Advent

I don't remember doing much for Advent as a kid. Now that I have a child, I find myself a little more sentimental. I may not do an activity every day this month, but I am going to do some.
I think over the next few years as Kaylee gets older we will add and change some activities but I want to document them so I remember what I have done.

So far over the past few days:

We have set up our Christmas tree (normally, we would set up a lot more decorations, but this year we are so busy this month that we are scaling back some)

We gave Kaylee her little people nativity set. I love it and so does she. We do not have a place to leave it set up this year so we are going to get it out periodically. I do not want all the pieces to get lost with all the other toys already.

We planted our paperwhites. We may have done this too late as I just read to plant them 6 weeks before you want them to bloom. Oh well. The meaning behind this is the anticipation of Christ's birth and the anticipation of the flowers to bloom.

We have lots more activites that I will write about later. Some that we will even do while we are with Brian's family:) I am so excited!!!

Black Friday

Yes, it is Thanksgiving Week, but more importantly it is almost friday and the day that I go shopping!!!

It is a tradition in our family to go shopping on black friday. My mom, sister, and I go (without kids) every other year together. The other years, we are on the opposite side of the family and go with them!! My mom and I did it years ago, before I was married, and I think the record was 4a.m. to 10p.m. I don't think we go as long now but we do go that early or even earlier now that stores are opening up sooner. I think I am just going to sleep in my clothes so I am ready to go around 3a.m.!! I will not go on Thanksgiving Day though, I have to draw the line somewhere:)

It is just this craziness that got me an interview with the Post Dispatch!! It will be in Thursday paper and so if someone could save me a copy I would appreciate it. No clue what all will be in there, or if it will be good, but it was fun being interviewed.

So what are your plans for black friday? Are you as die hard as my family is?

Progress Report

I have never really reported on what Kaylee is saying and doing and I would love to be able to look back on this and see how far she has come. She is now 16 1/2 months old.

Words she is saying now:
hi
bye, bye
door
diaper
wow
ball
tutu
baby
mom
dad
uh oh
please
play
toes
book

She will answer "good (goo)" when you ask her how she is doing.

She says quite a bit more, but it all sounds the same right now. Like she will make the "P" sounds for puzzle, puppy, and for many other things.

She can also do sign language for please and more.

She also knows the sounds to the following animals:
Cow
Duck
Snake
Dog
Sheep
Owl
Monkey

Body Parts:
She knows where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, feet, hands, toes, and fingers are.

Things she is up to:

She takes her baby everywhere. Also, puts them into the bouncer seat and car seat if I have them out. She will feed them with a bottle. She loves to put the pacifier into the baby's mouth I watch during the week.

She is running around and loves to horse play, mostly in the evening before bed.

She loves to give things kisses, but is a little stingy on giving them to mommy and daddy.

She loves to closes doors. She will also put toys away, even before we ask her too.

She loves to immitate me when I am working out. She will grab the Wii remote and act like she is running also.

Her favorite toys are the swing, slide, baby, phones, and anything that makes noise.

She is learning something new every day.

Games:

I brought out a memory game yesterday and started with five matches, facing up. She caught on right away and got every one of them. I then moved to eight matches and she did that no problem. Then I went to ten matches, but she lost interest. Pretty good attention span. Later we did the ten matches again and she did it no problem. Then she took all the cards out of the box and found the match she was looking for out of all the cards and handed them to me.

She loves to do the knob puzzles. Actually, her favorite part is to take the pieces out and leave them on the floor.

Songs:

We will sing the "Wheels on the bus" and she loves to make the sound for when we say the "moms on the bus say, shhhh".

She also is learning the song, "if your happy and you know it" She will put her finger to her cheek during the correct part.

Potty Training:

She has also pooped in the potty once!!! We are not really potty training but just talking to her about it and once in a while sitting her on the potty. Well, she pooped a little there once. She hasn't done it since though. She does love to flush the toilet though:)

Oh, yea, she loves puppies!!! Actually, all animals.

