Season in review

This year the kids really were able to enjoy the holiday season so much more than they have before. They really are at such a fun age. The busy nature of the season coupled with fighting with my camera has gotten me quite behind on posting! I'll just hit the highlights...

Keeley's school has an annual, school wide Christmas sing a long on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, our camera decided to stop working when her class was singing Jingle Bells (about which she was very excited!). We did get lots of pictures of Kayden enjoying the candy cane she shared with Oma
We also visited the Gaylord Ice exhibit with Granddad for his birthday. The girls had fun, but I think they were a little overwhelmed by all the blue coats!

Frisco Safety Town had a great event but the girls weren't totally into it this year. They were excited about the firetruck, candy canes, and balloons. However, there was no interest in meeting Santa - as you can tell from Kayden's face in the second picture!
We got the blocks out again because Keeley had gotten interested in stacking again. Both the girls are enjoying them. They'll pile them up and then "run in circles" for 10-15 minutes at a time! I'm really quite impressed with Kayden't stacking. Although, she much prefers to knock over Keeley's creations.
Ready for naps in matching pjs and hats.
Kendall and Angie stayed with us during the holidays and my girls LOVED it!
We had Christmas Eve Brunch at Kelly's aunt's house and got to enjoy the extended family. Later that night, Kelly's mom, brother, and sister-in-law came over. The girls had a blast and had to try on or try out every new present right away!

Christmas morning, we opened presents and then enjoyed time with Grossmama and Grosspapa. The favorite present was the kitchen; although, it did take Keeley a while to warm up to it.


And last, but not least, we went to the Dallas World Aquarium to see Granddad, Cathy, Brent and Courtney. The girls love that place. Here they are with Kelly in the shark tunnel.

We had a wonderful, family filled holiday season and hope you did as well!!!

Right Now

Kayden is daily becoming better at getting her point across with her limited sentences. So far, her longest sentence has been "Keeley hit me". Which, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure was true since Kayden does most of the hitting at our house.

Anyway, Grandma was watching the girls the other evening for us and apparently was reading a book too fast for Kayden's liking. Kayden turned the page back to the one she wanted to read and said "stay here".

Today she and I were in the car and she requested gold fish, bar, and chicken (none of which we had). Each time I responded that we didn't have any. Her response. "RIGHT now." Apparently waiting is not going to be her strong suit.

Also, when we are riding in the car and she doesn't like a song she'll say "no like. song." and wave her hand until you change the station.

Nap Time

Keeley is no longer in her crib. Normally, this isn't a big problem. We get an occasional night time visit and she might get up once or twice at the very beginning of her nap. Usually though, she just goes to sleep.

Today, I put her down around 12:40 and then did some work on the computer. I sat down to watch TV at 1 in the living room and heard some noises and a door close. When I peaked back toward their rooms, I didn't hear anything and the doors were closed so I figured that she got something out of the bathroom and got back in bed.

About 1:20, she came out and said that she needed to get the "wrapper for Abby" Abby is Kayden's doll that Keeley is now sleeping with and the "wrapper" is the wrap that Keeley used with her babies when I would have Kayden in the moby. I said okay and she scampered up to the playroom. A few minutes later she ran back to her room and I said "go to bed."

Not even 3 minutes after that, she came back out in the living room (this is now close to an hour since I put her down originally. She had the biggest smile on her face and Abby was all wrapped up in the wrap. She looked at me and said "it's baby Jesus" and then she ran back to bed. Melted my heart.

More Language

I definitely think Kayden is developing her language ahead of the curve (which is good since she gets angry when she can't get her point across). Even still, I'm amazed at how well kids understand language and its rules.

Case in point:

Today I was putting on Kayden's shoes and she pointed to them. I said "those are your shoes". Her response was "my shoes. Kayden's shoes."

She's only 18 months old! She amazes me!

