Baby K turns 2!!

Tuesday, April 6th
Baby K is now 2 years old! I can't believe that she is that old already! So, from now on she will be known as Kay on my blog (instead of Baby K).

She is still obsessed with Sesame Street so I made her an Abby cake (one of the new characters on Sesame Street) for her birthday. It turned out really cute. My parents were able to come over and have cake and ice cream with us on her birthday. One of her favorite gifts was a bouncy ball that she went around the room throwing to everyone - she made sure that everyone was included (even her dad who was running the video camera).After Kay finished with her cake, she immediately got down and went to her grandpa to ask him to throw the ball with her. Then she wanted to include grandma too (who was still finishing her cake). She kept saying, "Come on, Grandma! Come on!"One of Kay's funny quirks lately is that she is always wanting to wear a dress or skirt. The problem is that I have so many other cute outfits that are shorts or capris or pants that I want her to wear but she will throw an absolute fit if I try and put them on her. She also only wants to wear nightgowns to bed. The other day I forcefully put some pants and a long-sleeved shirt on her for bedtime because it was chilly (and she was freezing from having just been playing outside). It took her quite a while to settle down after that... She is definitely going to love summertime when I don't have to worry about dressing her warmly!

Trying to figure out how to work the video camera.
Lately she is having a time going to bed at night. She likes to fall asleep in my bed (usually holding onto my hair). Then DH or I will put her in her crib and some nights she will wake up around 4 or 5 in the morning crying/yelling for me. When I go in to get her she immediately changes to a happy tone of voice and says, "There she is!" or "There's the momma!" I'm hoping we can get this resolved before the new baby comes in just a few short months! I would just let her cry and scream in her bed, but she shares the room with Kitty and Luke's bedroom is just next door...

Spring snow

It seems that every year after I write a post about my spring flowers, we get a snow storm a few days later. And this year was no different. Baby K had a ton of fun running around in the snow after we got home from Kitty's ballet class this morning:

Getting older

This year our family will hit a few significant milestones. A few weeks ago we attended an orientation meeting to register M&M for classes at the middle school. She will be turning 12 this summer and entering the YW program! She will also be able to go to YW Camp this summer! I can't believe she is getting that old!

In a few weeks we will be attending a kindergarten orientation meeting for Kitty. She will be starting kindergarten in the fall.

Baby K turns two next week! And then there's also the little event coming up this summer that will increase our family size from 7 to 8!

Our outdoor lover!

I think that Baby K is going to be our child that would be content to stay outside all day long. The cold doesn't seem to bother her and she throws a fit if anyone goes outside without her. On Sunday after church I decided to use the grill for dinner since it was pretty nice weather and Baby K followed me outside without any shoes or jacket on and proceeded to head straight for the swing set and do this:This might be the year that we finally get a fence put up in the backyard...

Baby K: Cute, but trouble

It seems that whenever I have my family over for dinner, Baby K gets into some kind of major trouble. It all started when we had Christmas Eve over at my house. After dinner we sang some songs and then read the Christmas story. Baby K disappeared during this time and I didn't think much about it until she appeared at the top of the stairs covered in foundation makeup. It was all over her face and clothes and I did not want to take the time to take a picture to document the event.

This past Sunday though we had a very similar experience take place and DH was able to snap a few pictures before I cleaned up the mess. I had my family over for dinner and we were sitting around talking and cleaning up afterwards when I saw Baby K at the top of the stairs. It took me a minute to figure out what was all over her: mascara! Somehow she managed to unscrew the lid on my mascara and proceeded to put it on her eye and hands and her feet!! It was quite the sight! Luckily it cleaned up pretty easily and it even came off her dress. And other than on her person I only found one little spot of it on the carpet in our bedroom.

Dinner request

Yesterday we were sitting down for dinner and Baby K looked at what was being served and said, "I want broccoli!" Then a little later on after she had finished what was on her plate she said, "I want MORE broccoli!"

Girls, girls, and more girls!!

Baby K seems to be turning more "girly" every day - mostly thanks to her older sister Blondie! Lately Blondie and Kitty like to get dress up in leotards and ballet shoes and dance all around the house. Baby K has felt a little left out and sometimes likes to have one of the tutus or other skirts put on her so she can dance around with them too. The other day I pulled out a leotard that Kitty used to wear when she was younger and I put it on Baby K. I then put one of the tutus on over it and Baby K was in HEAVEN!! Then M&M - who is not very girly at all - decided to get in on the fun too and she put on a leotard/skirt that she will be wearing for a part in an upcoming school play. At one point the three older girls were laying on the floor together watching some of the Olympics and Baby K just plopped herself down right next to them and I quickly snapped a picture before Baby K noticed that I had the camera out (which she thinks is the coolest thing and that she should be allowed to play with it and push buttons on).

