2!

Kaelyn is officially, what they call, a 23-month old! That means she will be 2 in one month! I can't believe it and at the same time I can't believe she's not school aged. It depends on that particular day and how fast it went.

She is fascinated by anything water-related. Drinking fountains, sinks, bath tubs, and even little waterfalls at the zoo as you can see from this picture. She's kind of like my cat. She likes to drink FRESH water any chance she gets. Though I don't see how water from her dirty bath is all that fresh, but whatever! :)

I think we're going to go with Elmo again this year for
her birthday theme. She seems to be a bit obsessed with him, though I still can't figure out what it is that kids like!! Though she's not having a REAL big birthday party. I kind of wanted to get everyone together, family and friends, go to the zoo, whoever could, then have a get together at our house but with everyone's schedule it just doesn't work. I learned my lesson. Next year I'm not going to ask about schedules, I'm just going to plan whatever Kaelyn wants (assuming she cares by then!) and whoever can make it can make it and that's that! This year, we'll go to Sean's parents Friday Saturday before her birthday and have a little celebration there hopefully Friday. Then we'll go to my family's the weekend after for
a party there. We'll be home on her actual birthday (which is also ON Easter this year!) to do our own thing.

Kaelyn and I went to a church garage sale last week in town and there were plenty of kids toys and books available. But ALL she wanted to carry around was this big plastic pumpkin. There was one a little smaller than this with an actual handle, but nooo, she liked the BIG one with NO handle! Well, whatever! It was 10 cents so we got it along with a few books. And boy am I glad we did! She played with that thing ALL day! Carried it around, threw it down slides and stairs, you name it! She knew what she wanted! As you can see
she even slept with it in the car. And yes, it's March, but it's still cold so pumpkins work.

I'm starting to wonder if driving during her nap won't work much longer. I tend to like to take longer trips, like over to my parents, during Kaelyn's nap, but the last two times she's only slept an hour. She's happy when she wakes up and does just find, but she used to sleep the WHOLE way! Maybe she's getting out of that phase. A friend of mine has a son a year older and he stopped sleeping in the car around this age. There are probably too many things to see when riding.

In honor of Kaelyn's upcoming 2nd birthday I made doctor's and dentist appointments for her. Yeah! The doctor will (hopefully) be a simple appointment with a weight check and perhaps some questions. Not much poking and prodding. I still don't expect her to ENJOY it, but it's not a shot session so it will be a BIT better, perhaps. The dentist, I kind of dread. She lets me brush her teeth but she's still skittish around people she doesn't know and settings that are unfamiliar. I will hope for the best, but I pretty much expect the worse!

So watch for updates on the big 2 and doctor and dentist visits, coming to a blog near you!! :)

Chattering

I can't believe Kaelyn is almost two! She is a big Elmo fan and I have yet to figure that out. What IS it about that dude?! He can be rather annoying, but she loves him and he entertains her and therefore I love him too! She pokes him in EVERY book he is in on EVERY page. The book has not been "read" until Elmo has been thoroughly poked! I got her this Elmo shirt in Las Vegas and I'm pretty sure when she gets big enough, she will never take it off again.

Kaelyn is still changing on a daily basis. We went through a couple of rough patches after the Vegas trip. The poor thing has a sinus infection and after that cleared up she had a couple of good days. Then, on a Saturday when we were supposed to go to Sean's family's for some birthday parties, she threw up on me...FOUR times. The next day she laid on me for the entire day and by Monday she was better, and WANTED to play, but still wasn't quite herself. She'd get up and try to play, but obviously didn't have the energy so she'd just cry instead. Poor thing. She also had bad diapers every time she even THOUGHT about tooting. AFter four days she finally started eating again and that perked her up. By the time we went to my parents house for my nephew's birthday and my dad's retirement party, she was eating everything in sight.

The zoo is still one of our favorite places. I'm excited that the weather is starting to think about getting nicer so we can go more often. We go when it's semi-nice and try to stay inside, but Kaelyn just wants to run and staying anywhere for any length of time is hard! She goes where she pleases and that is that! :) She's a little monkey, she climbs EVERYTHING. I'm surprised I haven't found her on top of the kitchen fridge, that's how much she climbs. Luckily, for the most part, she knows when she needs help with her climbing ventures and lets me at least hold her hand. She's one crazy little climber. If it'll hold still long enough, she'll climb it.

We've also enjoyed the children's museum quite a few times over the winter. I feel like everytime we go there KAelyn gets a cold, but we can't just sequester ourselves so we go anyways. She's feeling more and more at home
there and now leads me around as if she owns the place.

Her hair is getting long fast, but it always falls into her eyes, it just will NOT stay back. So I always put in a rubber band or two to keep it out of her face. IT tickles her and she rubs her eyes and nose a lot so she prefers it out of the way too. However, putting a rubber band on a wiggly kid is NOT always easy. And sometimes naptime does quite a number on the hairdo, as you can see from the picture. That one ponytail would NOT lay down, no matter what I did. It was pretty cute, really. And it's not like she cared!! IT's just a good thing we didn't have a picture scheduled or something! :)


Kaelyn still doesn't talk much, but she IS trying. She says mama and daddy and I do and bwah-ah. :) Even though she doesn't talk with words, the last week or so she has been chattering CONSTANTLY. She just talks and talks nonsense words like she has an on-going story to tell. It's quite cute and I talk right back as if we're having a real conversation. People out in public probably either think it's cute, or that I'm crazy. Either way, we enjoy it so whatever! :)

Bathtime is still one of the best times of the day. Kaelyn still doesn't really sit STILL, but at least she's sequestered in one area! She has fun with her ducks and other assorted rubber bath items. One of these days she's going to wake up and all of those nonsense words are going to be REAL words and THEN watch out.

It sure is interesting how many kids are wrapped up in this one kid! :) When she's sick she's a totally different person. She either just lays in my arms looking at me like HELP mama, or she cries all day. When she's feeling good she eats SO much, plays SO hard, and giggles like a crazy woman. I like that kid MUCH better.

I'm still not sure how preschool is going to work someday. I can leave KAelyn with my mom and Sean and that's that. She's still pretty afraid of other people she doesn't know and she's skittish around kids and REALLY shy. I imagine when the time comes we'll just have to bite the bullet and DO it. I wonder if the separation will be harder on her or me, really.

Her birthday isn't working out like I'd hoped but the good news is that she doesn't care! Her birthday is actually ON Easter so that complicates things. Being in April, there are a lot of other events happening and people simply get booked up. So I think we're going to have two separate family parties again this year and call it good. Next year, hopefully we can do something special because she might know it's her birthday by then and be more excited about it.

EVeryday is a new adventure, that's for sure. You never know one day to the next what she will do, when she will get up, what she will eat. She keeps me hopping...and guessing! I'm a very schedule-oriented person so sometimes I don't like that, but what do you do! A kid is a kid and I'm glad she's mine!