School Update

Kayden is doing much better at school right now. Today as we drove up she said "my school" and then told me about some of her friends. I'm thrilled she's having fun. The only down-side is that she won't nap now. Apparently she was only napping before because she was stressed. Today makes three weeks of not napping. Last week they said she just stood in her crib and said "okie-dokey" over and over. This week, she kept requesting books. Both teachers try to rock her but she is just not having it. She fights sleep like nothing else. We'll see if this keeps up after the new year! I liked her taking a nap there. This new situation means that Keeley gets a short nap (since we have to go get Kayden at 2) and Kayden has no nap for the day. There is still a lot of the day left with cranky kiddos with this plan!!

Language Development

Kayden has had an amazing explosion of language lately. She's starting to put words together to form sentences and uses some of the same phrases frequently. I'm amazed at how well she is able to communicate her thoughts and feelings. Some of my favorites right now:

* "stay here" - She does this if she is leaving a room and doesn't want me to follow. She'll hold up her hand, say it, take a few steps, turn around and say it again.

* "riiiight there!" - She does this with some emphatic finger pointing.

* "my work" - I knew this was coming. That is what they teach Keeley to say at school so Kayden hears it quite a bit from big sister. Today, Kayden was working on a block tower (technically, she commandeered Keeley's....) and Keeley added a block. Kayden, with a very serious face, came up to me and said "my work!" and pointed to her little chest.

She also is "reading" books now. She'll flip through the pages and say a few words that correspond to the page. They really are sponges at this age!

Sing Along

Keeley's school has an annual sing along for all the families in December. They sent a list of songs home that we would be singing so we could start practicing. Keeley only wanted to sing "deck the halls" from that list. I was a little concerned she wouldn't know the words to whatever song her class actually had to sing. If it wasn't that one, I didn't think she would know it!

Fortunately, she started singing "Jingle Bells" two weeks ago all on her own. They have been practicing it at school so all the kids would know the words to that, their chosen song, on Saturday.

Last week, Keeley was so excited about the sing along. She would tell us that they had to sing "loud and pretty" because there were going to be "a lot of people there" and they would have "jingle bells". She maintained her enthusiasm until I actually put her in the pew with her class. She got a little shy and hung her head. She shook her jingle bell a little while on stage but she didn't look like she was singing.

After the "performance" she was SUPER excited again. I guess she enjoyed it more than it looked like she did!

"The left one"

For the past three weeks, Keeley has been very preoccupied with "the left one". She'll show you two diapers and say "is this the left one?" or when looking at hers and Kayden's plates for meals "I want the left one". The frequency with which we hear this is a little crazy. When we were in Houston for Thanksgiving, my grandparents noticed and asked about it. I said that I had no idea where it came from. My only thought was they were working on it at school. Kelly and I talk to her about left and right but we never ask questions like that.

I asked Mrs. Sutton, she looked at me like I was crazy and said no. After a few days of thinking about it some more, I decided to ask Mrs. Alva. Mrs. Alva works with the kids in the transition room. That room contains works to prepare them for primary and a lot of them are left-right based to prepare them to read. Today I asked her and she looked at me like I was crazy too. She said no and then I explained my reasoning. She agreed that the transition room is set up that way, but said it is all unconscious for the kids.

I have no idea where the left one came from now!

18 months old

Kayden just had her 18 month check up. She is way ahead of the curve on most developmental things. For example, the doctor asked if she had five words. She probably has 500 words! She's already using two word sentences and frequently uses three syllable words. Gross motor skills continue to be advanced...we'll thank big sister's influence for that. The only developmental "concern" was sleep. Kayden continues to believe that she needs less sleep than Keeley (or any other kiddo her age for that matter). The pedi said there wasn't a whole lot we could do to really change that since we already have her on a schedule with bedtime routines and have already tried adjusting the times to see if that would help. She is just really, really stubborn when it comes to sleep. Actually, she is just really strong-willed in general.

