Mama Brooke

Christmas 4

2012-01-04T05:34:00.000-08:00

The whole family Christmas party on Sean's side took place on New Year's Eve day. The family gathered for lunch (Kaelyn and I missed that part due to her VERY necessary nap, we joined the fun by 3) and continued the rest of the day. Once Kaelyn and I arrived, the started doing presents. Sean's grandma is so sweet and gets presents for all of her great grandchildren and grandchildren. There are a LOT. She got Kaelyn a Catch me Kitty and a Thomas the Train book, both of which she loved. She got Sean and I kohls gift cards, which we love!

The name exchange presents were next. That's where everyone in the family gets one other person's name for a gift. Sean's aunt Denise had Kaelyn. She got her a little plastic Minnie doll/birthday set. Minnie has five different dresses, bows, shows and accessories that snap on and off. Kaelyn LOVES it. She calls her Minnie when she has a bow on and Mickey when its off. She has changed that thing thousands of times already. Sean got golf stuff and I got lotion stuff.

The idea was for it to turn into a New Year's Eve party, but Sean's dad just had surgery a couple of weeks ago so he was really tired. Around supper they started to clear out. Kaelyn and I stayed and ate because I had decided I couldn't take another bad night like the one before. I was going to drive her home. I was sad that I had to spend New Year's Eve alone, but I felt like I needed to do what was best for her and that was get her (and me) a good night of sleep.

So after we got done eating she and I drove the hour home. We got home and got cozied in and she said "I'm so lucky," to me. She's right, she is! I drove her a whole hour just so she could sleep! And sleep she did. For 12 hours without much of a peep. The next morning, we got up and I threw some clothes on her and headed back to Sean's parents house to continue the fun. Sean and his sister-in-law have birthdays early in January so we had to celebrate those.

Kaelyn got to watch the guys run their remote control cars around for awhile, then we had lunch
and ice cream cake. Most of the family cleared out and she napped and Sean and me and his parents played more cards. When she got up after sleeping over 2 hours (in the real crib again) she was having fun playing so we stayed until just after supper. Then we headed home and unloaded. We had Monday together to unpack and decompress after a whirlwind Christmas #3 and 4.

The holidays are so great. They spoil us. Not just because of the gifts but because of the time we get to spend together. It always goes too fast, but Kaelyn gets used to having her daddy around and getting all that attention and having all of those new things to do! The good news is, this year, it's still 60 in January. So here we come zoo! :)

Happy new year!

Christmas 3

2012-01-04T05:29:00.001-08:00

Christmas 3 took place New Year's weekend. Sean had Friday off so once we got Kaelyn up and ready, we headed over to his parent's house, stopping for lunch at Wendy's along the way. No one else was going to get there till later in the afternoon and evening so Kaelyn had plenty of time to play on the horse saddle, rocking horse, with the pool table, pinball machine, and other assorted goodies.

Since there was another baby coming to the gathering, Sean's parents rigged a bed for Kaelyn on the floor of a closet. She napped there pretty well on Friday. This trend did not last, as you will later read. We were able to play some cards while she slept and just enjoy the quiet time.

When she got up, others were starting to arrive. Sean's brother and his wife and two kids were there. This made Kaelyn shy so she and I played in a back bedroom for quite some time. Once she emerged, she had a tea party upstairs and continued to explore the rest of the house. Sean's other brother got there by supper time and we ate and then began the present opening.

Sean's parents had recently been to Disney World and I'm still not sure how they did it, but they brought a ton of stuff back. One thing they brought was a Minnie Mouse doll for the granddaughters. Kaelyn opened her bag and said "Oo, Minnie! Do it again?!" So we put Minnie back into the bag and she reopened it and had the same reaction. Approximately a dozen times. She had a blast with that one!

She also got a Thomas the train shake n go train, which has had a lot of train races with her other trains once we got home. A swimming duck for her baths, which she loves. An Elmo book which she won't let me open, but LOVES to push the buttons on the front. And a bean bag, which she runs clear across the kitchen into the family room to throw herself into. :) She made off pretty well.

Everything went really well and was really fun till bed time. It was a little chaotic at the end because presents didn't start until 715 and went really quickly, ending right about at 8. I took Kaelyn off to bed but everyone was still chattering in the room right next to where she was supposed to sleep. That and the excitement and the different house and different bed added up, I guess. She didn't want me to turn the light off in the room so I didn't. She then proceeded to sing, chatter, and cry for TWO hours. I went in once. Sean went in once. She just kept saying she wanted to get up and play. She eventually went to sleep, but that only lasted about 4 hours. I had to go in once and cover her up and that worked for another 30 minutes. The next time she started in, I knew we had problems. She just wanted to get up and was asking for her milk. It was like 3am.
I ended up climbing into bed with her, hoping I could calm her down and get her to relax. That also didn't work. There was a baby next door who had been having trouble sleeping too and the last thing I wanted to do was wake her up. I also didn't want Kaelyn to get up for the day or her playing would wake EVERYONE up. Plus, it was SO early! By 430 I knew I had to do something so I grabbed the keys, packed her into the car and drove. We ended up driving until 7. She fell asleep at 530 and slept till I got back to Sean's parents house. I was so tired I was shaking. She was startled from waking up in the car and obviously still tired too.

The morning went back and forth from somewhat okay/pleasant to downright ugly. Kaelyn wanted to eat lunch starting at 10. I finally let her at 1045. She got so upset around noon she even wet herself. Luckily, Sean's family was heading to the full family party by then so I cleaned her up and got her napping in the real crib, which had been vacated. She slept for an hour and a half and then lost a duck (the horror!). She felt better, though.

The next post will continue with the Christmas 4, which is the whole big family party! Christmas 3 was mostly fun except the sleeping issue! Though I do have to say, it really went by too quickly. Except the sleeping issue, again. :)

Christmas 2

2011-12-29T05:37:00.000-08:00

On December 23rd, my friend from college, who now lives in TN came for a visit. She's back in SD for a few weeks and she and her husband drove down for the day to hang out with us. We met at Fazoli's (Kaelyn's favorite) and she showed them what kind of damage she can do on breadsticks...she ate four. They came back here and I put Kaelyn down for nap, during which she sang and counted and carried on. She never did fall asleep. When she got up, she warmed up to Stana, my friend, and had herself a new buddy! It was nice, I just sat and watched most of the time. :) Kaelyn is still really shy so the fact that she warmed up to Stana and played with her long and hard was really good. She even asked about her the next day.

My husband's dad had knee replacement surgery the weekend we had our first Christmas of the year with my family. That meant he wasn't up for much traveling and he wasn't up for much company actually ON Christmas. But we went down to their house on Christmas Eve, just for the day, to visit and spend a little time there. Kaelyn was REALLY good and we had fun. She napped really well and played with all of their stuff and the few things we brought with us. She even ate well so it was a nice day. We got home in time to plop her in bed for the night.

As we drove home that night, I told my husband I thought this Christmas was going to be the first Christmas EVER that I had been in my own home actually ON the day of Christmas. The more I thought about it, the more I think that's really true! Growing up, we always went to my grandparents house and were there Christmas Eve and Day. By the time that stopped and I would go to my parents house, I wasn't living at home anymore. So this year, I was actually in the house that I live in ON Christmas.

I always said before that I didn't care if we were home on Christmas. I just wanted to work out whatever was best for all of the families involved so both sides can get together whenever works. After being at home on Christmas, though, I may change my mind. It was SO nice and peaceful and relaxing and just all around enjoyable.

We weren't really planning on opening presents right away when Kaelyn got up, but I had brought them down from the closet I had been hiding them in. She saw them. Presents again! Presents again! She said until Sean went to get a shirt over his undershirt since we'd be taking pictures. By the time he got back, she had half of one open that wasn't even for her.

Again, she enjoyed the things she got, but mostly, she just wanted to open things. She was just as impressed with the shirts and posters we got him and the calendar and shirt he got me as she was all her cool things. She got a train, which she likes to have run into her face, an Elmo house toy, some Elmo books (with her name in them!) and DVDs. We saved her last present for after her nap.

Christmas was on Sunday we got ready and went to church after the present session. We managed to get Kaelyn to wear her Christmas dress again and we were ready early enough we could take pictures as a family. Kaelyn LOVES taking pictures. "Cheese again," she'd say. We were almost late to church. :)

When we got home, we had a quick lunch and Kaelyn has some Christmas custard. Her face was a mess. After that...she wanted to take more pictures. So we have a lot of REALLY cute pictures of her and of us, but her face is just a mess! Oh well, tis the season!

While she napped that afternoon, Sean and I watched The Christmas Story. We watched Elf the next day. It was just an all around relaxing, nice weekend. When she got up, we gave her her final present. A trampoline! Which she calls her bounce house. She spent quite a bit of time bouncing on it and throwing herself off and to the ground. Hopefully it will keep her entertained if we get snowed in this winter sometime.

I have to admit, I always thought holidays would be MORE fun with a child. The last two years, that has not been the case. When Kaelyn was a baby, she didn't sleep well and I never felt like I was "with it" because of that. Plus, with her nursing, etc I missed a lot. Last year, she was pretty sick around Christmas and it wasn't really much fun either. This year, though, it has actually been a lot more fun having a kid around. The wonder and joy of opening presents...the way she randomly says "baby Jesus!"...and seeing all the "pretty lights" around our house and out in the other neighborhoods. It's much more fun this year and I can't wait for the next two Christmases with Sean's side of the family...coming New Year's weekend!

Christmas 1

2011-12-29T05:27:00.000-08:00

Kaelyn is one lucky little girl! She gets to have four Christmases this year! Actually, she has caught on to the phrase "I'm so lucky" and she'll often say that to me at random or when I put her to bed. She used to tell me she had a good day when she went to bed, but now she tells me she's lucky. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

Our first Christmas this year took place at my parents house the weekend before Christmas. It was the 17th weekend. Sean, Kaelyn and I drove over after he got off of work on Thursday night. Kaelyn ate her supper in the car and watched her Care Bears and Elmo videos. It was a strange time of the day for us to travel, but she did really well. We got to my parents house in time for her to play and have some ice cream before bed. Though, my sister and her family were there too for awhile and that got Kaelyn rather riled up.

Let me explain. She and her uncle Paul came up with a new game,
which she calls peakaboo. She would stand on a chair on one side of the pool table and throw a ball towards the hole on the other side. He put his face down low, level with the hole. When she got a ball in, he'd fall back like she had hit him. She thought it was HILARIOUS! However, they left and when it was time for her to go to bed, she cried for an hour and a half. It was a little too fun. :)

The next day, Friday, we didn't have much planned, really. We ran a few errands in the morning and had lunch at CFA, yum! Kaelyn napped and my sister and her family came back later in the evening. I managed to get Kaelyn upstairs to do her bedtime routine just before they arrived. I didn't want to rile her up again like we had the night before! She went to bed nice and quietly that night.

Saturday, once everyone was up and had breakfast, it was stocking and present time. I think everyone was even able to get dressed except the kids. They were in pjs all day long. As they should be! We opened stockings upstairs then moved downstairs for presents. Kaelyn got lots of neat stuff. You should have seen her face
when she opened the first hot wheels car from my
sister's family! They gave her 7 along with a hot wheels track, which she loves. Once we got it
home she also experimented by throwing other things down the track besides the cars. :)
She also got a musical Elmo that plays drums, tamborine, and sings. An elmo guitar that lights up and plays music. A stick horse. Some clothes. An aqua pet (which she calls her octupus and takes with her in the car so it can sing and dance to her) and several other things. Kaelyn liked everything she got, but while she was getting the items, she didn't much care. She would open one thing and then say "presents again! More presents!" and just want to rip through more packages. She opened most of Sean's and my gifts too. We needed the help. :)

After the present opening it was almost lunchtime and after lunch, Kaelyn napped again. The rest of the evening was play time and she enjoyed her cousin Tyler's new wall car track that he got. She also played a lot more peakaboo with whomever was around the pool table.

Sunday, we all got ready for church and went to my sister's church since her kids were going to be singing. I had gotten this cute Christmas dress for Kaelyn, but she's pretty picky about clothes (as in if it doesn't feature Elmo, she's not wearing it!) so I was unsure as to whether or not she was going to wear it. On Saturday, since the kids wanted to open presents right away, Kaelyn didn't take a bath till after suppertime. Since she had had such a late bath Saturday, we skipped it Sunday morning. That meant that I was able to sneak the dress on her while she was playing without her really noticing. And once she had it on she was pretty proud of it and wanted daddy to take picture after picture after picture. So we have dozens of pictures like this one above...all of which are cute.

After church we went back to my parent's house for lunch and headed out at Kaelyn's naptime. I was worried she wouldn't sleep because she was very keyed up and kind of going wild. But this is what she looked like 20 minutes into the drive. Unfortunately, she only looked like this for about 30 minutes. That was it for her nap that day! But she was fine when we got home and we played outside and managed to get her pretty dress all dirty so that was good. :)

It was a fun Christmas. On to Christmas #2!

2 1/2!!

2011-11-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

Kaelyn officially turned 2 1/2 on October 24th. I have to say, there are parts of the "twos" that are terrible, as people say, but for the most part, I like this age better than any other I've experienced so far. Kaelyn is SO much fun. She repeats things that I say, comes up with her own songs, and runs and plays like crazy!

Luckily, she's mostly potty trained now. I still put a diaper on her during her nap and sometimes she uses it a little. I also put one on her overnight which she THOROUGHLY uses. I should probably try her without a diaper at naptime pretty soon,
but at this point, I just don't want to ruin a good nap! For a while I would take her out in public with a pull up on but I've recently stopped doing that. She's pretty good about telling me when she needs to go. And sometimes, we go OFTEN...especially in church. It's a new, novel thing for her to do, I guess. She has the most fun, though, when I go as well. She cheers and jumps up and down, it's quite a celebration...as if I haven't been doing this for 30 years now. :)

Kaelyn was a giraffe for Halloween this year. Our friends from church had the costume for their little girl last year and it was SO cute I asked to borrow it for Kaelyn this year. Plus, she genuinely likes
the giraffes at the zoo. Having her actually SAY giraffe is another story. The gir sound comes out like your and the ffs are definitely more like ss's. So I don't ask her to say it in public, but it's sure funny at home! :)

Her music class wore costumes to class on Halloween so that was really fun. Kaelyn wore hers for like 5 minutes and then she wanted it off. The head feels kind of like a stuffed animal and she just wanted to carry it around and cuddle it. So be it! It's HER costume! :)

That night, our friends from church came over and went trick or treating around the neighborhood with us. It was decent weather and Kaelyn really enjoyed it this year. Our two next door neighbors had little bags of trinkets and candy for her, so that was really nice. The rest had normal candy. Most of which Sean and I eat. :) Poor Kaelyn. She gets all dressed up and does all the work and she hardly
gets any of the spoils. :) She got good at trick or treating. So much so that the next day at the zoo, she tried to trick or treat in the bathroom. That sounds bad, let me explain. There was a little boy in the bathroom with a basket of candy and she thought she should just go over and take a few pieces! Once I told her that wasn't a good idea, she was okay with it and we moved on. She was just used to taking candy from strangers' baskets at that point!

Playing in leaves this fall has also been a very fun thing to do. We usually make a small pile on either side of the driveway and run from one to the other, jumping in to make a crunch. I have to play too, of course. She gives me a little push to make me go then comes barreling after me. At my parents house, they made several BIG piles of leaves when we were over and she could be totally buried. My little piles here at home sure looked puny after that, but she didn't complain, luckily.

The twos come into play, I think, when Kaelyn gets frustrated. She's getting pretty good at communicating, but there are still some things that I just don't understand when she's trying to say them to me. And, she is very particular in her ways. I had BETTER not turn on a light or open a door on my own or beware her wrath! She has things she likes to do and they have to be done in a certain way or she gets worked up into a little tizzy. For the most part, I don't mind. But sometimes it's just annoying. Turning on a light when you walk into a room is a habit! And sometimes I would like to open the toilet seat myself when I really have to go! :) I'm trying to teach her that these are things she sometimes GETS to do, not things she HAS to do. She gets her way a good majority of the time. I think it would be good for her to know that she's not boss. :) Wish me luck on that one.

We sure have fun, though. She's been a pretty good sleeper...
finally! She'll go to bed around 8 and get up between 7 and 8. She naps from 130-3 or so most days. I still try to get up early in the morning to give myself some time to run, shower, and write and I use every second of her naptime to write and catch up on things. There never seems to be enough time, that's for sure. But I always try to remind myself that she's only going to be little once. Someday, once she's in school and we don't have so much time together, I'll probably look back on these days and wish we could have them back. So I do my best to cherish every moment. Except for the ones when she's yelling at me for opening a door. :)

Sean worked hard over the last two months and finished off the basement. It looks really nice. All that work, other than for our use, was also due to the fact that we offered to host Thanksgiving here. So on Thursday my family will be here and Friday his whole gang with all the aunts and uncles and cousins will come as well. That day is the big Iowa vs. Nebraska game so that
should be interesting for my dad. He's a big Iowa fan. Pretty much everyone else that will be here is all about Nebraska. Poor him. :) I could care less, of course. And Kaelyn has a shirt that signifies she's a fan of both. :) She's a people pleaser. Actually, since my mom made that IA/NE shirt, she wears it often. She finds it in her closet and says Go Hawks and pulls it off the hanger.

We're looking forward to Christmas too and the shopping and preparations are moving along.

I think KAelyn is ready for some of that playtime
now. I think naptime is over at this point! :)

Visit to Vala's

2011-09-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

We spent our first day at Vala's for the fall and boy am I glad that we got a season pass. It was so much fun and we only saw one small part of the farm today.

We arrived about 9:30 and headed straight in to Bunnyville. We petted a few goats on the way past and then enjoyed watching the bunnies hop in and out of their various homes. From there, Kaelyn spotted the ponies and she just HAD to go for a ride. She looks traumatized in the picture because the ride was over and I backed up to take her picture and the lady that operated the ride touched her. :) The horror! Otherwise, she really DID enjoy the pony ride, promise!

From there we crossed over the bridge over to the train area and we took the train for a ride as well. Kaelyn had fun making train noises, though she almost jumped from the train when she saw the pumpkin jumping area. I promised her we would go there next and she was satisfied with that. We rode on and she pointed out every plastic horse along the way.

Once we were done on the train, we headed straight over to the pumpkin jumping area. It's like a big bouncy house with no walls. These big plastic pillow come straight up from the ground. They're surrounded by sand and you take your shoes and socks off, climb on, and start jumping! I didn't think we'd EVER leave that area because Kaelyn was having SO much fun. I made her stop after about 45 minutes to eat a few bites and then back on she went! I finally talked her into leaving to explore a little more, but we were there so long we didn't have much time left! Her favorite thing to do, other than jumping, was sliding down the green side of the jump area and then climbing back up. Of course, she would not do this alone, Mama had to go every time too! Lucky me. I got to have JUST as much fun as she did. We had to wipe our hands and feet with baby wipes when we were done. We were both SO dirty. ACtually, Kaelyn even had dirt on her FOREHEAD, that's how much fun she had!

