Santa

Yes, it's not even Thanksgiving and I've taken Kylie to see Santa.

I hadn't planned on her seeing him so soon. But we were in the mall shopping for shoes and there was Santa with no line of people waiting for him; I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

We have a running joke in our family about this look on Kylie's face.

In the movie "Happy Feet" a skua says to Mumble as he is dancing, "Yea that's weird all right". Kylie strikes a facial expression that looks like that's what she's thinking all the time. So I was delighted when that facial expression got captured in her Santa photo.

"Santa, you're weird all right."

And here is the precious, distraught and sobbing kiddo when she was just eight months old.

Superhero

Kylie recently watched an episode of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan where the characters acted in a play. One of the characters was a pretend superhero who could jump really high. He had a cape and said, "I'm a superhero" over and over. Since watching the show, Kylie has been saying she has superhero powers. This is her cape and it makes her run really fast.

It seems like every time I think we have the potty training thing in the bag, something new pops up. The latest is two-fold: screaming bloody murder when she has to leave the park or backyard or someplace fun to go to the potty. It's quite embarrassing when people look at me as if I'm pinching Kylie or something similar to make her scream so loudly as I'm walking/carrying her to the restroom. The other fun thing is that when I leave her downstairs in the house for just a minute to go make her lunch or a snack and she cries, "Potty" and by the time I run back downstairs she's peed on herself and looks angrily at me as if to say, "You made me do this. You weren't there for me." Yeesh.

Two days ago, when we had a particularly trying morning, I went to get Kylie from her nap. I opened the door to her room, she walked across it and said, "Hug Mommy." I picked her up, hugged her and she held my face and said, "I want you to be happy Mommy." I said, "That's sweet darling, thank you" but inside I was thinking, "Then stop acting like a two-year old every freakin' second!" But you see, toddlers know when they've pushed you a little too far. And they do something sweet like that to rein you back in.

She's a smart one. Cute too.






Scrapbook pages:

Sharing some fun stuff

Here is a smiling picture of Kylie and here are a few fun things I've found.


Online Toddler Activity- free
I learned about Starfall.com from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. They have short, online books that emphasize phonics and have some flash illustrations. I read the books aloud to Kylie and she does a good job of repeating key words.

Podcasts
I learned about the podcast Manic Mommies from this post by Wendolonia. The Manic Mommies have some fun chats about motherhood. Their children are older than Kylie and it's interesting to listen to what I have to look forward to (the good and the challenging). Plus, it's just fun to listen to them gab.

iPhone
If you have an iPhone or a phone that works with iTunes apps, check out the Toddler Teasers Quizzes. Kylie loves them.

Artclass
In our last art class, we made dinosaur pictures. Kylie glued down the tree trunks, grass, and leaves. And then came the fun part. Kylie drew up Kool-aid water with some glitter added into these disposable, easy-to-use eyedroppers and then dropped the liquid onto her dinosaur shape that had been cut out of a coffee filter. The result was this cool tie-dyed look. This artclass teacher has been so inventive. I hope we can register for one of her classes this winter. Here's Kylie's dinosaur picture:


Flickr
There is a intriguing Flickr group called Bench Mondays where the participants are asked to stand on a bench for a picture. I thought it would be a neat assignment to see if I could get a good picture of Kylie standing on a bench. She would rather stand on the ground and put sticks on the bench, thank you very much. Still, it was a challenging and interesting photo mission.


I know there is more to write but my mind has gone blank for now. So I'll round out the post with one more picture of Kylie.

What Kylie is reading- Week of Nov 9

My last two library trips have provided us with some books that are beyond Kylie. Lovely books like "Lily's Purple Plastic Purse" that will be more suitable for when Kylie gets older. So we've been depending on the books on Kylie's bookshelf like her "How Do Dinosaurs...." book by Jane Yolen, her Boyton and Carle books, along with some Sesame and Dora books. But here are a few others to share:

And Here's to You by David Elliot and illustrated by Randy Cecil
I like how the rhyming text calls the different creatures "people", including "The Feather People" (birds), "The Bubble People" (fish), "The Leggy People" (bugs), "The Purring People" (cats), "The Giving People" (cows), and "The People People" (humans).


