Feel better baby

Kylie has been sick with a cold for the last few days. She stayed home with me rather than go to school on Wednesday and Thursday. She's wanted to stay in her nightgown and hang out on the couch while watching way too much tv. She's had tons of juice, water and popsicles. She's gone through a box of tissues.

Caring for Kylie when she is sick is bittersweet. She can be so loving--wanting me to pat her hot face with my cool hands and read her story after story. Then again she can be so reactive--flying off the handle and having tantrums over unpredictable things. I hope she feels better soon. And I'm thanking my lucky stars that she hasn't been sick since we moved here. I'm also feeling very grateful for her pre-school. I've been quickly reminded how tiring it is to entertain Kylie all day.

On Wednesday, I was folding laundry and Kylie (dressed in her mermaid outfit) came and stole a sock from the clean laundry pile. She ran away, wanting me to chase her. I caught this video of our shenanigans. She's very ticklish under her armpits and on the back of her legs near her bottom (as you'll hear as you play the video).



I was able to finish a knitted pillowcase cover that I've been working on for a while. I haven't decided if I'm going to put buttons or a zipper or nothing at all on the open end. I did a cabled pattern for the front and a textured pattern for the back. I'm pleased with how it turned out.





Stay tuned for news about Kylie's School Halloween Celebration.

Adventure walk, zoo trip and benches

On Friday afternoon, Kylie and I took an adventure walk to a nearby park with amazing trees. We started our adventure walks when we lived in Portland and kiddo was just learning to walk. We would take a bucket and pick up bits of nature that caught Kylie's eye, like special rocks and leaves. Kylie still loves being outside and we have some of our best talks when we are simply exploring together.


On today's adventure walk, this dry creek bed was Kylie's Grand Canyon and we were looking for both treasure and dinosaur bones together.


Then she announced that she was completely pooped and needed to rest on the bench.




Even though I ended up carrying her part of the way home, I'm glad we made the trip. It was a sweet afternoon.


And Kylie was thrilled to wear her new Crocs that Momma Karen picked up on her trip to Pittsburg. Kylie insists on wearing them everywhere and she loves the Ariel and Flounder buttons.

On Sunday, we went to the zoo. I'm always looking for a bit of the zoo that we haven't seen before. On this trip we found some bald eagles, Florida white-tailed deer, bobcats and a black bear. And we found a beautiful butterfly garden.



Kiddo sure does love her benches!

Showcase

Wednesday night was Kylie's "showcase" at her Montessori School. During the showcase, the children demonstrated some of the things that they have learned to do in class.

Kylie showed me how she can sort different colored cotton balls with a spoon.


She enjoyed putting all the Halloween ornaments on this tree.


Kylie spent a lot of time drawing around these various shapes.


She gave me a set too so that I could draw with her.


She used an oversized tack to poke holes along the lines of this pumpkin. This teaches little ones the grasp and control needed to write with a pencil. Kylie is using her left hand here.


And she uses her right hand for her cutting exercise. After she completes an exercise with paper, she puts her "work" into an envelope and then she puts the envelope into her school folder.


On Fridays, we get a bag of all her school work. It usually looks something like this.


Her showcase was a quiet affair. Kylie was so pleased to show me her classroom and some of the things she does in school. I am quite proud of her.

{this moment} 10/22/10

{this moment} - a Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!



{this moment} posts are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts

Bento lunches week of 10/18

Kylie's school had an early release day on Wednesday; we had lunch together at home. So I have four bento lunches to share with you.


Double decker turkey sandwich on pumpernickel, teddy grahams, carrots, pirate booty, clementine oranges, strawberries, craisins.


I found some Betty Crocker food writing pens at my grocery store and had fun making this jack o-lantern. I tried roast beef on Kylie's sandwiches. She informed me that she didn't like it (still). I guess turkey is the only sandwich meat she'll eat.
Roast beef sandwiches, fruit leather, pretzels, craisins, clementine orange jack o-lantern, grapes, jack o-lantern cookies.


Noodles from chicken noodle soup, green peppers, carrots, mandarin oranges, apple slices, raisins.


