Chevy Driving Soccer Mom (and Dad)

This spring, we have entered the world of soccer parents!  Seriously, this is the best way to spend a Saturday, watching 4 year olds play soccer.

Oh, Kaylynn, she has spirit, that is for sure.  Everyone tells us how happy she seems.  She just hops and skips around, without a care in the world.  She's the team entertainment, I guess.  And has the brightest, most yellow shoes ever.  She knows that you don't touch the ball with our hands.  And that the goal is to "take the ball away from the other team" but she gets so caught up in the fact that we are there watching her, that she really doesn't pay attention to what she is supposed to do!  She is more interested in flowers, waving, and blowing us kisses!  During her 4th game, she finally got a REAL kick, not a kick off or a throw in, but a real running kick.  We lost it.  We were totally those parents.

If you watch this video, she's the one hopping around behind everyone! ha!

Throw-in.  "I threw it over all their heads, just like Coach Randee said."

Another throw-in.  

Here she looks like she is on top of things, but she is really like 10 feet away from everyone. :)

Kick off

 Just taking a little break. In the freezing, cold, windy weather!  

She must be the queen of throw-ins...

Just waving to her fans!  Yes, she played the whole game in her sunglasses.

 Corner kick!

Freakishly long arms?  Nope, just a too big sweatshirt.  

Good Morning!

How can you be in a bad mood when this is what you get to hear first thing in the morning?!

 

Crazy Kid

Just a couple of videos of Kaylynn being silly. In the first one, she is singing some song she learned on Dinosaur Train. Apparently Tiny (one of the dinosaurs) sings this song and does the whole mouth open bit at the end. Cracks me up! Oh, and it's shaky because we were in the car (Brian was driving, don't freak out.)  The second is one mom took of her in the pool.  She does not like me throwing her.  I like it, it's a good workout!  All of a sudden she has taken to jumping into the pool.  She'll just belly flop on in.  I tried to teach her how to do a cannonball, but she said her jump made a bigger splash.  Brian will have to show her how it is done.

 

I Eat Ketcup on My Ketchup

If you are my facebook "friend" then you might have read my novel the other night about all the things Ben stuck in ketchup.  My dad, using his new phone (that he thinks is superior to everyone else's phone, fyi), videoed the aftermath of Ben's ketchup experience.  I think he was trying to get record of him actually dipping things in ketchup, but I Ben knows better than to actually cooperate with folks.  It's a toddler thing.

This is going to be boring to most people, but it cracks me up.  Why?  Just listen to the little "birdie" in the background the whole time.  :)

This is not a one-time thing, folks.  This is life.  Everyday.  Every.  Single.  Day.  A game of the repeater.  We love her dearly!

I love you, too!

Cute Things

Lots of videos here. We've been meaning to post these for a while, but life happens. I want to make sure and remember these cute things that she's doing now days.

First of all, Brian took about a million and a half videos of Kaylynn doing her animal sounds. The first one is what I like to call "Animals - Distracted." Kaylynn is wandering around the room while he grills her on sounds.


The second one is the video he wanted...of her doing a good lion's ROAR.



Next we have a video of our little game, "I see you." This consists of Kaylynn getting into our empty cabinet, closing the doors, then opening them, announcing "I see you." She attacks the camera at the end.



And our last video of the night is what happens when you ask Kaylynn if she wants to take a bath. Taken the same night as "Animals - Distracted."



Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm getting books launched at me with the demand, "READ." Oh, and I hear the "How I Met Your Mother" theme song....

Hours of Balloon Fun

Everytime we go to HEB, Kaylynn enjoy pointing at the balloons. Today we walked away with (bought) a "Happy Easter" balloon to play with. The thing is a hit. She walks around with it, hits Gus, and laughs and laughs and laughs. "Bwoon" is what she says.


A few of new things:

1. Thanks to the rodeo and her books, she now can point out any cow and tell you that they say "MOOOOOO". We also know lamb, lambs say "MAA", and bees say "bzzzz". Birds, ladybugs, and bees are all "bees" to Kaylynn.

