March 20-21, 2010

Saturday morning, bright & early, Kaylynn and I had breakfast, played and got ready for our day. Our first plan was to go to Eagle's Nest, an indoor playground. It was sunny, but in the 30s, so indoors seemed the best place to be. Julian, who's still not feeling well, bucked up and came with us. We got there right when they opened so there were very few kids. Hindsight being what it is, it would have been a good time to play in the big kids' area first. But we didn't do that. We went to the toddler area and she did the usual - up & down the slide, in & out of the balls, play in the tree, walk across the walk-across thingy, jump on the padded mats...

After a while, Julian thought we should try the big kid area. One of us would have to crawl through there with her. Guess who got elected? So, claustrophobic me crawled through what was basically a kid-sized habitrail. We went up stairs that were too big for her to climb herself, so she would stand on my leg to hoist herself up, then I'd climb up & she'd do it again. The first slide we tried was a twisty one and, in my opinion, way too long and fast. We climbed up and around again and tried some different slides, which I think we both liked better. There were lots of other things to climb on and through before getting to the slide, too. One skinned elbow (mine) and a few bruises later (also mine) we were giggling and having a blast and then took a break to eat some snacks.

Tracey & Al (gammy & gampy) met us there around 11 and she was very happy to see them. She was also pretty tired! I guess she rolled the ball around with them but was ready to go back to their place.

Sunday evening she came back around 6:30. She cried so hard about them leaving that it was heartbreaking. However, she did stop crying by the time they pulled out of the driveway. Willy kissed her face and she said "shoo shoo wee" and that was the end of the tears. Redirecting to coloring was relatively easy to do, and pretty soon we were all giggling about something or other. We got her ready for bed and she didn't even complain a little bit. She hadn't had a nap, so she was exhausted and fell asleep before we closed her bedroom door.

March 19, 2010

This morning, Kaylynn got up right on time. Breakfast and school went off without a hitch. I picked her up after work and they were playing outside. As soon as she saw me, she gave me a big smile and ran over to say 'hi' - or, I thought that was what she was doing, but she ran right by me and directly to the gate to go home. So much for *me* being exciting. Their report was, "Kaylynn had a fabulous day! We played outside for a while this morning, then came in to make smoosh art rainbows!"

She got a little snack when we got home and we played for a little while so Julian could heat up dinner. We all got to eat together. They had chicken soup and crackers and I had some yummy spaghetti. She held her cracker in front of her face, said "nummy!" fairly loudly, and then chomped on it. That's a darn exciting nummy!

After dinner we all got a little silly. Julian built a fire in the fireplace. Kaylynn & I put on some music (Dan Zane) and danced all around - with and without "uppy." We were all jammin' in the living room for a few minutes. I put her on my shoulders for a while & danced - she liked that. She jumped on the dog beds, rocked on her rocking chair, and pretended to sleep with her "blankey." She got into coloring for 5 seconds and I laid down on the couch ... and then she pounced on me. She was very physical tonight. Julian and I sat on either end of the couch and she took turns 'falling' off of our laps and we'd each catch her. She was a total gigglepuss.

Tracey (gammy) and Al (gampy) came over to get directions to a concert they were going to. As soon as Kaylynn saw them through the front door, she shrieked with delight. She jumped back & forth between them and was so happy to see them and they were happy to see her. We did "happy-anu-know-it" for them because it's so darn cute, everyone should see it. They needed to leave and she started crying really hard. One lesson learned tonight - long goodbyes don't work with a toddler. She did stop crying soon after they left when she was distracted by her bath. She sure does love gammy & gampy - it was really sweet.

Bedtime was routine - a couple books, songs and hugs & kisses, but tonight she decided she wanted to put her babies to sleep herself. She took them off the shelf, put them on the table by her bed (where they sleep) and worked very hard to cover them up with the towel. She kissed each of them and then went to bed with her usual chatter.

March 17 & 18, 2010

Wednesday, 3/17/2010
I didn't realize it was St. Patrick's Day until I walked into the classroom with Kaylynn all decked out in purple. From what I can tell, she didn't get pinched. Her report for Wednesday said, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Kaylynn had a good day. Lucky came again today & brought us Lucky Charms to eat for breakfast :) For art, we easel painted with green & white paint & Mrs. Lawrence painted a shamrock on our cheeks. We went on a Lucky hunt trying to find Lucky, but he was too tricky. Played outside on the playground."

When Julian picked her up, she seemed really crabby and not ready to come home. He found out (after she was in the car) that she had a poopy diaper - no wonder she was crabby! Since he wasn't in the best mood, either, he figured it was just a crabby day for Capricorns everywhere. I don't think he checked in with any others to validate his theory, but neither of them had a particularly good evening.

Kaylynn & I walked around outside, counting stairs again. She is learning how to jump, not just in place but over things and down small "steps" (like the curb). She enjoys practicing.