The same area also has a big vat of corn that kids can crawl around in. This was one of KAelyn's favorite things last year so I wanted to make sure she saw it again this year. She liked it again and jumped right in and ran the corn through her
fingers and dove around for awhile. When she got out I tried to shake some of the corn from her clothes, but we still found about 10 kernels when we got home. :)

After the corn, she was desperate to ride this peddle wheel tractor thing. Well she can't exactly reach the peddles so they gave me a FAMILY sized peddle tractor. So she got to sit pretty up front and I had to do all the peddling alone of this rather large tractor thing. It was REALLY hard to get it started but once we got rolling we did pretty well. We went around the track twice and that was about all I could take. She was worn out from jumping, I was worn out from the peddle tractor! By that time, it was noon and I figured we better head home so she could nap. When we got home, we both completely changed clothes. I washed her face and hands and mine as well. Found lots of corn kernels and even more dust and dirt. That's what the farm is for! We plan to go again next week (or sooner) and I will walk in a different direction so we can explore different things. At least I know one area she LOVES, if nothing else, we can always go back there!

On another note, have you ever heard of planking? Apparently it's some weird phenomenon where people lay flat like a board in strange places and then take pictures. Well, Kaelyn was doing that yesterday. She was going all around the driveway laying down like it was the most
comfortable place in the world. Then she laid down on her picnic table on the porch. I was pretty sure she must have heard about the phenomenon and wanted to participate. :)

As for potty training, Kaelyn's first outing went semi-well. We went to music class and she peed in the car. Once I changed her when we were there and showed her the bathroom, she did okay. Though she went EIGHT times while we were there. And then she peed again in the car on the way home. So apparently she pees a lot in the car, which I didn't know. :) My mom and I took her out the next week to lunch and Target with no diaper and she had no accidents. She also went to the church potluck diaperless and did fine. So she just needs to learn there are bathrooms EVERYWHERE. Sometimes I take her out in a Pull up and at times she will tell me when she needs to go and I can take her. Other times, she probably doesn't and just uses the Pull up. It feels too much like a diaper. She had a pull up on at vala's today and never once told me she had to go. She was having WAY too much fun.

Yesterday during her nap, when she woke up, she was singing away. Jesus Loves Me, her current favorite. When she got done with a couple of renditions of that she said "Mama, where are you?!" How could I resist! :) She's babbling again now. Though none of the words are real at the moment, they're still cute.

Potty Testing and pre-Thanksgiving

2011-09-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn is doing really well on the potty! I'm thrilled. Potty training wasn't nearly as hard as I was making it out to be. At least with Kaelyn. She just seemed to decide that that's what she wanted to do and one day, she did it! After I forced her to try it a few times, at least. Now it's a fun thing that she really seems to enjoy. She even cheers for me when I go, aren't I lucky?! :)

My biggest concern was, how do I get her to go in public? I had not yet taken her out in public without a diaper. Partly because I didn't trust her, partly because it was inconvenient, and partly because she had never gone potty on a BIG potty. She only uses her little potty chair. I figured my nest step had to be getting her to go on the BIG potty at home, then I could test things outside the house. So, a couple of nights ago, when she said she had to go (by patting her potty area) I said, okay, let's go on the BIG potty. Before when I've suggested it, she has shaken her head in vehement dismissal of the idea. That day, she said okay! Then trotted in to the BIG potty and went, with help of course. Ever since that night, she only goes on the big potty.

So now, I think I should test her outside the house. Before, I've always taken her diaper off first thing in the morning. We play for an hour or so, take a bath, and get ready. At that point, I put a diaper on her and we go off for the day on our errands, to the zoo, park, wherever. Then, after her nap in the afternoon, I take it off again for the rest of the day. She rarely has an accident.

My plan is to try it out tomorrow. We have music class in the morning and will be somewhere familiar and I know RIGHT where the potty is and it's nearby. Wish us luck!! She still won't poop on the potty, though, big or small. I'm not sure why, but we'll figure it out!

We decided it might be fun to have a Thanksgiving gathering at our house this year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. It will be the big NE/IA game day as well. Anyways, since extending that invitation to BOTH of our families, Sean decided that he should finish the basement! That's great news, though it has taken a lot of his time. He's done a lot of the framing and it has kept him busy. He was working on that this weekend so Kaelyn and I went to Nebraska City with some friends from church for the annual Apple Festival. It rained ALL day, but we had a great time.

We first went to the pumpkin farm where we had lunch and visited the petting zoo. Then Kaelyn was desperate to ride a pony! You know, those little pony rides with a couple of horses that walk in a circle at a VERY slow pace. When I tried to put her on the horse, she clung to me. I had to kind of force her on, but once she was on and realized I wasn't leaving her, she liked it. I walked next to her the whole time and held on to her. She neighed at the horse and seemed to like the ride. Enough that she wanted to go again! But we just watched after that. :)

Then we went to the apple orchard, which was VERY busy. Yes, it was still raining and we were all wet. But it was a fun day. It was also another test because I didn't make Kaelyn nap. We headed out to the festival after church (during which she sat in the sanctuary with me for the WHOLE service, which was surprising enough!) so there was no time for a nap. I kind of hoped she'd fall asleep on the way there, but she didn't. She was too excited. We got tired of the rain by about 3 and headed on home. Kaelyn, of COURSE, fell asleep ONE mile from home, can you believe it? So I drove a little farther so she could sleep for 20 minutes or so. She had QUITE a fit when we arrived home, but after we ate supper, she perked back up again. She slept well overnight so the no napping didn't seem TOO bad. I still don't want to do it on a regular basis. More for me than her. But I've also heard kids that don't nap for several DAYS in a row are worse than one that doesn't nap just one day. Now I know it CAN be done when we REALLY want to, but I will make those times far and few between, trust me!

Her talking is still moving right along. She has started counting a lot of things. She sleeps with two rubber ducks and just before her nap today, she said "One ducky, two ducky" pointing to one then the other. In the basement, she likes to go around counting the framed boards on the wall. She'll get all the way up to 12 before she has to stop and say "Yeah!" and celebrate. She still LOVES the work okay and says "here you go" quite a bit. She also recently started saying "Mama, where are you?" when we plan games inside and I'm on one side of the room and she's on the other. Makes your heart melt, I tell you! She's even more precious when she talks!

More later when I have an update about our diaperless outing! :)

Talking potty training etc update

2011-08-31T05:13:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn is becoming more and more fun. Of course, as with all kids, she had her moments, but for the most part, she's pretty fun.

Lately, after her nap, she wants me to pile ALL of her stuffed animals into the bed with her. Then, when she gets out, we play with her piggy bank and then she gets out all of her play jewelry, puts them on, then has to go look in the mirror. Very pretty girl.

She's becoming quite the little talker. She'll repeat almost anything you say, or at least try. More than talking, really, she sings and sings and sings! She'll sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Do you know the Muffin man, Daisy Daisy, Happy Birthday, I'm a Little Teapot and many others. Sometimes she surprises me and sings something I didn't know where she learned. She also LOVES the turtle and beehive songs from music class that have actions to go along with them. As for actual talking, her favorite word right now is Okay. No matter what you ask, she'll say okay, whether she means it or not! :) I'm glad she's not one of those kids that says NO all of the time. In fact, she never does! It's always okay! :) She also likes to say daddy stinky. She has even segued into Mama stinky and Kaelyn stinky. Nice, I know. When she has gas she'll say, I had a little toot. That's pretty cute. And sitting at supper the other night, she made a real mess and she held up her hands and said I'm a mess!! She was right. :) So she's definitely learning her words and she understands EVERYTHING.

We still try to hit the zoo every week and it seems like we see something different everytime we go. We only got to see the polar bear swim once this year, so far though. And the sloth still hasn't moved. Kaelyn's new favorite thing is the jungle trail in the basement of the jungle. We went there once with a friend and now we have to go everytime. We never bothered before because it's impossible to push a stroller through there. Now, we abandon the stroller and she just walks.

As for potty training, it's going surprisingly well. I thought it was going to be really hard because she seemed traumatized over it. In the evening, I let her wander around nude hoping to catch her. She stopped wanting to just go anywhere, but without a diaper on, she didn't know WHERE to go. She would have to go SO badly and just walk circles crying and crying. You could tell she was in pain. This kid is amazing, she can hold it for HOURS. I'm not kidding, she's gone 5-6 hours before naked without going! I can't even go that long! :) So after awhile I just had to force her to sit on the potty and she would go. The first few times it was a HUGE deal and she was not happy about it in the least. But we'd party and give her a treat and make a big deal about it. This last week we were at my parents house and we got out a potty chair there. She was traumatized a few times, but then started to like it. She started to sit down on her own, even! She still wanted me to be RIGHT there and hold her hand, but she was doing really well. Once we got home, it was almost like a game. She wanted to go ALL the time. I'm not kidding, she went 17 times in one 20 minute span. But she always went a few drops so we'd have a party and go through the big rigomorale. Last night, though, she sat on it a few times and went big so that was good. And yesterday morning, she sat on it twice just to toot. Then wanted me to flush it. :) So I think she's doing really well. I keep a diaper on her when we go out and during her nap and overnight, but I think she's headed in the right direction.

We're glad for fall and cooler weather but we sure don't look forward to winter. I don't want to be stuck inside! KAelyn LOVES parks and the zoo and all things outdoors. Even just playing outside at home is a nice option to have. What do you do!

Potty Party

2011-07-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

Last night, Kaelyn and I had a potty party!!!!

She tends to enjoy being naked in the evenings and I tend to let her. This can be a problem when she has to go potty, however. Last night, I took her diaper off at like 6pm. So I decided to follow her around EVERYWHERE with the potty chair. If she needed to go, I was GOING to catch her! :) Or so I hoped.

So, at about 7:45, we were in the playroom and she tinkled. I didn't catch her. She gave no indication she had to go and it happened fast and that was that. Bummer, the potty chair was RIGHT there.

Then we moved into the family room and she was poking around down there again and I said, "Kaelyn, do you need to go potty again?" She said yes so I told her to sit right down on her potty chair and go...and she DID!! I couldn't BELIEVE IT! It was a small little turd, but it was a poop ON the potty and I was SO excited.

We had quite the little potty party. We got up and danced and jumped and shouted. Kaelyn was pretty excited by the little party. I also gave her a few pieces of candy and then we partied some more. You have to start somewhere!! Can't wait for our next potty party!

Branson Complete

2011-07-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

We didn't make it out the door by 8am as we'd hoped, but we didn't do too bad! Kaelyn didn't even get up until well after 8. Both Sean and I showered and we even did two loads of laundry. The shower and laundry room are RIGHT by the closet where she slept, but nothing seemed to bother her that morning! I woke her from a dead sleep but she was excited to see me since I brought her her breakfast.

We made it on the road by 9 and had an uneventful drive. I have no idea where we stopped, but Sean dropped us at McDonald's for lunch and then went to get gas and drive through Arby's. Kaelyn dragged her diaper bag ALL the way around the restaurant...twice. Just for fun, I guess.

She only slept about 45 minutes of the drive, so that made it seem long, but she was pretty good. She watched some videos, looked at every book we brought, and played anything else we gave her. She ate her lunch in the car so that gave her something to do too. We got home at 4:30 or so after 7 1/2 hours in the car with one 20 minute break. It was worth the drive, we had a blast.

And now...we wait. 2 years until another big trip. Wisconsin Dells here we come! 2013!!!

Branson Trip-Friday

2011-07-15T18:44:00.001-07:00

Our last full day of vacation that doesn't involve driving a looong distance. What a bummer! After we got up and ready this morning, Sean Kaelyn and I went to a few t-shirt shops to do a little shopping. We didn't find much in the short amount of time we had, but we got a pretty red shirt for Kaelyn that has Branson written in sparkly rhinestones or something. She liked it. After that short outing we had a quick lunch and everyone but my parents and Kaelyn headed to the theater for the Noah show. I had heard it was 2 1/2 hours long and there was no way I wanted to pay that much for a ticket and not get to see it so I figured it was best to leave Kaelyn behind. My parents are staying an extra day anyways so they can see it on their own then.

We arrived early at 12:15 for the behind the scenes tour, which started at 1. It was a really interesting tour that took us, well, behind the scenes. We got to see some of the sets and learn a little about how they built them. We got to stand on the stage and see some of their marks and we even got to see inside the turtle costume. The show uses live, animatronic, and costumed-people animals. The information we got on the tour made us curious to see the show. It takes them 3-5 years to build the sets, get the script and songs written etc. It's quite a production. After seeing it, we can understand why. And we also understand why it is the most expensive show in the area!

After the back stage tour, we had an hour before the show so we went to a nearby craft mall to shop around. It was lame so we didn't do much shopping, but at least it was something to do and somewhere to go for a little while.

Then, it was time for the show. The sets were simply amazing. We couldn't take pictures, of course, because it's all copywrited. But they were SO neat. They had live animals running around on stage from time to time and they led them up and down the aisles at times too. The very end of the first act was Noah and his family loading the ark so there were a lot of animals involved in that. Then, at the beginning of the first act, the revealed the set for the interior of the ark. It had stuff all the way around us on both sides. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen, set wise. The main level was real animals like camels, sheep, goats, ducks, pigs. The second and third levels were animatroinic like elephants, giraffes, penguins, etc. There were also real people in gorilla and monkey costumes. There was so much to see it was hard to know where to look.

The play itself was pretty cool and the music was nice as well, but the sets really stole the show. The theater group itself is really neat, it's all Christian based and their mission is just to spread the word of God. On the backstage tour the guide said that they have understudies and back ups for every role but it's not a competitive thing. The understudies get to go on at least once a week and be on stage because it's not about who's better, it's a higher purpose. I thought that was really neat. The whole atmosphere was very cohesive with a single purpose and it was obvious they had their stuff together and their aim in the right place. It was called Sight and Sound Theatre and I would love to see more of their plays in the future.

After the big show, we came home and ate a quick supper, took a picture in front of the house, and went swimming! It was after 7 when we got there, but it was our last chance, so we went anyways. It sounded like Kaelyn had a great nap and ate a really good supper so I figured she'd be good to go for awhile. She had a blast at the pool again and it was hard to leave.

We hope to get things packed up and hit the road first thing in the morning. We'll see how that goes! I sure don't want to go home. It'll be nice to get things organized and back in place at home, but I don't really want vacation to end. It's nice not being alone and having lots of different things to entertain Kaelyn...and me. :) But what do you do, vacation only comes every so often! Take what you can get and enjoy it while it lasts! We sure have enjoyed this one!

Branson Trip-Thursday

2011-07-14T18:25:00.001-07:00

Kaelyn woke up rough again on Thursday due to duck loss. I need to chain those things to her wrist or something! It was a bit before 7 and I wasn't quite ready to wake up myself, but what do you do! Once she had her duck and rolled around awhile all was well. She actually got ready before most people, but once everyone was ready, we headed back to Silver Dollar City for another fun-filled day!

This time, we went to the small kids area first with the little rides. Kaelyn actually rode the frog ride with me after watching my niece and nephew ride. She just sat there the whole time, totally expressionless. I think I had more fun than her, but she didn't hate it and wasn't scared, so that was nice! She didn't seem to want to go on again, but the one time we went was great. :)

We explored a little and then it was time for the big stunt dog show that my niece was REALLY looking forward to. We all attended that and Kaelyn, again, was rather afraid at first. Before the show started she had fun going up and down the stairs but they started the show with some strobe lights and the dogs had on costumes with lights so the stadium was mostly dark. You couldn't even really see that there were dogs and it was something TOTALLY new for Kaelyn and she was just afraid. The crowd was cheering loudly on and off too so that wasn't helping. She wasn't loud about her scared-ness, though, she just burrowed her head into me and cried a little bit. After they turned the lights up and we could SEE the dogs, she seemed to enjoy it more. She started moving around, quite a bit, really, and pointing at the dogs some. She giggles a few times. Those dogs could do some neat tricks! They rode tandum bikes, skateboards, did obstacle courses, all sorts of things.

After the dog show we had lunch and headed back out for more fun! Some of them rode a water shooting boat ride, which I got to ride later and got TOTALLY soaked on. It was a fun ride, though. Something different for a water ride and pretty fun. It was sure nice that Sean and Kaelyn had a good time wandering, playing, and exploring so I could go on a few rides here and there!

There was another kids area that we didn't hit the last day we were there. Part of it was Geyser Gulch, which had squirting water, but then there was a large treehouse with all sorts of entertaining things. There were stairs to climb and slides to go down and all these foam balls to shoot at targets. Kaelyn's favorite part, other than the slides, was the foam ball pit. It was actually a small box that was just corralling the balls. I think you were supposed to take balls FROM the box and shoot them etc. But Kaelyn wanted to get IN the box and why not! She had a great time rolling around in there. She also enjoyed shooting the balls with Sean, once she realized how that worked.

We ended up back at the area that had the slide and bounce place for littler kids eventually and Kaelyn had a GREAT time there again as well. She did a lot of bouncing and went down the slide a few times. Then we went to meet the rest of the group, who had gone BACK to the dog show. My niece got a wax figure made of her hand, something she was fascinated with the day before. Then most of the group went to some farm area while my dad and I rode Thunderation, a wooden roller coaster. I didn't want to go on one that went upside down and this one, from what we could tell on the map, didn't. It was a nice roller coaster, I liked it a lot. It didn't have any major big drops and didn't go upside down either. Just lots of crazy turns and fast speeds. It was just my style. We actually rode it twice, don't tell. The lines were short and my dad's a big kid. :)

Once we met up with the group again we headed out for the day, returned to the house for a steak dinner and some went swimming while Kaelyn simmered down for bed. I'm impressed with how well she did over those two days at the amusement park, really. The second day was even better than the first. The first day she was kind of having fits when I wouldn't carry her, but the second day, I think she realized where we were and that it was a fun place etc and she knew how things worked. She didn't sleep either time, though she seemed tired for many parts of the day. But she didn't do too bad having no nap. Probably because she was highly entertained the whole time. The not napping caught up with her the next day last time, so we'll see what tomorrow is like for her! It was a special event that I do NOT plan to let happen often! She WILL nap from here on out! :) I hope. She better not realize she can get away with it and still survive. I don't know that I could survive many days of THAT much action with her in a row. But for vacation, it worked.