Prayer time

Baby K is probably one of our more free-spirited, rebellious children - especially when it comes to prayer time. Whenever we kneel down for family prayer, she thinks that it is time to run around and be crazy and goof off. We're not quite sure why she doesn't want to join us, so lately we have really started to clamp down on her and make her sit with one of us while the prayer is being said (which usually means she sits with me because she throws a fit if anyone else tries to hold her). Dinner time prayer isn't much better and she usually digs right into her food or drink while we are praying, so we have started not giving her anything until after the prayer has been said.

Well, a few weeks ago we had just finished the evening family prayer and the older kids were off to bed so it was just me, DH and Baby K watching some T.V. in the family room. After a few minutes I realized that Baby K was on the floor next to the couch where I was sitting and she was looking up at me. I finally clued in on what she was doing - she was kneeling on the floor with her arms folded. When she saw that I was watching her, she bowed her head and said, "Heavenly Father" - very clearly. Then she looked up at me and then she bowed her head again and said, "Amen". After she said "amen", she upfolded her arms and looked up at me with a big grin on her face! It was the cutest thing! I quietly got DH's attention while she did the whole thing one more time. Then she got up and found a little Polly Pocket doll - one of the few that we own that has bendable arms - and proceeded to fold the dolls arms and pretend like it was saying a prayer too.

Unfortunately, Baby K hasn't done this since that one incident and she still tries to be unruly during the prayers, but we know that on some level she really is paying attention to what is going on and learning.

Talking up a storm!

Baby K's vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds! It's so fun to hear her say little phrases and even whole sentences from time to time. Here are some of the things that she can say now:

"Pretty dress" - This was one of the first phrases that she put together herself. One Sunday about a month ago I had just finished changing her diaper and she saw herself in the mirror with her dress on and she pointed to herself and said, "Pretty dress".

"Pretty pease" - I have no idea where she learned this one or how she knows when to use it. Whenever she really wants something - like some food or to watch Sesame Street - and I don't want to let her at that moment, she looks at me and says, "Pretty pease!"

"Baka" - This is what she calls my Dad - and sometimes my Mom too. One time she used the word "baga" for Grandma but she hasn't really done that consistently.

"I don't want it!" - She says this often when her siblings are trying to give her something that she doesn't want.

Sibling names - She can say all of her sibling names - or variations of them.

Sesame Street - Baby K knows just about all of the Sesame Street characters and calls Sesame Street, "Treet".

"Oh-man" - What she calls a snowman - or just snow for that matter.

"Hi there" - Baby K says this to me when I have just gotten after her about doing something she shouldn't do. When I'm finished chastising her she will look up at me and wave and say, "Hi there!" - trying to distract me from being upset at her...

"What's that?" - This is what Baby K usually says when she knows something and wants us to ask her what it is.

"Huggies" - What Baby K says when she wants me to pick her up.

"Walk" or "hand" - When Baby K wants you to come with her somewhere, she will hold out her hand and say, "Walk" or "Hand".

"Oh no, what happened?" - What she says when something falls or breaks.

"Okay?, okay?" - She says this when she falls down.

"Cold, brrr!" - When something is cold.

"Tato Head" - The potato head toys

Counting - Sometimes when Baby K is playing she will start babbling and talking/singing to herself. Sometimes she will start counting. I have heard her get as high as six (starting at one) and the other day she was saying, "Seven, eight, nine".

"Princess" - the Disney princesses or any doll/girl wearing a pretty dress

"I don't want hot!" - This is what Baby K said last night at dinner. We set her down at the table and warned her that the dinner was hot, so she pushed her plate away saying, "I don't want hot!"

Amazing find...

This is what I found this afternoon:Baby K curled up on Kitty's bed asleep for her afternoon nap.

After lunch today I was downstairs inputting some things on the computer in my husband's office. Baby K was watching Sesame Street upstairs. After a little while I heard Baby K whining some and I thought she might come downstairs to find me, but she didn't. When I finished on the computer I stopped at the laundry to take out a load and put a new one in, and Baby K was not watching Sesame Street. So I went upstairs to find her and she was curled up asleep on Kitty's bed. She took a good long nap - which she desperately needed because she has been sick and not sleeping too well the last couple of days.

Happy 9th Birthday Luke!!

