My Pregnancy Journal

The Kalia Show : Twas the Night Before Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 05:04:00 +0000

Kalia is really big into Christmas this year, which is a ton of fun. She's obsessed with books, and memorizes them pretty quickly and then 'reads' them to us. I was trying to get one of her reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, but she was being a little clingy and wanted me to do it with her. She's in high spirits, but we have Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (yes, we)...so this is kind of drawn out some, but the last few minutes make me laugh too hard, I had to share!

Christina and Shawn (my brother and sister in law) got Kalia this book for her first Christmas, so that's why she wants to show them how she reads it! My phone was faced so she could see herself while we were recording this...

Enjoy the show!

Kalia reading Twas the Night Before Christmas

Kalia : 28 months : Road Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 03:12:00 +0000

See the previous post to hear about the details of the road trip! Here's my iphone pics of the car and Niceville!

All loaded up and ready to go! Only toys and food were in the car. Everything else was in the trunk!

Reading her violet books

Playing with playdoh, noodles, and cheerios. Amy showed her this one the last trip to Fl, and she LOVES it!

Onto the aquadoodle!

And then the 'crafts'...

Finally, stickers get us the rest of the way to Birmingham. She was such a trooper! I actually think she kind of weirdly liked it. She got a lot of attention! She did ask about an hour into the trip if we could go home because she was all done with the road trip, but that was the only negative thing said!

Mommy and Kalia on the way to Tampa! She found the headband in her backpack. Too cute!

Next up, robots and cars on the cookie sheet!

Singing!

Spider bite :-(. That looked good compared to what it wound up looking like!

Ended up with some more aqua doodle!

Tampa!!! Two beautiful girls to a beautiful Momma! Was SO happy to get to meet them!!

All I managed to get of Kalia at a pee break stop on the way back to Niceville.

Niceville / Destin! A beach with a playground - Kalia was in heaven!

Her and Daddy took turns burrying each other...

Another beach another day!

This time we dug her a big pool with a mini slide because the ocean was pretty rough. She thought it was great!

Lunch with Granny and the alligators afterwards.

Beach date!

Melting Pot date!

And back on the road again!! Playing with letters...

Then playdoh, noodles, and cheerios again!

Amy had printed up a bunch of pictures from the time before when we were there and gave us a copy. Kalia stayed entertained for awhile looking through those. They made her happy!

Singing!

And finally, sticker shock, aka, losing our minds ;-).

Whew! What a FUN and EXHAUSTING trip!!

Kalia : 28 month

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 02:41:00 +0000

This month was another big one for Kalia. She :

went to a hot air balloon festival, except it was too windy for the balloons to go off, so there weren't any hot air balloons at the festival, ha! The carnival rides weren't open, but she had an ABSOLUTE BLAST running around. She went down the big slides with Daddy, sat on the carousel (she's never liked them, but not moving, they were perfect!), fished with fish nets to find goldfish, fished with a magnetic rod to find magnetic fish, rode around on the bumper cars with me while Daddy pushed, and just had a ton of fun being a goof. Our friends Kellie and Adam and their two sons, Luke and Micah (2 and 1) came and joined, and after the non open carnival part, we walked around and saw the kites and other adventures that were going on, and built another truck from a kids workshop Home Depot thing before leaving. She wanted to go back there AGAIN after we got home, ha!
loves to play soccer in the backyard with Kodi. Clothes are optional. I don't know why the child likes to be naked so much!!
likes to "exercise just like Mommy and Daddy" and does leg stretches, spastic jumping jacks, and push ups (not really!), but it's really cute!
went to the beach pool for the last time before it closed!! It's only opened on weekends and September, and our weekends got cut short because we...
went on a huge road trip all the way from McKinney, TX to Tampa, FL. It was SUCH a whirlwind of a trip!

we took Kodi with us and drove from our home on a Friday to Birmingham to spend the weekend with Shawn, Christina, Maddie, and Granny (who came up from Niceville). Kalia did so so so amazing the whole 10+ hours, but she did not sleep. She is a stomach sleeper and I'm convinced that's why she doesn't sleep in the car.
we spent the weekend playing and visiting and seeing their new home in Birmingham. On Sunday Chris flew out to Europe and I drove Kalia down to Niceville (Granny took Kodi!) for the night.
the next morning I got up and drove with Kalia down to Tampa and spent from Monday afternoon - Friday morning there. The reason for the trip was because Ashleigh had her twin baby girls (Emery and Paige) and I really wanted to help and see them!!! Kalia got a spider bite or something the night before / morning that we left, and by the time we got to Tally, her leg was warm and hugely swollen and she was so upset. I stopped and gave her medicine and pushed back the chair so she could elevate her leg the rest of the way down to Tampa. Poor girl was a champ! Luckily my friend Amy's husband Greg is a doctor, so he saw Kalia when we got in, popped the random blisters that popped up, ensured me that her leg wasn't going to fall off, and gave her some antibiotics to clear it all up. She didn't walk on it and limped for about a day and a half, but after that was as good as new!
spent Tuesday and part of Wednesday with Grandma Drago (who came over to help out with Kalia so I could go help out and visit with Ashleigh) and Amy and Reese. There was so much excitement for her that she didn't nap at all (esp with being in a big girl bed now!), but overall she did really well there. She LOVES Reese, Amy, Greg, and baby Paige. Poor baby Paige got pulled quite a bit between Reese and Kalia. They both kept saying 'mine!'.
spent Thursday afternoon with Janelle, Yulander 3, and Ydris playing at the park, going to Sam's, and then going back there for dinner and bath (and big Yulander too at the end!) and didn't want to leave. She misses her friends from Florida so much, but it was nice that she had friends to come home to this time!
we drove from Tampa to Niceville on Friday. Kalia threw up within an hour of being in the car. It was my fault, I gave her her medicine and then strapped her in and couldn't get her to eat her breakfast while I was driving, so antibiotics on an empty stomach = no good. After we stopped and got cleaned up she was really good though. That girl is a champ!
Spent Friday through the following Saturday in Niceville. Chris flew in late late Friday night into the airport up in the panhandle. We went to the beach a few times, played at the splash park and playground, went on walks to a playground, and had a lot of good fun family time! Chris and I even snuck in another date night!
Drove entirely too fast and made it back from Niceville to our home with both Kalia and Kodi in a little less than 11 hours. Oops! We sang songs, played with playdoh, colored, aqua doodled, read books, and just did whatever to keep Kalia entertained. She was a champ. So was Kodi! We all deserve gold stickers for such a successful first road trip!

We came back from our road trip to the weather in the 50's and it was in the 100's when we left - craziness here!
did amazing at getting back into her routine and napping in her own bed once we were home, woo hoo!

Onto pictures!

Naked soccer...

Looks totally innocent from the front...(yeah, blurry iphone pics)

...not so much...

Non Hot Air Balloon Festival!

Girl loves her some spaghetti. And headbands.

Testing out her Halloween costume from last year to see if it'll still work for this year! She had chicken pox last year so she couldn't wear it and I worked hard on it!! It was huge last year and just right this one, woo hoo!

I'll post actual road trip pictures in a separate post, but here's the pictures of our visiting before my camera died (and I forgot the charger at home - boo!)

When we first got to Birmingham, this is what Kalia and Maddie did!

Maddie's name for Kalia is "that". :-)

Granny getting her some grandbaby lovin!

Then it was off to Tampa!

And the reason we went - look how adorable!!! 3 lbs people, THREE pounds!!!

The Kalia and Reese show. Silly girls!

Attempting to high 5 each other...

Amy gave Kalia her first ponytail! One day she'll grow hair...one day!

My giant baby...

Hair and makeup play time. Kalia thought this was amazing!!

Bath time!

Kalia loves to dunk her head under water and bring it back up soaking wet. Or have you dump water on her head (odd, I know). Reese thought it was hilarious!

Friends that pee together...

Oh wait, Kalia was just hanging out...sigh...

Next up, the road trip and Niceville part (sans good camera, all not so good iphone pics!).

