Miss Kaylie, the Big Girl

Kaylie may be the baby of the family, but she isn't much of a baby any more.  She's growing like a weed!  There are a few 18m things that she can wear, but she's mostly into 24m and 2T clothes, and size 6 shoes, if you can believe it.  If she keeps going at this rate, she'll be into 3T by the fall!  

She's getting better at communicating, too.  It had seemed for a long time that she had stagnated and even regressed some in her speech development.   She's very verbal, but most of what she says is unintelligible babble, and when she wanted something, she would just grunt and point. Elora has always been so precocious in this area, that it makes Kaylie's more gradual progress seem even more so.  Now, she's started coming to get us when she wants something, and leading us by the hand to what she wants.  She still does a lot of grunting and pointing, but she's using more words now, too. She now says "Mama" and "Daddy" quite clearly, and says "Papa" and "Gigi" pretty well too.  She says "doh" for no, "dow" for down, "pwee" for please, and "dan oo" for thank you. "Yay" is an easy one, and one that she's been using a lot lately, because she's also potty training!

We're still in the early stages, but she's doing really very well with it.  I've been putting her on the little princess potty for a while now, but it's become obvious that the concept has really clicked for her.  She often wakes up with a (mostly) dry diaper in the mornings, and we've gotten to the point that she only actually needs 2 or 3 new diapers in the course of the day.  And a couple of times, she's even come to get me and pulled me with her to the bathroom!  She has her own potty chart, and gets a sticker everytime she sits on the potty, whether she actually uses it or not, and of course, we make a huge deal about it when she does.  It'll be a while before she's ready for pull up pants, but we are definitely off to a good start.

Kaylie has also graduated from the crib to a toddler bed.  I had hoped to keep her in the crib a while longer, but she put paid to that idea when she figured out how to climb out on her own, and fell on her head.  The discomfort of the experience may have been enough to deter her from trying it again, but I didn't really want to test that theory.    She's now sleeping in what was Elora's toddler bed, because it is lower to the ground and has the rails to keep her from rolling out.

Elora has the crib-turned-day bed now, which is the same size as the other but is a few inches higher, and has no rails.  Both girls seem to be perfectly happy with the arrangement.

The crib rail is now a hanging rack for their dress up clothes, which is great, because the bins were over-flowing.  Now the dresses and skirts, and leotards can hang, while the accessories can live in the bins.

And, while Kaylie isn't quite two yet, we're already getting into those "terrible two's".  She has definite opinions about what she wants, and isn't even remotely shy about letting her wishes be known.  (You should see her scolding Elora, scowling and shaking her finger at her in agitation.  I'm trying to discourage this, but it's hard to do when I'm also trying not to laugh.)  She's become quite proficient in the art of the temper tantrum already, banging her head on the floor when angry and displaying an impressive lung capacity.  All you have to do is tell her "no", and she falls to the floor, sobbing as if heart broken and/or screaming as if dying in agony.  I have a hard time telling the difference between her "I'm just mad" cry and her "I'm actually hurt" cry.  And I thought Elora was dramatic!  Although, in all fairness, it may just be that time has fuzzed my memories of Elora's tantrums, while Kaylie's are more immediate.

So Far This Year

If I had to name the girls' favorite Christmas gifts, I'd have to say the princess dresses that they got from "Santa".  They spend as much time as possible playing dress up, and if at all possible, in those dresses.  

Dress up can be combined with pretty much anything--which is why they spend so much time in the laundry. Santa was a smart fellow.  Rather than the flimsy costume dresses, he chose nightgown dresses and they are much more durable.  This is a very, very good thing.  Now, if only he'd had the fore sight to get duplicates...

We've also spent some time playing with Aunt Bekah and little James, who isn't so little anymore.  He's almost as big as Kaylie--they now wear the same diaper size, and the same shoe size.  We haven't spent as much time with as we usually do, though, because I am now working part time at JoAnn's.  

