Merry Christmas!

Here is a special Video titled "A Message from Santa" starring Kaelyn! Again, before you play it, scroll down the right side and pause the music so you an hear the video. Enjoy!


If you'd like to see the video full screen, just go to this link.

Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving visit from Aunty Nancy, Kelly, Kerry (recently accepted to USD...tho we don't know if she'll choose it or not!) and Wayne, as well as Grandma and Grandpa.  This trip included several trips to the airport, the most exciting of course being the bi-plane trek.  Oh did Kaelyn want to go!!  And as usualy, she really enjoyed her quality time with her best friend Grandpa ;-)

Birthday Girl

Wow - a long time since we posted. Honestly, I've been overwhelmed by the amount of photos I have to get up on the blog so I've put it off.  October was a huge month.  A visit from Auntie Mee Mee, several birthday celebrations, the pumpkin patch and halloween.  Exhausting!  I'll cover it all in this one post.
It all started with a visit from Auntie Mee Mee, Samantha and A-guy:

An addition to her most beloved baby collection (from Auntie Mee Mee, Mantha and A-guy).

The first of several "Happy To You" cakes!

A visit to the mountains for her actual birthday - complete with apple picking (and throwing):

A trip to Sea World:

And a Tea Party in Paris Birthday Bash followed by a Halloween party (small party this year but it did include our neighbor who happens to be "Captain Book" www.captainbook.org).  The kids had a great time and went trick-or-treating after the party. Kaelyn ended up with a whole pumpkin full of candy!  Good thing she doesn't yet know what it is so we gave it all away. What a great way to end a whole month of celebration. No wonder I've been too tired to post!

Fun with Music

Here is Kaelyn showing off her piano playing skills. You'll need to scroll down the right side and pause the music in order to hear these videos.


And here she is enjoying a musical birthday card from Auntie Nancy. She was completely enthralled with this card and still loves listening to it and singing "happy to you" with it each day!

Our Little Pumpkin is Growing UP

The annual photo shoot at the pumpkin patch! Kaelyn loves pumpkins (punkies) and she now knows that her job is to sit on them and smile for a photo. Too cute.  We're just happy to have the cooperation for a photo since those days seem to be a thing of the past! We can't believe how big our little girl is.  She is talking like crazy.  Fish Taco is her big one now - we even have her order it if we go to our favorite Wahoo's Fish Taco restaurant.  She can also say "Octavio" just perfectly - all four syllables - when our gardener comes.  She also loves bounce houses.  We were lucky enough to go to about 4 pumpkin patches in the first two weeks of Oct - before they got busy. So she has unlimited time bouncing around. Now she's spoiled.  

Kaelyn has recently learned the magic of zippers (Yippees).  She loves purses, backpacks, jackets, and pajamas.  A good zipper can keep her busy for 20 minutes ;-)

Here is a slide show of all the pumpkin patch photos.  Note that there is music - you'll have to scroll down the right side of the blog and mute the main music in order to hear the music from the slide show.

Welcome Fall

Each season we create a new sign to hang up in our dining room. We finally got time to make the "fall" sign this weekend. Boy what a difference from 4 months ago. Now she can "do it" all by herself. You can tell they finger paint a lot at school b/c she is a true master of the brush. And no - we did not teach her! She had fun creating the tree. Mike and I are still learning to "let go" of our vision for the sign. I'm sure this "winter" the sign will have no real theme!

Anyway - Happy Fall to everyone!

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time a year again. This is technically Kaelyn's 3rd Halloween even though it is only her second birthday!  Needless to say, we got a head start on the festivities this year with our Working Mom's Group.  We went to a Pumkin Patch that had tons of rides and boy did the kids have fun.  I took the opportunity to take some shots of Kaelyn alone.  But she had such a good time with her friend Sierra that I had to post those too!

A trip down memory lane

When I was in college (USC) my niece Samantha (yes, the one who was with us all summer and is 15 now) was a baby.  She was born about 9 months before I left home for school.  I will never forget the day I left for college.  I had spent a considerable amount of time with Samantha as a baby and was very close with my sister Marlene.  Everyone had always encouraged me to find my way out of the midwest and very much supported my desire to leave for the west coast.  They live pretty close to the airport so on the day of departure they met my mom and I at the aiport and waited with us to board (yes - remember how you used to be able to wait at the gate!!!).  I have a photo of me holding Samantha before boarding and my eyes were all puffy from crying.  I remember being soooooooo incredibly unsure about whether I was making the right decision or not.  And I remember boarding the airplane (a very large DC10 with the middle 5 seats)  and as I was stuffing my bag overhead a man said - you must be going to college.  I broke down sobbing.  My mom truly didn't know what to do with me (let's not even mention the boy roommate I had when I got to my dorm room!)! 

My struggle was all internal - I never shared with anyone how scared I was or how sad I was to be leaving.  Having Samantha and Marlene at the aiport with me is a memory I will never forget.  Leaving my whole family for a new life.  And knowing how much I was going to miss seeing Samantha grow up.