Kalia : 27 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 00:59:00 +0000

Kalia :

Has been asking to go on her white potty, but gets anxious on it, so she wants to watch videos of herself. And just sit there. Nada comes out. Argh!
had a nice long visit with Grandma Debbie who came to see our new home!
still loves to help cook. A LOT!
loves going to music class at the library. She gets excited now to see all her little friends there!
Went to the Home Depot kids workshop with Daddy and built a football toss. She LOVES building!!
says "cheese" and does this really squinty eyed cheese now. Sigh...
loves to paint!
came back from Florida and started talking to two of my friends, Kellie and Elizabeth. She had started talking to their kiddos before we left, but never an adult.
spent a lot of time swimming at the beach pool, and swam across the short end of the pool while holding her head up at our friend Sarika's house for her the Labor Day Party we went to. There were a ton of other kiddos and Kalia had a really good time playing with all of them!
is really into doing puzzles. Not just the little kid wooden ones, but the bigger ones that are for ages 5+. She needs a little bit of help with it, but is pretty good at getting a lot of it together!
started having to be 'punished' if she doesn't take a nap. I told her that I can't play with her if she doesn't take a nap, she has to play all by herself. One day she got out her Elmo puzzle that's pretty challenging for her age and sat there for a few minutes trying to get the pieces together and then mumbled "oh my goodness gracious, this is not going so well." to herself. I had a hard time keeping a straight face for that one!
is growing a ton. She's already outgrown some of her 3T's and is quickly moving to 4T's clothes!

She's got my socks on as leggings. She was so proud of herself for pulling them all the way up. Silly girl!

She just sits on that potty some days so she can watch videos of herself on the phone. Is it possible to be vain at 2?! She LOVES to watch videos of herself!

Chris and I going on date night because my Mom was here so we finally had a sitter! Haven't found one of those yet!

My Mom and I.

Kalia helping me make a chicken pot pie for a neighbor of ours that has a 3 year old already. This was like pure heaven for her! And she put that hat on her head (backwards) and wouldn't get out of her jammers after her nap. She's making some sort of fashion statement!

She LOVED rolling out the dough...

And then helping me do the cookie cutter shapes that were Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar, and Ernie into the pie crust top. She thought that was awesome!

3 generations...

My crazy little family, sans Kodi!

Kalia's "oh my goodness gracious!" face. This is the closet underneath the stairs. We've got to keep it somewhat cleared out for tornado's because it's our safe room! Kalia doesn't eat at all in the high chair anymore, but I'll find her in that closet sitting in it sometimes.

Awww...look how much she loves her Daddy!

Building a football ring toss game with Daddy at Home Depot. A little too young to play the game, but not too young to hammer, glue, and paint away!

I know this one is blurry, but this is her "I'm so proud!" face!

Mommy and Kalia painting at home! She takes awhile to get out of that apron sometimes!

The Kalia Show : 26 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 03:47:00 +0000

One of Kalia's favorite things to do is sing. Another is to run. Combining those is just icing on the cake (and makes me exhausted!! )

Mary Had a Little Lamb

A Tisket A Tasket

A Tisket A Tasket Again

Kalia and Daddy : 26 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 22:04:00 +0000

Forgot to add these to the last post!

Kalia and Daddy snuggling on the couch watching the one thing we watch on TV while Kalia's awake - FOOTBALL!!!

Kalia and Daddy cooking together. Not sure who's more mature sometimes, hehe!

Kalia giving Kodi treats. They BOTH LOVE this!!

She's been going around all morning in panties and then asks for her diaper to go to the bathroom in. Next up, depends!

Playdoh fun with Daddy!

Scooping out the muffin mix into the pans with Daddy! Mommy mixed it all together beforehand, although she does help with that too! If you can't tell, her favorite position to be in when we're in the kitchen is on the counter top!

Kalia : 26 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 03:17:00 +0000

This past month was a big one for Kalia. She's :

still as goofy as ever, and has taken up this silly, and slightly annoying :-), new obsession with jumping and running around in "just her hiney". Sans diaper. She's
done a ton of jumping on her trampoline, playing soccer with Kodi, and running around our backyard naked.
likes to try to drink hose water. When it goes in that fast, the rear end isn't so fun!!
has started not being so shy around other kids. She likes to play around them now, and has a few friends.
was super excited about the 4th of July and the fireworks that the neighbors across the street put on for her before she went to bed. She thought they were great! It also made her warm up to the little boy across the street and actually run around and play and be silly with him - woo hoo!!
went on her first trip back to Florida, and man oh man, it was a whirwind of a trip! We went to Tampa for Ashleigh's baby shower and stayed with Amy and her little friend Reese for Friday night and Saturday and went and saw our old neighborhood and Nancy and Bob. Sunday evening we drove to Melbourne and hung out with Aunt Jennifer and her crew, and then Monday hung out with Grandpa and Grandma Drago, and Tuesday hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Taggart and went swimming all morning, then picked up Shyanne from school, and met Gma and Gpa Drago at the park with Aunt Jenn's crew and a bunch of other family members. She was so tired by the end of the day! Wednesday we headed back to Tampa and left from there on Sunday morning. She had a great time hanging out with her friends and family and really enjoyed herself! She is a great little traveler, she just won't sleep in a plane or car still. Boo! But at least she stays happy!
went to the beach with the Wells's and Berland's and had an amazing time. We all miss the beach!
has started attending these little Home Depot workshops the first Saturday of the month with her Daddy. She built a truck and painted it and thought it was the greatest thing in the entire world. We will drive by a Home Depot and she will say "that's Home Depot!!! I want to GO!!!" Chris actually lets her use the hammer and everything!
started swimming about 10 feet all on her own. She jumps in and swims to us and picks up her head. Sometimes she'll pick up her head in the middle, but she forgets to breathe. One thing at a time! She looks so cute swimming because even though she's a giant, she's still so little! All the kids line up to watch her in the beach club and she LOVES the attention she gets!
and the biggest thing this month...Kalia graduated to a big girl bed the day after we got back from our Florida trip!! I knew it was coming, but was surprised it was already! I had ordered a new sheet set and a few blankets and new jammers for her to be excited about graduating to the big girl bed before we left for Florida, and it luckily arrived the day we had to transition her. She had occasionally been putting her foot at the top, but always put it back down and slept amazingly in a pack n play while we were in Florida. She got to the top of her crib and fell out and landed flat on her face. After a complete freak out, I rocked her to sleep and put her to sleep in her crib for that nap, and then after naptime we practiced sleeping in her big girl bed and moved in in there and she was really excited about it, and did amazing the first night! We've had a few hit and misses, but she's actually been doing better in the big girl bed than in the crib. Woo Hoo!

Onto pictures!

Taking off her diaper and jumping in just her hiney!

Maybe it's freeing?? Look how high she's getting!

Silly girl!

But she'll play in the hose in her diaper. Oiy...

Giving her my "oh my goodness!!" face!

She loves wearing her goggles too, but only if she's not swimming. Yeah, she's a bit odd, I know!

Our community beach club put on a big summer bash with blowup slides and mazes and a ton of other events that were all free. Kalia had a blast!

Painting her truck with Daddy. Her favorite two colors are orange and blue. :-) That's my girl!

Kalia in Costco with me. We normally "borrow" toys and give them back, but Minnie had to come home with us. She was too smitten with her!

At the park in Florida. She thought it was great to put her head in the water and then do a flip in the dirt. Sigh...

On our way to visit Ashleigh after the beach. Beach and all, still no napping in the car!

Smiling at her BFF Reese!

Being silly with Daddy at one of the parks that's less than a mile from our home!

Kalia's big girl room. Bitter sweet. She's becoming such a big girl!!

Had to take one of her sleeping too - so sweet!

Kalia : 25 Months : San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 22:46:00 +0000

Chris had a work trip out to San Francisco for a week, so Kalia and I took up on the opportunity to do a little sight seeing of some new places too! Kalia was amazing in the airport and airplane. She is a great little traveler. She didn't sleep well in San Fran, but was totally freaked out by their crib and had to sleep in our big bed with us, which she thought was a game. Other than that, she was amazing!!

