What's new with Kiya?

I know it has been awhile again so here are some highlights as to what is new with Kiya.

1) Dora or should I say "Gora" is a HUGE hit around here. I thought she would get over it but no. This kid is seriously in love with Dora. She can spot her on balloons, at Target and can turn the TV on and ask for it. So 2nd birthday theme is likely you guessed it Dora.

2) Baby dolls. She is so fascinated with all things baby. She yells baby every time we see a baby and she has started putting her doll in her high chair and trying to feed it. So cute. Let's hope this love for babies sticks around for awhile as in a year or two so she will be instantly in awe and love of her brother.

3) Talking. Yup she is still talking or singing pretty much every waking moment unless she has food in her mouth and even then that isn't a guarantee. She is trying to repeat and say everything so we are very careful to spell certain words, not say things we don't want her to know and watching what music is on in the car. I have completely lost track of how many words she actually knows as everyday it changes. She is getting closer and closer to being able to say the dogs names. She almost has Badger down and well I don't blame her for not being able to say Sebastian but the other day it sounded like she said "bastian" which is pretty darn close. As for singing, she is really quite good. She is the singer in her daycare class as she is the only one that will sing along and sometimes rather loudly to the music. Her teacher is convinced she will be a rock star :)

4) Walking:  I don't even want to talk or think about it anymore. We have hit a MAJOR road block. She totally can walk we have seen her. I have watched her in the living room and if she sees me she stops. We make her walk everywhere and are using the tips given by her therapist like not holding her hand above her head, etc. She is just a very stubborn and crooked kid. Scoliosis is definitely part of the issue but she is also just hard headed. I am anxiously awaiting our Birth to 3 therapy session...oh wait guess they have to call and schedule that first....sigh....we need help big time. She is very content getting the attention from others at home and daycare by not walking. People have to come to her and she loves that. She loves the attention. So while she insists on feeding herself or brushing her own teeth (don't worry I still do it too) she won't give it up and just walk. sigh....

5) Puzzles. Kiya LOVES puzzles and is really very good at them. Her favorite is her Animal Sounds puzzle. It makes the animal sounds when you put the pieces in. Kind of annoying but she likes it. She knows where all of the pieces go and can put at least half of them in correctly without any help. She also loves her shape  sorting toy. She can do all of the shapes by herself and usually on the first try. She turns the cookie jar around to find the right shape and then puts it in. She used to get frustrated with the heart shape as it is harder to do but not anymore. She then claps for herself and says yay when she has all 5 shapes in. She also has a buckle bunny that has 5 different types of buckles on it. She can't open them yet and isn't supposed to be able to but she can now match the right sides together and even buckle 2 or 3 of them all by herself. She used to get frustrated with this toy so it would go in timeout sometimes but now that she is figuring it out it isn't as bad.

6) Napping. Yeah, she has been on this kick of nap fail for awhile. She didn't nap 3 out of 4 days last week. If it is one day here or there she is usually okay but 2 days in a row was tough. She was crabby. I have a bad feeling that she may give up napping well before this Mama is ready for her to.

7) Daycare. We got word that Kiya will be transitioning to this make shift 2 year old room at the end of September. There are a lot of kids turning 1 prior to Oct. so they need the room in the 1 year old rooms but there are a lot of kids who don't turn 2 until the end of the year like Kiya so they are making an 18 month old + room. I think Kiya is ready. She is one of the oldest kids in her class and she is hands down the most talkative. She sees and calls some of the other kids babies even though they walk and she doesn't. It also means new teachers which frankly I am kind of excited about. She needs a change and maybe the new teachers can challenge her in a way her current ones aren't. My one fear is that there is going to be a lot of change in a short period of time. New classroom, new teachers, new kids and let's throw in the high possibility of her being in a body cast. It may get a little interesting this fall....

So I think I have rambled enough :)

Chatty Kiya....

Oh my is this girl a talker. We always knew she was a talker but wow oh wow. Lately, it has been non stop for hours. She will either be talking or singing. It is adorable but it would be nice if she would stop for air every once in awhile.

I can't imagine what life is going to be like when she is 5....I think ear plugs or the quiet game may be in our future.