2. She is a huge fan of flushing the toilet. She's not strong enough to do it by herself, but if she follows me into the bathroom, I help her flush it and we say "byebye" to the toilet waste. Fun stuff. I still think we're not ready for potty training...maybe we'll go through Mommy's bootcamp this summer. Right now, we're just talking up the toilet so she'll get familiar.

3. She loves, L-O-V-E-S, her baby (bee-bee) and getting into your lap and reading books. Sometimes beebee and Kaylynn will all get in your lap and just sit, ever so content, and read with you. It's one of my latest favorite things.

4. Kaylynn loves being outside ('side). She'll go to the door, try to pull down the handle and say " 'side." She just walks around out there. It's cute.

5. She's starting to insist on having a bowl or a plate when she eats. If she sees it on the table, she'll whine and reach until you give it to her. She'll take all the food out, put it all back in, then eat it. Whatever works, I guess. :)

11 Months already!

Dearest Kaylynn,

11 months have come and 11 months have gone. It is hard to believe that your will be a whole year old in a few weeks! Time flies too fast!

This month you have been a busy bee! You went back to Ohio to visit GiGi, Auntie Melissa, Uncle Angelo, and Cousin Anthony! We had a great time!

You saw Anthony standing, so you decided it would be the cool thing to do. Now you stand all the time. You prefer crawling though. Sometimes you forget that you don't have complete balance, and will stand for a few seconds by yourself before you grab on to me or the couch.

We are drinking from a cup now for your bottles! We still have the bottles, in case a cup is dirty, but you'd drink out of it each time if it is given to you. You're becoming more independent, that's for sure.

Though independent, you'd rather someone play with you. Most times you get angry if we're not on the floor with you or you aren't in our laps. Sometimes when I'm on the floor playing with you, you crawl into my lap for some snuggles. I love those times!

The new game is handing us invisible things. You like to share your toys with us, but now you've started giving us things that don't exist. Tonight, after your bath, you acted like you took a bow out of your hair and gave it to Daddy. Then did it again, and again. It's hilarious!

Speaking of bows...you've decided that they taste better than they look. You can no longer be left unsupervised with bows on (aka, in your carseat). Mommy got quite a scare when you started hacking on one while she was driving. Not fun! Since your hair is so long, we've had to do the "Pebbles" style ponytail to keep your hair out of your face. It's just a phase, it'll soon be so long that you won't need it. Mommy isn't cutting bangs for you.

Each month keeps getting more fun! We love hearing you laugh when you get Eskimo kisses or tickled. We love your sweet kisses and hugs. We love you!!

Love,
Mommy



Kaylynn on her 11 month birthday.

Sporting her new ponytail on 11/08/09

Fun video of Kaylynn's afternoons. Notice how she always crawls back to the lap.

10 Months!

And a CLEAN post! Geez.

Dear Kaylynn,

You are quite the sweet girl. Everyone thinks so. We can't go anywhere without people commenting on how cute and friendly you are. You've never met a stranger. Why, even today, on your 10 month birthday, you were passed around a baby shower and were nice to everyone (except you broke a lady's necklace...)

Biggest news is that you've finally figured out the crawling is the cool thing to do. You take after your mommy in this aspect, as I didn't crawl until I was 10 months old either. If history repeats itself in you, you'll be walking around 13 months. Just in time for your cousin to turn 1! You're getting pretty good at the crawling. You can drag things with you when you crawl, and can even manage to get around wearing dresses.

You are pretty much feeding yourself all finger foods. We still eat yogurt and oatmeal fed from a spoon, but other than that you feed yourself.

You're doing all kinds of cute things like pointing to everything, playing ET with mommy at dinnertime, putting your hand to your ear and saying "hello" (you learned that from Grandma Frink), but your favorite new actvity is opening and shutting drawers. It's crazy. You also really love your friend, Gus. He just sits there and lets you pull his ears, crawl on his back, pull his tail, grab at his jowls, everything. He's such a good dog with you!