It was a decision prompted mainly by two things.  The first was a desire to contribute to our family's finances, to give us a bit more wiggle room.  The second was for my mental stability.

Really, that's overstating it, but I was definitely stagnating.  Going back to work has helped to revitalize me, to get me moving.  It's a simple thing, really, but it has been so good for me to get out and interact with other adults, and to do something that I know I'm good at.  And moreover, I have to keep doing it, for as long as I want to keep the job.  If I'm feeling all "meh", I can't just not go, and that's a good thing. 

We're all still adjusting to the change.  I'm working evenings and weekends, when Brandon is home, so the girls aren't going to a babysitter.  They gave me way too many hours at first--my first weekend I had back-to-back shifts, closing Saturday and then opening (7am!) Sunday.  I didn't even realize that I'd need to work the following morning until I was gettting my stuff together to go home Saturday night, and I kind of freaked out a bit when I realized that after not seeing my girls all night, I wasn't going to get to see them the next morning, either.  Now the schedule has been straightened out, and I'm working right around 20 hours a week, with no back-to-back shifts, and it's a lot better.  

I was supposed to work last Friday evening, but they called that afternoon to tell me that I didn't need to come in, because it had been so slow.  It worked out really well, because we ended up getting 3 inches of snow that evening and I was only too happy that I didn't need to go out in it.  And, since I was home, I got to go out and play in the snow with Brandon and the kids.

Now, dealing with snow is not exactly my favorite thing.  I'd normally rate it somewhere in the vicinity of getting a cavity filled, on the scale of things I'd like to do.  But, it was the only real snow we've gotten all winter, it didn't last long, and it was the perfect opportunity to play and the girls loved it.  

There's more (apparently, January has been an eventful month) but I think this is enough for now.  For one thing, I don't have pictures for any of the other stuff, and for another, well, it's 10:30 and I still haven't packed Bran's lunch for tomorrow.  :)  Goodnight!

Christmas 2012

Brandon's parents came up to spend Christmas with us this year, since we didn't go down to Florida.  I certainly missed seeing all of the people I normally see when I'm there, but I've got to tell you, it was really nice to be able to just relax and enjoy the holiday at home.  

We took the girls to the little neighborhood playground on a nice afternoon a few days before Christmas.  Naturally, it provided lots of opportunity for taking pictures, and I took full advantage--but this time, I was working in full manual.  I've decided it's high time that I really learn how to use this camera, but as you can see, I haven't got it quite right.  Oh well, practice, practice, practice, right?

Elora got this doll from Gigi for Christmas two years ago, but hasn't really played with her much until this year.  Her name is Dolly Francis, and it was an absolute must that she accompany us to the playground that day.  They dressed Dolly in her warmest outfit, so she wouldn't be cold, and then Elora took her all over that playground. The best was the teeter totter.

On Christmas Eve, Elora and I made chocolate chip cookies (Elora's choice) for Santa.  She helped me with every bit of it that didn't involve the oven, and was so proud of her contribution.  And if she licked her finger after every cookie she dropped onto the tray, well, I can't say that I blame her.  (Besides, I doubt that any germs survived baking.)  

It was almost bed time, so Gigi read The Night Before Christmas and the Story of Christmas to them between batches.  Then we set out a plate with cookies and milk for Santa, and tucked the girls into bed.  

It took Elora a while to settle down and go to sleep, naturally, but once I was sure she was asleep, I pulled out all the gifts and got everything set up for the next morning.  I'd had to keep them all hidden, because Kaylie would unwrap any presents that I tried to out ahead of time, but it made for an impressive transformation.  The unwrapped gifts on the hearth were the only ones from "Santa", the rest are all to and from the family.

When Elora woke up the next morning, she'd forgotten that it was Christmas--which was good, because Brandon and Kaylie were still asleep.  We kept her distracted in the den, away from the tree and gifts, so that she wouldn't remember until we were ready.  