A good example of her talking came on Wednesday afternoon. We had our Birth to 3 follow up meeting and she talked or sang for the entire hour. The teachers thought it was great and I did too but a little distracting.

The worst part is that she has learned to ask "why" and she will say "mommy" about 10 times each time with me asking her what she needs and finally she just says "hi". It was really adorable the first time she did this and after about the third time I was going bonkers. Though I must admit it is nice that she says mommy again and not bobby or boppy or moppy.

All complaining aside, Kiya is such a joy and I love it when she learns a new word. Just yesterday she said peach, cheese, roll and probably others but I can't remember. Everyday she is learning and saying multiple new words. She LOVED to say peach and said it through out the whole grocery store yesterday. It was pretty cute and others thought so too. She is also saying "bad" and trying to say "Badger". She even tried to tell Badger twice yesterday that he was bad. Which to her credit he was being naughty.

Kiya started to get mad and was saying bad and pointing and I found Badger eating a dryer sheet in some laundry. Then later Kiya started again to get mad and point and said what sounded like "bad Badger" and Badger was eating a baby wipe. She doesn't like it when the dogs are naughty. We say, Kiya are the boys being naughty? And Kiya responds "naughty". Too cute. But she does get upset so we have to show her that while the dogs did something bad it is still okay to be nice to them and not be afraid of them. So after she told on Badger we had them kiss and make up. It was adorable.

On the shadow front, she is no longer afraid of her shadow. She says hi and bye to it. Fist bumps it and even looks for it on the wall or in the bathtub. Whew...that was easy.

Pictures

Here is some proof that Miss Kiya doesn't hate water. She just hates swim lessons. That water was FREEZING cold and when we first put her in she was not happy. We took her out to just play with the water and then after awhile we put her back in and she loved it. Cold water or not the kid loved being in the pool. So much so that when we took her out because she was shivering so much she got very mad.

Nothing is better than watching Kiya smile and laugh. Only to be beat maybe by her new found singing abilities. She has always been a singer but now that she knows a lot more words it is even cuter. For example, she still loves Ring Around Rosie and can now sing the Ashes Ashes we all fall down part. However when Kiya sings it, it sounds like "Asses, Asses, all all DOWN." Yes my daughter says ass instead of ash. Too cute. And she usually screams down. Truly nothing better. Our goal is to get it on tape which is challenging as Kiya is fascinated with all things electronic and either stops what she is doing or makes a grab for whatever it is you have.

We will try though as it is just too funny. I will also try to post some video from Kiya's first wagon ride. She LOVES the wagon. Being the daredevil that she is, the faster the better and lots of laughs and screaming of "weeeee" were to be heard throughout the neighborhood. Totally adorable.

Life with a climber

Okay I know it has been awhile but we have been busy busy and quiet playtime is no longer really happening in our house.

You see since Miss Kiya has learned to crawl she is all over the place and is VERY fast. She can be in her toy area one minute and the next half way up the stairs.

Yes, Kiya has learned to climb the stairs. She can do all of them in a matter of minutes. She is quite good at it actually but for us parents it means we can really never turn our back on her. A baby gate is going up this weekend so access to the stairs will be only when mommy and daddy want her to have access. I have a distinct feeling she isn't going to like this.

She has also learned to climb into her chair and the stand up in it and try to climb over the arm of the couch and thus onto the couch. She hasn't been successful at it yet but she keeps trying. We thought after she fell off of her chair while standing that she would stop but that didn't stop her in the least.

She is also pulling up on EVERYTHING. Tables, couches, chairs, mommy's pants, her high chair, anything and everything. We are excited for her. You can see the confidence starting to come through as things that were a struggle and now a piece of cake.

With this new love of pulling up, she is into EVERYTHING she can reach. Yesterday it was the Kleenex box and Daddy's ESPN magazine. Then it could be a coaster or the strap for the diaper bag. Tabletops are being cleared. My tables have never been so clutter free. Still working on the kitchen table but that has to happen fast as I discovered that she can in fact pull herself up in socks on the slippery kitchen floor and reach the top of the table.

Let's just say life with a toddler is never dull. She is full of life, energy and love. She is just so sweet and yet is very opinionated. Her new favorite word is No. Sigh.... Before it was just a head shake or Na but we get a very clear no and it is used appropriately. She has also learned the word happy and she can say Otto which is my parent's dog's name. We are also working on getting her to tell people how old she is by holding up 1 finger. We ask her, Kiya how old are you? and then we hold up one finger. Sometimes she does it and other times she just says No.

