Summer Sun

Summer Fun

As you can see in the video, this past week Uncle Skyler visited and brought a gift for Kiersyn that she's pretty in love with - the Leapfrog Jr.

Little paleontologist

We also visited the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science Children's Museum. It wasn't exactly all we had hoped but Kiersyn had fun despite the fact that it was crawling with LOTS of other kids. Her favorite part was a giant rock pit where the kids could uncover bones that we had to drag her away from. She also got to "milk" a cow (fake, plastic cow and the "milk" was water).

Milking the cow!

Chickens!

She loved ROARing at the big animals.

 4th of July - We actually really celebrated on the 3rd. We took Kiersyn swimming at her KK's house and then went to Addison for Kaboom Town. Luckily, my mom and I discovered a place to park last year that seems to be relatively undiscovered so we were able to avoid the half a million strong crowd and had plenty of room for Kiersyn to wander around while we tried to keep her awake. She made it though and really enjoyed them - oohing and aahhing in surprise.

Copying Dad

What? These don't go?

She wanted to swim by herself. on her own. no one touching her.

Trying to stay awake for fireworks

Success! There they are!

12-16 Months Video Compilation

16 Months

Hey little you.

You have been 16 months old for all of 9 days and you are a world away from the baby you were a few short months ago when I wrote you on your first birthday.

Your language skills grow every day. I couldn’t list all the words you know if I tried and you love to enthusiastically repeat the things we say.

At lunch time today Dad called and I had him on speaker phone – it went like this…

Dad: I’m on my way home, be there in a second
Me: Ok
You: OK!!
Dad: She still awake?
Me: Yes
You: YES!!

You’re really into putting “a” before things right now. It’s never just “dog” or “car”  it’s  “A CAR!” or “A DOG”! 

This morning you pointed to your mouth and told me “Tee. Out-ch.(Teeth. Ouch.)” I hope it’s true – you still only have 6 teeth and could really use some more. We have to cut everything up for you – you can’t take bites of a sandwich like we see other kids your age do. 

But still you amaze us more and more every day.  You are an absolute sponge. You know the alphabet and have taken to excitedly pointing out (read: screaming out) letters anywhere you see them. We waited in the car for Dad to buy something in Walgreens a few days ago and sitting under the sign that said “PHARMACY” you declared “A!”.  I said “Yes, good job, that IS an A!” to which you responded with a frown “NO!” We went back and forth for a few moments – with you growing increasingly frustrated until finally you said “NO! TWO!”. 

Now, here’s the truth Kiersyn. I don’t really know what to do with a 16 month old who can tell me there are two As in Pharmacy. Your aptitude is intimidating and I fear being unable to help you reach your full potential. In addition to knowing the alphabet (albeit not perfectly, you sometimes confuse similar looking letters like E and F) you know eight basic shapes, animals and the sounds they make, your body parts, understand the concept of counting (wanting me to help you count things constantly and tell me you have 2 of something any time you do) and your creativity is impressive. Last week you took to stealing dog food out of Lexie’s bowl when she was outside to make trails – one tiny piece by piece - from the dog door down the hall or to wherever you saw fit. You squealed in delight when she followed along stopping to crunch on each one. I have no idea where you got this idea as you definitely haven’t watched me or Dad do anything like that. 

When you don’t know the word for something, you find a way to communicate. You’ve been playing in the baby pool (sans clothes) in the backyard quite a bit as it’s over 100 degrees right now. Yesterday you stood at the back door, pointed at the pool and said “Baf peebs (bath please).” To which I responded “You want to play in the pool?” you looked at me surprised “Ohhh. Jess (yes). Pool.”

You’ve begun to enjoy pretend play; rocking and feeding your baby dolls and pretending to drink (along with slurping noises) too.  You’re REALLY into animals that “roar” – lions, tigers, bears… and will crawl on all fours roaring at us until we roar back. You also really love to “scare” us (Lexie included) with a sudden “BOO!” – you especially love to fling open the shower curtain and yell it while I’m in the shower. I assure you this is indeed occasionally truly startling which you of course absolutely love. 

You are still an incredible sleeper. At night we read a book, say a bedtime prayer (which you end with a resounding AYYYYMEN!), usually we rock a few minutes and then I tell you night-night, give you a kiss and put you in bed. You either roll over and go right to sleep or talk to yourself and whatever stuffed animals you’ve weaseled into bed with you that night for a few minutes before drifting off. You sleep 12-13 hours at night and recently have been taking a 3 hour nap in the early afternoon. Crazy…but no one’s complaining.  

