Fun Day at the Zoo

Today we went to the zoo with some of the moms and kiddos from my mommy's group. It was a terrific day! It turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year, but we were having too much fun to care. Kelsie loved looking at all of the animals! We were both exhausted by the time we left, but it was definitely worth it. I can't wait to go back again!


Unfortunately Kelsie didn't want to cooperate for these pictures, but I tried! :)

Preschooler Fears

The minds of preschoolers continue to baffle me. In the past year fears have been a pretty big issue in our house. Kelsie has been scared of shadows, thunder, Wall E (even though she's never seen the movie), Dumbo (depending on the day she either loves it or hates it), monsters, various other harmless inanimate objects, and our latest fears are parking lots and elevators.

I really am having a hard time with the parking lot issue, because she has been fine with them for months and suddenly she acts as if she is terrified of them. As far as I know nothing has brought on this fear. She is just suddenly insisting that she needs her stroller, a basket, or needs to be carried. In most situations that is not too much of a problem, but there are times when none of those options are reasonable. I hope we are able to find a way to calm her fear soon! She acts genuinely scared for her life any time a car goes by and it is really sad to see her act that way. Maybe the behavioral therapist can help shed some light on this issue. Unfortunately going through parking lots is a fact of life that we can't avoid. :(

Grammy's Condo

Tonight we went to help Mike's mom aka Grammy move some things from her apartment to her new condo. This was the first time Kelsie has been there since she moved. Kelsie stayed and played with Grammy while we headed over and they had such a good time with all of Grammy's toys! When we got back Kelsie got into all the stuffed animals. She started pairing them up and saying "Aw mommy I'm so glad you're here" and having them hug one another. It was really sweet! She loves for every animal to have a mommy and she gets really excited if there are 3 so there can be a mommy, daddy, and baby!

Kelsie approves of Grammy's new house! She loves to look out over the water at all of the boats. She also loves going out and watching the ducks that wander around. We are all so happy that Grammy has such a beautiful new place!

Little Gym Update

These pictures were taken outside of the gym, because I am always afraid to go in for fear that Kelsie will not want me to leave. That is why they are not exceptionally clear.




Little Gym is continuing to go really well lately. Kelsie has been going in without a fight and stays in the entire hour! Today was a little bit more of a struggle, but she got a little scared of the group activity they did. They were pretending to be caterpillars by riding ropes and I am not sure what happened exactly, but she got scared. She recovered fairly well. She needed some comforting and insisted that I stay in the gym for a little bit, but after she started ignoring me again I was able to leave. I am so happy that she is adjusting to it so well!

She is doing the warm-ups with the rest of the kids now. She NEVER did the warm-ups when in the mommy and me classes. She is even participating when they bring out the air track despite the fact that it is very loud. She is following directions well and today she even did the train when transitioning between the "stations".

She is even taking the initiative to get her friend Sophia more involved. Sophia has not been wanting to participate a whole lot, so Kelsie has been talking her into it or grabbing her hand and telling her to come play! That is such a huge accomplishment for Kelsie to do something like that!! I couldn't be prouder of my little girl!!

Kelsie's 3yr Pictures

I'm a little late posting these, but here are the pictures from Kelsie's 3yr old session. We had these taken on Feb 14th. She did a wonderful job even though she wasn't in the mood to take pictures at first and she wasn't happy about the dress and tights when we first put them on. Luckily our photographer was able to get her to cooperate! Maybe even a little too well! We always seem to buy way too many pictures!!

Emma's 3rd Birthday

About 2 weeks ago Kelsie and I had lunch with her friend Emma from school and Emma's mom Tiffany at Chick-Fil-A. As we were talking I brought up the fact that Emma's 3rd birthday was coming up thinking nothing about it. Well Kelsie latched onto that idea and everyday several times a day since we have heard "You know who's birthday is coming up? EMMA'S BIRTHDAY!!!". She told all of our family that visited this past week and even began telling random strangers that would be waiting behind us in line or that would wave to her in the stores. Needless to say she was very excited about Emma's birthday! :)

Well yesterday the day finally arrived and Kelsie just couldn't wait to get there. She even started doing cheers with the pom-poms from Halloween saying "We're going to Emma's Birthday yes we are". It was super cute and she insisted that I do them with her.

