Funny Things Kaelyn Says and Does

Kaelyn is almost three and the things she says and does are more funny every day. I decided I better start recording some of them or I'm going to forget and these are things that I just never want to forget! The thoughts I will write in this blog will be very random. They will just come out as I remember them! No particular order.

Some of the funny things Kaelyn says are things that I say all of the time. I now know what I say all of the time based on what Kaelyn says back to me.

Often, when I go into Kaelyn's room in the morning or after her nap, I'll say: "Hey pretty girl!" She has recently caught on to that phrase, but she doesn't use it correctly. In fact, the other day, she walked up to Sean and said "Hey pretty girl!" Um, yeah. That's just not right! :)

One of Kaelyn's favorite games now is what we called "Surfer Girl." She has a pick car with a handle on the back and she'll stand on one side of the driveway and I'll stand on the other. I fling the car across the driveway and she jumps on and rides it the rest of the way across as it comes back towards me. She has found a variety of ways to ride, many of which look as if she's gotten hit by a car and is kersplatted against the front of it. She giggles the whole way and can play the game for hours on end.

Speaking of games, whenever Kaelyn wants to play something, she'll say "Play THAT game?" Often, I know what THAT game is based on what room we are in or where she is heading. There are also times when I have NO idea what game THAT game is and I do not even really know where she got the phrase.

Kaelyn has a way of letting me know what she wants ME to say. I often say, as I have realized through her "I can do that." She will ask me to get her some milk or put her shoes on or whatever and I'll say "I can do that." I must say it enough that she caught on and now when I DON'T say it, she does. And she will KEEP saying it until I say it. So whenever she is repeating something over and over again, I know that means I am supposed to say it. After I do, she stops. :)

Her favorite word still seems to be okay, which is much nicer than no. She agrees to plenty. Though she doesn't always mean it. And she DOES know the word no and gets more emphatic with it on a daily basis.

Lately, Kaelyn has quite a pattern in the morning. She gets up, puts her ducks in the chair, then wants to go make breakfast, which is toast and a breakfast bar. Then she wants to get BACK into her crib and look at My Little Pony, Thomas Train, and Care Bear books. After she "reads" all of those, with my help, hands sticking through bars, we have to snuggle all of the animals in her room. After that, an animal throw fight breaks out. Once that is over, sometimes she will get out and we will pile all of the animals on her as she lays in the chair and then she will roll out and they will attack her. Sometimes I even get a turn. Other times we will play with the Thomas mat on the floor.

Kaelyn is in love with cookies and other "special treats." If she eats a good supper, she'll get to choose a treat. She often gets RIGHT in my face while we're eating and starts saying "cooookiiie? Special treat?" She also asks for a special treat every time she poops when we are home. She gets a couple of Smartie candies and is very happy. I have to wonder if we'll be giving her treats to poop until she's a teenager. But whatever! :) I thought eventually she would forget, but so far she has not!

When Sean leaves in the morning if Kaelyn is up, we have to watch him drive away at the window. As he drives away, she'll talk about how daddy's going for a ride and he's going to go to the big bump, which is the bump we hit going over the railroad tracks that lead out of the neighborhood. Recently, she wants me to open the window and she also yells, "Come back here daddy!"

We just cleaned out all of our kitchen cabinets the other day and discovered plenty of things we didn't know we had. One item was a small fish teether, I'm guessing. I think it's supposed to go in the freezer because the body end of the fish is soft plastic with water in it. Well, I laid it on the stairs to take upstairs and box up, but Kaelyn commandeered it. She's been sleeping with it along with her two ducks every night and every nap since.

We went through a phase recently when Kaelyn would wake up, but want time alone in her room before I was allowed to come in. She would lay in there for an hour or more sometimes and sometimes I would try to go in and get her. She would say, "Mama go away!" Well fine then! So I would go away and come back when she called. The last few days, she still tells me to go away, but she quickly changes her mind and says, "Ready to get up, Mama come in!" just moments after I leave.

When we go to the zoo, her favorite thing to do right now is feed the ducks and fish under the big bridge near the sea lions. This bridge is one of the farthest things from the entrance, but we always have to go there FIRST. When I tell her we're going to the zoo, she starts rambling on, "Ducks, fish, toast." She feeds them the rest of her toast from the morning and then whatever other bread we have scraped up around the house. She often will talk about the ducks and the fish on other days when she's eating her toast as well, just hoping she'll get to take them the leftovers, I guess.

Kaelyn likes to watch videos of herself. She's cute and she knows it. I often take videos on my phone and then she will watch them before her nap and sometimes before bed. The funny part about this is that once she has seen a video of herself, she will start to reenact that video later. For instance, she had a wooden plane for a few days that got TOTALLY torn up. When she saw that it was broken, she told me to get new batteries to fix it. That was hilarious so I got out the camera and started taping. I said, Kaelyn, what did you tell me to do to fix your plane? OF course, all she would say at that point was "Mama fix it! Throw it!" etc over and over again. The video lasts for a minute or so and she loves watching it. After a day or two of watching it, I noticed that whenever she ran across the broken plane, she would say EXACTLY what she says in the video. And she would even say my lines, "Kaelyn, what did you tell me to do to fix your plane?" and so on. She does this for a lot of different videos, even some of the ones from when she was really little. She laid down on the floor one time, starting kicking her legs, chewing on her hands, and making baby noises. We have a video EXACTLY like it.

Kaelyn is definitely a little parrot. If I say something, she'll say something. So I have to watch what I say! Not that I ever really say much bad. I did drop something, her bowl of toast, I think it was, upstairs one day and I said "Crap nuggets!" So you can guess what Kaelyn said in return. :) Luckily, that one didn't catch on and was just a one time thing.