Our hotel room was right across from all of the piers, which was pretty cool. We were within walking distance to the public transit. Kalia still thinks adults are the scariest thing in the entire world, so she clung to us on the public bus, but that was a-okay by me!

We got there a day early and spent the weekend too so Chris got to see some of the sights along with Kalia and I. Here we went to see the seals laying out on the docks. Apparently they mostly head somewhere else for the summer months because there was only one loan seal. Kalia thought it was great! (It's back behind my head on the left!)

The coolest thing we paid to see was the Exploratorium. It was so incredibly amazing and Kalia could've spent HOURS there. She's definitely got her Momma and Daddy's Engineering inquisitiveness about how things work!

Here we are looking at a train that goes through different lights...

Making our hands go up through the needles...we kept having to look under and then on top.

Dancing in the big screen to make our shadows appear. Kalia takes a baby (normally 'cute baby') with us when we go somewhere new. It's like a security blanket or paci or something...

Cute baby had to get in on the dancing action too :-).

This was a pretty cool exhibit about how a straight rod can pass through a curved slot (because it doesn't all pass at once, it becomes a part of the hyperboloid). And yes, Kalia said the word hyperboloid! We tell her what things are and then ask her if she can say them, and she's normally right on track with it! She has no idea what it really means I don't think, but I'm constantly surprised and amazed by what actually does stick. She's such a bright little girl!

This exhibit was about weather and fog and tornadoes and it was Kalia's absolutely favorite. It's the first time since we moved that she's played with total random kids and just been goofy and had a blast. It seriously melted my heart! She played on here for forever before we drug her away!

....trying to 'catch' the fog!

She really got into the xylophones, keyboards, and drums here too! We really need to get her some musical toys for Christmas, she LOVED these. Look how high her hand is raised here!

On a day that Chris had to work, Kalia and I went to the aquarium. Kalia thought it was really cool, but it was a total tourist trap :-). Makes me really miss the aquarium in Tampa!

She played with this starfish for forever. She thought it was so cool that she could 'touch' him!

Walking through the tunnel with fish and sharks swimming all around us. She kept trying to jump up to touch the top and touch them!

For really touching the starfish! She is not the least bit squeemish at all!

This was the view by our room, and Kalia would RUN there and look at the window and say "I want to go down there!!!" every.single.day!

This was our first time in a hotel room with Kalia. She thought she should unpack all of the suitcases, backpacks, drawers, and when all of that was done, the wipes. She is so proud.

We took a boat ride to go by Alcatraz and the San Francisco bridge. Kalia kept wanting to go "on ANOTHER boat ride!!"

We ALL really miss the beach being in Texas. Kalia most definitely hasn't forgotten about it and was SO excited to see the beach here, although it was a little too cold to do any swimming! She still had fun running in the sand...

...chasing birds with Daddy...

...trying to see who could jump higher in the sand. Chris...

...then Kalia.... (I personally think Kalia won!)

Pure joy!!

So excited, she had to lay full out in it (nope, didn't bring any extra clothes!)...

...and eat the sand.

Really Kalia? That was necessary!??!

We attempted to get Kalia to eat ice cream for the first time. Not that we've tried a ton, but she won't eat it the few times we have told her it was okay, so we thought if we did a banana split sunday, she'd go for it. She asked for her plain greek yogurt instead. More for me!! :-)

Saw this company on cupcake wars when I was pregnant with Kalia, and since it shared my namesake, I had to get a picture with it. Kalia was obviously over posing for pictures at this point and decided to show us what she thought of it. Silly girl!

She won't sleep in cars, airports, or airplanes still (mainly just her bed), but after 9 hours of traveling (we were delayed a few times in San Fran!), she finally slept. She kept asking for her stroller when we got off the plane and we put her in it as soon as they brought it up. Not even two minutes later we pulled down the top to say something to her and she was passed.out! (Pardon the quality, these last two are iphone pics!)

And for the first time ever I think, we managed a successful transfer...until we got home!

Kalia : 25 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 20:07:00 +0000

I'm way behind on posting, so I'm just giving a general recap.

Kalia's started to open up to kids a little bit more - adults are still no-gos. We've spent most of the summer swimming at the beach pool, playing with play-doh, painting, reading books, singing, and jumping on the trampoline. She loves playing with her baby dolls too (so not her mothers daughter!!!), her little kitchen, singing, dancing, yaying herself, and being a goof!!

On our way to the each pool!

Playing the paino and signing songs to baby Katie! With a backwards clip in her hair. It's starting to grow!

Should've stopped this before it happened, but Kodi puts up with so much, I had to let it slide!

Happy pretty little girl!

Yaying herself with playdoh...

...and with cooking with Daddy. Cooking is another one of her favorite things to do!

Playing hide n go seek with herself. So silly.

Yaying her new backpack Aunt Christina and Uncle Shawn got her! She LOVES this!!

Showing off her pretty dress in one of her cute moods!

Outside finger / body painting with Daddy! ;-)

Kalia : 23.5 - 24.5 Months : New House in TX

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 22:04:00 +0000

Chris and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary not even a week after we moved into the new house. We were so grateful to have "Granny" there to babysit Kalia so we could get a much needed date night in to celebrate! (p.s. the kitchen already doesn't look like this anymore!)

As for the little person everyone reads the blog about, Kalia :

says "I got toe jam!" all the time now and grabs her toes. She was quite tired and fussy when we first moved in, so Granny distracted her during bathtime by telling her she needed to get her toe jam cleaned. Apparently it stuck!
says "Kalia wanna ...." and whatever she wants to do. "Kalia wanna go jump" is a popular one, but she'll say it for go for a walk, play with her babies, play with play-doh, color, eat, drink water, go outside, whatever it is she wants to do.
says "Hi Captain" and "Eye-Eye Captain" a lot. That one came from Daddy!
We've been playing "sack of taters" with her where we throw her over our shoulders like a sack of taters since she was real little. The other day I was carrying her and Chris asked her if she wanted Mommy to carry her like a sack of taters and she said "NO!! Ummm...Hold you like a HUG!" It was cute!
says "ummm" a lot. Oops! That one is all me...
got a piggy bank from Granny for her birthday and if she sees money says "I got money! Kalia wanna go feed the piggy!!"
has started compromising. I tell her she has so many more minutes (normally one or two) and then when we get to 20 seconds left, I tell her there's 20 seconds and count to 20 before she has to be all done playing with something. She does pretty well with not throwing fits if she has the count down. The other day I told her she had 20 more seconds, and she said "No, FIVE more MINUTES, not SECONDS!" I didn't realize she was picking up on the difference between minutes and seconds, ha! And after that she followed it up with "No, TWENTY more MINUTES!"
wakes up talking or singing. Her eyes will still be closed and she won't even have moved, but she's singing or talking about something or another.
thinks if she opens up the stove, muffins will pop out. She says she wants muffins and opens up the stove and gets upset that they're not there. Sigh...if only...
told me she loved me all on her own. I told her "Mommy loves you!" and she said "And Key-ya loves Mommy too!"
tells Daddy she loves him and to have a good day at work every morning that she sees him off. She yells she loves him until she can't see him driving off anymore!
still hasn't talked to anyone else other than Chris or I around here. It's gotten worse instead of better, but hopefully the switch will flip soon!

Onto pictures!

Kalia reading her book on her mermaid chair that Grandma and Grandpa Drago got her (thanks!). She loves that little chair. She's so darn cute on it too!

She is also really into cutting her food (thanks Amy!)

Getting her some Daddy loving!

Girl still loves her bubbles!

Playing in her water hose toy that Granny got her! (thanks!)

Kodi got a new bed. He likes it :-).

Kalia helping Daddy work.

Not nice, but I took this picture after I told her no for something and she thought it was the end of the world. She recovered about 2 seconds later (after being ignored!). As long as we're on the wood floors, I'm good with this!

Getting her some Kodi-lovin! This happens a lot!

For Father's Day, Kalia helped Daddy wash the truck, and then we all played basketball. She was so so cute!

She got so excited when she made a basket, and if we made a basket, she cheered and laughed equally as hard.

I was washing up the dishes, and she hollered in "Mommy, come change my hiney please!!!" and this is what I turned around to find. I like my little helper!

