All About Kiley at 17 months

Kiley and Papa ~ 40th Birthday!

I knew that once Kiley started talking she likely wouldn't stop, and in the last few weeks she's proven that theory. Almost every day is a new word. She says Mommy and Papa clearly, Sydney is nih-ney, and she doesn't really say Jake, but when she's tried it's come out as Gay (not ideal for a 10-year-old boy, but thankfully baby sister can do no wrong).

Kiley likes to lie on the carpet with her feet on the tile floor of our bathroom - and she loves to brush her teeth.

Kiley is independent and determined. She knows what she wants and doesn't want, and can definitely hold her own. I'm trying to respond to her strong emotions with redirection and by firmly telling her to user her words; that she doesn't get what she wants by crying. It's hard sometimes to remember and not give her what she wants when she's shrieking and I just want her to stop, but I'm getting back in the hang of it pretty quickly :)

Kiley can communicate well. She says 'taco' (breakfast taco - can you tell we go to Rudy's one morning a week?), 'wa' for water, and 'chee' for cheese. She has said 'no mo' for no more - the first two word combo that I heard. She doesn't have a word for peanut butter, but it's a favorite right now. Sometimes she open her sandwich and presses the pb bread against her mouth (read face) - to eat it. And then, she'll put her hands in her hair, which drives Mama CRAZY and is probably all the motivation she needs to do that every chance she gets! When I tell her not to put hands in her hair when she eats, she still sometimes cries like she used to every time you said 'no' in any way, shape, or form, but something she gets mad at me and sometimes she just seems not to understand and puts hands flat on her head and looks at me - hmmmmm.

Kiley says 'baa' for bath, and then 'out' when she's finished. She says 'car' and 'key' and 'go go go' when she's in the car or the stroller. She says 'baby', 'book', and 'hello' for the telephone (which can be a phone, remote control, or calculator help up to her ear, baby's ear, or anyone nearby really). She says 'toe', 'eye, 'no' for nose and NO for NO. That and 'mine' are still favorites. She says 'broo' for 'broom' and 'boo' for 'balloon'. She says dog and puppy and then follows it with panting and barking sounds, and I've got to get that on video. She does this crazy thing where she raises her eyebrows at people and inevitably they raise them back and the game is on. She says 'walk' and will come grab your hand and pull you where she wants you. She says 'pee' for please and 'tank ta' for thank you. She says 'buckle' for the buckle on a car seat or high chair. She tells me when she has 'poo poo' and needs a new diaper. She asks for a 'wipe' to clean her hands. She says 'hot' and blows on food when it's warm, and 'co' for cold. She asks for a 'bow' for her hair, has said 'jacket' very clearly, and she loves shoes. She can be in her diaper but want to try on various shoes, and thanks to Aunt Jacqueline and cousin Mia, she has plenty to choose from. She gives kisses to everyone before bed, but once in awhile will decide that she doesn't want to kiss one person and will just throw a fit when it's that person's turn. Sometimes it's your lucky day and you get a sweet Kiley kiss; sometimes not! She's gotten better about hitting when she's mad, which she did for awhile - mostly with Jake and Syd - and now she just screams NO and shrieks loudly. I was trying to load a video of that, but I think it's too big. I'll try to put it on facebook. It's a little hard to claim the screaming 'NO' as progress, but I suppose it's better than hitting.

Random photo of the clipboard craft we did for Sydney's 9th Birthday party~we had lots of fun at her monkey/spa sleepover :)

Yesterday, Kiley opened the fridge and pulled out her milk. She tries to wipe her own hands and blow her own nose. She often picks a book, plants herself in a seat and then pats where you are supposed to sit to read to her. Once you sit, she'll climb into your lap for story time. She knows that pens are for writing on paper, and will carry around a paper and marker, stopping periodically for a coloring break. In the span of 60 seconds she can hug three dogs, climb in her car and say 'go go go', climb out, say 'bye-bye' and head to the next room. She's a girl on the go! She is very persistent and has a high tolerance for frustration. Yesterday I watched her try over and over and over to climb up into one of our adult size deck chairs. She finally made it and turned around to sit, kick her legs, and enjoy her accomplishment. She can throw a ball and kick a ball, and thinks it's hilarious. And, she does something that I don't remember either Jake or Sydney doing - she sings! Well, I guess it's humming really since she doesn't have words, but she definitely knows the tune to 'twinkle twinkle' and 'row, row, row your boat' - and she sings them over and over. When it's time for bed she sings row row because her music box in her crib plays that one. She has these little finger puppets and she puts them on and then the puppets talk to each other (like they do when I wear them), but they just babble and babble, which is another thing I really hope to catch on video.

Kiley hanging with the big girls at Sydney's party

Speaking of video, I'm including a bunch of them below. We seem to post in spurts, and it's time to catch up!

