Look At Those Big Carrots!

Last night we went to the North Augusta High School football game. We had a great time despite the fact the neither of us went to North Augusta. You get the same high school football atmosphere regardless and Kamdyn will hopefully go there one day. We're just getting her into the Yellow Jacket mode early! Apparently, she need a lesson in yellow jackets. :)

On our way to the game we were telling Kamdyn to say, "Go Yellow Jackets!" She said, "But I don't like yellow jackets. I like pink jackets!" She was thinking of a coat (jackets). I had to explain to her that a yellow jacket was like a bumble bee. She seemed to understand after that.

She loved watching the cheerleaders and was a wiggle worm the entire game. The funniest comment of the night from her was when she said, "Look at those BIG CARROTS!" It took us both a minute to figure out what in the world she was talking about. We finally figured out that she was talking about the first down markers. In a two-year-olds mind, I can see how they look like carrots!! Richard and I busted out laughing and both agreed that this was blog worthy material!! You just never know what is going to come out of a child's mouth!

Check out those orange carrots!! Don't they look delicious?

Ready for School!

There is no doubt in my mind that Kamdyn is ready for school after yesterday. Georgia graciously brings her to me on Fridays. She brought her a little early this week so she could play in my room for a little while before I made her leave. On Fridays I am ready to get out of there!

Kamdyn came right in and acted as if she belonged in our 4 year old class. I asked her if she wanted snack. She, of course, said "yes." I showed her where she could sit while the kids were bringing their cots to me. She sat there the entire time just observing. When we all got to the table, she waited patiently for her napkin, fork, and cake. She ate her cake just like the other children did and she threw everything away when she was finished just like the other children did. She painted a picture and sat on the carpet with the other children. I couldn't believe how well she did! She is definitely ready for school!!

Makiyah and Kamdyn


My students are amazed with Kamdyn. You can see that all eyes are on her as she talks to them. She doesn't have a shy bone in her body!

Shannon and Allison

Shannon and Allison stopped by to visit us on Thursday night on their way to Atlanta to see the Tigers play Alabama. Kamdyn had such a good time with them here. It was the first time that they had been to our new house. Kamdyn gave them a tour and then convinced Allison to play in her playroom for a while. Shannon and Daddy were entertained on the jet ski. Shannon is quite a watersports athlete and had a good time on the stand-up jet ski. It was his first time, too, but he was fearless......as usual!! Anyone who has witnessed him on the water knows exactly what I am talking about.

Kamdyn got her color bath and went to bed and we all had an enjoyable dinner together while watching the Gamecocks play. Shannon and Allison left Friday morning to continue their trek to Atlanta.

We didn't make it to the Alabama game because it would put us out of town 5 weekends in a row. With a toddler, that is WAY too difficult. Four weekends are going to be hard enough for us!! We hope the Tigers win tonight and put on a good show!! They are expecting big things from them this year, so I hope we deliver!!! Go TIGERS!!!

Grown-Up Date

Ruthie came to our house on Monday morning to pick Kamdyn up to take her to visit Mama Lucy until Tuesday! Richard and I got to experience what it used to be like before our lives were overtaken by our sweet little girl. To be honest, we were a little bit bored that night.

When I got home from work, which was early because I didn't have to do my drive around Augusta to pick up Kamdyn, we talked for a little while. We decided that we should go to dinner since we had a "kid free" night. I even skipped Jazzercise to indulge on a wonderful dinner. I had a gift card to Olive Garden from my birthday so we took advantage of the opportunity. We had such a nice dinner and great conversation. Believe it or not, our conversation didn't center around Kamdyn as it usually does.

When we got home the Internet was down. Oh my gosh!! What were we supposed to do without Internet and our baby? We talked some more. I did laundry, made lunches, ironed clothes for the next day, and relaxed a little bit. We even got to sleep 30 minutes later on Tuesday morning. While all of this was nice, I missed my baby girl even if it was just for a night.

She greeted me yesterday afternoon when I got home from work with a big, "M-O-M-M-Y!" She screamed my name as she ran into my arms. Our busy life began immediately!But, oh, how I LOVE IT!!!

