Around her room

Welcome to Kylie's room! The paint is a soft-white and the carpet is a lovely light beige but with all the pink bouncing around in the room, the photos all look slightly pink.



As you enter her room, you immediately see her full-sized bed. (She's doing great sleeping in it; no troubles at all about moving up from the toddler bed.) I put some little steps at the bottom of the bed to help her climb up. She uses the steps as a jewelry box and mailbox. Underneath the bed are two suitcases that belonged to my Nanny J. They hold Kylie's Barbies and her Little Ponies. You can also see her princess lamp and her tea set sitting on her nightstand.

There was an 80's style ceiling fan as her light fixture. It wobbled and creaked and was fairly scary and ugly. We took it down and replaced it with a simple hanging bulb set that we got at Home Depot. Around the hanging bulb we suspended an over-sized white Japanese lantern we got at Pier One. I loved the look of the lanterns and filled the ceiling with them!

At the foot of the bed is Kylie's foldable princess tent. Behind the tent (not shown in picture) is a padded bench with a flip-top lid that holds some of her stuffed animals. The curtains are ones from her nursery. The curtain rod was a real find a Target for just $10.


As your eye moves around the room, you'll see her closet (with bi-fold doors) that holds three bookcases of books, her clothes, and other sundries.


Then we have her lamp (from her nursery) and her dresser. On her dresser is her bank, her white-noise sound machine and night-light and an inflatable globe. This is the art above her dresser.


The large picture is one I took from her recent 3rd birthday. On either side, I have framed small fragments of her baby onesies in Ikea Ribba pre-matted frames. I cut the pictures out of some of my favorite onesies that she wore as a newborn and infant. They've been sitting in a box waiting to be put into a scrapbook. I'm so tickled with how they came out as framed pieces of art/history.

As we move back to the door, we have Kylie's pink and white spotted anywhere chair. And above the chair, I have this framed piece of art.

This is a one-of-a-kind art piece created by Native American elder, teacher, author, artist and family friend Joseph Rael. Joseph gifted Kylie with her Native American Spirit name of U-cha-waa Spring Blossoms which translates into "Blossoms sing summer into be-ing". My mom commissioned the painting from Joseph and I'm pleased it has a place of honor in Kylie's room.

I plan to add a few other art pieces to Kylie's room. I have to say I just love the 3M picture hanging strips. It gives me a free feeling to know that I can pull a picture down and rearrange them and not have to deal with nail holes.

So that's Kylie's room! More of the house is to come.

For now I'll leave you with today's beach pictures!



Hair in a ponytail...I love it!

8am at the ocean

This morning, Kylie and I were at the ocean at 8am. She ate her breakfast of cheerios and fruit while sitting in her stroller as I pushed her to the beach.

There are many ramps and entrance points along Atlantic Beach. We are so lucky in that our nearest access point has a handicap ramp. I thought that there would be stairs and that I would have to get a bicycle lock and leave the stroller. But instead, I get to push the stroller all the way to the ocean's edge.



This morning, the tide was in. We got to meet this little creature. If that's not a jellyfish, someone please tell me what it is. And while you are at it, let me know of any jellyfish sting remedies in case one of us gets stung.


Little Kylie ran her legs off. I shot with the camera for just a few minutes and then jumped in and played with her.


This is what the beach looks like at 8am on a holiday weekend. A bit busy but filled with lovely people who wave as they jog by or let Kylie pet their dogs or simply smile at me as Kylie runs by them.


This is what the same picture looks like with a groovy, one-click Lightroom action called Dramatic Ocean. I've always wanted to use it and now I can!


Fun, fun, fun!

"I want to go to the beach!"

Whew! Four and a half days of unpacking like a wild woman and I'm pleased to report that every box has been unpacked and the house is in order. On Wednesday, Karen flew to TN. On Thursday, she spent the day with Kylie and her family. And on Friday, Karen and Kylie flew to our new home in Florida where I waited beaming like an idiot to show off my hard unpacking work.

It was amazing to see Kylie run from room to room and hear her little squeals of delight. She loved her big girl bed (she's in a full-sized bed now). She loves the glass-enclosed Florida room (which she has named her toy room). She loved it all.

And even after a day full of flying on an airplane and being a little tired from not having a nap, Kylie immediately wanted to see her beach. That's my girl!


Isn't that expression of delight simply marvelous!

After wading in to her waist and getting knocked flat by a wave, Kylie learned to stay in more shallow water by herself or to hold onto our hands if she wanted to wade in deeper.





It was awesome! I can't believe we live here!



Stay tuned for some pictures of the inside of our home.

We're Here...we're queer...we have a pink house

How perfect is that!


I'll be busy unpacking for the next few days. But I'm so excited to show you pictures of our new home soon.

Postcards of a move

I thought you might enjoy a few notes of the move.

Thursday I was in the middle of a full-blown allergy attack. I had tissue boxes in every room and tissues in my pockets and bra as I sneezed and hacked and dripped and moaned through packing our bags and organizing our house in our last day in VA. Kylie got to play at the cafe in the morning and later in the afternoon with her friend Ryan. I kept hugging her and saying (in a horrible raspy, stuffed-up nose voice)"I really appreciate you being such a great girl while Mommy has her allergy attack". My sweetheart simply responded, "I appreciate you too Mommy." Her sweetness and a pack of semi-sweet bakers chocolate chips that I found squirreled away in a food cabinet were the only things that kept me going.

