On the Brink of 2!

Our sweet baby girl turns 2 tomorrow. I just can't make myself believe that two years have already passed since our lives were blessed with her. I got a chance today to look back on her blog and see how much she has changed. We get so busy living our lives that we often forget to sit back and enjoy the many precious moments. I keep saying this, but I never knew that I could love someone or something so much! The love that I have for her is so different from anything that I've ever known. Seeing her smile or hearing her laugh is the most wonderful thing. Even the bad days are good when I see her smile or when I hear her say, "Mommy, I love you!"

We were orginally going to have her birthday party this past Saturday. I am so thankful that we postponed it due to our move. Instead, her party will be on the 12th. Tomorrow night we are going to introduce her to Chuck E. Cheese. It may not be a good thing (for us at least), but I want her to have a celebration on her actual birthday. My friend, Debra, her husband, and their little girl, MacKenna, will be meeting us there! I know that Kamdyn will have a great time, but she may want to go to Chuck E. Cheese everyday for the rest of her childhood! I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I can. Again, we don't have Internet at our new house and my time is limited here at work.

We MOVED! (sort of)

We are now officially "living" in our new house. Our furniture is in place; however, we have a long way to go before we are actually settled. I never realized how much stuff one can collect over the course of 5-7 years. YIKES!! I feel like the "rug has been pulled out from under my feet." While we are a little upside down right now, it was so nice just to sit back on our new sofas last night and watch a little TV while watching the river flow. A nice calming feeling came over me last night, one that I just can't explain. I've been waiting on this "feeling" for a few weeks now because I have just been so uptight about everything. I now know that everything is going to be fine. Things truly do have a way of working out whether it's on our timeline or not. I feel so blessed to have this new house and such a great family! It has been a lot of work and has been stressful at times, but I know that it is going to be well worth it!

We must give thanks to Matthew and Holly for all of their help. Uncle Jim and Aunt Kathy brought our new sofas to us from Greenville on Saturday. What a big help that was! Ruthie came to visit yesterday and treated us to lunch. We needed that nice break, too!

Lastly, our sweet Baby Kamdyn did so well during all of the commotion. She was with us through the entire process. On Friday night, she kept saying, "I want to go home." I kept having to explain to her that this was our new house and we would not be going back to our old house. It finally started to sink in and yesterday, several times. she said, "I like my new house, Mommy." She slept well all three nights. What a blessing! She is such an easy baby and adjusts to everything so quickly. She is truly a gift from God!

Taking a Break

This is supposed to be the BIG moving weekend! They are disassembling my computer tomorrow and it is being moved to the new house. Who knows how long it will be before it is hooked up again? So, this may be my last post for a couple of weeks! I still have some updates to post on the "house" blog, but they will have to wait. Matthew and Holly are coming to help us this weekend! Pray that we get everything moved and that everything goes smoothly! See you in a couple of weeks!

Mommy's High Heels

One of Kamdyn's new things to do is to put on my high heels everyday after we get home. She loves the clicking noise that they make. She walks on the tile in the foyer and the tile in front of our fireplace in order to hear the clicking noise! What a girly girl!

Pinkalicious Bathtime

We decided to use the bath dotz that the Easter Bunny brought Kamdyn to color her bath water the other night. The jar said the color choices were red, blue, green, and yellow. Kamdyn chose red! To our surprise, when we dropped in the red tablet, the water actually turned PINK! She LOVED it! Tonight, we tried yellow and it was yellow! Actually, it was kind of nasty. It looked liked Kamdyn was bathing in a tub full of urine! YUCK!!! No pictures of the yellow water though.

Easter Morning

Well, here they finally are. Not much to report or post except that Kamdyn loved her Easter basket and all of her surprises. Sadly enough, we did not make it to church. I did dress Kamdyn in a precious little dress because Nanny and Pop Pop were coming to visit. I forgot to take pictures though because Richard and I were on a mission. We decided that since we had babysitters we should take advantage of the opportunity. We ventured to Lowe's on Easter Sunday and we planted over 60 plants in our front yard at our new house. We still have the backyard to go! YIKES!!! We will have to do the big Easter dress and church event next year. I hated to miss it, but we have had to do what we could here lately. This moving thing is putting a serious toll on our time (which is why I am so late posting these pics.)

Good Morning, Kamdyn! (her not so happy face)




Love the Bed Head! She's holding the tiny bite of carrot
that the Easter Bunny didn't eat in her right hand!

