Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Great first day!

Kaylee had a great first day of her new preschool year today! When she got home, I asked her what she did and she said, "you have to look in my folder to see if you find a project!" That made me chuckle. She had made a fish out of her handprint. She said she got to play on the playground and she saw Cameron - the boy in her class last year she had a preschool crush on (every day we'd hear, "Cameron is so funny, he makes me laugh!"). He's not in her class this year, but I think they have playground time together sometimes, so we'll probably still hear about him from time to time.

First day of 3 year preschool


Today is Kaylee's first day of 3 year preschool and she was SO excited to go this morning! She'll be going 4 days a week, Tues-Friday, from 9-1. She has an awesome teacher and I just know she'll have a wonderful year. I am her room mom...not sure what I'm getting into with all that, so we'll see if I'll be willing to do it again!! I am looking forward to seeing her this afternoon and hearing all about her first day!

Silly kids

Here are some pictures from a few days ago...Kaylee was being super silly hugging Andy and making him laugh, which would then make her laugh; it was very cute.


You can see Andy's tooth in the first one below, and his expression in the last photo just makes me laugh.


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Destin 2011

We came back to Miramar Beach in Destin, FL again this year; the house we rented is on a street literally one turn away from the beach house we rented last year when we came with two of my cousins and their families. This year it's just us - our first family vacation with just our family! Every trip we've taken with Kaylee so far has been with other family, too. It's been fun, crazy, hectic and tiring trying to get everybody ready to go. Then Andy's ready for a nap so one of us takes Kaylee to the beach or pool while the other stays with him until he wakes up. Andy, however, does not seem to like the beach. Not fond of the sand, cries when the water touches him and is not happy out there for more than about 5 minutes unless we're holding and/or playing with him. He's also not used to being out in the heat so much, so even in the shade of the umbrella and the little pop up tent we brought for him he gets all sweaty. Ah, well, maybe we'll try again in a year or two and it'll be better for him then.

The house we're in is so nice and very big for just us! We got a 3 bedroom so the kids each have their own room. Kaylee wanted the queen size bed and Andy's pack and play is in between 2 twin beds in the other room. The master is very large - at the end of the king bed is a pull-out twin sleeper loveseat; even with that pulled out and the armoire and desk at the end of the room, I would imagine there is plenty of space to walk around (we didn't pull out the sleeper). The master also has a little balcony off it. The downstairs is big, too - we weren't expecting such a large kitchen area, for one. It's nice, since we brought food from home (and made a little grocery run for a few things) and are just eating in. The dining area table seats 6 (or more, squeezed in) and the living room - once we scooted the coffee table over - has enough room to spread Andy's new little quilt out for his toys and leaves room for Kaylee to play.


Andy's first "real" food - peas! He loves it! He's also had baby banana yogurt, which he devours. So far so good on the eating. Oh, and he also likes puffs!


Our not-so-beach baby, in his few minutes of happiness at the beach before the crying started...


Jamie said it looks like Andy held out the camera and took his own picture here.


Mesmerized by the crashing waves...


Hot, sweaty and cranky if I put him down...then fell asleep on the walk back!


Kaylee wanted to be buried in the sand one day, then the next she wanted Jamie to be buried, too!


Quick photos before a thunderstorm hit (thunder and lightning as we walked back - luckily just a 5 minute walk and it wasn't right upon us yet).


While it rained we went to a souvenir shop around the corner. Kaylee finally found an orange dress - every time I wear my orange dress she says she wants one. We looked around and I saw this one. She started to get excited, then said, "but it has pictures on it!" (talking about the colors and stitching on it); I turned it around to see what the back looked like and she frowned, sighed and said, "pictures on the back, too? I want it to have this (pointing to the buttons on my dress) like yours!" I told her this was probably as close as we were going to get, and it didn't have to be exactly the same, but it was mostly the same color. She finally conceded that it was good enough, then seemed to get excited about it, even, wanting to put it on when we got back to the house. She also got the little frog bracelet she's wearing in the photo, and a glitter globe with a fish in it. (It's a snow globe but instead of "snow" it has glitter that floats around when you shake it.) Oh, she's also wearing some of my lipstick for the picture. Her usual "lipstick" is chapstick (that's what we call it for her so she thinks she's being more fancy...ssshhhhhh!).


Monday, August 15, 2011

Bud's 1/2 Birthday

Andy is 6 months old today! A friend took some photos of him, Kaylee and some family shots on Saturday morning; we've seen a few but not all yet. Unfortunately Andy had woken early from his morning nap, so by the time we met her for photos he was not in the mood to smile much. I think she still got some good ones; we should see the rest within the week.

Yesterday I set up a "studio" in our garage using a curtain hung from the garage door rail and some comforters piled up on the floor (now freshly washed and back on the beds!). With the garage door open, it let in some really good light and I think I got some good shots, if I do say so myself. Playing around with them a little in Photoshop helped even more. I took most of the photos with just Andy while Kaylee napped, then she came out for a few at the end, but Andy was wearing down by then. Here are some of the best from yesterday; check back again soon for Saturday's!





Thursday, August 4, 2011

More Things to Remember...

Of course I thought of a few more things since my last post...and I'm sure there are more, but these are the 3 I have for now!

Instead of saying "fine," Kaylee says "find." e.g. on Sunday Jamie asked me to help him with something, but I had to put Andy down for his nap and put some laundry in the dryer first, which only took maybe 10 minutes. By the time I got back downstairs, he was almost done and Kaylee had helped him. She held up her hands (as if to stop me) and said, "don't worry, Mommy, we're find. I'm helping Daddy."

She makes food for us in her play kitchen. One of her favorite things to make is stoup (stewp?) - apparently it's a cross between stew and soup. And usually pretty tasty!

She calls Lightning McQueen (from Disney's "Cars") "Lightning BeeQueen." She's done that for a while (at least 2-3 months).

We were playing CandyLand last night and when Jamie picked a card that took him near the end of the trail he said, "sweet!" Kaylee pulled her card next and it was two blue squares. She said, "sweet!" and we all cracked up. Then she said, "why did Daddy say that?" We explained to her that was just a funny way of saying you really liked something, and reminded her that a character on one of her current favorite TV shows (Fresh Beat Band) says that on the show. So for the rest of the game, every card she pulled earned a "sweet!"

Last Art Class

Kaylee's last art class was yesterday afternoon. As you can see, she made a toucan with a flower. Now we need to get crackin' on hanging them in her room! They've sort of been piling up as I waited for her to be done so we could figure out where to put them (her room v. play room). She already has 5-6 in her room, so we're running out of wall space in there...

BIG screen!

Kaylee went to her first movie in a theater! We saw Winnie the Pooh yesterday morning while Daddy was at work and Baba stayed at home with Andy. Kaylee had a great time and enjoyed it all - the popcorn, the movie, the fruit snacks, the chocolate milk, the "big TV!" - and hugged her Pooh Bear the entire time.

On the way home she told me that we need to get a big TV like that for the play room. Then she can use that TV and Jamie and I can still use our other TV. She can also use our other TV, but we can't use hers unless ours is broken. Sure, seems fair.