Trying to Watch TV Upstairs

Since we have a balcony that overlooks our Great Room, it is very difficult to watch TV upstairs and downstairs at the same time. It will give you an immediate headache (well, that's what it does to me!). Today I decided to try out our wireless headphones on the upstairs TV while Kamdyn was watching Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh is a VHS tape and we can't watch it on the TV in our bedroom because we only have a DVD player in there. Daddy was watching the TV in the great room, so this was my solution to the problem. Kamdyn seems to LOVE the headphones! It's a good thing because she will be wearing these often while listening to our DVD player in the car when we make all of the trips to the upcoming Clemson games. :)

I know it seems that she watches TV a lot, but we do have plenty of playtime and "learning" time, too. Today was also a stay-at-home and be-lazy-day, which is why she still has on her PJ's at 5:00PM.

Our Little Ballerina!

Kamdyn has been particularly interested in ballet since watching the little girls on one of her Barney movies do ballet. She will twirl around the floor with her hands over her head. She will hold on to something and lift her leg and she will try to curtsy. So cute!

So, I called a few dance studios here in North Augusta to see at what age they begin their little girls. Most of them said 3 depending on the child. I told them that she would be 2 1/2 on October 1st and that she was completely potty trained. I also told them that I think she is completely ready for dancing. She is a very good listener and is eager to please (as long as it's something that she wants to be doing!). The owner said, "Go ahead and bring her. It sounds like she is ready. We'll just try her and see how she does!" We begin ballet and tap the Wednesday after Labor Day. Keep your fingers crossed!

Along with dancing comes all of the "gear" that goes with it. Today, Kamdyn and I set out to find tap shoes, ballet shoes, leotards, and tights. We succeeded with all, but did have a difficult time finding actual dancing tights in her size. We got a few regular pairs of white and black tights until I find some dancing tights.

Here is our little ballerina in action. She HAD to try on her clothes as soon as we got home. I had to remind her that we DO NOT wear tap shoes inside on our hardwood floors. So far, so good! She wouldn't stop "dancing" long enough for me to get a good photo which is why most of them are blurry! I can't wait to see how she does on her first day.

I have to admit my excitement, too! These "girly" things are right up my alley! This is just one of the many reasons that I am SO thankful that we had a girl first!

Hanging Out!

This is where you can find Kamdyn most days when she is ready for a nap. She loves to lay on our bed and watch one of her DVD's. She can even turn the TV and DVD player on by herself as well as put the DVD in and press the "triangle" to make it play! Changing those movies gets to be time consuming and aggravating, so I taught her to do it herself! When her movie goes off, she tells us she is ready to get in her bed and take a nap.

Laundry....HELP!!

Kamdyn is completely in to helping me with EVERYTHING, even the laundry. She wants to put the clothes in the laundry basket and put them in the washing machine. I need all the help I can get. I swear, clothes multiple at an alarming rate around here!! I will gladly give up my laundry duty to her, but I'm sure that by the time she is fully capable of doing laundry herself that she will not want to do it!!

She hasn't quite got the hang of not throwing the clothes completely around the agitator! We'll have to work on that! :)

Our Beautiful Little Girl

You all know how horrible I am about choosing "the best" pictures to post especially when it comes to these professional photos! Lora is truly amazing and does such a great job at genuinely depicting Kamdyn's personality. The set fit Kamdyn to a tee!

She currently LOVES playing what she calls "tea set" with her real porcelain tea set. Lora had already picked this out prior to our arrival without any conversation with me! This was truly a photo session fit for a princess! Kamdyn is also currently in to all of the Disney princesses. She can name each of them and loves watching all of my old VCR Disney movies. Here is our sweet little princess. I get teary-eyed looking at these photos. I can't believe how much she has grown! We love her so much. She is so full of sass, spunk, intelligence, and personality!! We couldn't ask for more!!



I LOVE this one! She looks so angelic!!


We get this look often!





This one, too!




These were the first set of pictures that Lora took with Kamdyn in her birthday outfit! Kamdyn wasn't nearly as entertained by the wicker chair as she was with the tea set and pink flowers. There were only a few of these that I actually loved. Kamdyn kept saying, "cheese," which explains all of the squinty-eyed pictures. The above pictures are much more natural, but all of them definitely allow her personality to shine through!

