Camping and Talking

Kaelyn still is a "quiet" girl. Quiet in that she doesn't talk understandable words very often. However, she DOES talk. My sister said it best. The last time we saw her she said, it's not that Kaelyn doesn't talk, it's just that she speaks Chinese. She's right, it really DOES sound like that!

She has discovered the word "More" lately. I attribute this to our bowling sessions. We have a plastic bowling set and I will set out a few pins and ask if that is enough. She will get a goofy grin and point to the rest and I will ask "more?!" and she'll affirm this and I'll set out more. And so on. She has started saying the "more" part on her own and for other things too.

She also sometimes tells us when to "Go!" Like when we race down side by side slides. I'll say, tell me when to go! And it's not just a simple matter of saying GO, no, she has to squeeze her eyes shut and clench her fists and really scream it. In case I'm hard of hearing that day. :)

Otherwise, she still says mama and daddy. Cheese when you take her picture. Something that sounds similar to shoes. She has a word for jump since she's always jumping, but it's not really "jump." Many other assorted babbles. She can really talk! One of these days, I'll be busy listening all day as she makes up stories!

We take a music class on Mondays (or whatever day we make it there), though we are between classes right now. In the last session, there was a song about a turtle who lives in a box. Lately, Kaelyn has been singing that song ALL the time. She does the right inflextions and all of the actions. The word turtle even sounds pretty close! It's really cute. It took me awhile to figure out what song she was doing, but now that I know it's rather obvious. She also does Mary had a Little Lamb quite a bit in the bath, for whatever reason.

We went camping again for a long weekend over Father's day. Though they said it was going to be 80-90 and sunny, it actually rained every day. Only one day was real warm. We still were able to do everything we wanted including go go the zoo! Sean hadn't been with us yet this year so we had to show him the ropes. I think Kaelyn had the most fun in the aviary where she went back and forth through the chains that keep the birds in for a good 30 minutes. Whatever works!

We also spent a lot of time on the two playgrounds at the campground and on the hottest day, we went to the indoor playground they have. I remember going to that playground last fall and being SO nervous for KAelyn. There were bigger kids there and she was timid and getting knocked around. This year was a different
story. She's still skittish around other kids but she's bigger now and able to do things more on her own. She did a little obstacle course that got her to the slide over and over again. We just sat and watched. It was awesome!

Some of Sean's family and his parents came out on Saturday and played some games. His parents stayed all day and we had some smores that night, which Kaelyn loved. Her favorite game of the day was walking on the concrete parking thingy and jumping off the sides. See picture above for that. We have about 10 pictures of her looking very similar in mid-jump. Pure joy!

It was a great weekend and it made me wish we could go back the next weekend. I like camping for many reasons, but one of them is that it helps you to slow down. When Kaelyn naps, I'm stuck in the camper with not much to do. This is nice because I can nap too and then just sit and read! At home I would feel lazy if that's all I ever did while she slept. And at night when she goes to bed, Sean and I can watch movies, which we hardly ever do at home either because I go to bed. :) Plus, when we're up and on the playgrounds, all of our attention is on her. There's no grass to be mowed and no bills to be paid, etc. Maybe that's why she gets SO excited when we get the camper out that first night and hit the road! It took her an hour and a half to get to sleep the first night, but every night after that she passed OUT. She was running and playing SO hard everyday she didn't have a choice but to sleep when given the chance, I guess!

Yesterday Kaelyn and I spent a little time in the guest room looking through some photo albums. My how that little girl is growing up! She's a little girl now, not a baby! A big 2+ year old! Her hair is long and she's definitely getting taller. Pretty soon she'll be off to kindegarten and THEN what will I do all day?! :)