I didn't make time to go to the grocery store. So this bento is made up from some leftovers.
Macaroni and cheese, red beans, pretzels, craisins, yogurt raisins, berry cereal bar, applesauce.

October beach

I got a bit nostalgic for Fall leaves the other day as I was reading friends' blogs and seeing the Fall colors.

But then after school on Tuesday Kylie asked me, "Can we please go to the ocean? Please, please, please?" It was 80 degrees and sunny. We slipped on our bathing suits (which are a bit worse for wear after a summer of heavy use), loaded up some water and raisins in our stroller and were off.



She was soooo happy! We stayed for about 3 hours.


We saw a beautiful, Halloween-colored, orange and purple starfish.


Kylie got very interested in making her sandcastles (instead of handing me the shovels and asking me to make it for her) complete with driveways and moats.


I had my long run on Tuesday--12 miles. My longest distance yet. My legs were protesting the 1/2 mile walk in flip flops and all the standing around and running after Kylie on the beach. So I got out a beach towel and sat down watching Kylie make her sandcastles and listened to my audio book. Kylie is usually running up and down--and up and down again. So sitting for a bit was very nice.

Before we left, Kylie wanted to play see-saw in the water with me. She likes me to sit in the waves. She sits on my lap and we take turns lowering our backs to the water like we are on a see-saw. There is the added benefit that when a wave comes, it usually picks me up a bit and twirls me around. This is Kylie's favorite part. I wouldn't say its a pleasant sensation having my legs and butt scrape against the sand over and over. But in my heart, I know that Kylie won't want to do this with me much longer. So I treasure our snuggle-in-the-waves, see-saw times.

When we got home, we both dumped inches of sand out of our suits, had our respective bath and shower and collapsed on the couch to veg out to some Little Einsteins. I got my first light sunburn (since moving to Florida) on my neck because I forgot to put sunscreen there. Kylie was coated up just fine. And my legs were screaming at me, promising me that I would pay that night and in the morning.

But I didn't care. You know... Late October in Florida...80 degrees and cool ocean water...It's all going to suit us just fine.

Orlando

On Sunday we were fortunate to spend some time with Karen's sister's family in Orlando. We had lunch together in the Rainforest Cafe at Disney's Marketplace.


The Jungle decorations fascinated Kylie.


This animated snake made her squeal with delight.


And she loved her froggy drink and toy.


I just love spending time with Amy's family. They are so sweet and loving to each other and to us. It makes me want to pack them up and move them to Florida.


I got to shop for Tinkerbell Christmas decorations and for Mr. Potato Head parts for Kylie. Karen got to shop for Disney stick pins for our pin collection board. We had a blast. Later, we all played in the hotel pool.

It was no wonder that within moments of getting in the car that Kylie was fast asleep.


Big thanks to Aunt Amy for letting us join her on a day of her family's vacation.

Scrapes and tattle-tales and more

Scrapes
Kylie insists on telling me about her scrapes and bruises over and over day after day. And she usually does it in a whiny voice. "I have this boo-boo and it hurts" she moans. "I know darling; it will fade soon", I say again and again.

Yesterday, after hearing about her scrapes for the upteenth time I said, "Kylie, I'm right here playing with you and giving you all my attention. You don't need to complain about your boo-boos over and over to get me to interact with you. I see you and I'll always take care of you." To which she replied, "I'm going to go slide now."

Woosh...right over her head. But I felt better after I said it. I just keep telling myself that it is a phase and that it will pass.

Tattle-tale
Kylie is a bit of a tattle-tale. As we are playing at the playground, she will often shout, "He got in front of me!" or "She bumped my back and pushed me!" or "He's not sharing!" Geesh. I'm glad girlfriend is out there speaking her truth but it can sound a bit obnoxious. And usually the kid she just ratted out doesn't want to play around her anymore and Kylie doesn't understand why.

So do any of you know of any books or shows that address the undesirableness of a tattle-tale? Please share them in the comments. I would love some back-up material on that issue.