Luke turned 9 yesterday. His birthday always seems to creep up on me since it is not too long after Christmas. For that reason, usually while I am Christmas shopping I also buy birthday gifts for him. By the time his birthday came around this year I just needed to buy a few clothes for him, but the bulk of the gifts I already had. Luke was super excited for his birthday and loved all of his gifts. He has been saving up some money to buy a transformer toy but ended up getting it as a gift so now he can use the money for something else. This year we just did a family party. His only request for a cake was chocolate with chocolate frosting which turned out well for me because Baby K ended up coming down with a bad cold a couple of nights ago and has been very clingy - especially when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap because her throat hurts. I ended up doing just a very basic cake but everyone loved it.
Luke chose McDonald's for dinner so DH picked it up and we ate it at the house (since Baby K is sick) and then my parents came over for presents and cake and ice cream. Baby K finally started feeling better when Grandma and Grandpa arrived and she had a lot of fun carrying all of the opened wrapping paper over to Grandpa and handing it to him. It's really funny because she calls him "Baka" and gets really excited when she sees them.

Now that Luke is 9 he gets to come to my den meetings (Bears) and I don't have to drive him to separate meetings each week. He earned his Wolf about a month ago and is excited to be moving up!

Puzzling things out

Baby K received 2 very cute wooden puzzles for Christmas - one from Santa and one from one of my sisters. They kept her very occupied on Christmas morning and it was really cute watching her figure them out. The puzzle from my sister is one where if you put in a battery it will make the animal sounds when you put the puzzle piece in. So the day after Christmas I opened the battery compartment on the back of the puzzle with a screwdriver and put a battery in. Baby K was amazed that all of a sudden the puzzle was making noises. A few minutes after this I went outside to throw something in the trash cans at the side of the house and when I came back in I found Baby K with the screwdriver in her hands. At first I didn't understand what she was trying to do, but then I realized that she had the other puzzle (the one that doesn't make noises) turned upside-down and was trying to figure out how to use the screwdriver to make the puzzle make sounds like the other one. It was such a cute thing to see her trying to figure things out!!

Baby K photo shoot

Baby K's Christmas picture deserves its own blog entry. She was NOT in the mood for pictures when we were doing them and I ended up getting quite a funny succession of pictures!

Picture #1 - Baby K throwing her Elmo dolls
Picture #2 - BIG YAWN
Picture #3 - Eyes closed
Picture #4 - Reading a book

Yummy cookie!

Here is Baby K enjoying a peanut blossom cookie - she just ate/licked all the chocolate off the top and then was done with it!

Sibling bonding...

Playing Nintendo DS...
Watching T.V. together the morning after our trip. I love Baby K's morning flyaway hair!

Yogurt

Baby K absolutely loves yogurt. The other day I dished her up some for lunch into a little bowl and then I looked over at her and she had reached across the table and grabbed the yogurt container and was helping herself to some more!

Getting into Trouble

I guess I should have checked sooner when I heard Baby K upstairs by herself squealing. She just came downstairs with her head and shirt soaking wet and carrying a spray bottle with water in it. Luke often uses it in the morning to wet his hair down and apparently Baby K got ahold of it and figured out how to spray it. She sat here on the floor for the longest time just squirting herself in the face - it was like she couldn't quite figure out how she kept getting wet but then would laugh about it.

My little helper!

The other day I was doing laundry when I left the room for a few minutes and came back to this:

Baby K was taking laundry out of the laundry basket and putting it into the washing machine! It was so cute to watch! (The only unfortunate part about it was that it was clean laundry that had already been folded!!) I just love this age when they are constantly observing what is going on and trying to copy what they see others do!

Yep, this looks dirty too!

Finally catching on!

On Sunday night we read scriptures as a family and then were kneeling down for family prayer when this happened:
Baby K knelt down right next to her dad and folded her little arms! We were all absolutely amazed! We were hoping that this day would come soon because up until this point Baby K has thought that prayer time is the time to run around and goof off. It is cute to see that she is finally catching on!

Beautiful Weather!!!

We have been having absolutely BEAUTIFUL fall weather this year! Usually this far into the soccer season we are having to bundle the kids up really good and take blankets and umbrellas for the games. Well, last Saturday we had weather close to 70 degrees and a slight breeze - absolutely perfect soccer weather! And the last games of the season are this Saturday.

The kids have really been taking advantage of the nice weather while they have been off-track. The neighbor kids behind us are off-track as well and the kids have been playing outside almost everyday. I have been loving it!!

This is Baby K telling me that the slide is hot!Baby K loves to kick balls around!Blondie and one of the neighbor girls.