She's gotten really into standing or sitting on the counters to help with stuff. She also wants to "see!!!" after you take a picture of her!

I went this hair down twice this morning, and this is still what it looked like. I'm pretty sure the girl is gonna have curls!

Poor Kodi. She does this and says "I know Buddy, I know...good boy!" because that's what I say to him!

Till next time!

Updates happening!

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:29:00 +0000

Hey guys! For those of you not signed up for email, I have finally started back posting some to update the blog. I'll try to keep a running tally of them here and update the list if the latest post isn't at the top!

http://myjourneyofpregnancy.blogspot.com/2013/05/kalia-225-235-months-apartment-life-in.html

http://myjourneyofpregnancy.blogspot.com/2013/06/kalia-is-two.html

Kalia is TWO!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 02:52:00 +0000

I can't believe Kalia is already two. It does not seem like two years ago that we welcomed this little miracle child, stubborn in her own right from the get go, full of life, love, and an amazing amount of happiness...all more than we ever thought possible, into our lives. She has taught us how to love more deeply, how to hold on tighter, how to appreciate the tiny miraculous things in life, such as the moon, or how beautiful the trees look blowing in the wind when you lay underneath them. She is full of giggles, all out roaring laughters, and makes me so proud every single day. Even the ones that are hard are worth it for the love I feel for this little tyrant of ours :-).

Dear Kalia,

When you look back on this someday, you'll wonder how you were...how we were...how we all were together and want to know things about your childhood that helped make you the wonderful woman I know you will someday become. Well, if you're anything like me you will. :-) I started this blog as a way to keep everyone up to date with us while I was carrying you. I kept it going as a momento to you, and to your Daddy and I, hoping that we'd one day look back at this together with smiles, love, and laughter. Somewhere along the way it became what it initially was started for as well - a way to keep all of our family and friends up to date with how we're doing and what you're up to. Over these past two years you have amazed me more than I could possibly even begin to explain. You were stubborn from the get-go, but that is something you most definitely come by honestly. The very first day you entered this world, the way you held up your head and looked at everyone with those giant, beautiful eyes of yours, had me in awe of you. I was so so worried before you came that I wouldn't be a good Mother to you...that I'd miss the connection or the bond or screw it up somehow. I'm positive that I will mess up a lot of things throughout the years, but the one thing I know I will not is my love for you. I will never stop loving you with every fiber of my being...you will never stop meaning the world to me...and I will forever be grateful that you are my daughter. I will forever love you as much as it is humanly possible to love another person. That much I am sure.

You have tested your Daddy and I as parents...with the colic to start off with, then the refusal to take a bottle, and your stubbornness and unwillingness to nap or go to bed a lot of nights has had us besides ourselves with worry and even at times anger. But never because we don't love you...moreso because we want to do as much right by you as possible, and we know we're only human, and we don't have all the answers.

What you have taught me over these past two years is that that's okay. As long as you have our love, the rest will work itself out. You've taught me to take deep breaths and take pleasure in the simple things in life.

Right now you love to run, you love to be active all of the time. The times when you're not running around, you want to sing, play with play-doh, read stories, play with your dolls, and cook pretend food for me to eat. You love to help with anything and everything - the laundry, feeding Kodi, putting the dishes away, cooking, cleaning, you name it...you want to be apart of it. It makes the mundane tasks a lot more fun!

You laugh so much, and so hard. You have such a buoyancy about yourself, about life. You live every single day to it's fullest and don't let one single minute go to waste. You are never bored. I don't even remember what it was like to be bored. I think it's just something other people talk about. We don't allow you to watch TV yet, with the exception of college football (hey, I said we're human!), and you still have something to do for yourself every single minute of the day. At times it's wearing, it's almost always exhausting, but it is also always fun and entertaining. You push me to be creative, to test my limits, to see extraordinary in the ordinary, to see life in things I thought were obsolete. To see the pure joy in splashing, jumping, singing, laughing, blowing bubbles, and running. Not just to experience the action of it, but the emotion that goes along with it. You are full of emotions, and are constantly expressing them.

For the most part you're happy. You are two though, and you do question things a lot and test the boundaries to see how far you can push. I honestly hope that stays with you forever. I hope you always test the limits of what's possible, and I hope you continue to question everything and take nothing as is, and take nothing for granted. Those might be tiring lessons with a two year old, but they're faucets of life that will serve you well down the road.

You're only two, yet I already know that you are going to grow up to be the most amazing, wonderful woman someday. You are so so so incredibly smart, you pick up everything, and you say things that a two year old shouldn't understand yet, but you do.

You have a gift with your beautiful smile and eyes. Your smile spreads all the way from your lips to your adorable dimples in your cheek, all the way up to your eyes. I didn't know that eyes smiled, but yours do. You are such a happy little girl, and I just love you so so so very much. Always.

Now, slow down just a little bit. Somehow I blinked and you went from a newborn with incredible strength to the most amazing, intense, adorable, and funny two year old. I don't want to be writing your three year old post tomorrow. So slow down...

With all my heart, now and forever,

Mommy

I think I tried to make up for the fact that Kalia couldn't have any of her little friends over for a birthday party by completely over-whelming the poor girl on her actual birthday. She did really well with everything, but the day was definitely jam packed!

Kalia's Granny was in town helping us move, which was such a special treat for Kalia's birthday!

We put balloons and most of Kalia's gifts in the upstairs playroom so that she saw them as soon as she came out of her bedroom in the morning. She was very excited about her "Happy Birthday Balloons!!" It took us a few to coax her to open up some of her presents!

"Woah, the balloons go so high!!"

"Um, Daddy...it's my birthday. I don't have to smile for the camera if I don't want to! I'm busy!!"

I made her one of her favorite breakfasts, blueberry and banana muffins, and put them in Elmo cupcake liners and stuck the toppers in. She told us she wanted to eat Oscar, Mommy eat Abby Cadabby, Daddy eat Cookie Monster, and Granny eat Elmo. Girl knows what she wants!

After breakfast it was time for us to give her our big gift - a trampoline!! Reese has one just like it, and at first Kalia said "Reese's trampoline? Reese's??" and after we finally convinced her that it was hers, she kept saying "I got my OWN jump!! This is Kalia's OWN jump jump!!" She went a little crazy on it. She absolutely LOVES the thing!!!

This next one just captures who she is to me...fun, full of life, and buoyant :-).

After she jumped around for a little bit, we drug her off of there to head down to our community beach pool which is a mile away. We took her up there the night before to get our resident cards, but this was the first time she was actually allowed to swim swim in it. Between the trampoline and the beach pool, she was in heaven.

After the beach pool, she went home and passed out (literally, Chris didn't even make it through the bedtime routine and she was out!). When she woke up, we headed down to the Dallas Zoo. It's a bit of a drive, so she's been zoo deprived since we've been here. We also brought along the rest of her birthday presents (she got too overwhelmed in the morning - she wanted to play with everything, not keep opening!) and multi-tasked on the drive into Dallas.

Amy, Reese, and Greg sent her this singing birthday card along with her gift that you have to blow out the candles too. I think she played that thing 100 times!

The theme of the car ride to the zoo was "OPEN!!!!" She wanted to play with every toy she got still!

Yay for books that she could read in the car (thanks Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Taggart!).

"yay Pookie, that was a good book!"

And the zoo!

She is kind of obsessed with fish tanks, big or small, right now. She will stare at those things for hours. We have a Kodi though, that's enough pets for us!

"Cmon Granny, go THAT way!!"

"Love you Granny!"

Three generations...

Kalia just looked so cute looking at everything!

"That's a what?"

Playing with the magnetic fishing game that Amy, Reese, and Greg sent her (thanks guys!)...it was a great one for the car ride home!

Whew...what a day!! Thank you so much to everyone for their love and support over these past two years!!!

