Thanks to my cousin's wife for her blog post about the Leapfrog Letter Factory Video. Their daughter is a little older than Kelsey, but I decided to get it anyways and all I can say is WOW!! Kelsey knows and recognizes all of the letters and their sounds. She is constantly singing the song and talking about her letters. A long time ago at the dollar store I bought some letter flashcards which she now plays with in the car. What really impressed me this weekend was she was going through them in the car and she would tell us the letter, it's sound and then on the other side is a word/picture that starts with the letter. As you'll see on the video when she got to "K" she tells me that Kelsey and Kangaroo also start with K (obviously neither of those were on the card), so she is really learning, not just repeating what's on the card. Very cool!! (video quality is not great..it's from my cell)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The A says ahhh!
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Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Swimming Refresher....
Normally I would just do this myself, but our pool has been too cool for me to take her in and work with her (however this week it has finally gotten up to about 84). And with my upcoming (unavoidable) c-section I am not going to be able to take Ms. Kelsey in for 6 weeks post. With only a little over 2 weeks until baby sister arrives, I debated and debated and finally decided just to shoot the swim instructor an email last Thursday and see if there was any way she could squeeze Kelsey in for this week. Low and behold she was able to work her in at 9 am (not my ideal time as that's prime snuggle time), so we snatched up the time slot. This way we would have 2 weeks pre-baby to work on her swimming.
I tried making/having Kelsey float the other weekend when I was at my parents and that led to nothing but crying (very loudly) and then full on pouting with her arms crossed and all. I warned Ms. Kirsten that she was gonna cry and she did! Monday she cried basically the whole time. Saying "I want Mama" and telling Kirsten she was done. She still for the most part did what she was asked. Yesterday she cried as I walked her to the pool edge and then for about the first 3-4 minutes and then was done. She did great. And today she cried (more whined) as I walked her to the pool edge and then never cried in the pool. She did wonderful. She was floating really well, swimming great, and even did good when flipped upside down in the water and had to resurface. She finished her refresher in 3 days!! We still need to work with her on using her arms, but that will just take time and practice, but we know she will get it. I(we) will feel much better having her around the pool this summer knowing she's already got it down.
Here's a video from her lesson today.
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Lori Beth
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9:35 PM
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Super Happy
Kelsey just put her hands in the shape of a heart (well as close to making a heart as she could), she then leaned into me and placed her heart shaped hands on my chest. She looked up at me and asked "Do I make your heart super happy?" I told her yes you make my heart happy. She said "No, do I make your heart SUPER Happy?" Yes princess, you make mommy's heart SUPER happy. How do you not just love that?!?! I'm putting that away in my heart as a special memory to be pulled out in about 10 years!
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Thursday, May 6, 2010
Day before Easter
Lou's travel schedule changed and he was home the Saturday before Easter, so we took Kelsey to a local park that was having a huge Easter Eggstravaganza held by the local Methodist church. There were lots of crafts, free food, bounce houses and egg hunts divided up by age groups. I forgot to take a picture of the before, but it was essentially a soccer field covered with eggs. You filed in around when it was your age groups time and then when they blew the whistle it was mass chaos onto the field (I'm sure the older age groups were actually chaos, K's age group was just lots of people) She had a good time picking up eggs and then when we were done we sat on another field and let her open them up. She doesn't eat candy (which is pretty much what was in them all) so she'd open them and put the candy in a pile for her cousins, then closed the eggs.After nap on Saturday we let her dye her Easter eggs. I showed her how to draw on it with a crayon before putting them in the dye and she really liked that. We even made an egg for baby sister, along with an AUburn one, a UF one and a Kelsey bear one. She would've loved to dye about 30 if we had them.
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Monday, April 26, 2010
Backwards Counting...
Kelsey just counted backwards from 5, totally unprompted. We are snuggling in bed on this rainy morning and she has a little pen flashlight and was counting her fingers. Then all of a sudden she started with her thumb and said 5 and then put up her pointer and said 4 and so on. So cool!! We don't even work on that.....
Yes, I know I have been slacking. I promise I have a BUNCH of posts coming with pictures. They will be up soon hopefully. 4 week countdown until baby girl #2 arrives!! Aaaagghhhhh!
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Sunday, April 18, 2010
SeaWorld
Lou had a dinner program in Orlando he needed to be at on a Saturday night, so we decided to take advantage of it (and of him being with us on a Saturday) and go up and spend the morning/afternoon at SeaWorld. It was kinda a last minute trip (I imagine when we have 2 kids, last minute trips will be harder to plan.) By the time we got there, parked and took the tram to the front we only had about 3-4 hours till Lou needed to be at the hotel to get ready for his dinner. I was initially bummed about this, but turns out my 8 month prego body wouldn't have been able to handle much more.
We saw the dolphins playing around from up above (skipped the long line to feed them) and then went to watch them from below as well (I think this was K's favorite part)
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Our Flower Girl
Kelsey absolutely LOVES flowers. She picks some out of the garden EVERYday. I try to limit the # she picks, because otherwise they will be non left. She then likes to put them in a bowl of water.Every time we go to Gma/Gpa McDonald's house, she gets out of the car and says "I need to get a surprise for Gramma". She then heads over to the red hibiscus bush and picks a flower to bring inside to gramma. We have told her she is only allowed to pick 1 each time we go there (otherwise mom/dad would have a bare bush in a matter of seconds)
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Monday, April 12, 2010
Passed Out....