Clinic

Unfortunately, when Nanny and Pop Pop were getting ready to leave yesterday, Kamdyn started complaining of an ear ache. I took her temp and she did have a slight fever, but less than 100. She was restless during her nap, but actually fell asleep on my shoulder in the living room after I gave her some Tylenol. She NEVER does this with me! She always wants to get in her bed. I knew something was going on because she was lethargic and just not herself. Thankfully, she slept through the night and even slept late which gave us a couple more hours of sleep. When she woke up, she still wasn't quite herself. I decided to go on to the grocery store while she stayed with Richard. When I returned she was still just lying around. I decided to go ahead and take her to the after hours clinic that is at her doctor's office. Richard will be out of town this week and I can't miss a day of work since school is just starting.

We got there promptly at 1:00 and there was already a line of sick children. We were 5th in line and it took us exactly 2 hours to get in and out of there. I was freaking out with all of those sick children around Kamdyn. One came in carrying a bucket. Apparently, he had a stomach virus. Another child sounded like he had croup. I was drowning her hands in hand sanitizer.

Kamdyn didn't have a fever, but the doctor said she did have an ear infection. She couldn't see down in her ear drum without hurting Kamdyn, so she prescribed her some antibiotic ear drops. She told me that she should be feeling much better by tomorrow. My intuition was correct!! My sweet baby girl doesn't complain about hurting unless she really is; however, she kept saying, "I otay, Mommy! I don't need to see Dr. Foushee." I always second guess myself when trying to decide whether or not to take her to the doctor. I feel so relieved that I did! One less worry and stressor for the week!

Tomatoes

I had to post about this because I've never in my life seen a child who loves tomatoes as much as Kamdyn does. She will eat them like an apple after I cut the peel off of them. She will even ask for tomatoes as part of her lunch or dinner. I didn't start eating tomatoes until I was in college. I LOVE them now and will be sad to see our tomato plants die. She does get this honest though because Richard is absolutely addicted to tomato sandwiches. I don't actually have a picture of her eating them, but I do have a great picture of all of the tomatoes from our vine and Nanny and Pop Pop's vine. YUM!!!

Jet Ski in Action

We finally got to enjoy the jet ski this weekend. Richard was feeling much better and decided that I needed to make my debut on the jet ski. Can I tell you how different these stand up jet skis are from the "normal" sit down ones? He had me a nervous wreck before I even got on the thing. He was trying to help, but there are just some things that you can truly only learn by doing them yourself. My thighs were shaking as I attempted to balance myself and get used to it by starting out on my knees. I did eventually get brave enough and stand up on it; however, he neglected to take a picture of me actually riding it correctly. I admit that I did fall a few times while standing. It's really hard to turn and keep your balance and I even consider myself to have really good balance. Oh well! I guess not in this particular sport! :)

The funniest fall was when I attempted to wave at another boat passing by. I contemplated waving back because I didn't want to seem rude, but decided that I could possibly attempt to stay on and control it with one hand! WRONG! When I let go with the left hand to wave, for some reason I gripped on with the right hand much harder accidentally pushing the throttle. Then, I let go of the throttle much too quickly which sent my weight forward causing me to loose my balance. Yep, you guessed it! I tumbled over while watching the people in the boat that I was attempting to wave at reenact my fall. How embarrassing!! I did have fun though and it got a little easier with each time that I rode it. I think I'll have it down by the end of the summer. Richard is already jumping wakes and riding at a speed that alarms me. He assures me that it took him a week to feel comfortable on it. I'm not sure I'll ever feel comfortable enough going that fast while standing on my feet! We shall see!


That little spec is me!


Yes, I'm still on my knees! I promise that I did stand up!


Look at the "pro!"


Check out the contraption that Richard built to get the jet ski in and out of the water. He really amazes me with that engineering brain of his! A couple of random people have actually stopped at our dock to check out this invention! Also, notice the flotation device on his hat!! :)

A Fun, but Short Visit

Nanny and Pop Pop came to visit on Friday night. We were so happy to have both of them here and mostly healthy. Nanny has recovered for the most part, but still can't pick Kamdyn up. Kamdyn reminds her of that frequently just in case she forgets. They brought Kamdyn a new ABC puzzle and an adorable Clemson dress to wear to the Clemson games. Kamdyn enjoyed having them here and wasn't ready for them to go home on Saturday afternoon.




She insisted on swimming in her baby pool yesterday!


Don't you love our beautiful flower bed filled with tomato and pepper plants?