We're looking forward to tomorrow because it's our big Noah's Ark show day. Everyone but my parents and Kaelyn are going. I didn't want to take her to a show THAT long she may or may not like. So my parents will go Saturday on their own after we all leave. The show will take up much of the day, but we'll have the morning to do some other things.

This week is going really fast, I must say. I look forward to catching up on things at home, but after that, I think Kaelyn and I will be bored being all alone again next week with just our normal things to do! What do you do! Back to the real world!

Branson Trip-Wednesday

2011-07-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we decided to take a break from the big Branson stuff and go swimming again in the morning. However, we woke up to rain. It rained and thundered overnight but I had hoped it would go away. It didn't. After awhile it let up and we checked to see if the indoor pool was open. It wasn't. The rain lightened so we went to the outdoor pool anyways and after we were in for a few minutes the rain stopped. It was cloudy and cooler, but the water was still nice and warm. Kaelyn played a little bit in the baby pool and floated with me in the big pool some, but this time, her favorite thing was the steps that went into the big pool. She would jump down the first step then walk down the next three. Then turn around and go back up again! Over and over again. There are only 4 steps so she was almost completely in the pool on her own. But going down the 4th step would have put the water over her mouth so I'm glad she never tried because I think that would have scared her. She stumbled a few times here and there and wasn't pleased so she was happy with the way things were. My dad squirted her with a water gun in the back and she thought that was funny. Maybe she's starting to get over her fear of sprinklers and shooting water. It's just unexpected to her, I guess, so she doesn't always appreciate it.

After our rainy swim we had lunch at the house and the guys were supposed to go golfing, but the rain started up again so that got put on the back burner. Poor them! :) However, an hour later, they were able to get out and go. Kaelyn woke up from her nap majorly grumpy and did a lot of screaming throughout the afternoon. That was not pleasant. She was probably tired from the big day before and she didn't nap long enough to make up for it. We had a nice time while the boys were golfing and my mom went to pick up my sister and niece (they had gone to see the Dixie Stampede). We blew bubbles and rode scooters and bowled, but mostly she yelled. We had spagetti for supper and that perked her up for the evening hours.

It was a nice evening, Sean and I actually got to go out and go mini-golfing! Sean had picked up a few brochures of places we were pretty sure we had been so we looked through our coupon book for the area and found a place we hadn't been before. They had two courses, a knight/castle type course and a jungle type course. We played the knight course and Sean beat my by 3 or 4. It was pretty even but I choked in the end. Then we decided to play the other course too and Sean only beat my by 1. So he won both, but it was a close one! It was a good time. We haven't mini-golfed in forever. And the course was PMGA certified! Did you know there was pro mini golf? I hadn't ever really thought about it, but I guess there's probably pro everything!

I was able to make my own ice cream treat when we got home. Nicole has been making a smore creation for me every night. It's awesome. Vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, gram crackers crumbs. Totally awesome and tasty and all that good stuff. She's a great chef.

After all the kids went to bed we played some poker for awhile. I, once again, succeeded in ridding of all my chips first so I could go to bed. Apparently, it came down to my mom and Sean and Sean ended up winning. Even though my mom is conservative with her chips and not a great bluffer from what I hear.

Branson Trip-Tuesday

2011-07-13T11:23:00.001-07:00

We decided Tuesday was the day for Silver Dollar City. I planned to go in the morning, then take Kaelyn back to the house for her nap after lunch and return in the afternoon. Once we got there and saw how far the parking was from the park and how far deep into the park we were going to be around that time, I changed my mind. I decided we'd stay and hope for the best. Kaelyn used to sleep in her stroller at the zoo for her morning nap really well so with any luck... :)

We didn't have that luck and she was awake all day but she did surprisingly well. It was tough at first because we were in a new place and she wanted me to carry her. In order to set the precident for the day, I told her she had to walk or ride in her stroller. She did not appreciate this idea. Poor thing. After a few crying fits she got the idea. I didn't want to START the day carrying her in this huge amusement park or I knew I would never make it!

We went to a kids area first that had a big slide and some rope courses that were good for jumping and climbing. Kaelyn LOVED it there and didn't really want to leave when we moved on. In fact, she kept looking for it after we left! We went back a couple of times as we went past. My sister's kids and their dad as well as my dad rode a boat ride that had water squirters. The riders could squirt other boats and people watching could squirt the riders. They got pretty wet.

We had lunch at a small cafe that had a big wagon you could sit in. We didn't, but it was still neat. :) Kaelyn started her lunch much earlier so she wasn't all that hungry when the rest of us ate. After that, I was kind of hoping she'd drift off in her stroller. My dad, sister, her husband and kids and I went on the log ride. We all got pretty wet! It was only a 20 minute wait which wasn't too bad for that hot of a day. There was only one big hill and drop, which is where we got the most wet, of course.

When we got off that ride, Kaelyn was still wide awake and enjoying watching the boats come down the hill. We explored a few other places including watching the giant swing ride over and over. No one rode it, but Kaelyn liked watching that too. My niece Nicole really liked a rope ride where two people sit in a seat and hoist themselves up a rope and then drop. She went on that with almost everyone in our group! So she was an expert.

My niece and dad got involved in a water balloon toss and won the first round. They had some pretty close calls when the balloon would hit the ground and bounce instead of break or when they would catch just a small corner of it and it would stretch out. Their reward for the win was to get placed in the next game instead of being out. Not much of a prize. And their balloon popped that time after a bad throw.

Then we went on a raging river type ride. It was impossible to see how long the line was, but it took almost 45 minutes to get through it. For a ride that lasted maybe 90 seconds, maybe not all that worth it, but it was fun! Kaelyn was STILL awake when we got done with that. That time Sean had found a splash park area that she had fun in.

The group wanted to catch the circus show and we headed over to that theater. Kaelyn was obviously tired so I carried her and she was almost asleep when we got there. But, in a circus, with drumming people and bright lights, it's not really an easy place to fall asleep. She watched for awhile and seemed fine and then started acting scared and crying. I figured she was just tired so I took her out and we walked awhile while she cuddled and rested. She was almost asleep again when the darn train went by and tooted its horn, scaring and jolting her awake! At that point I gave up. I changed her diaper and she laid on the blanket on the ground for awhile resting. Then she wanted to ride in the stroller again so I let her eat her body weight in fish crackers and walked her around until the circus let out.

By that time we were all pretty tired. We visited another little kids area and then headed back to the house to eat. Most of us ate our leftovers from the throwed roll place. I was surprised that Kaelyn got a second wind and was running around like a crazy person. I had trouble pinning her down long enough to get her pajamas on that night, but once I did, she went to bed nicely and slept well overnight. Actually, she slept 12 hours and I didn't really hear too much from her.

I learned that she doesn't WANT to ride the carousel. Which is kind of nice. :) She's always been fascinated with them and LOVES sitting and watching. But at Silver Dollar City, since it was no extra charge or anything and since she likes to ride any horse she can find, I thought she might like going ON it. Well, we got into the ring and she would NOT let me put her on any of those horses! So we just walked around it and went on our merry way. Now I know! She just likes to watch! Fine by me! Probably would have made me dizzy anyways!

We plan to go back to Silver Dollar City on Thursday with our two day pass to see and do more. We only did the one show and there's a dog show my niece wants to see. We'll see if Kaelyn likes that one better than the circus. Probably will depend on the time of day we see it!

Brason Trip-Monday

2011-07-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

I'm getting lazy! Kaelyn woke me up for the second day in a row at 7:15am. I usually get up hours before her. Oh well, that's what vacation is for! She had lost a duck so she started the day a bit rough but she was up and playing in no time. Actually, she played hard for over 2 hours! The neighborhood pool opened at 10 so we decided to go there this morning since it was SO hot outside. I gave Kaelyn a quick bath before hand just to keep our routine going and then we all threw on suits and headed over there.

The pool area is very nice. There's a big outdoor pool with a baby wading pool next to it. There's also an indoor pool but it was closed for maintenance today. Kaelyn started out in the wading pool and was screaming in delight. She had her two ducks with her so she'd throw them in, wade in, get them, wade out, repeat. Eventually she had a little interest in the bigger pool and would wander over there, go down one step, and then go back to the baby pool. After awhile, she'd go down two steps, then three. This all took over an hour. Then, when I was completely IN the big pool once and Sean was with her in the baby pool, she came over and just wanted to jump off the side onto me. So I bounced her around the big pool for quite some time. I now wish we were in water at ALL times. It's SO much easier to carry an approximately 30 pound kid in water! She continued to go back and forth between the two pools the whole time...as her diaper got bigger and bigger. :)

At one point, I was pulled into a chicken fight with my niece. It was me and my dad vs. my niece Nicole and her dad. I had her completely knocked over but her legs were still clinging so I'm not sure if she was all the way out. I don't know how she held on that way. It was pretty funny. I couldn't stop laughing.

After Kaelyn's diaper was bigger than the rest of her and she was starting to get hungry and crabby, we headed back to the house for lunch. She enjoyed "sharing" a freezer pop with Sean after, though she ate way more of it than him. We played a bit, then naptime! She's doing really well with her talking. She still mostly points and grunts at things, but if you tell her to say something, she'll say it back to you, or something that sounds somewhat similar. She's getting the idea. Her word for "swim" is pretty cute. It's more of just an s sound, actually, it kind of sounds like suess or something. Her favorite phrase right now, though, is daddy stinky. I have to admit, I taught her that. :) Only because SHE was stinky one time and I wanted HIM to change her so I told her to go say that to him. She did and now she says it ALL the time! Oops...

While Kaelyn was napping we had some crafting to do. I made Sean a camoflage duct tape bag for his ipad. It's very manly. Okay, so it still kind of looks like a purse. The duct tape was very sticky and ended up all over my hands, which then stuck to everything else!

After Kaelyn's nap and everyone else's showers we played for awhile and then packed up to go to supper. Our 95 year old grandpa has told a story for as long as we can remember about the home of the throwed roll, a restaurant in the area that throws rolls to you when you raise your hand up. He tells it over and over again and we thought he would be really tickeled if we went there. It was a 45 min drive but the wait once we got there was short and the service was fast. The rolls were good...hot too! And very throwed. :) Most of us brought food home because the portions were huge. We may not have to cook again the rest of the week! We took some pictures and videos of the experience and called grandpa to tell him we were there JUST for him! And it was fun for us too.

By the time we got home it was time to pack it in for the day and Kaelyn returned once again to her bed in the closet. Poor thing. :) After all of the kids were in bed we played Texas Hold Em poker. I have beat Sean and his dad and brothers at that game before, but that night, I didn't do so well. After awhile I started betting on everything so I could get rid of my chips and go to bed. I succeeded in being the first one out. :) Tomorrow...Silver Dollar City.

Brason Trip-Sunday

2011-07-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I actually outslept everyone but Sean and Kaelyn! That never happens. I'm ususally up by 5:30 or 6:30 at the latest. But since Kaelyn had duck issues all night long, I guess I was worn out and didn't get up until she woke me at 7:30! We did some playing and had breakfast and we all got ready. The only tub in the house is the big jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. Kaelyn didn't really appreciate her bath, so hopefully she'll get used to it as the week goes by. But the good news about the morning was that she let me do her hair without screaming at me. Normally, she wants to hold ALL of the combs in the entire house during the process. I'm not kidding, the kid ends up with 4 combs. I just need ONE to get her hair up! So it's an ordeal to wrestly a comb from her in order to actually DO that. Today, however, she was mesmerized by a shark bath toy they had in the bathroom (there were plenty of other bath toys too!) so I got to use the comb without getting yelled at! That was nice!

Once she was ready, we rode the statues across the street and wandered a bit while everyone else got ready. It was HOT and STICKY even before 9am. After all were beautified, we went to the visitor's center, asked some questions, and took a few brochures. I saw signs on the way in for a restaurant that is known for being "the home of the throwed roll." This is somewhere I feel my family HAS to go while we are here. My 95 year old grandpa tells a story about going to that restaurant CONSTANTLY and I think he would be really tickled if we go there in his honor. We'll have to try to take lots of pictures to show him and maybe even call him from there. So we asked about that restaurant and hopefully we can go there later in the week.

The next stop was the world famous...Wal-mart. :) We needed a few more supplies and we thought to buy Kaelyn a little baby pool to play in for the week. Then we came back to the house, set up the pool, played, and had lunch. The guys headed out to golf on the course that the house is on and Kaelyn, since she had a rough night, was majorly grumpy so she was ready to nap by 12:30. Pretty early for her, but what do you do! I napped too.

The biggest problem I foresee about this week is that it's nasty sticky hot. The forecast is saying upper 90s for the entire week with no real break. We have plans to go to Silver Dollar City and even the neighborhood pool has NO shade, so we could be in for a lot of sweating this week.

After Kaelyn got up from her nap, she played in the blow up pool we bought and put on the back deck for her, then we went to a few stores. Since it was Sunday there weren't all that many open and the ones we went to didn't have much to see so we were only gone an hour. We came back and played more, waited for the golfers, who returned very hot and sticky, then had chicken for supper. My sister and her crew arrived about 7 for the REAL fun to begin! :) They unpacked and the ice cream treats flowed. We made some general plans for the rest of the week and called it a night. Kaelyn went to bed easily again and, thankfully, didn't lose her ducks all night...until 7:15 the next morning.

Branson Trip-Before, Driving, Arrival

2011-07-10T11:34:00.001-07:00

The time finally arrived, the family trip to Branson! It was a very good deal, really. We hadn't planned on coming to Branson. Quite awhile back we attended our church auction and one of the couple's at church was auctioning off a week at the house they owned in Branson. We bid but the bids went higher than we wanted so we stopped. The next day, the guy emailed me and said that they had given the house away later in the auction a second time, after we had left. That time it went for $300. Would we be interested in making a $300 donation to the church and having a week also? Um, yes! So that was how our vacation ended up being in Branson. Everything we had heard about the house was great, it had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, access to a neighborhood pool and anything else we could ever want.

So we planned our trip for July 9-16, 2011. The packing frenzy began earlier in the week and my parents came down on Friday the 8th to see a show and get groceries. Sean, Kaelyn and I headed out first thing Saturday morning, July 9th. It was a miracle, really. When Kaelyn got up in the morning I talked to her about our trip and said, hey, you want to go take your bath NOW and go?! She did, so we did! We were able to leave just a little after 8am. She usually likes to play for an hour...or two...in the morning before getting ready. The drive took us 8 hours so that was kind of a bummer but what do you do. We couldn't catch I-29 down because of flooding so we had to go a longer away around until we could join the larger interstate. We knew that would take longer. Kaelyn did pretty well, but there were a few times she got pretty bored and antsy. We stopped for lunch outside Kansas City at Wendy's (Kaelyn had mostly eaten her stuff in the car) and she just ran laps around the table. She was excited to be out! Once we got going again she napped for an hour and 15 minutes. I wished it had been longer! We got to the house a little after 4, and wow, what a house!

This house, from the outside, is just gorgeous. The inside is even better. The main floor is pretty big and has a large, two story family room with huge windows in the back overlooking the river. There's also a nice kitchen and dining room and an enormous master bedroom and bath and closets. Sean and I actually got assigned that master bedroom, somehow! The basement has three other bedrooms including one with two sets of nice bunk beds, two full bathrooms, a game room, a big screen TV room and probably more I'm not thinking about.

As we unpacked and settled in we decided Kaelyn would be best off sleeping in the closet. That may seem mean, but it's a big closet! :) And she doesn't do well in the same room as Sean and I because she sees us and just wants to play. We needed a spot where she could be alone so she would know it was time to sleep. The crib was in the basement and my dad and Sean had to take it apart to get it in the closet, but it's in there now! And last night she did semi-okay. She only woke up scared once. Her main problem was losing her ducks! She sleeps with a small rubber duck in each hand and last night, she lost track of them several times. I know she woke me at least 6 times. The difference in the beds might be that we have a bumper around ours and this one does not. Therefore, there is nothing to stop the ducks from taking flight. :) Hopefully tonight will be better. But she went to bed really easily and didn't seem afraid or anything, so that was good.

They also have every kid thing you need here including a high chair, stroller, toys, cups, all sorts of things. It's just awesome. After we got situated we had hamburgers and corn on the cob for supper and just played around the house. There's a screened in porch on the back that has a nice swing and Kaelyn had the most fun going in and out of the screened in part the open deck part. The door is lightweight and she can open it alone. There are also elephant and giraffe statues across the street that she enjoyed riding several times. After she went to bed, we just sat around and looked at brochures etc. My sister and her crew are set to arrive Sunday late evening, and that's when the REAL entertainment begins! :)

Camping and Talking

2011-06-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

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?! :)

Classic Cars at the Hot Rod Cafe

2011-05-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

If you love classic cars of all kinds, you will love dining at the Hot Rod Cafe. Based around the theme of muscle cars and find classic's, you can find your place at a table, booth or bar seat and watch the fun on a Friday night. This is the official meeting time for classic cars and car lovers from around the area. They gather together to show off the cars and treasure they have worked hard to restore and create into a show classic piece. Once you are inside and ready to order, you can view a piece of car classic history with the half car on the wall, seats made from car sets and pictures of patrons from throughout the years. You will find a certain history to this crazy, but fun restaurant and the food is great. Served in the classic 1950's style with a very adult twist, the food is good, there is plenty of it and you can even order a beer to go with your meal. Try one of the combination starters before your meal arrives and enjoy other car lovers and friends for the evening. I set my securitychoice home security alarm before leaving and know the other treasure and classic I own will be safe until I return. This is really the place to be on a Friday night, when you can see classic cars of all kinds and view your own small car show.

Kaelyn is 2...part 2!

2011-05-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn has her 2 year doctor's appointment just two days after her birthday. As usual, she screamed at everyone in sight. :) They tried to let her stand on the scale by herself to be weighed but she wouldn't let go of me so that wasn't working. We had to do it the hard way on the old baby scale. She weighs 28 pounds 10 ounces. Big girl! Then we had to stretch her out to check her height. That was equally fun. She's 34 1/4 inches tall! She'll be taller than me in no time, don't you think? After she calmed down from all that, they REALLY started messing with her! Looking in her nose and ears and listening to her lungs and heart. A student doctor did all that first followed by the real doctor. None of which she appreciated, as you can imagine. She sits on my lap and lets them do it but she TELLS them what she thinks about it! :) Overall, she's a healthy girl and growing well. They said I could start her on different milk other than the whole milk now and she can try peanut butter if we want. They said not to push potty training and to wait until she is ready. She shows SOME signs of being ready, but some definitely not. Like if I ask her if she went potty, she will pat her diaper for yes. She knows when she went! She DEFINITELY prefers to be WITHOUT a diaper. And she LOVES showing me where the potty is. But I have a potty chair for her and she will NOT sit on it when it's open. She still runs from me when its time to change her, though she won't sit down in a dirty diaper so she WANTS it off, she just doesn't want to spend the time it takes to do it, I guess. So we'll see. Since she still doesn't talk much it can be hard to tell when she has to go until it's too late at this point.
I don't mind changing her so we'll just see what happens from here and wait till she's ready.