Now, reading over all that you sound like a dream child. Hate to break it to you… but you aren’t.

You may have inherited your father’s need for sleep but despite my praying and bargaining with the Lord, you did not get his consistent, even keel, laid back personality. You move from deliriously happy to inconsolably upset in a heartbeat– fortunately it is usually the former.

You are ridiculously adamant about your independence. You are a stubborn, hard headed, strong willed, free spirit and Heaven help us if anyone gets in the way of it. If someone touches you when you aren’t in the mood or you think there is a threat of being physically guided you will shriek or pick up the hand touching you and throw it off. You’ve even been known to casually remove my arm around you while sitting in my lap reading a book. A gesture that confirms our relation in a way that rattles me to the core- I know you’re gently saying “Don’t confine me”. Thankfully, you do love to give affection on your own – you will walk up and say “wuv (love)” hugging our legs and leaning your head against us (Lexie too). 

You are seeing just how much control you really have lately. You have taken to shrieking at the top of your lungs for minutes at a time to see if I react. It makes you absolutely furious when I don’t get upset. It’s hard not to laugh at your expressions of irritation when I don’t follow your agenda. 

You also have a need for constant stimulation. You get bored in an instant and every second you are not fully engaged or challenged is a countdown to meltdown. You will play by yourself for a total of 5 seconds, tossing whatever you’re playing with to the side and stare at me with a bored “Ok now what?” You demand continuous interaction. When I try to do my makeup in the morning you bring a pile of books into the bathroom, flip through each one and then begin to repeat “Mom. Mom. Mom. Mo-om.” increasingly insistent until you either lose it or I give you something new to do. 

You’ve begun telling yourself “No, no, no” when you approach something you are not supposed to touch. And then… you touch it anyway. Almost. Every. Time.  Kills me.  Fortunately your little pep talk with yourself serves as a fantastic warning system in the event that I don’t happen to be in the same room. 

There is so much more I’d like to tell you about the ways you keep us on our toes but you’re waking up from your nap and calling me ever so impatiently so it’ll have to wait til next time.

Love you goober fish.

Happy 16 months!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Video Update!

Weekends with Dad!

The fort

Playing in the fort with Dad

Diapered in organic cotton, playing in our new organic garden!

Dad has pudding!

An Easter Update

It has been a very busy couple of months. Danley has been so busy with church events - float building and Easter prepping we have hardly seen him lately. We're looking forward to things settling down for a short time before Summer takes off.
Kiersyn's been busy too - we went to see Country Critters when they came to visit the dayschool and she went to the butterfly exhibit at the Fort Worth botanical gardens with her KK and Poppi.

We were in the Rodeo Parade last weekend. Dayschool had a Noah's Ark float and the kids dressed as animals to ride on the Ark.

Yes that's the front page of the newspaper! Tell my husband how awesome his float idea was!

Mr. Dan in costume, working the crowd.

Notice K decided this was a great time for a nap

.

  

We took bluebonnet pictures right down the street from us. They are amazing this year! The "good" pictures are of course on Facebook but here are some outtakes. 

I love her face. Straight out of Calvin and Hobbes.

Drowning in Bluebonnets. Told you they were amazing!

Today was the "Easter Eggstrazaganza". Kiersyn was having somewhat of a rough day but still hunted eggs like an old pro! Check her out in the video below!

"I said, no pictures."

Sweet Baby.

Then we went to see the Easter Bunny at the mall (ugh). I was afraid K would freak out. Instead she thought the bunny was hilarious, hugged the bunny, cuddled the bunny and shed a few tears when we had to leave.

K has been seeing a chiropractor for a few weeks and we have seen wonderful results -- Heaven help us she's been sleeping through the night (12-13 hours) for nearly 2 weeks. All is not entirely well though - she still has reflux trouble with citrus and fruit and we are waiting for the results of some GI tests to see if they can pinpoint anything else that might be exacerbating her problems. She also continues to display food seeking behaviors that can be downright exhausting. It seems to be simply habit leftover from comfort eating at the height of reflux - something that we hope, like the rest of it...will simply get better with time.
Thankfully, most of the time she is just a very happy toddler. It just amazes me every day how big my baby is getting. She has started to randomly repeat things we say, she nods yes and shakes her head no, she's climbing on everything, running, kicking and throwing a ball, she can point to all the parts of her body and say most of them. She's been going to classes at The Little Gym and loves climbing all over the gymnastics equipment and walking on the balance beam!

 Below is a video of time with Dad before bed tonight - they're playing some ridiculous game where shoes are bombs. I'll have it be known that I did not condone this activity ;)