Her stats:
Weight - 25lb (59%) - she stood on the big girl scale for the first time!
Length - 33inches (84%)

She continues to eat well, albeit completely different food than Keeley. She requests eggs for almost every meal and refuses to eat most fruit. She'll gladly eat a chick fil a kids meal and especially enjoys the chicken. This morning when we went to play, I got some chicken minis figuring she couldn't possibly be hungry - she'd just had a big breakfast and a clif bar in the car. She wanted my food though. I tried to give her an entire mini, she handed it back and said "no bread. chicken." If she sees you eating something or senses that you might be thinking about eating, she'll approach you and say "want some".

There is no climbing obstacle too big or too scary for her. Her full on tantrums are lessening a bit, but we still get the flailing, screaming, writhing ones occasionally. She can carry on for quite sometime if she's so inclined. She did it today for 40 minutes because she asked for Kelly and I said he was at work. The only thing that calmed her down was Keeley waking up. (Keeley actually told me Kayden woke her up with all the screaming...)

Overall though, she is a very joyful, strong-willed child.

Here she is dancing to the Christmas music from that decoration behind her. You'll notice she's completely off the ground. She likes to dance!
Dancing for Keeley before we decorated the Christmas tree.

Christmas Decorating

While I'm not sure it was a wise decision this year, we did do some tree decorating. So far, any unsupervised time has led to multiple ornaments being taken off the tree by one little Kayden. The girls enjoyed it though and it makes me smile how they decorate.

First, they insisted on wearing their reindeer pjs that Grandma got them. They wear these every night and most nap times (they are getting washed a lot). Keeley also needed to wear her holiday hat from Grandma. She insists on wearing this most of the time.



Kayden staring at a pig ornament that she now loves to take off the tree and chew on.
Comparing ornaments
"hanging" an ornament by Keeley's clump of ornaments.

Admiring their handy work. You'll notice the clump is missing. Kayden kept taking them off one at a time.

Giggles

I'm thankful for many things. Giggles from my girls certainly top the list!

Reading Time

Keeley really, really loves to read. In fact, some days I'm not sure she does anything but read after she gets home from school. Before naps and before bed each night we read several books. Usually we go through little stints of reading the same 5 books each time before we cycle to another set of books. When she was younger and the books were simpler, reading the same books for several nights in a row was very tiresome. Now, however, it is tolerable until she fixates on something - having to show me the lady bug's eyes that are closed, or a butterfly, etc. on the same page EVERY time. We went through a phase recently where she kept saying "you skipped a page" when we turned past the title page without reading. Kelly taught her what that page was and now she will tell you "that's the title page, we don't have to read it." Very cute and very matter of fact.

Last night, she and I were reading "Bedtime for Button" for the millionth time this month. Toward the end, the line in the book said "he fell fast asleep." I was tired and I missed the word "fast" and simply said "he fell asleep." Keeley took her paci out, looked up at me and said "fast, it says fast". How did she remember that? And why did she care?!!!

I will readily admit that I used to skip pages in books to hurry things along and sometimes I would even paraphrase the pages if I didn't want to read the whole thing. That clearly doesn't work anymore!

Thanksgiving!

This year we went down to Houston for Thanksgiving. My Gramma and Grampa (Grossmama and Grosspapa to the girls) live there along with two of my mom's siblings and lots, and lots of cousins. The girls had so much fun at Nichole's house (thank you for hosting) and I loved getting to spend so much time with the family. Here are some highlights.

The Culhane girls and the Madison girls. I love the looks on the faces of the big sisters.
Why Keeley is licking her lips is beyond me since she didn't really eat any of her food.

Kayden giving a "what?" look at the picture taker (taking after her big sister I think!)

