Jibber Jabber

On Monday (6/28/10) Kylie started doing something new and exciting. She started just jabbering away. Now she has done her own version of babbling before, but it was mainly vowel sounds of "a" and "o" with different inflections.


But this, this was different...this had lots of "d," "b," and "g" sounds....the "g" sounds are especially exciting, because we don't hear that sound much. It was like music to my ears when I heard her doing it, and Matt was super thrilled as well!


Yesterday was our first day of Speech Therapy through our local children's hospital. We had Kylie's speech evaluation 4 months ago, so we were very happy to get a call to say that there is an opening for Kylie to begin therapy with them.


I remember from her initial evaluation they said that therapy would be one on one with the therapist and child, and the parents could watch from the other room through the two-way mirror. With that said, I was definitely anticipating an exhausting and stressful visit.


We mainly just went over paperwork and then an overview on what to expect out of her therapy sessions, and what our goals were for Kylie. She will be receiving therapy once a week for a 45 minute session. The best part is our therapist said she does not separate the children from their parents when they are Kylie's age...whew!


Our goals are to increase her vocabulary and to get her to combine words.


The therapist was impressed at how many words she has gained since her last visit..she did not have any and now she has 25! Kylie only had 3 signs when we were last there, but that was before we started doing the Signing Time dvds...she has learned over 100 signs! That's our girl!


The therapist suggested another way that we can help Kylie develop more words. Whenever Kylie signs a word that she does not say, for us to really stress the sound of the word. For example, if Kylie signs book, we need to then say "buh-buh" and really enunciate that "b" sound. That way she can then learn to say the "buh" sound and eventually say book.


So that's the newest on all of that.


Now onto some fun stuff :)


Right after her therapy we went straight to one of our local libraries. I had registered for us to go and attend an event they were having for toddlers...it was a local guy that writes kid songs. Once she got warmed up she really enjoyed herself!


She got so comfy in her new environment that she decided to spread her wings a bit and see some of the other kiddos that were there. She walked up to a little girl about her age and started waving to her and saying hi. OMG, it was so cute...making me teary right now.


But wait...then the little girl kind of reach her hand out to Kylie and Kylie did the same thing to her. It's like they wanted to touch the other one to see if they were real or something. Or maybe they wanted to hug, but were both afraid to. Then Kylie walked around and up front and peeked around at the bigger kids that were sitting up front.


I guess she didn't think they were too exciting, because she then came back to where her little friend was sitting. Kylie sat down next to her, and then she got up and motioned for the little girl to get up to...and she did. Then Kylie sat down and hit her hand on the floor, to tell the girl to sit down by her...and she did! This was so cute to watch, and the little girl's mommy and daddy were watching and enjoying it just as much as I was.



Kylie was also dancing and signing dance, while she was dancing, but the other little girl wasn't quite sure what to think....Kylie loves to dance! Oh, she also decided to pull her shirt up and show her little friend's mommy her belly. So silly.


Anyhow, I did snap a pic with my phone of Kylie and her little friend sitting next to each other. Enjoy!

Yep...she's growing up

Sunday was a great big day for both Kylie and us. It was a fairly quiet day in the nursery at church...I guess lots of families are away on vacation.

Anyway, the less kids in there makes it a bit tougher for me to try and sneak away. I decided to just go for it, while she was looking the other way. She saw me walk by the door, and I could hear her start to fuss, but I knew I had to keep on going....so hard for me to do.

Matt was surprised when I sat down next to him in the service. Heck, I was surprised too...I really enjoy being with her in the nursery and seeing how she interacts with other kids, and I like playing with the other little ones too.

I told Matt to let me know when it had been 10 minutes, because I wanted to go back and check on her. After only 5 minutes I asked him what time it was...yes, I missed her and wanted to know that she was ok. At like 8 or 9 minutes, I decided it had been long enough. I got the thumbs up from another mom that was in the nursery, so I went back into the service.

All in all, it was a whole 30 minutes where Kylie was in the nursery without one of us in there with her. Wow! She did so great, and I missed her a bunch. The best part was how excited she was to see us...it's making me cry as I type all about it right now.

But wait, it gets even better. Later that evening we went to a small group meeting at our church. There were workers there to watch the kids while the adults were in the class. We have never just left her like that, so we knew it would be tough. I was sure to pack her snuggie and paci, in case she had a hard time.

