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!