Family,
And a happy Tuesday to you from the Queen City, where the Bull is FRANTICALLY trying to get
September 2015 - henceforth known as one of the busiest months in the history of Team Taylor. Seriously - this month will get it's own chapter in our biography! It's been a month of classic moments with K, big milestones, fun adventures, and everything that comes with all those items. Let's start with the biggest milestone of all - KAITLYN STARTING PRE-SCHOOL!
For this year, K's going to Prosperity Presbyterian - a scant 2 miles from the house (and we have a connection to it, as Ms. Brenda from NOMAD goes there). It's just 2x weekly for 4 hours - Tues & Thurs 9-1. Classes are small, there is a Christian focus, kids only need to be in pull-ups, etc. Truth be told for us, it was really about socialization, as we'd seen several instances where K felt uncomfortable around other kids playing - even when it was a small group. Case in point, down at Monkey Joe's (a little play area like Romp 'n Roll), K ran out of a little play house because one other kid was in there. As she fled from the structure, she was shouting, "Too much people!" Given moments like that (as well as a few others), we felt introducing this routine was imperative at her age. I will also say that I think we've already seen positive results - more to come on that further down.
In the run-up to 8 September, JT talked to K about pre-school - the schedule, what she would do, who she would meet, what she would learn, etc. K seemed excited in the run-up - she certainly loved packing her backpack (Disney princesses) and lunch box (Sophia the 1st) the first time! Going into everything, we were quite hopeful, especially given her experiences at church (daycare every Sunday).
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| Game face on! |
On 8 September, JT drove her up to the church, and K was very brave going in. However, when she r
ealized that JT was dropping her off and leaving, more than a few silent tears were shared (but no screaming at least). After that, however, things must have gone very well, and JT and I both showed up at 1 to pick her up. We found a little girl who was ALL SMILES and seemed to have really enjoyed the day. Given that, we thought we were in good shape. However, day care to date has been quite up and down, with today's most recent installment being the worst. Ms. Tara (the teacher) said that she cried the entire time - even apparently sobbing while eating her lunch (which she barely touched). In her defense, she's been separated from at least one parent quite a bit this month, AND we have actually missed half of the sessions due to various travel plans. Regardless, the hope is that soon enough she'll understand that it's part of the routine and start to embrace it. Riiiiiiiight...
It's funny - we're actually seeing the same thing at church now, in that K is either openly wailing or silently crying when we drop her at day care. She's good about everything until Sunday morning, at which point she starts saying, "TT not want to go to church," after which time the entire endeavor is a struggle. She's usually wailing like a banshee by the time she enters the lobby, and more than once the staff has had to peel her off me before I can walk into the sanctuary. I will say that church is a little different than day care, as with church she apparently calms down after about 5 minutes and seems to enjoy herself. Perhaps pre-school is still just new, and regardless - we need to get this phase out of the way long before she hits pre-K or Kindergarten, as we don't want her to be "that girl."
The other big development item at the moment is potty training, and it's meeting with mixed results. Again, to be fair the munchkin, we have done anything like "boot camp" or formalized a plan. We tried a potty chart for awhile, and then JT institutionalized a routine of peeing every morning, after nap, and before bed. We actually saw some great results on the morning pee for awhile, and during the weekend I was in Chapel Hill (2 weekends a go, so Sept 18 and 19), K actually ran around in panties and even bottomless for most of the time. She did really good and told Jenny when she needed to go most of the time, but apparently there was one incident in which she FLOODED the kitchen floor. I think it was a little traumatic for both the women in my life, and K's not really expressed much interest s
ince then. That being said, we have had a few good pee-pees on the potty - just no steamers. In fact, K has now taken to running up to us and saying, "Don't check my bummy bummy!" whenever she poops (first instance of this was 29 August). Now I will say that, more recently, she's been saying "Dada don't check," at which point you know she's poopied. And this is assuming you don't notice when she goes silent or wanders into the next room for a bit of privacy.JT's talked to some mothers about it, and the current advice we're following is just don't mention it for a couple of weeks and see if K expresses an interest. I think that's good counsel, as realistically we still have a lot of time, and neither of us has a desire to kick off boot camp for her. JT and I know that she absolutely recognizes the urge and clearly can hold it until we get to the potty if she wants to. Right now there's just not much interest in doing so. So much like preschool, this is a work in progress that I wanted to document. Watch this space - more to come!
In thinking about the month itself, it's been pretty full on. Mom came the first part of the month, and
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| Then we find the play slide in the place that "is not a real playground." Translation - there are no other kids, so K is in Heaven. |
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| And so it begins...and I tremble. |
Kaitlyn was in HEAVEN. Obviously the rules relax when Vol Nana comes, but this time K got an unexpected surprise - a trip to Toys R Us! K had never been in a toy store before, and as you can expect - she was BLOWN AWAY.