She is such a smart cookie, she instantly knew that we were going to leave her and she immediately clinged to us. I gave her all of her comfort items and just left. I think it was harder on me than it was on her. Like 5 minutes later I went and checked on her and she was doing just fine.

The class was almost 2 hrs long, and Kylie was a superstar and did great! The nursery worker asked if Kylie knew sign language. And we told her yes, that she knows over a 100 signs or so. She said she figured so, because Kylie was doing lots of them. Kylie was even helping clean up when we went to get her.

She made us so proud! Being a big girl and doing so well without us and then being such a great little helper and cleaning up. Love, love, love her!

I was going through and found some pics I had not yet posted to the blog, so here are some of them.

I just love her little pigtails!

Kylie happily signing "clothes"




Big cheesy smile!

Below, Kylie was rocking on her pillow pet like it was a pony or something. She loved it!

Totally tuned into her Signing Time movie.

A blessing for Kylie

Almost three weeks ago we took Kylie to church and she got baptized! Here's the lowdown on how that went down:


On the Friday before the big day, we met my Mom (aka Grandma Bunn) at the Oak Park Mall Dillards where she was super-generous and bought Kylie's baptism gown. I know, how nice was that?! She also let Kylie pick out a couple Webkinz that were on clearance! We got a goat and a porcupine, which Kylie really enjoyed. As a matter of fact, she was playing with those earlier today.


On Sunday we headed over to Kaw Prairie Community Church where we met my Mom, step-Dad, Grandma and my boss and her family. The whole affair started about 20 minutes into the service, where Jody, Kylie and I joined a few other families on stage for the festivities. Kylie was the fourth little one be be baptized and did surprisingly well. As you'll see by the slideshow below, she got pretty clingly when the strange man decided to pour cold water on her head. She fussed a little, but took it like the little trooper she is.


All the pictures are courteous of the aforementioned boss, Felicia, who brought her camera and captured about 180 total pictures!

Mark 10 13:16

13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

More sticky therapy

Last Friday or so I thought I would try some finger paints with Kylie. I pretty much knew that she wouldn't even think about sticking her hands in it, so I had some sponge brushes ready for her to use. I figured that maybe if we paint with it often enough, that perhaps one day she will decide to toss the brushes aside and just stick her hands in it...well, it's a thought anyhow :)



Kylie very carefully dabbed her brush into a couple of different colors and she accidentally brushed it over her leg when she turned to put it on the paper...oops. She did not realize it at first, so I hurried to snap a couple pics, and then she saw it and was not a fan of the paint being on her leg. She tried to wipe it off with her hand, and then she tried to shake it off of her hands. Once I got her cleaned up a snapped a pic of her glob of artwork.

I was hoping for more, but she was pretty much done once she realized she got some paint on herself. I'm sure she will be painting the walls before we know it...lol.

Kylie has a number book that my mom had got her, and she loves to look at the page with the cupcakes on it. She goes "numm, numm" when she sees it! I thought it would be a great therapy idea for her to have a cupcake to eat. I had baked some the other night for Matt to take to work for his boss's birthday, so I had a couple for Kylie to try.


She was definitely feeling some anxiety when I set it in front of her...she wanted it, but didn't want to touch it. I thought maybe if I cut it in half, it won't seem so intimidating for her. Yay, it worked! She was more comfortable with it cut in two and she eagerly picked it up. She is so cute, because it was like she was licking it and not biting into it.

I also had a fork for her in case it was still too much for her. She decided to take a poke with the fork. She was so proud when she got the whole half of the cupcake on the end of her fork.

It is definitely safe to say she loved the cupcake...she just couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! Next time we will bake some together.

In a couple of weeks one of our libraries is having an event called "Ooey-gooey, Icky-sticky" where little ones can paint with shaving cream, squish the slime, walk on a texture walk, and help create a sticky collage. I am really excited about taking her and I do hope she will allow the fun of it to overcome her fears of it all.

J - e - l - l - NO

So like two weeks ago Kylie said the word "No," you know, the word every parent hopes their child doesn't learn until they are past the terrible twos and their teenage years and pretty much forever.

Since I wasn't ready to accept that she said it, I decided it never happened :) Kind of like if I cover my eyes then you can't see me...not so much. I tried really hard to not say the infamous word myself, which I usually don't say it...I always try to say that is not something we do, you can not have that right now. Anyway, I think that helped for a few days or so.

