Our little ballerina

Tomorrow Kaylie has her first dance class. It will incorporate ballet, tap, and tumble. I have to say even though I am super excited for her she is even more excited for herself. I have been shocked at how much she has talked about being a ballerina. The past week she has brought it up daily and I think today it felt real to her when we tried on her clothes. Since we have a tight schedule tomorrow I figured I would get better pictures today. The only problem was that I she absolutely did not want to take off the pink dress. When I asked her which one she wanted to wear to class she quickly yelled PINK!!! This girl definitely knows what she wants.

Sp A ghetti

Kaylie has been working on eating Chef Boy R D spaghetti and meatballs during therapy. We haven't tried the meatballs just yet but she has mastered the spaghetti and absolutely loves it. I was shocked when she pulled it out of the pantry this afternoon and asked for it. The other awesome thing...seeing how messy she let herself get and being ok with it. Wow!!!

With a Moo Moo here...

One of Kaylie's favorite things to do are puzzles. After seeing this huge 2X3 Melissa and Doug puzzle I knew I had to get it. Jason and I sat and watched her giving her suggestions here and their. She did great. When the puzzle was done she stood up and said..."again!!!" She was not happy when we told her it was time to go to bed.

Sick baby

First week of school and little miss already had a stomach bug. She felt so bad she had to miss school on Friday. I pray this doesn't set the precedent for the remainder of the school year. Thankfully it was only a 24 hour thing and she was back to her old self.

A little scare

The day before Kaylie started school she woke up with two spots on one leg and two on another directly across from each other and spaced out almost the same distance apart. They were so similar it looked as if a bug had gone to town on one leg and then jumped over to the other to continue its feast. Not thinking too much about it we went to church, ate and came home. While sitting their I noticed she no longer had just 2 and 2. Now she had two leg fulls and two arm full of spots. Knowing school was going to start I wanted to make sure she wasn't contagious so we went to the after hours pediatric center. Thankfully it was just a virus that she had already had and we had no idea she had it. The rash let us know her virus was already done. Phew!!!

While their the doctor asked us if we had ever been told she had a heart murmur. She had one in the NICU but it had closed so this was a new thing. She told us she thought it was what they call and "innocent" murmur and we didn't need to worry or rush to get it checked out. If the doctor knew me she would have known I wasn't just going to "wait" until our next appointment with the pedi especially considering we have no idea when that would be so I put it away and decided I would call the pedi in the morning.

Monday morning...At 9 am I called her pediatrician's nurse. We talked and she was shocked that with what I was saying because so many people have been involved in her care and no one to this day has heard it. She said just in case bring her in. Our appt. was set for 4:20. The doc came in and you could tell he had talked to his nurse because he said the exact same thing. As we sat their quietly you could see it in his face...he heard the murmur. He kept saying, "it wasn't their before." Thankfully I had done some research and knew that murmurs can come and go so it didn't stress me out too much. As we sat their talking he decided to not take any chances with her previous health history and go ahead and get her checked out by a pediatric cardiologist. Even though this is what I wanted it still didn't make it easier to hear him say it.

On Thursday we went to the cardiologist. She was so sweet and loving. We did an EKG and an echocardiagram. I have to say the echo was an amazing thing to watch. I was in awe as I watched my baby girls heart pumping. It was amazing. The doctor listened to her and confirmed she had a murmur and as she listened she actually had several murmurs which come to find out is very common for 3 year old because their heart is pumping so incredibly hard. Her murmurs are innocent and knowing that we can dismiss any future murmurs that may come around because they will most likely come and go throughout her life.

Being that I thought we had avoided at least one specialist this was a really hard appointment to go to. We were confident that even if something was wrong it was 100% fixable. Thankfully, her PDA from the NICU had not opened back up and the murmurs were normal. Definitely a relief. Just one more thing to check off her list of experiences she has had.

Technology and a 3 year old

When Kaylie wakes up she will go over to her door, stand by the gate and start yelling, "mommmmyyyyyy...I awaaaaaaakkkkke!" She will keep asking for you until you get her. Some mornings I am not ready to get up so we let her come to our bed and snuggle for a little bit. This particular morning she was happy and content with daddy's I-Phone. I think she knows how to use this better than I do!

A new year

Little Misses first day of the 2010-2011 school year went wonderfully. She had talked about going back to school since it ended in June so this wasn't a huge deal for her. She was a little nervous when we got to school but once her teacher walked up it was as if she had never taken a break. It makes it easier to send her when she wants to go and we are not making her go. Here's to a wonderful 2010-2011 school year.

You may not be able to tell but her eyes are open in this picture.

This is the sweetest looking face. I have never seen her pose like this before. She was totally hamming it up for me until I made her mad by trying to get all of the stray hairs cut that had slid forward after I cut them the first time. Their is a reason I am not allowed to cut her bangs. For some reason we didn't listen to that before attempting it this time around.

They have a name tag on their back pack and they have to wear one. I understand the reasoning behind this but it is still weird to see my 3 year old with a name badge on. This picture is her I am thinking twice about this whole school thing look.

Her backpack is almost as big as she is. It cracks me up to see her try and put it in her locker. We got one on wheels because the regular backpacks go past the bend in her knees.

She was excited about having pudding and chocolate fish for a snack. The simple pleasures in life.

No surprise here but she had to be the first one in the room. It was neat to watch her do the same routines she had left a few months before. It was almost as if she hadn't left. That is a great feeling.

Without being told all of the kids immediately went over without being told and sat in a chair while waiting for circle time. They were definitely used to a routine from the previous year. When I picked her up at the end of the day she was nothing but smiles. She had a great day!

