My Gym

We were invited to Nolan's 3rd birthday at My Gym. Since I have not taken any recent pictures of my little darling playing here in awhile and Jason was able to come with us I decided it was a good time.

Kaylie has really blossomed when it comes to the things she is able to do and the things she is willing to do. She is pretty much fearless with everything except going upside down and participates incredibly well with all of the group activities. When it comes to the teacher directed exploration time she does fantastic. She listens so intently and works hard to do what they are asking.

Splash park

To celebrate the last day of school we took our first trip to the splash park. She was hesitant at first but after giving her a bucket she started to play. I especially enjoyed going because it allowed us to have a mini reunion with my good friend Jessica. We went to the same church in Austin and I had not seen her or her kids since my wedding. It was truly a blessing to get to spend time them.

School Shirt

For the last day of school (6/4) they asked us to have the kids wear an end of the year shirt so they could get a class picture. For some reason I don't think the school was thinking when they ordered the shirts because the smallest they had was a child small. At first I thought it was just because she started after the orders were due. After showing this picture to her teacher I assumed wrong. How many 3 year olds wear a child small. Apparently, they didn't take into consideration that some of them would barely be in a toddler size 18 month. After some thought and a visit to the store I was able to make the shirt wearable enough to make it through the day. If you ask me I think I did a pretty good job. I think my quick thinking with a splash of girly flare officially qualifies me as a mommy of a little girl.


Before picture...pretty much a dress.


The brown shirt is one of her 18 month shirts. There isn't that much of a difference...is there?!?

Finished product...ribbon can solve any type of clothing problem.

Barbecue

On Memorial Day we went over to our alley neighbor's house...aka "the girls" to Kaylie...for a barbecue. They take such amazing care of Kaylie Jason and I pretty much just sit back and watch as the girls keep her out of trouble. The best part of our day was teaching Kaylie how to play four square. There driveway was perfect for it. I was some what surprised at how well she did getting the ball back over the line.

Pool Party

On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend we went of to the Stall's for the first pool party of the season. Since the temps have been so incredibly warm the water temperature was perfect. In the past you lost your breath jumping in.

Our little water baby has really started to show readiness signs for taking off on her own with swimming. She is so confident she keeps trying to jump in when we are not looking. We keep trying to get her to understand how she will sink before she will float.

If you ask Kaylie about swimming she will get excited and tell you she is going to kick, kick, kick, and swim, swim, swim. She loves the water.

After going over to Shelley's house to swim with her and Carson we took there advice and tried using a noodle as a way to help Kaylie float. You take the noodle, cross the two ends making sure it is crossed far enough up to keep the kiddo from sliding out and wrap it with a gigantic hairband. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! This was the best thing we could have done for her as well as us. This was the first time she would actually allow us to not have to hold her. The fact that she didn't dip to far down in the water was the trick.

(Note: I do suggest making sure you continue to stay with your child because a time or two I would see her squirming in it trying to get out. One more arm in just the right position and she would have been out. Other than that...it was amazing.)

We would throw her fishies into the water and have her swim to go get them. She loved this. She was so proud of herself. It also helps to encourage her to use her arms and her legs to move her through the water.

Brrr...

Over Memorial weekend the weather was unseasonably warm. A few of the days it was close to if not 100 outside so we decided to bring out her pool for the first time. This is always a special day because it usually signifies the start of the summer. This year it wasn't wasting any time and coming at us full steam ahead. She did great and had a lot of fun. The only problem came when it was time to get in. Even though the water had been sitting for a few hours the temperature was brrr...cold!!! Thankfully, it didn't stop us from having a good time.

If we are not careful we are going to have to admit Kaylie to Cheetos anonymous. If we gave her an entire bag I seriously think she could polish the entire thing off by the end of the day.

Not so sure about this thing. With the pouty lip and all she decided to trust her daddy and get in. It didn't take long for her to remember how much fun this thing was. Still not sure about the elephant spraying water but once we turned it down a little and told her it was just like taking a shower she warmed up to trying it.

After spending some time watching the girls play in there pool she decided she would be like them and try to jump in and out. When she got out she would run to the house, have us yell "ready, set, go", and then start running full speed before coming to a complete stop at the edge of the pool so she could step/jump in. She doesn't quit have the ups yet making it a little harder to clear the edge without face planting into the water.

We pool season in full swing we spent some time working on gaining Kaylie's trust when it comes to teaching her a skill she is uncomfortable with. For awhile we have been trying to get her to float on her back knowing we are holding her the entire time. This has been slow but it is getting better. We are using baby to help demonstrate what we are wanting her to do. Baby did great floating until lil miss took her and pushed her face underwater. Hmmm...We will say she was still trying a new swimming skill.

