Three favorites

Favorite #1: Door hangers
"I want to make a door hanger with you." I hear this from Kylie at least once a week. I'm so grateful I picked up a pack of these foam hangers when they were on sale. Kylie loves to decorate them with stickers. We have around three of these on every door in the house.




Favorite #2: Little Mermaid
Kylie loves to don her Little Mermaid outfit and have me chase her around my office while Ursula's song "Poor Unfortunate Souls" belts out of my computer. Then Kylie climbs into my office chair and has me spin her around and around while we listen to the rest of the Little Mermaid soundtrack.




Favorite #3: Water play
Tonight it was water balloons








And finished up with the sprinklers.


Happy Girl!

Seriously?

Wow! My three-year old has attitude and thinks she knows it all.


Here are two stories for you.

1. Kylie and I were doing something in her bedroom--I don't remember what. But I remember that she got upset and lashed out at me. She struck me with her hand on my arm. "Kylie!" I exclaimed. "No hitting! We don't hit in our family."

Kiddo arched her eyebrows, looked me square in the face and with the attitude of a tween said, "Seriously?"

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was stunned with the word and the attitude.

2. This afternoon, I told Kylie we were going to the dry cleaner. I gave her plenty of warning (10 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 minutes and so forth). When I told her it was time to put on her shoes, she exclaimed, "I'm going to pick out a movie and watch it" and marched to the DVD cabinet and picked out a movie.

Me: Not now Kylie. It's time to go to the dry cleaner.
Kylie: You'll do what I tell you to. (I PROMISE I don't use this phrase with her.)
Me: Kylie. Shoes on. Now.
Kylie: I'm not going! And she throws the movie at me.
Me: We aren't going to the dry cleaner yet. You are going to have a time-out.

Yeesh! Three year olds think they know it all and think they can get away with it all. This new, sassy attitude has taken me a bit aback. But I'm finding my stride with it.

My new mantra is "I'm the adult; never bicker on her level. Don't fight and don't give in".

But some days it is hard not to feel resentful for all the push-back I get from Kylie. There are some days when Karen gets home from work, she takes one look at me, engulfs me in her hug and reminds me that it's going to be all right. Today was one of those days. And I'm so grateful to my sweet wife.

And grateful that, with a camera, I can let go of the difficulty that happened an hour ago (Kylie certainly has gotten over it) and have some fun with the kiddo.

Bento lunches week of 8/23

This week I started making Kylie's lunch the night before and putting it in the fridge. I'm concerned about losing the crispness of crackers and pretzels by doing this but Kylie (right now) doesn't seem to mind. I still take the picture in the morning because kiddo likes to peek and see what she is having for the day.


Ham sandwich on rye bread, pretzels, animals crackers, a few jelly beans, red grapes, pineapple, raspberries, mandarin oranges, raisins.


Yeast roll, pirate booty, turkey slices, carrots, cantaloupe, blueberries, clementine orange slices, raspberry. The clementine slices were a big hit.


Oh, I had fun with this one! I found some tiny cookie cutters at Michael's Craft store and just went nuts with them! They are going to be so fun to work with. Craisins, American cheese and swiss cheese on top of wheat thins, blue corn chips, fruit leather stars, marshmallows, blueberry muffin, dried apricot bits, watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries.


This was an odd shaped box that I picked up. I'm pretty sure the food mixed together because I didn't pack it tightly enough. I wasn't going to use it but I really wanted to use the bear shape and it doesn't fit well in the other bento boxes. Grapes, bacon and shredded cheese in bear, raspberry behind peas, frozen peas, pretzels.

Here is the closed box.


We only had four lunches this week because Kylie was home with me on Monday. The Foodie Girls wish you a Happy Weekend!

Dance and run

My kiddo comes flying out of her room in the morning just bursting with energy. As I make our breakfast, she runs in circles in our living room while shouting, "Watch how fast I am!" Then she grabs her radio player and starts to dance.







And although I'm fairly bleary-eyed and craving a much-desired first cup of coffee, I manage to grab the camera and fire off a few shots. And manage to laugh and clap as I watch Nana Bear and Sarsy Lion go flying through the air for a grand finale.


I wouldn't say I have anywhere near this amount of early morning energy but I am loving my daily runs. My fantastic sister-in-law, Amy, sent me some half-marathon inspiration. She's incredibly thoughtful and just plain awesome.

The sticker is on my fridge urging me on each day. The necklace is waiting to be worn once I've actually run the race in November.

Flips and nightmares

She runs, she flips, she lands. She has elastic for bones.


She'll have long conversations with you while holding positions like this.



My sweet little gymnast has had a run of nightmares recently. Nothing like hearing your kiddo screaming to get you flying out of the bed. Karen and I are to her bedroom before our minds are completely awake. Kylie can't tell us what the nightmares are about. She forgets them as soon as she sees us. And it doesn't seem like night terrors or associated with school or anything. Just normal preschooler nightmares.

Other times Kylie hollers, "Help! Help!" in the night because she wants/needs to go to the bathroom but her bladder is so full that she can't move without peeing in her nighttime diaper. This upsets her too because she is used to getting up and taking care of her bathroom needs herself in the night.

Thank heavens for our "fairy dust". I have a sparkly green empty spray bottle. I spray fairy dust all in her room filling it with sparkles and light, chasing away any bad dreams or worries. Karen and I "catch" the fairy dust as it falls and gently brush it on Kylie's hair, face, arms and legs. It soothes her every time, thank heavens.

I wish I had some for myself. After having my adrenaline filled rush to her bedroom after a nightmare, it takes me forever to calm back down to sleep.

Uniform cuteness

First day of school-- uniform cuteness.






A few jumps for joy before we loaded up in the car.


Kylie had a good first day. When she hopped in the car she exclaimed, "I'm pooped!" She said her favorite part of the day was cutting some white paper with purple scissors. All the teachers were kind to her and she recognized a girl from summer camp. This was a lot of information from my reticent girl.

Hello classroom! Hello teacher!

Welcome to Kylie's school. Karen, Kylie and I were able to tour Kylie's new classroom before her class starts on Tuesday.


Here are some pictures of her Montessori classroom.

World area near the restrooms. World puzzles and flags.


Sink where the children wash up. And this is snack area where the children can help themselves to a snack of milk and crackers.


This area is called "Practical Life" where the children learn to pour, scoop and other practical skills.


Here's another look. During Montessori summer camp, this was one of Kylie's favorite areas.


The items in Practical Life help with eye/hand control.


Coming on around the room, you can see the rug for circle time and the reading room area. Kylie is speaking with one of her three teachers. They are reviewing the protocol for using the white rugs and the proper way to roll them back up. There are 27 children in her class and one lead teacher and two associate teachers.


Kylie is in front of the Science area where she will learn the proper names for items like leaves and flower parts. Along the wall, you can see there is an area where she can practice tracing different shapes.


The Math area.




And language. In June, when I was able to observe Kylie in her class, she spent a lot of time with these manipulatives.




And back around to the entrance of the room and the world area.


Part of the playground.


I'm so glad I was able to tour Kylie's classroom and meet with her teachers. We look forward to our first day of class on Tuesday!

Snapshot Sunday

Here are a few pictures from the week.

Early morning tea parties with her suitcase of Barbies.


Twirling a propeller.


Playing with Harvey- her imaginary dog. That's his multi-colored leash there. And she told me the white string was the leash for imaginary dog Snoopy.


Walking her build-a-bear dog on roller skates away from the mall. She is so dang happy about this dog.


And lots of swinging.