Christmas Tree

We put up our tree around a week ago or so. And what I mean by we is that I got all the stuff out of the attic and Kristina put up the tree. Kaylee loved every single ornament. Wow look at that one. Oooh that one is so cool. This one is so pretty. Even though it was the tenth red ball that was exactly the same as the previous nine. Kaylee got to help put the ornaments up. The cutest part of the whole event was when she hugged the tree and said "I love you tree!" She's done that at least once every day since.

Peep Show

We went over to Joel & Judy's the other day. Kristina was out of town and we hadn't seen them in a while. Kaylee loves going over there. They're fun to play with. Joel wrestles around with Kaylee and Judy gives her lots of attention too. One of the main reasons she loves going over there is because they have 4 stuffed peeps. Do you remember peeps from Easter? We were finishing dinner and Kaylee said to us, "Ok, now it's time for the Peep show."

Big Day

I sent Kaylee to Daycare on Tuesday in underwear for the first time. She made it about a half hour before she wet herself. But on Wednesday I sent her again and she made it the whole day even after I picked her up without wetting herself. Big day! Our baby is a little girl now. Very exciting and sad at the same time.

Halloween

Kaylee had a great Halloween. We get very few kids at our house so we went over to our friends' Ben and Jenny's last year. We had such a great time we went again this year. Kaylee was a lady buy last year and a bumble bee this year. Her friend Gavin was a doctor this year. The wives took the kids out first and we handed out candy to the trick or treaters and then we switched spots when they came back. Kaylee loved getting all the candy. There was one house that was completely decked out. They had straw all over their yard, headstones, pumpkins, corn. There were a couple of guys hanging out in the yard scaring the older kids. They were really nice to the little ones but they were pretty scary looking. Kaylee didn't want to go up to the house so we stayed on the sidewalk and waited for Ben and Gavin. The house sent their little girl down to us with some treats. The girl said she was sorry we were so scared and gave Kaylee a hug and a stuffed black cat to boot.

BTW, Kaylee loves the pumpkin we got from the pumpkin patch. She kisses it goodbye and hello everytime we come and go from the house.

One More Time

This weekend we went over and saw my sister and her family for dinner on Friday. Kaylee and Maleah played really well together. Little Xaden is really starting to move. When he decides to crawl after something he's pretty quick. Saturday I went to my friend Brian's bachelor party and Kristina and Sandy took Kaylee to the Cheesecake Factory. On Sunday we went over to Randy's house to celebrate their anniversary. Kristina made a delicious lasagna for us to enjoy. Kristina and Sandy had gone to the store on Saturday and bought Kaylee a fun game. It's an elephant that shoots butterflies out it's nose called Elefun. This brings me to the title of the post. Whenever we try to stop something Kaylee is enjoying and move on to something else, it's always "One More Time." One more time playing a game, one more time playing a dvd/video, one more story, one more tickle fest, one more sucker, one more popsickle, one more, one more, one more. She shows us all that life's too short to put off what you really enjoy.

Busy Weekend

We started Friday night by going to a local steak house for Uncle Doug's birthday. Kaylee had fun. This place had peanuts and you throw the shells on the floor. She loved that. Saturday morning I went Lodge and got elected Treasurer. While I was there, Kaylee went with Kristina to a Halloween store to pick out a costume. She's going to be a bumble bee. Apparently she got really scared because there were some bloody skeletons in the store. Saturday night Kristina and I went to our friend Judy's surprise birthday party. She turned 30. So we gave Kaylee over to Sandy for the night. Sandy said they played for a while and that Kaylee wanted to go to bed. They read a couple of stories and she passed out. Lucky!

Sunday was a big day. We went to the pumpkin patch. It's a place called Maris Farms down near Bonney Lake. You can check it out online. http://www.marisfarms.com/ Kaylee got to go on a pony ride, a tractor ride, get her face painted (she got a penguin), watch some pigs race, watch some apples get shot out of a cannon, watch a monster truck and pick out the perfect pumpkin. We then headed for home and she passed out in the back. Quite a busy weekend.