The Night Before Easter

We've haven't really made a HUGE deal out of Easter this year for several reasons. One, it's here WAY too soon! Two, we've got WAY too much going on with moving, selling our house, and planning her 2nd birthday party. However, I did manage to get out a Peter Cottontail book and read it to her. She has learned the Peter Cottontail song. And, we talked about how the Easter Bunny would come to her house tonight just like Santa did and will leave her an Easter basket full of surprises! She was completely happy with that!

We sat out a bowl full of carrots for the Easter Bunny. Kamdyn, of course, had to try a few out herself. I didn't even know she would/could eat raw carrots. Oh well, you learn something new everyday with kids?!?!

Her Easter Basket is filled with Summer Surprises. She has a new bathing suit and cover up. A sand pail full of beach "stuff." She has bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and color dots to change the color of her bath water. She has a new purse with a couple of chocolate Easter bunnies in it. She has a new Barney DVD, which may present a problem because we no longer have a DVD player at this house. :( She also has lots of Princess "fruities" (a.k.a fruit chews) in her basket, too. I can't wait to see her reaction in the morning!

Dying Easter Eggs

Have you ever tried to do a task like this while in the process of moving? Well, let's just say that it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. Most of my kitchen stuff is packed up and is at the new house. We improvised with the things that were NOT packed up and we did the best that we could with what we had. Kamdyn didn't know the difference and had fun regardless. She really loved pouring the water into the cups. After a big splash and dye all over both of us, I decided that was not such a great idea.

Our eggs are like Charlie Brown Easter Eggs. They are spotted, striped, etc. and neither of these effects were intentional. Like I said, we had to work with what we had! :) Kamdyn really enjoyed putting the stickers on the eggs. The stickers were also all over my feet by the end of the night from her sticking the remainder of them all over the house.

She even enjoyed one of her Easter Eggs for dinner. She's not much on the yolk. She tends to pick it out and only eat the white part of the boiled egg. I remember doing that as a child, too!

Musician in the Making

Kamdyn absolutely LOVES to sing as you all know by the number of posts that have her singing. She has recently started singing while playing either the piano or the guitar. Georgia took her to church with her on Wednesday night. She said that Kamdyn jumped up on the piano bench, started "playing" music while singing Peter Cottontail. She also jumped in to one of the seats in the choir, opened the hymn book, laid it on her lap, and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She did this after watching the choir practice. Georgia said she entertained her entire church that night! She doesn't really have a shy bone in her body and LOVES for people to laugh at her. (HMM, where does she get this from?) Are you starting to see a trend in personality traits?

Yesterday, I found her playing the guitar while singing the song that Daddy sings to her EVERYDAY, Kamdyn is my Sweet Pea. Had to run in a capture it! I am surprised that she sang it for me a second time with the camera on her, but she did!!

Thanks, Potter!

Potter graciously offered to give up his day off today to come and help us move some things to our new house. I'm not quite sure who offers up their day off to help someone move, but we certainly are happy and grateful that he did. ;) Maybe he's trying to do all that he can to be sure that Richard won't embarrass him on his wedding day as Richard gives the "best man" speech. Whatever the reason, we definitely needed his help. When he arrived we were outside in the yard. He brought Kamdyn a brand new pair of Minnie Mouse sunglasses. Kamdyn was so proud of them. She was already proud to be adorning her Clemson cheerleading outfit in hopes of getting a Tiger win tonight. The new sunglasses were the icing on the cake. Check her out! Thank you so much, Potter! You're the best!!!

LEAVE, Mommy!

I am completely amazed at the thought process of our almost two-year-old. I must share this story for you to understand what I mean. I was preparing to go to Jazzercise tonight. I was planning on taking Kamdyn with me to stay with Ms. Bing, but Richard comes in and tells Kamdyn that he will take her to the park if she eats her dinner. Fine with me! I "make" her something to eat and she eats every bite knowing that she will get to go to the playground if she cleans her plate. As soon as she gets down from her high chair she begins pestering her Daddy by saying, "I ready to go to the park, Daddy. I ate my dinner, etc. etc." For whatever reason, Daddy wasn 't ready to go to the park at that very minute. Attempting to buy himself some time, he says, "We'll go in a little while when Mommy leaves for Jazzercize." He was probably secretly hoping that she would say, "I want to go to Jazzercise with Mommy." Instead, she looks up at me, comes running over to me, begins pulling on my arm and says, "Leave, Mommy! Mommy, leave! Get up! I push you, Mommy! Go, Mommy!" Richard immediately cracks up laughing, as did I. She never wants me to leave her and she almost ALWAYS wants me to go wherever she is going; however, she knew that if I left, she was going to the park. We see what is most important in her mind! She is as sharp as a tack and surprises me everyday with her wit and her charm. HMMMM??? I wonder who she gets these two traits from????