Standing in her sand toy - she's a climber and explorer

All dressed up and ready to hunt Easter eggs...

Go, go, go~bye-bye



Feeding baby

Another bloody lip

We've really put the little angel through the wringer lately.  while I was out with her at Phil's icehouse last weekend she fell and busted her lip.  i had never seen so much blood from such a tiny person.  she was climbing up the stairs for the 4th or 5th time and was probably a little too confident about it.  her foot slipped and her mouth fell against the step.  her top teeth broke the skin on the outside and her bottom teeth bit into the inside of her lip.

no stitches necessary but not fun at all.

before all that happened we went down the slides and had a blast running around and playing with the stone cows.  She has healed up nicely and is definitely back to normal.

More Kiley words....

I know that some of these have been already listed at some point but it's fun nonetheless to listen to her explore language.

Baby, puppy, hot, good, no more, light, ducky, Go Go Go, out (like take out of the purse), manana (as in banana), mine, bow.

Go go go is pretty funny. she does that when she get's behind the wheel of a car. Ha!!!

Today while with Megan, her nanny, she said, "mine". There was a boy with a shovel or a bucket, i forget, and she walked over to him, took it, and said "mine".

Sometimes she walks around with one of Sydney's oversized puppies, dragging most of it behind her saying, puppy, puppy, puppy....over and over again. She'll also hug it like she does the real oversized puppies of ours and give it kisses. she is awfully sweet.

She recognizes all lights but there are two in particular that she wants turned on when she is eating. One in the dining room and the other above the stove.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Something funny that happened yesterday that I wanted to note before I forgot about it.  We were eating at Chili's yesterday evening with family and as we were getting ready to leave Kiley wanted to hear Itsy Bitsy Spider....so her Gran started it, then she pointed at her uncle Jeff as if to get him to sing too, then her aunt Nancy, then Courtney, then me.  it was hilarious!!!  Here you have this little sweet child getting everyone to do just as she wants them to.

It's one of her favorite songs, especially when she's unhappy.  Courtney has been singing it to her since she was a little bitty Kiley.  So there were are 5 adults singing, including hand motions, at Chili's the Itsy Bitsy Spider song.  Thanks for the laughs Kiley.

After wards she applauded us all. :)  That would have been one for America's Funniest Home Videos.

Lunch with Jake and Sydney

We had a fun lunch today.  On Friday's I try to go have lunch with Sydney and Jake.  It's pretty rare that I don't make it over there.  I give them a break from the typical Elementary School Cafeteria food and get to reminisce about my youth while listening to all the conversations that go on.

I ask them what they want for lunch.  Mostly it's fast food type stuff but it's really the time with them more than it is an opportunity to add some nutrition to their diet.  Sydney ofter chooses Chipotle, which by the way you can order online and schedule your pickup.  It even saves previous orders.  Very cool.  ...And Jake usually picks something else.  McDonald's, Dairy Queen, and Burger King have been the most recent options.  Like I said nutrition is not the top priority.  Anyway they get something they like and I get something I like. :)

Today Sydney sat with her usual friends, Sasha, Gretta, and Anushka (on a side-note, I love the diversity of their school), and talked about going out to the playground for lunch recess and playing tetherball.  I was invited to join them but took a raincheck.  I had to get back to the office for a call.  I'm sure next time i'll be out there.  They also chatted about tom and jerry of all things.  I find it very interesting that tom and jerry have remained intriguing after so many years.  They also talked about soccer and this weekend's games.

When Jake comes in Sydney often tries to keep me from going over to his table.  I think it's more a brother sister thing but i like to pretend that I'm so much fun she likes having me around.  I escaped her grasp and went over to visit with Jake.  He had a Happy Meal today.  He always goes with a burger with cheese (not to be confused with a cheeseburger) and a coke.  At the boys table we often play with whatever goodie is in the bag and conversation centers around that for a while.  Today it was the "all knowing" meatball from iCarly.  I haven't seen that episode yet but apparently Spencer would ask the meatball for advice and it would respond yes, no, or ask again later.  That's what this thing did.  The boys passed it around and asked if so and so like julia, or emily or christine.  it was funny.  none of them seem ready to admit that they like girls when I know secretly they do.  so we passed that around for a while and then the mean lunch lady came by to see what all the commotion was about (every lunch room has to have the mean lunch lady) and immediately stopped the out of control horseplay that was going on. ha!  I always get the boys in trouble.  but it's not like they wouldn't get into trouble anyway right? :)

In the end we had a blast and they all went out to recess to have a little more fun before going back to class.  It was a good lunch.

Food Warning

As part of my procrastination and general lack of productivity this rainy, wait - now sunny - Monday, I feel compelled to write about a food topic that came up over the weekend. If you prefer to remain blissfully ignorant about what is really in your food, this post is NOT FOR YOU. Move your mouse to the 'x' in the upper-right corner of your browser and say good-bye now.