Well, now she says it a lot and she really says it with conviction....oh dear. The day she started saying it a lot (I think it was last Tuesday or so), it was really kind of cute. I tried to conceal my smiles, so as not to encourage her. It just sounded adorable the way she said it. Kind of like "Naw" or "No-aw." She has said it enough that she is pretty much saying it the right way.

Funny part of it, is that she is using it for everything. Even when we ask her something that we know she wants she will say no, and then we ask if she means yes, and she will sign yes. Now that she has this new word, we are for one hoping she starts using it less and less...fat chance, I'm sure, and then two, try to get her to use it appropriately.

Like two weeks ago I was getting really worried that Kylie has not increased her vocab a whole lot, and then I started to make a list of the words she knows and realized she has increased it, and then when all the worries pile up, she gets like 3 new words! So here is the list of all of her words:

ni-ni (night, night), duh (dog, duck), wall, mall (we go there to the play area sometimes), up, hi, bye, owl (she isn't saying it much anymore..just likes to make the owl sound), baby, up, Elmo, dada, mama, ball, eye, bowl, wow, op-ff (off), elbow, ab-ple (apple), ooze (shoes), no.

Oh, and as far as the Jell-O portion of this blog post...Kylie is not a fan. In the past I have tried giving it to her, but she didn't care for eating something with that type of texture. I decided we would try it again, and maybe if we were lucky enough she would try to touch it. Well, she liked it and wanted more. Yay...something new! Umm...I celebrated a bit too soon. A couple more bites later and she just opened her mouth and let it all fall out. Kinda gross.

I made another attempt a few days later and Kylie ate more when I mushed it up with the spoon, instead of giving her a big glob of it all. I was giving myself a pat on the back for figuring out what works, and then nope, she changed her mind again and out spewed the Jell-O.

I think what it is is that she likes it, but can not always overcome that sensory part that stresses her out. Like she thinks about it too much and can't enjoy it, and other times she can focus on enjoying it and the sensory part is not an issue. So yeah, just hit or miss and keep trying and we will get there :)


I am going through the sensory books from the library. I just got 1 last week and 1 the week before, and then Matt ordered the other one for me because the wait time at the library was forever (goodness, it was almost a month before I got the two I have). I will be sure to post what I learn from them, and give my own little book review. So off I go to read more :)

Ring around the Rosey

For some reason last week I was singing Ring around the Rosey in my head. I decided it would be fun to share that little tune and dance with Kylie. She instantly loved it! For one, she loves it when I sing, and it is always more fun when dancing is involved.


She grabbed my hands to let me know that she wanted to do it again and again. It was pretty darn cute. I was working on dinner or something later that evening, and I told Matt he should give it a try to help occupy her and share in the fun we had earlier. Matt isn't much of a dancer, and Kylie was in aggreance with that, because she did not like doing the dance with him and needed me to do it with her. Silly girl.


Another play off the Rosey in the title of this blog post, is things have been a little less than rosey the last few days with Kylie being sick. She had a pretty high fever last Thursday of 102.6, and well with a history of seizures we did not want the temp to get any higher and increase her risk of a febrile seizure.


A very worried Matt called the ped's office and they said to give her Tylenol or Motrin and to monitor her temp every hour. I took her temp about 30 minutes after giving her the Tylenol and it was 103 and some change. It would have been best to listen to the nurse and wait a full hour because it went down about a half hour later....that would have eliminated the added freaking out factor from mom and dad. Dad especially, he is a wreck whenever Kylie gets sick or isn't acting like her usual self. Poor guy, just worries so much about his little princess.


Her fever broke about 8:30pm that night when she woke up crying and all sweaty. Poor thing. She had a temp again on Friday and it was about 101 on Saturday morning. We went to walk-in hours at her ped's on Saturday morning. I do not like taking Kylie to the doctor's because it is so upsetting for her and very draining on us too. They stuck her finger and got some blood and then did a cath to get a urine sample...since she had a couple UTIs last year. It is so very hard seeing her going through all of that and not understanding what is going on and trying to keep her calm.


The doc said it was Roseola, a viral infection that is fairly common...though Matt and I had never heard of it before, and apparently it is going around right now. It starts out with a high fever for a couple days, irritability...lots of it too, decreased appetite, and then a rash for a couple days.