I do think her talking is improving, though, even in the last few weeks. On her birthday, she actually said CHEESE when we were taking her picture and I got her to say stinky the other day when she went potty. She imitates what we say when we ask her to, though it doesn't always sound quite right, she's trying! It can be rather funny, actually. And when you ask her how something is she almost always says Good, or something that sounds SORT of like good. :) I think she's on her way to being quite the chatter box. While she doesn't have many words yet, she talks CONSTANTLY in some sort of foreign language. It's rather humorous, really. It's quite the conversation and I often wonder what in the world she would be saying if she had the words to use! She may be one of those kids that NEVER stops talking someday! Her chattering is funny because sometimes it's almost like an explosion that just erupts out of her, like she can't control it.
It just comes out! It's cute and she knows it. :)

Last weekend we had her birthday party with my family. I actually spent a few more days over there because my mom was at our house and I rode back with her rather than have two cars over there. Sean came over after work on Friday. I got to have lots of Chick-Fil-A in the meantime so I was happy. Kaelyn had an Elmo birthday theme again this year because she still seems to love that guy most.

In the morning we went over to Sean's brother and his wife's house and gave their daughter her birthday present. She'll be 9 in May and we won't see her again before then so we thought it was a good time to do that. They gave Kaelyn a present too...two footballs, an Elmo shirt and book. She LOVES those footballs! And will love the shirt as soon as I wash it so she can wear it.

Her party was Saturday and can you believe she took a 3 hour nap beforehand? That's unprecedented. On a side note, things are back to normal now, we're home and she's not napping at all today...she's been talking in her bed for over an hour now. Must have a lot to tell her ducks! :) Anyways, once she finally got up from her nap we played for a bit and then it was pretty much supper time. Hamburgers on the grill and a little garlic bread and then out came
the cake! Kaelyn loved the Elmo face on it and did get a little poke into the icing before we cut it. She thoroughly enjoyed her piece and started by removing all the icing. She did eat most of the cake too eventually, which was nice.

After that, everyone was on a sugar high so we opened presents. Kaelyn got all sorts of neat things. The first thing she opened was a doll stroller. She isn't really into dolls, but she was SO excited about that stroller. Even before it was out of the package, she seemed excited about it. I don't know how she really knew what it was, but whatever she thought it was was very cool to her! :) She took off with that and pushed it all around the house several times. It was hard to get her to come back and open more, actually! She also got a push lawn mower that was supposed to blow bubbles, but really doesn't. That's okay because she still likes to push it. My parents had a large bag fulled with goodies such as a hoola hoop, scooter and helmet, raincoat and boots, some clothes, and one of her favorites, a tickle me Elmo! Elmo has been thoroughly tickeled MANY times of the day, trust me!

Once the presents were opened we took some of them outside to push around and Sean even flew a kite, which Kaelyn loved to watch. She had a good day and even went to bed nicely for me that night. After a nap that long I thought she might be up for awhile! :)

We came home after church the next day and Sean took over the place of coolest thing in the world again. He MOWED! Kaelyn about had a cow she was so excited. For awhile she stood on the porch jumping up and down screaming daddy daddy and pointing at him. Once he moved to the side yard we took a bag chair to the driveway and watched from there. She was so excited she probably wet herself. Actually, now that I think
of it, when we went inside later I DID change her because she was so wet the diaper was leaking. And I had just changed her like 2 hours before so that was unusual. I guess now I know why.

The pictures on here are kind of an assortment from the three parties. Some are from Sean's parents house, some are from my parents house and some are from our house. They're all cute and they all relate to her birthday so I put them all together.

As for the dentist...her first appointment was May 5th. It actually didn't go nearly as badly as I
thought it might. She was supposed to stay in the waiting room while I got most of mine done, but she ran after me and wanted to come so that was that! She sat in my mom's lap and huddled and cuddled but didn't make a peep. She was keeping a close eye on me to make sure they weren't doing anything unseemly, I guess. After I was done, they had me hold her in my lap. And yes, she screamed at them and was very shy, but that was a good thing because at least they could see in her mouth! The dentist said everything looked good for her age and she could come back at age 3. Whew! Another milestone down!!

Kaelyn is 2

2011-04-14T05:02:00.000-07:00

It's official! Kaelyn is 2! Can you believe it? I can! They say it goes fast and I'm sure overall, it will, but I still remember those sleepless nights all too well and the days when little missy is crabby move VERY slowly. So it's not speeding by just yet!

Since Kaelyn's birthday was ON Easter, we had a combined day! We started the weekend by going to Lincoln on Friday since Sean had the day off. We took the camper with us so we could try everything out for the camping season and make sure Kaelyn would still sleep okay in there. We got there in the morning, played for awhile, had lunch, and then I took her to the camper to nap. We built the sides up a little more so she couldn't climb out, that was getting to be an issue last year. So I put her in the bed and went back to my book. I heard her say "Uh!" and I looked up and she was peaking out the side of the tent we had created. I told her to lay down and go to sleep and then I hid elsewhere so she couldn't see me if she peaked out again. She went to sleep and slept her normal amount so it went pretty well. We played the afternoon away and had supper, played some more and then it was time for bed. She did well going to bed, she didn't cry or anything. However, she laid in that tent bed and talked until after 10pm!!! I put her in bed at like 8:15. She had a LOT to say, but at least she was happy! Then, at 4am she woke up SCREAMING her head off. A different kind of scream than normal. I think she was scared. So I ended up climbing into the bed WITH her to calm her down. She quieted down and I expected her to go back to sleep. I should have known better from past experience. She would NOT quit moving and eventually started messing with my face so I had to climb back out and let her cry for awhile. At least the cry then wasn't scared, just her normal, I don't wanna sleep cry. The next morning she slept in till 7:45 and woke up happy. She did well through her bath but was pretty cranky after that. I was pretty ready to have her take her nap, but her Uncle Jason was coming over and she needed to open presents before lunch. She wasn't really in the mood and that was a bummer because it was our only chance. Grandma gave her a card, she threw it. We opened a present for her, she stuck her butt up in the air. Not very grateful! But she got some neat things...a water table toy, an Elmo swimsuit, a wiggle worm sprinkler and a bubble gun. After lunch I was very ready for her to nap and she napped her normal amount and was in a MUCH better mood.

Once Kaelyn got up, the rest of Sean's family had arrived and the big Easter party began. First they took birthday pictures because there are TONS of people in the family with April birthdays. Then they had an outdoor Easter egg hunt. Kaelyn had fun with that and even picked up a few eggs! She got a ball as a prize, though I have no idea where that ball is now. :) Her favorite thing about the weekend, I think, was Sean and his brother Jason running their remote control cars around. She just giggled and giggled. Especially when they build a ramp later in the day and were jumping them off that. We had supper and played outside more. It was starting to sprinkle so it was time to go in, but that was hard because Kaelyn was SO enjoying the car racing! Desserts were plentiful and she and I shared one of her blonde brownies and some Buster bar ice cream dessert, which was awesome. After that, it was bedtime so I took her to the camper and threw her in her pjs and then stuck her in my car to drive home. I was simply amazed, the kid didn't fall asleep until about 5 minutes from home! We drove for over an HOUR in the DARK with NOTHING for her to do and she just sat there with her eyes open, looking around. Luckily, when we got home, she woke up when I turned the car off, but didn't make a peep when I took her out of the car and carried her in to bed.

Unfortunately, I think when Kaelyn stays up late (over an hour later than normal that night) she seems to get up earlier. She woke up BEFORE 7am on Easter morning/her birthday. Maybe she was just excited. Ha! She was in a great mood in the morning and we played for a couple of hours before she took a bath. Once she was ready for the day, she wanted to go for a ride so we headed to Pamida. That's when the drama began. She was having TOO much fun in the sporting good section with all the balls, I guess. She pooped and then it was time to head to church anyways so we needed to lour her to the car. She didn't WANT to go to the car. She apparently wasn't done playing. Commence screaming. The first time I've ever had to drag her kicking and screaming from a store! And then proceed to attempt to change her diaper in the car WITH the kicking and screaming. Not a fun experience for anyone involved. I told her we would go back to Pamida soon and play as LONG as she wants, but she probably couldn't hear me over her screaming. She calmed down in the car ride to church, though she sat in my lap and sobbed for awhile once we got there. Poor girl. On her BIRTHDAY, even!

Once we got home from church Kaelyn didn't want to go inside for lunch. She had eaten a bowl of crackers at church and probably wasn't starving to death. She just wanted to play! So I left her and Sean outside and ate something myself and then took her lunch outside to her. She ate well on the run, literally, and then wanted to go around back to the slide. I was cool with that, but it was nearing naptime so I knew it might not be the greatest experience ever. I was SO right! There's a place in our yard that Kaelyn needs help down if she doesn't want to fall. She was getting a little bit of an attitude and didn't WANT help, so she fell. Not a big fall, I'm sure it didn't even hurt with her diaper cushioning her fall anyways. But to her, it was a MAJOR deal, more out of frustration than anything. Commence second scream session of the day. It was a huge hairy deal in her world and she would NOT calm down. Eventually I had to leave her there and start to walk around front. I knew she wouldn't like that but I also knew she would follow me. She did but it wasn't pretty! Major screaming. If there were any neighbors still asleep, we woke them, trust me! I stopped and tried to carry her several times but she would resist and fall to the ground so I just kept walking. Once we got inside I wrestled her coat and shoes off and man handled her up to bed. Normally, we would cuddle, watch videos of her and rock in the chair for around 30 minutes. But birthday or not, I was NOT going to reward her behavior with ANYTHING so I plopped her into bed, threw her her ducks and shut the door. She was pretty upset for about half an hour but eventually went to sleep. At which point I took a nap as well, I was tired after all that! She slept over TWO hours and woke up back to her old self again, thank goodness!

The afternoon was much more pleasant. After looking at a few books and eating her snack, we opened presents. We gave Kaelyn a cars bag chair to use outside and take camping. She also got two shirts from Kohls, a set of Elmo books and a potty time video, and, her favorite, an Elmo doctor kit. There is a part of the kit that makes noise...plays songs and has Cookie Monster says things. We've heard each of the 4 things it does dozens of times. She seems to really like it! After that we talked her into going outside because it was really nice and she had a great time with her bowling set and other assorted outside toys. We didn't come inside till supper time at which time we made steak. Not that Kaelyn would eat it. She was happy with her corn and roll. After supper I got out her brownie treat and put two candles in one of them. She tried to touch it, but I caught her hand in time. She looked like she tried to blow it out once, but she wasn't really trying. We played in the basement after eating and had a great evening. I was SO glad she turned her attitude around. At least PART of her birthday was pleasant for her! I just hated that she wasn't having a good day! For her AND for us!! Maybe it's because she's officially two now. :)

These pictures are an assortment of the 2 year pictures Sean took in a park a couple of weeks before her birthday. The outfit is her birthday/Easter outfit. I know it's not really a dress, just a long shirt. But that's what she's comfortable in and she can wear it all day long so I like it too! I'm not much of a dress girl myself. And I like putting Kaelyn in things she can play in all day long. I don't want to have to change her and don't see much of a point in putting her in a pretty dress to wear for one hour or JUST for a picture only to change her later. Someday, she can be a girly girl if she wants, but for now... :) She gets what she gets. This weekend we're heading to my parents for her birthday party with that side of the family so I'll update how that went after that takes place.

Kaelyn's two year check up is coming up on Tuesday as well with the doctor and on May 5th...her first dentist appointment! I don't expect either to go particularly well, but hopefully the information we get will be interesting!

To Kaelyn, Happy 2nd birthday! You are the light of my life and my favorite little girl in the WHOLE world!!!

Almost 2!

2011-03-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

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!

Kaelyn says mama

2011-02-05T12:17:00.000-08:00

The big day has ARRIVED! Kaelyn has been saying bwah-ah for quite some time. After that she started saying "I do" for the longest time. She makes plenty of other noises, but none are real words...not that bwah-ah is, but she says it so much is has BECOME a real word around here. Then, on January 1st, she distinctly started saying daddy when I asked her to say it. I have a video of that too, but she's in the tub so I don't think I'll post it. It's REALLY cute how she was saying it. She was almost whispering and she had this twinkle in her eye like she knew this was an exciting event. Since that time, I have been working on her to say Mama too. It's just not fair she says daddy and dada but NOTHING for me. I ask her to say Mama and she just points to me or pounds my leg. I always think, Kaelyn, I KNOW where I AM, but can you SAY Mama! :) Apparently she finally worked up the nerve to give in to my ways. February 1st she started saying Mama and I reacted SO strongly that she knew it was a good thing, so she would finally even say it when I asked. YEAH! She doesn't say it as often as daddy, but she CAN say it so I'm thrilled.

She also makes many animal noises, though some of them sound quite a bit a like. She can quack like a duck rather well and moo like a cow, though it sounds more like boo. She does a great bark for a dog. The baa for the sheep and the meow for the cat sound alike most of the time. But the pig is a sound I can't even describe. It's a gutteral grunt from the back of her throat and it's hilarious.

Now that I know Kaelyn can say Mama, she can say whatever word she WANTS next. Though I would prefer if she held off on 'no' for awhile longer!!

Vegas trip day two

2011-01-30T18:28:00.000-08:00

Our second day in Vegas...We got up and ready slowly. I went to the main floor and got some muffins for breakfast and we hit the streets to explore the other side of the strip before Sean's afternoon meeting. We walked through the hotel that had the Elvis show and ended up at a burger place in the New York hotel for lunch. We were both very full again and wondered why we hadn't shared a meal. I guess they probably wouldn't have made Hal the burger plain for me with the other half filled with stuff for Sean.

So far I've only called home once today. The Kaelyn repetitive is that she feeling much better and acting like a different kid than yesterday. That makes me feel better too. I don't like being away from her either way much less when she's sick. I know she'll be fine by I'm still her mama and I want to be there when she needs me!

On the other hand it's been so nice for Sean and I to get away and spend some real time together. We get to actually talk! It's been awhile that's or sure. So this is good for all involved. I’m just hoping Kaelyn remembers me!

We walked back to our hotel and I got my plane ticket for my trip home printed. He headed to our room to rest for a bit before his meeting and I headed for the spa! I sat in the whirlpool there for awhile then got a massage. It was very relaxing. I felt like I melted into the table. She even rubbed my hands and feet! Very nice. After that I felt very drowsy so I went back to the room and laid aroud and read for a few minutes before venturing out again.

I called home...again...but only twice today instead of three times so I'm getting better! I got lost but eventually made it to the Venetian to pick up our blue man group tickets. Got lost again..then found the box office before wandering the shops waiting for Sean to get done and meet me. There are a lot of brides running around here today. I even saw a couple get married on the gondola ride. They looked so in love. :)

Sean and I met by the blue man group theater before the show. It was a great show. Really funny and plenty entertaining. I liked I much better than the beatles show. They did some drumming with paint and beat on other various pipes and other weird instruments. I expected more of that but there was a lot more to it. Catching marshmallows in their mouths...doing art...harassing the audience. It waS cool. We walked back to our hotel after goof through the bally’s and Paris shops areas. And that was the day!

Sunday I it up and ready and took a cab to the airport to head home. Can't WAIT to see Kaelyn though I would have liked more time in vegas as well. I was sore enough after the two days of walking that sitting on the plane didn’t sound too bad really! I got to the airport plenty early and got through security so I had time to finish the book I was reading and grab a snack. I actually got a seat in the FRONT row of the plane by the window so that was nice! I made it home and my dad picked me up at the airport. As I expected, Kaelyn glanced my way when I got home like, hey, it’s you! And then continued to play. Glad my being away didn’t affect her TOO much!

It was a great trip but at the same time I’m glad to be home again with Kaelyn. I really don’t like being away from her, though I know it’s good for both of us. She still has a cold or illness of some kind so I’m glad to be back with her for that. Hopefully we can go to Vegas again someday and explore more! Sean got to stay a few extra days for “work.”

Vegas trip day one

2011-01-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

The long awaited Vegas trip finally arrived. Though I have to admit...as excited as I was to go I also didn't want to go. The longest I had ever been away from Kaelyn was about ten hours. This was going to be two whole nights and three days!! I always thought she was the one who suffered from separation anxiety but now I wonder if it's really me with the problem! I'm just not used to being away from her! But we left the house at 730am before she woke up. That in itself was hard but probably easier than seeing her

We got to Vegas at 1030 their time. Felt like 1230 to us. We got a ride to our hotel...paris! Dropped off our things in the room and hit the streets to look around and find lunch.

We ate at the Harley davidson cafe. Sean was happy that way. There were motorcycles going around the top of the room on tracks or something. It was really good and I had enough tea to keep me going for quite some time. After lunch we started strolling the hotels. This is my third trip here and I'm still in awe. Especially of the themed hotels that look like actual streets inside. Each hotel is a city on it's own. I think you could stay in one hotel for your whole trip and have plenty to do. I think we liked the Venetian the best. There was a love statue there. And gondola rides which we stood and watched for awhile.

At 530 we wanted to catch the live free show outside treasure island. We had never timed it right to see it before. It was so totally lame I couldn't believe it. I think it could have been quite cool but instead of making a cool pirate show it was more about booty if you know what I mean. I guess that's Vegas for you

We were still pretty full from lunch so we just grabbed some big cookies from Starbucks and went to our beetles cirque du soleil love show. We saw a different cirque du soleil show a fee year ago and I still say it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. This show was cool too but they didn't do nearly as much of the flippy circus stuff so I was disappointed by that. There was some but I think the show was more dancing and symbolic stuff about the songs. Which I didn’t really care about. It was still cool but I would o see the other one again and I would not see the beetles one again.

After that we walked back to our hotel which was a fair distance. We grabbed a snack downstairs an went to bed at 10. That may sound sad being in Vegas and all but that was midnight our time and I'd been up since 5 and we walked for like eight hours straight! I'm making excuses. We're just old and we were tired!! :)

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T06:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-14T05:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-09T05:29:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-18T18:26:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-11T12:13:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-06T05:07:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-03T18:20:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

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!

15 months

2010-07-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn had her 15 month doctor's appointment today. Just a check up and some shots. Kaelyn doesn't appreciate the pediatrician...OR her nurses. How DARE they take her temperature! Though I tried to tell her taking it in her armpit was WAY nicer than how they USED to do it! How DARE they look in her ears! And push on her belly! And oh my, you better not even THINK about taking her blood pressure! She was screaming good before the shots were even a thought.