If you're still here, I'm warning you again that most of you are not going to like me for this info, but here goes nothing... A good friend yesterday at church graciously gave me a bag of fruit snacks for Kiley, who was as hungry as we were unprepared. I read the ingredient list and that sparked a conversation about gelatin, which is the ingredient for which I was checking. My friend is very knowledgeable about nutrition, and yet didn't know what is in gelatin, which is what prompted me to write.

"The gelatin you eat in Jell-O comes from the collagen in cow or pig bones, hooves, and connective tissues. To make gelatin, manufacturers grind up these various parts and pre-treat them with either a strong acid or a strong base to break down cellular structures and release proteins like collagen. After pre-treatment, the resulting mixture is boiled. During this process, the large collagen protein ends up being partially broken down, and the resulting product is called gelatin. The gelatin is easily extracted because it forms a layer on the surface of the boiling mixture."  read more...

The biggest culprits that have effected me day-to-day since I learned about gelatin many years ago are jello and pudding - you'd be surprised how many recipes use them in some way. More recently, however, I became aware of gelatin in yogurt, gummy bears, and fruit snacks (the chewy kind for kiddos). And, just today, I found out and confirmed in my pantry that gelatin is also in marshmallows.

Most food facts I am fine with knowing; I can't eat mayo knowing how much fat there is, I know real men's men who work in the meat industry and won't touch a hot dog, you get the idea. But all I'm asking for is a rice krispie treat and a good cup o' hot chocolate with marshmallows, without the mental image of a pig hoof stuffed in my mouth - *sigh*. I guess the moral here is... next time you find yourself eating a chewy treat with no fat that surprisingly retains its shape, you'd be wise to check the label and please comment back here so we can all be sadly better informed!

Funny little ones

Jake.  So last night after we finished getting the kiddos to bed, Jake comes running down the steps.  "Martin, can you spray me with a squirt bottle in the morning so that I can get out of bed more quickly."  Laughing, I told him I would try to remember.  This morning, I didn't remember but he jumped in the shower pretty quickly.  I set his clothes out to help him along but he was still feeling very tired from the weekend and was dragging a little.  We got to school late this morning and he forgot his ADHD meds.  I don't know what made me ask him as he was heading into the school but I hadn't reminded him this morning and thought it better.  He said no.  It's so nice having the school so close to the house.  I'm very spoiled about that.  Anyway I brought his medication up to the school and gave it to him.  As he's walking down the hallway back to class he calls out to me, "Hey Martin,  tomorrow let's do the squirt bottle thing".  pretty darn cute.  I agreed. HA!!!

Sydney.  This morning while Jake was struggling to stay on task and get ready, Sydney was helping me with breakfast and her lunch.  This doesn't happen too often but it's really nice when I have one of the kiddos watching my back.  Well, she did her lunch.  The whole lunch, sandwich, goldfish, an small orange, and I thought I would toss in a couple of chocolate morsels since I was already adding them to the pancakes we were making.  You know as a special treat.  Well some time passed and I realized that Sydney forgot to pack in a small bottle of water that we usually put in her lunch bag.  I pulled one out, got it filled and was adding it to her lunch bag.  I noticed pretty quickly as I was shifting things around that she had added a ring-pop to her lunch.  I thought about mentioning it to her cause she knows those are for her birthday on the 15th of this month but really thought it was a fair treat since she put her entire lunch together herself.  It was really funny when she asked me with a big ol' grin, as I was rearranging things in her bag, "What are you looking for?"  I think she saw that I noticed something in there that wasn't really a typical lunch item.  I said, "nothing just fitting in the bottle of water".  Such a cutie pie.

Kiley. Kiley was so happy this morning.  we have a video monitor that often times gives us a sneak peek as to what she is up to when she wakes up.  we've seen her dance around, hug and kiss her many stuffed animals, read her book, sing, dance, and even stare into the camera as if she knows were looking.  one time we she stuck her eye right up to the lens....she is very amusing in the morning.  This morning she was very talkative.  After bringing her down she usually has breakfast and some milk.   It was no different today.  She was very happy.  We communicate pretty well these days.  She likes to say the word "no" a lot but is slowly learning the word "yes" too.  sometimes I'll ask her if I can share her breakfast, most of the time the answer is "no".

"one little bite, just one."

"no."  as she picks up a piece of orange or strawberry or manana (banana) and goes about her business of eating without giving me a second thought.  Then when I'm leaving, I'll say "buh, bye, Kiley.  Kisses for papa?"

"no."  She is a very busy girl.  What can a papa expect. ha!

I just have to laugh.....and give her tons of kisses anyway as she laughs and giggles.  She is going to be a handful......

I love them all for their uniqueness and unpredictability.... :)