23 Months!

Only one more month and our little baby girl will be 2, wow!  It seems like just yesterday we were struggling through IF wondering if it was our lot in life to be childless.  We are so very lucky to have the chance to share our lives with this special little girl =)

This month K seems to have gained quite a bit of independence.  This independence has pros and cons but thankfully she is still tons of fun.  We are hearing a lot of "Kylie do it", "no help" and overall "no". But she's also finding it more fun to be in groups of adults and show off for them.  This is very new - up until now she's clung to us (usually me) like a little monkey.  It's fun to see her warm up to others and have more fun at gatherings.  She still sticks close to Mom or Dad though.

We can see the "terrible twos" starting.  In the last couple weeks she's been getting into trouble for pulling my hair when I let her sit in my lap after dinner and throwing water on me at bath time.  She does it on purpose just to see my reaction and doesn't seem to be testing daddy in these same ways.  We're being consistent with the consequences (she gets put in a chair for a minute of "think out" for pulling my hair and pulled out of bath for splashing) but she's a tough cookie and continues to test, almost every night.  This is only the beginning I'm sure.  She has two stubborn parents so we are bracing ourselves and hoping our resolve is stronger than hers.

We are in the process of weaning and are taking the slow route, cutting one feeding a month.  At the beginning of the month we cut down to 2 sessions, one at 7am and one at 5pm.  Yesterday was the first day of a one nursing day as we didn't nurse around 5pm like we had been.  She was distracted because we had family over but tonight will probably be a little tough.  This morning I explained that we would only be drinking milk in the morning now so we'll see how much that sunk in.  Right after her 2nd b-day we will cut out the last session, the morning one.  I anticipate this to be the toughest *gulp*  To date though she has shed not one tear over weaning.  On the other hand mama has shed many =(

K had a big growth spurt this month and is 27lb (60th%) and 33.5" (51st%).  Combine the growth spurt with an ear infection that was tricky to get ride of, colds #33 and #34 (yes, it did turn out to be a cold and not just teeth) and cutting two of her two year molars she had some fussy times this month with more interrupted sleep than she'd had in the last six months put together.  Overall though she maintains a great attitude and is such a happy and giggly little girl!  Her sleep has returned to normal over the last week too so hopefully this high change time is over.

She loves, loves, loves to play outside.  This month she started a new routine of feeding the horses and chickens snack (pronounced "nack") when she gets home from school.  She helps collect eggs and even though she breaks 1/4 of the ones we let her carry in by stumbling over various objects and falling on the gg she loves it so much.  She is talking more and more all the time and is speaking in 5-6 word sentences.  It is so much fun to hear what she has going on in her mind!  She tells us about her day at school, what happened, what she liked, etc.  So fun.

Ok, I could dribble on forever so I'll just put in some pics and be done, most of these have already been shared but are my faves from this month =)  Happy 23 months little KB, we love you!

Up to no good =)

No one likes tax time

Easter

Busy at work

Love those baby blues

Show Some Bloggy Love

An IF friend of mine, Rebecca, had her twin baby boys on Friday.  They were early and she hasn't been able to spend much time with them yet.  She could really use any hugs, love, prayers, positive thoughts or whatever you can send her way.  Please stop by if you can, http://tryingnottoscream.blogspot.com/.  

Pictures =)

Some of my favorites from the last week...

This is at the park last weekend - it's also the park we're having her 2nd birthday at

Taking a little water break at the park

Playing with her water/sand table in her light up cowboy boots - it took us hours to get her out of them

Playing on the treadmill - this bee shirt is one of my favorites

I Heart Sleep

We took K to the doc last night.  She napped 1/2 the time she normally does at school and I was worried the ear infection had come back.  Paranoia - it turns out her ears and lungs are clear.  She still has a mild cold (probably left over from cold #33) and is popping that 2nd two year molar.  Last night we gave ibuprofen and she slept much better.  She still woke up and cried for a couple minutes at 1am, played music on her glow worm at 4am and fussed about at 5am but nothing that M or I had to attend to and she got up at her normal time, 7am.  Can I tell you that I feel like a new person today after 8 hours of sleep (even with the interruptions)?  I heart sleep...in a big way!  Now that we're rested I'll try to convince M to download pics tonight =)

No Rest for the Weary

Good news: It's not cold #34

Bad news: It's 2 year molar #2 & it kept us all up from 2-4am last night

Following our busy weekend this has left us exhausted and we both had work today.  We got up and ready at the normal time and I let K sleep in.  She has never slept past 8 and this morning I woke her at 9.  More blogging  later...after sleep.  Pictures are still coming, promise.

A Busy Weekend!

So busy we didn't get new pictures uploaded...maybe tonight!  Here's a weekend recap:

Saturday morning we went to watch my niece show her new horse.  Her horse died last fall and she leased a new one so it was their first time out.  They are doing great together =)  Then we ran by Target for diapers and Chick.Fil.A for lunch.  K is in LOVE with their ice cream cones so following lunch we had a family cone.  She doesn't like when we take our turns but she copes *lol*  That afternoon we went to the park and checked out the picnic pavilion area we have reserved for her b-day the end of May.  It looks like most of the luau decorations I found at the $1 store will work great =)  K had a blast running around the playground and I only had to restrain one wild little kid who went flying down the slide with his feet headed right for K's back.  His parents weren't anywhere to be seen.  Who lets their 4 year old loose on the playground and isn't within ear shot to hear their kid get corrected by someone else's Mom?  I just don't understand.  After we got home M mowed the lawn and K watched with wrapped attention.  She loves tractors but finds them a little scary when they are on - she just says over and over, "daddy on tractor mow grass" and "LOUD!".  Studious little one.  

Sunday morning we did the grocery shopping, picked up grain for the horses and then came home to put it all away and have lunch.  Normally K goes down at 1pm but she started saying she was tired at 11am.  She managed to make it through lunch only because M distracted her by taking her out to play on the patio while I made lunch (she loves to be outside).  We put her down at 12:15 and she went right to sleep...and woke up at 3:45.  Oh my.  Our leading guess is a new cold (#34) and she had a low grade fever of 100.2 last night so it could be.  It could be teeth too so we'll wait and see for sure.  During this long nap M got a new batch of beer made (have I mentioned we have a dual tap kegorator that he keeps stocked at all times -good man!) and I cleaned the chicken coop and scrubbed the walls of the horse stalls.  Fun projects, I know you're jealous. We spent some time on the patio playing with the sand/water table after nap and that was pretty much a wrap on the weekend.

Now we're back at work wondering what the heck happened to our weekend!  We wished we could send our stunt doubles to work this morning.  Pictures coming, promise.

All Clear!

After three round of antibiotics (and an allergic reaction to the last) K is finally free of the ear infection from you-know-where. Whew!!! Hopefully this means we can avoid tubes...fingers crossed. The doctor gave me hope that summer is a good time to hope that she can grow out of those darn things.

We had a great weekend.  Saturday morning we went to the Butterfly Pavilion and K loved looking at the butterflies, turtles and playing on the toys.  That evening we went to some friends house for dinner.  It's actually a family we met because K goes to school with their daughter, Daphne.  They had a cat, named Sammy that K really enjoyed petting and Sammy was very patient with her.  Sunday we went grocery shopping, did six loads of laundry, worked on getting her 18 month clothes packed up and all the 24 month and 2T clothes hung up and went to my folks house for a visit in the afternoon.  Lots of fun things mixed in with the productive.  Sweet. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Having fun on the "spider web" at the Butterfly Pavilion

K petting Sammy