I was working in my sewing room and Lou asked if I wanted him to get Kelsey up from her nap(I think it was after 4). I said sure and heard him open her door and go in. About 15 minutes passed by and I never heard from either of them, so I went to investigate and this is what I found. (By the time I grabbed the camera, you can see that K had started to wake up)
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Tuesday, April 6, 2010
To the Zoo...
With Lou's new crazy schedule he has Mondays off, so we took Kelsey back up to the Brevard Zoo the day after Easter. We really like this zoo because it is not too big and has a great play area with water and hands on things to do like the petting area. Since it was a special trip we decided we would let her "feed" the animals. In the bird area, you can buy a stick of food and a nectar cup for certain birds. She liked the stick, but was a little freaked by the nectar cup because the birds came so close., she was much happier when daddy held the cup.
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Sunday, April 4, 2010
In the Clover...
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Friday, April 2, 2010
1st Dentist Appointment...
I took Kelsey for her first dentist appointment today. At Dermody Dental they give cleanings/check-ups free to kids under 3! Kelsey did awesome today, I was so proud of her. Ms. Liz took us back and Kelsey got to climb up in the big chair all by herself. We counted all of her teeth (there are 20) and she said she has nice spacing in her molars so we don't need to floss yet. Then she got a new purple tooth brush and Ms. Liz brushed on a fluoride treatment. After that Kelsey got to pick a special treat from the treasure box (she chose a colorful bracelet) There is a play area in the back and Kelsey played back there while we waited for Dr. Rachel to see her. Dr. Rachel was very nice. She took Kelsey for a ride in the chair and even turned on the overhead light. She counted her teeth as well (just in case it changed) She told me the 2 things we were concerned about, we do not need to worry about: Kelsey has an under bite which caused one of her top front teeth to be pulled backwards while it was coming in and she likes to crunch/grind her teeth. Dr. Rachel did say that Kelsey is most likely going to need braces around age 12. (She's doomed from Lou & I) She said the mouth grows in length not width and Kelsey does not have spaces in her front 4 top/bottom teeth for her big teeth to come in.
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Thursday, April 1, 2010
Moms' Group Easter Party
Again this year we had an Easter party with our moms' group. Snacks and an Easter egg hunt. We each bring 10 filled eggs per child and then they are spread out in a field. We decided to let the the 3 and under kids go first this year and get their 10 and then we let the older kids go. Kelsey had fun, but at 2 1/2 it is a hard concept to understand getting 10 and then going back in the park so the big kids can play too. Needless to say we had a little breakdown (or two). I let her pick up a bunch while I took pics and a video, and then I sat on the ground with her and we counted out 10 and I threw the rest back out. (that was the start of breakdown #1) I occupied her for a little bit by putting her eggs out in another spot and letting her "find" them again. When the big kids took off...she took off too. She was just running with her basket so I let her go, but then she found an egg. I threw it back out so the big kids could get their 10 as well (breakdown #2). Overall she had a good time and the breakdowns were small. Kelsey, Tatiana & Gianna (& Jayden)
Collecting eggs
Right after couting out our 10 eggs
Opening all of her eggs to see what was in them. She's so good and doesn't even ask for the candy :-)
Here's a video clip of her going after the eggs....
A bunch of our friends gave us their empty eggs. We had alot of fun with these in the afternoon after naptime. I "hid" her eggs and then let her find them. She thought this was sooo much fun. Then she wanted to hide them herself and find them.(hiding them was to place them all in the crack of the couch)
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Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Baby shower...
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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Springtime Berry Planting..
Last year we planted strawberries and Kelsey loved being able to pick them and wash them. So this year we decided to plant them again AND we planted raspberries and blueberries. Kelsey saw the blueberry container when we were at Lowe's and asked to plant them as well. (The only thing I didn't realize until we got home is that blueberries need 2 plants for cross pollination, so we'll have to go pick up a second one.) With the time change we had plenty of time after dinner to get them planted. Since we have a small garden area I decided to hang the strawberries this year and just use extra pots I have for the other berries. That way we still have room to plant tomatoes, peppers and arugula. Carrying the blueberry plant all by herself. We planted this in a pot near the patio.
She wanted to carry the strawberry plant all the way out to the garden by herself. Below is a little video of clip of her.
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Monday, March 15, 2010
Bubbles in the car...
I had to wait in a long line at the Walgreens pharmacy drive thru and Kelsey was getting restless. I dug around and found some bubbles and presto life was all good again!!
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3:15 PM
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
Silly Girl...
The other morning Kelsey was playing around and emptied out the tissue box (putting all of the tissues in her basket). She then put on her headband and was a "runner". She began walking around with one foot in the empty tissue box, carrying her basket. She looked sooo silly I had to catch a picture on my phone.
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Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Last Solo flight....
on Dumbo!
Lou & I had 2 days left on our Disney passes (which expired mid-March) so we took Kelsey to Orlando for her last time there as an only child. The week prior all she kept talking about was going to Disney and riding on Dumbo, and seeing different characters. As we were walking into Magic Kingdom on Sunday, a parade had just started, so we stopped to watch it. When it was over, the first ride we headed to was Dumbo. Not used to having to wait in a long line, she did pretty good and we let her "drive" the elephant up and down. We went on the carousel and some other rides and then we went back to the hotel for a nap.
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