Kalia 22.5 - 23.5 Months : Apartment Life in Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Wed, 29 May 2013 00:26:00 +0000

Kalia's last month before she turned two was spent in the apartment temporary living in Farmer's Branch, TX. Kalia :

got creative with lego's quite a bit...it was our main toy.
did well when we first got here sleeping wise, and then went haywire once the movers brought her toys and crib to temporary living. She was upset that not all of her toys were there, and she wanted her rocking chair, bookshelves, and ABC's on the wall. I'm pretty positive she was okay with us hanging out there, kind of like vacation, and then once her stuff arrived, she thought..."wait a second, we're living HERE?!?! Take me back to Florida NOW!!!!" Kodi thought the same :-).
drove Kodi bonkers a lot. He was her favorite play toy.
became obsessed with picking up Kodi's poop. We were on the second floor, and I had to take Kalia with me everytime Kodi had to go outside to poop, and then she had to have her own bag to pretend pick up poop while I actually picked up his poop. She even mastered the hand in the bag and flipping it out to keep the "poop" in the bag and keep her hand clean at the same time. She used rocks for poop.
decided she didn't want to keep her diaper or clothes on and took them off all.the.time. I only fixed it finally towards the end by telling her it was fine if she wanted to take them off, but she had to sit on the potty. The potty has become the death seat since the move. Boo!!
Stopped talking to anyone she doesn't know. If they look at her, she clams up and burrows her head into Chris or I. If they try to talk to her, she cries. It started after the first week in the apartment, and it's just gotten worse throughout the whole month. I tell people we just moved and she's painfully shy. Some people just don't seem to understand and keep trying, but it just makes things worse!! Painful is key in the painfully shy part...
told me to turn off the bathtub while we were eating dinner. I told her I couldn't because it was the bathtub from upstairs.
said "Mommy hit the wall!!!" about a million times over this month. We had elephants that lived above us, and they thudded quite loud. Chris and I made up a rap song to it "Mommy hit the wall, Mommy hit the wall, Mommy Mommy Mommy hit the wall wall wall!" She would say it probably 100+ times at bedtime and naptime.
not much sleep happened over this past month!
became obsessed with my new iphone. She thinks facetime is a-mazing!
put on her boots numerous times and said "we live in TEXAS!". I have no idea who told her that boots and Texas went hand in hand, but she thinks it does!
is going to be a track star one day. That girl can run. Fast!
says "beep!" everytime a horn honks. I would think she was asleep, a horn would honk, and she would yell "BEEP!!!" at the top of her lungs. Whatever she was doing, if a horn honked, she stopped and immediately yelled beep. The girl doesn't talk, she yells! (Yeah yeah yeah, I know all of my family members are going to say she comes by it honestly...)

Onto pictures!

Kalia and Daddy swimming at the pool! Towards the end of our month there were a lot more kids in there, the water was still really chilly at the beginning. She, of course, didn't care!

Chris would walk Kalia down to the pool in her diaper and then pull it out from her swim jumper. I just told her not to pee on me and carried her down there sans diaper. I never got peed on :-).

"The pool, Mommy, the pool!!! Maybe Texas isn't so terrible after all...they have pools too!!"

"Ready!"

"Set!"

"Go!!!"

"That was fun, let's do it again!"

"I'm coming Daddy!!!"

"And Again!! What if I don't even stop and just keep running. I wonder if I can walk on water, let's try!!"

Kalia and I on Mother's Day! We went shopping and to the playground. Kalia repeats and says everything now, so she got all excited saying "I'm going SHOPPING!!!" She's actually started to become pretty good while we're out shopping. She listens really well!

She's not such a huge fan of taking pictures anymore, so you've got to get creative to get her to smile. This little outfit is actually one she insisted she have when we were in Old Navy. We tried to get her to pick a million cute shirts with disney characters and flowers and dogs and she just wanted the stripes. I wear a lot of stripes...wonder if it's rubbing off on her :-).

"No Mommy, I'm not gonna smile. I'm gonna give you the whiney squint eye for the camera even though I was just laughing!!"

"Oh okay, you two are too much of goofballs, you win, I'll smile!"

"Love you Daddy!!"

"Mommy, you have lost your mind if you think I'm going to smile for one with you now. No way!!"

Kalia helping cook breakfast. It's one of her favorite things to do - sit on the countertop and help cook. She's much better behaved if I let her help and actually listens pretty well, so we just take about an hour to cook breakfast these days instead of 20 minutes :-).

Kalia going crazy in Kodi's water bowl. It was her only source of water when we were cooped up in the apartment waiting for someone to come fix something or because of the weather or whatever. She made the most of it!

"Can't you see I'm busy??"

She would hear kids and poke her head up and say "Do you hear the kids??" to me and I'd tell her that I did and ask if she wanted to go play with them, to which she'd firmly say "NO!"

"Hey Kodi, I'm playing in your water bowl!!"
"Yeah kid, I'm not amused. Mom, can't you stop this??"

The next caption is what actually happened...

"Kalia's pee-ing!" (Kodi wasn't amused again.)

Then she decided her diaper was all done and it needed to be washed out. I told her I'd just get her a new one, and she said "No, Kalia wash it!!". I did clean out Kodi's bowl and give him fresh clean water afterwards!!!

This was how we played with lego's half the time. We poured them out then ran around with the box on our head. Goofy girl!

Kalia Video : Reading / Singing

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:43:00 +0000

I got another one of her reading / singing for her downtime. These just crack me up!! It's sideways, I was trying to pretend like I was reading my emails...sorry!

Kalia and All The Pretty Little Horses

Kalia Video's : Drinking From a Water Fountain and Singing / Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Tue, 21 May 2013 02:37:00 +0000

Here's the latest :

Kalia drinking from a water fountain for the first time.

Kalia Singing / Reading . She had me stay in there with her for her down time (more on that in a minute) and she just went to down with her Pretty Little Horses Book. It cracked me up! I should've edited it down a bit, but didn't.

As far as how she's doing, Kalia seems to be getting worse instead of better with the relocation stuff. We've definitely gone backwards in sleeping, which I think is a bad combination of relocation, 2 year molars coming in, and the 2 year old sleep regression stage. But she's also gone backwards socially.

Today I took her to the YMCA to go swimming in their indoor pool. They told me the outdoor one was heated, so we headed out there, and there was a class going on, so she was over it and told me she wanted to go to the indoor pool. We went to the indoor pool and I went to the far lane, and jumped in with her and the man swimming in the lane next to her said hi and she lost it to the point of no return.

She won't socialize with anyone else besides Chris and I. No kids, no adults, no anybody besides facetime and skype. Kids around here have tried to friend her and she either clings to us, or just stands there, or cries until we leave. When we get to a place where there's other people out, so immediately makes us pick her up and just clings to our neck.

I'm hoping all of this will get better once we get to the new house. She was such a little social butterfly, so hopefully once she gets comfortable with her surroundings, she'll get back to her normal, happy go lucky self.

But she is still a happy little girl with Chris, Kodi, and myself, so that's enough for us right now!

Kalia Swimming / Kicking in the Apartment Pool : Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Sun, 12 May 2013 16:48:00 +0000

Kalia's Kickin'!!

Kalia Singing : Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Sat, 04 May 2013 01:07:00 +0000

I don't plan on taking these every day :-), but Kalia's just been so cute lately with her singing. The video isn't the greatest, it's from the tablet again, but you still can see her cuteness! Enjoy!

Kalia Singing

Kalia and the new apartment : video

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Thu, 02 May 2013 23:50:00 +0000

Well, I'm way way way overdue on some updates here, but I'll backpost when I'm able.

To summarize...Chris took a job with TI out in Dallas, we moved, are in temp living in an apartment in Farmer's Branch, TX for a month (after today it seems like it'll be a LOOONG month!) before closing on a beautiful new home in McKinney, TX.

I took a video of Kalia with the tablet today. I hate the tablet, but I guess it's good for something! She was a zombie...the maintenance people came twice today and woke her up after about 5 minutes of sleeping. It's her first missed nap since we've been here (Friday), so that is a plus...still frustrating though!

So far the a/c didn't work the first night Chris was here, the washer flooded the apartment, the dryer won't dry the cltohes (the maintenance guy said it was the dryer, the dryer repair guy said it was a maintenance issue), and Kalia's bathtub wouldn't drain. Maintenance just shows up around here, they don't call beforehand. Super odd. I closed the door on them today and said they could call ahead or I could line dry my clothes, but this was getting ridiculous :-). Ahhh...good times!