They were both saving room for dad's pie :-)
Cuddling with Oma in the best chair ever!
Playing outside with Grosspapa and the cousins. Grosspapa gave the best pushes on this roller coaster!
Taking care of the baby.
Grocery shopping with the babies
And, my favorite thing about this trip, Kayden adopted Ben.
This is Nichole's husband and Kayden decided that he needed to read to her. She plopped down next to him and just kept handing her books. You can tell he didn't mind too much! How cute are they! (and, yes, that is chocolate cake on Kayden's face. She is enthusiastic about everything in life)

Bike-a-Thon

Keeley's school has an annual bike-a-thon to raise funds. The kids collect pledges and then ride their bikes for the day. It is a hugely fun event. All the kids look forward to it, there are special shirts made for it, and tons of parents come out to cheer on their kiddo and help with the event. I was amazed at the parental turn-out!

Kelly volunteered to help out all morning. Keeley was so excited her dad was going to be there! Kayden and I picked up the snacks for the riders (bananas and water) and then I was going to help out as long as I could. Kayden wanted none of that and Keeley wanted me to hold her when she saw me. That meant I didn't stay long, but I did get to cheer for her for a minute at least! Because Kelly was volunteering on the course and I had to leave, we didn't get too many pictures. Here are a few:

Ms. Alva leading Keeley and some of the other toddlers out to their special toddler course.
Keeley checking out her feet.

Keeley checking out Owen.

There was some drama, of course. That is to be expected with a bunch of toddlers. When Keeley got off her bike to come see me, Owen got on her bike and that temporarily upset her. Apparently though, she then decided Chloe's bike was the one to ride and rode it the rest of the time!

Because the toddlers were in their own special area, they got to ride as long as they wanted. That ended up being 1.5 hours! Keeley came home so tired and slept until just past 4 - that's a 3.5 hour nap!!!

It was a big success and I look forward to having two little riders next year!

Parent /Teacher Conference

Keeley had her first parent/teacher conference today and all went well. Ms. Sutton told me that Keeley is an absolute joy to have in class and is exceptionally nurturing. Ms. Alva told me that Keeley really enjoys the transition room (where they learn works that they will do in primary) and has an amazing amount of concentration and focus. They both commented that she completes the circle well. I asked what that meant and they explained it refers to the circle of choosing a work, completing it appropriately, and then putting it back for the next child to use. Apparently, she even straightens other works she sees out of place (I need to figure out how to get that to work at home too!!). Ms. Alva was amazed at her skills with cutting and pasting - I didn't even know she had those skills!

I'm thrilled to see that Keeley is growing and learning so much at school. Hopefully all her parent/teacher conferences will go this smoothly!!

Trick or Treating

Well, tonight is Halloween. Kelly and I decided that one of us should stay home and one of us should take the girls. Kayden refused to wear a costume so she was going to stay with Kelly and hand out candy. Keeley wanted to go with me but only made it to the end of our driveway before she changed her mind.

So, all costumes off and all four of us settled in to hand out candy. People approaching freaked Keeley out for a while. We let the girls practice their trick or treating skills with us while we were handing out candy to other kiddos. After watching the other kids and consuming some candy, Keeley decided she was ready to head out. I suggested that she maybe go to Peter's house (5 houses up the street). Kayden refused to wear a costume but also refused to stay home so she went too. This time however, Keeley wanted Daddy to take her.

No worries I thought. They'll probably only make it half way there before they turn around.

Fast forward 45 minutes. I am out of candy and missing my girls' first trick or treating :-( I tried to call Kelly to see where they were but apparently he didn't take his phone since they weren't really planning on going far.

They came home full of candy and big smiles. Apparently no one cared that Kayden wasn't in costume or that Keeley didn't have on a full costume!

First trick or treating, success!

Bonk

Keeley accidentally hit my head really hard today and I said ouch. She said she wanted to see it and then gave it a kiss. Since Kayden has to do the same thing as big sister, she ran over to us full speed. And, I guess it wasn't good enough for her to kiss where my head already hurt. She head-butted me, said bonk, and then kissed it.