Tomorrow you go to your very first birthday party - Jason Soenjoto's 1st birthday! I can't wait to see what the Children's Museum is like.

Happy 10 month birthday, sweet girl! Only 2 more until 1 year!! It's going too fast!

Love,

Mommy

PS, here's a video of you and your bestie!

On the Move...

...finally. :) Knocking on 10 month's door, Kaylynn finally figured out how to do it. She doesn't go very far, but it's progress none-the-less. You can see what happens when she gets frustrated. She's not as fast crawling (yet) as she is rolling.

She doesn't really crawl in this 2nd one. It's to show you what happens when she gets frustrated. It also shows you that I need to vacuum.

Child Prodigy

Holy moley, our daughter is a genius! I know we're partial, but just watch her below. She can't crawl, but she sure knows about noses (not hers, just farm animals apparently.)

Now, I realize she didn't hit some of those spot on, but cut her some slack folks, she's only 9.5 months old!

A Day in the Life

Here is a quite lengthy video that depicts what the first 30 minutes after Brian gets home is like. It is Brian asking Kaylynn (non-stop) if she can say "Daddy." I decided to confuse her royally, by asking if she could say "Gus." I watch it and laugh. You might get bored. :)

The second video is Kaylynn showing off her tricks. "High 5" is a new one. Her grandma's must have had ESP or something because they both have been working on it with her, but neither one knew it. She and I had a grand time at HEB yesterday high-5-ing throughout the store. She would just laugh and laugh and laugh. So fun!

They See Me Rollin'...

..."They hatin'"...

Ok, enough offensive rap songs; this is a family environment. We have a little log roller. Kaylynn has discovered a new mode of transportation. You will all be happy to know that it has low emissions, great gas mileage, and is very easy to clean.

So, uh, I guess I'm spending my weekend getting everything away and making sure the floor area is "Kaylynn Friendly". That'll be interesting, considering that Gus leaves his ball where ever he pleases (balls, hearts, rings, ropes -whatever - in Gus's world, they are all balls.) That and dog hair is a HUGE pain. I, also, need to combine blankets to make one long pallet, or get out the larger quilt.

Did you catch the part in the video where she pushes up really far? She'll be crawling before we know it. That is fine with me, because I can start buying those cute "baby legs" things. Remember the leg warmers picture?

On the other hand, it means my baby is growing up and I frankly don't care for that. :)

Oh, and the quality of this video is cruddy because we didn't have much light on in the living room. We think we need to get higher wattage bulbs.

Random...

Homemade clothes. (diaper cover included!)

Practicing our "sitting up like a big girl." She was tired, she's usually a lot more upright than this.

An interesting part of Brian's Income Tax Class. If they have to include an "Income Tax Map", then I think he's going to do just fine in this class.

The contents of our bathroom in the backyard.

Brian being handy...despite all the ridicule he receives.

Lastly, a video.

Raspberries!

Now, I realize the faces she makes only emphasize her cute, chubby cheeks, but how can you not laugh at all her "spitting". Since this video, she's gotten really good (and doesn't look as much like she's trying to "go".) She can blow a proper raspberry, using her tongue and all. Quite entertaining. It's really funny when she does it right after a bath, but my absolute favorite is to wake up in the morning to hear her on the monitor blowing them. She's just as content as can be, laying in bed, talking to herself and blowing raspberries. She's such a happy little girl.

The second video shows how smart she is! She's learned to take out her soothie and put it back in! She falls over at the end, because we're still practicing the whole "sitting up by yourself" thing (she's still young, it's usually a 6 month+ milestone, so we've got some time to master it.) But don't worry, she fell into my hands, so she didn't really fall.

Have a great weekend. I just layed my sweet girl down for the night, without a swaddle, for the first time EVER! We'll see how this goes. On the monitor she looks asleep, lets just hope she won't wake herself up.