Onto the cute part..Kalia!

Here's the video : Kalia Hat

She is getting very independent these days and insists that she does stuff on her own. She hasn't yet really independently played in the apartment at all, so this was a huge step! She had taken her socks, shoes, and hat on and off quite a few times before I figured out that the tablet could video record (my camcorder wouldn't work!).

She is taking after her Mommy! She loves to look at the 'new home' pictures and talk about where things are going and what is her room. She is most concerned that her ABC's need to go up on the wall, which Chris is less than thrilled about :-). He hates holes in walls! Oh well!

Love to all!

Kalia : 21 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:01:00 +0000

How is it only 3 more months until she's 2?!?!? How time flies!!! These past few weeks, Kalia:

is gaining even more independence and wants to help with even more. She feeds Kodi most mornings and nights (and throws a FIT if he's already been fed!). Kodi thinks she's great because she always tells us that Kodi "needs more food". Hmph.
loves to play around in the back yard with Kodi in the mornings. We used to take him on walks or runs, but lately she just wants to go to the backyard. Granny sent Kodi a chicken when Kalia was first born that we hid for awhile (Kodi used to poke his head in Kalia's room with the chicken in his mouth and bite down, and Kalia would HOLLER!!!, so that chicken went away for a little while), and we've now brought out and she LOVES throwing it to him. It doesn't go very far, but still...
has figured out how to kick. She kicks the big gray yoga ball in the yard. She gives up after a few and rolls it or picks it up, but I think she's been watching me kick the old volleyball with Kodi and is trying to mimic me!
had a fun playdate with Reese! They are both gaining independence and don't particularly love to share, but love to play with each other more, so they figure it out! Or...we figure it out for them :-).
loves going to the Y to go swimming. Their pool is heated, so if it's warm outside, it's great to ride our bikes down there and swim and ride back home. She is still a little fish!! Our pool is still a bit too cold!
starting wearing this float backpack thing at the Y (one of the lifeguards got it out for us since she's doing so well with swimming) and can swim on her own with it. She figured out after a few times that she could kick herself up to a sitting position and just chill with the floats on her back and thought that was amazing. Such a silly little girl!
helped Mommy celebrate her 31st birthday by walking around all day saying "Happy Birthday Maddie!!!" Yep, Maddie, not Mommy!!! We went swimming at the Y as a family, and her and Daddy made me a pancake breakfast. Yum!!!
still loves playing with her dolls a lot! She also loves her chalkboard wall and coloring with crayons.
can sing her ABC's, tell you every letter, count to 13, sometimes fully to 20, but sometimes we mess up in the middle. She is so smart!
says "hold it level" and "righty tighty!" when she feeds Kodi. I tell her to hold his scoop level so it doesn't spill, and then when she puts the lid back on, she always tries to spin it left, so I say "try again, righty tighty!". She is starting to repeat everything!

As for family news, Chris has accepted a job opportunity with Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, Tx. We will be listing our home for sale next week, and relocating out there next month. We are so excited for the opportunities that Dallas will bring. It hasn't set in yet that that we're really leaving Florida, so excitement is the main emotion we're feeling right now! He will turn in his letter of resignation to Honeywell next week! (Umm...that's why this post is loaded but not posted, sorry for the delay guys!).

Onto pictures!!

"yay! I'm so cute!!!"

"Umm...Mommy?!! Save me!! What is Daddy doing to me?!?!!"

"Nevermind, I like this!! Super baby!!!!"

"help.me.Mommy! Daddy is scaring me again!!!! He's losing it!"

"You two are a bunch of goofs!!"

"Mommy, don't you know I'm too big to hold like this?? You are so silly!"

"Daddy!! Remove the camera from your face!! I'm serious, this is ridiculous!!!"

"Okay Mommy, if you want to toss me in the air, I'll smile!! This is fun!! Much better than sleeping!"

"yay Me!!!!!"

"Can I help you? What's with the camera in your face AGAIN??"

"nope Mommy, don't understand. Can we go play instead of taking pictures??"

"We can?? YAY!!!"

Kalia, Kodi, and the chicken! Kodi actually tries to take the chicken, gently from her. They both love that stupid thing :-)!

"Allright Kodi, here's the deal. I'm gonna pick up the chicken and toss it around and you're gonna let me have my turn with it, okay??"

Kodi : "No way kid, this chicken is MINE!"
Kalia : "Kodi, it's MY TURN!!!!!!!!!!"

"Whatever Kodi, I didn't want your silly chicken anyways. I'll just kick around my ginormous ball!"

"Wait. Nope. I really want the chicken."

Kalia : "GIVE IT TO ME!!!!"
Kodi : "NO WAY!!! It's MINE!! You get everything, I GET MY CHICKEN!!! MINE!"

This made me laugh...I put her books in there in a stack and came back to them all lined up in her crib with her dolls stacked in the corner. She told me she was ready for me to put her "night night" when I came in.

Kissing Cute Baby night night.

Watching Maddie's dance video on utube. She thinks Maddie is hilarious.

Jumping on her Daddy's belly...one of her favorite things to do when he gets home from work!

Swimming on my birthday! Chris did the swimming so I could take the pictures. No need for explanations here, this little girl is a fish!! We will have to find a pool in Texas asap!!

There is a swim team that comes in the afternoons and practices. Kalia has started mimicking them with her hand motions (instead of just mimicking Kodi!!).

Playing with her dolls. I have no idea where she gets this from, most certaintly not me!!! It is cute how she talks to them though!

Sigh...pool...I miss you. Please warm up soon...

Running with the Kodi-man!

"Haha Kodi, I got the chicken!!!!"

"So what do I do with this volleyball again Mommy? Can you show me?!"

"Umm...yeah. Not following you at all. I'm gonna go get the chicken."

"Hahahahaha! The chicken is MINE!!!"

I put the chicken in the tree...she thought that was hilarious for about an hour. Good times! I love that I'm still so funny :-).

Playdate at Reese's home!

"C'mon Mommy...you and that camera are embarassing me in front of my friends!!"

"So let me get this straight. I'm supposed to sit here and smile for a camera? I did that as a baby, I'm OVER it now!"

"Dude...why are they BOTH kissing me??"

Picture overload, but it'll have to hold everyone over for awhile until things start settling down around these parts!! Love to all!

The Kalia Show

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:32:00 +0000

Kalia and Daddy having one of her dance parties before work (forewarning, it's long!) : Kalia and Daddy dancing

This one was taking at the end of January. It's Kalia and I having a conversation about going on the potty! Kalia no pee pee potty

And this last one is of Kalia and her friends. It was one of the days she refused to nap, so I told her Mommy doesn't get to play when she doesn't nap, and she decided she had more than enough other friends. Control your emotions is a thing we're working on! She starts to flip if she can't get things working the way she wants to, especially if she's tired! Oh, and this will get noted on the next milestones report, but notice how Kalia says "how ya doin??" to her babies...so silly! It's another long one... Kalia and Friends