No sharing

When Keeley doesn't finish her food, which is frequently, I ask her if I can give it to Kayden. This is both a) to conserve food and b) to try to trick her into eating it. Sometimes she says yes, sometimes she says no, sometimes she eats it. Tonight this is how our conversation went:

Keeley: "I'm all finished"
Me: "Okay, baby."
Keeley: turns to me with serious face "Don't give it to Kayden. Uh-uh. Just put it in the trash"
Me: "If you aren't going to eat it, I think it would be okay to share it with Kayden."
Keeley: "uh-uh. Just put it in the trash" tiny head nod

Kids really just crack me up.

Mom just can't win

Much to my disliking, the girls really like to match their clothes. Sometimes it is okay if the shirts are the same but different colors, but most of the time, the outfits need to be the same. Because the weather has turned cold again and long sleeve pjs are back, Keeley is back to her old self and wearing them as much as she can get away with. Her favorites are still the footie pjs. I've had some problems finding matching footie pjs because they don't make a whole lot of them in Keeley's size (3T).

I thought Monday was my lucky day! We found some that matched and they had them in both girls sizes AND they had owls on them (Kayden really likes owls right now). Of course the girls wore them that night.

The next morning, Kayden decided that she had had enough of her feet being trapped and started to fuss...no more footie pjs for her. That's okay, she's allowed to have preferences. However, before we got the pjs off, Keeley noticed that Kayden's had a little strap of material and button at the top but hers did not. I really, really thought she was going to cry. I tried to explain to her that they only put those on the smaller pjs but she was having none of that.

Fortunately, it was time to get her school clothes on so all was good. When she got home, she was changing into her jammies (she does this for naps now....she loves her pjs) and saw Kayden's pjs. Somehow, she managed to get herself in them and slept in them.

Since then, she has insisted on wearing them whenever they are clean. She looks a tad bit ridiculous in 18month one piece pjs but she insists "they fit! I'm littler now"

I suppose if she's okay, I should be okay too right?

And score two for the little people

Yesterday was Kayden's dress up day at school. Of course, she refused. Fortunately for me, I do know my children well and she did want to wear her back-up "costume" - the cupcake shirt. Unfortunately, she likes to chew on the cherry. I didn't think that it made the sparkles come off because they hadn't disappeared after the Halloween party. But, after I washed it, most of the cherry was missing :-( Oh well. I think everyone's favorite part is the word "cupcake" on the back anyway!

We have a party tomorrow and then Halloween Saturday. Maybe I'll at least get to snap a picture!!

(In other news though, she had her best day yet at MDO! Hooray!!)

Score one for the little people

I made the girls really cute cupcake costumes for Halloween this year. Keeley requested that them and so mom helped me figure out how to do it. I didn't have high hopes that they would wear them for long, but I thought that they would at least wear them for a minute. So far, I'm wrong! Monica and Stevie's annual Halloween party was today and they refused to wear them. Fortunately, other kids did too, so I wasn't the only parent with non-costumed kids! Frustrating as it may be, I'm glad that my girls have an opinion and are independent enough to express it!

Because I didn't think they would wear them for long, I made them "back-up" costumes. I had them wear sparkle cupcake shirts. These I was successful in getting them to wear! Now, posing in their shirts was another issue all together.

Keeley wouldn't look up at me, just down at the cupcake while I was trying to snap a shot.

Kayden wouldn't stand still so I could get the "cupcake" on the back of the shirt.

And, yes, I know she has two different shoes on. One of them is definitely a sandal that she is wearing with socks, and that shoe is not even hers - it's Keeley's. That's what she wanted to wear.

Trying to get smiles for the camera also wasn't so successful.

However, despite the refusal to wear what I wanted them to or smile like I wanted or stand still long enough for a cute pose, they had a blast. And, really, isn't that what a kid's party is all about?
Well, having fun and cupcakes of course!