Right around the corner

Oh my Khloe, you are days away from turning two. How did this happen? It seriously came out of nowhere and then we realized that, oh my! Khloe's birthday is one week away! Perhaps we should be telling her she's going to be two year's old and teach her how to say that!

Thanks, Jensen's, for the birthday present for Khloe... and Kayla! How special!

Khloe, here's a little bit of what your life is all about these days:

- Baths have turned into your worst nightmare. Quiet a difference from when you couldn't imagine anything grander in life than a bath. Two baths a day would've been great for you, now you don't want a bath, ever. So, why the change? Well you had a couple "No. 2 accidents" in the bathtub and it terrified you. Now when we say it's bath time you say "no bath! no bath!" and cry the whole time. At least we've made progress in the last week so now you'll at least play in the tub without crying; we're working on getting you to sit in the tub again. I hope this phase doesn't last long!

- You really don't enjoy wearing pants. We put them on. You take them off. Most of the day you are missing your pants. This is a problem, especially when we are in public. You know it's wrong therefore you get more enjoyment out of it to take down your pants when we're out. We try not to laugh, but really, it's pretty funny. You run away laughing, we chase you trying not to laugh. It's funny because you're two, this will not be funny when you're eighteen.

- You also like to wear just one sock. Not sure why.

- So, to sum that all up, you wear a shirt, no pants and one sock throughout the day.

- I ADORE the pitter-patter sound of your bare feet running arcross the kitchen floor. And, yes, they are always running. Sometimes spinning. Sometimes jumping.

- You love to try on Kayla's boots in the hall closet.

- You love to do anything Kayla is doing. And this goes both ways too, Kayla loves to do anything you're doing!

- When you answer in the affirmative to us it goes like this, "Yeah! Okay! Sure! Um hmmm."

- Everywhere we go we get, "Whose red-haired kid is that?" or "Where did the red hair come from?" or "Is her hair.... red?" We don't' know where it came from, but it is b-e-a-u-tiful Khloe! And, slowly but surely, it's starting to get a little longer now too, long enough for hair ties (Oh, hair ties is one of your favorite words) and bows.

- You wish you were five years old. You dislike sitting in your booster seat at the kitchen table, you insist on getting into and out of my truck by yourself and and you prefer to not have a top on any of your sippy cups. "No top" you say while holding your hand in a "STOP" position in front of you.

- You can say "Kayla"'s name perfectly now! It's so cute.

- Sometimes I wonder if somehow you sneaked an entire package of cotton candy before your naps and bedtime. You get so hyper before it's time to do down. I try to ignore you as I rock you in the dark but sometimes's your happy smiling face and cute little voice are just too cute to resist. "Mama, clap loud, soft?" And then we clap loud and soft. "Mama, teeth?" And then we look at each other's teeth. "Mama, letter K?" And then we name off the letters on your wall. If we didn't make you go to bed I don't think you'd ever stop!

- Daddy taught you to yell "Yeah baby, yeah baby, yeah baby!" while pumping your fist in the air. You do it every time we ask. It's hilarious.

- You are almost always carrying a stool in your hands. These stools are no small objects - almost 3x your size - but it doesn't stop you from hauling them all over both floors so you can get to what you want - the pen drawer, a light switch, mommy's makeup, turn the water on in the sink, mommy's jewelry, something on the counter, just about anything!

- You are great at putting on shows. Sometimes the shows are all about getting sympathy, sometimes they're because you're not getting your way, and sometimes they are just to get a laugh. You're good at making people laugh, and you also love to do things your way just to be different. That's why we love you!

 Family movie night watching 3D Wreck-It Ralph. We love the weekends!

Career path

Here is the story Kayla wrote at school today, she titled "Career":

I wont to be a nurs when I grow up. I will take care of the babys. They cry a lot. I cant get them to stop crying. They will not stop crying. They cry and cry and cry.

A nurse? That's a new one. Career? Didn't know she knew that word! Yea! Following in the footsteps of Aunt Kristi! Hold on to your scrubs, and stethoscope and books and notes Kristi, Kayla's going to need those. And Kayla, don't worry about the crying babies, Kristi assures me that in nursing school you will be taught how to stop the crying.

Her story started out so inspiring, don't you think? And then quickly went downhill from there. Sounds like she's already got the ups and downs of her new career figured out.

Videos

Just a few videos to get caught up from February and March...

I'm gonna wrestle you up!

Cookie monster

Surprise gift

Baby stroller ride

Jumping Monkey

Sword fighting

Balance Beam Performance

Balance Beam, take II

120 days

She's 120 days in and rocking Kindergarten so far. It blows our minds what they're teaching to five year olds.  I mean, this is her first experience away from us full time - every day, all day - and she has learned so incredibly much. She's writing short stories, writing numbers to 100, and doing addition and subtraction of numbers 1 -20. Her teacher told us that she is exceptionally good at writing and breezes through math. The days of spelling words between Aaron and I? Long gone. The days of  skipping over words in a book? Long gone. Now Kayla picks up books and reads to Khloe.