Now full disclosure - I thought this was going to be an EPIC disaster. However, K was actually really, really good. Rather than scream and ask for every toy in the place, she would pick a few up, hold them, put them in the buggy, and then later on put them back. As it turned out, she had more fun going down a little slide already set up than looking at most of the toys (we have some great video of it). She kept saying, "This is NOT a playground!" Personally, I think she liked it because there were no other kids around.
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| "I love when Vol Nana visits, dada!" |
Saturday was over to the Sweet Spot for lunch, where K crushed some pancakes and waffles. We then rolled over to REI, where K picked up the CUTEST pair of wellies on the planet! I mean, let's face it: "When you jump in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots." Fast forward to today, as I type this, K is outside jumping up and down in puddles in her little boots - too cute! She's actually done this three days on the trot, as it has POURED DOWN in Charlotte. But hey - no sun for 4 days = great splashing
opportunities, and K hasn't missed a one of them! We actually have been doing a lot of running around outside these past 3 days, and K has eaten like a champ and slept like a ROCK every night. Some of it might be that it's now getting darker, but she is running "really really super duper fast" now and going flat out up and down hills. We're noticing that the last little role on her legs are disappearing (as they should be - she's doing about 16,000 air squats and leaps a day), and her little torso is skinny as a bean pole. And the boots are, well - just plain adorable.
The other cute note from my mom's visit is that K sang "Bushel and a Peck" from Guys and Dolls to mom. That's one of mom's favorite Broadway tunes, and to hear K sing it was just adorable. Love that kid!
Monday through Wednesday were fairly normal - K even had a pretty good run at daycare. On Thursday, however, we had a bit of a blip in the space-time continuum, as Jenny got on a plane for San Francisco. JT was taking her supremely well deserved girls trip out to Frisco to visit some friends and watch the Knights take on the Cardinal. I was going to go home to TN for a couple of days with the fam, splitting time between 3 houses. On paper, we weren't concerned, and truth be told it was a fantastic trip for both of us. However, Thursday was....rough.
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| Such an angel...such a temper. |
Now give this kid credit. Any time I pinned one arm down, she locked the other. Parents were LOVING this, and plenty had stayed around to see the show. In the end, I took the only option available to me in that church parking lot - I folded my daughter up and wedged her into the seat, dodging flailing arms and pure anger. AWESOME. Needless to say there was no nap, and she was pretty much distraught the rest of the day, asking for mommy, asking when mommy would be back, barely touching her food, and more or less wanting nothing to do with me (except push me away, of course). When Jenny called to ask how things were, I told her GREAT and said that K napped like a champ. I mean, no reason to give her the truth on that one, right (for the record, I did come clean when she landed :-))?
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| Tell me she doesn't look like Cruella de Ville in this picture? |
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| This is how a thug be eatin' icre cream, yo. |
That night was at Nana's, and K had a blast chasing the kitties. Her best quote was "WOW - there are
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| Seriously. No. Words. Period. |
K stayed with mom on Saturday while I hung out with Johnny and Beka in Knoxville, and I returned home on Sunday to find them both happy as clams. The transition from one house to another was tough, as K was LOVING being with mom and just did NOT want to leave. In truth, I give that kid a lot of credit, as she was really resilient throughout this entire trip. It was the same difficult transition when we left dad's and Alice's on Monday, and then again when we left on Tuesday. Simply put, K was constantly having to adjust to a new environment - new people, new beds, new food, new animals - and she was having to do all of it without her best friend by her side. I think that's what I learned most from this trip - JT really is K's whole world, and she loves her so much and misses her so deeply when she's not around. The rest of us are competent fakes - we can cover for a time. However, there's nothing like watching those two interact, and you can tell how much K was missing that by the end of the trip.
Sunday was fun once K got down and had a nap, as at first she didn't want to play with anyone or do
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| Go time! |
anything. After the nap, however, she was running all over the place - even feeding chickens! It was great on Monday as well, and Alice was terrific with her while I was on my long run (I "ran" Morristown on Monday - did 21 miles and LOVED it). Monday evening was back at mom's, which was another great evening. Looking back on my stay in TN as a whole, it was a great trip, and one of the most refreshing and relaxing visits I've had in a long time. I really got some good down time - especially during 2 great runs around town and in the visit with the Rice clan. Sitting at dad's on Monday - 21 miles in the books, in a hot tub, drinking coffee - I couldn't help but think about how good life was (and is).