Surviving

Whew! What a busy week! I always forget how hard it is to get back in to the swing of things after being off the entire summer. Getting up at 6:00 and not getting home until almost 5:00 is a LONG day!! It's amazing how fast the time goes by when we are on such a busy schedule. It seems as if we don't have time for much of anything especially during the week; however, we did survive our first week as busy as it was!

Kamdyn was delighted to be back at Georgia's house with Jacob everyday. I wasn't nearly as delighted as she was about resuming our "normal" life. My class seems to be really good this year. It's just so darn hard getting those little 4-year-olds into a routine. I mean, we have to teach them EVERYTHING!!! Getting down the hall in a line the first day of school is a complete disaster! By Friday, we at least had a wiggly "line." I had a couple of children who were "trying" me, but I have already pretty much gotten control of those two. It's bad to have to make phone calls to parents the first week of school because of undesirable behaviors, but I have to do what I have to do to keep our classroom under control. I can't tolerate disrespectful children especially the first week of school. I mean, they don't even know me yet!! Each week gets better and eventually I won't even remember the struggles that we went through at the beginning of the year. :)

I can't even imagine how busy September is going to be with 4 out-of-town weekends to go to the Clemson football games!! I've been trying to "turn over a new leaf" and not get so stressed about all of the little things. I'm trying to let some things go and not freak out when things are not PERFECT (i.e. house cleaned, laundry done, etc.)!! To be continued............

Under the Weather with a New Toy

Richard is under the weather today. I can seriously count on one hand the number of times that he has been sick in the 13 years that I have known him. I don't even think he's ever missed a day of work because of sickness. He has a fever and feels YUCK!!! He has moved from the bed to the couch and that's about it.

I feel terribly bad for him because he just drove to Atlanta this past week to buy a stand up jet ski. He has been so excited about this thing that he could hardly sleep at night. He has been working in the garage to build a stand for the jet ski as well as a contraption to get it out of the water when he needs to. It didn't come with a trailer which I'm kind of happy about because it doesn't take up more space in our garage. However, after finishing one of his projects on Friday night he stepped back onto a piece of metal and sliced his heel open. He probably could have used a stitch or two, but you know how men are about doctors/hospitals. Then, he woke up on Saturday morning with a fever and sore throat. He hasn't even been able to enjoy his new toy! I was even kind of looking forward to riding the thing, but now it's not even in the water. :( Maybe I'll like it enough so that he will buy Kamdyn and me our very own sit-down jet ski. I'm sure there will be some funny pictures to follow of me falling off of this thing. I hear that it takes a lot of balance and practice to stay on the stand-up jet skis, especially when turning.

I hope you feel better soon, sweetie!!

Scribbles to Circles

Kamdyn is really beginning to improve with her "writing" skills. I guess I should use the correct teacher terminology and say pre-writing skills. :) Her scribbling is slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past. She is drawing mostly circles now and will occasionally give those circles some eyes, nose, and mouth. You do have to use some imagination to see the face, but she says it's there nevertheless. Yesterday she was outside drawing with sidewalk chalk and said, "Mommy, I made a fish." I didn't have my camera, but it really did resemble a fish. It had a long oval shaped body with a triangle shaped tail.

She is also learning how to write a K. She knows it takes 3 lines to make the K, but she has a little trouble connecting the three lines in the middle. She amazes me everyday. She can recognize about half of the alphabet both upper and lowercase letters. We were watching a cartoon yesterday and one of the characters drew an "X" on a tree. She yelled out, "Look, Mommy! He made a X on that tree." Today, she even sang a days of the week song all by herself and actually said the days of the week in order. She told Ruthie on the phone today, "I go back to Georgia's on Monday." She's starting to grasp some time concepts even though I know that time in a two year old's mind is pretty much nonexistent.

I am also proud to say that she is FULLY potty trained. My goal was to be through with diapers and pullups by the end of the summer. We succeeded!! It took my first week off to master "pee peeing" in the potty. And, it took one week (the week after Nanny's surgery) to master the other. Getting her to "stinky" in the potty was much more of a challenge. She would ask for a pullup so she could stinky. I let her get by with this for a few weeks, but I knew if she was smart enough to ask for a pullup, she was smart enough to ask to sit on the potty. I was right!!! Overall, she was extremely easy to potty train. Anybody need any girlie pullups or Size 5 diapers? I have a good many left over......