School and playground dynamics
Kylie has amused us over the dinner table talking about the three Katherines in her school. There is "Big Katherine" and the two "Little Katherines." "Big Katherine" sounds like the leader of the playground and when Kylie talks about her, I can't help but think about the scenes in the movie "Hope Floats" about the girl, "Big Dolores". Anyway, Kylie really wants to be friends with all three Katherines. Some days, she gets to play with them. Other days, they shun her and she's heartbroken about it.

Kylie still loves to play with the boys. I can tell when she has chosen to play with them because her shirt will be covered with mulch when she gets in the car. When she plays with the girls, she talks about playing "Ariel and Ursula" or "Snow White and the Queen". All these games are essentially "chase me" games.

It's quite interesting to hear about the playground dynamics. There are a few clear leaders from Kylie's point of view. And also some trouble-makers. And the rest of the kids kind of bounce around between them; some doing there own thing and some following the leaders. It all makes me chuckle and shake my hear or stoke my chin and say "Very interesting."

More
Two last things to report is that Kylie has started running on empty tennis courts. Racing with kids or running by herself, she loves the flat course and running on all the lines.


And girlfriend loves to climb up slides. Probably she loves it because I only let her do it if there is no one else at the playground. She will smirk at me and announce, "There isn't anyone here so I get to climb up the slide."


Little stinker.

Here's a movie of Kylie singing Puff the Magic Dragon. Kylie likes to close her eyes when she sings.

Here are the lyrics if you don't know them and want to follow along.
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea.
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee.
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff

Have a great weekend everyone.

Whoops

Hi Folks. Major problems with Lightroom talking to Flickr talking to the Blog. Your screen may look like all the pictures are gone. Looks like I've lost a month's worth of pictures. Let me try to fix it.

If you are an RSS reader, you might see a ton of entries. For today, Friday October 15th, there were two entries--one titled {this moment} and one titled Bento lunches week of 10/11 and now this one.

Sorry for any trouble and I'll try to get the blog back up and running.

Here's (hopefully) a sweet photo of Kylie to make the annoyance a little less annoying.

{this moment} 10/15/10

{this moment} - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

My special moment for the week came when Kylie and I visited a new park on Thursday. It had a climbing tower that Kylie managed to climb. I took this picture just when she reached the top. Kylie is really starting to trust her climbing skills. Her pride and happiness just busts out in this photo.



May I say that the weather here in Florida is simply gorgeous. 80 degrees for a high with no humidity and 60 degrees at night. Light ocean breezes. It's awesome!



Kiddo found a silly bandz bracelet on the park bench. I was sitting on the bench and Kylie lay on her back beside me. We chatted while she twirled the bracelet around in her fingers. I reached over her and fired this shot. It's a bit distorted because of my proximity to her and the lens I was using but I love it just the same.


The {this moment posts} are inspired by SouleMama's Friday posts

Bento lunches week of 10/11

There was no school on Monday so I have four lunches to share with you.


Boiled egg, frozen peas, pringles, raisins, plum, watermelon


Shredded cheese, wheat thins, carrots, grapes, kiwi


This was the first time I put go-gurt into Kylie's lunch box. She ate half of it at lunch and then came home and ate the other half. Does anyone know of a shorter to-go yogurt brand? One that would fit a bit better into her small bento box?
Go-gurt, strawberries, turkey sandwiches on pumpernickel, pirate booty, fruit leather.


Ham sandwiches, cucumbers, pretzels, dried pineapple and mango, grapes. I found the fruit picks at my local grocery store. I usually browse the bakery section to see if there is anything new I can use for her bento and suddenly these flamingo picks were there! The ends are quite dull so I don't think Kylie can her herself with them and it adds some fun variety.

Modesty game

We played a little game with Kylie the other night at home to try to teach her about modesty. The game went like this: I would stand or sit or walk properly. Kylie would yell, "Modest!" And then I would do things that Kylie has been doing lately like reach down her shorts and grab her bottom or pull her skirt up or pull her shirt up. And Kylie would yell "Immodest!"

I think it made the point about some of her immodest behavior. And it really made her giggle to see me and Momma Karen acting immodestly. Now I just hope that she doesn't want to play the modest/immodest game in public!

A few pictures