This time, instead of weighing her on the baby scale, they had me stand on a scale WITH her and then without her. Perhaps because she was being quite the little screamer or maybe at this age they don't need to be REAL exact, I'm not sure. Anyways, she weighs about 25 pounds now putting her in the 80th percentile. She didn't appreciate being measured for height either. But she survived and is 30" tall, in the 40th percentile. Does that make her a bit round? Whatever, she's healthy!

After all that she sat on my lap and sniffled and sobbed and clung to her cup and her duck and my shirt. Poor thing. It IS a hard life, being a baby. She was scared to death.

I asked the doctor about her eating, she won't eat many table foods, though she HAS just started picking up on wheat bread so that's good. She said it's a texture thing and to just keep trying and not to be too concerned with it yet because she's healthy and growing well. I also asked how much milk she should drink and she said 18-24 ounces a day is good and I'm thinking Kaelyn gets at least 18 sometimes more so we're set there. She also said her fear of strangers is still normal. Though when I say strangers I mean everyone but me, Sean, and my mom! Even other family members and friends. What do you do!

Then came the shots. That's awful because she's already scared and then you have to put her on a table and hold her down and stick her with needles. She stopped screaming from that pretty fast, though. Just continued with her sobs and sniffling. She recovered the second we pulled into our garage at home. She knew where she was and she let out a little squeal and was her old self again. The next 30 minutes I chased her around and she played like nothing had happened. Then I stuck her in the swing and she pulled off her remaining bandaid and played with that. Gross, but hey, whatever works. It's quiet upstairs now so I'm hoping she's sleeping the rest of the trauma off! :)

Back from vacation blues

2010-07-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

I could not BELIEVE how well Kaelyn slept while we were on vacation. I'd put her in her little tent bed in the camper and she'd just roll over and go to sleep, no complaints! Even when she didn't go RIGHT to sleep, she'd just lay in there, happy as a lark, until she DID go to sleep. One of my theories about that was that she had more room. The bed in the camper was a double sized bed. So she could lay either direction and be fully stretched out. She tried to do that in her own bed when we got home and as you can see, the result is quite uncomfortable!

Being back from vacation is tough. We looked forward to it for SO long and now it's just over! Kaelyn slept SO well on vacation and we were out and about doing different things, it was nice! I also think Kaelyn greatly enjoyed being the center of attention at all times and having undivided attention. Don't get me wrong, she gets such attention at home quite often. But there are also phone calls, cooking, laundry, emails, etc that distract her from being the ONLY thing I'm concentrating on, you know? She got quite used to that on vacation and that was probably part of why she liked it so much! That and her camper bed!

I tell you, that camper bed! Amazing! I miss it! Can we go camping again? Even though she went to bed at about the same time, she got up a little later each morning. And HAPPY! At home she'll start rolling around and crying at 4:30 or 5. She's not really awake but she's working on it. This will continue for two hours or so. I get up because it's so frustrating to JUST fall back asleep and have her roll over and burst out with another cry or two. In the camper...nothing. She'd just get up when she was done sleeping, she didn't have to work up to it at all. It was awesome. I didn't have to nap during the day because I actually got to sleep at night. ALL night! I got a lot of reading done during naps because we were all in the camper so I couldn't move around or talk much and we weren't at home so I didn't have any chores to do, really. It was nice!

I think Kaelyn was excited to get home and see all her toys again but she gets pretty bored pretty easily so I think she preferred all the different things we were doing on vacation. Though I did take her to the zoo the day after we returned and she had SO much fun there. She missed her zoo.

We have weekend trips planned here and there, like last weekend we took the camper to Sean's parents house and camped out there. There was a family baby shower and a baptism all in one weekend. Little trips like that are great, but it's just not the same as being AWAY away, you know? We don't have another big trip planned until NEXT July, ugh! Though Sean MAY get sent to Las Vegas on business in January so we may get to go there for a few days. Kaelyn would stay home. With my mom, don't worry! :)

Since getting home, Kaelyn has started sleeping in on occasion, which is really nice. She's slept till 7:30 three times. And 7 a few other times. I think she really NEEDS to sleep until 7 or 7:30 because the past couple of days when she's gotten up at 6:30 she has NOT been in good spirits and goes back to bed within a few hours and naps for a long time. I don't understand why she doesn't just sleep till she's ready to get up! I know she's not ready to get up for the day at 6:30 and yet she's crying and crying so I can't just leave her in there by her lonesome!

Her other issue right now is real people food. Table food. She's getting more brave and trying a few more things. She's started to like wheat bread and she tried a tater tot the other day. But she still won't even try fruits or veggies. And she throws up a lot when she DOES eat something. We went to the splashpad park nearby on Monday and I got her to try some dried fruit. She had a banana chip and liked it and I gave her a dried piece of orange and she seemed to shovel that right in. About 10 minutes later she threw up. A LOT. So much I had to change her. She's done that before when I've fed her the REAL yogurt that has chunks of fruit in it. She hits a chunk and either spits it out, gags, or eats it and then throws up. I'm glad she's seeing the doctor tomorrow for her 15 month appointment so I can ask about that.

Seeing how well Kaelyn slept in the camper I seriously consider getting her into a bigger bed. We'd have to make a full sized bed into a crib somehow, because she rolls around SO much she definitely needs a bed with sides. But she really seemed to like the extra room! I don't know that I've talked Sean into the idea just yet, though! :) Just look at that picture, the poor thing! :)

We have been pretty busy since getting back, though. We have another family baby shower coming up this weekend and lots going on during the week. I look forward to finding out the details on Kaelyn's current stats at the doctor tomorrow. I'm sure she does NOT look forward to it, especially the shots!

I guess we can't be on vacation ALL the time. Tis back to the real world!

First Ponytail

2010-07-26T08:27:00.001-07:00

Kaelyn's hair is getting long and it hangs down in her eyes. She doesn't care, but she's so cute you need to see her face! Barrettes work a little but they slide out so easily. Last night I was messing with her hair while she sat on my lap playing and I was pretty sure there was enough to do a little ponytail. So this morning while she was in the bath I grabbed one of those tiny baby rubber bands and here's the result! Kaelyn didn't exactly appreciate my efforts. I tried to be really gentle but she was screaming like I was pulling hairs out one by one. I'm pretty sure it didn't really hurt her, but it was a new experience. Hopefully she'll get used to it. She's napping now and I'm anxious to see if it's still somewhat in tact when she gets up. I don't plan to fix it if it's not, but I may have to take it out and she probably won't like that either!

Ah, the firsts in life! Her very first ponytail! Many more to come, I'm sure!

Colorado Trip-Complete

2010-07-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we got up at Kaelyn's normal time at the Cabela's campground and headed home. We drove three hours in the morning, stopping in Kearney for lunch. I had Wendy's and Sean had Arby's. Kaelyn ran around in a hotel parking lot for awhile and played in the camper for awhile. Then we packed up and drove another three hours, finally arriving home at 4ish.

Then the REAL fun began. We unpacked a little but mostly just tried to ease back into being home. Sean washed the outside of the camper and Kaelyn tried to see how many things she could play with that she hadn't seen for a week! It was hard to get home because we knew it was over. And the humidity hit us square in the face the second we walked out the camper door!

Being home was tough at first. Kaelyn got used to her big camper bed and the first night we were home she was up from 1:30-5 yelling on and off. Sean went in twice and I went in several times as well. I even brought her back to bed with us for awhile to see if that would help. That didn't work. I rocked her for awhile at one point too. We hadn't been up that much with her in months. It brought back unfond memories of what it was like to get no sleep! That led to her being pretty grumpy on Sunday and I'll have to admit I was as well! Plus there were 8 loads of laundry to do (which took through Wednesday to get done AND put away) and various other elements of unpacking and settling in. But we made the most of it and headed to the zoo Monday and had a great time there.

Our next vacation isn't scheduled until NEXT July. But Sean has so many extra days off I'm convinced he should use them and we should take another one. Not sure if I've convinced HIM of that yet, but I'll work on that part! It was nice being together all day everyday. I can definitely tell one thing Kaelyn enjoyed about vacation was being the center of attention all the time. She is MOST of the time at home, but there's also laundry, phone calls, bills, cooking, things that get in the way from her getting ALL of the attention EVERY second. She doesn't like that! But you gotta eat! You gotta pay the bills! On vacation, there's not much you HAVE to do. Other than pay attention to Kaelyn. So that was nice for her AND for us!

We hope to visit Colorado again someday. The weather is SO pleasant. The scenery is beautiful. And there's plenty to do and see.

Colorado Trip-Heading Home

2010-07-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

Friday our vacation was mostly over. We got up in the morning, packed up, and started to head home. Kaelyn took her morning nap while we drove and when she fell asleep so did I. Sean, therefore, was left without a navigator. And, therefore, we took a few detours! :) Instead of taking shorter routes we headed straight north to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Around lunch time we stopped at a camper store and then we HAPPENED to see a sign for Chick-Fil-A so we stopped there for lunch. Yeah!

We went a bit farther to Ft. Collins and looked for somewhere to let Kaelyn out to run around for awhile. We found a neat downtown area but couldn't find anywhere to park the camper so we ended up heading back to the interstate. We found a rest stop that had some trails and wooded areas so she played ball there for awhile. We didn't make a lot of progress. We drove for like 6 hours and when I did a search it said that drive should have taken 2 1/2 hours. Too many worthless detours!

We landed in Sidney, Nebraska for the night at Cabela's. They allow campers in their parking lot AND they have a campground right there as well. We would have just camped in the parking lot but it was SO hot we decided to try to get a spot at the campground so we could hook up and have AC all night without running the generator. It was really stinking hot. Welcome back humidity! I did not miss you ONE little bit!

Kaelyn enjoyed running around Cabela's for quite some time. She found a big red dog ball (of all things) with a handle and she greatly enjoyed tossing that around the store. She also found stairs that led up to a loft where people were sitting and eating. It'd been awhile since she'd had very many stairs to climb so she went pretty crazy over those! They had a fish tank there too and she watched them for a short while. But at that point she was still distracted by the dog ball. :)

We went to Dairy Queen nearby for supper and then set up the camper for the night. There was a nice playground on the campgrounds so, even though it was hot, we HAD to play. There was no swing, much to Kaelyn's dismay, but there were
a couple of slides. However, the sun was so hot they were BURNING. So I wouldn't let her slide down alone. She was happy enough going down with me. I knew enough to stay on my shorts and feet so I wouldn't get burned. She would have screamed all the way down! And, actually, one of the slides had a turn in it and I ended up peeling some skin off my elbow so I was even more glad I was her ride down!

There were actually people tent camping right next to us. In that heat, that was pretty nuts, if you ask me! That's REAL camping, though. We have all the perks in our camper. We don't camp in discomfort, that's for sure!

We knew the trip was REALLY close to being over. We only had about 6 hours to go the next day to get home. So sad to see it ending. It went by way too fast.

Colorado Trip-Garden of the Gods again!

2010-07-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

On Thursday we knew our trip was wrapping up. And we didn't like that idea one little bit! The playground at the campground didn't have a baby swing. It only had ONE swing and it wasn't a baby swing. But Kaelyn did enjoy the slide quite a bit while we were there. Anytime we were on the campgrounds we were throwing her ball around or playing on that slide. She would climb up the slide (with help!) and then run over the bridge that was behind it, then come back and go down the slide. It was nice that it was all at a level where I could still reach her so I could just stand at the side and help her. A couple of times when there were other kids around I climbed up there with her to make it a little safer.

In the morning we went to the Garden of the Gods again to explore a little more. Sean hadn't been there except for that first day we were there for a little while so he wanted to go back and walk around some more. Kaelyn napped well there in her stroller and seemed to enjoy running around as well. We walked the main part of the garden and then drove to the part that had the balancing rock and some of the other sights.

After her nap ended and we were done exploring we went to find a skateboard park we had seen the first day we were there when we were driving around looking for our campground. Sean had
his remote control car with him and he thought it would be fun to run it around on the ramps.
He had a great time with that and Kaelyn liked playing with the car around the parking lot too. There was also a swing at the park so Kaelyn got to finally do a little swinging. She didn't want to stop, actually! When I took her out she ran right back over to it and looked up at it like hey, I'm not done with that yet! The slides at the park were WAY too hot to use. It was getting pretty steamy so we left and went to the Garden of the Gods visitor center. Sean hadn't been there yet either.

After we looked through everything there we went back to the campgrounds. They had a spagetti dinner there that was really good. We just threw the ball around and played on the playground the rest of the evening. We were all pretty sad that the trip was over and not looking forward to the drive back. We enjoyed the humidity-less weather and having the mountains nearby to look at anytime we wanted.

Colorado Trip-Royal Gorge

2010-07-21T04:31:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday of our trip my parents and all of Sean's family were gone so it was just the three of us. We decided to go to the Royal Gorge in Canon City which was supposedly 45 minutes away. I think it took about an hour to get to Canon City and the Royal Gorge was outside the city, farther away. When we got to Canon City Kaelyn was majorly ready to get out of the car so we thought we'd see if there were any shops there and grab some lunch somewhere. We first stopped in the train station shop. There is a train that goes from Canon City through the Royal Gorge, something we'd like to do someday. And at the train station Kaelyn found lots of trains! Most of them made noise. We ended up getting her a little train set for her souvenir. It has an engine train with a driver in it. On that there's a button that makes the whistle blow and then it plays music. It has two cars that attach to the back. And a little track! I think I was more excited about the
track part than she was. It's pretty cool! :)

There wasn't much to see downtown. Sean stopped in one art store and Kaelyn and I walked through the Hallmark store. So we stopped in a small cafe and got some lunch. Kaelyn enjoyed playing in the window display. There were sand toys and flip flops up there, after all! Since we were still on OUR time, it was only 10:30 and there weren't many people there. That was nice. Kaelyn had the run of the place and I didn't feel too bad about letting her run! There was a small ramp leading from one part of the cafe into the part where we sat. And once she discovered that she must have run that ramp 10 times! After we were done eating and she went back to running the ramp, she handed her water glass to a random lady who was coming up the ramp. The lady was like, thanks... Then she started looking around like, what do I do with this now?! Kaelyn is becoming quite brave! She went from cowering from any stranger to handing random ladies her drink glass! :) So I took it from the lady and chased Kaelyn down. Again.

By the time we got to the gorge and got parked it was almost nap time. We couldn't BELIEVE when we got to the entrance that it was $25 PER person (Kaelyn was free at least!) to get in! But we drove all that way, we pretty much HAD to go in! There's a big bridge all the way across so after Kaelyn had her yogurt snack we walked that. It's a bummer that they let cars drive on it too. It's not all that big of a bridge, really. And when you have people walking all over it and a car tries to get through, it ruins the atmosphere. Not to mention if TWO cars go on it and meet up. That can be a little tight of a squeeze. When we got to the other side Kaelyn was getting sleepy so Sean walked up some stairs to a viewing area to take pictures and I kept walking Kaelyn in her stroller so she could nap. I walked over the bridge several more times. I figured I may as well have a good view while I walk! And we got some fresh squeezed lemonade that was SO good.

We were almost done for the day when we ran across the yellow train. Sean and I took a picture in that train together when we were there ten years ago. There wasn't really anyone around it so we couldn't take a picture with all three of us, but we took one with each of us and Kaelyn. Pretty neat to take the same picture ten years apart! We looked and looked for that train and it turned out to be close to the entrance! Figures! When we were all done there we drove by a wild west town attraction that looked really neat. It was $15 each to get in and it was already getting late so we headed back and hope we can do that next time we visit instead of paying to get into the gorge park. We stopped by a neat wood carving shop on the way back and that was cool. The carvings were VERY expensive. And Kaelyn was quite upset with me because she wanted to run up and down a ramp outside and I wouldn't let her. Why? Well, there was this big mean looking pit bull outside on NO leash! As much as we hear about pit bulls around here there was no way I wanted her anywhere near one, even if it seemed friendly. Which it didn't. But she was pretty upset with me anyways. What do you do!

We went back to the campgrounds and were able to catch the ice cream social again. Another HUGE bowl of ice cream for me. And no, I didn't share! We were starting to see our trip near its end and none of us were happy about it! But we still had all day Thursday before we needed to start heading back.

Colorado Trip-Seven Falls

2010-07-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday the golf was over and my parents were still there so they came over to the campgrounds first thing in the morning and we took a drive through the mountains so Kaelyn could nap. When she woke up we went to seven falls. It's really pretty there. There are, well, seven water falls! :) There are 224 stairs that you can climb to get to the top. Sean and I had done that 10 years ago when we were here last time and we wanted to do it again. My parents didn't really want to make the climb and I didn't want to carry Kaelyn up that far anyways so they took an elevator up to a viewing platform and Sean and I climbed the steps. When I got to the top I kept looking around for more stairs. It didn't seem like it should have been 224 stairs that fast. Not sure why. Sean and I both remembered it to be a lot longer of a climb last time, whatever that means for the shape we're in! Kaelyn enjoyed throwing a ball around in the cave that led to the elevator so she was thoroughly entertained

After we saw all of the falls we could handle we went to Chick-Fil-A again for lunch and then we went to Old Colorado city to explore the shops there. I got a Colorado hooded zippered sweatshirt for my souvenir. I always seem to do that. Get something warm to wear when it's hot out! And if we go somewhere in the winter I always get a t-shirt. So I can't actually wear it for quite some time, but what do you do!

After our shopping/wandering around that city we went back to the camper so Kaelyn could nap. My parents made a Dairy Queen run so that was tasty! When Kaelyn got up we went back to Manitou Springs. Sean had seen an old fashioned picture shop. He and I went to Estes Park, CO for our honeymoon and we had done an old fashioned picture there. That was just over 8 years ago and he thought it would be fun to do again. It was fun 8 years ago and a few things changed since then! Kaelyn being the big change!

So we picked out what type of picture we wanted and they gave us our clothes. My mom came back with me and Kaelyn to help. I put on the dress thing they gave me...and see, there's a reason I don't wear dresses! Kaelyn FLIPPED out! She was crying like she was getting a shot or something! But once I took her she calmed down a little and we were able to get her little dress on her. When we went back out and got ready for the picture she sat in my lap like a little doll. She just SAT there. Arms out and stiff, not moving a MUSCLE! They tried and tried to get her to smile. I was shocked that she didn't squirm or try to get down, she just SAT there. VERY unlike her! It was pretty funny, really. What she looks like in the final picture is what she looked like in EVERY shot they took! But hey, it worked! After we were done with the picture we ran into some of Sean's family as they wandered the shops so we got to see them for a few minutes. It was weird that we were all in the same city and we barely got to see them! Too bad, but what do you do!