Helping Mommy

Kamdyn loves to "help me." As much laundry as she sees me do, she could probably wash the clothes for me from simple observation. She will go in the laundry room and say. "Let's fold clothes." "Mommy, let's wash clothes." Here's where I found her!




She used to be really scared of the vacuum and she probably would not have loved it so much if it were making it's "gentle hum," but she did have fun on this particular day pushing it around as she pretended to vacuum. She also participated in a long conversation after she left the vacuum. I rarely get her to say this much for the camera.

Apple Bottom Jeans, Boots with the Fur!

Okay, I did say the other day that I was Jammin' Out to Barney. In her defense, Kamdyn doesn't "make" me listen to her music all the time. In fact, she knows the words to "my" music, too. Sometimes I'm afraid that she listens a little too much! When this song comes on the radio, she'll say, "Here's our song." She can sing this song by herself, the chorus at least, but only "performs" a small portion for me tonight. I try to get her to do these "tricks" when she is in her high chair. Otherwise, I'd be chasing her all through the house. What a mess!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This shirt should say, "Rub My Dirty Belly for Good Luck." I guess I should have tried to get a picture of her this morning when she was clean. On our ride to Wal-Mart this afternoon, she spilled her chocolate milk all down the front of her shirt. Oh well!

Carrie and Potter's Party

We had Carrie and Potter's Party at Friends at the Cove. It's a cute little restaurant at Stone Creek Cove on Hartwell Lake. The theme was an Oyster Roast and the party was supposed to be both indoors and out! Well, good 'ole Mother Nature threw a monkey wrench in that plan. We had to bring the Oyster table inside and improvise. All turned out well! Carrie and Potter got lots of nice gifts. Kamdyn had fun making laps around the fire "pit" area. She would go up the stairs, around for a lap, and back down the stairs. She must have done this 1000 times. She was so cute to watch. Look how dirty her little tights got! What a fun event!

Reading with Uncle Matthew

We were in Anderson this weekend because we threw a party for Carrie and Potter who will be getting married on June 7th. Kamdyn had a great time with all of our family. Mama Lucy, Ruthie, and Uncle Matthew were there. She got to see Pop Pop, too! Nanny has been in Italy for 10 days so Kamdyn was a little unsure as to why Nanny wasn't at her house when we stopped to visit.

Here is Kamdyn reading with Uncle Matthew.

Playing at the Park with Ellie

Kamdyn has a little friend in our current neighborhood who is one week older than her. Ellie comes around every now and again. Kamdyn was especially happy to see Ellie at the park the other day. They had a great time playing. Trying to get 2 two-year-olds to stand still and pose for a picture was another story! We will be sad to leave such great neighbors. There are A LOT of children in our current neighborhood, which we will miss, too. We will miss the park most of all! We will have another park, it just won't be in our neighborhood; however, we can get to it by boat. That will be lots of fun!

Painting

Georgia dropped Kamdyn off at my school a couple of weeks ago. Kamdyn absolutely loves to be at school. She plays with all of the toys in my classroom. This particular visit she discovered the paint easel with paint pots fully loaded with paint and paint brushes for the next day. I decided I would let her go for it. Much to my surprise, she did great!!!! She actually did better than some of my students when they paint for the first time. She only picked up one paint brush at a time. She put it back in the correct colored paint pot and she NEVER once tried to mix the colors. I was so very proud of her. She even painted a purple circle when I asked her if she could paint a circle for me. As wonderful as she did and as much fun as she had, you can imagine how devastated she was when I told her that we had to leave. She wasn't happy with me in the least. I didn't have my camera to take pictures of her actually painting the picture, but I do have a photo of the finished product.

The Dreaded Stairs

Here is Kamdyn's new favorite thing to do at the new house. She has discovered how to go up and down ALL of our many stairs. I am still scared to death watching her go up and down the outside stairs on both the front and back porches. I'm okay with her climbing on the carpeted stairs on the inside. The fall will not hurt nearly as bad; however, she has her own mind and must do things as she wishes. Who am I to stop her???? I'm just MOMMY! I just take a deep breath everytime she stumbles on a step. It's so hard letting go!