I think the most irritable and sensitive moments for Kylie with this Roseola deal have been when she wakes up from naps or gets up in the morning. Any little thing can upset her at those times and it's like she isn't even sure what she wants or needs and will cry and get all worked up at just about anything.


The worst was on Sunday when she wanted her morning bubba like stat, and it was still warming up...she loves her milk warm. I thought what better way to ease the waiting period than to give her one of the cookies we made together the night before...yep, more sensory therapy with baking and she did so much better this time!


Anyway, back to me trying to distract her with a cookie. It totally failed and she was so out of sorts and screaming and after a few moments it finally clicked as to why. Kylie thrives on routine and me trying to give her a cookie first thing in the morning before her bubba was just not part of our norm. I'm not sure if it was me trying to give her a cookie before the milk that upset her, or if she feared she wouldn't get the milk after the cookie. Whatever the case, it was not good and I felt so sad for her and bad that I was more or less the reason why she was not herself.


Of course that had Matt so worried because it just wasn't typical Kylie. I'm hoping this is all just part of her being sick with this viral bug and the behaviors we have been witnessing are not here to stay.



Today has been a pretty challenging day. Kylie was fine waking up this morning and after her nap...no fuss factor, so that was great. I think she is feeling much better and has gotten back most of her appetite, so that is a plus.



But yeah, this afternoon was tough. Kylie would get so upset and just meltdown at pretty much everything. She would sign for help with something and when I would help her, she would just go nuts, and then again after I undid the help. It was like that off an on for all too long. I did really well at keeping calm and trying to help understand what she wanted, but nothing seemed to work.



I have no idea if this is just typical toddler behavior or if it is some processing issues that she is having. It is almost like she doesn't know what she wants or she does, but then she just doesn't. It is just a mix of emotions for me when I go from being frustrated and exhausted, and then I feel bad for her as I watch her get so upset. So yeah, a long day today, but hoping for a better one tomorrow. I just want her to be happy and healthy.


Below is a pic of Kylie climbing back on the couch cushions one night before bed...she absolutely loves when we take them off the couch and make it so she can slide down them!

Who needs a spoon

I decided to attempt the pudding project again and see if Kylie was ready to touch it with her hands. She opted out of using her hands when I tried to offer a finger full from my pudding cup.

You see, she was too busy eyeing her own pudding cup and she quickly snatched it up and took off with it...so cute to see those little legs scampering away with the prize of chocolate pudding!

I snapped a few pics of her face decorated in pudding. I can't believe that she was such a mess...this is something I am not used to at all with Kylie. She's never liked getting messy. Not to mention the fact that I cringe at the thought of all the mess and gooeyness of it all. So yes, I was surprised how well I did with it too. Just look at how cute she is in these pics.

This pic is my favorite. I just love the look on her face, not to mention the pudding that is covering her face and her dress. We went straight to the tub after our pudding play. Needless to say Kylie enjoyed her treat.

More cooking with Kylie

Our therapist has mentioned that playdough would be a great thing to try with Kylie, however I do not like the smell of it at all...yuck! Our therapist gave me a couple of recipes, so we could make our own playdough, and I was up for the task.



I thought it would be another fun thing to do with Kylie and have her help me make it. She helped me dump the ingredients into the pot and mix them up. She had a bowl of Cheerios next to her and she would stop and have a few, and then go back to mixing. I am very surprised we did not have Cheerios in our playdough.



I then added the wet ingredients and put the pot on the stove to cook it all up together. It gets so goopy and then starts to form a ball. I had Kylie help me stir it at first, but I was worried with having her near the stove, so I finished it up. After letting it cool a bit and then rolling it out with some flour, we were ready for our first playdough experience.



I put a plastic tablecloth on the table and got some cookie cutters, and let Kylie have at it. She just looked at it, wondering what it was and what she was supposed to do with it. It was pretty cute.



Here are some pics and then some video of her with the playdough.

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Overall she did pretty good, just not all too interested in it. I tried to get her to play with it again, and no go. She already knew about it, and decided she would pass on it.

I don't really care for the smell of this stuff either. I know you can also use Kool-Aid or Jell-O to color it and give it a different scent. I think I will do that next time.

Mmm...cookies!