Friday morning I was feeling better and Kylie and I were ready to say good-bye to our house.
That morning, she wanted to pack her backpack with some treasures for the trip. She packed her Nana bear, her stuffed lion named Sarsy, a stuffed flamingo toy I had gotten her the day before and her pinwheel. Then, quite deliberately, she went to my desk and got my tape dispenser. She added it to her backpack. I asked, "Kylie, you want to take tape?" She replied so earnestly, "Mommy, you never know when you might need tape." She reminds me of my Nanny all the time. That's something my Nanny would have said.

Kylie has made the ride to TN twice recently and she knows that it is a very long day. About two hours into the trip, she started crying and saying she wanted to go home. I pulled into a rest stop (it is nice these are open again in VA; they were all closed for a long time) to comfort her. Luckily, she saw and became fascinated with this water fountain.

She loved that she could climb up and reach it herself. At first, she couldn't get the hang of the control and kept splashing herself in the face. This made her giggle and me laugh. Then she kept splashing herself on purpose to make us laugh. Thank heavens for this small thing that got us through the sadness of leaving. We made the rest of the trip just fine. Kylie is such a great traveling trooper.


Saturday morning, Kylie was with her Nana and I was on my way to my Nanny's house to pick up her china cabinet. I can't wait to see it in our new home. Then I gassed up the car and turned it towards Florida. My trusty GPS must have sensed how much Atlanta traffic bothers me. So I ended up traveling 26East almost all day and it was a lovely (albeit a long ten hour)drive.


Karen stayed in VA and watched the packers do their magic. And Kylie went to Dollywood with her cousins.


And the moving journey continues. Stay tuned!

Colds and balloon animals

First Kylie had a cold. Then me. Then Karen. And now we are back to Kylie. It's hard to know if we had two colds or are passing around the first one or are all having allergy attacks.

Regardless, for the past two days, Kylie has been like this on the couch (sorry for the utterly horrible pictures).


So pitiful!

Karen and I have done anything to get her to feel a little better including getting her a pink cupcake and a pink milkshake (we read the book Pinkalicious three times yesterday). And Momma Karen made her a pink balloon-animal dog. My wife has skillz.



All three of us are coughing and coughing. And Karen and I are organizing and packing. (I can't believe we are moving again. I'm excited but its crazy too). And if I didn't have enough to do, I'm scrapbooking. Being in control of a digital scrapbook page is soooo dang soothing to me right now. Even if I'm doing it at midnight or at 6:30am.

Hold on to your hats folks...

Because we are MOVING!

To Jacksonville, Florida.

Oh yes, the Sunshine State.

And gang of mine, this is happening soon. By next Monday 5/24 the movers will be unloading our stuff in our new home. Our Florida house is 1/2 mile (and an easy straight walk) from the ocean. Our address is Atlantic Beach, FL. We can hear the waves crash from our front porch and smell the sea breezes. For weeks now, Kylie has been saying, "I don't live here anymore; I live at the beach!" And soon we shall.

Karen found an awesome new job and I found a very cool half-day preschool for the kiddo.

Big exciting changes.

We are flipping with excitement.

First Scooter

A few spills...this was taken just before she tipped and fell.


But Momma was there to comfort and hug.

Popcorn

On Monday, all the neighborhood kids were out playing together. Our next-door neighbor had made her son some popcorn which he was happy to share at his pretend store with Kylie and the other kids. I had to drag Kylie away from it. She LOVED the popcorn. And she asked for some more.

And kept asking. And asking.

So yesterday, I made her a small bowl. She ate every bite.

Like mothers, like daughter--we all love popcorn.

Here are a few scrapbook pages from pictures of last September. I'm so behind.

Private and independent

Little Kylie has marched up to me three times over the past two days and said, "Mommy, you stay right here." Then she has gone into the bathroom, shut the door and used the facilities.

When I wildly cheered for her after she came out, she looked at me like I was more than a little strange. Nonchalant. That's my kiddo.

Coincidentally, she has skipped her nap for the past three days. During her scheduled naptime, she lays in her bed, singing her songs and talking with her stuffed animals until she's had enough and asks if it is time to open the door yet. So I get a bit of a quiet reprieve but my head has running mantra of "She's not sleeping; she's not sleeping" so I've not been as productive as usual during her naptime.

I did manage to finish this scrapbook page. Its wild & scattered & grungy look is very indicative of my current state of mind. Oh well. I managed to get it done.


Here are some more recent pictures.

Sweet little boy

Say hello to Ryan.

Ryan is a 2 1/2 yr old boy who moved into a home just a few houses away from us just a short while ago. Ryan loves to play outside as much as Kylie does. And they have become outdoor play buddies. It's been the most wonderful of casual playdates. If we are outside, these two kiddos end up gravitating towards one another and playing together. And the best part is that Ryan's mom is very easy to hang with.

Kylie ends up bossing Ryan around a bit. But he is happy and she is happy. He loves to push her around in his car and she is happy being driven around. He opens the door for her as she gets in and out of his car. Kylie leads and Ryan follows and works beautifully for them both.


They chase each other and tickle one another.






It is awesome.