When we were all awake, we "remembered" that it was Christmas, and went to see what Santa had brought.  "He" left a thank-you note for the cookies, as well as their gifts.  They each got and a book, a princess doll and matching dress, and Elora got matching undies too.

They were all a big hit!  We spent a good hour just playing with the things from Santa before we moved on to the mountain under the tree.  When we were all done, and after I had started cleaning up, this is what the living room looked like:

My children might be a wee bit spoiled, but don't tell anyone, please.  We spent the rest of the day enjoying our gifts, and one another's company.  We watched our new movies (see Cinderella on the TV, above?), read the new books, and erupted the new volcano.

We finished the day with a delicious dinner of salad and snow crab and twice baked potatoes, and it was wonderful.  I think we'll be doing it this way from now on, and plan to visit Florida during the summer or something.  Hopefully, next year, Mom and Wade or my dad can come have Christmas with us!  We'll just rotate.  :)

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas, too!  Happy New Year!

Visit to Santa

In addition to choosing and trimming our tree, we also took the girls to see Santa this weekend.

  We made it a surprise until we actually got there, and then when she saw who was sitting in front of the giant Christmas tree, she said "I'm going to get to see Santa?!" and was gratifyingly excited.  Even more gratifying, was that she stayed happy and excited after meeting Santa.  She was a bit shy, but she was smiling!!  Kaylie, on the other hand, was just along for the ride, and perfectly happy to be there until we actually put her on Santa's knee.  Then, well, you see.

And, for comparison, here are the photos from the last three years.

It's interesting to see all these side-by-side.  I hardly remember Elora as an infant!  And they've both gotten so big.  Especially Kaylie.  She's as big now as Elora was last Christmas!  Oh, what am I going to do with those babbies?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

For the past several years, we've gone to Florida for Christmas, so we haven't bothered getting a Christmas tree of our own.  This year, though, we're staying home for Christmas and starting some of our own traditions.  

We went this past Saturday to pick out our tree and the girls had a blast running around, playing tag among all the trees.  There wasn't anyone else there, so I let them have at it (while I snapped away with the camera, of course).  The tree we chose was on the smaller side, since the "tree corner" by the fireplace isn't all that large, and we haven't accumulated all that many ornaments yet, anyway.

When we got it back to the house, Brandon set about getting it put into the stand outside and I worked at getting that corner cleared out.  The girls took advantage of the opportunity to play in the leaves out front--which still need to be raked up, by the way.

We ended up waiting until Sunday to do anything more than the lights and garland.  I coordinated the actual decorating, while Brandon ran back up and took pictures--which was completely fine with me!  Elora did really well, even with the more fragile ornaments.  (She dropped and broke the first one she tried to hang, but evidently learned her lesson and was very careful with them after that.)  It was obvious that she was loving every minute of it, and was exceptionally proud of herself.  

Kaylie on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the "safe" ornaments we gave her, once we broke out the glass "filler" ornaments.  We kept having to chase her away from them, and every time we took one away , it just broke her little heart.  She just wanted to help, like Elora!

Finally, we just put it all away until after the girls went to bed, and I finished up the tree and put out the rest of the decorations on my own--but not before using the timer on the camera to take a few family photos by the newly-decorated tree and the stockings over the lit fireplace.

Oh, I love Christmas!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  Josh, Rebekah, baby James, and Rebekah's dad and stepmom joined us for the day.  

After Thanksgiving dinner (and Kaylie's nap) we finally got some good photos of the girls in their Halloween costumes.

It was a great way to spend Thanksgiving!

Daniele

New Year's Eve, 2011, just a few months before they discovered the cancer.

My dad's long time girl friend, Daniele, was diagnosed with cancer early this past spring.   She lost her battle with that cancer this morning.  My heart is aching, but I know my dad's heart is breaking.  I can only imagine how her son is feeling right now. Our consolation is that she's not hurting any more.  Once again, any and all of your prayers and good thoughts are appreciated.