It seems like the best sensory therapies are also sweet treats too! I'm certain Kylie doesn't mind the sweet rewards for her attempts at touching the sticky-ness of things. It's so cute to hear her say "nummy, num" each time she gets a taste of the sweet therapy ideas I've made up for her.



Last week I thought how much fun it would be to bake cookies with Kylie. Something I plan to do lots of as she grows up...I love to bake! I decided to take a shortcut and just buy the ready to bake cookie dough, where all you have to do is put the squares on the pan and bake.

I placed the cookie sheet on the floor along with the cookie dough and I showed Kylie that we needed to put them on the tray. I told her that I needed her help cooking, and asked her to help mama cook. She came over picked up a chunk of the dough, and chucked it onto the pan...I laughed, because it was cute how she did it. I think she was just eager to quickly release the gooeyness out of her hand and launch it onto the pan.

She was hesitant to try it again, since she just realized that in order to help mom bake cookies, she had to touch that sticky stuff. Kylie picked up one more chunk of the dough, and was a bit more gentle when she put it on the pan this time.

Kylie then signed help, because she wanted me to open up the drawer of kitchen utensils for her to play with. I told her that she needed to finish helping me put the cookie dough on the pan, and then I would open it for her. She understood and came over to help, but this time she was tossing the cookies off the pan...lol Oh well, I was happy to see her touching the dough again. As promised, I opened the drawer and let her play with the ladles and measuring cups, and whatever else she could find.

I did not take pics of any of the baking of the cookies...sorry, I was too busy enjoying those moments with Kylie :) I did however get a couple pics of Kylie enjoying the freshly baked cookies. Yes, even the baked cookies serve as some sensory therapy, as they were still kind of gooey.

Here is our own little cookie monster:

This pic is just cute. It's as though she is saying, "Mom, do you really need to take pictures of me eating?" Umm...yes, I do :)

She did so great! She did not like that the cookies were gooey and even tried to eat them hands free and just put her face to the plate. She quickly overcame that unsettling feeling and let the yummyness of the cookie outweigh the stress of it all, and she used her hands! Yay for Kylie!!

I was so proud of her and just really happy about our day, that I sat Kylie on my lap and held the camera out to snap a couple pics of her and I together.

A treat and some sensory therapy

Last Friday was National Donut Day. I had no idea, but saw it on the morning news. With that said, Kylie and I were going to take a trip to our local Krispy Kreme and have ourselves a free donut. Kylie has never had a donut before, so I was excited to be the one to treat her to her first one, and well...I was happy to get one too :)


I figured we would just do the good old glazed donut. Of course, I didn't even think that they were going to give us fresh ones. That means extra sticky and gooey...you know, the stuff Kylie doesn't like.


She picked up her donut, not knowing what it would feel like and took a bite...so cute! I snapped a pic with my phone, and as I closed my phone I realized I forgot to hit save. Silly me. Kylie had already figured out that the donut was too sticky for her to want to touch, so I was out of luck for getting another picture of her eating her donut.


If you are a regular visitor of our blog, you may remember that even though she doesn't want to touch sticky stuff, she still wants it and will figure out a way to still eat it. Yep, she decided to do it hands free, and just put her face down by the donut and eat it that way. She is so resourceful :)


I snapped a pic with my phone again, and remembered to save it this time. Here it is:





So needless to say, I had no idea our trip for free donuts on National Donut Day was going to be a day for sensory therapy too. I ended up feeding the rest of it to her, one piece at a time. She was just too overwhelmed with trying to touch the gooey-ness of it.

Little green monster

A couple weeks ago Matt and I decided we needed to paint our screened-in porch to freshen it up a bit. Kylie was just playing around and staying out of things, so we went ahead and opened the can of paint. You can probably figure out where this is leading, but we surely didn't see it coming.


I was just minutes away from putting Kylie down for her nap when out of the corner of my eye I see her two little hands drenched in green paint and running over to Matt for help. I immediately yelled something or another to Matt about how she had paint all over her hands. He yells for me to get some paper towels, and I start cleaning up the paint that had gotten on the floor of the porch...we had just stained it the day before. Matt then yells for me to clean up Kylie and not the floor....oh yeah.


Anyhow, paint was probably the worse thing she could get into, especially considering one of her sensory issues is tactile processing. You can't just shake off paint or wipe it off and be all done with it...you have to scrub it off and that takes more than a few seconds to do. You can imagine how distraught Kylie was, as I was trying to scrub off every spec of paint and she just wanted it all gone.