Kalia : 20.5 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:13:00 +0000

These past few weeks have been more crazy for Chris and I than Kalia with getting a few house projects crossed off the list (I'll post pictures soon hopefully, and then post on my Kara's Korner blog for the before and after's), so I didn't get to take an obscene amount of pictures over these past few weeks (don't worry, I'll make up for it, promise!), so it shouldn't take you an hour to get through all of these :-). As for what everyone cares about, Kalia :

decided she was boycotting naps after coming home from the panhandle (where she did well with naps!). Between that, and Daddy going out to Dallas for work later on that week, AND Grandma and Grandpa Drago coming over when Daddy got back, Kalia decided there was just too much going on in life, and she wasn't going to sleep through it!
went to our half marathon with Gma and Gpa Drago and watched both Mommy (1:50) and Daddy (1:59) cross the finish line. Everytime she see's the clothes that we wore on race day she says "run!!! RUN, RUN, RUN!!!" and swings her arm. She has such an incredibly memory!
went to the playground with us and Gma and Gpa Drago and figured out how to climb up the rope steps pretty much all by herself! She normally gets confused between sitting and standing on the rope part, but she did it all by herself a bunch of times. Of course I was there to make sure she didn't fall, but she's getting so independent!
has dance parties almost every morning after breakfast, and if she can get away with it, after nap, and after dinner too. The girl loves to run around, twirl around, yay while running, and make Kodi get into it too. She does the "side step" and "gets low" thanks to Daddy.
says "I love you". So sweet!
wants to help with everything. Her favorite new words are "D-ya do it!!" She has started 'helping' me make coffee in the morning (or spill water and coffee grounds everywhere, how ever you want to look at it!), washing dishes (she sits on the counter top and rinses them off in the sink when I'm done washing), putting away more dishes than just the tubberware (she'll carry the cups over to where they go and then I pick her up and she stands on the counter top and puts them away), and pretty much anything I'm doing, she wants to help!
loves helping with laundry. I asked her if she wanted to go to the zoo or do laundry, and she said laundry. And she meant it. It's like her favorite activity. She helps me sort by putting the clothes in the pile I tell her to, and then she helps me carry the clothes to the washer, puts it in, and pushes the button when I tell her to. Sometimes I don't carry anything, I just let her run back and forth from our bathroom to the laundry room. She loves going from the washer to the dryer and from the dryer to the basket, and she'll put all of her clothes away in correct drawers. She knows what top left, right, middle, and bottom left and right mean. She's not as good at putting away our clothes, she just shoves in drawers (I'm continually finding Chris's socks in my drawers), but she has a grand time doing it!
loves reading magazines during second breakfast. She was pointing out who the girls and boys were in there and when I asked how she knew if they were a boy or a girl she said "hair". Then she grabbed her little hair at the back and said "D-ya hair. Need more. D-ya need more hair". Great. Already the little kiddie magazines are giving her a complex!! I told her we're working on it, it'll come!
had Reese over for a playdate. She loves playing with BOTH Reese and Amy!!
says "your kidding me!" and "no way!!!". I hear her say both of them to her dollies all of the time.
absolutely loves playing with all of her babies, dollies, and bears. She can't get enough of them! She will sit and chat with them for HOURS!

...onto pictures!

Dance party!

"Allright, this is fun!!! MUSIC!!"

"YAY!!!!" (that's literally exactly what she's yelling in this pic!)

"c'mon Kodi, DANCE!!!" (also exactly what she was saying!)

I took a million pictures of her in her little dress she wore for Valentine's day. She looked so darn cute in it!

Mommy : "Kalia, show Mommy your pretty pretty dress!" Kalia : "Um, here it is? Can't you see it??"

"Um, yay dress??"

"I'd really rather play with my potty and toy doll right now Mommy!"

"Haha Mommy, catch me with the camera if you can!!!"

Playing in her stove. She LOVES to cook!

"Mommy are you done yet?? All done camera!" (she was literally saying Allll DONE camera!!)

"Okay fine, I'll hold up my pretty dress for you to get a picture. Can you come play with me now?!?!"

"yay Daddy's home!!! I know this picture this is almost done with now!!"

"Daddy, no way you expect me to actually smile after a million pictures, right?!?!"

Kodi deciding he wanted to get in on the Valentine's day lovin'...

"Oh HEY Kodi!!" (really says that)

"Oh Kodi KISSES, OH KODI!!!" (really saying that)

"Oh KOOOODDDIIIII!!!!!!!" (yep, saying that too!)

"forget all of you guys, I'm gonna get on my bike and get outta here!!" (sidenote : I meant to move that out of the house before Daddy got home! It was raining, so I had to improvise. I might have gotten asked why in the world there was a BICYCLE in our home...oops!!)

Kalia loves loves loves to play "night night" with her babies and dolly. Too bad it's just a game!!

"Night night dolly, night night baby Katie, night night D-ya!!!!"

I get asked about her eyes all of the time, they change a lot. Here's a close up of them on this day. Such a cute little face!!!

"Yes?? Can I help you??"

"Silly Mommy!!! Time to play!!"

These next two aren't the best, but I wanted to show her little messed up hair! It's a comin'! I think she's slow to grow hair because she'd look like a mess in public otherwise. I walk around with bed head, why can't she??? :-)

The End! More soon...promise!

Kalia : 20 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:19:00 +0000

More craziness over these past two weeks! Kalia :

likes to pick up sticks and break them into pieces. She likes to run with them, so I started breaking them up to be really small so that if she falls, she doesn't hurt herself. Now she thinks snapping them is a fun game.
walked .95 miles with Mommy to go get my car from getting it's oil changed. She refused to get into the stroller and kept saying "D-ya WALK, all-DONE stroller" until we were almost there. We walked really slowly, but it was still a lot for her!
caught what I think was the norovirus the day we went for the long walk. She got home and slept for a few hours, and then woke up screaming crying, and when I ran into her room, there were PILES of puke everywhere. I thought I had just over-heated her. She puked pretty much non-stop from 430-930. We'd get her to sleep, and she'd wake up and puke.
The next morning she woke up without a fever and kept down some cheerios and water, so we headed up to the panhandle to visit with her Great Granny (and Granny and Grandpa too!). She didn't throw up the entire way there and even slept for 30 mins of the trip (which was a small victory, even if the car ride was 7+ hours!). She ate a little bit and drank some, so we thought it was just the over heat thing and she was fine. Then she spiked 103 fever after we got there and started going out the other end, even to the point that she went and slept in it and we had to wake her up to change her :-(. It lasted a few days, and then she over it. She still played a ton while she was sick, she just got sort of sedate at times and didn't eat much. I think it was the norovirus because...
was very generous with her virus and gave it to her Daddy, Granny, Grandpa, Great Granny, and also our friends Lindsay, Jamie, Kenley, William, and Truitt, who were taking care of Kodi while we were gone. Yep, my name was off that list. I took emergenC and prayed a lot!! Someone had to take care of everyone else!! Kalia's poor Granny was sick taking care of Kalia's Great Granny getting sick. Kalia says she's so sorry!!!
cut in three new teeth (her canine's) while she was sick at Granny's house. Poor girl, when it rains, it pours!
does not like puppies. Debra (Granny's neighbor) has a little lab puppy and a 6 month old mix puppy that we got to play with while we were there. She says "oh no Puppy!!" for the puppy, and then doesn't stop talking about Murphy (the bigger pup!). She thought the little puppy was too much with all the excitement and jumping. She's used to being in charge on the dog front!
started going down slides all by herself. She gets so proud of herself at the bottom! Sometimes she's a little scared, and certain shoes can trip her up, but she does pretty well for the most part! Now if I could just get her to stop thinking it's fun to jump off the 10 ft high drops in the playground, I could let her run around all by herself!
loves loves loves to climb. On anything and everything. I meant to write this in the last post, but she's started climbing on the ottomans and furniture. I was cooking dinner one night, and hear a little sweet voice saying "Hi Mommy!!" and I walk away from the stove to see Kalia standing on the little ottoman stools in the living room, waving at me. It took me a second to understand why in the world she was 5 ft tall. She thought it was hilarious. I actually had to let her fall off her ottoman in her room (I just walked away when she started climbing) because she won't listen to "no climb". Now she says "No Climb, OUCHIES!" to the ottoman in her room.
loves to climb steps and little rock wall thingies at the playground. We count the steps as we go. She'll go up a few by herself and count them all by herself too...it's cute!
had Blake Harvey over for another playdate and didn't want to share any of her toys with him. She is kind of obsessed with her karaoke machine, and Blake loved the microphone. I told Kalia she needed to share with Blake, and she turned and told Blake "share!" and then sat on Erin's lap. I think she was telling Blake if she had to share her toys, he had to share his - his Mommy!
has little pretend conversations with her dollies and babies all the time.
is still working on jumping, she likes to practice a lot!
is still taking off her diaper and clothes if we don't have the zip up and button ones on her in the crib (picture below!).
had Ashleigh and JB over for a playdate, and won't stop talking about "JB'd". While JB was here though, she kept calling him Murphy!

Onto the fun part!!

"Hey Mommy!! I'm jumping!!"