So VERY busy!

I have so much to post and I feel so badly that I didn't have time to blog this week. Between building a house, selling a house, packing up a house, planning two parties, going to Jazzercise, working full-time, doing laundry, getting ready to go out of town this weekend, and taking care of Kamdyn, I just haven't had a spare second this week! I am actually posting this at work. I wish I had my pictures and videos here so I could download them. I'll try to do better next week. My postings for March have been few and far between. How can Spring time be SOOOOOO busy? It was this way last year, too!

Jammin Out to Barney

We listen to Barney frequently on our way to and from Georgia's house. Today was no different.......except, usually I turn it to "grown-up" music as soon as I drop Kamdyn off. Everybody knows how much I like to sing! Well, this morning I was almost to work and realized that I was singing and moving to Barney! I cracked up at myself. I guess this time-change really had me in a funk!

Our Independent Big "Dirl"

Kamdyn has finally learned how to turn a door knob to open a door. At first, I wasn't too happy about this, but then she came to my rescue yesterday and I changed my tune. I was getting out of the shower yesterday morning and realized that I had forgotten to get a towel. I yelled for Richard, but he was busy and told me to use Kamdyn's towel that was on the back of my bathroom door. I didn't really want to do that. So, I told Kamdyn, as I pointed, to open the door to the linen closet right outside the bathroom door and get Mommy the white towel on the bottom shelf. I realized that those were a lot of directions at once and I was not expecting to get my towel, but it was worth a shot. My 4-year-olds at school would even have a little trouble processing ALL of those directions at once. At first Kamdyn was confused as to which door I was referring. But, lo and behold, she came back with the white towel that was on the bottom shelf. I was absolutely amazed! She was so proud of herself and said, "I a big dirl, Mommy." Yes, I meant "dirl." She doesn't have that hard /g/ sound yet. Daddy couldn' believe it either. We didn't need Daddy afterall! :)

Playtime with Jacob

Today when I went to pickup Kamdyn, she and Jacob were outside with Georgia. They were sitting on the steps and looked so adorable. I couldn't resist a picture! They are so cute together. Kamdyn often says, "Jacob is my BEST friend." Kamdyn had an adorable green bow in her hair to match her St. Patrick's Day shirt; however, getting her to keep it in her hair is like pulling teeth. Any suggestions on how to get her to leave it in her hair?????

I Can Spell My Name!

Kamdyn can spell her name and we are so very proud of her! Richard even tries to trick her by saying, "Daddy's name is spelled K-A-M-D-Y-N." She will say, "No, that not your name. That my name." Many of these skills and things that she learns are practiced on our 30 minute car rides to and from Georgia's each day. I attribute her language development to all of the talking and singing that we do in the car each and everyday. I truly cherish our "car" moments because I have her undivided attention and she can't get away. :) I don't wish for a DVD player in my car anytime in the near future. She is a little sponge and soaks up EVERYTHING. I can hardly believe that she will be 2 in less than a month. My sweet baby is growing so fast! Here she is demonstrating her new "big girl" skill!

"Reading" Pinkalicious

I've posted before how much Kamdyn loves the book, Pinkalicious. I happened to "catch" her last week "reading" her book to herself. She cracks me up while "reading" this book. She has EVERY word memorized and she uses her "teacher voice" just as I do when I read it to her. Sometimes she even moves her finger along the words from left to right! She says all phrases, such as, "You have a rare and acute case of pinkatitis," and "He was green with envy." While she doesn't do ALL of this in this video, I at least wanted to document it. It's kind of hard to hear her, but you get the idea. She is a complete book worm. She LOVES books more than anything else in the world. I am so happy to have instilled in her a love of books so very early. I don't know what her Preschool teachers are going to do with her once she starts school. :) She has also learned another important Preschool skill, but I can't video it until Richard gets back with our camera. Stay tuned!

Cooking with Nanny

Kamdyn and I are visiting Nanny and Pop Pop for the weekend while Daddy is in Lake Tahoe for Potter's bachelor party. We are having such a great time. I got to do a little furniture shopping for our new house. I also searched all over Greenville for bathroom mirrors that I like that do not cost a forture. I found furniture, but no mirrors.



Kamdyn has thoroughly enjoyed her time here. Here she is with her gingerbread apron that matches Nanny's.