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| Smores...soooo guuuuuuud... |
Also, K hit some really cool milestones during this trip. For starters, she peed on the potty 3 days straight! It was normally in the morning, and that was tremendous progress for us. It's funny - I think she likes "showing out" and potting for family (other than mommy and daddy), which tells us that she clearly knows when she needs to go. Also, on the 14th, she truly started brushing on her own. This was a big flip, as she was properly sawing those teeth and generating enough saliva and foam to spit effectively on her own. Now granted, I usually went in for a secondary sweep, but it was still GREAT to see! And the third thing was just watching her chase all the dogs and cats - simply too cute. She petted several of them, and by the end she was quite comfortable with petting them and was even quite gentle.
Tuesday was departure day, and it actually started out fine. When we told her we were going to Chik-fil-A, she was the happiest camper on earth. And we were even fine (minus a meltdown at the Creamy Cup) until after Asheville. We did have a meltdown in Chik-fil-A at the playground, but I am SUPER happy to report that, despite it being a MADHOUSE in there, she went down that slide multiple times - even if she was crying when she arrived at the bottom a few times. Hey, it's progress, right? RIGHT? :-)The full meltdown happened on the drive home when K woke up from her nap. In that moment, uncomfortable from sleeping in her car seat, away from her mum for 6 days, and now away from Nana, K. WENT. BALLISTIC. She screamed for over an hour, kicking the car door and screaming "LET ME OUT OF THE CAR!" It was heartbreaking (and ear piercing), but there was nothing to be done but get home. I'd spent the majority of both drives imitating Dr. Brown Bear or pretending to be Ms. Rabbit rescuing Tiddles the Tortoise from trees, but not even that was of any use at that point. She was just a girl who wanted her bed and her mom, and I'm happy to report that she got both within 12 hours from that point. :-)
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| Love this photo. |
Since then, I've been to Chapel Hill, Jenny and I have both been to NYC for a last minute trip to see the Aussies, and tomorrow I head out to Tampa. The good news - that's all the travel for the year. The better news - we are already feeling like normalcy is returning, and I CANNOT say enough about that. We do still have one more trip, but it's a family trip for JT's birthday and will have the munchkin in tow. Given that, I think we can say that we've "weathered the travel storm," and I couldn't be a) prouder of the Sneetch or b) happier that we're gonna be in CLT for most of Q4. And with all the memories that we've just packed in, I am all smiles as I wrap this travel recap. :-) One thing I will say as I type this (now downstairs while Jenny reads to K in her room before bed) - right now Kaitlyn is ALL ABOUT MOMMY. That's good news in that I don't think she'll miss me while I'm in Tampa, but I have definitely been relegated to the role of second class citizen since returning from New York. This isn't me whining - it's a statement of fact. :-) And I know that it vacillates, and truth be told I'm glad Jenny gets a chance to read to her at night, as that's always been a favorite activity of mine, and I have traditionally hogged that versus sharing with her. I think the reality is that, between daycare, church, NOMAD, and play groups, K is missing her dedicated "mommy time," and consequently she's seeking it any way she can get it. All I can say to that is "smart kid," as I certainly try to maximize time Jenny as well. :-)
Stepping back through the month to focus on memorable moments, let me kick us off with something I noticed on August 26th - K is now demonstrating an understanding of both opposites and superlatives. The first time I heard it was when she said, "I'm little. Daddy's big." She then followed up with, "This is a BIG blackberry. This is a little blackberry." She's since added in comments like, "This ball is big. It's not little," and she's expanded her vocabulary for adjectives and adverbs (my personal favorite is "I'm running super duper REALLY fast!"). She's now comparing different sizes of toys and shapes. For the toys, if there are two of something similar, one is usually called "baby" while the other is called "mama." For example, right now Storytime Elmo and Goodnight Elmo are "baby Elmo," while Ticket Me Elmo is "mama Elmo." We've seen this as well with Mama Bear, Baby Bear, and Bunny Bunny Bun Bun. Too cute.Right about this time I also noticed K starting to play and pretend with a little more structure. I noticed it when she started playing with all her Peppa friends (they were giving hugs and kissing - Zoe and Peppa was the first exchange I noticed), and it's now graduated to the little people doll houses and barns. Lately she's been filling her Peppa Car with friends like Dora, Peppa, and the Mickey cast and driving them around (today she drove them to Church for lollipops and then the barn - nice combo). She is definitely able to play constructively on her own more, and I'd say she would do even more if we'd allow it. Right now, however, I want to play with her every second I have free, and so I'm normally running around the Bonus Room or outside with her.
