Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Zoo Time with Grandma!

Grandma arrived here last Saturday night. She plans to stay with us for three weeks to help out with Kaylee and the new baby. It is soooooooo nice having her here.

On Monday we went to the zoo across the border in BC. It was a perfect day to be there. Sunny and cool - maybe 70 degrees. We had a number of close opportunities with different animals at the zoo. At one point Grandma had to back away from a giraffe that got a little curious about her! :)



We loved this little donkey who had some flowers tucked up around his ear. He seemed to like Kaylee a lot too.
Kaylee introducing her kitty to some ducks...

I am so amazed at how quickly Kaylee took to Grandma. Kaylee's always been so shy. When we talk to Grandpa and Grandma on Skype, she would never say anything - and would barely look at them. But even on Grandma's first day with us, Kaylee was so happy to play and talk with her "Maka". (we just love the way Kaylee says "grandma" - "Maka" - it took us a while to figure out what she meant by that word). Now Kaylee wants her Maka to read her books and put her to bed every night. I will feel so much better going to the hospital knowing Kaylee is happy at home with grandma!
I have to also mention something Kaylee did today that really surprised me. Mom and I were at Target looking for a toy bus for Kaylee's birthday (she loves buses). At Target we didn't say "bus" out loud, but spelled it out instead. So Grandma said "we have to look for a b-u-s" and immediately after Kaylee says "BUS!" Who knew a two year old could spell bus! I certainly didn't teach her that.
So I am still waiting to have this baby. One more week to go. I just really hope I go early this time... I'm very ready!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Camping!

Well, if you can call it camping to stay in a cabin with electricity! To that I say that the tradeoff for having electricity is that we had to put up with enormous spiders that took residency in our cabin. Fortunately I didn't discover them until we were packing up to leave! One of them hitched a ride on my blanket and really freaked me out. I've never seen such a huge spider - so hairy with long legs scrambling as fast as it can to come and attack me!

Anyway, we stayed in this cabin... We chose this campground because of all the kid friendly activities that were available. They had a nice pool, a hot tub, and a kiddie pool as well. They also had a nice playground, a mini golf course, and some kind of inflatable bouncing thing. We spend about 4 hours in the pool on the first day and Kaylee still cried when we had to go.
Here we are around the campfire in our pajamas and reading one of Kaylee's favorite night time stories.
What a day - they both passed out in front of the fire.
Here's Kaylee on the porch swing... Weeeeeeeee!
We only stayed one night. It was enough to just get out of town and do something different for a few days. Kaylee was having some trouble on the second day anyway from getting off her sleep and nap schedule.

I had a lot of fun building fires and cooking outdoors. My favorite time was in the morning when Jeff took Kaylee out on a walk and I built up the fire for making breakfast. Well first I had to brew up my favorite camping indulgence. Coffee never tastes so good as when you make it in an old kettle over a fire. Okay, well in my case I made it over a propane burner, but whatever. It was still really good. I was having trouble getting the damp wood to start up so I had to use my buck knife to cut up my own kindling. I was very proud of that fire once I got it going! I made bacon, egg and cheese "tonka toasters" - as my parents call them. I'm not sure of their actual name. They were really great - my favorite camping breakfast.
I only wish I had brought my telescope. Our cabin was located in front of a big empty field that would be perfect for stargazing. But it was nice just sitting in front of the fire and talking as we watched the night sky come out above us. Our church is going camping there in September so I'll bring it then. I'm still not sure if we'll actually camp there. I'll be worn out from having a baby and having house guests for a month and then to plan and prepare for a camping trip...? We might just drive down one day and hang out with our friends for an evening. It's only an hour away from us.
Anyway, that's the latest. I look forward to my mom arriving on Saturday. She'll be staying for three weeks to help out with Kaylee when the baby comes. Due date is only two weeks away!!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Big Girl Room

Warning: the following contains information that only Kaylee's mom and possibly her grandmothers would actually care about...

Kaylee quickly adjusted to her new big girl room. She always wants to sleep in the "big bed". We put a magnetic chalkboard on one wall, which has been a lot of fun so far. I plan to make picture magnets of family members and different things to play with on the wall.
The toy shelves from Ikea are great for storage and also for climbing!


Duck soup is on the menu today...
Here she is on top of the world!
Here are a few other pictures I took at the park the other day. They're just so adorable I had to include them. I think Kaylee must be teething in this picture...
A little father-daughter chat...












Happy 4th!

This year we went to a friend's house up in Lynden for the 4th of July. We had a great time catching up with friends we haven't seen in years.

Kaylee was excited to see cows on the drive up to Lynden, so I figured she'd be thrilled when we got there and found a whole field of cows grazing away. She was too afraid to get close, but eventually we got her to a comfortable proximity and then she didn't want to leave. She just loves cows now.

We bought a pack of sparklers for Kaylee, but I figured she'd be scared of them. I was wrong! She wasn't afraid to hold the sparklers at all, but she wanted us to hold them and wave them around so she could run through the smoke. Silly!




Mt Baker peeked out of the clouds just before sunset...

We left the party just as it was getting dark and people all around were setting off fireworks. We pulled to the side of the road just south of Lynden where we could see and hear fireworks all around us. Kaylee was thrilled. She kept saying "oh WOW!"... but eventually she fell asleep in her carseat. All in all, it was a really fun day.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Big Girl Bed!

Today I put Kaylee down for a nap in her big girl twin size daybed for the first time. I was worried about how she would do. Understandably she was pretty excited with the new blankets and pillows and being able to turn the lights on and off. It took her a long time to settle down. She was jumping and diving onto her bed and apparantly hit her head against the wall at one point. I kept checking in on her and reminding her to go to sleep. At least she stayed in bed! The time she bumped her head I told her maybe she wasn't big enough for the big girl bed and I carried her to the nursery room. She cried and cried and wanted back in her big bed. Finally (after an hour) she settled down enough to fall asleep. Lets hope she likes it enough to want to sleep in there tomorrow too! I don't want the crib to be a punishment though because likely we'll have to have her sleep in there again when we have family visiting.

Kaylee likes to count these days. She mostly counts from 6 to 10. Anyone else think thats weird? Anyone??

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Kaylee is a big time fan of bugs. Ants are her favorites, but she likes bettles, centipedes, worms, slugs, spiders, and anything else that crawls on the ground. She isn't too big a fan of moths though. Maybe because she went to touch one and it flew off and scared her in the process. There was a gorgeous snow white moth with a fuzzy head that was hanging out by our door yesterday. She didn't want me to touch it. That same moth ended up getting inside and was on our entry way mat. I let it crawl onto my finger and took it outside, all the while Kaylee was shouting "no! no! no!". I don't know how she could like bugs but be afraid of moths.

Jeff got Kaylee to sit on the toilet today. He's just got a way with her. She'd never do that for me! He showed her how to use the stool to get up on the seat and we praised and applauded her when she did it. I don't think I'm above bribery when it comes to potty training. I'm thinking of getting some dum-dum suckers as a treat for every time she sits there and tries. I had gotten a big book of stickers, but she just doesn't like stickers...they're sticky...and that really bothers her. :)

Well I suppose I had better take advantage of the quiet house and try to get a nap in too. I've got 5 more weeks to go and then I'm pretty sure naps will be a thing of the past!