Fearless

I always had a feeling that Kiya was fearless. This kid doesn't seem to be afraid of much. She LOVES to climb and LOVES to rough house with Daddy. Nothing stops this kid. Not big dogs, not heights, not her casts, nothing.

So today we went to a festival in our town. It is kind of a big deal around here. Kiya had had a bad night. She was SUPER constipated (over share I know but true). We opted for no nap since she slept in past 9am.

We ate some sweet corn and I do mean all of us. Miss Kiya shared my corn on the cob with me. It was so cute and messy.

We then decided to take her over to the little carnival section. We asked her if she wanted to go on a ride and she said yes. So I went and bought some tickets. $13 bucks worth thinking we may give some tickets to others. We went on this bumblebee ride first. It reminded me of the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. She got a little nervous when the bee jerked before the ride started but once we started it was all smiles and laughs.

The kid was hooked. Next we went on the swing ride. She really LOVED that one. We quickly blew through the tickets. She was tall enough to go on some rides by herself but given it was her first time I went with her. I had fun too so it was a win win. She only had to be 36 inches tall to ride some rides by herself. We stood her up next to the chart and she was a tad over 38 inches.

After we realized just how much fun she was having, we just had to buy more tickets. And thus we did. The joy on her face was priceless. She did think though that we were at the park. She kept saying "I like this park. This park is so fun. I come back on Monday." When we were flying high in the air she kept saying, "I go up high. I like to go up high. Weeeeee"

I have had so many fabulous memories with my fearless Kiya that I will cherish and today goes down as another great memory.  We had a great time as a family. If I could hit the repeat button on today, I totally would.  I so completely love being Kiya's mom. She is nothing shy of amazing and I am so proud of her.

State of our home address

This picture just about sums up what the state of our home is right now. You see that impy grin....you see the dominoes that are dumped all over the couch and the floor. Yup that is Kiya. She is a non-stop all over the place full fledged toddler. Wow. The amount of energy she has can be a lot. Don't get me wrong she is beyond amazing and beyond adorable and super silly but wow.

She is super sassy as of late. She can be kind of bossy and yet we have a hard time not laughing. The other day she said to me " Mommy, sit down. Time for shoes on." Granted I had no intention of going anywhere but that didn't seem to matter to Kiya.

She is on the verge of jumping. She has mastered running as best she can with a cast on and has decided that jumping is up next. I am so excited for her. Every night she runs into her room and screams "1,2,3 jump." Then she says "Mommy do it." So of course I I say 1, 2, 3 and I jump. Then Kiya says " Daddy do it."  So Daddy jumps. To which Kiya responds, "No Daddy. Do 1, 2, 3 jump."

Just last night it was time to brush her teeth and in response to let's go in the bathroom, Kiya says "I'm gonna sit down now." She then sits down on the floor in her room. Sigh.....

Kiya is keeping us on our toes that is for sure. She is determined to try and climb oh everything. She loves to empty dog food out of the dog food bin if we forget to close the door to the laundry room. She loves to kick water out of the laundry room sink during bath time.

We spend a lot of time laughing in this house. We also spend a lot of time exhausted as Kiya doesn't appear to have an off switch. She is silly all the time and just loves to laugh and make others laugh. We are working on her understanding when we are serious and when we aren't. That is a challenge....but so far the threat of a time out usually works.

I love seeing her independent side. Each morning she wakes up and asks to sit up. Which means she wants her pillow propped up and then she wants her books. She then "reads" her books to her babies and stuffed animals while we get ready. It is too cute. And how she wants to tie her own shoes or put her own chapstick on or try to do her own hair. Her independence is a big reason for her sassiness. She is also very stubborn. If she doesn't want to do something like say sit on the potty boy are we going to hear about it.

So the state of our home is silly, goofy, crazy, fun, exhausting and really amazing.

Weekend fun

We had a great weekend with some great friends and their kids. I am tired but it was fun. It has been way too long since I stayed up late just chatting with friends.

Kiya has a new BFF. Her name is Molly and she is 6. Kiya just LOVED her. Her whole face would light up when Molly entered the room. She let Molly walk her around, pick her up and read her a story. To be honest it was great having a 6 year old around to keep Kiya entertained. I could actually have an adult conversation and trust that Kiya was going to get into anything.

We spent the weekend on Lake Wisconsin. I wish the weather would have been better but it was still nice. Dave took everyone out on the boat which was nice. Kiya and I stayed back. She had a very angry reaction to putting on a life jacket so we snuggled on the couch, had a snack and watched Dora on the laptop. I blame being almost 2 and those awful swim lessons that tortured kids with floating in the pool in a life jacket but whatever. I did like the snuggles though.

We also went to the Taste of Madison event. It is on the square and has restaurants of all types of cuisine. It is so fun. We try and go every year. It was at this event a few years ago that I first had Ethiopian food. It was love at first taste....except for the injera....still working on that one. This year I had Ethiopian food, Indian food, Chinese food and some of Kiya's fried fish. Kiya are 2 different types of fried fish (halibut and cod) and more pretzels than I think are allowed by law but the pretzels kept her from screaming so we went with it.