Artwork

A Girl and her Baby

Kaylee has REALLY taken to baby dolls lately. She almost always has one in her arms and she has to have one to sleep with also. I love this stage, she is pretending to be a little mommy and is really getting into pretend play. I think I know what is going on her Christmas list!!

She hasn't gotten into the cabbage patch dolls yet, I think they are too big. I will have to wait to bring my old ones out for a little while.

Ouch!

Kaylee got her first good booboo today. She turned and fell right into the corner of a wall. She doesn't seem to bothered by it. You can still see a pretty good bruise 12 hours later. I think she is going to take after her mother when it comes to bruises:) Poor girl. She has had a runny nose today, fell from the slide at Church yesterday and hurt the back of her head. She is not having a good week so far. Hope it gets better.

The finished Product

I finished Kaylee's tutu over the weekend. It was so easy to make, I already have the materials to make more:)
This just shows you how full it is!!


What little princess wouldn't go off riding on her horse.? Now all she needs is her Knight in Shining Armor.

As you can see, she wears it all the time. She has found it is hard to do puzzles with it on though. Speaking of puzzles, Brian and I are very impressed how good she is getting at these puzzles. She can match all of them up. She still has to learn to turn the pieces to fit them in, but she is starting to get that.

The post just wouldn't be complete without this picture:) I thought halloween was over. I guess since he was sick and didn't get to go trick or treating, he had to dress up now.

Little Princess

Kaylee learned a new word the other day. Can you guess what it is?

Tutu!!!! I am in the process of making this for her but she couldn't wait to wear it. At first she was a little timid with it, but then she wouldn't take it off. She dances in it and I love it. She is my little princess:)

Cracking me up!!!

Some of you know that I watch my neighbors 6 month old daughter. Well, yesterday, I had both girls playing downstairs. I smelled someone so jokingly, I asked who was poopy. Kaylee immediately raised her hand:) Where does she learn these things?

Happy Veterans Day. A special shout out to my dad who served in the Marines - many years ago. Thanks Dad, proud of you!!!

16 Months Old

Really? Kaylee is 16months old today? I can hardly believe it.
She is doing so many new things lately:

She loves to do the knob puzzles. She doesn't all the way get the pieces into the puzzle but she is matching the pieces to where they should go.

She has so many new words and phrases lately. She says: uh oh, wow, bye, hi, baby, diaper, plus more I can't think of. She knows the sounds to: train, lion, snake, cow, sheep, puppy, monkey, horse, and a few others. She is also learning her sign language. She goes around the house signing please and more, mostly. She will show us what she wants so it helps a lot.

She is getting very smart. I can not believe how much she comprehends at this point. I have been challenging her and giving her two instructions at a time and she carries them out with out me repeating them.

She loves to give kisses, most of the time. She gets a little stingy on them sometimes:)

Her favorite things to do right now are: play at the park, go for walks, wrestle with daddy, and just follow us around the house.

I know there are more things she is doing that I am going to have to document here for my sake, but I will have to add them later. We have some play time to get too!!!

Wordless Wednesday!!

Fall Fun

It has been so beautiful outside. Kaylee and I have been getting outside every day this week so far and it doesn't look like it is going to stop anytime soon:)
I have noticed how Kaylee loves to do everything I am doing. Whether it is unloading the dishwasher, changing loads in the laundry, or.......
raking leaves.

Just don't tell her that it is not a rake in her hands. It was the only thing I had that fit her little hands. Not only that, but she had a measuring spoon in her hands also:)

I guess she figured out that it was not a rake and she decided she needed mine.

By the way, isn't that the cutest hat you have ever seen? I love it.

I didn't get a picture of it but as I was putting the leaves in the bag, she picked up one leaf at a time and put it in the bag for me. She loves to help and this was no exception. It was a lot of fun. I was expecting her to jump in the pile of leaves, but I think she is still at the stage of not wanting to get dirty so it didn't interest her yet. Maybe if daddy was home and showed her how to do it, then she would have followed:)