Matt had run inside to get the camera (at my request), as I was outside with the hose trying to clean off our little green monster. Needless to say she napped really well after getting so worked up from all the stress of getting the paint on her and then the clean up process. She had it on her hands, her clothes, her legs, her toes, and on my arms from where she clung on so tightly as I ran her over to the hose.

Hand in hand

Today was a super sappy day for me...it kind of still is. I'm guessing it will be for a few days...that's just how I am :)


We had a playdate this morning, and there was so much growth, so much newness...just so much joy was created!


We met up at the park and Kylie and her friends M and D were there for a fun-filled morning. Kylie was kinda fussy and clingy at first...just one of those mornings for us. Anyhow, she quickly got comfortable with her surroundings and playing with her friends, that she was running around with them and all smiles!


Kylie had stumbled in the play area, but no worries her sweet friends M and D helped her up....it was so cute to see them helping her and Kylie allowing them to help. Kylie realized that it was kinda fun to have help getting up, so she ran over and sat down and turned back to look for help. Sure enough M came by and helped her up. My mommy friend and I just laughed when we realized what she was doing. That wasn't enough...Kylie kept sitting down and searching for help...what a silly girl!


So it gets better :) Kylie hasn't really interacted a whole lot with other kids. She more or less just does her thing and just checks them out to see what they are doing. Recently she has been getting closer to other kids in the nursery at church, and giving toys to them and even trying to touch their hand when I am holding her...her way of saying hello.


Sorry..I got derailed a bit there. Onto the moment that made me tear up. Kylie decided to step away from the playground area at the park and then she started signing "walk." She likes going for walks, so we all got together to walk on the trails a bit. The cutest thing happened, the thing I have never seen Kylie do before, the thing I never thought she would do...at least not in the near future. She reached up for D's hand as they were walking. Yep, my baby girl was hand in hand with her friend as we began our walk. I grabbed my phone and snapped a pic. Kylie must of heard me getting all excited about what I was witnessing, because she turned back to wave as I was snapping the pic:






It gets even cuter..yep, it's possible! My mommy friend was carrying M, and she decided she wanted to hold her big sister's other hand. They were all 3 holding hands and walking ahead of us. I snapped the pic and it was so cute! Unfortunately I have so many pics on my phone, that it didn't save it...memory was full. Are you kidding? I just captured one of the most precious moments ever, and it isn't there...so sad. I quickly deleted some pics...hard to do, I mean goodness...I still have pics of Kylie on my phone from when she was born.


The funniest moment was when the girls were all trying to figure out how to hold hands. It was so cute and funny watching them grabbing hands, and trying to pull it all together. They would get it and take a few steps and then start again...priceless!


Here is a shot I quickly snapped while they were all still linked together.

When we got home and I put Kylie down for her nap, I was thinking about these moments and I started to cry. I witnessed and captured one of those moments that I never thought would happen. I didn't know if or when she would trust someone else enough to make that contact. My mommy friend that was with me this morning had a rocky start with her first born, so she said she knew how I was feeling at that moment when I was ready to cry when I saw Kylie reach for D's hand. Just one of those unforgettable moments that turns me into a puddle of goo.

So yes, I have been all sorts of weepy today and hugging and kissing Kylie over and over again. No wonder she doesn't like hugs...I smother her when I get like this :) We went for a walk this afternoon and after walking just one or two houses away she stopped and grabbed onto my legs and put her arms up for me to pick her up. A couple times she laid her head on my shoulder and hugged me...another thing that I never thought would happen so soon. I love every little hug I get from her. There aren't many, but each one grabs my heart and I try to hang onto to that moment as long as I can.

We watched one of her signing dvds after our walk and I saw Kylie doing so many new signs and she wasn't even looking at the tv...she has watched it a few times before and just picks them up so fast. My sweet little girl is so smart and growing so much. I love her more than anything, and I am a big puddle right now with tears running down my face. She is such a blessing, and such an Amazing little girl!

Just keep swimming

We never thought Spring would arrive, and we were right it didn't...we pretty much skipped Spring and went straight to Summer. With that said, we thought Kylie would love to play outside in a little swimming pool to cool off.