Dinner was green beans and garlic chicken - she scarfed it all down. At one point, Julian was grabbing a pudding for her and she was whining at him. Then she saw the pudding in his hand and it sounded like this, "waa... waa... waa... nummy?"

It was a bath night and she had a lot of fun with the letters - putting them on the tub and on herself - and pouring water on herself (though not over her head). We read books for bedtime and *almost* didn't read "happy-anu-know-it" but, in the end, she asked for it.

Thursday, 3/18/2010
She woke up with a series of cheerful "hi"s. She got to have some yogurt and milk today - her cold is over enough that she can have dairy again. I put her hair in pigtails while she was brushing her teeth, but she promptly took the rubber bands out, so she went without a hairdo today.

Julian has bronchitis. While he was at the doctor, I picked Kaylynn up from school. They were outside playing. She was standing near one of the teachers, who was comforting a kid who was crying. She looked very concerned about it all. I asked one of the teachers if Kaylynn plays on the playground, because any time I see her she's standing by a teacher. She assured me that Kaylynn is participating and is no longer just an observer. I just catch her at those moments when she's standing still. She's also napping relatively easily with the other kids (usually from 1:30 to 3:00 - nap/quiet time is 1-3). She's also eating more of her lunch and generally feeling comfortable. It's really nice to hear about the progress she's made.

The report from school said, "Kaylynn had a great day! For art today, we made green pepper prints with both green & white paint. Our friend, Peter, brought us two books & he read them to us, too :) Mrs. Jean came today for music & we played the fishing game. It was so nice outside we played outside both before & after music."

We got home and had a snack (melon and some juice). Then we changed her shoes into boots to go for our daily walk outside. This time I leashed the dogs and we walked partway down the block. I pointed out grass, leaves, trees, sticks, and pine cones. The dogs didn't have a great time, but Kaylynn had fun practicing her jumping and wandering around. Julian made dinner for them - pasta and a turkey/tomato sauce. I had my own food. She ate a huge portion. We had a lot of wipe-up to do - her face looked just like the pizza picture. She colored for a while and I cleaned up the kitchen a little bit. She had a lovely poopy diaper (immediately after Julian left to go to the pharmacy... interesting timing, little one!). I took the opportunity to put her jammies on, since I like her to have a little pajama time running around before bed. We watched the Bobs & Lolo video that our friends in Canada sent us. Hands down, it's my favorite video. They sing and dance and are generally fun and educational. Kaylynn sat and watched some of it. At one point she stood up from her rocking chair and was dancing. I motioned for Julian to come watch because she was so darn cute, the way she was holding her hands in the air and wiggling her tushy.

Bedtime was fairly routine. We put tzedaka (charity) into her piggybank (named Traify). She was chatty for quite some time after bedtime. Maybe dancing before bed isn't really winding down.

March 16, 2010

Kaylynn woke up really late this morning! In fact, at 6:30 I had to open her door and have Willy tromp around to rouse her. Since we generally try to leave for school at 6:50 or 7:00, we were pushing it. Fortunately, all went well with getting her dressed, fed and to the car, so I made it to my bus just fine.

When we got to school, I put her down for her to take off her coat, and then she looked up at me and said "uppy" a few times. Then one of the teachers said "Kaylynn, do you want to color?" and she switched from "uppie" to "co-wee" pretty quickly and took off for the coloring table. I got a hug & kiss goodbye before the crayons called her name.

I picked her up and saw the report. "Kaylynn had a great day! We made a leprechaun for art, played in our room and rode bikes downstairs." One of the teachers was putting the papers in the kids' folders, and I asked her if all the kids have "great days," since it seems that Kaylynn usually does. She assured me that they're truthful in their reports and that Kaylynn is cheerful and has a lot of fun.

We came home with "nummies" on the brain. She got pudding for a snack and then Julian had dinner ready for them - pizza. And that's where today's picture came from. Needless to say, she put her 'all' into dinner tonight.

After dinner we went outside with the dogs. While we were in the front yard, I heard neighbors & their dogs walking toward us, so I had Murphy stay put for as long as she could. She did fairly well, but did bolt when she saw it was her friend, Lily. Lily was with her new neighbor, Cooper, and Cooper's dads. They all went off leash and ran around the yard. She loved watching the puppies.

We came in with just a little protest and kind of played in the living room for a while. She still has her cold and "blew" her nose, then calmly stuck her finger in it and put it in her mouth. I could see Julian about to pass out... he calmly put her on his lap and explained how incredibly disgusting it was to eat out of her Kleenex. I'm sure she understood thoroughly.

Julian brought her beads out and showed her a magic trick, pulling a bead out from behind her ear. She quickly imitated and pulled another bead from behind her ear. I can't describe how incredibly cute it was watching her try to imitate his moves.