What am I getting myself into...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_aRYNHjFr4

The Serious Side of Things

I'm going to make this short and sweet. You need to follow the link below and watch the video. You need sound. This is not a joke that will take you to some website that scares the crap out of you. It was a pick-me-up for me and I hope it will be for you.

I know that not everyone will appreciate this, but I'm hoping that those who do outnumber those who don't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

A Couple of Videos

I wish I had video editing software. Maybe I do...I just don't know it. If I did, I would totally edit most of this video (including my over-the-top excited Mommy voice). I've hesitated putting this up here, because I hate listening to myself, but I thought blogworld needed to see our sweet girl go rolling. Mostly because it hasn't happened since this documented day.

This one was taken tonight. Kaylynn was hanging out with us while Brian did some work on the laptop in bed. I was getting close enough to her face where she could grab on and feel my face. This provoked a squeal/scream/shriek from her. We found it quite entertaining. She really likes trying to grab my face though. Sorry my hair got in the way.

"Sick and Tired..

...of being sick and tired." One of those good ole' CCR songs that take me back to College Station.

Well, I have always told Brian that I don't get sick...and usually it is true. It is rare that I get really sick. I'm not talking about a silly little cold, I'm talking SICK. And this time I got SICK. Started out feeling bad Thursday afternoon, getting progressively worse throughout the evening. I had half a mind to go to the RediClinic at HEB during 1st block (my conference period) Friday morning.

Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda. Coach Loper would have told me to put those behind me (cross country pals will remember those pep talks!)

Brian has an uber big appellate brief due Monday (tomorrow), so I had planned on taking sweet girl up to Frankston to hang out with my mom and dad to give him much needed quiet to work. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because as we drove to Frankston, I was getting worse and worse. When I show up in Frankston, I'm burning up with a 100.9 fever. I NEVER get fevers. I am achy. My throat hurts. I go straight to bed (in fact, everyone in that house was in bed before 10pm.)

I wake up Saturday morning and I can hardly swallow anything. I'm talking, holding my throat to swallow, hurt. I always have this thing with checking out my throat when it hurts and this time, it was so disgusting that I had to share with mom and dad. That's when we decided I had strep throat. Thanks to some antibiotics I began to feel better, but I didn't have enough to last the requisite 10 days, so in the end, I wound up going to that RediClinic.

Turns out, I did in fact have strep throat, the good old streptococcus bacteria. Now, I find out, even though I am feeling just fine, ( I say just fine, my throat still hurts and I'm pretty tired) I am very contagious. Apparently when you start taking antibiotics, you are most contagious 24 hrs afterwards. Well the doc counted today as my day 1 and so now I'm stuck at home tomorrow. Ordinarily, I'd be excited for a day at home, but its no fun when you can't hang out with your sweet baby because you are contagious (but don't worry, the doctor told me that babies under 18 months can't get strep...though Brian and I don't buy it, so she's still going to grandma's).

If I hadn't gone up to Mom and Dad's, I would have never started antibiotics early (thus probably having to miss 2 days of work, which I do NOT need/want to do) and Brian would never have gotten his paper done (since I couldn't take care of Kaylynn). Mom gladly took care of Kaylynn all weekend long (thanks mom!). Like I said, blessing in disguise! Oh, and to those of you who are skeptical about those doc's in the grocery store...so great to have when it's a Sunday at 4:00 and you need a prescription. $20 co-pay vs. $100 ER visit, for the same purpose. Use them. They aren't bad at all. Very clean too.

And if I can't spend a day with my sweet girl, then I'd rather spend it with my smart-mouthed 8th graders (seriously...I know you are laughing, but they really keep you on your toes. They are fun.)


And just for fun, here's a link to the CCR song "Sick and Tired".

Squealy McSquealerson

The title is self-explanatory.

I apologize for having to listen to Brian and I. The video was probably longer than necessary, so feel free to tune out whenever you need to.