The first time I filled up the little pool with water and was getting her ready to go outside, she wanted nothing to do with the whole process. I tried to tell her she would thank me later, but somehow I don't think she believed me.

I will let the slideshow of pictures tell the rest of the story:

Green thumb

Shortly after we got some flowers for the yard, I thought I would try and get Kylie to help me water them. She had lots of fun carrying around the watering can, and uh...watering her feet :) Even with just a little bit of water in it, it is kind of awkward for a little lady to hold it just right without pouring it all out on her feet. Heck, she is so smart, she may think that watering her own feet will make her grow too!

Here are some pics I got of our little gardener at work:

Isn't she so cute! Especially wearing her sun hat that I made :) Let's just say it took repeated attempts on my part to get her to keep it on for longer than 2 seconds. I kept trying while she was preoccupied with the watering can and then snapped a few pics before she yanked it off.

Kylie and the Moo

Another guest post by dada Stump!


So, we went out to eat a while back (we do that way too much) at our local Chick-Fil-A. Now, we're still relatively new to the Chick-Fil-A phenomenon - they just entered the Kansas City market a year or two ago. I believe our first visit was sometime in early January because my cousin and his wife gave us a gift card for Christmas. We were shocked at how awesome that place is. First and foremost, their people are really friendly. They do a few little things that really help with the kiddos too (placemats that stick to the table, wipes for the high chair, etc).


Anyways, so we went a week or two ago and they had a Spirit Night where they donate a portion of that night's proceeds to a local church or ministry. They also have a prize wheel where the kids can get little bits of swag - Kylie got a little red Chick-Fil-A ball. It's a pretty neat deal.


The highlight of the evening (I know, the highlight of our evening came at a Chick-Fil-A) was when the seven foot tall cow came out of the kitchen. Now, Kylie is usually a little scared of strangers, so we thought the giant cow would be WAY too much for her. She saw him from across the restaurant and immediately began "mooing" and trying to climb out of her high chair! So, we helped her down and Jody accompanied Kylie over to the cow. Kylie just stood at his feet, looking up, smiling and mooing. It was adorable. Unfortunately, she hadn't eaten hardly anything, so Jody brought her back to the table so we could eat.


That didn't work out at all.


So, Kylie went back over to the bovine with me, while Jody brought our food to a table a little closer to the cow. I seriously can't stress enough how intrigued Kylie was with this cow! She followed him through the restaurant waving, saying hi and mooing. I'm sure the young person in the cow costume was wondering why this little toddler was chasing him/her around.


As we're standing there saying hi and mooing at the cow, I said to Kylie "I wish we had a camera, this would make a really cute picture". Well, I apparently said this around one of the kindest people in the area, as Patty with the Heart of America Ministry Women (the group that Chick-Fil-A was helping through the Spirit Night) was sitting there with a camera and told me that she'd take a couple pictures and then send them our way.



How nice is that!? Within the next day or two Patty emailed them to me, then also sent prints in the mail later that week.



So, without further ado, here they are:

Less sleep, still smiling

Kylie has recently decided she is going to be a one napper...not so sure I am ready for this. The last couple of days she has only taken one nap and it has only been about an hour long....not nearly long enough for her to make it so well the rest of the day...or me for all that matters.

Oh yeah, and she is getting in one of her 2 year molars...woohoo. I'm guessing that is why she has been extra fussy about pretty much everything the last few days as well. When she first started getting teeth she was 4 months old and that wasn't fun, because we had no idea she was teething...heck, most babies don't get teeth until they are about 9 months old. Anyhow, she got most of her teeth (6 to be exact) while on the crazy steroid for her seizures. We had no idea if it was the drug making her so inconsolable or if it was the teeth or all of the above. So needless to say it feels like she is teething for the first time for us, since there were extenuating factors with the eruption with her other teeth.

Anyhow, Matt and I are pretty much worn out with trying to comfort her and keep her content. I got a couple pictures of her this afternoon, and they have given me a boost of energy...not enough to finish the laundry I started, but enough to remind me how awesome Kylie is and how happy I am to be her mommy.

Here are a few of those pics:

Running around on our screened in porch

Trying to escape. We have been painting our back porch and we still have to put the screens back in the door.

I love this one! Love the look on her face...it's how I see her all the time :)

Love this one too...I caught this pic mid-laugh. She's such a cutie!