And last, she needed to feed her baby. She got her pretend plate of food & the small spoon. She fed her baby, then me, then Julian, then Murphy (who was laying on my lap), and then she went to feed Willy. Poor Willy was actually expecting some food. He licked the spoon and then put his paws over his face as if he was deeply disappointed. We need to have the video camera going all the time to get this stuff. I was laughing so hard I started to cough.

We read 3 books, sang songs and she went to bed, chatting to herself for a while, as usual.

March 15, 2010

We must have done something right with the school she attends - she ran in and pounced on the kid-sized couch, saying "co-wee" (color) over & over. She barely had time to take her jacket off and she was rarin' to go. Julian thinks she must have had a dream last night that she absolutely had to get on paper.

When Julian picked her up, she was really happy and playing on the playground. She carried her lunch bag & the daily note all the way to the car. Julian held on to her hood because she likes to take off if you're not holding on. They talked about her day and she seemed really excited to share with Julian. Here's what the note said. "Kaylynn had a great day! Lucky came and played some tricks on us today. He tipped our chairs, walked on the tables and turned our milk green. We played outside and made a Lucky finder for art."

On the way to pick me up from work, she got hungry. Again - thank goodness for emergency car-snacks. She not only ate all of her snacks, but she ate some of Julian's too. We have to re-stock. The reason they came and got me was that Julian & I needed to sign our taxes. We got that done and she just kind of chatted to us and our accountant throughout it all. At the end he said, "thank you very much" and she said "much." Adorable.

We came home and had some fabulous soup for dinner before going outside to play. She likes to sit on the logs near the fire pit. Then we went out front and started to look for the ball she had thrown for Murphy the day before. We couldn't find it, but we just kept circling the house, counting the stairs as we went up and down and watching Murphy follow us and delight us with her spinning and romping.

Kaylynn wasn't too happy about coming in until Julian showed her that her bath was ready. They had a great bath, playing with letters and squirty toys, washing hair and naming what they were washing. I could hear her giggling as I was cleaning up books & putting away some clothes we had gotten for summer. Yes, we're already set for summer clothing-wise. Very exciting. She asked for "nummies" so she had some applesauce and animal crackers before we started reading books and winding down for bed. Not only did she want "happy an-you-know-it" but she knew that after clapping hands came "boo hoo" and after "boo hoo" came stomping feet. It was adorable. The great outdoors seems to tire her out quite a bit. The bedtime routine really helps, though. When she protests about going to bed, we tell her "we do this every night - it's the same thing" and she seems to understand that. It calmed her down tonight when she wanted "uppy" and she was quiet soon after we left the room.

Tonight is the 5th night she has been bottle free! It's quite a milestone. She gets a sippy cup with water in it and is just fine with it. There was no protest about the change at all.

March 14, 2010

This morning started early, as usual. Julian's cold was getting worse and I am still exhausted from surgery, but I was functioning better than he was, so I got up with Kaylynn to get her day going. We had some cereal and "na" (banana). She wasn't feeling too well - I think it was 1/2 her teeth & 1/2 her cold - so she was a little crabby and impatient with me. We got her crayons out and she climbed up on the couch (and off the couch, and on the couch, and off the couch...) to color. Meanwhile, I put a DVD on in the background that seemed to catch some of her attention. It's "Bobs & Lolo" - a kids' entertainment duo. The DVD was sent to us by our friends, Doug & Marsha. I absolutely loved it & played it in the background 3 times. Kaylynn watched on & off. Their music is fantastic and the video for their songs is really fun. More Bobs & Lolo stuff is definitely in our future.

I needed to be at the synagogue at 11:30 today and didn't know that Julian was going to feel so crummy, so I called our friends at 8:30 (probably woke them up, since they had been at the party) and asked for help. Thankfully, they were free and more than willing. They went above and beyond. Not only did they come and play with Kaylynn, they brought the makings for a fabulous, healing chicken soup, some cough syrup, and some ginger & lemon juice - all wonderful things to make Julian & Kaylynn feel better. When I left, Saren was sitting on the couch with Kaylynn, playing with some brown rice puffs - hiding them and "finding" them in mock surprise. Kaylynn was giggling and seemed to be feeling better.

The report when I got home was that Saber & Saren took Kaylynn outside to play. She loved just walking around on the grass, going up & down the stairs, and generally being outside. When it was time to come in for lunch and nap, she protested vehemently. She did, however fall asleep quickly.

I took a long nap myself. She came in to wake me in time to get to the synagogue again. We went outside and walked all over the place before I left. She threw the ball for Murphy several times and giggled when Murphy ran to catch it. Again, she wasn't too excited to come back inside. Saber & Saren came back to help Julian while I was out for the night and it seems they went outside yet again and followed her around the yard and circled the house a few times.