Highlight of the weekend was hanging out with our friends and their kids. Low light...Kiya didn't nap for 3 days in a row. She unfortunately did pretty okay with no nap. I am really hoping this isn't a permanent thing and more of I don't want to be away from the action aka Molly thing. Fingers crossed she naps today. This mama is so not ready for Kiya to give up her nap. I really don't think she is either but she has been sleeping 13 or more hours a night...sigh...

If she gives up her nap when do I get to nap and/or watch trashy reality TV???

Summer Fun in pictures

This isn't really a summer fun picture but really, can she get any cuter?

Since we aren't doing swim lessons, I brought out the kiddie pool...

I am pretty sure she is loving it :)

Yep, she is having a blast...

In fact she had so much fun that after 45 minutes, it was time to go inside and I am pretty sure the entire neighborhood heard her scream.

June?

Where oh where has the time gone??? Wow, can't believe I haven't posted in awhile. Lots has happened since my last post. Here is a brief synopsis.

1) I had a birthday. Yup, I made it to 34. What a year it has been. Really it was nothing short of amazing. I have a daughter now. I discovered my love of motherhood. It was great. And I am looking forward to the craziness that this year will bring.

2) Kiya is still fabulous in all ways. She is a total performer. She sees a camera and her face lights up. She loves to make people laugh. She has learned how to fist bump and will do it often. She loves to sing unfortunately sometimes at all hours of the night/early morning. Her favorites are the ABC song and Ring Around the Rosie. She especially likes the all fall down part.

3) This weekend was jammed packed with Brat Fest with my brother in law, a Brewers game and then last night grilling some steaks with the best man from our wedding. Busy busy weekend but fun to catch up with old friends and spend time with family.

Coming up:

We have a busy couple weeks with important appointments for Kiya. Today she has physical therapy. I am excited to show off all of Kiya's new skills. We haven't seen the therapist in awhile. She wanted to wait a little longer so we could see more progress. Well since we last saw her, Kiya has learned to crawl, climb stairs both walking and crawling up and down (if we let her walk up or down the stairs we hold her hand otherwise she will crawl up and scoot down on her own). Kiya can also push a walker toy without the drama and she walks holding on to one hand. She also can get herself to a standing position using just about anything in a room from a table, a wall, a chair, your shirt, whatever she can reach.

We also have her 18 month check up next week. I can't wait to see how tall she is :) We also have to fill out these 2 questionnaires. One is called Ages and Stages to track development and one is an early Autism screening form. They are pretty straight forward and have some things to try with Kiya to see if she does them. I have started working on a few of them. For example, the form asked whether or not Kiya would leave a room to go get a toy if you asked her to. I didn't know, I hadn't asked her. I asked her when we were in the kitchen where her lion was. She couldn't see it where we were. She plopped down on the floor and crawled over to the front door which is where she had left it. I was shocked but I shouldn't have been. Kiya is very smart and follows directions well.

Walking....it will be a big topic these next two weeks. I am really not worried. Kiya is doing great. I got a suggestion from another mom with a late walker to have Kiya hold on to a spoon and then I hold on the the handle and walk that way. Try it for a few days or so and then see if you can let go of the handle and she will keep going. The goal is to try and build confidence and less dependence on our hands. I really feel like she can do it she is choosing not to at this point. I was holding her under her arms yesterday while she was standing up and she started to walk away. I let go and she took another step on her own. She is really close. I can feel it. Talk about trouble when she gets going....

More pictures to come and updates on Kiya's therapy and doctor visit.

Warm weather fun

It was warm today so we debuted Kiya's new summer toy. To say it was a hit would be an understatement.

She wasn't sure at first and then discovered, oh yeah there is water in there.

After a few minutes, she discovered there was a bucket. Yeah she pretty much spent the next 20 minutes dumping buckets of not so warm water on her head and getting completely drenched. She loved every second of it.

I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of this water table this summer. The next time though, Kiya will be wearing a swim suit and swim diaper. And I can't forget the towels. Yes I think we will need more than 1.

Kiya's weekend adventures part 1

We took Kiya to Wisconsin Dells this weekend to hang out with some very dear friends. This was her first trip to a waterpark. We knew she loved water given the crazy splashing and giggles that are bath time but we weren't sure how she would do. Here are some pictures. SHE LOVED IT! She was so brave and had so much fun.

The wave pool was hands down her favorite part and thus where we spent most of our time. She wasn't afraid at all. The more the waves hit her the more she smiled and laughed.

She wanted to walk in the waves. She pretty much insisted on it. She wanted to go farther and farther in.


We didn't get any pictures but she also loved the small water slides. Dave would bring her up to the top and I would catch her at the bottom. A couple of times her head would go part of the way underwater and I thought she would get scared but boy was I wrong. She thought it was great. We tried the Lazy River and she hated that. Not enough excitement for her I guess :)

Kiya had a fabulous weekend overall. She slept pretty well, ate pretty well and was in generally a good mood most of the time. A little quiet at times in bigger groups but you could tell she was having fun. One thing is for sure, it appears that we have a little dare devil on our hands.

On a personal note, I had a BLAST being a Mom this weekend. There was nothing better than watching the pure joy and smiles and laughs. It melted my heart. I just loved it. The whole weekend was wonderful. Traveling with a toddler can be tricky and in the past we have had our moments but Kiya was just the sweetest, silliest and best kid ever this weekend. Of course we always think she is the best kid ever :)

Stay tuned for video....pending me being able to figure it out :)