On August 30th she had a playdate but was quite shy (another indicator that daycare is needed), and on September 3rd we went to Ronan and Mason's 3rd birthday party (they are twins in JT's mommy group). We had a good time over at Prosperity Park, and K did lots of coloring (and eating hot dogs!). She even got into Fritos for the first time ever...and was hooked. K ran around with Emmy most of the time, and the funny part was that, while they rarely interacted, they were constantly looking for each other and asking about each other when they were apart. I do hope they will be friends when they get older, as they are really quite adorable together.
The other August moments I captured was K's desire to play "Peep Eye!" coming out of the bath. Essentially, K would sit on my lap while I dried her, and JT would hide her eyes with K's feet. Kaitlyn LOVED THIS and begged for it non-stop for about 3 weeks. The classic part was when Jenny was gone and she still asked me to do it - a little tricky, that one...This died out during our time in TN, but I could see it being revived in the not too distant future, as the cackles from that child were infectious.
Another funny August moment - anytime K would get to the end of a book, she would look at the back cover and name EVERY BOOK SHOWN. Sometimes this could be 10 books - it didn't matter. My personal favorite was on the back of "Piggy Paints," as K would flip to the back cover and say these 3 books in a row: "5 Stinky Socks, Where's My Fnurgle, Robot Kitten." Come to find out I hadn't looked at 2 of them closely and had told her the wrong titles, but hey - details. The other classic part is that she would then point at either each of them in turn or all of them collectively and say, "Where IS that book?" If I said I didn't know, she would say, "Maybe at the library." GENIUS!
The move to September saw a monumental transition that we NEVER expected - the shift in TV viewing from Peppa to (wait for it...wait for it...) DORA! Believe it or not, a switch flipped in K's head on the first of September, and since then it's pretty much been all Dora. What I've found most interesting? Prior to making the move to Dora, K was always very against me speaking Spanish. Whenever I would start (I'd just throw in a sentence or two), she's either say, "Data stop speaking Spanish," or "Dada, whata, whata, whata, speaking Spanish to." Now, however, she doesn't mind it. She'll either say, "Dada speaking Spanish" or (even better) will ask "Dada, speak Spanish!" And my favorite part? She's now saying, "Vamanos, amigo!" and thrusting her fist in the air just like Dora. She's also throwing out "Ayudame!" Oh, and lest we forget, it is HILARIOUS when she dances the "We Did It!" dance. Chubby Checkers - eat your heart out (translation - she does the twist repeatedly).
On 9/1 I kicked off a post-dinner ritual that has since taken off. Before I would unclip K, I would slowly count to three and then shout "EGRESS, EGRESS, EGRESS!" Well, she's actually taken to it and shouts it out with me while I do it. We now do three repeats of egress, evac, and eject, and she smiles as wide as the Grand Canyon each time.
9/2 was another big milestone, as it marked the first time I'd ever witnessed K put the Mickey puzzle together unassisted! This was a big leap forward in terms of her spatial reasoning, and I've already seen improvements on the 50 state puzzle as well. Some of it is memorization, but she's definitely understanding the concept now - very exciting! This was always my weakest component in testing, and so I'm happy to see her showing an interest in spatial reasoning and analysis.
9/2 saw the advent of some new games, most notably "do shots and run!" Now, before you go calling social services and accusing us of chugging Patron, let me clarify. A few weeks back, Vol Nana purchased a little "doctor kit" for K, complete with a stethoscope, thermometer, syringe, etc. As fate would have it, K had recently watched the Peppa episode where they visit Dr. Brown Bear, and so she was amped up to play with her kit. Her favorite game was asking us to chase her with the syringe, acting like we were going to give her an injection. Whenever we stopped, she would say, "Mama, do shots and run!", at which point we'd kick the whole cycle off again. It was too cute! Luckily this changed to "Give Hugs and run!" on the 5th - sounds a bit less violent. :-)That week saw a lot of K pretending to be injured, at which point she would say, "Mama, call Dr. Brown Bear." This would consist of Jenny saying, "Ring, ring!," after which time I would say pretend to be Dr. Brown Bear in a really deep voice. Essentially, JT would tell me K's ailment, after which time I would prescribe some silly remedy like running around in a circle 3 times, singing a song, reading a book, or giving mommy a hug. K ate it up, and we did a lot of this on the drive to TN.