Bed Time

Sometimes when Kaylee is having a hard time going to sleep we'll let her sleep in our bed. Last night Kristina and Kaylee went to sleep. I came in after an hour or so and carried sleeping Kaylee to her own bed. I'm not sure why but this makes me really feel like a dad. I remember being a kid and we had driven home from a Mariners game and my sister and I would be asleep in the car. My dad would carry my sister in first and then me. Most times I was awake but I'd fake being asleep so my dad would still carry me. Ahh.

Birthday Party

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for a little boy from Kaylee’s daycare. He turned 2. Kaylee’s best friend from daycare was there. Her name is Mireya. The daycare lady calls them partners in crime. The kids had a great time. It was an Elmo theme. Lots of pizza, cupcakes & ice cream. They brought in a lady to paint faces. Kaylee got a kitty on one cheek and a dragon fly on the other. She was upset the next day when she noticed they were gone. The little boy’s dad was upset with his wife because she said no to serving alcoholic beverages. I would be upset too. The last thing you want if you have a dozen screaming kids is not being able to have a drink. Oops, did I just write that.

Bubbles and Poop

I read somewhere that folks with kids might find stories about poop more interesting than those with no kids. With that in mind, this story is about poop so you may not want to read further. Little kids poop in the tub. This is a fact. I thought though that we had passed this part of our lives. We let Kaylee play in the tub by herself. We hang out in the living room and listen and go in every couple of minutes to check on her. One of the problems with this approach is when good old #2 happens. A few months ago Kaylee shouted "A Turd!" We went in and she was holding a turd in her hand. Yuck. Not really a five alarmer. We took the turd and flushed it. Kay was easy to clean up as well.

Tonight was a five alarmer. She shouted for me and I went in. She had had basically diarrhea in the tub with her bubble bath. Funny, I didn't even gag. I thought it was really gross but my gross factor has changed so much since having a child. I got her out of the tub and did a preliminary cleaning of her. Got all the crap out of the tub and scrubbed it down. Then we took a shower and got her all scrubbed down. Afterwards she sat in the chair in our front room and watched a few episodes of Diego. No big deal. Ick.

Uncle Doug

I took Kaylee over to the Robinson house last night. Kristina’s president was in town so she had to work late. Before we headed over, I made sure to find the shirt that Uncle Doug bought her. It says something like, “My uncle bought me this Tshirt because he loves me. Key West.” It’s still a little big on her but she’s cute none the less. It’s really cool to see how much Kaylee loves Grandpa, Grandma Debbie and Uncle Doug. Uncle Doug loves wrestling around with her. They played a game yesterday where Kaylee would throw her stuffed penguin to Doug and he would throw it back. I don’t know why but she was laughing hysterically at this which of course made everyone else laugh too. Debbie made us a nice steak dinner and Kaylee ate like she had an empty leg. Must be all the play time.

Camping

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve made an entry. We’ve been busy traveling. Kristina and I went down to Catalina over Labor Day weekend. Lil’ girl stayed with grandma and drove her crazy but in a good way. This past weekend we went camping with our friends up at the Dungeness Spit north of Sequim. We took the ferry over and that’s always a hit with Kaylee. She especially loves the vending machine. This time she picked Pop Tarts. Dad is such a sucker. We bought a portable DVD player for using in the car. Kaylee watched Fraggle Rock for about an hour after we got off the ferry. We got up to the campsite and set up and pretty much went to sleep. Kaylee has a little couch that folds out into a bed with Little Mermaid on it. She also has a Cabbage Patch Kids sleeping bag. We set her up next to us in a 4 man tent. It works out pretty well. Not sure what we’ll do as she gets bigger and/or gets a sibling. The big event for the day on Saturday was going down to the Spit. It’s about 4 miles long and ends at a Lighthouse. We only went about half a mile down the beach. Kaylee ate her fair share of sand. She gets it on her hands and then licks it off. I think she likes the crunch. We then headed back and she pitched a fit but by the time we got to the head of the trail she was her normal happy go lucky self. We finished the day with a camp fire. Kaylee liked the marshmellows. There was a little boy there who’s 5 and they “got married.” It was pretty cute. They were holding hands walking around most the weekend. I can’t believe I’m having to watch out for boys already. Sunday we packed up and went West to visit Kristina’s Dad’s cousin Skip and his wife. They live in Sekiu. We spent some time at the beach and Kaylee tasted the sand there as well. After that we headed home and stopped in Tacoma to have dinner with Sandy and Marty. Kaylee was pretty much a total angel the whole car ride home. Kaylee asked as soon as we got home, “When are we going camping?”

