Laryngitis and more

I caught Kylie's cold on Sunday night and by Tuesday night, I completely lost my voice. I just started to get it back yesterday. So, I had four days with barely any talking. You would think that it would be a welcome relief around here but I think both Karen and Kylie knew how frustrated I was not being able to express myself.

When I did creak something out, it sounded horrible. And I'll tell you, I missed singing to Kylie the most. I didn't really realize how much I sing to her throughout the day until I couldn't any more.

But then, you should have heard me explaining to Kylie why I had to put her on the Time Out Naughty Bench when I could barely talk. It would have made a funny video.

So, Kylie has had a total of three time-outs in her two short years--two from me and one from Karen.

Kylie's "terrible two" behavior comes in the form of crying. Instead of getting angry and stomping or yelling, Kylie cries. Big ole buckets of tears. She mostly cries from being misunderstood. But sometimes she cries when she can't control her moms.

For example, on Saturday I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee while Kylie ate her breakfast. Just like I always do every morning. Kylie told me, "No coffee Mommy. Put cup down!" I said, "I'm drinking my coffee Kylie". She said, "No Mommy No!" and then burst into tears. She sobbed as if I told her that all her dolls had disappeared.

I bit my lip to keep from snorting with laughter but then she pointed to her tear-soaked cheeks and whimpered, "I'm crying Mommy". Too much. I had to step away for a moment to keep from laughing at her.

So it looks like, for now, that Kylie's going to express her angst with the most pitiful tears. But you know, I'll take that over shouting and kicking any day.

On a more positive development, Kylie is tall enough to use this step to reach the bathroom sink. I'm so relieved. Washing her hands by setting her on the kitchen counter or trying to hold her over the bathroom sink always resulted in wet shirts and pants (mine and hers). But now she can stand on the step and wash her hands (with a little help from me) like a big girl.

She can also turn the light on and off. She's demonstrating that for you here.


Almost all the parks we go to have this little counter-top area under the play gym. The kids use it as a take-out window. In the past, Kylie would put fistfuls of mulch chips on the counter and then laugh and knock them off. But for the past few days, she's pretended that she's either ordering or delivering food. Yesterday, it was an ice cream booth and she gave me lots of ice-cream wood chips.


Kylie learned that the park slides get hot in the summer. I tried to convince her to come down anyway by telling her she had on jeans and would be fine. She just scowled at me and said, "Too hot Mommy".


She calls dandelions brown flowers. I usually correct her when she uses the wrong color but "brown flowers" for dandelions is too cute to change.


Spring at last!


How about some vintage Spring?