We had her wearing her "pajama day" rain boots. They're PERFECT for her to tromp around in. She walks really well in them and they're just fantastic in the mud. It's nice to have them and know that she'll be able to wear them next spring, too.

Kaylynn was absolutely exhausted at bedtime, as was Murphy - hence today's picture. She didn't talk to herself or count or anything. She gave a few whines, said "uppy" and was silent for the rest of the night.

March 12-13, 2010

So, Friday was another banner day for all of us. It was Julian's last day punching a time clock - ahhhh, management - my last day of lifting restrictions, and Kaylynn's "pajama day" at school. You could almost feel the excitement buzzing around us.

We had borrowed some kid-sized rain boots from friends. They're adorable but still a little big for Kaylynn - perfect for putting over footie-pajamas. She brought Puppy (her stuffed bunny) to school, too. Here's the report. "Kaylynn had a good day. We had fun watching *Monsters, Inc.* and eating popcorn. We also rode bikes and played downstairs."

When I picked her up, they were all dancing around to silly music and pretending to be doggies or snakes or who knows what else. Kaylynn had eaten all of her lunch, which is always encouraging. Some days I just don't know what to send, so it's always nice to get it right :)

She still has a pretty nasty cold, so her mom decided to leave her here with us this weekend. We were trying to figure out what to do Friday night with her and then decided to go out to Chili's for dinner. It's quite kid-friendly! She ate a little bit of chicken and some mandarin oranges and she colored a lot. We played for a while when we got home and it was pretty clear she was tired. We did change her pajamas into fresh ones for bedtime, though it would have been quite convenient to just leave her... but we couldn't do it.

Julian has Kaylynn's cold, so he needed to get some really good sleep. Kaylynn went to sleep at a little after 8 and Julian & I went soon after that. We chatted & read and wound down a little before nodding off.

The first I heard from Kaylynn in the morning was at 5:45. It was just a little rustling and one word of some sort. I waited for more, but she went back to sleep (whew!) until 6:45. We had breakfast and colored and watched a new Sesame Street video (thank you, Saba & Savta). We got dressed and tried not to wake Julian, but to no avail. I found out that an indoor playground opened up at 9am on Saturday, so she & I went to play. She had a BLAST! She tried the ball pit and wasn't a huge fan, but she LOVED playing in the hollow tree and she must have gone up and down the same slide over 50 times. I should have counted but there was so much going on it was hard to keep track. She was in constant motion and I only had the camera on my phone, so the picture is a bit blurry.

At around 11 she got hungry. I had some snacks, but not nearly enough for the appetite she worked up. So we came home for lunch. She was not too bad about leaving the place, especially when I explained that there were snacks in the car. Thank goodness for the emergency stash!

After lunch she asked for Elmo. Am I playing too much video for her? Well, she doesn't really sit & watch it much anyway. We put in "potty time," which she completely ignored. I enjoyed what I saw, though. One of Julian's friends stopped by with a load of books & kids' CDs that her kid had outgrown. Thank you, Beth! Then it was nap time. I'm pretty sure she fell asleep moments before her head hit the pillow.

After nap & snack, I decided to pack her up and go to the playground again. She didn't complain - she was excited to be there and jumped right back into the routine of going up & down the slide. Unfortunately, there were a lot of older kids in the toddler area, so I had to stay pretty close to her (as opposed to watching from the bench) and ask the bigger kids to be careful. I was pretty upset - the toddler area is supposed to be for 3 & under, but no one could be found to enforce it.

We had big plans Saturday night. Our friend, Max, had a surprise birthday party brewing. Kaylynn & I were part of the "ruse," while Julian helped set up for the party. Basically, we needed to show up for dinner, which was supposedly the surprise. Meanwhile, Max's partner, Tyler, got "called in to work," but actually went home to set up for the party. Kaylynn was amazing at dinner. We got corn-dog appetizers and she ate what she needed to. She didn't really try the tater tots or any of my salad. I brought quite a bit for her to play with, but she was focused on "super nurse" and our friend, Jed, who loves little kids and sat next to her, making faces and playing with her. She sat contentedly on my lap for all of dinner and seemed entertained & engaged. Then we went to the party already in progress. Saber & Saren, who she knows well, were there. Our 6-year-old friend, Addie, was there & very excited to sit down and hold Kaylynn. As Julian put a very content Kaylynn on Addie's lap, Addie let him know that "it's OK - I'm good with kids." Good to know. Kaylynn was "uppie" with Julian or me most of the time, but we planned it so she wouldn't be there too long. Since Julian wasn't feeling well, he took her home soon after we got there put her to bed. I stayed for a bit to catch up with friends, some of whom didn't know Kaylynn was staying with us.

It looked like he gave her a bath and my bet is she fell asleep really quickly. It was a big day for a little girl, and she had a blast!