When she realized the water wasn't so scary.

For awhile she had been scared to go down the slide. Now that she is past the point of being scared of the water she was ready to go.

Heard Museum

Over Memorial Weekend we decided to take Kaylie to the Heard Museum in McKinney. This place is amazing. It has a bunch of trails that have for the most part been kept up so it can maintain its natural beauty.

We spent the first part looking at some of the animals they had. My favorite was the Lemur and her baby. Too precious. After that we went hiking on the many trails they had. With the exception of the killer Armadillo that I almost stepped on it was quit enjoyable. Thankfully we avoided the one trail with the snake eating another snake. If the killer Armadillo didn't cause me to jump high enough the snake eating the other snake would have.

After we finished hiking we were able to tour the exhibits inside. They are in the process of adding a new exhibit that we are excited to see. We will definitely be going back for that.

Where O Where...

As a safety precaution I decided to look into getting an extra Ruff Ruff and an extra Meow Meow. Ruff Ruff was easy to find but Meow Meow required a little help from Laura's daughter Allison. She had one just like Kaylie's and then two white ones. Thankfully she liked the white ones better and let Kaylie have hers. This came in handy when one day both Ruff Ruff and Meow Meow disappeared leaving us with only one set. A good amount of time passed when all of a sudden I hear Kaylie say Ruff Ruff as she is looking over the chair. Realizing she found the missing one I asked if Meow Meow was with him. Sure enough. They are much cleaner than the other two. It is not hard to tell one set from the other. Not sure what I would have done if we had truly lost the extra set.

Our Mac and Cheese girl

Too most this picture wouldn't mean anything. To us it marked the first time Kaylie inhaled her Mac and cheese noodles during therapy.

When her therapist brought Kaylie out to tell me the good news and see it for myself we cheered and celebrated. Usually we leave immediately after but on this particular day I was filling out some paperwork for another evaluation and was distracted when all of a sudden I realized she had handed me her lollipop and was chowing down on her noodles. She loved them so much she wouldn't give them to me to get into the car. I wanted to cry. I took this picture so we could send it to daddy so he could celebrate with us. What a great day!!!

This picture was taken on May 24th. Since then we have added to our list of things she will eat. Now she is eating cheese cubes, deli meat (preferably cubed), chicken nuggets, some soup, and a few other pasta type combinations. We are definitely making progress and are so proud of her. We still have more to accomplish but we are definitely moving along nicely. Three is turning out to be her year to shine even more than she already has.

Fletch and Kaylie

May 22 nd

Wanting to take advantage of the nice Texas weather before it is too hot to do anything we invited Kaylie's boyfriend over with his parentals and lil bro for a barbecue dinner. With cold and flu season as well as our trip to Disney we hadn't been able to spend much time together so this was definitely a treat.

Kaylie loves to play with bubbles. Unfortunately she also tends to spill her bubbles so we tend to go through them quickly. While I was grocery shopping I came across a gigantic spill proof bubble set as well as the big wand with the tray. Both have been proven to be well worth the money spent on them. She is actually able to see her bubbles float away and is not on the verge of passing out from "trying" to blow them off a tiny wand.

The thing around her neck was given to her by her good friend Alex for her birthday. It is a princess CD player that has make believe CD'S and plays a bunch of different songs. We quickly realized that unless we want a fist fight this toy has to be put up whenever company is over. This is one of "those" toys she is not willing to share.

I think we may need to teach her how to use the soccer goal. I am not sure she understands how this thing works.

My Little Pony

Last year Kaylie showed significant interest in My Little Ponies. She had been given one for her 2nd birthday and loved it so we got her a few more for Christmas this past year. Unfortunately, the ponies were last years news because she hadn't paid much attention to them until her 3rd birthday.

While walking through the toy aisle at Target I came across a pony car. With Kaylie's love of cars I knew she had to have it. With it came a mommy pony and a baby pony. The combination of the car with the mommy and baby made all the difference. She is in love with the mommy and baby...so in love I went and found her a grocery cart with a mommy and baby in it as well. That allowed her to pile both sets of mommy and baby into her car. If you asked her who was who she would tell you one was a mommy, one was a daddy and the other two were babies. Way too cute.

With her new found love we pulled out the rest of her ponies and the accessories that came with it and we have not looked back. She will line them all up in a row, have them ride across the couches and brush, straighten, and curl there hair. She is in love with them.