My parents took us back to the campground and they took the cog train up pikes peak. They said it was really neat. Sean and I had done that 10 years ago when we were there. We wanted to do it again but with Kaelyn, we were a bit afraid. It was a 4 hour round trip and we didn't want to get stuck with an upset baby on a train so we passed this time. Maybe if we visit again sometime we can go then! We just grilled out at the campgrounds instead and played on the playground etc there instead. After the cog train my parents were going to return to their hotel and then leave for home the next morning. All of Sean's family was leaving the following morning as well so it was just going to be us left to continue the vacation!

Colorado Trip-Garden of the Gods & Fof

2010-07-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

On Monday of our Colorado trip the guys went golfing again. EARLY in the morning. Their tee times were 8 something and the golf place was like an hour away. So my mom picked Sean up and dropped he and my dad at the hotel where the rest of the guys were staying so they could get a ride from there. When she got back we headed to the Garden of the Gods to walk around. Kaelyn napped in her stroller and then wandered around with us. We went to the visitor center and looked at the gift items there. Kaelyn enjoyed playing with a bin of pencil erasers.

She was still out of sorts most of the day. Just hard to please and not her normal chipper self. Even though she seemed to sleep really well in the camper and had a nice long nap in the stroller at the Garden of the Gods.

After we got done there we went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A. SO nice to have one nearby!! It wasn't far from my parents hotel. They even had free wifi so I was able to get my emails sent and receive the new ones. There was a play area too so Kaelyn explored that a little. Then we went to the Focus on the Family visitor's center because there was a big FREE kids area. There was a toddler room, even, and Kaelyn became attached to riding the turtle. As well as climbing the bridge and crawling under a log. There was a three story slide as well, but she didn't attempt that this time around! Maybe next time! There were several rooms of fun things for her to explore. We headed back to the campsite in time for her nap and she took a nice long snooze and my mom and I read. When she got up it was time to throw her ball around the campgrounds again while we waited for the guys.

Once they finally arrived (they thought they'd be back around 1 but didn't end up getting there till 4!) we headed to Manitou Springs, which was a touristy spot just down the street. Sean and I had tried to go there before but couldn't find anywhere to park the camper so we thought it would be good to go there when we had my parents car to park more easily. We looked through some shops and Kaelyn found this water table toy to thoroughly enjoy. It was just outside a kids toy store. Not for sale or anything, just to attract kids, I guess! She was pretty well soaked and probably never would have left it had we not wanted to move on. Actually, we came back to it later to let her play some more!

The neighbors down the street were watching Ollie, our cat, for me. So I got them a little circular stained glass hanging thing that had a puppy and kitty on it and it said "Friends". I also got them a Dairy Queen gift card. The neatest store along the Manitou Springs streets was a blown glass store. TONS of big and little glass items. Some were very small and delicate looking. Smaller than a penny. Very easy to lose, I would think!

We drove through Wendy's on the way back to the campgrounds for me to get some supper. Sean and my dad ate such a late lunch they weren't really hungry. My parents headed to the Flying W ranch for their dinner and show. I had gone there last time we were in Colorado Springs 10 years ago and it was fun so I hoped they would go and they did! We would have gone too but the dinner started at 7 (8 our time!) and the show at 8 (9 our time!) and Kaelyn was going to bed at 7 because that was 8 our time! Got that? And she went right to sleep again! Luckily, Sean got our camper tv working and we were able to watch the Bachelorette after she went to bed! :)

The golfing was over and the guys had to hang out with us from then on! Poor them!

Colorado Trip-Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

2010-07-19T04:08:00.000-07:00

On Sunday of our trip the guys went golfing. They had 10am ish tee times. My mom came to pick Sean up and dropped them off at the golf course which was only 15 minutes away. I stayed at the campgrounds with Kaelyn so she could nap. I put her in her tent for her nap and she stood up and threw a huge fit, though she was REALLY tired. So I climbed in with her and she fell right to sleep that way. Wish I could have too but it didn't work out since I wasn't very comfortable!

When my mom got back we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo! It wasn't very far away, but it really was on a mountain! It was very hilly and the views were really neat. Right inside the zoo are about 14 giraffes. They're really close and you can even feed them. We didn't, but I DID touch one! Never touched a giraffe before! The rest of the zoo was really hilly and really confusing...even with a map! It was like there were all these
fingers you had to go down to see things but then you had to turn around and go back. There was no flow. And all of the exhibits except the giraffes paled in comparison to the Omaha zoo. And it was $4 more to get in!

Kaelyn found some puddles to stomp in and liked running up and down the hills some. But really, she was off that day. She was tired from the rotten, short first nap, and she just wasn't herself. She was really hard to please and didn't want to walk and didn't want to ride sometimes. She just didn't want anything! She didn't eat much lunch, but she ate a ton at snack time. It was nice and sunny but didn't feel overly hot. That low humidity is really wonderful, I had no idea!! Since Kaelyn was being such a handful I was relieved when she fell asleep early at 2.
Actually, I kind of thought she was almost asleep at 12:30, but she hung in there! My mom and I walked around and around the giraffes since that was the coolest part while Kaelyn slept for an hour and twenty minutes. We REALLY saw those giraffes!

After the zoo we went back to the campgrounds and waited for the guys. We weren't back but an hour and here they came. We had all been invited to Sean's cousin's husband's uncle's house. Got it? Not sure I do! :) So we went over there for supper. Since Kaelyn was still on the Nebraska time we left just about as everyone else in Sean's family was arriving, but at least we saw them for a FEW minutes! And we were able to grab a hot dog before leaving too. Kaelyn liked running the fireplace at that house. And in and out of the back door. She explored the yard a bit and had me throw her on the couch. She even got ahold of a remote and changed the channel on the tv once before I put them up higher where she couldn't get them. Quite the little trouble maker!

When we got back to the campgrounds they were having an ice cream social so I grabbed a bowl quickly before putting Kaelyn to bed. QUITE a bowl, there was a TON of ice cream! But I managed! Kaelyn went right to sleep again. She likes her little tent! The next day was more golf for the guys...EARLY golf! And more exploring for my mom, Kaelyn, and me!

Colorado Trip-Traveling Day Two

2010-07-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

We left the Walmart parking lot probably around 8:30 or so on Saturday July 10th. The last leg of our journey was only 3 hours or so but it was a LOT less fun than the first leg. Kaelyn didn't sleep very long for her nap and was just totally OVER being in the car! She was much harder to please.

When we arrived in Colorado Springs we met some of Sean's family at the Garden of the Gods and walked around for awhile. Though none of them could find parking so we didn't actually get to walk around WITH them. What do you do! Then we got set up at the campgrounds and let Kaelyn nap in her little tent bed. We wanted to explore the nearby Manitou Springs after that but there was nowhere to park our big motor home so we ended up at the North Pole amusement park. We didn't go in, we just looked at the gift shop and ran around the parking lot
for a bit. Kaelyn enjoyed throwing her green ball around the campground the best, I think. She was happy to be free of the carseat and out and running for awhile! I think we grilled burgers at the camper for supper that night and looked forward to the next day. Kaelyn was a great sleeper in the camper for her nap (as you can see from the picture!) AND overnight.

My parents were visiting a friend of theirs in Castle Rock, CO so we didn't see them the day we arrived. But Sean was going golfing with a whole group the following day including my dad so my mom and I were going to take Kaelyn and explore somewhere. We didn't know where yet until the next morning. Already, from the second day of traveling, I was wondering how well Kaelyn would adjust. She did SO good the first day. But the second day, after not wanting to drive anymore, I just could NOT keep her happy. Tis the joy
of traveling with a little one, I suppose.

But Colorado is SO pretty. And I had NO idea that the lack of humidity would make such a huge difference. It was in the 90s there much of our time there and sometimes felt a little hot, but never stifling or stuffy or sweltering like it ALWAYS does here even in the 80s. So I want to move to Colorado for that reason! :) Stay tuned for what we actually did on the trip other than drive! :)

Colorado Trip-traveling

2010-07-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

We're back from our trip to Colorado! I tried to keep track of what we did on what days so I could blog about it when we returned. So unless something exciting happens, my next several blogs will be about our vacation.

We left for Colorado at 7:30am Friday July 9th. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to the long drive. But that first day, Kaelyn was an AWESOME little traveler! We traveled for 7 hours that day, on and off, and Kaelyn slept only for about two of those hours. When she was awake she poked her alphabet apple toy and a few others. She was perfectly happy as long as I
WASN'T in the back with her. Go figure! So I stayed up front!

We first stopped in Kearney at 10:30am so Sean could visit a job site. It was at the fairgrounds so that left Kaelyn and I in a big field. She explored and ran around. It was good to stretch those legs!

As you can see the trip made her become a bit of a two fisted drinker. One water, one milk!

On our drive on Saturday, my parents, who were also going out that day, passed us THREE times! We didn't see any of Sean's family. We're guessing they passed us when we were stopped at Kearney.

We didn't make it all the way to Colorado Springs that first day. I figured Kaelyn had had enough of the carseat and we didn't want her to sleep TOO long during her naps and then not at night. So we stopped at a Walmart near Brush, CO. It's pretty nice that walmart lets you camp in their parking lots. There were lots of truckers and other campers there along with us. We ate at Wendy's and then Kaelyn had a GREAT time running around Walmart. She found a frisbee that she threw down just about every aisle she could find. Then she found a volleyball, still in the box, that she enjoyed tossing a bit. I think she would have stayed there longer! But as we went back out to the camper, she also enjoyed playing in the landscaping.

Then came the true test, after being in the car for most of the day, would she sleep that night? Yep! We let her stay up a little bit later...a whole 15 minutes! But she went RIGHT to sleep...AND slept till 7am the next morning! REALLY late for her!! We decided it would be easier to keep her on our time. Colorado Springs is an hour difference. That was source of MAJOR confusion for me the WHOLE trip! I was always talking Nebraska time and needed to stop and think about what time it was THERE! So, Kaelyn getting up at 7am was really getting up at 6am THEIR time. And we ate lunch at 11:30, which is 10:30 THEIR time. So we were early to rise, early to eat, early to bed, but what do you do! We didn't have to readjust when we got back home and it seemed easier not to mess with her anymore than we already were!

I was quite pleasantly surprised by our first day of travel. Kaelyn barely complained at all and was a much better rider than I expected. Stay tuned for details on day two and on the actual vacation once we arrived!

Packing frenzy

2010-07-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

My husband says the sideways pictures are some kind of application problem with the iphone so hopefully apple will fix it and we can get an update. Because it's annoying to have to tilt your head to see what's going on.

Anyways, this is a picture of bathtime the other day. Our cat Ollie LOVES fresh water. I've read that some cats just like the taste of it better. They can tell the difference and some like it fresh from the tap instead of out of a bowl. One time when I was in our whirlpool tub a LOOOONG time ago, Ollie managed to get a drink while I was in the tub without falling in. I was impressed. And glad because I didn't really want my relaxing bath interrupted by a howling wet cat. I think that might have been his goal here in this picture but the water level was just too low and he never could figure out how to safely get a drink. So he just perched there and watched for a bit and eventually moved to the toilet to observe where he would for sure by safe. Kaelyn did poke him a few times so he knew he was risking getting pulled in.

The last few days have been a packing frenzy. We're going on vacation to Colorado soon and I wanted to get as much packing done now as possible while my mom's here to watch Kaelyn. Packing is MUCH faster when I can use BOTH of my hands! We're taking the camper so not only do we have to pack the normal clothes but also food, shower towels, bedding, all that good stuff. We figure it's going to be about a 10 hour drive. We're going to leave before Kaelyn's morning nap and take a lunch break and let her run around a bit. Then drive farther during her afternoon nap and see where we end up. That'll be day 1. Day 2 we'll go the rest of the way, however much farther that will be. Wish us luck! I think if she has a good, sleepy day, the drive won't be so bad.

We're staying at the Garden of the Gods campground. It looks nice online. Has a pool and playground and even things like pancake feeds. We plan to go to the Royal Gorge one day while we're there and otherwise probably just bum around Colorado Springs. Oh, and of course, Sean has two days of golf outings, but otherwise our plans are pretty open. I hope the weather is nice so we don't get stuck inside the little camper. Kaelyn seems to enjoy it in there for limited amounts of time. But playing in there for any LONG period would probably be tough. I'm sure there are inside places there we can find things to do as well.

This will be our second vacation with Kaelyn. Last summer we went to Kansas City with my family for a few days and stayed in a big cabin there. It was a nice close place where we could go and do some different things but not be TOO far from home. Next summer we plan to take another family trip to Branson where a couple from our church owns a nice big house and offered to let us use it.

But let's focus on this vacation first. I think I'm pretty well packed but now I have a list of last minute things that I can't really do until the morning we leave. Which is a bummer because Sean wants to leave at like 7:30am. So getting up and getting all that packed AND getting Kaelyn and me ready might be pushing it, but we'll make it! I hope. :)

Picture catch up

2010-07-07T16:47:00.000-07:00

I need to figure out why the pictures are sideways. But at this point I'm stumped.

Here's Kaelyn at the zoo. She's taking her morning nap. This is how she sees the elephants. Over and over as I do laps around them. She never gets to see the elephants, the poor thing!

One day last week Kaelyn had a real rough nap. She just yelled and yelled. She was really serious about it. When I couldn't stand it anymore I went in and picked her up and rocked her. I wasn't intending her to fall asleep, I just wanted to calm her down. But she went right to sleep and looked like a little angel. It's been a long time since I held her when she was sleeping.

Ollie was just sitting on the stairs the other day like this. Like a real person or something! He usually lays in a ball or on his back all spread out. This was a strange place to lay and a strange WAY to lay!

Kaelyn is finally awake in this zoo picture and ready to run. At least run for the camera to try to grab it! I think we had just gotten done at Bear Canyon and she led me over to the Aviary.

Mishaps

2010-07-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

Again, I don't know why these pictures are sideways, but they'll do I guess!

Yes, Kaelyn knows how to turn on an iphone. She pushes the button and slides her finger across. Then continues to push every button she can until she gets bored. She's done things to it I don't even know how to do! :)

When I was a kid it seems I had several mishaps. I don't remember them and I (supposedly!) did them innocently. One time I set off the fire alarm in the library by opening a fire door. I guess it wasn't quiet in the library that day! Somehow I pulled over a whole rack of shoes at a shoe store. And I completely shut down an escalator by messing just right with the hand rail. Sometimes kids just do things! Whether they mean to or not! I don't remember doing those things so I can't say if I meant to or not. But my mom believes it was all very innocent so I'll let her keep thinking that!

This past Sunday in church Kaelyn was running around, as usual. At the back of the church was the elevator. She's been fascinated by that for quite sometime. She can't reach the up and down button so she reaches FOR it. Sometimes I push it, the doors open, and she hops right on. We ride up or down, then go back to the main floor. This was no big deal until this week. Inside the elevator, she discovered she could reach some of the buttons! Oh joy! What buttons are lowest on this particular elevator? The call button, so you can talk to people if you're stuck in the elevator. And the alarm button, so you can make a loud bell ringing noise. She chose the alarm button. Things like that always seem to happen in a split second, but in slow motion. I could see her going for it. I could see what was going to happen. And yet I could do nothing to stop it. It was only a split second of an alarm...three times. And I wasn't sure anyone even heard it. Later my husband told me he had heard it in the church. And therefore I'm pretty sure most everyone else did too. But what do you do! Perhaps she takes after me in that way. Initiating mischief!

I know I've talked about how Kaelyn won't eat ANYTHING or put much in her mouth. Last week we went to some friend's house for dinner. She LOVED the chocolate chip cookies as you can see from that picture. She chowed as much of that as we would give her. Down the hatch! And all over the face, I might add. So now we can add chocolate chip cookies to her things she will eat. Among the gram crackers and veggie puffs and zuchinni bread. Not exactly a balanced diet! Good thing baby food gets her some fruits and veggies!

Pictures

2010-07-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

I have a bunch of pictures I haven't posted recently so I thought I'd catch up a bit by just posting some pictures. Kaelyn will be awake soon so I'm sure I don't have time to write much. I don't know why some are sideways like that.

Her 4th of July dress

Her 3rd of July outfit that was my niece's

Concentrating on swinging outside

Looking at who knows what in the swing!

4th of July

2010-07-04T04:10:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn loves her swing, really she does! Just because she looks totally bored in these pictures... :)

We didn't really have any plans for the 4th of July weekend. Not for lack of trying! Sean's cousins were going to go camping nearby so we were going to visit them one of the days. But then they changed their plans. So no visiting. We asked some friends to come over for a BBQ but they were going out of town. We checked with Sean's parents to see what they were doing and they were going over to some friend's house. At that point I think we gave up! :)

So Saturday Sean mowed and Kaelyn and I hit the library for a bit. That was pretty much the extent of the day. Sunday we plan to go to church and take a test ride in the camper (more on that later) and Monday we have some grocery shopping to do. Big time plans, right?! :) But hey, it's a nice relaxing weekend and at least we're all together!

As for the camper, Kaelyn hasn't really ridden in it since August. She was pretty little back then! We're going to Colorado for a whole week pretty soon and we thought it might be a good idea to take a test ride to make sure her seat fits okay and she likes it okay. Not that it matters if she doesn't at this point. We have our plans set! We've done a couple of test weekends actually camping and that has gone well. Kaelyn has slept pretty good and enjoyed running around in the limited space of the camper. But I've always driven my car separately from the camper so she's never actually ridden IN it. At least not since August. She'll only have to put up with the ride for 10 hours when we head to Colorado!! Oh boy. Could be a long drive! But we've arranged it so we'll take full advantage of naptimes so hopefully that will help.

The last couple of days Kaelyn has had some major screaming fits. I'm wondering if there are some molars bothering her. Yesterday morning she woke up very unhappy. I went in to her room and she was just rolling around screaming. Usually in the morning she pops right up and stands up so I can pick her up. Not yesterday. I let her roll around for awhile while I stood there waiting for her to stand up. She never did so eventually, after we had long since woken Sean, I just picked her up and took her downstairs. She wouldn't drink her milk, she wouldn't eat, she just wanted to scream. She was SO upset she had REAL tears and a runny nose! Just not like her. I finally just sat at the kitchen table and held her. She was even struggling against that for awhile. But she calmed down eventually and ate a little and was fine after that. I don't know WHAT the deal was! She was EXTRA cute after her morning nap, though. Maybe she had teeth bothering her, maybe she slept weird, maybe she had a bad dream. I'm the first to admit I really don't know what I'm doing here! It's a new adventure everyday it seems. I hope not to have to endure many more of those fits, though. It's so hard to know what to do when everything SEEMS okay and yet they scream anyways!

I'm doubting we'll get to see any fireworks this year. Kaelyn goes to bed at 8 and it's still quite light out at that time. Maybe there will be a display on tv we can watch. I think that's what we did last year other than what Sean's dad set off in our backyard. Happy 4th to all of you!