I tried to not put her in her zip up jammers, and heard her saying "night night", and came into this...

"Excuse me, can I help you? I'm busy going night night with Violet!"

"What Mommy? I'm sharing with Blake, I just have to show him how this works!"

Giving Blake hugs...

...and then going in for the choker hug. What can I say? The girl is an aggressive lover!

Taking pictures before heading to the zoo. She HAD to have on all of her beads! She's getting pretty heavy by the way, it's getting increasingly harder to hold her and pose for pictures!

Giving her Daddy kisses...so sweet!

Before church! Kalia's showing off her pretty dress that her Great Granny got her for Christmas!

The only real way I know she's teething anymore - she chomps on her fingers like crazy. Not suck, chomps! They come out looking horrible!

At the playground in Niceville! This was after she broke her fever, but you can still tell she's pretty exhausted from it - she zoned all over the place!

Slides all by herself!

She wasn't sure how to do the tunnel slide, and decided it was just easiest to go head down. So silly!

She LOVES turning wheels too!

She wasn't so sure about this little pink car this time around. She wanted to get in it, but only for a few mins before it was "alllll done!!!".

This little smirk just cracked me up!

Kalia told me I had to go down the slides too. She said "Mommy do it" and pointed to the one slide and "D-ya do it" and pointed to the other slide. I think I could've just laid down on mine and been at the bottom!

Reading her books with Granny! She's back into wanting to read ALL the time!

Back home, reading in her new little reading nook area I set up for her!

Future Engineer...

Down time in her crib before bedtime. Look at her little Mohawk!

Chatting it up with her "dollies, babies, and bear" in her tent.

The End!

Kalia : 19.5 months

noreply@blogger.com (Mommy) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 18:37:00 +0000

These past few weeks have been busy busy busy for Kalia! She :

had a playdate with Ashleigh, who she thought was a lot of fun. Any adult that is there just to pay attention to her is amazing! :-)
pretended like she was going to go pee pee on the potty, then ran over to her bath mat, squatted down, and peed on it. Then laughed. Argh. Potty training is back on hold, that's just annoying!
had a play date with Blake and Erin. She likes to 'hug' aka strangle Blake. We put her wig on Blake that her Granny got her, and she decided she'd let us put it on her too. After walking to the mirror, she decided it was "ALL DONE!!!". She prefers the bald look!
is actually getting enough hair to have bed head. We're not used to it...she goes everywhere with hair sticking up. Oh well, it's cute still at 1!
went to the zoo with her friends Aila, baby Conner, and Harper. She talks about Aila and "baby Nonner" all of the time. She also talks about all of the animals at the zoo too. She rode on the carousel for the first time and screamed "ALL DONE!!!" almost the entire time. I thought with her little friends on it with her, she would think it was a blast. She thought they could have all of the fun without her though. The same went for the choo-choo train. She hasn't stopped saying "choo choo TRAIN - ALL DONE!!!!!!!!". We only made it as far as sitting on that before she threw a ginormous fit, so we had to get off before it started. I hated roller coasters as a kid too (I still hate them, I think I went through a few years where I pretended to like them, but anything where you're excited at the end that you're alive is no fun for me!), so maybe she takes after her Momma there!
knows all of her capital letter's from her bath toys. She gets in the bath all excited to play with her "Bath.TOYS!", dumps out the bag, and then says "pick up!" and says night night to each letter as she hands them to you. She's actually picking out letters in books and on signs too.
can count to 10.
met Yulander at the zoo and held his hand almost the whole time walking around. She tries to hold everyone else's hand now too, but no one else lets her like Yulander did. The two of them were quite a sight! They gave each other hugs, but when he went in for the kiss, Kalia backed away. She let him know that her Daddy said not until she's 30!
says the same thing over and over and over again until you acknowledge what she's said by repeating it. She steadily gets louder with it too, and she's not exactly quiet to start off with!
still calls all of her toots, "poop", and will call anyone else on it too. We were standing in line at Target and a man let a little one slip, and Kalia wouldn't stop yelling "POOP!!!" until I finally said "yes, Kalia, poop." I tried telling her to hush, but that wasn't working...at all!
met Reese at the zoo and had a blast playing with her in the water. We went and saw the baby elephant and baby hippo (which she hasn't stopped talking about either!), and then when it was time to leave, we got the girls in their swim clothes and just let them go to town. They ran around and played played played so hard and so well together. It was amazing! We only had to intervene once when Reese laid down on a splash fountain thing that Kalia was playing in, and Kalia decided she'd just pick Reese up by her swimsuit and move her. Other than that, we actually got to hold an entire conversation for awhile! (As a side note, I don't bring my camera to the zoo when it's just Kalia and I going...it's too hard to contain her and get pics at the same time!).

Onto pictures!

Play time with Ashleigh!

Chris walked into this one evening when he got home and thought he should get a pic of it. Kalia insists that "Mommy SIT!" when she's sitting on the potty...so it's either on the floor or on "Mommy's potty". Oiy.

"Oh HI Daddy!!"

Hanging out in her tent with her karokee machine. She can't get enough of that thing!

The wig experience with Blake!

"Why are you laughing Mommy?"

"I gotta go check this thing out. "Mirror!!""

"ALL DONE!!!"

"Bye bye Blake!"

"Hug! I'll miss you!"

Being sweet to her Daddy!

"Kiss Daddy!"

"Hug!"

Smile Kalia!

Saying "CHEESE!!!" in a desperate "I'm all done taking pictures" kind of way!

This is how Kalia gives me kisses half of the time. I have no idea how my cheeks aren't bruised!

Walking Kodi...

Attempting to jump.

End of jump. She just squats and goes quickly to her tiptoes with her chest sticking out. We'll get off the ground before too long.

Love :-).

She loves to have the palm tree brushed into her face. She thinks it's funny!

Being so cute!

"Hug Elmo!"

"Mommy, COME!" (I think those are her new two favorite words).

Hanging out in her "ball pit" with her karokee machine! I reserve this time for while I'm cooking dinner - it's amazing! She'll stay pleasently occupied in there for a good while!

Getting ready for bed with Daddy!

Coloring...

Going through her tunnel with her "Baby Katie" which she LOVES to do.

Singing a song and dancing around!

I couldn't stop laughing at this one. She's sitting on her doll house's potty. Oiy!

She decided she wanted to play dress up with her headband...it looks so much smaller now!

Kodi giving her kisses!

Going absolutely crazy in her jumperoo. She has started asking to get back in there again, and just bangs around in it! I'll have to put it up before too long, but the real reason I took this picture was so you could see all the hair on the back of her head! It's coming!

Getting ready to head somewhere with Mommy in the cold!

Being such a goofball with Daddy and Kodi and her giant balls outside!

"Did you hear what I said Kodi???"

Kodi has actually started saying "enough" in a gentle way with Kalia when she gets too crazy. He lets her get on him...

...and then gently rolls her off. It's funny...Kalia just yells "OH NO Kodi!!!" and laughs.

With Yulander at the zoo!

Oh...and for those of you wondering if her zip up pj's are still necessary, the answer is yes :-). We ran out of them and had to use a onesie after we learned our lesson the hard way. She still thinks it's great fun to empty out her diaper. Gross!!

My Pregnancy Journal

The Kalia Show : Twas the Night Before Christmas

Kalia : 28 months : Road Trip

Kalia : 28 month

Kalia : 27 months

The Kalia Show : 26 months

Kalia and Daddy : 26 months

Kalia : 26 months

Kalia : 25 Months : San Francisco

Kalia : 25 months

Kalia : 23.5 - 24.5 Months : New House in TX

Updates happening!

More Videos

Kalia is TWO!!!

Kalia 22.5 - 23.5 Months : Apartment Life in Texas

Kalia Video : Reading / Singing

Kalia Video's : Drinking From a Water Fountain and Singing / Reading

Kalia Swimming / Kicking in the Apartment Pool : Video

More Kalia video's from apartment life

Kalia Singing : Video

Kalia and the new apartment : video

Kalia : 21 months

The Kalia Show

Kalia : 20.5 months

Kalia : 20 months

Kalia : 19.5 months