Needless to say,  this little outfit Kaelyn is wearing was an outfit I sent to Samantha that year.  Her brother Aaron wore it a few years later as well.  And now Kaelyn gets her turn.  I'm so glad Marlene saved this for the memories.  And I couldn't help but compare today to yesterday.  I am still so unsure of everything, not ever confident that the decisions I'm making are the right ones or not. But as much as I have struggled to make a new home away from home, I do feel like I have accomplished just that.  I will always consider my roots my first home, but this will always be Kaelyn's home.  Someday she will struggle with leaving too.  But as you can tell with the amount of visits we have each year, our family values each other's homes. And we prioritize continuing to be a part of each others lives, no matter how far away we may be.  So thank you to my family - for always being a part of my life and supporting me in moving forward.

Kitchen Helper

I went on Craigslist and found this neat little kitchen to keep outside for Kaelyn and her friends to play with.  It's been over a week now and she will play with the little kitchen for 2 hours at a time. It's the best babysitter and it only cost $25!  Her favorite feature (surprisingly) is the little high chair that clips on to the counter. She puts her babies in there and feeds them.  Then puts them in the rocker and rocks them.  Then moves them to their crib (got one for $5 from the same lady as the kitchen!!) and shushes them to sleep. She is quite the little mommy.

She is also starting to help us more in the kitchen (I've secretly been looking forward to this stage but I"m sure I'll regret it the first time she dumps all the ingredients on the floor, right?)!.  Here she is helping daddy make french toast for breakfast.  She is snacking on the heel of the bread - sprouted whole grain, no less! (And don't you LOVE the matching outfit daddy picked for breakfast time?)

Smoothies

We've been making smoothies (as Kaelyn says: smoo-ie) more often, as a way to get more of the "good stuff" in very efficiently!  Here is Kaelyn sharing mommy's special smoothie - peanut butter, banana, and cocoa powder.  YuM!

Time Outs

As Kaelyn gets older, the question of how to discipline has definitely been a topic of more frequent conversation. First, I want to thank all my fellow mommies for their suggestions and experiences. I know each kid is different, as is each parent. I will say I've tried several approaches and haven't really found one way that works yet!!
We do timeouts - particularly when people are over and we can "remove" her from a situation. We've found that Kaelyn likes to be a little bit of a bully - pushing littler kids and sometimes the big ones too. But the trouble is...she LOVES time out. She'll actually put herself in time out sometimes. She doesn't seem to miss out on whatever it is she's being "taken away from" and instead just goes with the flow.  When she comes out, she'll hug and say "sorry" but then repeat the same behavior within minutes. AGH!
We also try ignoring bad behavior - which sometimes works but can only be done when the behavior at question is not life threatening.
It's also hard to ignore your child while they slap your face in public. That's always embarassing!
I'm sure we'll have several more stories of Kaelyn's fun testing of the boundaries as she learns to navigate her world with more control in this wonderful age called TWO!
For now, here is a picture of her in her time-out corner ;-) Sorry it's blurry but I still thought it was cute!

Katie Came to Town

Our last visitor of the summer, Katie was here a couple weeks ago. Such a fun and relaxing visit we had with her. It was a SUPER hot weekend which she appreciated since Seattle is finally cooling off from a nice warm summer. We went to the beach, Point Loma, of course the famer's market, and some other local stuff. It was so warm we spent our evenings outside and Katie and I even got to have a hot date on Saturday night - spending some quality Auntie/Niece time at a rooftop winebar.
Now we will enjoy 5 weeks of getting back to our usual chores until our next visitors arrive!

Garden Girl

Kaelyn really enjoys picking the produce in the garden. She's only so-so on eating tomatos. But she has surprised us this week by asking for some of our salad at mealtime AND eating it. Yes - lettuce and swiss chard. Ate it like a champ. Crazy girl or what? Well interestingly, she's been taking Juice Plus supplements (they are just whole food fruits and vegetables in a gummy form, rather than a daily vitamin). Recently I read their research that says that it takes your body 4 months to change at a cellular level (your cells die off constantly and within 4 months they are all new cells). When kids take these Juice Plus supplements for 4 months, their bodies start craving vegetables b/c their cells are now used to "eating" the fruits and veggies that are in the supplements. So when I saw her eating the salad it was a miracle before my eyes!!!

Beachtime, boogy-ing, and goofing around!

Summer is also for lots of beach time and we have put in plenty! Althought weekends have been so crazy that we have stayed away, we still go once or twice a week. Kaelyn loves the waves - and digging in the sand. It's just so much fun and sand!

In the summertime, our local parks have Jazz in the Park each Friday night. They have different bands come out and there's a huge dance floor for all the kids. More than 1000 people show up and it's tons of fun. We've been going with our friends Rick, Christine and Sierra and setting up a picnic. Kaelyn and Sierra have so much fun dancing together.

Aunty Mee Mee has some fun glasses - Kaelyn thought they were really funny!