Speaking of reading, March was Reading Month at school and the four Kindergarten classes won the school contest for the "most minutes read" during the month! Her class got to celebrate by having an EXTRA recess (woohoo!) and an ice-cream party. They even got to wear pajamas to school! What more could a five year old ask for?!

Guess who is Citizen of the Month at Michigamme? 

Her best friend in her classroom (outside of Addison of course) is Eli Fortune. Eli is short for Eliana. I thought she was getting love notes from "Eli" at the beginning of school until I learned that Eliana goes by Eli (prounced Elle-ee). Almost once a week Kayla comes home with some sort of gift or trinket or picture from Eli; it's pretty cute. Max thinks of Kayla too; this I do not think is so cute. Max has given Kayla his phone number on a piece of paper and even called our home and left a message on our answering machine! What?!?! On Valentine's Day the school ran a fundraiser to purchase suckers for students. Kayla got suckers from Khloe, us, grandparents, her neighbor friends, and Max. Better step off Max! Anyways, she has lots of friends in her class.

What cute kids! 

The kids all get along great, the families are very nice, and already Kayla has gone to quite a few of her girl friend's birthday parties.

We wanted to share some of Kayla's recent stories. They're priceless! After they hang on the fridge for awhile, we save each and every one of them. We look forward to pulling her stories out of her folder at the end of the school day.  She's so proud of them and she makes sure to read each story to us before we look at it. A hand-drawn picture accompanies each story too. Aaron and I often re-read them at night just grinning and chuckling to ourselves; just to read the words her little mind is thinking about! We're so proud of her! Here are a few recent ones:

I love my mom be cous she lets me woch tv on weekens. I love my dad be cous he lets me woch tv on weekens. I love my baby sistr.

I like to ski so much. I like to night ski. I wont to ski rit now cus I mis my friens Molly and Bris.

I like to go to Iowa. I wont to go back to Iowa and I miss my cusins. I rily miss thum. I nyd thum at orw howse. (She drew a picture of Casity and Chravis)

Dear Mommy, I love you. I hope you have a good day. Happy Valentines day!! Love, Kayla. I love my daddy.

I dot wont my mom and dad to leve to las veges. I will be with Krise. I rily dot wont my mom and dad to leve to las veges. (This broke my heart!! How do you leave when you read this??)

MY WISH - I want my wish to be a fary flying arownd the hous if I get a clovr. (St. Patrick's Day story)

GUM - I love gum. It tast good. My mom loves gum and my dad loves gum but my baby sister dos not so we do not give her gum cus we do not give her gum. My cat dos not like it.

MY BUNNY - My bunny is little and fusy. It is a baby. Her name is bloom and she is vere little. I love my bunny but my name is not the same. My name is Kayla. Love Kayla (Easter story)

I love my baby sister. She is a baby. I love my baby sister so much. She loves me to. I can't beleve how cuot she is. She is the cuot's in the hous. Love Kayla

It was a really really really good nap

Oh baby girl. Maybe we should've never taken this photo. Or maybe we should've just deleted it.
Instead, we're posting it on your blog. The thing is, you were so happy in this photo after your nap!
(We promise not to use this at your high school graduation party)

The great outdoors

It was a great day for a hike! We took the girls to the newest county park in the southwest corner of the county. It was Missy and the girl's first time there. The sun was shining but it was a tad bit chilly. But, as Kayla pointed out, vacation is almost over so we must take advantage of our free time!

We even put our waterproof footwear to use and splashed in the frigid Belle River for a bit. We'll be back in the summer to hike, splash and play more!

Sleep over!

Kayla, Molly and Bryce have been planning this for a looooong time. Well, since Molly had her first sleepover at our house last fall! The conversation gained momentum after our ski trip up north and its been on the calendar ever since. There have been texts exchanged between Molly and Kayla this week discussing all the necessities to pack - a favorite pillow, blanket and animal of course!

On a side note, it's really really really really weird not having Kayla at home with us and we really really really really miss her but we know she's having fun! Most of the time there's four of us here, once in a while there is just three when Daddy is gone, but rarely is it just three of us - Aaron, I and only one girl. Kayla and Khloe aren't used to being separated at night, and they truly miss each other when they're apart. I love that Kayla is with her friends, I love that she's having fun, but I'll love picking her up in the morning too.

Best buds - Molly 6.5 and Kayla 5.5

Aaron and I are chopped liver when Molly's around

 Building a fire in the fireplace to roast marshmallows

There was much back and forth discussion about where to sleep - Molly's room or Bryce's room. Bryce did not want to be left out of anything. They decided on Bryce's room because his room sleeps 3! How cozy! 

Sweet dreams! We said "no laughing, giggling or talking late at night".... we'll see how that goes! It is a sleep over with a four, five and six year old after all!