It's raining

After we rode bikes we decided to water the plants. Kaylie jumped off her bike and ran over so she could do it. As Jason and I sat watching she decided to put the sprinkler straight up in the air and starts yelling, "it's raining." She was so incredibly proud of herself for thinking of it she decided to make it rain on mommy and daddy. Gotta love this girl.

This wasn't even the best "It's raining" moment. I didn't have my camera for the first one.

3rd Times a charm

A few weeks ago Kaylie successfully road a tricycle for the first time. Because of this we decided to pull her bike that "the girls" gave her. It is a good bit smaller than the one we got her for her birthday making her more stable. The second time we tried we figured she was doing it a little on her own but were not sure how much momentum we were giving her. After riding the tricycle again and seeing how well she was doing we made sure to go back out on Sunday to try the bike again. This time their was no mistaking that she was riding it on her own. At one point she was all the way at the end of the street yelling for us to come with her. We ended up taking a little ride around the neighborhood. What a huge success. We can't believe how quickly she picked it up. Once we get the turning around thing down she will definitely be unstoppable.

Her saying "weeeeeeeeee..."

Her shoes actually did more harm than good. Her feet kept sliding off and she would solve the problem by taking her feet off and stick them in the air. Once the shoes were off she did even better.

Last minute vacay...

With school quickly approaching we decided to pack up and head out for a mini vacation (Aug. 12 to Aug 14) that was rather close. So close we would be in Oklahoma one minute and Texas another depending on what we were doing. The beautiful thing behind this trip was that we made it a no expectations trip. We found a hotel with an amazing pool so when we found ourselves trying to find something to do we always ended up down at the pool where Kaylie jumped, floated, and kicked her way through waterfalls and magic fountains. She had a blast.

We got to the hotel a little after 3. Kaylie slept the entire way so she was hungry and wanted her lunch before going to the pool. We had a great view of the pool from our room and it was definitely calling our names.

Not happy daddy is sitting in the rollie/spiny chair so daddy held her hostage instead.

This girl does not like to swim...can you tell by the look on her face?!? We ended up having to leave an hour and a half in when it started to thunder and lightening. It was probably a good thing because we could have stayed through dinner.

One purse wasn't good enough. Instead she had to bring two. One for her food.

While exploring the hotel we came across a putting green to practice on. Kaylie loved this and did surprisingly well. If they weren't super expensive I would consider putting her in a class. She actually swung the adult club really well for a three year old.

A little adjustment on her grip and she could be your future golf pro.

Friday

Friday morning we got up and went to one of the state parks on the Oklahoma side. When I remember the name I will fill it in but for now it was a state park. If it hadn't gotten a 100+ quickly we probably would have rented a paddle boat but instead we decided to do a small hike, drive around, and feed some ducks. When we finished exploring we went to the nature center and were able to look at the various animals you might find wandering around. I could have done without the gigantic board of spiders. To finish our outing we went back to the Texas side to have lunch at a really nice marina where Kaylie was given food to feed the turtles, fish, and mallard type ducks. It was pretty neat to watch.

After lunch we went back to the hotel...took a nap...and then went to the pool for another 2 1/2 hours. We stayed until all the fancy lights and fire things came on. If we would have stayed any longer the movie by the pool would have started playing. Definitely a great day!

Her prehike breakfast...I am not sure if she has eaten more or if she had worn more of it?!?

Jury is still out!!!

I call the next few her paparazzi pose. She is such a diva in training.

At first Kaylie did not want in the picture. Right as I took it she popped up and smiled.

Just so you don't think everything is always roses here is a picture of little miss angry that she has to walk on her own. She is scared of some of the sounds and didn't want to walk but refused to stop, eat, and give the bag up.

On the way back to our car we saw some ducks swimming in the lake. Since Kaylie loves to feed them I threw in a few Cheetos. This just about sent her into a tail spin. She wanted to feed the ducks but had absolutely no desire to share her beloved snack with the ducks. She was holding on to them rather tightly but gave in when she realized it was the only way they would stay. Jason and I felt safe with them right next to us but went ahead and held her in case the got aggressive and needed to run away. The ducks were very friendly. I am pretty sure they would have let us pet them if we tried.

Since she made the decision to use her Cheetos it is now ok and she is ready. We actually had to stop her after a few minutes so she didn't feed all of her treat to them.

Needing to get more energy out and taking a little bit of time to enjoy the temps before they are too hot Kaylie and her daddy decided to swing. This was the funniest thing to watch. Kaylie's become very creative and has learned what she wants and when she wants it she wants it. Daddy actually got her moving in the right direction with her swinging.

She definitely did not worry about her sensory issues. She wanted her shoes off and spent a good amount of time digging and burying her feet in the mud. She would stand up and throw it over her head and not think twice about it. That is awesome.

She insisted on swinging non her belly. She also insisted her daddy swing on his tummy as well. I think it may have done some permanent damage to her daddy.

My self portrait. I was sitting in the car with the AC on. I was parked directly across from them and was able to take the pictures. I think I had the better end of this deal.

She insisted on holding her daddie's hand. It made my heart melt.

Saturday

This was the day we headed home but before we could do that we made a stop at Eisenhower State Park located inside the Texas border. We wanted to see how their camping sites looked and to scout out the facilities and see what it had to offer. By the time we left we were very impressed and can see a camping trip in the near future.

The lake was beautiful. The hike was fun but Kaylie was not really wanting to be there so it made for a little more difficult time. I am pretty sure by the end of it she was glad she went.

One of her few moments of happiness. I am pretty sure it was due to being hot and hungry.

She decided she needed to sit on a log to eat her food.