Night time routine

We have a night time routine that we pretty much follow. After work, I usually pick Kaylee up from daycare. Sometimes we'll go do something fun like the library or the park. Then we go home and have dinner. After dinner, it's bath time. Kaylee likes for me to leave a trickle of water coming out of the faucet. She'll use a cup to drink the water or just play with it. After bath time, I put Kaylee in my towel. She doesn't like using "baby" towels. At that point I usually take her into our room and we get her into her PJ's. Then the whole family wrestles around and she dances and does somersaults for us. Bath time is around 7:30 and we try to have her in her room to read stories by 8:30. In the middle of this time, we brush our teeth. I brush my teeth while she brushes hers. I use an electric toothbrush so Kaylee hums in order to maker her brush sound like mine. Then we read stories and after that Kaylee asks me to lay on her floor. I've put a sleeping bag down next to her bed to lay on. I lay in there for a couple minutes and then I tell her I need to go check on something or some other excuse. She usually falls asleep at that point. There's nothing like a sleeping child.

Davis Flip Flop Party

We took Kaylee over to our friends' place yesterday. Joel and Judy were having their second annual flip flop party. Kris bought Kaylee some flip flops just for this party. They're pretty cute. They are pink and sparkly. Judy gave Kaylee a badge like you'd find at the county fair. It's purple and says Very Special Person. She's been wearing it all day today. Joel set up the game called ladder golf in his backyard. It looks kind of like this photo. Kaylee likes running into the middle of the game to grab the balls. She usually gets them all twisted up. There were several little kids there and as usual Kaylee did not particularly like the boys. There was a little girl there who was about a year younger than her and they enjoyed playing with the ice in the drink cooler. Kaylee also got to run through the sprinkler because it was such a warm day. I also can't forget how much she loves their bean bag chair and the stuffed peeps. She asks about the peeps every time we head over there.

The Dark Side of Kaylee

Today was a not so good day. When I picked her up, Mona let me know Kaylee had been put in time out twice for hitting. She even hit her best friend Moraya. We met Sandy for dinner at the Rock in Auburn. The whole way down Hwy 167, Kaylee was whining about her shoes falling off. At dinner, she whined about not having the right bread. She did eat an entire piece of pizza. She cried when Sandy left. She whined the whole way home about the fact that she didn't want to go home because she wasn't sleepy. I put her in the tub for a bath and she screemed at me that she wanted me to leave because she wanted her mommy. I went in to the bathroom a little later because I heard a crash and she had knocked her toys all over the floor. She told me again that she didn't want to wash her hair. I told her we needed to so she spit a mouth full of water at me. She screemed the whole time I was washing her hair and until her mom got her out of the tub. Kaylee finally calmed down after the bath because Kristina let her have some lotion. She's been pretty mellow for the past little bit. Tantrum anyone?

Blackberries

I felt like I hadn't really been doing anything new and fun for Kaylee lately when Kristina was gone. We'd either go to the park or just go home and watch some Go Diego Go. Diego is Kaylee's boyfriend by the way. Then I noticed blackberry bushes all over the area and thought Kaylee would enjoy going berry picking. Kristina got us a bucket before she left town. I wanted to take her on Tuesday but it was raining. We went right after daycare yesterday and we picked enough to make a pie and a half. Kaylee enjoyed every minute of it. She only ate about one out of four berries she picked. She noticed some small plants coming out of the ground next to the bushes. I let her know that they were baby blackberry bushes. She looked at them and said, "Oooh, they're so cute!" I laughed out loud at that. She only got a little scratch on her ankle when she took off too quick after some picking.

Taco Time

Kristina is out of town today in Portland. So after I picked up Kaylee at daycare, we swang by the bank, post office, library and PetSmart. She loves the pet store. Ooh, look at all the fish. We finished our evening having dinner at Taco Time. Kaylee loves cheese quesadillas. We usually will get take out but she always says how she wants to eat inside. We ate inside this time and she loved it. She said she felt like a big girl eating inside. She liked peeking at the people at the other tables.