Over in the Meadow by Olive Wadsworth and illustrated by Anna Vojtech.
We bought this story for Kylie before she was born. I love the simple rhyming words and the beautiful illustrations. The story walks you through ten animals with lines like, "Over in the meadow in a snug beehive, lived an old mother bee and her little bees five." "Buzz" said the mother. "We buzz" said the five. So they buzzed all day in a snug beehive." My favorite is that the lizards "bask" and the beavers "beave". Delightful story. And if you look at the illustrations on each page, you'll see that whatever number is represented that the other elements in the picture match it. For example for the five bees, there were also five trees, five ducks, five rocks and five lilypads on that illustrated page.


Sun Maid Raisins Play Book
Raisins are one of Kylie's favorite afternoon snacks. She likes to hold her raisin box up to the book and say, "They match". The pages show one animal that is decorated with raisins and one that is plain. You can decorate the plain one with your raisins. Kylie will put one raisin on the page but then gobble it up. It's been a favorite for this week.

My mom gave Kylie the book "Snapshot Farm" by Edward Eaves during her recent visit with us. Kylie has had fun sliding out the pictures from between the book pages. I can't find it with Amazon but perhaps your library will have it. For now, I'll leave you with some swing pictures.

We don't let a little rain stop us

We don't let a little rain stop us. We jump in puddles!






And do strange, impressive, (and slightly scary), toddler gymnastics moves.


And lots and lots of craft projects.


Including some scrapbook pages:

Wordless Wednesday 11/11

Another knit hat

Yep! It's another knit hat. This one is knit from Noro Iro using this spiral knit pattern.


Would you like to see a side view?


How about a view of the back?


Better yet, the top.


Kylie, knitting and photography. Such a passion for them all!

Granna and cupcakes

My mom came to stay with us this weekend. She's been our first family guest to stay with us in Virginia. She got to play with Kylie at Burke Lake Park. . .





and got to see the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center.

It was wonderful having her with us.

Kylie's newest fun/odd thing is to pile all of her bedroom stuffed animals into the niche beside her dresser and diaper genie. Then she wedges herself into the corner with as many toys as she can and has tea and cupcake parties.


I don't know if it was seeing Kylie anew through Granna's eyes or what but Kylie is suddenly looking very L-O-N-G to me.


Here's two recent scrapbook pages:




I hope you had a great weekend too!

What's his name?

Kylie is obsessed with names right now. She'll hold up one of her Little People and say, "What's his name?" When she's through with the people, we move on to her farm animals, her zoo animals, her sea animals, any of her cars that have faces and always it's the same questions, "What's his name?" "What's her name?"

My favorite is when she says, "That's not her name" and has me guess again. "Uh Amy? Barbara? Charlie? Frances? And each time, it's "That's not her name."

And don't even think of not answering, because she'll keep asking "What's her name?" over and over until my brain leaks out my nose.

She's a crafty, patient, incessant little kiddo.

Hats and cupcakes

I enjoyed reading your comments on yesterday's post. Thanks for sharing with me!

I love the quick satisfaction of knitting a hat in one day. I finished this one last night for Kylie and she was kind enough to wear it for a bit while we were at the park today.






Of course, after a bit she threw it off and went running through the woods away from it like some wild wood elf.


She ran until she wore herself out....


and sat for a while


before deciding to play in the sandbox


and then return to the playground. I love this picture. Kylie is about 2 feet off the ground. I asked her what she was doing and she replied "Hangin'" with a isn't-it-obvious look on her face.


No sweetheart. This is hangin'


Last night we celebrated my birthday with some gorgeous and delicious cupcakes that Karen brought home.


Oh how I love watching Kylie eat a cupcake.


We all started laughing. And then the sugar high hit us and we really got crazy. Icing was flying around and the three of us got so tickled I thought we were going to puke or pass out. I was laughing too hard to hold the camera steady.


I love my girls. They delight me.