Outside fun

2010-07-01T14:07:00.001-07:00

Aren't kids the best when they're asleep? So peaceful and sweet! But they just don't sleep that much! At least mine doesn't! But being outside helps to wear her out.

When we're outside Kaelyn enjoys chasing remote control cars. I dropped ours the other day and broke a piece that we now know can't be fixed. So I got a real cheap one at Walmart and we tried it out this afternoon. She loves it! She likes when it chases her or comes over to her slowly and then she gives it a push to start it up again.

Another of her favorite outdoor games is toss the golf ball. She'll take a golf ball (or more recently two) and throw it across the driveway into the grass. Then we have to go retrieve them and throw them the other way. Occasionally they get tossed into the street and bounce down the hill away from our house. This is upsetting to Kaelyn and I have to carry her down to get them back. Which is no fun for me! So we try to avoid that travesty, but what do you do! It happens!

The other golf ball game involves her sitting on the porch and throwing the golf ball over the edge into the grass. At which point I "get to" retrieve it and hand it back to her. And then she tosses it again immediately. Lots of fun for me, as you can imagine!

Bubble blowing is also fun. Especially if the bubbles land and stick in the grass without popping. Then they can be popped by baby fingers. Much more fun than popping on their own!

And Kaelyn has a pink car that neighbors gave her. She won't ride in it but she loves to be chased BY it!

Wagon rides are also a good time. She has a foam rocket that she holds onto and sticks her finger in and just sits there looking around and chilling out.

Kaelyn has tastes chalk on a few occasions and made a few hash marks on the sidewalk. But mostly she tells me what to write! :) Things like welcome home daddy. And pictures of weird looking animals that I do my best to draw! I think I have more fun with the chalk than she does, but she DOES like emptying it from the box and putting it back in!

I don't know WHAT we're going to do when winter hits and we're stuck inside all day everyday again!

Eating...or not

2010-06-29T03:55:00.000-07:00

This picture is how I found Kaelyn after a nap one day. She likes to look between her legs, kind of upside down. But usually when we're outside watching cars. Or when she's naked before bedtime and we have guests, ha! Apparently after naptime too.

I don't know what to do with this kid and her eating. Or lack thereof. I started giving her baby food with chunks in it to try to get her used to real food slowly. I tried to cut out the baby food entirely and she just didn't eat. I was afraid that would affect her sleeping and I didn't want her to get by on crackers and yogurt so I thought maybe putting chunks in things would help transition her. For awhile she was spitting out bites even with the smallest chunks. Then after awhile she'd eat them and things seemed to be going okay. Well, over the weekend she was having her yogurt for a snack. I've been getting normal yogurt now and not the baby stuff. It has chunks of fruit in it. She actually gagged on a chunk and threw up. It's the first time she's thrown up in SO long. I can't even remember the last time. I thought it was a fluke so I proceeded as normal the next day. And she did it again. And again. Hit a chunk, throw up. Not just spit out the current bite, but actually throw up. I'm starting to think she has a really sensitive gag reflex. Not sure what to do about that.

But then, at supper, after she eats some other foods, I get out the zuchinni bread. And the other night she was SO excited about that she stuffed the WHOLE piece I had out for her in her mouth...BEFORE I got a chance to break it into bite sized pieces. It was a bite bigger than any bite I would have taken...and she's smaller than me! I tried to extract what I could from her mouth but most of it was in there for good. And she didn't choke or gag on THAT. That BIG bite! So why choke on tiny bites of other things? I don't get it! She gags on bananas, chokes on strawberry and blueberry chunks, spits out any meat or potato. She's certainly old enough to be eating these things now. She doesn't really have to chew anything I give her, but she has 8 teeth so she could mash it up a bit if she needed to.

I made her 15 month appointment for the end of July. If things continue this way I'm anxious to see what the doctor has to say. Though in my experience with her, she's pretty laid back and probably will just say, oh, she'll eat eventually! :)

A friend of mine has a son that's a year older than Kaelyn and I remember her saying the 14th month was her LEAST favorite month because her son got a lot of teeth and was real grumpy and acted out etc. Kaelyn just hit 14 months and so far it has been my favorite month. She can be SO much fun and is really starting to enjoy showing off and being a ham. It's adorable.

However, yesterday we went to that friend's house and Kaelyn was a little terror! She was okay for awhile outside and we ate lunch inside and she did fine then. After that she got real screamy and I don't know WHAT her problem was. She was a little afraid of the dogs but she's gotten used to them in the past and she didn't even seem to be paying attention to them. It didn't matter what we did, inside, outside, she was just determined to scream. So I finally left to give them some peace. I was planning to leave around 1 anyways and it was 12:45 or so, but still, I didn't want to leave THAT way!! What do you do. She stopped screaming as we got down the block and played all the way home and was fine in the afternoon. It's a mystery. Some days I think I can predict her and other days I know I still don't have her figured out!

Kaelyn and Ollie

2010-06-24T04:08:00.000-07:00

Ollie is becoming quite the baby lover. Well, he's at least very protective and curious about her. He has a playing dead pose he takes on in the summer months. Not that it's really hot in here, we have air conditioning! Kaelyn likes this pose because she can pet his tail without him noticing. But he knows. And somehow he knows the difference from when she does it and when I do. She usually pats him as he walks by and sometimes if she's sitting playing somewhere he'll rub against her on his way by. I think they're going to be quite the buddies someday. I know Ollie is protective over her. When she was a tiny baby and would have screaming fits I'd be walking around the house trying to calm her down and Ollie would follow me, nipping at the backs of my legs. Like, what are you DOING to that poor baby?! He was very helpful. Just what I needed! A screaming baby AND a biting cat!! When she got bigger and would nurse herself to sleep at night, I'd sit in the chair in her room and he would hide behind the chair. Several nights I didn't know he was there
and they had a slumber party. I found him in the chair in the morning, happy as a lark to be in the same room as her. I started checking behind the chair. Not that he was bothering her, but I didn't want him getting up and meowing and waking her or something. Today he usually likes to be in the same room as us to watch the play. From a distance. But just to know what's going on! He definitely likes when she goes to bed because then he can nap with me or sit in a chair on my lap and get REAL attention. My FULL attention! It doesn't happen often so he takes it when he can get it! Though he gets somewhat more attention then in the past because we're home all day everyday as opposed to me being away at work.

Someday when Kaelyn is bigger she and Ollie will probably be best friends. Maybe he'll even sleep with her and follow her around. I know he likes her, in his own stand offish sort of way!

Showing Off

2010-06-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn is entering the show off stage. She's still a little skittish around people, but if it's people she knows, or people that just stay back and watch her, she's a big show off! My mom arrived yesterday and she immediately entered her show off mood. She hid behind the tv and popped out, playing hide and seek or peek a boo. When we were looking at a lift the flap book she'd lift the flap and grin real big. But she wasn't looking at the book, she was looking at my mom. See this book?! See me lift the flap?! Are you watching?!

She was the same way when my friend Stana stayed with us for a few days last week. She giggled and grinned and ran around. In the evening when she was having a little nudey time, she bent over and looked at Stana through her legs. Quite a sight!

And she is getting a little better with people. Though she still sticks close to me and doesn't want people touching her! We were in the library the other day and she was playing happily so I walked maybe 10 feet away from her to check out books. There was no one else there except the librarian. But the librarian's desk was between me and Kaelyn. The librarian was BEHIND the desk, but still! I
looked back over at her and Kaelyn was looking at me, reaching her arm out and her little face was all crumpled up like she was about to scream a big one! Now, had the librarian not been between us I'm sure she would have just run over to me. But to get to me, she would have had to go PAST someone else, the horror! That someone is SO nice and couldn't have gotten to Kaelyn if she tried since the desk was in the way! But whatever, Kaelyn doesn't think that way just yet. She just knew I was too far away and she didn't want to walk past someone else to get to me!

But she is better with her separation anxiety. She doesn't yell at people as much. Just pushes them away politely with her hand! :) Someday she'll get over it and I'll be like, oh, I remember the day when she ONLY wanted mama! And now she's happy with anyone! I'll probably miss it.

This weekend I'm speaking at Morning Star Lutheran Church. I got nervous about it yesterday because my contact there emailed me asking for a bio so they could introduce me. That makes me sound like a real, valid speaker! When they first asked me to give a guest sermon they asked for a picture too so they could make flyers and publicize the event. I'm like, but I'm not someone important or special that people would come to see! They have a Saturday night service and two Sunday services. I figure after I speak Saturday night they'll tell me they're okay for sunday, no need to return, ha! I won't think about it again until Saturday so hopefully it won't make me nervous. Talking to people in person is SO different than radio. Just because I talk on the radio all the time doesn't mean I'm completely comfortable with public speaking! When people are there actually LOOKING at me, it's a whole different story!

Hopefully Kaelyn will be in a cute showing off mood and not a "mama only" mood since I can't bring her with me to the front. That'd be a little distracting!! Especially if she bent over and looked at everyone through her legs! Though I don't intend on letting her have any nudey time!!

Another camping weekend

2010-06-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

We were going to go camping this weekend but all the spots where we wanted to go were full. So...we camped at Sean's parents' house! We took the camper and parked in their driveway. They have an acreage out in the country so there was lots of room. It probably worked out better that way anyways because there was more to do. And when it rained, on several occasions, we were able to go into their house and have more room to run around.

Kaelyn REALLY enjoyed their wagon. I pulled her around and around in that thing. Half the time when we would go outside she'd grab my hand and lead me over to it. Hint hint. The other half the time she'd lead me around to the back of the house where the baby swing is and put my hand on it so I'd know that's what she wanted! Here's a picture of her playing horseshoes with Sean. She got that plastic set for him for father's day. Thoughtful of her! :)

We went to a lake on Saturday. We took the camper over. Sean's family went boating and Sean and Kaelyn and I wandered around. The boaters came back and picked him up while she napped in the camper. I read and then napped too! When she was up we went over to a beach, which she did NOT like. She didn't like having her feet in the water. She didn't like the sand. She didn't like the beach! Sean found a nearby swing and she was happy again. We got a little crispy! My shoulders and neck are REAL red. Just from that short time at the beach! Luckily Kaelyn was well covered with spf 90 suntan lotion! Guess I should have borrowed some from her!

Sunday morning we kind of forgot it was father's day but after Sean and I were ready and I was giving Kaelyn a bath we remembered to give him his present. I can finally say what it was! Kaelyn and I went to Wal-Mart to the "Picture People"store in the front and got our picture taking. Sean had been saying he needed a new picture of me because the one he had at work was taken before we were even married. So it's like 9 years old, probably. I did one better and got a picture of Kaelyn AND me! Here's our favorite one. They also took several shots of just her, which ALL were very cute. It was her first time going to an actual picture place. Sean always takes her pictures at home and they're always REALLY cute. But I couldn't exactly surprise him with this picture had he taken it, huh! :)

The camping weekend went well. Kaelyn slept pretty well in the camper which makes me look forward to our Colorado trip even more. I still don't look forward to the long drive. I hope that part isn't painful. I guess there's no way to tell for sure until we're on the road! But at least I know we should be able to sleep since she does pretty well in her tent in the camper. She gets the kitchen table that folds down into a bed. Sean put cork board up on one side so it's pretty much like a crib. We put blankets up from the corkboard to the cupboards above it so she can't see us walk by to go to the bathroom or whatever. It's her own little tent! She seems to like it okay!

Last night I got pooped on pretty majorly. Kaelyn was in a HUGE mama's girl mood. I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water and she followed me SO frantically she slid into the fridge trying to get to me. I picked her up and she got SO upset over the ordeal she pooped. It was a chain reaction. Let's just say we both ended up taking off everything we had on! And that didn't do much to calm her down! She was pretty tired from two short naps that day so I'm guessing that was why she was as upset as she was. Putting her to bed helped and she's her regular happy self this morning. And we're both bathed and clean again too! :)

I'm still contemplating cutting her off baby food. I think I might try it today. We went to the store this morning and got bananas and some other things she MIGHT eat if she gets hungry enough! I may give it a go at lunch time. I'm not sure what else to do. It seems like she's not willing to even TRY anything as long as she has baby food to back her up. So if I take that away, just maybe... Or maybe it'll be a long day with a hungry baby! To be continued!

Father's Day

2010-06-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Father's Day is coming up this weekend. My parents have told us not to get them gifts anymore for Father's Day/Mother's day, their birthdays, anniversary, things like that. They don't need anything and are happy with simple cards and a phone call. But Kaelyn wore an Iowa Hawkeye cheerleading outfit a few weeks ago and we took pictures so I got a 5x7 of that for my dad to hang in his basement Hawkeye bathroom. Couldn't resist!

My dad was quite the trick-playing father. He used to pour cold water on my sister and I when we were showering. I remember we were on a walk one time and he yelled "SNAKE!" threw his arms in front of us and then catapulted himself into a neighbor's yard, tackling a big black drain hose. He did that trick another time in our house with a simple piece of licorice. My mom went out of town shopping once when I was in third grade. This was before the days of cell phones. I got sick at school, as in threw up, how embarrassing, but everyone did it, it seems! :) So they called my dad at work and he had to come pick me up. We went home and did he make me chicken noodle soup? (Not that I ate soup anyways!) No! He put me in the bugger (the thing you drag behind the bike) and rode to the new house we were building. I was in my pjs and robe probably pale as a sheet. When I got to high school he and my mom enjoyed attending the football games because I was in the marching band. Did he sit and clap along or watch quietly with the other parents? No, he stood up and did the cabbage patch (a strange type of dance) or the macarena or whatever other WAY cool moves he could come up with! My dad wasn't your typical dad. But, as much as I make fun of him, I wouldn't have it any other way. Our way of affection is a strange one. Poking fun and playing pranks, but hey, it works for us! And I know he loves me and I certainly love him.

I don't really have TOO many pictures of Sean with Kaelyn because he's always the one TAKING the pictures. But some of the ones from when she's first born are sure precious. Boy does she love her daddy! He comes home and starts right in on tickling her and she just squeals. He'll be in the kitchen and she'll sneak in, HOPING he will see her. And when he does she turns and RUNS and he chases and usually catches her and the tickling begins all over. When he catches her and tickles she squeals and pushes his hands away. But when he stops she pulls his hand back in again like, do it again! Back when Kaelyn woke up in the middle of the night when I started sending Sean in to pat her back to sleep, I used to tell him she woke up because she MISSED him! :) Probably true! He probably didn't care WHAT she missed at 3am! :) I feel that pain! Kaelyn is going to have SO much fun with her daddy in years to come. I can already see how her eyes light up when she sees him. He's going to teach her to golf someday and they're going to be quite the buddies! Perhaps she'll even talk him into doing her hair and playing dolls with her. If she's into that someday. If not, cars and trucks here we come!

Happy Father's day to all dad's out there! Especially my dad, my great father in law, and my husband!

Surviving our weeks alone

2010-06-15T04:05:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn and I have been surviving our weeks alone. One day at a time! The first week we were alone a LOT. We went to the zoo twice and the library once, a day of errands as well. ALL alone. The final day of the week we drove two hours to meet a friend and yes, we had Chick-Fil-A! :) We hung out at a mall and visited Target and Kaelyn was SO good the whole time. She slept most of the drive on the way there AND back so it was great.

This ball toy has been her favorite lately. It was her favorite when she was around 9 months old and then she kind of got over it for awhile. Now she's back into it big time! Maybe because she now understands how to pick the balls up and put them in herself. She was playing with it this afternoon for about an hour, just giggling away!

My friend Stana, who I met in college, is back visiting her hometown and she came down for a few days to visit. She was around all afternoon yesterday and we went to the zoo today.
I'm pretty convinced she should not only move here, but move in with us. Or at LEAST spend ALL of her time with us. Because every time she's been around Kaelyn has been a perfect little angel. Smiling and giggling and being her cutest. Napping when she's supposed to and not crying about it. I keep telling Stana, I wish she was ALWAYS like this! She probably thinks I have NO reason to complain about this kid! And for the last few days, she's right! But she has her moments! Which are sure to become plentiful once Stana leaves so I'm pretty sure she just shouldn't leave! :) Plus, yesterday when Kaelyn was napping she baked a WHOLE load of cookies. Probably about half of which I've eaten by now. Okay, maybe not half, but I'm getting close!!

I felt pretty awful this morning, though, I must have (or Kaelyn must have) gotten suntan lotion in her eye. I think I put it on her face and she rubbed it over into her eye. Her eye turned red and she just rubbed and rubbed it and her whole forehead on that side of her face got blotchy like it had
a rash. Poor thing. I wiped her eye and face well (which she didn't appreciate) and it got better after that. I put lotion on her EVERY day and this has never happened before. She must have gotten a pretty good chunk in her eye. I sure felt bad!

She also took a nice sized trip in the driveway the day before Stana arrived. She was playing her golf ball throwing/chasing game and took a tumble. I saw it happen and really thought she had just fallen on her hands. I thought she caught herself. So I walked over and picked her up as she screamed thinking she had just startled herself and was like, oh, you're fine, don't cry! Then I looked at her and she had a HUGE lump and bruise on her head. I was very apologetic for doubting her! :)

I must have interrupted her play to take this picture. It looks like I'm going to get the ball launched at my face, doesn't it!

This weekend we're going camping near where Sean's parents live. It's supposed to be pretty hot so hopefully it isn't too miserable since we'll want to be outside most of the day rather than stuck in a small camper! We plan to camp two nights. Probably a good idea. Last time we camped only one night. This time we can do two and then in July when we go to Colorado hopefully we'll be ready for a full week!

Kaelyn and I can't wait to give Sean his father's day presents. The one thing she picked out (I can't say what in case he reads this) we'll probably give to him early because he might want to use it camping this weekend. The thing we had more special made for him we'll wait to give him Sunday. Assuming he doesn't run across it before then since we'll have it in the camper and space is limited and all! :)

I think naptime is almost over. I hear activity. I was napping too but was rudely interrupted by a telemarketer asking for Sean. First of all, he's not home. Second of all, he's not buying whatever you're selling. Third of all, it's naptime people!!! What I actually said was simply, "take us off your list" but that's what I was THINKING!

Eat Mud!