The next 2-3 weeks of September saw K playing with her Doctor kit a lot more - this time with Baby Bear as the subject. She was ALL ABOUT putting the fake thermometer up Baby Bear's non-existent rectum, after which time she would then put the thermometer in Baby Bear's mouth. I mean, the reading might have been accurate, but the hygiene component left plenty to be desired. :-)
Another classic moment from 8 Sept - K has always been good to notice when I'm in my running gear. Anytime I am dressed and ask her what daddy's about to do/been doing, she always says running. However, the new wrinkle is that she LOVES to smell me after a run! Seriously - as soon as I show back up, K says "Peeee-yuuuu, daddy stinky!" She then instructs me to take a shower, but before I go I always ask if she wants to smell my shirt. First I get the shy little nod and the naughty little smile, and then the next thing I know she's nose deep in my shirt. What's even funnier is when she sniffs me before I run and am still clean. You can tell she doesn't understand why I don't smell like a dumpster fire - too cute! One day in particular I had the gear on for a few hours before I ran, and K just kept smelling me, confused the whole time what was going on.
On 9/7, I was reading "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, what do you see?", and I K called me out for being lazy. Simply put - the descriptions of these animals are ridiculous, and I'd started trimming them down to just the basic animals. Well, skip forward to the "monkey," and when I said, "Monkey, Monkey - what do you see?", K stopped me and said, "It's a Spider Monkey, dada." (the tone said, "OBVIOUSLY IT'S A SPIDER MONKEY YOU MORON - WHO DOESN'T KNOW THIS?"). I then flipped to the next page, where I said, "Penguin, Penguin, what do you...", but I hadn't even finished when K said, "That's a Macaroni Penguin, dada!" Now, for the record, I actually think it's a rockhopper penguin, but since the book said, Macaroni, I was in no position to argue. More to the point - it was REALLY cute. :-)
As for quotes, we've had some doozies, with my favorite being the arrival of the mysterious Nonee. Out of the blue one day, K just started saying, "Nonee is fute and featherboard." Let's be real clear - I have NO IDEA where this came from or what it means, but she spent the better part of bath time in September saying this. I actually can't get her to say it too often now, but it's pretty much my favorite quote EVER.
K is also fond of now telling me, "I'm gonna wipe poopy on you, dada!" To be clear on a few things: 1. She only says this during meal time.
2. She has never actually had any poopy on her fingers with which to apply to my skin.
3. She always rubs my forearm with her index finger when she says this.
4. The current seasonal variety of this is "I'm gonna wipe peepee on you, dada!", but that's only been trotted out once.
9/5 - when asked what she was doing, K calmly stated the obvious: "I'm pickin' my nose." LOVE IT.
As for some other classic moments, K spent most of September eating lotion and bubbles...but let me explain. During the bath, K always wants bubbles. More specifically, she wants MONSTER BUBBLES. What is a monster bubble, you ask? Basically, it's just a giant bubble that requires a lot of skill to blow into the bathtub. Jenny is an EXPERT at this, but I am not. JT can actually create molecular bubbles that link together, and she and K are so in tune that K can catch them as JT releases them from the wand. When K's in a silly mood, she'll try to catch them with her mouth and eat them, and with Jenny this is possible given her great control. With Sammy the Bull, however, things tend to go sideways.
You see, for whatever reason - patience, training, lung capacity, being a dude, whatever - I just cannot blow bubbles like JT. I can machine gun rapid fire bubbles with the best of them, and I think I do some decent sized bubbles over the course of a 5 minute set. K, however, does NOT agree. In fact, during the week where Jenny was in San Fran (as well as any time where I'm on bath duty), K has NOT been impressed. Some of her quotes:
1. "Dada - do monster bubbles like mama!"
2. "You're not very good at monster bubbles, dada."
3. "No dada - I WANT BIG MONSTER BUBBLES!"
4. "Where mama at? Get mama for big monster bubbles."
On the changing table during lotion time, K spent a lot of time requesting a dollop of lotion on her hand as well. Originally this was to help us, but as September ended, all she was doing was eating it. I mean, Aveeno's non-toxic(ish) - right? :-)
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| Apparently, good patients become royalty. Please meet Kaitlyn the 1st. |
The last thing to note is the new game - "Dada, be a scary ghost with the hoodie up." This consists of me walking around with my shirt over my head, dripping the red exercise ball and saying repeatedly in a falsetto voice: "I am a scary ghost, and you'll never take my red ball. It's mine, all mine!!!!" Basically I dribble the ball around the house until K takes it from me, at which point she hands it back to me and says, "Dada, be a scary ghost with the hoodie up again." Rinse-repeat until bath time - classic.
Ok, so ends the MARATHON blog that I've been desperate to commit to the server for an age. And while I'm thrilled it's finally done, I'm already 15 days into the October post and need to start that one. It never ends! That being said, as wonderful as our life is and considering all the good news to report, who would want it to? :-)
Love,
Sam and Jenny
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