She also ate her first Oreo cookie. My daughter ate a cookie. I think her dislike of sweets is not so strong. She seems to like ice cream, Oreo's, rice krispy treats but still no cake. That is a texture she just doesn't care for.

So Miss Kiya is keeping us on our toes...and we couldn't be more thrilled with all of her progress.

Where to begin....

I know bad blogger again but trying to keep up with an almost 14 month old who only naps once a day now and that is usually at daycare is very tough.

Kiya is still fabulous even with the double ear infection she is fighting off. For a sick baby, she does pretty well. A couple of rough nights but not too terrible. Here are some things Miss Kiya has been up to lately:

--She pretty much insists that she feeds herself the majority of her meal. If she is really hungry she will tolerate letting you feed her cereal or yogurt but the rest she wants to do by herself. She does pretty well too, most of the food makes it in her mouth, a few occasional pieces make it to the begging dogs on the floor and every once in awhile she will put food in her hair. Okay that is the nice version, she does well but absolutely LOVES to put things on her head including food. We were at a restaurant and she was eating green beans and she put one on her head and just left in there. It is pretty funny.

--Walking....well that is still a work in progress. We can see just how badly she wants to it is just those darn long legs and tiny feet making it tough to balance. She is getting better and more confident. I have a feeling she will just do it one day when no one is watching but not until she is sure she can do it perfectly.

--Pulling up. This is also a work in progress but we have seen LOTS of growth in this area. She is trying to pull up on her toy box and she got one foot going the right way and then mommy saw what she was doing so Kiya stopped. She is also trying to pull up in the bath tub, yeah not the best place but she is trying. She still prefers our fingers and will climb into our laps to get to them and use them to pull up. We got some great tips from her teacher and some other parents on things to do to help her gain confidence and we are starting to see the pay off of implementing those tips.

--She LOVES to talk. She can now say mama, dada, doggy, wow, hi, bye bye, uh oh, night night, puppy, ta da, vroom, and then she is trying to say mouth. We ask her where her mouth is and she points to it and says "mou" so cute. She is also trying to say belly button or bee bo. She can point to her belly button and say "bo". She is attempting to say 'no' and usually it comes out 'na' along with a head shake. She also does baby signs for more, eat and all done. She is big on imitating what we are saying so we are really starting to watch what we say in front of her.

So as you can see she is busy busy learning new things and we are just trying to keep up. Her social calendar is getting fuller as we had playgroup yesterday with a fairly large group of adopted children from Ethiopia and she has a play date this coming Friday with 2 other great kids from Ethiopia.

And she says Mama

I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT!!! KIYA FINALLY SAID "MAMA"!!! CAN YOU TELL I AM EXCITED?

Ok, got that off my chest. But really she said "mama" 3 times in the bath tub last night. It has always been "dada or baba or lala or recently nana but never mama" Until last night and I couldn't have been more thrilled :)

Now whether or not she knows that I am actually Mama remains to be seen. If we say Mama she sometimes will look at me but that could just be coincidence.

My bet is because I want to hear her sweet voice say Mama again she won't for awhile but that is okay. I know she can say it and that warms my heart.

Now if I could just get her to stop hitting me that would be wonderful. Not sure why she hits only me but usually I bare the brunt of her slapping. She doesn't hit me if I am holding her but if someone else is. Last night, we told her "no" firmly and of course she cried but we don't want her to hit. She usually will hit and then grin as she thinks it is funny.

We got the same result the other morning when we told her "no" as she was kicking Sebastian. He didn't seem to mind and has been a trooper with the whole baby thing but the kicking went too far. She of course cried again. And it is the most pathetic cry I have every seen. There is a slow build up and then big crocodile tears. It is kind of funny really but we don't dare laugh since at least she is understanding the word no and responding to it..

I know it is an age thing and I know we need to be consistent and set limits. So we are. Together we have agreed to tell her no when she hits and kicks. Like it or not she will have to learn that that is not okay and that mommy and daddy don't find it funny. I hate to see her upset but it is part of the learning process.