Kaelyn seems to be mostly over Elmo now. She now loves Thomas Train. She likes to watch him, play with him, and wear him. We have a few books featuring him and she knows all of the characters, somehow, though we don't generally read the books, we just look at pictures. I didn't even know the big green one was Emily, but she informed me that was her name. And when I paid closer attention to a video later, she was right!!

Before supper, I'll let Kaelyn watch Thomas or whatever youtube videos to keep her out of my hair while I cook. When she wants to do that, she'll ask to watch wideos. It's one of her favorite things to do, but I reserve it for special times. She'd probably sit there all day if I'd let her. That would be no fun for me! :)

There are so many little Kaelynisms I know I'm forgetting plenty. But I'm hearing a wideo reenactment through the monitor now and I know she's going to tell me to come in soon. I'll have to start taking notes when funny things happen. She makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis for some reason or another, that's for sure!

January and February

Kaelyn and I had a really fun January. It was a pretty nice month and we're used to it being rather cold so we were glad for the change. We spent a lot of time at the zoo and even at parks, believe it or not!

One of the highlights of the month was a trip back to the city where I went to college and some high school. We met up with some old college friends and had some fun. When we arrived, it was lunchtime so we met a gal who went to a different high school that me. She was a friend of a friend and she and I had connected on facebook. She has a daughter many years older than Kaelyn, but we thought it would be fun to meet with her. She was fun to chat with and it was nice to have lunch with another mom!

Then, Kaelyn and I headed to our hotel so she could nap. We had two queen beds so I put pillows all around one and she went right to sleep. She was tired from our big morning, I think. That gave me hope that the overnight hours would go well too. After her nap, we headed back to the mall to meet our college friends. The kids played at the play area and we chatted a bit, then went to supper at Red Robin, yum! After that, Kaelyn and I went back to the hotel and went swimming, which she was WAY excited about. We did that for well over an hour, then went back to our room to simmer down. I simmered. She didn't so much. :) It took her quite some time to go to sleep. I'd say two hours. Then she woke up and sang and chatted from midnight to 3am!!! I couldn't believe all of the songs she knew. And she had WHOLE conversations with herself. "I had a toot, you did? Yes I did. Well that's good to know, thanks for telling me." And on and on. ALL her. I was trying to ignore her! I think she would have done better had I not been in the room with her. She knew I was there and wanted to entertain me, I guess. But I wasn't exactly going to get two rooms just for that!

When we got up we went down for breakfast and enjoyed the continental layout. Kaelyn was excited and talked NONstop. We then went swimming again for at least another hour. She liked throwing her ducks in and jumping in after them. She also liked just wading around and watching the other kids swim and be crazy. AFter that, we went back to our room and relaxed a bit, then hit Kohls for a few minutes before meeting my professor friend at Texas Roadhouse. Kaelyn was hard to corrall there, but that's to be expected, I guess! It was a really fun trip and I was glad we went since Sean was on a business trip anyways and had we stayed home, we would have just been alone!

Kaelyn is more funny as every day passes. Yesterday, I went in to get her from her nap and she said, "I had a good sleep in my bed!" And she'll say things sometimes that's like, where did you GET that?! She picks up on things, that's for sure! She often will say something because she wants ME to say it. She'll say, "Mama, race trains! I can do that!" That means that she wants ME to say "I can do that." So that's my job. To say what she tells me to say. :) And I do it well.

Speaking of trains, that is one of Kaelyn's favorite games right now. We have three trains and we race them. Sometimes, she lays down on the floor and we race them into her face. :) Trust me, she likes it!!! She also has a Hot Wheels car track and she spends a lot of time racing those cars too. Her other favorite games include a bunch of paper balls in the guest room being thrown around and hanging out in her crib throwing her animals in and out. The best games are those that make her giggle so hard I worry she might crack a rib. :) When she's well rested and fed, she can giggle with the best of them.

It's so hard to get in every little detail about her. I don't want to forget any of it, but I know there's no way to remember it all. I try to cherish the precious moments like when I carry her to the bathroom and she wraps her arm around my neck and tucks her face in under mine. She's my little buddy.

She'll be 3 in April!!! I can't believe that. That means she could go to preschool next year. I still haven't decided if I'll be able to do that or not. Academically, she doesn't need it. But I know she could use some social aspects that being around other kids could help. I'm planning to register her, since I have to by March 1st and then drop her out later if I decide not to go ahead with it. So far, all signs point to me NOT putting her in, but I don't want to change my mind this summer and then not have the option. I go back and forth. All I want to do is keep her close, but will it really be any easier to let her go when she's 4? I'm not so sure!

She's fully potty trained now except overnight and her nap. She probably COULD do it at her nap, I just don't want to ruin a good nap! Overnight, she's always totally soaked her diaper. Probably because she drinks like a gallon of milk before bed. :) Gonna have to stop that habit someday. Otherwise, she's really good about telling me she needs to go during the day. Though when she poops, she just makes this cute little noise with a sheepish look on her face. That's her sign. Other times, she just says, "go potty!" and off we go!

We're looking forward to spring so we can hit the zoo etc yet again! Music class is one of Kaelyn's favorite indoor things to do. She doesn't always participate much, but she soaks it in. When we get home she'll sing and act out all these songs I didn't realize she knew. IT's pretty fun. She also LOVES bounce houses, the children's museum, and even walmart. And I love spending those hours with her!

Christmas 4

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

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

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

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!!

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! :)