2010-06-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

This isn't a great picture, but it's the best I could do under the circumstances. If you've read this blog before you may remember that Kaelyn doesn't really put things in her mouth. She doesn't eat table food no matter how hard I try. Today...she ate dirt. We have a huge heavy cement planter on the porch. It's empty but has some remnants of dirt in it from last year. Kaelyn was digging around in it today, no big deal. However, she found a dirt clod, a little muddy ball, and decided she wanted to taste it. DIRT! Now, for most kids this probably isn't unusual, kids put EVERYTHING in their mouths. Kaelyn does not. Hardly ANYTHING goes in there except her fingers! It's been a bit of a struggle. All this good food I try to get her to test and she eats dirt?! What does that say about my cooking?! Anyways, she didn't enjoy it. She started gagging and choking on it. I tried to get it out but by that point the dirt ball was no longer a ball, it was just a bundle of mud. So there was nothing I could do but let her eat it and help her wash it down. We went inside and I gave her a drink and wiped what came back out off her face (after taking this brief picture!) I can't believe this kid! I gave her strawberries for supper and she wouldn't do anything but poke them, but she ate DIRT!! I give her bread, carrots, beans, meats, you name it. She ate DIRT! Maybe she's trying to tell me she wants a change in her diet. No more good things, no more colorful items, just dirt will do. Though, like I said, she didn't enjoy it! But she ate it!! More than I can say about any other food. Not that dirt is food! :)

Fingers...watch out for birds!

2010-06-11T18:46:00.001-07:00

As you may remember from earlier posts, Kaelyn loves to put her finger in things. Straws, drains, toys, my nose, whatever is available. We went to the zoo this week (can you believe it?! Twice actually!) and we arrived first thing in the morning at 8:30 so there weren't many people there. We went into the butterfly building and went into the side with the bugs and waterfalls and birds etc. Kaelyn's favorite part of that area is this waterfall enclosed by a net with birds in it. She seems to really enjoy ALL the waterfalls at the zoo. And these particular birds are friendly. They sit on branches near the side and move around a lot so she really watches them.

We were the ONLY ones in the butterfly building that morning so we were having a good time running around. She was really watching the birds and waterfall and I saw someone come in. It was one of the zookeepers and I glanced up for ONE second. This just goes to show you what can happen in ONE second! When I was watching Kaelyn she was standing by the net, hands are her side, watching the birds all wide eyed. The birds were standing on the other side watching her back! I look up for a second and when I look back down she has her finger THROUGH the netting and a bird has its ENTIRE beak around her finger! I'm not sure if she put her finger in bird's mouth (which I wouldn't put past her since she SO enjoys putting her finger in things) or if the bird put its beak around her finger! Either way, she was pretty cool about it. I was like AH! And she looked at me like "way cool, mama, look what I'm doing!!!" She seemed to really enjoy it. Thankfully the bird must have been gentle and wasn't really biting and didn't have a sharp beak. It was just holding her finger. But sheesh, one SPLIT second of glancing up and that's what happened! You just never know, huh!

Cute sleeping

2010-06-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

Don't you wish we could all be this cute all the time? Sometimes when Kaelyn is going to sleep I hear her squeeze the rubber duck. It squeaks and she giggles. She's not exactly sleeping, but it's sure cute! But eventually this is how she ends up. I'm still not sure what it is about the rubber duck that she likes so much. It's not soft or cuddly. But it works for her! We had four of them but they get lost here and there and we're down to just one. The one she stole from the children's museum, actually. There HAS to be another one in the house somewhere because I know she lost one around here. We just haven't run across it yet. Two were lost at the zoo so those two are goners for sure.

We're surviving our week alone so far. And we have been completely alone so far. Not only is my mom away on vacation but we haven't been able to get together with any friends. We have plans to meet a friend on Friday, but the rest of the week it has been JUST us. We made two trips to the zoo and had one errand day/trip to the library. Today
we have to go to a place and pick up a thing. Can't say where or what in case Sean reads this. It's for father's day. :) We have to go between 11-1245 or something like that. And that's our ONLY plan for the day. Maybe we'll have lunch somewhere just to be out for a little longer. Otherwise, we'll play the day away unless I think of anything else to do!

I do think Kaelyn is getting tired of me, though. It's good for her to be with other people here and there. Last night after we got home from the church potluck she and Sean played for 15 minutes or so. You should have heard her squealing! It was the most noise she made all day! As much as she enjoys my company (or so I tell myself!) sometimes she wants to hang out with someone else for awhile!

Last night was night three of no nursing. I haven't exploded so that's good. It hasn't even been THAT painful compared to the other feedings I dropped in the past. Kaelyn cried around for 20 minutes or so last night before cashing it in. That's hard to listen to because I know if I just nursed her she'd go right to sleep peacefully. But I can't do it forever! Well, I could, but that's just weird.

Speaking of sleeping, I think she's awake now. And the day begins!

Nursing Update

2010-06-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

Kaelyn MAY officially be weaned now! I decided that around my birthday I would try to stop the nursing session before bedtime. That was the only one we had left. First I thought that I would just give her ONE side a night for a few nights so she would be getting less and then I would cut her off for real. I was going to try it over the weekend. But Saturday night we'd had that big party for my birthday (still surprised!) and we still had guests here so I didn't want to mess with anything. Plus Kaelyn was ramped up from the big day and/or extra tired from it! So I proceeded as normal. Sunday night I attempted to just give her one side and she threw a FIT. Since I hadn't thought it through too well I gave in and just nursed her as usual. Monday night, though, I was determined to REALLY try. I told her throughout the day what we were going to do. I gave her a cup of milk in the evening to hopefully fill her up. At bedtime we went upstairs and looked at a book. She didn't want to have anything to do with it so we were only a few pages in when I gave that up. I just laid her back and rocked her and sang. She didn't like it at first bit calmed down after a little while. After I felt like she was tired and relaxed I put her in bed, told her mama loved her, and left the room. At first she was calm. She cried a tiny bit then stopped. After I got back downstairs it was probably a good 5-10 minutes later when she cried pretty hard for a minute. And here I thought she was doing okay with it! But she stopped shortly and I didn't hear much from her again.

We had a big thunderstorm overnight but I didn't hear Kaelyn until 2am. And then it was just a roll over squawk, nothing serious. She's been rolling around in her bed now since about 5am but it's 6:20 and she's not fully awake yet. Assuming all goes well, I think she's weaned! None of the individual feedings I cut were as hard as I thought. I always dreaded doing it because she just hates change and resists is so much. But each time I resolved to REALLY try, she's gone along with it after a little resistance. It's a hard thing to give up. Because nursing is SO sweet and such a peaceful time. It's probably the only quiet time of day I had to look at her and enjoy her without her moving full speed! And who knows, if she's our only child, I may never nurse again! So part of me is sad! But I also know that she's growing up and she doesn't really need that anymore. It's nice to know that I can go away for a night and she'll be okay. Not sure when I'll feel comfortable doing that, but at least I know it's an option!

So, she takes a bath in the big girl tub...I think she's done nursing...now if we can just get her to eat table foods!! That's next!

On another note, the last two mornings I've been watching the movie Precious while I run on the elliptical machine. The movie has a LOT of bad language so I wanted to watch it alone when Kaelyn wasn't around. It was interesting and VERY sad. It made me SO thankful to have the family I have. Even on my worst day as a mother, Kaelyn has it SO good. And I have it SO good to have her. If nothing else, the movie made me greatly appreciate everything I have. It's good to stop and be thankful for the little things sometimes. I don't want to take for granted this wonderful life I've been given.

Big Surprise

2010-06-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

When Sean turned 30 I threw him a surprise party. Granted, I threw that party several months EARLY so he was REALLY surprised! His birthday is January 4th so with snow and holidays it's hard to get a party in. November was much better and even more surprising for him! :) Anyways, I guess he felt like he needed to get even!

At one point we'd talked about going camping over the weekend but it was suppose to rain so we didn't. I didn't think we really had any plans at all. Kaelyn and I went to neighborhood garage sales on my actual birthday, Friday. Sean said he had some ideas for what to do Saturday but wouldn't tell me. By his hints I was guessing a zoo visit. But come Saturday, it was raining pretty hard so he said we'd just get ready for the day and go shopping. Uh, okay! He didn't say where so we got ready and got in the car and ended up at Hy-vee. I was perplexed. I'm not much of a shopper as it is but what do you shop for at Hy-vee?! Sean headed for the bakery department so I thought, okay, maybe he's going to let me pick out a cake or bakery treat of some kind since we didn't really have one on my actual birthday. But he went up to the counter and asked for his cake (see above picture!) I saw what they handed him and was like, Sean, that's a HUGE cake! I thought there'd been a mistake! We couldn't eat that big of a cake just the two of us! Even though I DO love cake! Then I saw what it looked like and I said, "And it's ugly!" Apparently that's why he made it the way he made it! You see, I'm not a pink person...at ALL. Kaelyn wears pink often because if the outfit fits, it's clean, and on top of the pile, she'll wear it! But I just REALLY don't like pink. Hence the pink cake. Even a princess crown, how nice! :) No, I didn't wear the crown! :) Back to the story, so Sean picks up this big cake and I was sure there was a mistake but he said we were having a big party today. I was like what?! He said maybe 20-30 people were coming over to our house for my birthday, surprise! :) He figured it would be easier to reveal the surprise at that point because he needed to buy supplies and get things ready at home and I'm not the easiest person to get rid of, I guess! :)

So around 10:30am Sean's parents and grandma showed up and helped him with horrendous pink streamers and balloon decorations. Ugh. I would have preferred black. Sean's brother Joe and his wife Dacia and their little girl Nevaeh came just afternoon and Sean's brother Jason followed shortly after. Later in the day Sean's aunt Denise and uncle Tom as well as his uncle Brian and aunt Tryce and two cousins and Audry arrived as well. My parents didn't make it because they were on their way to an Alaskan cruise. And my sister and her family had my niece's soccer game and my nephew's tball pictures.

I wasn't surprised by Sean's family that came, that was to be expected once I found out there was a party. But when the party first REALLY began (at 2, the time he told most people to arrive) my friend September, her husband and daughter appeared! Someone (SEAN!) has been searching through my cell phone contacts! Not long after my friend Andrea and her husband and son arrived! Someone (SEAN!) has been searching through my email contacts! Our friends Katie and Kyle and their daughter Megan from church came later in the afternoon. And as if that wasn't enough, I almost had a heart attack from show, my friend from college, Stana and her mom came! See, they live in Tennessee!! So you can see why I would be surprised by that! Last I heard they were going to be coming back through the area MID-June on the way back to their home in South Dakota. So they're a little early!!

Kaelyn was really good at the party. When I first heard we were HAVING a party I wondered how she'd react. She has a tendency to be skittish around lots of commotion. She still stuck pretty close by but she did really well. She even played with several of the kids! Or at least near them!

It was a fun day. I kept getting drinks because I was talking so much my throat got dry. Especially after Stana got here! I convinced she and her mom to stay overnight so even after everyone else was gone we chatted until 10:30pm which is unheard of for me! :) That's way late in my world right now! And then Kaelyn decided 5:30am was wake up time this morning, ugh!

So to Sean, thanks for the fun party! Thanks for thinking of so many people that are important to me, family, friends, and everyone in between! :) And as for the cake, I WILL get even. Enough said.

Birthday

2010-06-04T04:13:00.000-07:00

Well, today's the big day! I'm not longer in my 20s! Kaelyn and I partied hard yesterday to make the most of the remainder of my 20s. I think I re-broke a toe, we went to the zoo, and had lunch with some work friends. Plus there was the wagon ride, the bubble blowing, the napping. Whew, we did it all!

So far 30 feels pretty much the same as 29! Though I did let myself sleep in this morning! I woke up at 5 like I normally do but just rolled over and went back to sleep! Good for me! Maybe I need more sleep in my old age!

I remember birthdays being pretty magical when I was little. I would have big parties with lots of friends. Since my birthday was usually JUST when school got out and the weather was nice we'd have outside parties. Usually we'd draw with chalk in the driveway as people gathered. Play games with water balloons, pin the tail on mickey, have ice cream bars for the treat, things like that. Scavenger hunts in the neighborhood got big as I got older too.

When I turned 16 my parents REALLY got me good. They threw a surprise party at a big indoor park (probably more meant for kids but whatever!) I don't remember where my mom said she was going but my dad and I were home alone. He wanted me to take him for a drive to make sure I was a safe enough driver to start driving alone that summer. He made me get on the interstate and we drove by a place they played volleyball. When we got close to that place my dad said he had to go to the bathroom NOW and to pull over. So we went inside and he walked RIGHT past the bathroom, I was like, hey, there's the bathroom!! Then I turned the corner and ALL of my friends were standing there. Believe it or not, my first thought was, all my friends are here, why didn't they invite me?! Then they yelled surprise and I finally started putting it all together! :) We played on all the equipment for a few hours and then went back to our house and played pool and all that good stuff. That was one of my more memorable birthdays. I can't believe it was almost half my life ago!!!

Today Kaelyn and I plan to hit some neighborhood garage sales. That's about all we have in mind for the day! Nothing special going on. If she has a good day, I will! So let's hope she wakes up well and continues that pattern all day long!

On our own!

2010-06-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day my mom will be with us for three weeks! My parents are taking a cruise in Alaska so Kaelyn and I will be on our own. We have plans for a few days here and there, but mostly we're free. I hope to find more things to do so she doesn't get bored and realize it's JUST me and her for SO many days in a row! :)

My parents are HUGE Iowa Hawkeye fans. My dad got this outfit for Kaelyn for Christmas or her birthday or something! So she had to wear it over the weekend when we were with them. It's actually pretty cute! Being another sports fan team, my husband didn't care for it, but he still took cute pictures anyways!

Below is another of Kaelyn's birthday outfits. It's WAY cute but I had NO idea how hard those overalls are to put on a wiggly kid! VERY hard!

Not to get gross, but over the last few weeks Kaelyn has pooped in her bath a few times. It's SO hard to clean up! It greatly shortens bathtime, that's for sure! Kaelyn gets jerked out of the tub immediately and wrapped in her towel on the floor. Then she has to lay there while I drain the tub and try to clean up! Apparently I was infamous for doing just such things when I was little. Hence my nickname of tubby tootles. Only with me, it was worse, because my sister was in the bath with me! Poor thing. hehe I like to think I did it on purpose! :)

Speaking of bath, over memorial day weekend I succeeded in getting Kaelyn to bathe without her blow up duck tub. I took it to my parents house but decided not to use it for a few days and see how it went. In past trials, plenty of screaming ensued. The first day Kaelyn screamed the whole time but wasn't AS mad as she had been LAST time I tried. So I tried again the next day. She screamed MOST of the time but was also happy for periods of time too. The third day she yelped when she got into the water but calmed down fast and played. The fourth day she was happy the whole time. So yeah! No more duck tub! I deflated it to bring home. It'll be nice to not have to take it with us everywhere and now she has the WHOLE big tub for room! She won't outgrow that for awhile! :)

I still want to work on two things with her: dropping the nighttime nursing session, and get her to eat table food. I've tried lots of table foods and so far have had NO luck with anything. I thought about cutting her off of baby food and hoping she'd get hungry enough to at least TRY some things. But then I decided, she's only a little over 13 months old, maybe she just needs more time. So we'll continue experimenting with things and hope for the best. If she hasn't caught on by her 15 month doctor's check up, I'll ask them about it and perhaps try cutting her off.

So that leaves nursing to work on for now. I think I'll go through this week and maybe most, if not all, of the weekend, and perhaps try to stop nursing Kaelyn at night next week. This is our LAST nursing session so once it's gone, we'll officially be done nursing. As much as I like that idea it's also sad. It's something I may NEVER do again, who knows. And it's such a sweet time to cuddle and bond. Some days, when Kaelyn is on the go all the time, it's the only time she slows down to cuddle with me! I hope it's an easy transition. So far weaning the rest hasn't been TOO hard. And I don't think she really NEEDS to nurse that much anymore. I think it's more of a relaxation thing. But still, it's been her habit for over a year, so it'll be hard to drop. Wish us luck!

And wish Kaelyn luck putting up with ONLY me for the next three weeks! May she be able to get by! :)

Memorial Day Weekend and Moustaches

2010-05-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

We had a great memorial day weekend. We visited my parents and celebrated my niece's birthday (which is coming up June 2) and my birthday (June 4). My mom and I went to Chick-Fil-A EVERY day...except Sunday of course! We went to parks, bookstores, Kohl's, lots of fun places.

My parents had a little pool set up on their covered back deck which Kaelyn had a blast in. Mostly she would stick her hand in it and let it run down her arm when she brought it back out and shot it into the air. We put some floating toys in there, though, and a couple of times she crawled into the water to get to them. This led to taking all of her clothes and even her diaper off when she played in the pool because why not, they were all getting soaked anyways! I had her swimsuit with us but we didn't bother with that.

Sean got to golf three times so he's a happy camper! And we met his brother at a dirt race track and they ran their remote control cars around for a bit too. We also got to go see his brother and wife's new house which looks really nice.

Sounds like we did a lot over the weekend, huh! Not as much as my dad. He showed up one morning with NO moustache! You don't know how weird that is. He grew his moustache when he was in COLLEGE! He shaved it ONE other time a few years back on a dare from my mom. But none of us got to see it in person, just my mom. So I guess we harrassed him enough that he decided to do it again. It's SO white under where the hair was! It looks really weird. I just kept looking and looking. The eyebrows made me sure he was still my dad! :) You can see the picture of him when Kaelyn was little and the post-shaving picture!

Kaelyn was doing some pretty cute things over the weekend. She was addicted to my parents baby swing. Today she was in that swing for two hours straight! Every time she wanted to go outside I'd take her out. We'd start on the front porch blowing bubbles but pretty soon she'd be tootling around to the back of the house. She'd stand by the swing and just look up at it like, okay I'm ready, put me in! She spent many a hours in that swing this weekend!

My parents mowed the first night we were there. Kaelyn always enjoys that. I was sitting in a wooden swing on the side of the house and she'd swing me back and forth a bit. Then walk a few steps away and spin in circles for awhile before falling to the ground. She'd move her head around in crazy ways like she was dizzy. I call that her crazy head thing. She does it at other times as well. Sometimes I just have to say "crazy head girl" and she'll start whipping it around. It's way cute.

Sean taught Kaelyn to "give me five" last week and she loves doing that. She also likes touching one of her fingers to someone else's fingers. My dad was calling this "give me one." I call it ET phone home! :)

Kaelyn made out well in shoes this weekend too. I got her a pair of tennis shoes and sandals and then my sister brought over a bunch of shoes from my niece from when she was little.

I got great presents for my birthday! A clock for the playroom, some shorts and shirts, a pedometer (because I'm always wondering how far we walk at the zoo!) some baking sheets because I always ruin ours fast, a flower rug for the front porch so we can put away the snowman one, and, my dad says my gift was also his shaving his moustache off! The most shocking of all!

My mom will be here for a couple of days this week and then my parents will be cruising in Alaska for two weeks. So Kaelyn and I will be on our own for TWO whole weeks. Hope she doesn't get tired of me! :)

Happy Memorial day weekend to everyone! I hope you had a great time with your family and friends.