Thankfully Emma's Birthday did not disappoint. Kelsie had such a great time! It was at Monkey N Around that has tons of stuff for the kids to play with. There were a couple of other kids from Emma and Kelsie's MDO class and she was even more excited when they showed up. They all played together and danced together especially when they did bubbles. When it was time for cake they all sat together at a little bench at first and they hugged or rubbed each other's hands. Kelsie said each of their names' affectionately "Emma, Lucas, Meghan". Obviously they have all bonded and were happy to see each other.



I know we will continue to hear about Emma's party for a while! She has already told grandma and grandpa about it and I am sure she will tell anyone who will listen about it too!!

Mommy I'm a Mouse!

When I am getting my makeup on in the morning Kelsie always asks if she can put some on too. I have been keeping some of the makeup I don't use anymore for that purpose. Normally she just puts a little on her cheeks and that is the end of it, but this morning she got creative. She "painted" her face like a mouse. She looked at me and said "Look mommy I'm a mouse" then she proceeded to squeak at Mike and I for a while. It was adorable!

Kelsie's "School" Valentine Party

Yesterday was Kelsie's school Valentine's Day Party. It was really cute to watch the kids sing songs and play. I was impressed that Kelsie for the most part went about her business and although she would look at me from time to time she didn't cling to me like the last party. My baby is growing up!

Family Photos

Our friend Dayna is starting a photography business and we got to be one of her test families. She came to our house and took pictures of all of us and did a wonderful job! If you are looking for a photographer I would highly recommend her.
Here is her website www.daynalintonphotography.com. These are some of our favorite shots she took for us!

Two Full Weeks....

I really hope I am not jinxing us by posting this, but Kelsie has slept through the night for two full weeks!! I think she finally decided it wasn't worth it to get up anymore, because all we did was put her back in bed until she fell asleep. We quit staying in the room with her until she fell asleep and that seemed to do the trick. The allergy medicine continues to control her sleep apnea and we are so thrilled that we are all finally getting some rest! Although I am not happy that she has to take medicine every night right now I think it is definitely worth it. The Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor said that when allergy season is over we can even experiment with not giving her the medicine every night! It was a very long 31/2 months getting here and we are so excited that we are finally seeing results from all our hard work!

What a mess...

I have recently been exploring ways to entertain Kelsie that don't include TV while I get some things done around the house. I know she loves to draw with markers right now and honestly she needs the practice, so I thought I had found a wonderful and productive solution. I guess I was wrong. Kelsie decided that markers are just as good on her and the table as they are on paper! At least they were washable markers and most of it came off, but I think I will supervise the use of markers more closely from now on! :)

Lightning McQueen and Sally

Right before Kelsie's birthday she received a gift certificate to Toys R Us for her birthday. When we took her to use it she decided to get a Lightning McQueen and Sally car. Sounds like an easy request. Unfortunately it wasn't. Apparently over Christmas not only had Toys R Us sold out of Sally cars, but Target, Walmart, Kohl's, Imaginations Toys and Shoes, and every grocery store that usually carries them did too. We checked all of them basically one Saturday afternoon and evening. After our less than fruitful journey we explained that we couldn't find the a Sally and Kelsie seemed OK with that or so we thought. Everyday from that point forward all we heard was "Can we go get my Sally car now?". We continued our search for several days hoping one of the stores would restock without success. So I put out a plea to my mommy friends that if they ran across a Sally please pick one up for me.

Well my friend Dayna's husband Matt went above and beyond what we were expecting. He thought it was so cute that Kelsie wanted a Sally car so badly that he ordered us one online! Kelsie was so excited when she finally had a Lightning McQueen and Sally that she insisted on them coming to bed with her that night! We convinced her to let them sleep on the ottoman instead of in bed with her, so she tucked them and said goodnight! Above is a picture of them all snuggled in for the night!